Chapter 190: The Shadow Named “dumbledore”
The information is valuable, but it is also devoid of wisdom!
Unlike memories, the Dream Boundary is the gap between the conscious and subconscious. However, whether “conscious” or “subconscious,” both are parts of consciousness. Every “character” appearing here can be considered a part of Jack Graves’ consciousness.
Each of them can represent Jack Graves!
Therefore, even in an illogical “story,” they can detect intruders.
Because they instinctively know that Vaughn is different from them!
However, in the end, it’s just instinct, and the Jack Graves before him is not the conscious mind with clear discernment.
The white mist on Vaughn’s body fluctuated a few times, and the outline of his Persona Embodiment flashed across his pupils.
If one could zoom out to the first layer of the psychic space, one would definitely see that Jack Graves’ frenzied psychic storm and complex tapestry of thoughts had already been infiltrated by the Persona Embodiment in many places!
As Vaughn manipulated, a very weak, yet undeniable concept was implanted.
This move quickly yielded results—a wisp of white mist appeared on the bodies of Jack Graves and the corpses behind him.
Their ferocious expressions froze.
The entire world suddenly brightened, the dark clouds dissipated, and the thunder vanished. Vaughn watched quietly as, in the falling sunlight, Jack Graves, standing amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, appeared bizarrely positive and cheerful. After a moment of confusion, he showed Vaughn a sincere smile:
“Yes, Vaughn Weasley, we are best friends!”
He walked over happily.
Behind him, the corpses closed their eyes again and lay back in the blood.
Their faces became peaceful again, as if fulfilling some destined, sacred duty.
It looked truly absurd and bizarre…
Even though Vaughn had studied the Golden Soul Theory and knew how dreams and the Dream Boundary would manifest, he was still secretly astonished for a moment.
Memories, representing rationality, are orderly even when chaotic; the brain prepares “keywords” and “timestamps” for them to facilitate recall.
And these things that display order do not exist in dreams!
“What a terrible place… This is just the Dream Boundary, a buffer zone where an individual’s subconscious radiates to the rational. A corridor responsible for transmitting emotions, and it’s already so horrifying. Then… what would the individual subconscious, representing pure sensibility, located in the Aether beneath the surface, be like?”
Vaughn suddenly remembered his first time soaring through the Aether, when Dumbledore had taken him to find a Muggle’s dream.
At that time, he hadn’t perceived any danger; he and Dumbledore had watched the Muggle’s dreams and desires together.
But thinking about it now, was that a result specifically chosen by Dumbledore? The Muggle’s dream they intruded upon that day was undoubtedly a pleasant one.
Similarly, if people have good dreams, they naturally also have nightmares…
In reality, dreams are of course bubbles that pop with a single poke; they cannot affect reality. But in the Aether, dreams are indeed a real world, albeit one that can only exist for a short time!
The owner of the dream is the owner of that world!
For example, at this moment, Vaughn clearly perceived that he, within the Dream Boundary of Jack, was incapable of resisting Jack Graves.
If he had not dispelled the doubts and resistance of Jack and the corpses just now, then even with his powerful magic and exquisite spells in reality, this intruding consciousness would only have been torn to shreds and devoured by Jack’s Dream Boundary!
Of course, Memory Magic, since its invention, has always been aimed at preventing such situations.
Thinking this, Vaughn smiled gently at Jack, who was enthusiastically welcoming him.
…
“Sigh…”
Reality.
When Donald saw the azure light flicker in Vaughn’s eyes, he sighed softly.
Legilimency!
One of the most difficult spells in the entire Wizarding World. While the Graves family was not adept at this spell, the Rosier family, also one of the 12 Pure-blood families and in charge of the Department of Magical Risk Assessment, had a large number of Memory Wizards.
“Silent Legilimency… For the Rosier family, specializing in Memory Magic, how many of them could achieve this level of Legilimency?”
