Horcruxes and Dark Magic Curses (12,000 Words)

Upon hearing this news, Harry Hooper immediately stood up.

"What did you say?! Sebastian is in Azkaban?!"

He really didn't expect that Sebastian would be imprisoned in Azkaban.

Morfin took two quick breaths and said breathlessly, "Yes, he's in the cell to our right, just a room away. He should... still be alive."

"Professor." Harry glanced at Dumbledore, then turned and left.

As soon as he stepped out of the cell, the Dementor swarmed around him.

Harry snapped his fingers, and a ring of Azure flame erupted around him.

The Dementor seemed to have seen something terrifying, and quickly retreated, as if it were someone who had seen the Dementor.

"Harry, you shouldn't have done that."

Dumbledore's words came from the cell.

Harry said without turning his head, "I'm just trying to reason with them."

After saying that, Harry found the cell that Morfin had mentioned.

Through the cell bars, Harry could see a gaunt old man huddled inside.

"Sebastian?"

He called out his old friend's name softly.

The old man suddenly looked up, staring outside in disbelief.

"Harry? Is that you, Harry?"

Harry flicked his wand, dissolving the bars, and strode into the cell.

"Sebastian, is it really you?" He stood in front of the old man, squatted down, and asked.

"It's me, it's me."

Sebastian, head bowed and one hand covering his face, said, "I never imagined Miss Malfoy's Prophecy would be correct. You really did travel back a hundred years..."

"Cassandra's Prophecy?"

Harry asked, taken aback.

Sebastian thought for a moment and said to Harry:

"Yes, after you disappeared, Miss Grindelwald was very worried. She wanted to know what had happened and whether Runcorn had died with you... But Miss Malfoy brought the Prophecy Orb from home. According to her, she didn't want to upset your friends who cared about you. The scene in the Prophecy Orb was something we had never seen before... Later, Miss Malfoy said that you actually came from 1991, so we guessed that you had returned to the time when you came from."

"Later, Miss Grindelwald found a Time Magic and planned to use it to go to 1991. We helped her reinforce Slytherin's Study... After that, Pabbie disappeared, followed by Miss Malfoy... However, Miss Malfoy seems to have gone to the house of the Oracle Trelawney to learn about Prophecy. Later, for some reason, she returned, and then she disappeared. Mr. Malfoy was very angry and ordered her to be expelled from the family."

"I suspect she came looking for you... but not long after, about a few years later, perhaps because Miss Grindelwald was sealed in Slytherin's Study, my uncle Solomon —you know, he was rescued by Miss Grindelwald at that time."

At this point, Sebastian sighed.

"For some reason, Solomon regained his memory. He remembered that I used the Killing Curse on him, so... he reported me to the Ministry of Magic. They examined my wand and found that I had used all the Unforgivable Curse, more than once. So, as you can see, I came here... Before leaving, I entrusted Anne to Ominis, hoping that he could take good care of Anne for me..."

"By the way, Anne..." Sebastian suddenly forgot to cover his face and looked up to ask, "How is Anne? Harry? Have you seen Anne...?"

"I'm sorry, Sebastian," Harry sighed. "I came here to find Ominis ... He left me a letter during one of Merlin's trials, and I also encountered the Sphinx —I killed the Sphinx using the Basilisk's gaze, but it was only after that I learned that the Sphinx wouldn't strangle me for not being able to answer the riddles."

"Basilisk? The one that killed the Sphinx?"

Sebastian's expression turned strange. "Harry, didn't you know that the Sphinx is immune to the Basilisk's gaze..."

Upon hearing this, Harry's heart skipped a beat.

He quickly took out his wallet, opened it, and looked inside.

The Basilisk Alfonso writhed on the ground like a maggot, begging for mercy in Parseltongue; the Sphinx... at this moment the Sphinx transformed into another form with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, constantly pecking at Alfonso's tail.

It seems the Sphinx doesn't intend to eat Alfonso; it might just be seeking revenge for the time he glared at it.

"Gryffindor boy!"

The Sphinx noticed Harry opening his wallet and angrily shouted, "You actually tried to kill the symbol of Gryffindor..."

