On the other side, a few members of the Order of the Phoenix had set up a shield in a corner of the square, barely holding off an attack from a group of zombies. Inside the shield were Muggles and Death Eaters, forced to stand together.
"These are the zombies mentioned in the Daily Prophet!" Jesse trembled. The morning's edition had said that they were extremely difficult to deal with, immune to most magic, and could teleport everywhere, leaving even the Aurors powerless. Just now, they had seen that the Stunning Spell and the Impediment Jinx were all ineffective against them.
Zombies seemed to spread through blood, and once bitten, there was no cure. The bitten would also turn into zombies very quickly.
"What are they, Inferi?" Hermione had never seen these zombies before, trying to maintain the shield while searching her own knowledge bank. These zombies had only appeared in the newspapers in the last two days, and the wizarding world was equally unclear about their situation.
"It looks more like a much more terrible dark magical creature," Dumbledore said seriously, "Psychevor..."
As Dumbledore spoke, he was experimenting with some imprisonment spells to see if they were effective against the zombies. Even in books, there were very few records of these creatures, so even Dumbledore was unsure how to deal with them and could only try.
Only two Death Eaters present had heard of this name, and they both gasped.
"Idiot, Order of the Phoenix, cancel the Anti-Disapparition Jinx, or we'll all die here!" Carrow cursed, struggling to break free from the Binding Curse.
"The Anti-Disapparition Jinx is set up around the edge of the square, and we can't get out now," said Alice Longbottom. She raised her wand and supplied a continuous stream of pale blue magic to the shield, together with her fellow members of the Order of the Phoenix. Now no one could leave the shield, which was already surrounded by thirty or forty zombies.
A Death Eater peeked out from under his mask, his dark eyes filled with fear of the unknown. "Psychevor... what is it?"
"It's a dark magic that parasitically infects human souls, causing them to mutate and lose control, becoming zombies and infecting more people. " said Dumbledore."This dark magic can propagate and infect like a biological organism, hence it's also known as Psychevor. The infected zombies are called Psycompliers."
Dumbledore had already found a spell that could temporarily control Psycompliers, but its effect was short-lived. However, it should be enough for them to leave the shield and cancel the Anti-Disapparition Jinx, to save everyone first.
Hermione suddenly realized, "No wonder there's no cure once you're bitten, not even amputation works, because they infect the soul."
Lily Evans was shocked, "So Psychevor was originally created by dark magic? Why would anyone do such a thing?"
"Because all Psycompliers obey the commands of their creators, who are their masters," answered a Death Eater matter-of-factly, as if it were perfectly natural to do so.
As they watched Dumbledore control more and more zombies, everyone felt a bit more at ease.
"Can't they be cleared instead of just controlled?" someone asked.
Hermione remembered a piece of knowledge from a previous class on dark magic defense: white magic does not touch the soul, and all soul magic is dark magic. So if the essence of the Psycompliers was mutated souls, then only dark magic could completely eradicate them.
Another Death Eater, who had somehow broken free from the binding curse, raised his wand. Fortunately, he did not aim at any members of the Order of the Phoenix but instead aimed at one of the zombies and uttered the most lethal curse he knew: "Avada Kedavra!"
Dumbledore immediately called for a stop, "Do not use the Killing Curse!"
But it was too late. A green light with electric sparks pierced through the shield, and the zombie hit by the curse fell immediately. The Death Eater was surprised, "The Killing Curse is effective!"
Dumbledore continued to explain expressionlessly, "The reason why we cannot use the Killing Curse is that it is a magic that is parasitic on the soul. If the soul leaves the body, it will become even more difficult to control."
The zombie lying on the ground no longer moved, but a strange-colored mist began to gather above his body, slowly taking shape.
"Can our shield... stop a soul?" Hermione stared at the mist, which was gradually taking on a clear shape, and asked in despair. She knew deep down that the white magic shield might be ineffective against the soul.
Dumbledore's face became stern. In this situation, he had to use soul magic to completely destroy these mutated souls to save everyone. Dark magic had a huge backlash, was prone to losing control, and was extremely dangerous. However, under the circumstances, this was probably the only way.