Donald recalled his peers within the Rosier family whom he had met, all of whom were now in middle management and considered accomplished.
Not a single one!
“Genius… ha!”
He chuckled self-deprecatingly, trying to “pull” himself out of the ground—Vaughn hadn’t specifically restricted his ability to move.
He no longer overestimated himself; he knew he couldn’t stop it.
Realizing the gap, Donald sat dejectedly on the spot, cleaning the dirt from his lower body, and watched as, beneath the mushroom cloud frozen in the distance, Jack Graves, bathed in the azure spiritual light emanating from Vaughn Weasley’s eyes, slowly handed over the Alchemical Marvel he cherished like his life.
And, despite the chaos of the battlefield overhead, he could hear Vaughn Weasley’s calm, gentle, and infectiously persuasive voice, amplified by magic:
“Jack, we are friends.”
“Yes, we are friends,” Jack repeated, his tone stiff yet cheerful.
“I am the person you trust the most.”
“Of course, Vaughn Weasley is the person I trust the most.”
“I need to know some of your secrets now, some secrets of the Graves family. Are you willing to tell me?”
“I…”
Donald looked up, watching Jack’s struggling expression, without any further movement.
He didn’t know why Vaughn Weasley hadn’t directly read Jack’s memories, but he also knew that Jack’s struggle was meaningless.
As expected, he soon heard Jack’s stiff yet cheerful reply: “Of course, what do you want to know?”
“I want to know about the Purifiers, those artificial wizards…”
The family is doomed…
The 12 Pure-bloods are doomed…
Donald, who knew very well what his family and the 12 Pure-bloods had done, thought dejectedly. But the moment the thought surfaced from his heart, he suddenly realized that when he heard the controlled Jack happily agree to take Vaughn to see the Graves family’s secrets,
he didn’t feel much despair inside; instead, he felt a sense of relief.
“I tried my best, but Vaughn Weasley is stronger than me, and I couldn’t stop him…”
Besides, he wasn’t the one leaking the information, it was Jack!
The only thing that puzzled Donald was why Vaughn Weasley, who was so skilled in Memory Magic, hadn’t directly read Jack’s memories but instead controlled and coerced him?
…
“…Of course, we are friends, you are the person I trust the most, I have no secrets in front of you, and the Graves family should have no secrets either.”
In the Dream Boundary, dark clouds came and went. Jack Graves’ instinctual hostility and wariness, after a few futile struggles, finally dissipated.
Jack, now completely controlled, happily agreed to Vaughn’s request.
He hummed a cheerful tune and led the way.
As the Dream Boundary changed with his transformation, the surrounding scenery also shifted.
Vaughn breathed a slight sigh of relief. This was his first attempt at the Golden Soul Theory, entering the gap between the conscious and subconscious to coerce, brainwash, and control the target; fortunately, he hadn’t messed it up.
Compared to directly altering memories and controlling them at the thought level, this method of infiltrating the Dream Boundary, utilizing its special characteristics to indirectly interfere with the subconscious and make the target individual accept and trust oneself, seemed much more tedious.
But it was very safe!
“DeSantis…”
Recalling the Memory Magic master he encountered in the memory of a wizard named Essex last time, Vaughn’s mood wasn’t very good.
It was also then that Vaughn finally understood why Dumbledore always used a Pensieve when reading memories.
He probably suffered losses in his youth too!
Thinking carefully, Vaughn admitted that he had been somewhat careless.
Or rather, the peaceful environment of the English wizarding world had not only affected ordinary wizards but had also “spoiled” him, who used to mock people’s ostrich mentality.
After Voldemort’s demise, the entire English wizarding world was essentially completely shrouded in Dumbledore’s shadow—
The Sacred Twenty-Eight families, who had once colluded with European Pure-blood families, stirred up global affairs, and promoted the secrecy of magical law, were now cautious in front of him.
The Ministry of Magic, representing the ruling power, even had to look at his face to decide who to appoint as Minister, even though he had no intention of interfering.
