In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 461: Voldemort's Manor

They had joined the Witching Horizon en masse, and many of these students who had gone through the wagon era at Hogwarts, the sea-ship era as well as the current Lyon's temporary school period, had reached the age of seventeen, the age of legal adulthood in the wizarding world.

These people had long been deeply bound to Hogwarts, and many of them also had family still in Britain, so no one had made a move to leave, and everyone had decisively joined the battle order.

After the change from the seven-year system to the five-year system, Jon, who will be promoted to the fifth year at the beginning of this semester, would have had nothing to do with this next war, but of course, the others wouldn't treat him as an ordinary student.

It was just that apart from Dumbledore, no one else would arrange any work for him at all.

Jon was self-conscious enough to know that he certainly wouldn't be able to still have this kind of free time later on after the new term had started.

He began his delving into what kind of spell he could apply to the fourth gemstone.

The spells currently occupying the first three gems on his ring were all mainly on the more practical side of things.

The first one, the levitation charm, was chosen as Jon's first gemstone choice when he first arrived at the wagon when he was still a first year, as he had few spells that he was already familiar with at that time and even fewer that could be put to good use on his ring.

What happened later was proof enough that Jon had made the right choice, and the means of being able to float without relying on a flying broom or any other tool helped him immensely.

The second gem, on the other hand, was already bound with some additional characteristics at the beginning by the gem maker, Adrian, making the general counter-spell a good match for that gem.

The enchantment on this gem was not something that Jon had thought beforehand, yet it had saved him plenty of times nonetheless, and if it had not been for the ability to store magic on this gem, then Jon or Hermione might have died at Hogwarts Castle in his second year.

There is nothing more to say about the Animagus on the third gem.

At least since the records of magical history existed, Jon was considered to be the first wizard who could turn into a magical creature and could also use its abilities.

The characteristics of the phoenix made Jon have absolute security in terms of life preservation.

And the fourth gem that he got his hands on now is still in a pure and flawless state.

Adrien hadn't given it a clear formulation of any magic that absolutely had to be attached to it, and Jon didn't have a pressing need for a magical effect at the moment, plus the fact that over the years of exposure to magic, he had learnt enough spells to make his choices wider.

So Jon, after much deliberation, decided that he needed to attach a spell of an offensive nature to the gem.

It was just that so far, he had never even attempted anything similar to this, nor did he know what kind of changes would happen if he attempted to attach offensive magic mainly meant to be used against the enemy to the gemstone.

It couldn't be that by the time the so-called spell was unleashed on himself, and when he used a spell from the ring like the Killing curse, it would just kill him, could it?

Such a ridiculous phenomenon, Jon thought it was unlikely to happen, but just in case, he had ruled out the killing curse from the start.

The other spells are fine, once something goes wrong with the spell, he will have to suffer just a little bit because, with the Phoenix's Animagus, death is definitely not possible, but even if he could use Nirvana once again, Jon doesn't want to turn into a child's appearance again, he always feels that every death doesn't come without a price.

Plus he listened to Lily's words in Britain before. The killing curse can be used sparingly, then attaching it to the ring is not so appropriate.

In addition, even if the killing curse is overbearing, it is only a single damage spell, Jon is not capable of turning it into AOE damage, not quite in line with the situation of the next large-scale wizard war that will begin.

So in the end, Jon chose to focus on two spells, two of his most commonly used dark magic spells.

Blasting Curse and Invisible Sword Curse

These two spells could of course kill people as well, and the sight that shows up when you kill someone is even bloodier.

It was just that they are nowhere near as strong as the side effects of a killing curse in terms of the impact of dark magic on a wizard's consciousness, coupled with the fact that both can be expanded to a near-infinite range if used well, Jon's choice, of course, came down to these two spells.

And at the end of the day, he settled on Invisible Sword Curse with very little hesitation.

Compared to the Blasting Curse, it was much quieter and more stealthy to cast, and the key thing was that Jon had the original notes on how the spell Invisible Sword Curse had been created, written by its inventor, Snape himself, which would make it much easier for Jon to get the hang of it.

After determining what spell he would be studying next, Jon didn't sit idle.

He also knew that high-profile dark magic like Invisible Sword Curse was not suitable to be practised in libraries or study rooms, so he directly approached McGonagall to apply for an abandoned classroom.

And just as the whole of France was undergoing pre-war preparations.

Britain, in a magnificent Manor.

Voldemort, who had turned into a middle-aged man and was far from the young man he was before, stared grimly at Slughorn, who was looking down next to him.

"Why didn't that vial of potion have no effect after I drank it?"

Before the defeat in the Triwizard Tournament, Voldemort Two had maintained the courtesy of being a former student on the surface to Slughorn, but now, for today's Voldemort One, he simply didn't care that Slughorn had once been the Head of House who had taken good care of him and treated him exactly like any other servant.

Slughorn also had the good sense to change his stance and had no intention of continuing to put on the airs of being a mentor, even changing his address to lord like all the other Death Eaters.

This made him suffer a lot of shame in the pureblood circle recently, many people said that he was just sticking a spring onion in a pig's nose and pretending to be an elephant, and now he is going to show his true colours.

It didn't seem like Slughorn cared though, he was still as loyal to his student as ever.

"I can only replicate the effects of that potion, my lord." Slughorn said with a bow of his head, the sound of the word "lord" seeming to exit his mouth didn't cause a half-assed change of expression to appear on his face.

"In terms of effect, the vial of potion is really just a vial of specialised catalyst, it doesn't have any potency of its own, it mostly depends on the object it's meant to catalyse."

Voldemort was silent for a few seconds, then he resumed speaking.

"How is the investigation over at the Department of Mysteries going?"

Slughorn continued indifferently.

"Karkaroff is still in the middle of a deeper investigation, he only just brought word yesterday that it would take a while to get evidence and research between the various halls."

"Give him a week!"

Voldemort said icily.

"If there are no results after a week, have him take his men to Azkaban to be in charge of communication with the Dementors!"

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