"Basil, that interesting dream you mentioned, it must be his!" Dumbledore said in an incredibly relaxed tone, as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders.
Tom got another Horcrux so easily.
He could almost see Tom's bald head sitting on his desk next year.
"Him? This locket is alive?" Sirius, who was most concerned about the locket at the moment, was the first to notice the strangeness in Dumbledore's words.
Dumbledore silent, while Flume chuckled and said, "It's just Horcrux, isn't it?"
"What's there to hide? Your sister is right, you really are a riddle person."
Lupin pricked up his ears. A sister? He had never heard of Dumbledore having a sister, a lover?
"Horcrux?" Sirius repeated. A smile began to appear on his face.
Horcrux are items created by dark wizards to store Soul Fragment in order to achieve immortality.
It refers to an object that contains a part of a person's soul.
That is to say, to split one's soul in two and hide a part of it in an object outside the body.
In this way, even if the body is attacked or destroyed, one will not die, because a part of the soul remains in the world unharmed.
"So," Sirius's smile grew even more maniacal, "That's the secret that keeps that bastard alive!"
Basil gave Sirius a sympathetic look. For centuries, there had been no record of anyone possessing multiple Horcrux simultaneously, nor had anyone considered it feasible. Therefore, Sirius seemed to believe that the locket was Voldemort's only Horcrux.
"That's wonderful! That's wonderful! Your sacrifice wasn't in vain." Sirius exclaimed joyfully.
The next second, he burst out cursing again, "Damn it, you stupid idiot! You can't even tell the teacher! Dumbledore?"
If I had told the teacher earlier...
Voldemort will die completely after attacking James's family.
Regulus Black could be just as great as Snivellus, no, even better than Snivellus, and become a great hero in the Wizarding World.
Most importantly, Regulus Black will live.
They will make up and live together in this big house.
Thinking of this, his gaze toward the locket became even more ferocious.
He looked at Dumbledore eagerly, "Can we destroy it now? If it's Horcrux, Voldemort, who's still wandering outside, will die instantly if we destroy it."
Kreacher also looked up expectantly with his wrinkled little face.
Dumbledore shook his head. "Tom, who is Voldemort, did not just create one Horcrux."
"In fact, we discovered a horrifying fact last year. Tom doesn't seem to care much about the loss of one or two Horcrux."
"The Diary that Basil destroyed—another Horcrux (Sirius and Lupin glanced at Basil in surprise)—was casually handed over to the Malfoy family for safekeeping without being told of its value."
"That bastard Lucius Malfoy delivered Horcrux to the school?" Sirius exclaimed in shock. "He's gone mad! Draco goes to Hogwarts too! Looks like he deserved to die. But Basil, you destroyed it, that bastard Lucius won't—"
Basil shrugged. "Yes, the person he tried to kill was me. In fact, he tried to murder me before school even started—by sending Fenrir."
Lupin clenched his fists in spasms. "It was him? Are you alright? I mean, you weren't bitten, were you?!"
Sirius added, "Don't get me wrong, Lupin was attacked by Fenrir Greyback. He just felt a bit of empathy."
Lupin shook his head. "You don't need to hide it anymore. I'm a Werewolf."
"My father offended him. For a long time, I didn't know Werewolf attacked me was."
"I even felt sorry for him, thinking he couldn't control himself. By then I already knew what it was like for a person to turn into a wolf."
"But Greyback wasn't like that. He would approach his prey during the full moon to ensure a successful attack."
"It was all premeditated. He was the one Voldemort used to summon Werewolf."
"Greyback insisted that we Werewolf should drink blood and take revenge on normal people. Thankfully, he's dead."
"Wait, could it be... like that Diary, Fenrir is also..."
Basil was quite surprised. "Didn't any of you read the newspapers? I was on the front page too, as the one who killed Fenrir."
"Although my name wasn't mentioned, considering what just happened—"
Sirius: "I've been too busy since I got out of prison."
