Sorcerer Supreme at Hogwarts (English Versión)-Chapter 184

"Now that we have our own magical country... shouldn't we celebrate with the others?" Tony asked, dropping a card on the table while playing with his siblings, a lazy smile on his face.

"Nah," Wanda replied nonchalantly, placing a card that forced Tony to draw from the pile again.

"Tsk," Tony clicked his tongue, visibly frustrated as he picked up the cards.

"I win," said Stephen, calmly placing his last card down, as if he had foreseen it all from the start.

"Damn it!" Wanda groaned, dramatically tossing her cards into the air.

"Idiots! We found him," Natasha announced firmly as she burst into the room, locking eyes with her siblings who were still playing without a care.

In a corner, Loki kept reading, seemingly aloof, yet alert.

The three of them stood up immediately.

"Where is he?" Stephen asked, his tone grave.

"Here," Natasha replied seriously, showing them her phone. They all gathered around her, holding their breath.

The screen showed an exterior security camera. And there he was. The being they hadn't seen in years, standing still, hands clasped behind his back... waiting.

"Let's go," Stephen ordered, already moving.

⋯⋯⋯

"You arrived quickly. I thought I'd have to wait longer," said the man, his face twisted with rotting flesh, smiling with unnatural calm.

"What are you doing here?" snapped Wanda, ready to attack.

But the man didn't respond to her. His gaze locked directly onto Stephen.

"So you finally figured it out?" he asked, a melancholic smile on his face.

"Yes. You... No. You all. What do you want?" Stephen said firmly, his eyes burning.

"It's good that you understand," the man replied, raising his eyes to the gray sky. "I only wish to rest beside my beloved... but he... he wants revenge."

"What are you talking about?" Tony interrupted, impatient.

"Him. Not them. Two people in one body," Stephen clarified quickly, not taking his eyes off the disfigured face.

"You can think of me as the sixth and seventh brother. Though now... right now, I'm the seventh," said the man. There was no madness in his voice anymore, only an unsettling calm. "Before he awakens... let me tell you a story."

Everyone fell silent. Even Loki lowered his book.

"When I was born, millions of years ago, I had the memories of a life I had already lived... and another I had yet to live. Those memories set me apart from the world. They isolated me. Until I met her. She was different from the woman in my dreams, but she was my true love.

So I made a foolish decision: I erased those memories. I wanted to live in the present, to connect with those around me. And I succeeded. I was happy.

But my 'brother'... believed those memories were the source of my wisdom. That by having them, he could be better than me. That was a mistake. The magic he used to absorb them was incomplete.

And thus, chaos was born.

The hatred he had for me fused with the grudges in those memories. Madness consumed him. The last brother, the one who gave his life to stop him... he wasn't the first.

I was.

And when I died, part of my soul was trapped inside him. He already had my memories... now he had my soul, too. That's how this body with two opposing souls came to be.

"That's why magic rejects him," he continued. "Even if he devours power, he will never be truly strong. The world itself curses him. And I... share that curse.

The only way to silence it temporarily is by using his blood. The blood of the magical brothers who, generation after generation, are born to protect this world."

"Why are you telling us all this? If he dies... you'll die too," Tony said, suspicious.

"Because I no longer want to live," the man replied, his voice filled with pain. "Watching those who were, in essence, our brothers die... is a torture I don't want to witness again."

"What memories did he absorb? What grudges corrupted him?" asked Stephen, feeling a dark suspicion creeping over him.

The man looked at him... and smiled with a mix of sorrow and resignation.

"You. You are the grudge... and the memory," he said in a low but firm voice. "Stephen Vincent Strange."

"Vincent? Your middle name is Vincent?" Wanda asked, surprised.

Stephen gestured for her to be silent. But the man answered for him:

"Yes... it's our name. Our mother chose it after our grandfather."

Everyone's eyes widened in disbelief.

"I always wondered... where the real one had gone," Stephen murmured, his gaze hardening.

"Don't worry... I stopped thinking about that long ago," the man said calmly. "Before I came here, I saw what the future held for me. Maybe it was a god from another world who showed me.

In that universe, my destiny was destruction. Perhaps that's why... you were chosen to replace me."

"And what was it like, seeing me that day?" Stephen asked.

"Surprising. From within this body, I recognized you instantly."

A thick silence settled in, until the man raised his voice one final time:

"No more talk. He's about to awaken. His only weakness... is your younger brother.

Awaken your true power."

And with those words, he vanished into the shadows.

Meanwhile, the Flamel brothers and sisters looked at each other, confused.

"He's talking about Harry, right?" asked Wanda, frowning.

