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Anthony took time to visit next door and tell Myrtle that those yellow eyes probably belonged to a Basilisk. Myrtle showed little interest, but she was happy someone came specifically to see her.
"If you want social interaction, why don't you go outside more?" Anthony suggested.
Myrtle said sadly, "Nobody wants to see me."
"Don't say that," Anthony said seriously. "Besides, you can go wherever you want. Hogwarts isn't that dangerous." At least he couldn't think of any danger to a ghost.
"I can't go where I want to go," Myrtle said with slight melancholy. "I want to go outside the castle."
Only then did Anthony remember that Nearly Headless Nick had told him ghosts could only move in places where they'd lived.
"Outside the castle? Where?" he asked curiously.
"The Quidditch pitch," Myrtle suddenly brightened, giggling. "I want to watch Harry Potter play Quidditch. That Gryffindor captain keeps bragging in the sixth-floor bathroom about how well he flies. I want to see that bespectacled genius Seeker."
Anthony seriously told Myrtle that whether or not she popped out to scare people, she shouldn't sneak into the boys' bathroom.
He didn't know if she'd listened... she seemed too busy crying.
He'd never imagined she could use the plumbing to access the boys' bathroom. At first, he'd even thought Myrtle was confined to the second-floor girls' bathroom, only later discovering she could actually move freely throughout the castle.
That time when he couldn't sleep and wandered the castle in his dressing gown, he saw Myrtle slowly walking on the stairs, sobbing as she went. Those were the stairs leading to Ravenclaw Tower.
"I don't want to live anymore!" she sobbed. "Olive Hornby... Peeves... everyone mocks me, torments me... I really don't want to live anymore!"
If the Fat Friar hadn't emerged from the wall to tell her Peeves had been driven away, she might have actually walked back to her former dormitory. After Myrtle realized she was already dead, she let out a frustrated wail and flew back to the bathroom.
She swept past Anthony, leaving him and the Fat Friar staring at each other.
Anthony sometimes wondered what state ghosts were in, and this curiosity intensified after he received the resurrection research topic.
How did they view death? Could ghosts die a second time? What could they see when passing through walls? Did they sleep? Did memories from life fade with time?
And so on. Anthony had many rather impolite questions, and he hadn't yet found a suitable interview subject.
Did becoming a ghost count as a kind of resurrection? They traversed the world almost eternally, like projections from yesterday. Considering Professor Binns's age—uh, duration of existence—Anthony was quite certain powerful magic supported ghosts.
He had to take out that notebook again.
No longer worrying about the Basilisk in the castle, Anthony's free time suddenly increased, so he spent some time studying the topic Dumbledore had given him. Only then did he realize he didn't actually understand resurrection.
Like not needing to understand magnetic fields—when seasons changed, migratory birds would instinctively find their flight direction—he could also naturally (and inexplicably) use necromantic magic while completely ignorant of it.
But if considering an ordinary wizard who wanted to resurrect, he would need some theoretical guidance and practical experience before thinking about what methods that person would use to lift death's curtain and walk back onto the stage of the living.
Perhaps this was why Dumbledore had given him the topic... hinting he shouldn't become obsessed with practice but also shouldn't completely avoid necromantic magic. See what it could do, see how its cousins operated. As Professor Flitwick had told him, blind magical practice often ended in tragedy, while constantly suppressing magic would only explode in the future.
Anthony was willing to believe the Headmaster didn't have a habit of watching bloodthirsty Muggle Studies professors as dinner entertainment.
He spent some time categorizing this notebook—mixed with diary entries, musings, experimental records, and research insights—by content, adding his own questions and thoughts, supplemented with excerpts from other reference books, filling three entire folders with skeletons, wraiths, corpses, life curses, and other auxiliary magic, and he still had half the notebook left to organize.
This notebook could no longer affect his emotions now. As long as he knew what consequences necromantic magic might bring, he could prepare accordingly.
Anthony now released a "Lumos" through his wand at the end of study sessions. As long as his wand still pressed happily against his palm, as long as the gleaming white light still shone steadily at the wand tip, he hadn't lost control. Simple and effective—both he and his wand were satisfied.
He'd recently been frequenting the Dark Arts section of the Restricted Section. The magical world had its own logic for dividing light and dark magic: magic that made the living die was dark magic, and magic that made the dead live was also dark magic.
If someone truly wanted to resurrect, Anthony might suggest they either become a dark wizard pestered by Ministry employees or find a priest in the Muggle world.
"We therefore commit this body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life," Anthony murmured. Considering the cost, the Muggle method was truly much simpler.
And honestly, not much different from magic. Just believe firmly.
He looked at his parchment notes, listing methods he'd thought of so far, including becoming a ghost, becoming a wraith, becoming a skeleton, becoming an Inferius, finding a vampire to bite him, and so on.
It even included a plan to trick a centaur. Just trick a centaur into revealing the star corresponding to one's death in the sky, then once dead, use any method to change the star's position—if someone had the ability to alter stellar orbits, that person's fate must be important enough to hang nightly on everyone's forehead—thus deviating from one's death destiny.
The only problem was that changing star positions probably violated the Statute of Secrecy. Thousands of Muggle astronomers were watching this sky—a star that moved irregularly would be hard not to attract attention.
So the hypothetical person would receive an owl from the Improper Use of Magic Office upon resurrection. Though considering Anthony simultaneously assumed he'd tricked a centaur, he should also receive a letter from the Beast Division.
Anthony sighed. Better to let this person die peacefully.
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