"Hit by his own Killing Curse, yet able to cling to existence even with his soul destroyed?" After leaving the Headmaster's office, Glenn found himself intrigued by Dumbledore's mention of Voldemort's method of cheating death.
Now knowing Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort, the soul resonance when he made eye contact with Harry at the opening feast became quite fascinating.
Voldemort, murderer of Harry's parents, "died" when his own Killing Curse rebounded on him, though he didn't die completely.
Harry, protected by ancient magic of "love" cast by his mother, caused Voldemort's Killing Curse to rebound back at him.
There seemed to be no inherent connection between the two?
The only link might be that rebounded Killing Curse.
If the Imperius Curse, one of the three Unforgivable Curses, controlled the soul by forcing it to follow the caster's commands, and the Cruciatus Curse tortured the soul, causing victims to feel soul-deep agony that could leave irreversible trauma if cast continuously - potentially making them lose some essential part of their humanity, like sanity, as with Neville's parents who were driven mad by Death Eaters' repeated Cruciatus Curses...
Then perhaps the Killing Curse, first among the Unforgivables, also targeted the soul?
Imperius controls the soul, Cruciatus tortures it, so the Killing Curse must...
...destroy the soul.
Which brought the focus back to Voldemort, who survived the Killing Curse but could only exist in a crippled state possessing others.
This suggested Voldemort's soul hadn't completely vanished.
Throughout magical history, the Killing Curse had no known counter-curse - touch meant death, unless Voldemort had accessed magical knowledge beyond this era that might allow survival after being hit.
But the probability was tiny, and Dumbledore clearly had some understanding of his method - his "speculation" was likely certainty.
If Voldemort truly knew a counter to the Killing Curse, would this old bee let a crippled Voldemort roam free?
Wouldn't he just capture him and extract everything down to when Voldemort still wet his bed through alternating Imperius and Cruciatus?
Such knowledge would revolutionize the magical world - clearly this possibility could be ruled out, as Dumbledore showed no excitement, instead revealing traces of worry.
Was there some history between Dumbledore and Voldemort? Why that expression?
Was he worried about Voldemort still being alive, or about Voldemort himself as an individual?
Or perhaps both.
Too many questions, too little verifiable information - best set aside for now.
Besides, Dumbledore himself said he suspected Voldemort's method was evil and would lead one astray, so the counter-curse possibility could be eliminated.
As Glenn organized his thoughts, he suddenly noticed something inconsistent.
Given Dumbledore's personality, if he knew the method's evil nature could lead people down a dark path, he wouldn't mention it to others at all. Glenn wouldn't bet a single Knut that the old bee had simply slipped up.
Had he deliberately revealed it to me?
To guide me to think about this and find answers myself?
Glenn frowned, realizing things weren't simple - he sensed trouble brewing again.
Did Dumbledore trust my character?
Or was he certain I wouldn't be tempted by such methods?
But by my own assessment, my actions weren't those of a good person, or what you'd expect from someone kind. Besides, I could still sense Dumbledore's subtle wariness of me, even if it was gradually diminishing toward zero.
Glenn stopped walking and thought carefully, quickly reaching a conclusion.
Voldemort's method was for immortality or longevity, so Dumbledore wasn't wary of me because...
I have the Philosopher's Stone.
Of course - Voldemort achieved false immortality through this method, surviving a Killing Curse, but he still coveted the Stone that could produce the Elixir of Life.
His true goal was pursuing immortality, escaping death.
Glenn's eyes narrowed as he understood why Dumbledore wasn't afraid of him investigating Voldemort's evil methods.
He and Hermione already had the Stone's game-breaking existence - what need did they have for other paths to immortality?
The Stone's stored soul energy was enough for the Hawthorne and Granger families to live until the end of time.
"Voldemort must have used some method to make his soul indestructible..." Glenn continued pondering.
He sat down right there, entering a meditative state.
A stream of words flashed rapidly through Glenn's mind, being constantly filtered.
Having found the right direction of thought, speculation about the truth became somewhat easier.
Glenn felt he was onto something, but couldn't quite grasp it precisely.
He had extracted many potentially relevant terms but still couldn't connect them.
...Until one word appeared.
Backup...
Backup?
Backup.