It could only be said that Dumbledore’s reputation was too great; he had defeated Gellert Grindelwald in the 1940s and suppressed the Dark Lord in the 1980s.
Saving the world twice （ at least, the English wizarding world believed he saved the world ）, the most famous Legendary Wizard in the world.
Such a person, even if he had no agenda, his mere existence could influence those around him and his country to change according to his moral standards and behavioral patterns.
At least in England, as long as Dumbledore was alive, someone like “DeSantis,” lurking in others’ memories, waiting to strike, would not appear…
Thinking this, Vaughn suddenly froze.
He then realized that his past behavior had been rather arrogant, indulging in manipulating others’ memories. Although not openly declared, he had been violating the secrecy of magical law.
However, expecting him to feel apologetic was impossible, and the idea of being grateful to Dumbledore for not punishing him was even more absurd!
It was all because Old Dumbledore was always full of schemes, constantly trying to pull him into the vortex of Harry and Tom’s fate!
Lost in thought, Jack Graves, completely mesmerized by Vaughn, led Vaughn through the Dream Boundary to an unfamiliar place.
It seemed to be the outskirts of a Muggle city. The surrounding environment transformed from blurry to clear, with countless color blocks turning into lawns and forests. As they stretched into the distance,
Vaughn heard the sound of car horns from afar.
Nearby, a dilapidated factory building came into view. The building, covered in vines and moss, had been abandoned for who knows how long, with ruins everywhere.
Only one road appeared to be somewhat regularly maintained, without cracks or the lonely emergence of tenacious weeds.
Vaughn stood on that road, its end leading directly into the factory.
Beside him stood Jack Graves, who had brought him there and was now blankly staring at the dilapidated factory, lost in thought.
Simple coercion was indeed unstable.
Vaughn sighed softly, and his gentle voice echoed in Jack’s ears again, a whisper: “Is this where the Graves family and Muggles research artificial wizards?”
Like ripples, an inaudible echo reverberated over the island.
Jack Graves’ confused expression faded, and he became enthusiastic again: “Yes, my dear friend. Although it looks unremarkable, this is just a disguise made by those self-proclaimed clever Muggles… Well, it sometimes works…”
“The real experimental site is underground. Starting in the 1960s, Muggles used a great deal of human and material resources to carve out a vast permanent facility beneath this land…”
The 1960s?
Vaughn keenly caught the information in Jack’s words.
From his understanding of North American magical history, the Federation’s current situation, if traced back, could go as far as the Rappaport Law 200 years ago.
But what truly led to the current de facto divided situation of the Federation was the abolition of the Rappaport Law in 1965 by the vanguard movement of the North American wizarding world.
Interestingly, this time node was also when Muggle human rights awareness surged and the vanguard movement rose in North America.
Due to the information disconnect between the wizarding world and Muggle society, even decades later, it is unclear whether magic influenced Muggles to push the vanguard movement or whether the Muggle movement awakened some wizards in the wizarding world to join the movement.
Only when reviewing history, seeing the ultimate fate of Muggles and those vanguard wizards, do people sigh that their failures were astonishingly similar!
In Muggle society, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and the Black Panther Party scattered.
In the wizarding world, within two years of 1965, several famous vanguard leaders disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and the Rappaport Law was revived in 1968.
The human rights struggle of Muggles did not effectively eliminate racial segregation. On the surface, the efforts of those pioneers did yield results, but the result was that discrimination was driven underground, becoming even harder to detect.
The fate of the vanguard wizards in the wizarding world was even more blatant—the Magical Congress, which dragged the Rappaport Law out of its grave, imposed even harsher methods of discrimination and oppression against Muggles and Muggle-born wizards.
The 12 Pure-bloods didn’t even bother to pretend; precisely, they wanted to use the unfeeling Rappaport Law to drive those wizards from the “filthy Muggle society” to madness and push them to oppose everyone.
