I Always Thought You Were a Decent Person!

William sat down in the chair, gazing at the glowing Pensieve, pondering the memories he had just had.

Thinking back to what happened during the summer vacation, he felt that something was wrong.

However, he was missing a crucial clue, which prevented him from analyzing exactly where the problem lay.

This clue is similar to the Firebolt and Invisibility Cloak that Sirius anonymously sent last Christmas.

A few gifts may seem insignificant, but William and Hermione seized upon this detail and deduced the two major truths: "Scabbers is Pettigrew" and "Dahei is Black."

I shouldn't have called Hermione back to her dorm tonight. Leaving her in the Room of Requirement would have allowed the two of them to properly check each other's work.

Her greatest skill lies in finding anomalies amidst complex details.

Dumbledore was sitting in a chair, beckoned Harry, who was looking somewhat reserved, to sit down as well.

After Harry sat down, his eyes were fixed on the Pensieve. The contents of the Pensieve had turned silvery-white, swirling and rippling.

"It's called the Pensieve," Dumbledore explained.

"Suck out the excess thoughts from your mind and pour them into this basin. Take a good look at it when you have time."

In this state, it's easier to see their shapes and the connections between them.

"You mean... this thing is your mind?" Harry asked, staring at the swirling silver substance in the bowl.

"Indeed," said Dumbledore, "I'll show you."

Dumbledore pulled his wand from his robes and stuck the tip into his silver hair.

When he pulled out his wand, there seemed to be some silvery substance stuck to the tip.

Dumbledore placed the memories into the Pensieve and stirred them gently, like a gold prospector turning a sand tray.

The silvery substance gradually transformed into William's face. He opened his mouth and spoke to the ceiling, his voice echoing slightly.

"Professor Dumbledore, Hermione and I encountered Voldemort and Wormtail in the Albania forest."

He was no longer a shadow; he had a physical form, and he captured Bertha and tortured her.

We fought once, and I killed the form... then it turned back into shadow...

Harry listened blankly to the words coming from the Pensieve.

Did William fight Voldemort again?

"Harry," Dumbledore said slowly, "William said your scar is hurting again?"

William also snapped out of his reverie and turned to stare at Harry's scar.

"Yes," Harry swallowed hard, "Professor—I was in the common room, but I—I saw..."

He hesitated for a moment, as if considering how to describe it... so that it wouldn't sound like ravings of a madman.

Dumbledore, said, "That makes sense. Go on."

"Hmm, I think I had a dream," Harry said. "I dreamt about Voldemort."

"Which Voldemort?" William interjected.

Dumbledore his eyes, his expression inquiring, also curious about the question.

"Tom, sixteen-year-old Tom, the one in the diary," Harry affirmed.

"Of course!" Dumbledore nodded. "And then?"

"He was drinking something... a green Potions, and he looked like he was in pain. As he drank it, he was cursing Voldemort, me... and William."

William raised an eyebrow; he still thought Tom was a decent person.

I never expected that he would pick up that foul language from people from Zaun) in private.

"And then?" Dumbledore continued.

"Then he drank the medicine and crawled towards a lake... and finally, a lot of corpses dragged him in."

"My scar started hurting, it hurt so badly that I passed out."

"Okay, that's all," Harry said.

Dumbledore looked at him and said calmly, "Aside from this time and that time during the summer, has your scar hurt this year?"

"No, I—how did you know it woke me up in pain during the summer?" Harry asked in surprise.

"You're not the only one who writes to Sirius," Dumbledore said. "I've kept in touch with him since he left Hogwarts."

Dumbledore stood up and paced back and forth behind the table.

Sometimes he would press the tip of his wand to his temple, extracting Winky memories and adding them to the Pensieve.

The thoughts in the basin began to spin rapidly, obscuring everything except a blurry, silvery-white expanse.

William was also pondering this when he asked, "What does that cave look like?"

"It was huge, very dark... and surrounded by water."

What's outside the water?

"Rocks, large rocks."

Dumbledore stopped pacing, looked at Harry, and murmured, "Rocks... cliffs! William, it seems we've gone the wrong way."

William nodded. "Yes, we always thought it was in the sea."

"What?" Harry asked, confused.

However, neither of them answered him.

Professor Babbling found Tom a body and cast a spell on it that only vampires could sense.

Finally, it was determined that Tom was active in a certain sea area. And near that sea area was the orphanage where he lived as a child.

The two had always believed that the other Horcrux was hidden in the sea. Dumbledore the water and searched several times but found nothing.

But Harry's dream... the cave... is most likely by the sea.

Seeing that the two remained silent, Harry cautiously asked again, "Headmaster, do you think... that dream... was real?"

He really didn't want to hear Dumbledore say "really," because that would mean he and Voldemort had some kind of special connection.

The thought of him having any connection with Voldemort made him feel disgusted.

Dumbledore stared at Harry and said softly, "Possibly, very likely. Harry —have you seen Tom?"

"No," Harry said, "I only saw the Potions and the lake... but—you wouldn't normally see anything like that."

He doesn't have a body, does he? But... how could he possibly hold a wine glass?

"Yes," Dumbledore murmured, "How could that be..."

William knew that Dumbledore's question was different from Harry's.

Tom is certainly entitled to the wine glass, after all, he's attached to someone else.

Dumbledore's question was... why couldn't Harry see Tom?

To put it more bluntly: In what way did he dream of Tom?

Should we stand next to Tom, or look down at the scene from above?

Harry's answer was: He couldn't see Tom.

This precisely illustrates that... Harry is observing from Tom's perspective!

Or rather, at that moment, Harry and Tom's minds remained connected.

"Professor? You—do you know why my scar hurts?" Harry finally asked.

Dumbledore looked at Harry carefully for a moment, then said, "I have only one speculation, nothing more."

Your scars will ache when Tom gets close to you, or when he feels a particularly strong urge for revenge.

"But... why?"

"Because of that failed spell— the Killing Curse —that has bound you and him together," Dumbledore said.

This is not an ordinary scar.

Harry nodded, then stood up, ready to leave. He glanced at William again and realized he wasn't leaving.

At that moment, Dumbledore's aged voice came:

"William, you stay. I have something I need to discuss with you."

William grunted in response, but didn't move at all.

Harry slowly walked out of the office, watching William's retreating figure as he closed the wooden door.

He then recalled the story he had just heard in the Pensieve about William's battle with Voldemort.

He hadn't even heard Hermione mention it!

Harry couldn't help but mutter to himself:

The forests of Albania were indeed burned down by William and Hermione!

And you still say it wasn't the two of you who did it!

A walking vandal!

(Please vote for this post, everyone!)

Thank you to the generous donor "The Person Under the Moon Has Passed Away" for the donation.

The boss treated the office to a dinner party, and we drank quite a bit of alcohol. I have a headache now.