Dumbledore Lends a Hand

All right, Malfoy had a plan, Crabbe and Goyle had a plan, and Dumbledore had a plan too. Everyone was being so mysterious.

Silvan had no idea what they were trying to do. Since Dumbledore had put it that way, he could only agree.

As thanks, Dumbledore gave Silvan something.

"Slytherin's Locket?" Silvan looked in surprise at the gleaming object on the table. "You fixed it?"

Previously, in order to destroy Voldemort's soul inside it, Silvan had had no choice but to destroy the locket along with it using a Basilisk fang.

Unfortunately, the unicorn soul could not attack something lifeless like the locket. Otherwise, things would have been much simpler.

"Your faith in me is truly flattering, Silvan," Dumbledore said. "But unfortunately, I do not possess the ability to repair it. All I could do was restore its original appearance."

By restoring its original appearance, Dumbledore meant its exterior. He had used some special alchemical materials to reconnect the fractured parts of the locket.

Silvan picked it up. No matter what, it was a relic of Salazar Slytherin, and the gold and gemstones on it were genuine. Even damaged, it was still a meaningful collectible.

"I thought you'd keep it at the school," Silvan said.

"I did consider it," Dumbledore admitted frankly.

"As everyone knows, Hogwarts was founded by the four great wizards. Yet more than a thousand years later, there is nothing in the school connected to them—not even a single portrait—ah, except for Godric Gryffindor."

Dumbledore pointed toward a three-legged stool behind him, where a filthy, patched old hat rested.

And in the cabinet beside it was a gleaming silver sword—the Sword of Gryffindor, and the only relic of the four founders that had escaped Voldemort's clutches.

"If we could gather all the relics representing the four