"You're just a sphinx, not a lion," Harry tried to defend himself. "Besides, it's not my fault. After all, the legendary Sphinx always strangles people when they can't answer questions..."

"Oh," Sphinx said, then added, "Your Basilisk —I really don't know why a Gryffindor would keep a Basilisk, but don't worry, it's not dead, I'm just playing with it."

"Is this how you play games?!" Alfonso roared indignantly. "Besides, the great master is Slytherin, not Gryffindor!"

"Only Gryffindor would be so reckless. You've been fooled, Basilisk," the Sphinx hissed in Parseltongue.

"His traits are definitely Slytherin!" Alfonso replied.

"We'll talk about your business later," Harry, sounding a bit annoyed. "Also, you two, go easy on each other; I have some important business to attend to."

After saying that, he closed his wallet.

"So you have a Basilisk and a Sphinx in your wallet?" Sebastian whistled a broken, dry tune. "You're much cooler now than I was back then, Harry. All those fun Charms I taught you weren't for nothing."

"Yes, and then you were locked up in Azkaban," Harry sighed. "How are you feeling now? I'll get you out in a bit—first, let me ask Morfin Gaunt where the portrait of Ominis is."

"Yes, you just mentioned Ominis. What did his letter say?" Sebastian asked with concern.

"Ominis said he used Time Magic to seal Anne in a cave somewhere, hoping that a hundred years from now there would be a way to break the Dark Magic Curse," Harry replied.

Sebastian seemed stunned by Harry's words.

His cloudy eyes stared blankly at Harry, as if he couldn't believe what Harry had just said.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked with concern.

Unexpectedly, Sebastian clutched his head in anguish, clutching his sparse hair, and whispered, "Merlin... Ominis... Ominis..."

He sobbed softly, unable to recover for a long time.

Harry sat beside him until he spoke again.

"This magic... I know this magic; it requires the caster to pay with their life," Sebastian said painfully. "Those who deceive time will eventually pay one price or another... Ominis..."

Harry stared at Sebastian in shock. He never imagined that freezing Anne in time would come at such a high price.

"I shouldn't have entrusted Anne to Ominis, I knew it, I knew it..."

Sebastian pounded his head in self-reproach. He loved his sister dearly, but he didn't want to sacrifice his best friend because of her.

Seeing how upset he was, Harry comforted him, "Maybe things aren't so bad. You know, Ominis always has a way."

Seeing that he remained unmoved and was only grieving by himself, Harry spoke up again to comfort him, "Perhaps you should come out with me. Let's go find Ominis and rescue Anne."

"It's no use, Harry," Sebastian said softly. "I'm a wanted criminal by the Ministry of Magic, and they won't release me easily."

"I'm going to find Dumbledore," Harry said to Sebastian. "Dumbledore is the Grand Master of the International Confederation of Wizards. If he intervenes, I believe you'll be out soon."

Sebastian looked up.

"If it's just about getting me out, that's not difficult at all," Sebastian said softly. "Actually—"

After he finished speaking, he stood up.

Harry was horrified to discover that Sebastian's old body had suddenly slumped down as if shedding its skin, and what stood up was a transparent ghost.

He still looks like he's seventeen, as if time has been frozen in his memory.

"This is Dark Arts item I stole from Ominis's house. It allows me to disguise myself and escape the Dementor ' search—in reality, I died decades ago."

Harry found it hard to accept.

"But you just now clearly..."

Sebastian laughed nonchalantly, "I told you, that's Dark Arts. Don't ask too many questions about Dark Arts —don't worry, Harry, I won't teach you this magic. I'm really afraid Grindelwald and Malfoy will come after me and completely obliterate my ghostly body."

"They won't," Harry said quickly, then looked Sebastian's ghostly body up and down, asking curiously, "So how am I supposed to get you out of here? If the Dementor see you, they'll probably cling to you and try to suck you dry."

"Open your wallet, I'll jump in for now," Sebastian said. "Let me out when you get back to Hogwarts —good heavens, do you know how much I miss Hogwarts?"

Sebastian's voice was relaxed, as if he wasn't the one who had become a ghost.

