The Unchained Beast

It was as if an entire city made of junk had been crammed into Hogwarts Castle.

In this massive room, the floor was covered in all manner of bizarre objects.

There was a troll specimen over three meters tall, a cursed doll with blurred blood-red writing, but mostly, it was filled with prank items from various eras that were never allowed inside Hogwarts, along with trinkets that had brought misfortune to those who once owned them. Ezio spotted a suit of armor—the kind commonly seen in the corridors—but this one had been dismantled into pieces; clearly, some daring soul had been overcome by curiosity but lacked the skill to put it back together.

A ball of light from the Lumos charm flew from the tip of his wand, illuminating a corner of this vast city of trash with a soft white glow. Ezio waved his wand casually, sweeping away the annoying, thick layers of dust and pushing the obstructing debris to the side.

"The Diadem should be placed on the head of some statue," Ezio recalled the intelligence. He remembered the main story arc quite clearly, though some of the finer details were hazy. Still, having a general direction gave him a starting point for his search.

The eagle-eyed insight of his Eagle Vision ensured that no clue could escape his gaze. Within minutes, a pockmarked wizard statue placed atop a cabinet caught his attention.

'To the great inventor of the Entrail-Expelling Curse, thank you for curing my years of constipation!'

A small line of text was written on a tiny copper plaque. This pockmarked wizard must have been the inventor of that spell.

He wore an old wig on his head, and resting atop the wig was an ancient yet exquisite golden diadem.

The diadem was inlaid with many gemstones, the one in the center possessing a clear, sea-blue hue. Ezio donned his dragon-hide gloves and gently snapped off the statue's head; he had no intention of touching the diadem with his bare hands.

Dumbledore's reckless act of putting on the Resurrection Stone Ring, which had been turned into a Horcrux, served as a cautionary tale. Ezio had no desire to test the extent of Voldemort's mastery over curse magic.

The diadem seemed to possess a subtle, dark magic. As Ezio approached it, a voice seemed to whisper, urging him to put it on, as if doing so would grant him world-shattering wisdom.

Inside the diadem, Ezio saw a line of small text:

'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'

This phrase was also carved into the Ravenclaw common room, serving as the core belief for the little eagles of Ravenclaw. However, what they didn't know was that these words were not spoken by Ravenclaw herself, but left behind by the goblin who forged the diadem to curry favor with the four founders of Hogwarts. During his chats with the Sorting Hat, it had told Ezio that Rowena Ravenclaw herself was actually trapped by her own wisdom; her overly brilliant mind brought her too much burden, and she needed to use other means to alleviate the immense pressure her intelligence caused.

Perhaps it was the theft of this diadem that made her unable to bear the increasingly heavy mental burden, leading to a severe illness shortly after her daughter stole it, which eventually claimed her life.

As the daughter of the brilliant Ravenclaw, The Grey Lady, Helena Ravenclaw, had not inherited her mother's wisdom. Perhaps unable to stand the comparisons others made, she had done something foolish to satisfy her own vanity.

"Perhaps I shouldn't use Fiendfyre; that stuff destroys matter, and if I do that, the diadem won't be preserved."

After finding the diadem, Ezio hesitated slightly. There were few substances capable of destroying a Horcrux. The core of a Horcrux was the soul fragment stored within, and most magic could not touch a soul.

Coincidentally, Ezio happened to know a few spells that might be able to touch a soul, but because he hadn't been able to capture a ghost or Peeves to test them, he hadn't been able to practice. The arrival of the Horcrux had just solved his worry.

After all, even Dumbledore wouldn't stop Ezio from taking action against a Horcrux. What was executing justice? As long as you were dealing with Voldemort, you were executing justice.

The Headmaster's office was also on the eighth floor. After exiting the Room of Requirement, Ezio headed toward the Gargoyle.

"Raspberry jam."

Ezio spoke the password, and the stone statue jumped to the side, revealing the spiraling, griffin-shaped staircase behind it. Ezio knocked on the door of the Headmaster's office.

"Come in," Dumbledore's gentle voice sounded from behind the door.

"Hmm, it's Ezio," Dumbledore looked up slightly, but his gaze immediately locked onto the head of the Entrail-Expelling Curse inventor that Ezio was holding.

"Is this Ravenclaw's Diadem?"

Although it was a question, Dumbledore used a tone of certainty, as this diadem was identical to the one worn by the Ravenclaw statue in the Ravenclaw common room.

"To be precise, it is Ravenclaw's Diadem, which has been turned into a Horcrux."

"I happened to be looking for inspiration in the Room of Requirement today, and clearly, I found something much more interesting than inspiration."

Ezio gently placed the head on the office desk and recited the words engraved inside the diadem: "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure."