Lupin said calmly but bitterly, "As a Werewolf, it's very difficult for me to find work in the magical world. In fact, I've been away from the magical world for a long time. Of course, I haven't completely cut off communication."
"But all I knew was that Fenrir was dead. Then I had a little celebration—I bought a cream cake at the bakery."
"I'm sorry," he suddenly looked at Dumbledore, "I'm afraid I can't accept your invitation."
Sirius tried to speak, but Lupin stopped him with a look.
"This child has been attacked by Werewolf. I cannot force him to accept a Werewolf professor. That would be too cruel."
"For a long time after graduation, as Werewolf, I was deeply afraid of Werewolf packs."
"I know most of them are victims like me, but I'm just scared."
Dumbledore said gently, "Why would you think a boy who single-handedly destroyed Voldemort 'Horcrux would be afraid of Werewolf?"
Basil shrugged. "As long as you take the Wolfsbane Potion on time, I don't care about anything else."
Dumbledore: "This is Severus's job. He's a Potions expert."
Even amidst his grief and anger, Sirius jumped up like a dog sniffing a bone. "What? Snivellus? Can't you get someone else? He'll definitely poison the medicine! Oh right, I can buy Wolfsbane Potion!"
Lupin shook his head. "Forget it. What's the difference between this and you paying me to support you?"
Sirius: "I do!"
Lupin ignored him and continued, "Besides, Snape wouldn't poison it. At most, he would use his expertise to make the Potions potency. I can tolerate that. We already owe him a debt."
"It's already disgraceful for James to be with Lily. If Lily knew that James, after his reformation, was only superficially friendly towards Snape, Lily wouldn't be with James either."
Seeing that Sirius was about to object, he added, "You and I should both understand. We also covered for this."
Sirius lowered his head.
"How long are you going to keep talking about family matters, school life, and racial discrimination?" Flume, who had been silent all along, finally spoke up. "Didn't you notice what Dumbledore said?"
"According to him, Voldemort has at least four Horcrux."
"What?" Sirius looked up again. "Dumbledore said that?"
If true, this is no small matter.
Creating Horcrux requires splitting a person's soul—the essence of their self.
This will cause significant side effects.
Firstly, loss of humanity.
A broken soul can lead to a loss of humanity.
Creating Horcrux can cause one to become emotionally and physically inhuman.
The Black family's collection of books records that wizards who have created Horcrux undergo bizarre transformations in their values and personalities, becoming violent and disliking using their brains.
The astute Alwin, a dark wizard who is not particularly handsome but is skilled in strategy.
He has to devise a sophisticated and complex plan to kill even a Muggle.
But after creating the Horcrux, his face suddenly became ugly.
When he was preparing to kill a wizard who was his equal, he actually broke into the wizard's house, bringing his Horcrux with him.
There are a total of 5 adult wizards in that wizard's family.
Therefore, the result was predictable.
Secondly, the soul is unstable.
Another side effect of creating Horcrux is that the soul itself becomes unstable.
The dark wizard Silly Barnaby is a perfect example.
He was a relatively unknown dark wizard, whose real name was Barnacles. He also crafted Horcrux.
Because of the immortality granted by the Horcrux, he became arrogant and made enemies everywhere.
However, none of his enemies could find his Horcrux.
One day, Bigfoot Lyras, claimed to have killed him and found his Horcrux.
It is said that Barnacles, seeing her beauty, in an attempt to please her, accidentally revealed the true nature of his Horcrux —his wand—while drunk.
She broke his wand and then killed her.
At first, people didn't believe it.
But afterwards, Barnacles really did never appear again.
Then, everyone started calling him Silly Barnaby.
But this is only the story told to the outside world.
Bigfoot Lyras, later married into the Black Family.
The truth of the story lies in her diary.
Her dueling skills were indeed superb.
During his duel with her, Silly Barnaby was struck by the Backfire Pimple Jinx and accidentally turned his wand into Horcrux.