Harry had no choice but to do as he was told. He opened his wallet, and Sebastian's ghost 'whooshed' inside.

He put away his wallet, took one last look at Sebastian's body, and turned to leave the cell.

Just as he walked out, Dumbledore also came out of Morfin's cell. After seeing Harry, he reached out and waved to him.

"It seems you've finished your conversation with Mr. Salu?" Dumbledore said. "How was the meeting with your old friend?"

"We'll talk about it when we get back," Harry said to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore suddenly asked seriously, "You didn't put him in your wallet, did you? I need to remind you that although the Dementor can't find him in your Untraceable Extension Charm pocket, they will check the original cells."

Harry understood what Professor Dumbledore meant.

What he understood was: if you're going to take him out, I think you can put him in your Untraceable Extension Charm pocket and find a suitable replacement, otherwise the Dementor will keep bothering you.

"There's been a little problem. He's become a ghost," Harry said in a low voice. "He said he died a long time ago, but because of some small Dark Arts items from the Gaunt family, he's been able to remain undetected by the Dementor. If the Dementor find out he's a ghost, he'll probably be in big trouble."

"So that's how it is..."

Dumbledore, and the two had only taken a few steps forward when they discovered that a large number of Dementor had surged up to the seventh floor and surrounded them.

The leader was a stronger guy than the other Dementor, and his robe was also a multicolored black, which looked very intimidating.

He stepped forward, looked up, and asked Dumbledore, "I heard from my men that your men secretly went to other cells?"

Although this Dementor can speak, its voice is muffled and almost indistinct unless you listen carefully.

"Oh, yes, that's true, Eniac." Dumbledore didn't deny it. He looked down at Harry: "Harry, what exactly happened?"

"Well, Mr. Eniac," Harry said, trying to keep his smile friendly. "I was just going to use the restroom, and the room was empty. When I came out, I found a dead man lying in it."

"A dead man?" Eniac frowned as he looked at Harry.

He waved to the two Dementor behind him.

The two Dementor floated toward Sebastian's cell, and then floated back a moment later.

The two whispered to each other for a while, Eniac Eniac up and said, "The man in that cell— Sebastian Saru —he's dead. Young man, could it be you...?"

Before he could finish speaking, Dumbledore interrupted him.

"Eniac, my student is only thirteen years old. You don't actually believe he killed Mr. Salu, do you?"

Anger seemed to flicker in Dumbledore blue eyes.

Eniac and Dumbledore explained, "Oh, no, it's just a coincidence—well, since nothing else is happening, I think you should leave Azkaban."

Having said that, Eniac led the Dementor to make way for Harry and Dumbledore.

The two walked among the Dementor, and it seemed that Dumbledore had no fear of Dementor whatsoever.

Harry always felt that the Dementor were looking at him with ill intent, but he didn't really care.

Are they really going to storm Hogwarts and ambush me?

Haha, how could that be?

After leaving Azkaban Castle, Dumbledore turned to Harry and asked, "Let's go back to school first. Getting out of Azkaban is never an easy thing. I think you should eat something first, take a bath, and then we can look at Morfin Gaunt's memories, the memories of Tom."

"Yes, Professor," Harry nodded.

Upon returning to school, Harry didn't go straight to his dormitory; instead, he went to Newt's tent.

Newt had just finished answering the Hufflepuff classmates' questions, and he looked somewhat reluctant.

In fact, Newt's biggest necessities were going to work. Before this, he had repeatedly refused Dumbledore's invitation to teach at Hogwarts. If it weren't for Pabbie, he would never have become the professor of the Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts.

Newt looked rather awkward when he saw Harry enter the tent.

His social anxiety told him he shouldn't greet Harry warmly, but his desire to uncover the Basilisk's secrets made him want to get close enough to pry the Basilisk out of Harry's wallet and study it thoroughly.

"Professor Scamander," Harry greeted him, then glanced at the student next to Newt carrying a notebook, and said to him, "I'll go into the tent first, and wait until you've finished signing for the students."

Actually, the students hadn't originally planned to do this, but after Harry said that, their eyes lit up, and they handed the notebooks they were holding to Newt.

