I, Hogwarts Second Week

"From the information I learned later, Riddle controlled them very strictly. This group of people had never been found to do bad things openly. Although many vicious incidents occurred in Hogwarts during the seven years they were in school, none of them could be conclusively linked to them. The most serious one was of course the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which caused the death of a girl. You know, Hagrid was wronged for this case..."

"Well, it was Myrtle." Owen said.

The death of Myrtle was an important part of Tom's transformation into Voldemort.

Before that, he was just a little wizard with ancient blood. After that, the dark side of his heart was truly revealed. Voldemort was truly born from Tom's personality.

Owen could speculate how excited Tom Riddle would be when he found the basilisk in that damp underground chamber.

Perhaps it was this excitement that made him temporarily lose control of the basilisk.

Perhaps his magic level was not enough to control the basilisk.

Perhaps it was to fulfill the promise of his ancestor Slytherin to cleanse those who were not worthy of learning magic.

In short, in the fifth grade, Tom released the basilisk, which eventually led to the death of Myrtle.

By killing a person and shifting the blame to Hagrid, he was exempted from punishment. Tom should have been very superior at that time, laughing at the stupidity of wizards countless times behind their backs.

And it was this superiority, coupled with the "noble" bloodline, that really opened up Voldemort's life.

"Yes, that's a poor girl." Dumbledore came to the Pensieve and continued, "I didn't find much about Riddle's memory at Hogwarts. Few people who knew him at the time were willing to talk about him. They were too scared. What I know now is that after he left Hogwarts, I spent a lot of effort to find those who could be elicited to talk, look up old records, and ask Muggles and wizards to learn it."

He didn't continue to speak, but took out some crystal bottles from the cabinet above the Pensieve, which were filled with swirling, pearly memories.

Dumbledore poured the memories into the Pensieve and then asked Owen to experience it again.

The first memory was only a short one minute long. It was a conversation between Voldemort and his uncle Morfin. Both parties used Parseltongue, which Owen could not understand.

But he could guess that Morfin was introducing Tom to his mother and the Muggle family who lived not far from their home, namely Tom's father and grandparents.

The scene ended with Tom's angry departure.

Everyone knew the story of the father's love and filial piety that followed.

Tom killed his father's family. He also put the blame on his uncle who had a foul mouth and kept cursing his mother, just because his mother married a Muggle.

Of course, the focus of Dumbledore showing him this memory was not the "plot", but the Gaunt ring on Morfin's right hand.

He seemed to want to connect the owners of the Gaunt ring into a logical line, so as to predict where Voldemort would hide this last Horcrux.

After the first memory ended, Dumbledore immediately poured the memory in the second crystal bottle into the Pensieve.

This time the scene was even shorter than the previous one.

It was only a few dozen seconds.

It is mainly based on the memory of an Auror, depicting the scene when they attacked Riddle House.

From this memory, it can be seen that it should be the summer of 1994.

After the Battle of Hogsmeade, the Aurors calmed down and planned a plan to raid Riddle House in Little Hangleton, arresting dozens of dark wizards at one time.

Although most of those people were not Death Eaters, this was also a merit, reversing the public opinion of the magic world that had been depressed since the Battle of Hogsmeade Village.

It also established Barty Crouch's position as Minister of Magic in one fell swoop.

After the memory ended, Dumbledore looked at the sparkling water and asked: "In this memory, the old house of the Gaunt family is still intact."

"The old house of the Gaunt family." Owen murmured. Indeed, because the old house of the Gaunt family is not far from the Riddle Mansion, the mansion appeared in the wizard's memory.

However, after the war, the old house of the Gaunt family was affected by magic and became a ruin. The Gaunt ring hidden inside also disappeared.

"Do you think the ring was originally here?"

"Tom is that kind of person." Dumbledore said calmly, with a trace of regret behind his blue eyes. "Although the ring is a relic of the Gaunt family, his uncle, the last heir of the Gaunt family, left a very bad impression on him. In the memory just now, he has been insulting Tom's mother and using some ugly words.

So he will not take the ring away. The disgust and anger will make him hide it on the spot after killing his father and making the Horcrux."

"But the ring is no longer there now." Owen said.

"That's right." Dumbledore nodded, "It's already a ruin. I have searched for it many times but to no avail. But in this memory, at least before the summer vacation of 1994, the ring should still be there. So who took it away later?"

"Huh?" Owen frowned, "Shouldn't it be Voldemort himself?"

Dumbledore heard this, neither agreeing nor denying, but said, "The Ministry of Magic had closely monitored Little Hangleton during that period. Every move there might alert the Aurors. Of course, it was easy for Voldemort to avoid the Aurors' eyes with his magic level, but I always thought that the ring was taken away too smoothly - suppose, it was not taken away by him?"

"Not by him?" Owen was silent for a moment, and suddenly understood what Dumbledore meant, "Are you saying that there are Death Eaters among the Aurors? He took the ring easily while the two sides were fighting, so that no one would notice it?"

"It's possible." Dumbledore responded. "But I investigated almost everyone, and the Aurors who were responsible for the attack on Riddle Mansion that day were not suspected."

"Huh?"

"Only a few people have traces of entering and leaving the old Gaunt house. It can be seen from the memories of several Aurors."

"." Owen glanced at the old principal, can you not breathe heavily?

"Who?"

"Moody, Theseus, the then Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Stringer, and the Minister of Magic." Dumbledore looked up at Owen, "Barty Crouch himself."

"Barty Crouch?" Owen widened his eyes and suddenly remembered someone.

Someone he almost forgot.

"Barty Crouch Jr!"

"Barty Crouch Jr?" Dumbledore said, "I remember that was his son, who died in Azkaban a few years ago."

