Chapter 78: Analysis

Allen sank himself into the chaise lounge in the Gryffindor common room; at this moment, the elephant's ears came into play. Allen controlled his ears to cover his face, blocking out external sounds and light, allowing him to focus on thinking.

Just now, he still wanted to write down the oath he made with Professor Quirrell for analysis, but the act of writing the oath was clearly an act of leaking secrets, and Allen was warned again by the chill in his heart.

Allen could only recall the oath from that moment in his mind:

"You, Allen Finis, are willing to keep the secret between you and Quirinus Quirrell?"

Combining the experience of previous attempts, Allen now drew a conclusion: any act of directly or indirectly revealing a secret would violate the oath.

Allen also wanted to find a Muggle gramophone, go to a deserted place to record, and then let someone else discover the gramophone, but later he thought this act was merely a variant of writing the secret down.

I still need to analyze the logical loopholes in the oath! Allen thought secretly in his heart.

Allen quickly found a usable logical loophole in the oath: "between Quirinus Quirrell and you."

He felt this limited scope could very likely be utilized by himself; how should he go about utilizing this limiting condition? Allen thought quickly.

He quickly came up with an answer: the matter of Professor Quirrell stealing the Philosopher's Stone was obviously unrelated to himself, so it was outside this limited scope; then, could he convey this information?

This thought made Allen instantly cheer up; as long as he could convey this information, Voldemort's plan would be ruined because of it.

Allen couldn't wait to try it out; he was now in the bustling common room, and he could shout that information out loud just now.

But when he wanted to try this, he was surprised to find that the chill in his heart appeared once again.

Allen couldn't figure out why at the moment, but after thinking it over repeatedly, an idea appeared in his mind: had some act of his already become part of the grand act of Professor Quirrell stealing the Philosopher's Stone?

Allen instantly thought of how Professor Quirrell always asked him about his observations in the Forbidden Forest during his work-study the day before every make-up class; could this act be part of the grand act of Professor Quirrell stealing the Philosopher's Stone?

Allen thought carefully and felt it was very likely: Professor Quirrell asking him about his Forbidden Forest observations counted as a secret between him and himself, protected by the power of the oath; if this act was part of the plan for his grand act of stealing the Philosopher's Stone, then logically speaking, Professor Quirrell's act of stealing the Philosopher's Stone would have become connected to himself, which also led to Allen being unable to convey the information that Professor Quirrell was going to steal the Philosopher's Stone.

So the plan to convey this information was aborted, but for the moment, Allen also couldn't think of what message he could send out using this limited scope.

So he could only give up the idea of using the oath's limited scope to convey messages for now.

Then he turned his gaze to the word "secret"; this seemed usable! After all, not everything is a secret.

So he prepared to test what the scope of this "secret" was.

He took out his quill and notebook, preparing to write something down, because writing down a secret was itself an act of leaking secrets, so it could trigger the constraints of the Unbreakable Vow.

He thought for a moment and smoothly wrote the first line: Professor Quirrell knows Hei Mo Fa Zhou.

Because most wizards know a few Hei Mo Fa Zhou, this did not count as a secret.

When Allen prepared to write the second line "Professor Quirrell knows a large amount of Hei Mo Fa Zhou," the constraints of the Unbreakable Vow were triggered immediately, and the chill in his heart appeared again.

Allen looked at this result with a thoughtful expression.

A bold idea suddenly popped into his head: I can completely keep repeating Professor Quirrell's name.

A name is not a secret!

He wanted to try it, but he needed someone who could understand his meaning; otherwise, saying it would be in vain.

He instantly thought of Hermione; with her intelligence, she would definitely be able to understand his meaning.

And at this moment, Hermione happened to come in through the Fat Lady's portrait hole; Allen quickly called out to stop her.

Hermione looked at the excited Allen with a puzzled expression: "What is wrong with you?"

"Don't ask, listen carefully to what I say!" Allen said forcefully.

Then he wanted to implement the plan he had just made, but as soon as he prepared to open his mouth, that familiar chill in his heart appeared again...

The excited expression on Allen's face froze instantly, then slowly disappeared...

He was completely confused by the constraint mechanism of the Unbreakable Vow.

He didn't even know how he managed to send Hermione to the girls' dormitory next; he only remembered that Hermione gave him a worried look in the end.

Allen collapsed onto the chaise lounge in the Gryffindor common room once again; this time, his heart was filled with confusion.

Everything that happened today had already shaken Allen's conjecture in his heart regarding the magic mechanism of this world.

The constraint mechanism of this Unbreakable Vow was simply too intelligent in its performance, completely unlike the mechanical and rigid mechanism of other magic spells...

Allen painfully covered his head; he felt his cognition of the essence of this magical world was beginning to shatter...

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Allen's mind; he felt he had figured all this out...

The most important part of the oath he made was the word "keep"!

"Keep" in the oath is a verb, and it also indicates a subjective attitude.

The judgment mechanism of the constraint power depends entirely on one's own subjective thoughts and attitudes.

Specifically, the constraint mechanism of the oath Allen made is completely idealistic, but this "idealistic" is idealistic to Allen's own heart—when a thought of wanting to leak a secret arises in Allen's subjective consciousness, the behavior corresponding to that thought is judged as an act of leaking secrets, and then constrained by the constraint power.

Allen hurriedly took out his notebook; on it was written a sentence: "Professor Quirrell knows Hei Mo Fa Zhou."

He studied this sentence; at the time he wrote this sentence, he did not yet have the thought of using this sentence to leak secrets, but now he had the thought of writing Professor Quirrell's name more than ten times and showing it to Hermione.

He picked up his quill, wanting to write down Professor Quirrell's name, but as soon as he prepared to put pen to paper, he found the chill in his heart appeared again.

He smiled bitterly and covered his face with the notebook; he knew his deduction was correct.

The constraint power is still so mechanical and rigid, but the constraint power can monitor in real-time the thoughts arising in his mind that can be used to leak secrets, and then directly judge the behavior corresponding to this thought as an act of leaking secrets, which is why it appears so intelligent.

The Unbreakable Vow uses the vow-maker's subjective thoughts to judge whether the oath has been violated.

If the vow-maker believes that a certain act of his violates the oath, then the power of the constraint will trigger when performing this act.

This is why Allen could previously display symptoms of impacting the Unbreakable Vow's constraints in front of Harry, because at that time he had absolutely no thought in his mind of leaking secrets by displaying symptoms, whereas in front of Professor McGonagall, he had this thought in his mind, and then the constraint power believed that displaying symptoms of impacting the Unbreakable Vow's constraints in front of others would cause a leak, and if a leak occurred, he would die directly...

After Allen figured all this out, he couldn't think of a solution for the moment...