Helpless, Newt could only take the notebook, sign his name, Newt Scamander, one by one in a flamboyant hand, and then flee back to his tent.

Upon seeing Newt enter, Harry said mysteriously, "Professor, you'd never guess what kind of Magical Creatures I encountered."

Newt had intended to ask about the Basilisk, but upon hearing Harry mention "Magical Creatures," he immediately Basilisk all about it.

In his view, the Magical Creatures Harry could find must be rare species, the kind that are not usually seen.

"What is it?" he asked curiously.

Harry smiled at Newt and mysteriously took out his wallet.

"In Merlin's Chamber, I encountered a legendary Magical Creatures —can you guess, Professor Scamander, what kind of Magical Creatures could make people solve riddles?"

"A riddle?"

Newt paused for a moment, then a look of shock appeared on his face.

"No, that can't be, right? That... isn't that a legendary Magical Creatures?"

"Yes, there really is." Harry nodded with a smile.

"My goodness, Harry," Newt, sidling up to Harry with lightning speed and eyeing his wallet with envy. "You really have connections. Not only can you get your hands on the legendary Basilisk kept by Slytherin, but you can even get your hands on the Sphinx kept by Merlin —it must be Merlin's, right?"

"I didn't ask him. I thought he'd strangle me if I couldn't solve the riddle, so I just opened my wallet and let him and the Basilisk make eye contact," Harry said, shrugging.

"How could you do this!" Newt stared at Harry in shock. "It's Sphinx —a kind of lion—and you... you're Gryffindor! How could you treat it like this?"

"However, the Basilisk's gaze cannot kill the Sphinx," Harry shrugged. "The last time I opened my wallet, it was chasing the Basilisk, pecking at its tail... though it has a rather bad temper."

"If someone were to use Basilisk against me for no reason, I probably wouldn't be in a very good mood either." Newt glanced at Harry. "You really fit my stereotype of Gryffindor —impulsive!"

"What else can I say?" Harry opened his wallet and shook it a couple of times.

However, when he shook it, the gray Sebastian ghost fell out, but instead of landing on the ground, it hovered in mid-air, looking stiff and rigid.

Harry was about to say something when the Basilisk's hissing came.

"I'm sorry, Young Master, I forgot that your friend can't look me in the eye. But don't worry, ghosts don't die. Just pour some of the antidote made from Mandrake on him and he'll Reparo."

"You're really good at getting into trouble, what about the Sphinx?" he asked.

"Here it is," the Sphinx replied, then leaped out of the wallet.

His body was quite large, and when he jumped out, his head almost touched the top of the tent.

"Oh my god, it's so beautiful..."

Newt looked up at the Sphinx as if in pilgrimage, muttering to himself.

"I think he must be a variant of the Sphinx, the Hierocosphinx (Sphinx with the head of a hawk and the body of a lion)."

"No, I am the Sphinx." The Sphinx shook its head, as if flicking something off its eagle-head feathers. "Before this little wizard in front of you attacked me, I did indeed have a lion's head."

"Sorry, Sphinx," Harry apologized fluently, "But it's not my fault. After all, the legends I know about the Sphinx all say that the person asked a riddle couldn't answer it and was then strangled by the Sphinx —I thought you were going to strangle me too."

"I forgive you, but I don't want to accept that reason, because I don't have that kind of cruel habit," the Sphinx said unhappily. "By Hera, if I find out who said that about me, I'll strangle them!"

"Hera?" Newt asked curiously, "Is your faith in Hera?"

"I just happen to know Hera, young man."

A human-like smile appeared on the Sphinx's eagle head, "But that was a long time ago. She sent me to trouble Oedipus, but Oedipus was clever and solved my riddle, so I flew away."

"Didn't you jump off a cliff?" Newt asked tentatively. "I remember that's how it's recorded in Greece accounts."

The Sphinx flaps its wings on its back—the meaning is clear: do you think my two wings are just for show?

"Oh, so Hera really exists?" Harry suddenly asked. "I mean— Hera, the Queen of the Gods, and Zeus, and the Olympian gods?"

"Guess?" A playful smile appeared on the Sphinx's face.