However, what concerned Vaughn even more was—
“Muggles have been cooperating with the 12 Pure-bloods since the 1960s?”
As he asked this question, Jack had already led Vaughn into the factory. Sunlight, with visible Tyndall effect, streamed down through gaps in the shattered roof.
But it brought no warmth.
It was unclear whether this scene was a direct restoration of reality from Jack’s memory in the Dream Boundary or a re-processing that incorporated his own feelings.
At least for Jack Graves, who had seen it with his own eyes, even though sunlight leaked in here, what he saw and felt was still damp, cold, and bone-chilling.
A sealed elevator stood in a dark corner.
Jack led Vaughn over: “Yes, my dear friend. You should know that the vanguard movement that swept across the Federation in the 1960s was the first time Muggles and wizards united under the same goal and ideology. Consequently, without exception, the Muggle government learned of the existence of wizards.”
“This was the most serious magical exposure incident since the Second Salem. According to the secrecy of magical law and the Rappaport Law, the Magical Congress, led by the 12 Pure-bloods, should have immediately cleansed the memories of all knowing Muggles and erased all magical traces…”
“But they didn’t do that,” Vaughn said.
“Yes,” Jack shrugged. “And I need to correct you on one point: it wasn’t Muggles who sought cooperation with the 12 Pure-bloods, but the 12 Pure-bloods, led by the Graves family, who actively funded the Muggles!”
Looking back from the current era, the 1960s was a magical time: decolonization, vanguard thought, human rights revolutions, the Third Industrial Revolution… and breakthroughs in biotechnology.
Apart from magic, the historical development of this world was not much different from Vaughn’s previous life.
Major events that occurred in his previous life also happened in this world. He wasn’t sure what factors led to such astonishingly similar convergence.
It didn’t matter.
What mattered was that their occurrence affected not only Muggle society but also the wizarding world.
At least in the United States of America!
“…Initially, it was just a few wizards who disappeared, including some young wizards from Muggle families. The person in charge of investigating was Michael’s father, the Patriarch of the Graves family, and the cousin of Donald and me. He was a very capable man.”
“He followed the clues of the disappearing wizards all the way here…”
The elevator’s descent was illusory and hazy.
Many phantoms, like mist, rose and sank around Jack and Vaughn. Screams and moans could be faintly heard, as distant as if from another world.
Those were indeed illusions.
They were the imaginations processed by Jack Graves’ brain and then chaotically manifested in his Dream Boundary.
“…He found those missing wizards, but they had been tortured by Muggles into unrecognizable beings… However, he was a qualified Graves. He didn’t handle the Muggles in this building according to the secrecy of magical law and the Rappaport Law; instead, he hid nearby and spent over two months recording all the experimental processes he witnessed, as well as the conversations of the Muggle scientists, and then brought it back to Woolworths…”
Jack’s expression became hazy again.
He paused and suddenly asked Vaughn, “Do you know why he did that?”
Vaughn replied calmly, “No, I’m waiting for you to explain.”
“Ha, I will explain it to you, of course. You are my best friend.” Jack said animatedly, “I’m just not sure if you can understand. Clone technology, gene editing—do you know about them?”
Vaughn smiled, “…I know a little bit…”
Biotechnology had developed very rapidly in Vaughn’s previous life. To him, cloning, a term also established in the 1960s, was already a commonplace concept.
From the world-shattering news of the first cloned sheep in the late 1990s, to ten years later, news about cloned animals generated almost no heat.
When a new thing appears, people always try to squeeze its potential dry and then quickly move on to other fields, chasing new hot topics.
Of course, this did not mean Vaughn was not interested in Jack Graves’ words.
He had always been curious about how the 12 Pure-bloods and American Muggle scientists managed to create artificial wizards.
How did they solve the problem of magic power?
How did they solve the problem of wizarding talent residing in the soul, not the body?