After maintaining meditation for four hours, fifty-two minutes and twenty-seven seconds, Glenn finally found the key point that felt most correct.
How do you ensure information isn't lost due to a single error?
The answer is backup.
As the saying goes, don't put all your eggs in one basket. If there truly was a method in the magical world to backup one's consciousness...or soul, then wouldn't it mean that if one soul was destroyed, the other backup souls would remain unaffected, maintaining their corresponding soul information, allowing that person to survive - no, maintain their sense of self?
Thus preserving their soul against the soul-destroying Killing Curse?
But was complete soul backup even possible?
At least to Glenn, who was gradually deepening his understanding of alchemy, it seemed impossible.
Equivalent exchange was alchemy's immutable principle. By Glenn's current knowledge for measuring the "price" of all things, the soul was undoubtedly the most expensive.
Therefore, the possibility of completely copying a being's soul must be zero - the backup process would inevitably cause some loss, even if other beings' souls were used to partially offset the cost.
Could an entity with an incomplete soul survive?
The answer was yes, like Neville's parents.
If Voldemort truly adopted this soul backup method, he would have only one path available.
Split his soul from his original body and merge the pieces into other entities.
Whether living or non-living, souls could attach to them, like Quirrell-Voldemort or the Philosopher's Stone's soul-storing and transforming alchemical device.
This was the most logical method, and relatively less damaging to the original body compared to other approaches.
But if Glenn wasn't mistaken, such soul-object fusion would definitely require large amounts of soul energy.
This explained why Voldemort engaged in widespread killing, becoming the feared Dark Lord.
He could collect vast amounts of soul energy while "cleansing" Muggles - killing two birds with one stone.
The clues connected.
If this theory held true, these split soul fragments would act like anchors, firmly locking in his soul information.
When his original soul was hit by the Killing Curse and dispersed, these split soul anchors would firmly hold it and transmit the soul information, allowing the dispersed soul to reconstitute itself.
Black light flickered in Glenn's eyes - this would also explain the soul connection between Harry and Quirrell-Voldemort.
When Voldemort was unexpectedly hit by Harry's rebounded Killing Curse, his soul dispersed into the air, but the existence of soul fragments allowed him to use his own dispersed (but not yet completely vanished) soul energy in the air to reconstitute a new Voldemort soul.
Then during this process, because Harry was closest to Voldemort and the only living human present, some of Voldemort's soul fragments coincidentally entered Harry's body, were nourished by Harry's soul, and thus...
...attached to Harry's soul?
Glenn was somewhat amazed by his own analysis - this would explain the soul connection between Harry and Quirrell-Voldemort.
This could very well be the truth.
It was magical, abstract.
But Harry likely wouldn't be controlled by Voldemort, since he was just a year-old baby at the time - Harry's own soul energy wasn't much, let alone the small amount of Voldemort's soul fragments attached to Harry's soul.
The intelligence of Voldemort's soul fragments reconstituted in Harry probably didn't even match an infant's.
Otherwise, Harry Potter wouldn't be as he was now, despising evil.
"Troublesome." Glenn's brow furrowed slightly. Quirrell-Voldemort might not even die, and now there was a Harry-Voldemort to deal with.
He needed to accelerate his research into soul magic. Harry still had that peculiar love magic that could reflect the Killing Curse, otherwise Glenn wouldn't mind learning Avada Kedavra to eliminate future troubles with one strike.
Direct killing? If Glenn hadn't observed wrongly, Dumbledore had likely placed Harry in a crucial position for his future plans against Voldemort, and would probably fight to stop Glenn - their Unbreakable Vow hadn't included protecting Glenn's life.
Currently lacking the strength to challenge Dumbledore, the forceful elimination of Harry would have to wait.
While many doubts had been resolved, more troubles arose in their place.
"I'm not strong enough," Glenn concluded - the root cause of these troubles was his insufficient power.
"Far from enough."
The road ahead remained long, but Glenn didn't mind.
Since Voldemort threatened those he cared about, Glenn would achieve his goals no matter the cost.
His black eyes grew increasingly clear.
In his past life, he had no goals while others gave him many, leaving him unable to see the future clearly, his path forward unclear.
In this life, he had his own definite goals - even if hell lay ahead, he would walk through it.
With a goal, he would achieve it by any means necessary.