"They might be some powerful wizards, Harry," Newt explained to Harry. "In fact, many of the so-called 'gods' in mythology are powerful wizards, like the Herpo the Foul, who was a very powerful wizard."

The Sphinx's smile became enigmatic, neither affirming nor denying.

"So the Sphinx is a race? Or... is it really, as Greece mythology says, one of the daughters of the giant Typhon and the Basilisk Echidna?" Newt suddenly asked.

"There are three siblings," the Sphinx said succinctly. "I have two brothers and sisters. My brother in Persia is a winged bull with a human face, a full beard, and a crown. My brother in Egypt is a lion with a goat's head. I am the youngest sister in Greece, and my story is quite different from the myths you have heard."

"So you've been alive all this time? Since before Christ?" Newt asked incredulously.

"Of course," the Sphinx replied.

"Then why did you enter Merlin's Chamber?" Harry asked again. "Did you know Merlin?"

"Of course I know Merlin. In fact, I've been providing him with considerable help throughout his upbringing." Sphinx smiled humanly. "The last one to break into the Chamber of Secrets of Secrets was Ominis Gaunt, that blind young man—I told him that if he could answer my questions, I would do him a favor... and then he told me to wait for him here, but he didn't expect you to be such a reckless brute."

"Well, that's what it means to be Gryffindor, represented by the lion."

Harry shrugged.

The Sphinx shook its head and transformed back into its human-headed, lion-bodied form.

Her human-like appearance clearly indicated she was no good person; at least Newt understood instantly why Harry had released the Basilisk to target her.

Yes, it was her.

"You should just turn back into an eagle head, Sphinx," Harry said, pursing his lips. "You really look like one of those strict female teachers..."

"What do you plan to do with me?" Sphinx ignored Harry's words. "I've been in a dormant state in Merlin's Chamber... You brought me out of there, so you're responsible for me to the end, black-haired brat."

"Why don't you stay at Hogwarts?" Harry said to the Sphinx, then turned to Newt. "I don't think Professor Scamander would mind having one more of you in the tent."

Upon hearing this, Newt nodded his head like a little bird eager to be fed.

"I refuse." Sphinx yawned. "Are there any other jobs—I've heard Merlin was a Slytherin student, so I'd like to stay at Hogwarts and do some work or something."

Upon hearing the Sphinx's words, Newt looked utterly shocked.

"Merlin? Merlin really was a Slytherin student?" Newt asked in shock. "But wasn't Merlin from around the fifth century? How could he be a Slytherin student? Good heavens..."

"Because Merlin also Time Travel, it's that simple," Sphinx said nonchalantly, waving his lion paw.

Newt lowered his head and mouthed "Wow."

He truly hadn't expected that Merlin was actually a Slytherin student—he had always thought that this was just some Slytherin members trying to make themselves look good.

So it turns out this was all true!

It's true!

"Hey!" Harry held up a finger, he had really thought of a new job that would suit the Sphinx: "How about you replace the Fat Lady and watch over the gates of Gryffindor? That would make Hogwarts even safer."

Of course, he wasn't just daydreaming; after all, when it came to guarding the gate, the Sphinx was probably better than the Fat Lady.

Of course, the Fat Lady wasn't bad either, except that she was a bit of a show-off and sometimes, when she was busy with her own things, she would easily forget to open the door—for example, a few days ago she was practicing her soprano voice and only made way for the students when she annoyed them.

"Watch the gate?" Sphinx was somewhat tempted.

She didn't think there was anything wrong with guarding the gate; in fact, what Hera had asked her to do was not much different from guarding the gate.

"Yeah, just like the door knocker at Ravenclaw House," Newt chimed in. "Students are only allowed into the Common Room if they answer the knocker's questions correctly... I think Gryffindor should adopt this too, at least it would make you lions less reckless."

The Sphinx's furrowed brows hardened upon hearing the words, "Make you lions less reckless."

Yes, as a lion, how can I stand by and watch other lions with the same traits as me be labeled "reckless"?

"I think this is a very good suggestion," Sphinx said casually. "The problem we face now is how to convince the school's Headmaster."

