harry potter book of crimes

"That man...has he returned to England?"

Quirrell's face was hidden deep in his torn hood, and he asked Maka in a low voice.

"Voldemort? Of course, he has gone back a long time ago..." Maka nodded and stared at the shadow in the hood, as if she wanted to see through the darkness.

"Really? Yes...this is of course..." Quirrell said softly, as if talking to Maka, but also seemed to be talking to himself, "...it seems like he

Failed again, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have appeared here so calmly..."

As he spoke, he tilted his head again and looked over Maka's shoulder to look behind him.

There, the nearly fourteen-foot-tall giant leader was being beaten by a giant made of rock. Until now, he had almost no power to fight back.

"McLean... Well, it seems that I have missed an incredible student..." Quirrell sighed and continued, "Since you are still willing to call me 'Professor', then I'll trouble you."

Get out of here as soon as possible... take Hagrid and the female hybrid giant with you."

"Professor Quirrell, don't you want to say something more?" Maka asked calmly, "For example, what did you and Voldemort experience together in front of that stone monument?"

"Huh? You know?" Quirrell seemed not to have expected that someone else knew about his experience.

"Yes, I know something... Of course, what I want to know most now is..." Maka looked at him and said, "Professor Quirrell, what state are you in now?"

"Hmph, what kind of state is it?" Quirrell shook his head slightly and said, "It's like a waste that was discarded after being used by 'that person'...in a state? In short, it's just a waste product that has lost its value. I can

All you can do is wait for death..."

"Voldemort may think you have no value, but I don't think so." Maka chuckled, "Or, it's just because he already thinks you have no value, that's why you seem more valuable to me!

"

As soon as these words were spoken, Quirrell was suddenly shocked and seemed to be excited all of a sudden.

"So what?" he roared in a hoarse voice, his tone almost distorted, "Value, value, value! I am valuable to Voldemort, and now I am valuable to you - what kind of antique collectible am I?

? Can a person be measured by the word 'value'?"

"...Maka, what's wrong? He..."

Maka turned around, waved to Hagrid, who had just ran over, and then looked at Quirrell, who was a little hysterical.

"Do you think that using the word 'value' to evaluate you is belittling you?" He spread his hands and said, "At least in my eyes, everyone can be measured by value - including myself.

"

"Everything we do here is accumulating our own value. Think about it, why do you want to study, why do you want to work hard, and why did Dumbledore hire you to be a teacher? It's for you.

Is there a Voldemort stuck to the back of your head?"

"I remember that you traveled around in order to accumulate practical experience, right? You wanted to make yourself more valuable and gain more valuable experience besides theory. And your efforts and ideals,

Is there anything wrong?"

"Do you think there's anything wrong with the word 'value'?"

At this point, Maka suddenly shook her head and said: "There's nothing wrong with this word. The problem lies in the angle you look at it - your encounters, your experiences, your pain, have changed your perspective of looking at the world."

, nothing more.”

"Do you know why I still call you 'Professor Quirrell'?" He paused and changed the topic, "It's just because you are still valuable in my heart."

"Is there... value?" Quirrell seemed to have lost all his strength. He almost leaned on the monster's legs and muttered to himself.

"Don't you think you have value? Otherwise, why would you come to a place like this? In my opinion, it's not surprising that you died in that mountain forest with your physical condition.

.”

Maka asked directly: "Why did you go to all the trouble to come here?"

"...I don't want to die yet." After being silent for a while, Quirrell struggled and said, "I...I shouldn't die like this...I can't die so...worthless!"

"So you escaped from that mountain forest, so you didn't have the impulse to return to England, so you hid here...am I right?" Maka said with a smile.

"Yes, you are right..." Quirrell took a deep breath with difficulty, and the cold air rushed into his lungs. "That day I woke up from that unknown ruins and found that I was not there.

Death - he obviously claimed that he would use my death to achieve his power, but I did not die!"

"Perhaps it is for this reason that the black magic he cast on me is gone, and I have recovered my thoughts. I tried my best to drag this already tattered body out of that place..."

