Having absorbed the three strands of shadow magic, Rey woke immediately. He stared at the seemingly empty graveyard and asked coldly, "Who's there?"
While viewing the world through the Specter Bead, Rey had seen a glowing figure in a cloak.
It was a living person. Only the soul of a living person emits that inherent spiritual light. He was startled, especially by the cloak, which contained the light entirely, allowing none to escape.
He had seen the glowing soul, yet upon waking, he saw no one.
Given what his enhanced vision had just revealed, the sensitive Rey was certain someone was standing in that exact spot, invisible to his naked eye.
"Oh? The last wizard who absorbed Dark power didn't see me. You are somewhat special."
The person standing there was naturally the gravekeeper. Since Rey had already detected him, there was no point in hiding any longer.
The gravekeeper revealed himself, and Rey saw both the man and the Invisibility Cloak in his hand.
Rey was no stranger to this man.
When he first arrived in Godric's Hollow and wandered into the graveyard, this man had smiled at him—a smile that was incredibly creepy. Seeing him again now, that chilling memory resurfaced.
Moreover, Rey recognized the Invisibility Cloak in his hand. Years ago, when sneaking into the treasure vault, he had shared it with Helena. The identity of the gravekeeper was obvious.
"You're Uncle Peverell!"
Since the Invisibility Cloak Helena borrowed was in this man's hands, he must be the "Uncle Peverell" she spoke of. Rey just hadn't expected Peverell to be the gravekeeper.
"'Uncle Peverell'... You must be the Rey Faest that Helena mentioned?"
The gravekeeper frowned slightly, the cold, eerie smile on his face softening a bit. He likely softened his attitude for Helena's sake, which was a huge relief to Rey.
---
Peverell was sixty years old, but he looked less than forty.
He had been guarding this graveyard for fifteen years and intended to continue until he died of old age. The Peverell family had a tradition: if one lived to fifty without dying, they would naturally return to Godric's Hollow to become the gravekeeper.
Peverell was an ancestor of Harry Potter; Rey could deduce this from the Invisibility Cloak he possessed.
The cloak was obtained from Death by the first Peverell and had been passed down through generations.
Helena could borrow it because she grew up in Godric's Hollow. In the valley, everyone shunned Peverell the gravekeeper, but Helena was not afraid of him.
Helena had mentioned Rey to Peverell, so he gave Rey a second look.
"People who practice the Dark Arts are not welcome here, especially those capable of absorbing Dark power." After giving Rey a warning not to practice Dark Magic, Peverell began to shoo him away.
"Was the last person here Terence Barrow?"
Rey didn't ask why he was being chased away. He only asked if Terence Barrow had been here to absorb Dark power.
There aren't always reasons for everything in the world. Peverell not giving him that creepy smile was blessing enough; he wouldn't push for more. He just wanted to figure out what kind of encounter Terence had in the graveyard that made him so confident.
"Yes. And he encountered the same thing you just did. But the shadow he absorbed sprang from beneath the church."
Perhaps for Helena's sake, Peverell answered unexpectedly.
Receiving an answer so easily stunned Rey for a moment, given how unapproachable Peverell seemed. But then Peverell added, "Tell Helena to stay away from that Terence Barrow, if you want her to be safe."
"What's wrong with him? What was different about the shadow under the church?"
"That's not for you to worry about. Just deliver my message." Faced with Rey's barrage of questions, Peverell seemed impatient.
Rey shook his head. "No, it is my problem now. Because he's planning to make a move on Helena."
"What did you say?"
Peverell narrowed his eyes, his expression turning cold. "He must have been tainted. When he absorbed the shadow magic, he didn't filter it as thoroughly as you did."
Rey didn't quite understand, but before he could fully process it, he heard Peverell say, "Boy, do you want to save your Helena?"
---
The next day, just as dawn broke, Rey walked out of the graveyard church.
He hadn't slept all night. Instead, he had been practicing drawing magic arrays with Peverell.
It was a miniature array, only a third the size of a palm. This array was used for exorcism. Drawn on a person's forehead with fresh blood, it could expel possessing demons or evil spirits from Hell.
According to Peverell, buried beneath the church was Merlin's old nemesis: the witch Morgana.
The woman had been dead for centuries, but her magic hadn't vanished after death. This magic, possessing a trace of consciousness, had been absorbed by Terence Barrow.
Dark Magic has always been mysterious, with diverse capabilities. The consciousness Terence absorbed likely contained memories of even more bizarre Dark Arts. Terence must have learned one of them, which was why he was so confident he could make Helena willing.
Rey believed Terence's threat. After all, in the future, the red-headed Weasley twins sold love potions and amortentia.
To resolve Terence's malicious intent toward Helena, the first step was to exorcise him. That made this miniature magic array crucial.
After practicing the array all night, Rey felt unusually groggy. Practicing this kind of magic seemed mentally exhausting.
The current Terence was no weaker than Rey. For safety's sake, Rey planned to tell Rowena and Salazar about this first.
Salazar Slytherin wouldn't ignore his own disciple being influenced by a foreign consciousness. If he could get the two of them directly involved, exorcising Terence would be simple.
To make the story more convincing, Rey hoped Peverell would come to Hogwarts with him to tell Rowena. But Peverell dismissed the idea with a cold snort, as if there were some estrangement between him and the Four Founders.
Apparition was the fastest way to travel.
He used it to come to Godric's Hollow, and naturally, he used it to return.
Rey Apparated intermittently, rushing toward Hogwarts.
He would spot a destination with his eyes, reconstruct the image in his mind, activate his magic, and vanish instantly.
After five or six jumps, Rey arrived atop a massive rock.
Below the rock was a sparse forest. In this era, urban development was severely lacking, so wilderness was everywhere, and this place was no exception.
However, just as Rey prepared to move again, he saw three people in the sparse forest below the rock.
If they were ordinary people, Rey might have just glanced at them and left. But the three people he saw now were the same ones he had seen twice before.
Once by the Black Lake, where he and Terence had killed them; and another time in the treasure vault, where the dragon-form Madam Hooch had easily wiped them out.
Seeing these three people now made it the third time.
From a distance, all three encounters looked like the same group.
One was an earless old man wearing black leather armor, soaking wet as if just fished out of the water. Every time Rey saw this old man, he looked like he had never been dry.
The other two were in their twenties. One was missing his left leg, supported by a wooden peg below the knee. The other was missing his right hand.
These three not only had identical injuries to the previous two groups Rey had seen years ago, but their body shapes were also virtually indistinguishable.
---