"Headmaster Dumbledore is a very easy person to talk to," Harry said with a chuckle. "But that's not all the problems we're facing now, there's also... Sebastian."

After saying that, he reached out and patted Sebastian's petrified soul.

To his astonishment, he discovered that Sebastian's petrified soul had materialized, and the touch of his hand on it felt as if he were touching stone.

"Perhaps you could carry him, but I think you should really teach your little snake a lesson, lest it petrify someone again next time," Sphinx said gloatingly from the side. "Hopefully you can find enough Mandrake."

"There's still stock," Harry said, hoisting Sebastian onto his shoulder and heading toward Madam Pomfrey's Hospital Wing.

Inside the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey was applying medicine to a student who had fallen and injured himself. When she saw Harry carrying a gray ghost in, she didn't stop what she was doing.

"Good heavens, Mr. Potter, has Chamber of Secrets been opened again?"

"No, it was just an accident," Harry said to Madam Pomfrey. "Do you have any undo potion left? My ghost friend has been petrified..."

"There are a few more; you can leave him here," Madam Pomfrey said. "Remember to come and pick him up at this time tomorrow; removing the petrification takes time."

"Yes, madam." Harry bowed politely to Madam Pomfrey and placed Sebastian's ghost on the bed.

He reached out and patted Sebastian on the shoulder, saying in a low voice, "I'll come see you again tomorrow, buddy."

After saying that, he left the Hospital Wing and went to the Headmaster's Office.

In the Headmaster's Office, Dumbledore was resting with his eyes closed. When he heard Harry enter, he didn't even open his eyes, but asked softly, "Harry?"

"It's me, Professor." Harry waved to Phineas was standing nearby.

Phineas waved back at him, looking like they were good buddies.

Dumbledore rubbed his eyes, looking exhausted.

"What's wrong, Professor?" Harry asked with concern.

Dumbledore sighed.

"Newt just came by. He said he wants the Sphinx you brought back to be the gatekeeper of Gryffindor."

Harry:?

No, how did you get here so fast?!

It's clear that Professor Scamander really wants to keep the Sphinx.

"So what's your opinion?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"I don't object, but we can't let the Fat Lady lose her job; after all, she's been guarding the Gryffindor Common Room for centuries," Dumbledore said with a chuckle.

He added, "However, we could ask Fat Lady for her opinion; perhaps she doesn't want to be a gatekeeper anymore?"

"I seriously doubt that the Gryffindor students will even be able to get into their dormitories if the Sphinx is guarding the door..." Harry said, rubbing his forehead.

"I think Newt's idea is quite good. It can train the Gryffindors ' thinking skills and prevent you from being reckless," Dumbledore said leisurely. "Besides, there are some clever children in Gryffindor. If I remember correctly, Hermione is a very clever witch, and I believe the Sphinx will not be a challenge for her."

"Fine." Harry didn't mind, since the Sphinx wouldn't stop him from leaving anyway.

He sat down in front of Dumbledore and drank two glasses of unsweetened lemonade. Dumbledore then stood up and invited him to come with him to the Pensieve.

"Come, Harry," Dumbledore said. "I have poured the memories of Morfin into this Pensieve, and we can look at them together."

"Can we watch the Pensieve together?" This was the first time Harry had ever heard of this.

"Of course," Dumbledore smiled at him.

Harry walked to the stone basin and bent down before Dumbledore, until his face sank into the liquid of memories.

He felt a familiar sensation of falling into nothingness, just like the memory of seeing his mother, and then he stepped onto a dirty stone floor, surrounded by almost complete darkness.

Not long after, Dumbledore also came to his side.

Magic is amazing. The memories in the Pensieve can be viewed by multiple people, creating an online-like effect.

It should be said that the Gaunt family mansion in Morfin's memory was even uglier than the Harry had seen a few days earlier.

The ceiling was covered with a thick layer of cobwebs, the floor was covered in grime, and moldy and rotten food was piled up in a jumble of old jars on the table, looking like it hadn't been cleaned for over a year.

The only light came from a single candle placed at the feet of the younger version of Morfin, whose hair and beard were so long that Harry couldn't see his eyes and mouth.

He huddled in an armchair by the fire, looking as if he were dead, lying there motionless.