When discussing artificial wizards with Ajinbad before, Vaughn speculated that their magic was more like “spell-like.” He believed that those artificial wizards were less wizards and more like humanoid Magical Creatures, tragic products of genetic engineering!
And now, Jack’s account clearly confirmed his speculation.
“It’s good that you understand… Muggle genetics deeply fascinated my cousin uncle. As I said, he was a very capable and brilliant man. He keenly perceived what the Muggles wanted to do. So, after returning to Woolworths, he persuaded the Pure-blood families to support the Muggles in this facility.”
“Even now, his vision from back then still sounds exciting—the ability to mass-produce wizards and bring the Federation completely under the rule of the 12 Pure-bloods. How wonderful! This has been the long-held wish of the 12 Pure-bloods.”
Jack spread his hands.
But Vaughn noticed a look of mockery on his face.
It seemed he did not agree with the vision of the 12 Pure-bloods.
Considering his identity as a traitor, this expression was understandable.
Vaughn had no interest in his and Graves’s grievances. He brought the topic back: “You mentioned cloning and gene editing, can you elaborate? Those artificial wizards, the reason they can cast spells, is it because you genetically modified them, editing the genes of some Magical Creatures into human DNA?”
Jack looked at Vaughn happily: “You really are my good friend, Vaughn Weasley. I haven’t even explained it to you yet… Yes, I must say, those Muggles are indeed a group of mad devils. According to the family records I’ve read, they spent the first few years not understanding where wizards’ magic power and magical talent actually resided.”
“They dissected many wizards—look, those specimens are still preserved in the laboratory.”
As Jack spoke, the elevator, which had been running endlessly, suddenly beeped and stopped.
The cabin door opened, and white mist flowed in. The biting cold and a strange smell immediately filled the entire space.
But neither Jack Graves nor Vaughn paid attention. Their gazes were fixed on the space outside the cabin—a vast expanse.
Rows upon rows of storage cabinets stretched as far as the eye could see, extending into the darkness.
Those were freezers storing corpses!
A rough estimate showed the number to be astonishing. Even Vaughn, who had been mentally prepared, unconsciously narrowed his pupils.
After a moment of silence, Vaughn spoke: “You’re right, they are indeed a group of mad devils…”
“And the 12 Pure-bloods, starting from 1963, supported those Muggle scientists for 6 years, providing them with funds and consumables, until Old Michael—oh, that’s my cousin uncle—who was responsible for capturing wizards, halted this part of the experiment during his last supply delivery in 1968. The Muggles spent 6 years verifying the Golden Soul Theory: a wizard’s magic power and magic originate from the soul.”
“This was, of course, a failed attempt. However, Pure-bloods are like Muggle capitalists; sometimes they are extremely impatient due to greed, and sometimes they are extremely patient due to even greater greed.”
“The Muggles couldn’t find the soul, couldn’t trace the origin of magic. They weren’t disappointed, as most wizards couldn’t either. But as Old Michael said, magic is not a patent of wizards… Hehehehe—”
Jack suddenly burst into laughter.
The elevator cabin closed amidst his laughter, descended, and opened again.
A new vast space appeared, but instead of rows of cold iron cabinets, there were jars filled with formaldehyde-like liquid, in which strangely shaped human bodies floated.
“How ironic. The Pure-bloods, who pursued purity and the return of magic to Pure-bloods, ended up targeting Magical Creatures out of greed and madness. For this, they were even willing to admit that Magical Creatures also possessed magic, hee hee—”
Vaughn knew why Jack Graves had let out that eerie laugh.
After all, “pure magic” was a concept that Pure-bloods had always promoted and advocated within Pure-blood families.
Pure magic, of course, had nothing to do with magic itself; it referred to lineage, much like what Muggles called blue blood aristocracy.
A tracing of bloodline and status!
It must be mentioned here that wizards did not exist from the beginning of the world. Muggle historical records are difficult to preserve for various reasons, but wizards are different.