"So, my clever student, did you find it using your brilliant mind?" When Ravenclaw's Diadem was placed before him, Dumbledore's voice sounded much more pleasant.

"I'm afraid I'll disappoint you, Professor. Although I did perform some psychological profiling on Voldemort, due to a lack of data, I couldn't find any particularly useful clues. While the Slytherin students provided me with quite a bit of information, it's a pity that only some of their parents are the ones familiar with Voldemort, and clearly, their parents wouldn't tell them too much."

"I simply possess a pair of eyes capable of keen observation. I have been to the Ravenclaw common room and seen what the diadem looked like, then I accidentally saw something similar, and thus I found it."

"At first, I thought it was a replica. After all, that room is filled with too many treasures hidden by students from every era of Hogwarts; it wouldn't be surprising if someone tried to forge one, but I believe this one is real."

"Did you hear any whispers? It was seducing me to put it on, and a diadem shouldn't be able to talk."

"So there must be some magic or something else inside it. I smell a conspiracy."

"Combined with my recent research into magical runes, I judged that this diadem was not the work of a wizard. Since it is a goblin-made object, the probability of it being the real thing is higher. Furthermore, I know how a Horcrux is made, so recognizing it is only natural, right?"

Dumbledore looked at Ezio deeply. He was a very powerful Legilimens; very few people could lie in front of him. But Ezio was like those who had mastered exquisite Occlumency—Dumbledore could not read his thoughts. The long-maintained Assassin's Focus allowed Ezio to discard all distracting thoughts.

"You are very interested in Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked softly after a moment of silence.

"He is a rather interesting prey, worthy of my efforts. After all, I have honed my skills for so long; they have to be put to use somewhere, right? Otherwise, wouldn't all that suffering have been in vain?"

Ezio laughed, his face full of ease. "Of course, if someone is willing to pay for Voldemort's death, I think I would be happy to accept the commission. Even if the reward is meager, it's still a reward, isn't it?"

"A very interesting thought." Dumbledore understood what Ezio meant. This was the second time Ezio had mentioned this, but he didn't take it to heart.

"However, I must admit that your guess is entirely correct. This is indeed a Horcrux, and based on my understanding of Tom Riddle, he is indeed the type of person who would do this. You may not know, but Voldemort is actually of mixed blood. He had a Muggle father and a mother from an ancient wizarding family—the House of Gaunt. He loathed the Muggle blood in his veins from his father and was obsessed with the glory of pure blood."

"So, Voldemort's other Horcruxes are likely the magical items left behind by the other three founders of Hogwarts, right?"

"The probability is high. I believe Tom had the potential to do so. When I saw Ravenclaw's Diadem, I became even more certain of this guess."

Dumbledore nodded slowly. He felt that chatting with Ezio was very easy; the boy could always keep up with his thoughts immediately and then arrive at the same conclusion from the clues he provided, as if there were some unspoken understanding. It was a very strange feeling.

However, Ezio was a Slytherin through and through—goal-oriented, highly capable, and unscrupulous in his pursuit of final success. Yet, he was different from Voldemort. Ezio gave Dumbledore the feeling that he was harnessing dark power rather than being obsessed with it. Whether it was Dark Magic or anything else, in his hands, it was merely a tool to be utilized. This made Dumbledore relax his vigilance toward Ezio just a little.

But at the same time, Dumbledore also worried that Ezio might become something a hundred times more terrifying than Voldemort... something beyond a Dark Lord. He didn't care about, or even despised, what Voldemort pursued. This might indicate that he had even greater ambitions, just that there were no traces of them visible for now.

"So now, should we destroy it?"

Ezio stared at the Diadem with great interest. "It spent the whole way here trying to seduce me into putting it on, but now, it's silent. Perhaps it was frightened by you, Headmaster Dumbledore."

"I should hope I'm not that terrifying," Dumbledore said with a chuckle. "But we do need to dispose of it properly. Destroying it is inevitable; as long as a Horcrux exists, Voldemort will never truly die. He will live on in ugliness, growing ever more insane. Only after destroying all the Horcruxes can we truly set out to kill him."

There was a hint of admonition in Dumbledore's voice; he intended for Ezio to hear it.

"Since you brought it to me, you must have already thought of a way to destroy it, haven't you?"

"Yes, Headmaster. A Horcrux is a container that is extremely difficult to destroy. Ordinary spells are ineffective against it because the person who created the Horcrux leaves their own soul upon it. This also means the container is protected by the magic contained within that soul. Only a very few things can break through that magical protection to truly harm the object itself, as well as the soul fragment within."