A short while later, a loud knocking sounded at the door, and the man immediately woke up. He raised a magic wand in his right hand and held a short knife in his left.

The door creaked open, and a boy carrying an old-fashioned lantern entered.

The boy was tall, with pale skin, black hair, and handsome features; he was Tom Riddle in his youth.

Tom's eyes slowly swept across the cabin before settling on Morfin.

They looked at each other for a few seconds, then Morfin stood up straight, and many empty bottles at his feet fell to the ground with a clatter, rolling across the floor.

"You!" he roared, "You!"

He rushed toward Tom, drunk, holding his wand and knife high in the air.

Stop.

Tom hissed, and Harry knew it was Parseltongue.

Morfin suddenly stopped at the table, knocking the moldy jars to the floor.

He stared intently at Tom, as if he had discovered something unbelievable.

It was clear that his mind was in turmoil, working at an off-clock.

"You said... you said that?" Morfin hesitated, looking at the familiar face in front of her. "That?"

"Yes, I did," Tom said casually, closing the door behind him and walking over to Morfin's side.

Tom frowned in disgust at the extremely slovenly appearance of his mother's relatives.

"So... who are you?"

"I am Morfin Gaunt," Morfin replied.

"Marvolo Gaunt's son?" Tom asked.

"I am, so..."

Morfin brushed the hair away from Tom's dirty face to get a better look. The ring on Tom's right hand caught Harry's attention—and Harry noticed that Dumbledore beside him was also staring at the ring.

"I thought you were that Muggle," Morfin whispered. "You look very much like that Muggle."

"Which Muggle?" Tom asked eagerly.

"The Muggle my sister's infatuated with, the Muggle who lives in that big house over there," Morfin said, unexpectedly slapping the floor between them. "You look so much like him, that Tom Riddle, but he's old now, older than you. Let me think..."

Morfin looked a little dizzy and unsteady, but he was still holding onto the edge of the table for support.

"He's back," he added.

Tom stared at Morfin, seemingly unraveling the mystery in his mind to find the information he wanted, then leaned closer and asked, "You mean—that Riddle is back?"

"Ah, he left her, found his legal fiancée, and married that filthy fellow!" Morfin said, pounding the floor angrily. "Before she got away, he ransacked us! Where's the box? Ugh, where's Slytherin's little box?"

Tom didn't answer. Morfin himself flew into a rage again, as if in a trance, brandishing his knife at Tom and yelling, "You've disgraced us, she did it, that little slut! What are you doing here asking those questions, you bastard? It's all over... all over..."

Morfin seemed to have used up all her strength and sat back down in the chair, feeling somewhat exhausted. Tom took the opportunity to walk over to her.

Just then, Harry felt himself plunged into darkness, then he felt his arm being grabbed, and then his head jerked up, escaping the darkness of his blank memory.

"So, that's all the information?" Harry asked uncertainly. "What about the portrait of Ominis? Any news about that?"

"No, Harry," Dumbledore said. "Because Morfin Gaunt doesn't remember what happened after that. He only remembers waking up the next morning to find himself lying on the floor, and the Marvolo Gaunt's Ring on his hand was gone, along with the portrait of Ominis Gaunt. Nobody knows where Voldemort took him."

"At the same time, in Little Hangleton, the the elder Riddles also died," Dumbledore said. "Killed with the Killing Curse."

"Did Tom do it?" Harry immediately thought of a possibility.

"The Muggle don't know what happened, but the Ministry of Magic knows it was the Killing Curse —and they also know that there's a family not far from Little Hangleton who hates Muggle intensely, and that this family also attacked the the elder Riddles in the past, so they went to the Gaunt family first."

Dumbledore stroked his white beard as he said this, "The Ministry of Magic didn't waste much effort at all. Morfin believed that he had killed the the elder Riddles and even felt extremely honored by it, so he was imprisoned in Azkaban without going through any procedures."

"He was terrified of losing the ring and kept telling people that old Marvolo would kill him—but he also confessed to me what he had done back then, and perhaps the years he spent in Azkaban had indeed tormented his conscience."