He briefly explained the situation to everyone.
Alice Longbottom couldn't help but worry, "…you could get hurt, it could be very serious." White wizards having guardians would inevitably result in a backfire of dark magic, a knowledge they were certainly aware of.
"How about we ask the Dark Lord to save us…" Malfoy said desperately, "Quickly release the Binding Curse, we can use the Dark Mark to summon him."
"I know who can help!" Meanwhile, Hermione exclaimed, "Mr. Cotton, can you contact Harry? Like, give him a call?"
"Ah? Oh, okay." Mr. Cotton quickly took out his phone, his fingers trembling as he dialed the number, but there was no answer.
"Then send him a text." Hermione quickly instructed her fellow classmates, "Just say, 'Help'."
Immediately after, Mr. Cotton's phone rang, and it was Harry calling back.
Hermione answered the phone and pressed the speaker button, "Harry!"
"Hermione? What's going on?" Harry's voice came through the phone, his voice still sounding like a soft, teenage boy, much like it did two years ago.
"Do you know about the Psychevors? How should we deal with them?" Hermione asked urgently.
"Why are you asking about that?"
"Um... we've run into a group of them."
"I'm coming." The phone hung up, leaving only a busy tone on the line. Then Harry apparated directly next to Hermione and absentmindedly put the phone he had just hung up back into his pocket. He looked up at the shield outside and said, "It's really happening...". Harry had thought that Jesse was talking about inferi at most, and he was also shocked to hear that someone was doing this.
"Good to see you again, Harry," Dumbledore greeted him warmly, setting aside their past grievances given that the last time they had seen each other, Harry had been a prisoner of the Order and had later stolen the Headmaster's office before escaping.
"Hello, Professor Dumbledore," Harry replied politely with a nod of his head.
Meanwhile, Lucius Malfoy spoke in surprise and sarcasm, "Harry Potter, you brat are still alive?" He remembered the last time they met, which was half a year ago when this Potter was captured by the Dark Lord.
"…?" The trio of Dumbledore, Lily, and Hermione exchanged glances at the mention of the Dark Lord.
Harry didn't want to bother with Malfoy, instead walking up to the barrier to observe the forming mutated soul. He turned to Carrow and asked, "Carrow, this group of zombies isn't the Dark Lord's doing, is it?"
"No," Carrow replied instinctively when he was singled out, then wondered if he should have ignored him. Wait, how did this kid in the mask know his name?
"Okay," Harry agreed. He raised his hand and a blood-red curse shot out, pouring over the body of the Psycomplier and the misty soul outside the shield, which was already almost taking form and about to penetrate the barrier. Both immediately turned into nothingness upon contact with the curse. At the same time, everyone inside the shield, except for the Dark Wizard, felt a wave of cold discomfort. Members of the Order of the Phoenix, who were accustomed to dealing with dark magic all year round, knew that this was a unique feeling that only dark magic could bring. The few dark magic detectors in Moody's pocket all began to sound the alarm.
"Dark magic?" Moody, who always hated dark wizards, raised his wand warily at Harry.
"Oh, the pure and flawless Potter family also has a dark wizard now?" Lucius habitually wanted to mock him.
A knowledgeable Death Eater recognized the curse and whispered in a trembling voice, "The Devil's Blood."
This name was well-known and the expressions of the Death Eaters changed. Hermione and Lily looked surprised, while Moody tightened his grip on his wand.
"What's the Devil's Blood?" someone asked weakly.
Hermione couldn't help but recite the passage from the book like she was answering a question in class. "Somasoul-Vanish Curse. A very advanced form of dark magic that can simultaneously destroy both the body and soul, with an area effect, making it the deadliest curse in recorded history. The curse is rarely used due to its distinctive blood-red color, which is why it's also called the Devil's Blood. However, no one has used this curse for over two hundred years. Hasn't it been lost?"
The Death Eaters whispered amongst themselves.
Moody accused with suspicion, "How can we use such a vicious dark magic? This boy isn't a good person."