"Seems like it," said Stephen thoughtfully.

"Could it be that ability he has in his eyes?" asked Tony, arms crossed.

"It's not that simple..." Stephen snapped his fingers and looked up. "I think he can see people's deaths... or at least their lifespan. But remember what he told us... the hippogriff..."

"So he's something like the god of death," said Loki, drawing everyone's attention. "What? Being able to see someone's death and help a creature die in peace... sounds pretty godlike to me," he added proudly, lifting his chin.

"Remember the stone? The one that looked like the Soul Stone..." Natasha quickly interjected.

"The death stone... the invisibility cloak..." Stephen was speaking faster and faster, his mind connecting pieces like a mad puzzle. "We're only missing the Elder Wand... the Deathly Hallows..."

"Are you talking about that weird story the old man used to tell us all the time?" said Tony, frowning.

"What story?" insisted Wanda, eyeing everyone suspiciously.

"It makes sense..." Loki raised an eyebrow. "Harry became our brother... like he awakened his divine blood. He already had one of those things for a while... and then boom! The stone just appears out of nowhere."

"What story?" Wanda repeated, more irritated.

"But it's still just a legend..." said Natasha, crossing her arms. "I don't think someone becomes the Master of Death just because of that."

"As Loki said..." Stephen nodded seriously. "He awakened his divine blood. A human shouldn't have that power... but we should. Control over magical and non-magical beings. Material creation, transformation... that's what defines us."

"Hey! What story?!" Wanda suddenly shouted.

"If you think about it, each of us has powers very similar to mythological gods," added Tony, leaning against a wall.

"Wait... so I'm like the god of creation?" said Loki, eyes gleaming and a smug smile on his face.

"Maybe our powers are just weaker versions... like a 'demo mode' so we don't look like actual gods," said Stephen, shrugging.

"That makes no sense," Tony replied quickly.

"What things in this world does only he have?" asked Stephen, pointing vaguely into the air.

"AAAAAH! Tell me what story it is!" screamed Wanda, losing her patience. She magically flung a handful of dirt at Stephen and then pounced on him, hitting him hard.

"You damn idiot!" shouted Stephen as they rolled around on the ground.

The other three, now covered in dirt, looked at each other... and without a word, jumped into the fray as well. Except Natasha, who"retaining all her dignity"used a cleaning spell with a resigned sigh.

Now the other four were sprawled on the ground like children, soaked in mud and dirt, rolling around, yelling and fighting like it was recess.

"What are you doing?!" asked Harry, showing up with Hermione after hearing the commotion from the castle.

They all turned their heads toward him. Harry was smiling, walking casually with his girlfriend... while they were wild and dirt-covered.

"Take this!" shouted Wanda, throwing a ball of mud straight at his face.

The others didn't waste a second and followed her lead with mischievous laughter.

"Hey! My clothes are new!" Harry shouted, starting to run, chased by his mud-covered "siblings."

Hermione stood still, arms crossed, sighing.

"And then they wonder why they're not invited to diplomatic meetings," she muttered.

........

(Total darkness. The tone shifts abruptly.)

"Why did you tell them?! WHY?!" screamed a voice, full of madness, lost in the blackness.

"I'm tired, brother... you have to let me go... let me die," whispered another voice, broken, as if it had suffered for centuries.

"NO!" screamed the first voice. "You have to stay here! To see me surpass you!" The voice trembled with rage, pain, and desperation. "Not even with your memories could I surpass you! Not with your face... not with your voice... not even with your damn memories... could I make her love me!"

"DO NOT SAY HER NAME!" roared the second voice"once serene, now furious, as if the cry shook the very foundation of the abyss.

"HAHAHAHA! She found out I wasn't you! I just had to bring her back... and she would love me... she would love me! Not you. Me!" he laughed, but his laughter twisted, mingling with sobs and incoherent growls.

"You'll never be like me... never..." said the other voice, fading.

"Brother? You can't even recognize yourself anymore..." it added, in pain.

There was silence... and then the deranged voice murmured calmly:

"Rest? Yes... yes, I want to rest... don't I? Or... do I not want to?"

For the first time, the other voice held hope.

"Brother... we've lived too long. It's time... to let go..."

The calm... lasted a second.

"Rest... at last...?" repeated the voice with a thread of humanity... before it vanished completely and was reborn in icy hatred. "You're... insane."

The laughter returned. Hollow. Metallic. Inhuman.

"Why would I rest... before I take revenge on the thief?"

A whisper echoed in the darkness like a sentence:

"I have to find the thief... and take everything... everything he loves..."

"...Just like I did to you..."

And the darkness laughed with him.