"This is not easy." Maka looked at him and said.

"Of course it's not easy, but that's not the point..." Quirrell said with a wry smile, "The point is that I am no longer a wizard at all... What am I now? A squib? A Muggle? A disabled person? Myself

Do not know at all……"

"By the way, didn't you say I'm still valuable?" He said, suddenly lifting off the tattered cloak on his body, "But I can't even say when I will die... maybe it will be tomorrow, no,

It might be the next second!"

When Quirrell's cloak was lifted, Hagrid beside him couldn't help but let out an "Oh" in surprise.

No wonder he was always sitting on the ground in a weird posture, and no wonder he was always holding on to the monster's legs. This was entirely because if he didn't do this, it would be difficult for him to maintain his sitting posture.

Quirrell was also wearing a wizard's robe that was even more tattered than the cloak, which almost barely hung on his body. What was exposed in the huge holes was a withered and deformed body.

That body seemed as if all the flesh and blood had been drained away, the skin was close to the bones, and the entire abdominal cavity had completely collapsed.

And his face looked like a skeleton, and it looked extremely scary.

He said that he might die in the next second, but just looking at him would make people doubt why he was still alive.

Even Maka, who has always been calm, couldn't help but frown at this moment.

"Did it become like this just after waking up?" He suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Quirrell glanced at him, his eyes looked unusually large on his skull-like face, "No, when I woke up, I was just weak all over. This is what happens day by day...

"

"It's hard for you to still retain your sanity..." Maka shook her head, "Most people would have collapsed long ago if they saw themselves turning into this horrible state."

"It goes without saying that these are useless...McLean, do you still think I am of 'value' to you now?"

"Of course," Maka said without hesitation, "even if you are dead, you are still valuable - of course, you are even more valuable if you are still alive."

Before he finished speaking, he turned around suddenly and waved the wand in his hand.

It turned out that at this moment, the stone giant he created with his transformation technique had knocked out the giant monster leader. With a wave of his wand, the stone giant suddenly lost the power to support his body and shattered into pieces.

land.

"Keep these giant monsters away from here. I want to check your condition as soon as possible... I think you may not be dead yet. If you are really going to die, you won't be able to wake up... According to my research

, the Bewitching Monument will not leave you in such a half-dead state."

After hearing what Maka said, Quirrell muttered for a while, and the group of giant monsters seemed to be unwilling to carry the faint leader and walked away.

Maka used a floating spell to move Quirrell into the cave at the back. Under Mrs. Maxim's astonished expression, she poked and touched Quirrell's mummy-like body for a long time.

"As far as physical condition is concerned, there is no other black magic," Maka said after a while, pressing her wand against Quirrell's sternum, "but your life force is obviously passing away... Well, I have to

Let me help you check your soul again..."

After a long time, Maka walked out of the cramped cave and said hello to Hagrid and Mrs. Maxim who were waiting outside.

"How's that guy doing?" Hagrid asked curiously.

"I won't die for the time being, but I won't live for long..." Maka said, extending an index finger and saying, "There is still more than a month left at most."

"Is there nothing I can do?" Hagrid subconsciously glanced into the cave, only to see Quirrell lying on the ground silently with his eyes closed. "I still remember that when he was a student, he was actually a pretty good student.

The little guy..."

"Is there any way... It's hard to say right now," Maka shrugged. "The situation here is complicated! There are some things that I haven't studied clearly yet... His body and soul are constantly dissipating. Looking for

No specific reason.”

It was said that it dissipated, but that situation gave Maka the feeling of being sucked away by something. Of course, this was just his conjecture based on some signs.

"By the way, Hagrid...how did you get trapped here?" Maka asked, "Why don't you use magic to leave? For example, apparate or something?"

"He won't... As for my words, it's because they are useless."

Mrs. Maxim said, taking out her wand and raising it towards Maka - she saw that the wand had been broken by external force, half of it was dangling in the air, and only a small part was still connected.

"Uh...well," Maka smiled and joked, "Oak? It looks pretty tough..."