"Among the magic I am aware of, the only spell with absolute certainty of destroying it is Fiendfyre. However, Fiendfyre would completely ruin this Diadem, which is not what I wish to see. Fiendfyre possesses the power to destroy the vast majority of matter; it is not merely fire, but a curse of destruction and ruin manifested through flame. Burning is merely the external appearance."

"I can now confirm that you have studied arithmancy quite seriously." Dumbledore nodded. What Ezio said was correct; Fiendfyre was not merely fire, and burning was indeed just the appearance.

"I have analyzed the composition of quite a few spells, which has been a great help in researching my own."

Ezio never slacked off once he had decided to do something; to do so would be a waste of time, a waste of his own life.

"However, I have a few hypotheses I would like to use the Horcrux to verify. I wonder if you would allow me to conduct such an experiment, Professor Dumbledore?"

"What do you intend to do?" Dumbledore did not find this surprising; for Ezio, this was a very logical progression.

"I want to test whether the Unforgivable Curses are, as described by the outside world, magic directed at the soul."

"You should be clear on why the use of Unforgivable Curses is not permitted," Dumbledore said, his tone turning serious.

"Dark magic causes people to lose themselves, but what I want to say is that this is simply because those people lack the strength and their will is not firm. Whether it is dark magic or light magic, to a wizard, it can only be a tool. It is not your lover, so you should not be obsessed with it, nor should you be influenced by it."

"But who can guarantee that they will not be influenced by dark forces? The erosion of darkness is always completed in silence."

Dumbledore did not trust such rhetoric. He had seen people even more gifted than Ezio, but that person had ultimately met a tragic end.

"That is indeed a difficult thing to prove," Ezio said, sounding somewhat troubled. There were some things he was certain of that he simply could not explain to others.

"If that won't work, how about we have a duel, Professor Dumbledore?"

Dumbledore's eyes widened. He had never expected Ezio to say such a thing. The old man, who had always been so composed, lost his footing for a moment.

"Be normal, Ezio," Dumbledore said, caught between laughter and tears. "I simply do not want you to walk down the wrong path."

"But who can be certain that the path they deem correct is truly correct for others?"

"I am different from every other student at Hogwarts."

Ezio closed his eyes and unchained the beast he had been restraining.

"I promise you I will not lay a hand on any student at Hogwarts. I keep my word, but I also hope you understand my... conviction to accomplish certain things."

Ezio opened his eyes. It was as if a Siberian cold front had surged into the headmaster's office. The blood-drenched beast hiding in the pool of gore opened its eyes, and a bone-chilling, icy murderous intent shattered the sturdy dam that had held it back, crashing down with the force of a collapsing sky!

Dumbledore seemed to see a phantom of himself dying on the spot in the next second. He finally understood what kind of terrifying power that pair of eyes possessed—the ones Severus Snape had seen. Compared to Snape's fleeting glimpse, Dumbledore experienced the full extent of it.

Fawkes, who had been dozing on his golden perch, fluffed his feathers and fluttered about in a panic, then flew to the top of the high cabinet where the Sorting Hat sat, huddling together with the old hat and shivering.

This brought Dumbledore back from his brief stupor. For the first time, he realized what kind of monster the person standing before him, who had always maintained such poise, truly was.

Would spells influence him? Even Avada Kedavra would have to kneel and kowtow a few times before leaving. Yet, Dumbledore was not so insane as to think Ezio was truly a demon who had killed countless people. He was only an eleven-year-old child; he couldn't have been holding a dagger and slaughtering crowds since birth. This display of power, so exaggerated as to be unreal, led Dumbledore to believe this was something innate, not something Ezio could decide for himself. There were simply too many bizarre things in the wizarding world; anything was possible.

"There is a rumor at Hogwarts regarding Harry, saying that only a darker existence can devour darkness. I think I was born with the ability to devour that darkness."

Ezio returned to his former calm and composure. He spoke softly, stating a fact.

"I hope you will always maintain your integrity." After the initial shock, Dumbledore regained his usual composure.

"I only act against my targets, unless someone deliberately causes trouble."

"That is very reasonable."

Upon realizing that Ezio had been restraining the beast within his heart all along and had no intention of letting it loose, Dumbledore chose to go with the flow. He knew very well that Ezio's current state was his most stable one; if this fragile balance were broken, it would be the worst-case scenario that no one wanted to see.

A naturally evil little Slytherin brat, I should just... The thought flashed through Dumbledore's mind, but he immediately kicked it into a corner and killed it.

He did not think that expelling Ezio from Hogwarts would be a good choice; that might lead to the worst possible outcome.

"I told you, this kid has talent. It's truly merciful of him not to commit a massacre."

The Sorting Hat muttered from atop the cabinet, only to be glared at fiercely by Dumbledore.

"Shut up!" he snapped, uncharacteristically losing his temper at an old hat.