Chapter 128

John wandered aimlessly through the castle, walking and walking until he reached the Black Lake outside the castle.

Today's sunlight was exceptionally bright, and even the Black Lake was reflected with shimmering waves.

The sky was so blue there wasn't a trace of clouds; John walked to the lakeside and looked at his reflection in the lake water.

For the first time, he felt his face was so unfamiliar.

Well, he didn't have this face in his previous life.

The reflection on the lake surface swayed slightly, and that face seemed to be drifting further and further away from the one in his memory.

Finally, it settled into its current appearance.

John found a random rock to sit on and began to ponder philosophy.

He had finally accepted the setting of living a second life and started to seriously enjoy this new life.

As a result, a new setting had popped up, making him a bit unclear about who he actually was.

He knew very clearly that every decision he made came from his heart.

He had never felt any interference or struggle from another soul.

He had never regretted any decision in this life.

Let's just say, is there a possibility.

When he transmigrated here, the original soul of this body didn't have self-awareness, and then it was carried along by his own soul, slowly becoming a part of himself?

So I am actually still me, and all my thoughts, ideas, and hopes originate from my own heart.

As the saying goes, I think, therefore I am.

As long as thinking is still operating and consciousness is still independent, then "I" truly exist.

Whether the body is original doesn't matter; what matters is that it is his own will that leads this shell.

Thinking this way, John's mind gradually cleared.

He didn't know how much time had passed.

The sun gradually slanted to the west, stretching his shadow long, and the lake surface was still shimmering with fine golden light.

"John!"

A call came from afar; it was Hermione's anxious voice.

"What are you doing here? We've all been looking for you!"

John slowly stood up, patted the dust off the corner of his clothes, and turned to look at Hermione's figure running toward him.

Hermione ran to him, panting, her bangs soaked with sweat.

"Why didn't you go to class this afternoon? Professor McGonagall thought you were lost, and Titus and the others are still looking for you everywhere."

Hermione looked at him with concern while holding her waist and panting.

John looked at Hermione's anxious appearance, and his heart warmed slightly.

At this moment, he could clearly feel that he was feeling warm because of Hermione's concern; this warmth originated from his own emotions, not from any external consciousness.

This flow of real emotion was the most powerful proof of his existence.

A gentle smile slowly rose at the corner of his mouth.

"Hermione, thank you; actually, I..."

John spoke slowly, the sunset glow falling on both of them; Hermione looked at John's unprecedentedly serious expression and was slightly stunned.

She felt that John seemed to be about to say something very important.

She swallowed, her heartbeat quickening involuntarily, waiting for John to speak.

"Actually, I... was controlled by Professor Moody with the Imperius Curse! He's so mean! To make me learn how to resist the Imperius Curse, he controlled me all afternoon!"

Who knew John would change back to the appearance Hermione was familiar with, crying out to Hermione with an expression as if he had suffered a great grievance.

Hermione: "......"

She was directly speechless and held her forehead; she should have known that nothing good would come out of this guy John's mouth.

She almost thought he had been sitting here all afternoon thinking about whether to confess to her.

What a waste of excitement.

She glared at John unhappily, raised her hand, and tapped his forehead lightly.

"Can't you be serious for once? Everyone is worried about you!"

"Then what can I do? It's Professor Moody's fault."

John covered his forehead and pouted with a look of grievance.

"Let's go, let's find Professor McGonagall and have her help you get justice."

Hermione was too lazy to keep arguing with John and pulled him toward the castle.

John also followed quickly.

To some extent, he hadn't framed Moody; after all, it was he who told him about the two souls in his body, directly controlling him for the entire afternoon.

Plus, he had treated him with the attitude of interrogating a criminal, which made him very unhappy, so he was naturally happy to turn the tables.

At night.

Moody was flipping through lesson plans in his office.

Suddenly, the office door was pushed open violently.

He immediately took out his wand to be on guard, but upon seeing who it was, it was actually McGonagall and Flitwick, as well as Dumbledore peeking in from outside the door.

Professor McGonagall and Flitwick looked somewhat furious.

Dumbledore was shaking his head helplessly.

Moody was also somewhat stunned to see them, not knowing why they had barged in so aggressively.

But immediately, Professor McGonagall answered this question for him.

"Moody, who gave you the authority to control a student with the Imperius Curse for an entire afternoon!"

Professor McGonagall stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at Moody, and asked coldly.

Moody:?

Because John had gone outside to ponder life in the afternoon, he hadn't gone to Transfiguration class.

But it didn't matter even if John didn't go, because he had already finished learning the current knowledge points.

Plus, John had shifted all the blame onto Professor Moody, so he hadn't received any punishment.

John didn't know how the matter was resolved in the end.

He only knew that the next day, there was a bit more gnashing of teeth in the way Moody looked at him, as if he could eat him alive.

John returned a peace sign to him.

As for the matter of his two souls, he just silently hid it in the bottom of his heart, intending to investigate it further when there was an opportunity.

After all, he didn't have the ability to investigate the mysteries of the soul yet.

And since Dumbledore knew about this and hadn't stepped in, it meant that this matter wouldn't have any impact on him for the time being.

He simply threw this matter to the back of his mind and turned to continue burying himself in his studies.

Besides practicing spells with Professor Flitwick every morning as usual, John now had a new schedule.

Seven days a week, on Monday and Tuesday nights he had to go find Professor McGonagall to practice Transfiguration, and on Thursday and Friday nights he had to go do free labor for Professor Snape.

Now on Wednesday nights, he had an additional task of going to Professor Moody's to learn Defense.

It is worth mentioning that besides John, even Harry had come.

It was said that Dumbledore had asked Moody to provide extra guidance to the two warriors to ensure they could safely deal with various dangers in the Triwizard Tournament.

"Last semester we learned Defense Against the Dark Arts together with Professor Lupin; I didn't expect that this semester, we would be learning it together again with Professor Moody."

On Wednesday night, in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Harry smiled and said after seeing John arrive.

Harry looked to be in a good mood, with a long-lost radiance shining in his eyes.

"I was voluntary last semester, but not this semester."

John shrugged helplessly at this.

At this time, Professor Moody hadn't come out yet, so the two of them sat together and chatted.

"Sirius arrived at Hogwarts this afternoon; have you seen him, John?"

So it was Sirius who had come; no wonder Harry, who had been depressed last week because he was worried about being dragged into the Triwizard Tournament and quarreling with Ron, now appeared so relaxed and happy.

John shook his head: "No."

"I told him about what happened recently, including the quarrel with Ron; he said he would help me make peace with Ron, but I refused, because I haven't gone to beat him up yet."

Harry continued to tell him about Sirius, as well as the matter between himself and Ron.

John just smiled and didn't speak.

Last time Harry had said he was going to beat Ron up to vent his anger, but it seemed he hadn't beaten him up.

This time it was probably the same; he said he was going to beat him up, but in fact, he couldn't bring himself to do it at all.

He had heard about the situation between these two from Hermione long ago.

Using Hermione's original words.

When they meet, they are sulking, neither willing to speak to the other, but after a whole day, they secretly pay attention to what the other is doing; it's truly childish to the extreme.