Dumbledore defended Harry impartially, "This may be the only way. There have been several Psychevor crises in history, and every time, we have had to use curses that destroy the soul to curse and solve them. Once infected, it gradually infects the whole soul, and if such souls are left in the world, they will infect more people. We should thank Harry for coming to help us in time."
Moody snorted coldly. At the persuasion of his colleagues in the Order of the Phoenix and because of their longstanding friendship, he accepted Dumbledore's tangled history with a famous dark wizard. But he wasn't willing to approve of another dark wizard's actions.
Meanwhile, Harry had been standing close to the protective shield, observing the zombies. He thought for a moment and then raised his hand and used another spell. A bright silver light fell from the sky like a miniature meteor shower, accurately hitting every zombie outside. All the zombies immediately fell to the ground in a mess.
"What's this?" someone asked. When the silver light fell, there was still a strong sense of cold horror, and the dark magic detector was still screaming. Based on the Psycompliers' quick and decisive response, it was probably some kind of soul magic.
"The Soul Freeze Curse." This time it was Dumbledore who spoke. "It can completely freeze the soul, so... the infection process will also be suspended. Is Harry trying to...?"
At this point, Harry came back and said, "Hermione, can I borrow your wand?"
Hermione handed the wand to Harry. Then she realized belatedly how much she trusted him. Without a wand, she felt vulnerable.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I have an idea... I want to try it out. But it's difficult," Harry waved the borrowed wand in his hand, "It's better to have a wand to help control it than not."
He added an extra shield for Hermione, just in case a Death Eater tried to ambush them. But to be honest, the Death Eaters wouldn't dare attack now that they thought Harry was with the Order of the Phoenix. Many people only just realized that Harry had cast two spells wandlessly and silently earlier, and that kind of dark magic ability was something the Death Eaters wouldn't dare mess with. They thought only the Dark Lord himself could achieve that level of skill.
Then Harry strode out of the shield with the wand made of vine wood in his hand.
Harry shook his wrist and the wand tip flickered with several different colored lights. The lights of those spells slowly entered the body of a Psycomplier. It was like performing surgery on the soul of a human being, a highly delicate job.
In fact, it was recorded in the books and recognized historically that demon blood was the only correct way to deal with Psychevor. Some books also suggested that the victim had already died in the moment of the bite, but the soul mutated and didn't leave the body. No one had ever thought these people could be saved.
Harry himself hadn't thought so either. He almost planned to eliminate them all, but at the last moment, he had a moment of compassion. How could he be sure he couldn't try? What if...? If the soul wasn't completely infected, could it be cut off?
He remembered the muggle doctors cutting out tumors. It was a different approach from the wizarding world's healing methods, but it was proven to be effective. Cutting the soul might have some after-effects, but it was still better than completely destroying them.
Cutting a soul is not impossible to achieve. Usually, people do it to themselves, for example, through some ritual killings to make a Horcrux. There is currently no ready-made spell that can be used for someone else to cut a part of their soul.
There is no ready-made spell, but it can be created. Dark magic is just like writing code for oneself. Harry vaguely thought of a solution and borrowed a wand to try it out.
He carefully considered the strength and type of spell. By using the interaction of certain magic and even the side effects of some spells, he combined them to create a surgical knife that could cut the infected part of the soul of the Psycomplier.
This method was really unconventional. Cutting a soul is not like cutting a physical body. The existence of a soul is much more complex and exquisite, and wizards have limited understanding of the soul. It is extremely difficult to destroy them with a knife, let alone to accurately cut out the infected part. No wonder no one in the history of dark magic has ever come up with the idea of saving Psycomplier.
But turning the impossible into possible is something Harry has always been good at.
The color of the light at the tip of Harry's wand was changing, and he had used several spells in the meantime. He was like a blind man trying to operate on an elephant, feeling and trying to outline its contours, probing and gradually pushing forward.
The air seemed to freeze. The members of the Phoenix Order and the Death Eaters understood what Harry wanted to do.
One of the Death Eaters even couldn't help but ask the most knowledgeable person present, "Professor Dumbledore, can he...succeed?"
"I don't know...this is a path that has never been explored," Dumbledore happily answered the question, "Perhaps magic really is the power to create miracles."
A/N: Wish myself a happy birthday!