Chapter 79: Quirrell? Voldemort!
During the last days of the month, Ethan worked hard to restrain his surging magic, striving to control this power that was still too immense for him.
Finally, after enduring Snape's glare on Friday, he skipped Saturday's potions tutoring.
He practiced all day at Hagrid's hut and finally achieved basic control.
Moreover, he gained control over his ability to see soul fragments, judging this by whether he could see the extra piece of soul on Harry.
Indeed, after he could no longer see the soul on Harry, he also stopped seeing Voldemort's soul fragment when he saw Quirrell in the Great Hall.
"Whew, finally back to normal." He bid Hagrid farewell in the evening and returned to the castle in a relaxed mood.
He didn't skip Sunday's spell practice either. After all, his magic control wasn't perfect yet, and occasional lapses could cause the kind of incident from Charms class, so practice was essential.
Harry and Ron, who participated in the practice, were seeing Ethan cast spells after his second magical outburst for the first time.
The two were simply stunned.
"This is magic a first-year can cast?" Harry said to the equally shocked Ron, looking at the dark, terrifying clouds in the sky.
The red-haired boy swallowed hard.
Large snowflakes fell, making the already cold weather even more chilly.
On a weekend a month before Easter, Ron and Harry were absent from the group's spell practice.
Only Hermione and Ethan practiced spellcasting outside Hagrid's hut, targeting the empty ground and surrounding objects. Ethan's control had returned.
Now the spells he cast were being adjusted to weaker power.
Hermione hesitated to speak, then finally brought up the recent Quidditch match.
Since it was between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, Ethan hadn't attended yesterday.
"Was this match exciting?" Ethan asked curiously.
He didn't understand why Hermione suddenly brought up the match. He wasn't very interested in Quidditch, and with no Slytherin playing, he didn't even care who won or lost.
"Quite exciting. Since Snape was referee, he favored Hufflepuff, but Harry found the Snitch at an amazing speed, ending the match in five minutes." Hermione's words hinted at something.
"Normal. Professor Snape has some issues with Harry. It's no surprise he'd favor Hufflepuff." Ethan misunderstood, thinking Hermione was still trying to convince him about Snape wanting to harm Harry.
He didn't want to continue this topic, so he changed the subject, avoiding discussion of Snape.
In reality, this wasn't what Hermione wanted to discuss.
Yesterday, Harry had told her and Ron that he'd seen Snape threatening Quirrell in the Forbidden Forest, saying things like "You don't want to be my enemy."
Harry had urged her, "Hermione, don't tell Ethan about this. I'm worried he'll inform on us to Snape."
Hermione felt Harry was insulting Ethan's character. "I believe he's not that kind of person!"
Ron was throwing in his two cents: "Who knows what those Slytherin bastards are capable of? Even if he's an oddball, can you guarantee he won't tell Snape?"
"You!" Hermione glared at Ron.
"Hermione, please don't tell Ethan. Though I trust he wouldn't, what if he did report us? Everything would be ruined.
We need to contribute to protecting the Philosopher's Stone." Though Harry spoke of trusting Ethan, his tone was filled with distrust.
Hermione was also helpless. Snape's behavior was indeed unconvincing.
After the Thestral incident on the way back to school, she truly understood that eyes can indeed deceive.
Actually, when they moved to another topic, Ethan could tell Hermione was hiding something from him, wanting to speak but holding back out of concern.
Ethan didn't mind much. He guessed it was just something related to the conflict between Snape and Harry.
Tuesday arrived. To make up for the knowledge he'd missed by not staying after class last week, Ethan voluntarily stayed after resolving his visual issues, planning to use his lunch break to ask questions.
Now Ethan basically never chose seats too close to Quirrell in class, so it was only during after-class sessions that he caught a faint foul odor on Quirrell, so faint you'd miss it if you weren't paying attention.
Combined with his now much healthier complexion, Ethan instantly knew Quirrell must have consumed unicorn blood and was under its curse.
He observed Quirrell's complexion carefully and saw it was indeed much better than the pallor of previous days, though his eyes seemed changed, less clear than before.
"My time is running out, Ethan. Are you willing to truly learn from me?"
"Hmm? The term is almost over. According to older students, the professor for this course does change every year. Is that what you mean, Professor Quirrell?
And aren't I already learning from you?"
Possibly on Voldemort's orders, Quirrell wasn't stuttering at all.
Ethan was startled inwardly, trying to steer the conversation toward normal topics.
"Ethan, you're a smart boy. You know what I'm teaching you now is just book knowledge plus a little of my insight. Don't you want to learn more, more interesting content?
You're naturally suited for Dark Arts. Your talent in this area is exceptional."
"P-Professor, I'm a bit scared."
With Voldemort dropping the act, Ethan began to worry for his safety.
"Rest assured, I won't harm you. Dumbledore is watching me. He won't let me do anything out of line at school."
This wasn't Quirrell's tone or demeanor. It was Voldemort on the back of his head, using some method to speak through his body.
Ethan's blood ran cold.
"W-what are you saying, Professor? I don't understand." He stammered.
Quirrell's face broke into a knowing smile. "Don't understand? No matter. I recall you don't have class Wednesday night, correct? Come to my office. It's time to teach you something real."
"O-oh, okay, good." Ethan's heart rate instantly spiked to 180.
"Don't waste your natural ability." Ethan turned to leave, but Voldemort's voice came from behind him.
"Yes." He didn't dare turn back, afraid his expression would give away his panicked state.
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