According to current magical history research, it is widely believed globally that magic developed and flourished in Europe, and European magic originated from Western Asia, and Western Asian magic originated from Central Asia （Original view ）!
What about further back?
When the pursuit of time reaches this extent, even magic becomes useless. Is there a final source? Where is it? Some lean towards Bhutan, others towards further East Asia.
Of course, some stop the origin in Central Asia!
After all, the first wizards on record emerged from Central Asia.
They were called “the first wizards,” “the most ancient wisdom,” “the spreaders of magic.” Before the development of the Golden Soul Theory, the wizarding world generally believed that all wizards in the world originated from them.
Especially Pure-blood wizards.
They believed themselves to be descendants of the “first ones,” their bloodline originating from the noble land of magical origin—even though no wizard had ever found that place.
This is also why some families, whose ancestors have been wizards for generations, are Pure-bloods, while others are just ordinary wizarding families.
Even after the advent of the Golden Soul Theory, which completely destroyed the foundation of “bloodline theory”: magic and talent do not reside in a person’s body and bloodline, but in the soul.
But ancient concepts had already taken shape!
Over the years, Pure-bloods had been reinforcing this concept, deeming themselves descendants of the “first ones,” the original and most sacred bloodline. Apart from them, so-called magic was merely a bestowal from their ancestors, especially those—
“…Those dirty, blasphemous Magical Creatures. Pure-bloods never admitted they used magic; they despised Phoenixes, scorned Fire Dragons, disdained Giants, and detested Goblins… They said, ‘Remember, what flows in your veins is pure, it is unique, and your entire life should be devoted to its glory!'”
Looking at the countless transparent jars in the space ahead, Jack muttered, half crying and half laughing: “In the end, the tenets they preached for us to remember and abide by were destroyed by themselves.”
“What purity, what cleanliness, what radiance, what glory, are all just disguises for those carnivores. We poor, lowly creatures were blinded by their grand pronouncements and shed blood for a slogan they readily overturned… Utterly, hopelessly stupid, hehehehehe—”
Was this one of the reasons for his betrayal?
Looking at Jack Graves, who was gradually going mad beside him, Vaughn wondered curiously.
Of course, his main focus was on the transparent jars, and the creatures within them, floating slowly in the liquid, looking like humans but with organs that did not belong to humans.
Vaughn slowly walked out of the elevator.
Due to the illogical nature of dreams, the moment he stepped out of the elevator, he found himself standing before a jar. Looking up, the creature in the giant jar had a humanlike build and appearance, with a pair of membranous wings on its back!
“Genetically modified…”
“Yes, genetically modified, the marvelous science of Muggles. This experimental subject was transplanted with Fire Dragon genes.”
Jack’s voice came from behind him.
The person who had been laughing maniacally just moments before seemed to have regained his senses. Vaughn turned around and saw him explaining naturally:
“In this Muggle facility, Fire Dragons are one of the most popular experimental directions. Muggles especially like such powerful and fearsome creatures.”
“And Unicorns—”
As he spoke, the jar in front of them slid away, and another giant jar flew forward, landing before them.
It contained a very graceful lady, her skin as white as jade, her lines graceful and alluring.
However, the thick hair covering her limbs and back, and her elongated face, marred the serene beauty.
Most striking was the huge, tumor-like protrusion on her forehead, extending from her brow.
All that remained imprinted on the eyes was grotesqueness!
“Obviously, my dear friend, she is also a failed product!”
Jack’s voice became sharp: “Muggles like these powerful Magical Creatures, and the families like them even more. If they could mass-produce a group of humanoid Fire Dragons, humanoid Unicorns… Heh, just thinking about it would make those old guys so excited they couldn’t sleep!”
“But all have failed!”
Jack’s voice suddenly became high-pitched, sharp as fingernails scratching glass.
As he shouted excitedly, one jar after another appeared before Vaughn and then receded.