As for why, it can be created without killing.
It's because his soul has already been destroyed to the limit, and creating this Horcrux would kill him.
Therefore, he created the Horcrux by killing himself.
Thirdly, the Misty Realm
After Horcrux is created, neither the main body of the soul nor the Soul Fragment after the Horcrux is destroyed can truly enter the afterlife.
The Black Family is a typical dark wizarding family.
At its peak, they even used wizards for Dark Magic experiments.
There was once an ancestor who, through the soul of a wizard, entered the space between life and death while still alive—he called it the Misty Realm.
Because the place was filled with misty steam, which he could transform into any inanimate object he could imagine.
Perhaps he entered the wrong way, because he encountered many historically famous dark wizards there.
They all share a common characteristic—they created Horcrux.
Their incomplete souls existed in a malformed form.
The Soul Fragment lay there like a baby whose skin had been peeled off, only able to wail in agony.
The mutilated bodies, equally bloody, still retain a rough human shape, allowing one to identify them.
But neither fragments nor the main body can return to the human world, become ghosts, or go to the underworld.
Because their souls are utterly broken, they can only be trapped in the Misty Realm forever.
All of the above only created the side effects of one Horcrux.
This is why, not long after the creation of Horcrux magic, its creator began to study how to recover the fragments.
Even though the process of retrieval described in "Advanced Dark Arts" is extremely painful and requires repentance—one must truly feel what one has done, and this pain alone can destroy a person—there are still dark wizards who create Horcrux who attempt to do so.
Sirius didn't even dare to imagine the extent of the side effects that would result from creating four or more Horcrux.
What ignorance, stupidity, and audacity it must have taken to create so many Horcrux!
How incredibly resilient that soul is!
The other two were dead.
There were actually more than four Voldemort!
Sirius couldn't imagine it; he was more inclined to believe he had misheard.
However, Dumbledore added, "Yes, at least four."
"As you all know, I am very knowledgeable. Under normal circumstances, when Horcrux is destroyed, the creator of the Horcrux can sense the disappearance of the Soul Fragment."
However, Voldemort could not sense it.
"Even when I let one of his Horcrux get close to him, he didn't react at all."
Sirius asked curiously, "A Horcrux? Not Diary?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, no. But it's a secret."
Basil glanced at Sirius and Lupin, and couldn't help but think to himself, "If you knew that Horcrux was Harry's, you would have immediately pulled out your wands and questioned Dumbledore what he meant."
"After all, this means that only when Harry Potter dies can Voldemort be truly dead."
"In other words, regardless of whether the black or white side wins or loses, Harry's fate is only death."
"If it weren't for the Afterlife timeline, Voldemort would have been resurrected by consuming Harry's blood, thus sharing the Love Charm in Harry's blood that should have disappeared with adulthood."
"It brought them closer together—as long as Voldemort lived, Harry's life would not end."
"Instead of both of them dying."
Sirius, of course, couldn't hear Basil's thoughts.
With all doubts resolved, the primary objective naturally returns to itself—to destroy the locket and fulfill Regulus Black's last wish.
"Dumbledore, now we can begin—I mean, sabotage it, let a part of Voldemort enter the Misty Realm prematurely and suffer!"
Kreacher and Dobby, who already harbored hatred for Voldemort, swung their fists Dobby and chanted, "Torture! Torture! Torture!"
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "Of course. But I need to ask Basil first."
Basil: "Hmm?"
Dumbledore: "Since you've seen his dream, does he know the identities of the other Horcrux?"
Basil smiled wickedly, "Of course, it was the last Horcrux Voldemort created."
"He has the memories of the location and identity of the previous Horcrux."
"So, you're saying you want to destroy him?"
"After all, destroying a Horcrux is a very simple matter for you."
"As long as the container that seals the soul is damaged to the point that it cannot be repaired by physical or magical means."
"Tell me, what's your decision?"