"Wait!" Owen took a step back and rubbed his eyebrows.

If - he meant if.

Barty Crouch at the beginning was his son pretending to be him.

Is there such a possibility?

No - impossible! Owen shook his head.

Barty Crouch appeared in front of Dumbledore countless times, and the old headmaster didn't notice anything unusual at all. Even after the goblins invaded Hogwarts and Hufflepuff's sleeping place appeared in the world, the old headmaster had already begun to quietly use Legilimency on the people around him.

And after the Goblet of Fire, he had a quarrel with the headmaster, and even met with him alone in the headmaster's office.

Owen never believed that Barty Crouch Jr. could have such powerful magic to hide his true identity.

If Barty Crouch has always been himself.

Bella once told him that there are people from the Ministry of Magic. And they are Death Eaters who tried to rebel against Voldemort and return to Tom Riddle.

Could this person be Barty Crouch Jr.?

"Huh——" Owen felt his head was a little hot, and his thoughts went into a dead end. He couldn't figure out some key points.

"Professor," he said, "In fact, Barty Crouch Jr. is not dead."

"In 1982, Mrs. Crouch's condition worsened. Before she died, she found her husband, hoping to take the Polyjuice Potion herself, replace her son, and smuggle her son out of Azkaban."

"Old Barty may have felt that he owed her because he sent his son to Azkaban, so he finally agreed to this plan. Over the years, Barty Crouch Jr. has been hiding in the Crouch family's ancestral home."

"Where did you know this?" Dumbledore asked with a frown.

"Their family's elf, Winky." Owen lied. "At the World Cup, I found it was talking to an empty chair, so I quietly invaded its memory."

This excuse was very crude, and he immediately changed the subject and said, "But I don't think the former minister was Barty pretending to be him. He has talked to you alone many times, and even if he imitates you, it is impossible to be flawless. Nearly three years! Where did he get so many polyjuice potions? Large-scale purchases of potions will definitely be suspected."

Hearing this, Dumbledore fell into a brief silence.

After a few minutes of only hearing the strange "ding-dong" sounds made by the ornaments in the principal's office, he suddenly spoke, "What if that's him?"

"Uh-you-" Owen didn't quite understand what he meant.

"If he stood on the side of his son, Tom's side."

"What?" Owen widened his eyes, looking unbelievable.

Wait-although this explanation makes a lot of sense.

But-Barty Crouch! That's Barty Crouch!

With his hatred of evil and his character of viewing dark wizards as enemies, how could he possibly submit to Senior Tom?

Even if Dumbledore said that it was Barty Crouch Jr. who controlled his father with the Imperius Curse, Owen would believe it, at least this reason sounded more reliable.

"His character."

"Anyone's appearance is just a performance." Dumbledore looked at Owen and said, "For example, yourself - will anyone outside think you are a boy?"

"Uh" It makes sense, I can't refute it.

"The so-called loyalty is just that the chips for betrayal are not enough. What if Tom can come up with something that will move Barty Crouch?

Well - your information is very important, we have found a direction."

"Okay, next I need to go and talk to the former minister in person. Owen, you go back first."

"Okay, professor." He responded, then turned and left the principal's office.

——————

The next day, he told Harry and Hermione about his conversation with Dumbledore.

The little witch advised him to contact Bella now.

Ask her the truth.

But Owen did not agree.

Since he knew that this woman had rebellious intentions, she might still tell him other information in accordance with the contract, but she would definitely not tell him about the Horcruxes, and he would not get any results.

And if the Gaunt ring was really in the hands of Barty Crouch Jr., then she would definitely not tell him.

The reason was that she did not want to see all the Horcruxes destroyed.

Now, he just had to wait - wait for the negotiation between Dumbledore and Barty Crouch.

In addition, Harry also began to busy himself with the task of attacking Slughorn.

In the afternoon potion class, as usual, Harry was very impressive with his knowledge of Advanced Potion Making...

"Please be quiet, be quiet!" Slughorn walked up to the podium, "Unconsciously, the happy Christmas holiday has passed. I hope you don't play too much during this holiday and forget to study, because the tasks we face in the next semester will be very heavy. Now, who can tell me about Gorbarot's Third Law... Of course, our magic princess!"

Hermione stood up awkwardly and recited at the fastest speed, "Gorbarot's Third Law states that the antidote for a mixed poison is greater than the sum of the antidotes of each individual ingredient." After that, she sat down again at the fastest speed, but countless eyes still fell on her.

"Absolutely correct!" Slughorn smiled, "Absolutely correct! Gryffindor plus ten points! Now, if we admit that Gorbarot's Third Law is true..."

Slughorn's voice was endless in the class, but his eyes were almost all on Hermione, and a small amount of Harry.

Others seemed to be nothing but air, he was only teaching these two people.

".Of course, this means that if we have correctly analyzed the ingredients of the potion with Scapin's Apparition Charm, our primary goal is not to simply select the antidote for each individual ingredient, but to find the additional ingredient, which is a more difficult process." Slughorn said, "It can transform various unrelated ingredients through a process that is almost alchemical..."

Everyone took notes quickly in their notebooks.

Sucking knowledge like the sea.

"Okay, dry texts can't let you learn how to brew potions." Slughorn finally said, "Now, I want each of you to come to my podium and take a bottle. You must prepare the antidote for the contents of the bottle before the end of get out of class. Good luck to you, and don't forget to wear protective gloves!"

Hermione immediately left the stool and walked towards the podium. She took back the bottles of Harry, Ron and Owen.

"It's a pity, Harry." She straightened her back as she passed by Harry, "This time, your prince can't help you. I've already read the book. You must understand the principle of Barlot's Third Law to create an antidote. There's no way to cut corners."

"Then can your highness help me?" Harry said seriously.