"It might not be repentance; perhaps he just doesn't want to die." Harry didn't believe the Dark Wizard would ever reform. "Even without Tom's framing, this Morfin Gaunt would still be a disgrace to the Magical World —so what about that ring?"

"I have good reason to suspect that Voldemort stole the ring and turned it into something evil," Dumbledore said.

"Something evil?" Harry suddenly remembered what had happened before. "Professor, I remember there was a Voldemort's diary in Slytherin, and the Voldemort in it was a young Tom; while the Notebook Pansy is holding is the one that was attached to Quirrell's head... Perhaps Voldemort split his soul..."

At this point, the two exchanged a glance and said in unison, "We've created Horcrux!"

"That Notebook must be Horcrux that Voldemort made when he was young," Harry said after a moment of thought. "The Voldemort in the Notebook is a young Tom Riddle who disguised himself as a girl and deceived people in Slytherin."

"As far as I know, the process of making Horcrux involves causing the wizard's soul to split through acts such as murder, and then taking a part of the soul out of the body and putting it into an object outside the body. This object is the Horcrux."

Dumbledore, then reached out and took out an orange candy.

"In this way, even if the wizard's physical body is attacked or destroyed, he will not die, because a part of his soul fragments will remain intact in the world, unharmed."

"If I remember correctly, at that age he had just opened the Chamber of Secrets and used the Basilisk's gaze to kill Moaning Myrtle," Harry said, tapping the table. "He split his soul in that way and created Horcrux... his Notebook."

"But that doesn't make sense, Harry," Dumbledore said, frowning. "Last year in the Chamber of Secrets, the Notebook Miss Parkinson was holding contained the spirit of Voldemort, the one who was stuck to Quirrell's head last year... Why is that?"

"Perhaps for some reason we don't know," Harry said to Dumbledore, "At least I've destroyed that part of Voldemort's soul."

"No, Harry," Dumbledore sighed, "Owning Horcrux means immortality. Even if you use some powerful Charms, you can't kill its soul. That's what Horcrux are."

"That explains it. Once a soul is split, it becomes extremely unstable. That's why Voldemort became increasingly irritable towards the end, acting like he had lost his mind and was prone to fits of rage," Dumbledore said with a sigh. "And it is precisely for this reason that many Dark Wizard, even if they have the ability, are unwilling to create Horcrux. They would rather have a quick death than split their souls."

"Can only one Horcrux be made?" Harry asked curiously.

He knew about Horcrux from Sebastian, who was desperate to save Anne, even going so far as to research such evil things as Horcrux in an attempt to free Anne from the effects of the Dark Magic Curse and thus prolong her life.

However, he only had a basic understanding of it and did not know the specific details.

"Uncertain," Dumbledore said. "Theoretically, the soul can be split infinitely, but no one has ever experienced it... Ordinary wizards cannot withstand such pain, Harry."

"But Voldemort was no ordinary wizard; he was a wizard with a morbid pursuit of escaping death and achieving immortality," Harry said.

Dumbledore agreed with Harry's statement, adding, "To verify our suspicions, the most urgent task now is to find that ring and see if it is indeed Horcrux."

"I don't think Voldemort would let you find this ring so easily, Professor Dumbledore," Harry chuckled. "Someone who values life so much is more likely to have hidden it somewhere hard to find... If I were him, I would hide the Horcrux in Gringotts... Perhaps Ominis's portrait is also in the vault."

"It's not impossible," Dumbledore nodded. "But the question is, among Gringotts ' many vaults, where would he hide the Horcrux?"

"We're not in a rush to find all these Horcrux," Harry said with a yawn. "This is a long game, Professor Dumbledore. I think we should carefully analyze and investigate to finally determine which vault it is..."

"That's all we can do," said Professor Dumbledore.

After leaving the Headmaster's Office, Harry went to the Great Hall.

Today is the last day of the semester. Tomorrow, the winner of the House Cup will be announced in the Great Hall, and the day after that will be the official start of the holiday.

Harry plans to continue searching for information about Merlin's ruins during his vacation, hoping to rescue Cassandra as soon as possible.

In addition, we must also search for traces of Ominis.

(Requesting monthly votes)