demon hunter at hogwarts

After an unknown amount of time, Regulus was still lying motionless on the floor.

"Is he dead?"

Slughorn looked anxious, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead from time to time.

"If you mean Regulus, I think... he is still alive." Dumbledore said slowly.

The old principal's unblinking blue eyes looked solemnly through the half-moon crystal lenses, looking at Regulus who seemed to be in a deep sleep.

"What do you mean 'I think?'" Sirius walked around the room anxiously and asked Dumbledore, "He told you that he was going to be so messy? And then you actually agreed?"

The magic that calmed Harry's emotions just now seemed completely ineffective when applied to him.

"He said that he was sure." There was no emotion in Dumbledore's old voice.

"I said the same thing back then, but in the end..." Sirius squatted on the ground, holding his hair with both hands, "I'm sorry, I know you can't be blamed for this, I should have stopped him... I was too impatient, Ever since I found out..."

Sirius hurriedly stopped, but Harry had already guessed that the words his godfather swallowed must be related to him.

"Can I ask...what exactly happened?" Harry's voice was soft but his tone was firm.

Sirius and Dumbledore looked at each other. The old headmaster approached Harry and asked, "Does your head still hurt?"

Harry couldn't help but rub his scar, he was still frightened by the heartbreaking pain just now.

"It doesn't hurt now."

"It's time to tell you something." Dumbledore said. "Voldemort failed when he tried to kill you. The unsuccessful spell left part of his...mana...in your body. This That’s why you can talk to snakes.”

Harry tilted his head, his green eyes meeting Dumbledore's blue ones.

Hearing Voldemort's name, Slughorn flinched, but did not try to escape by apparating again when Dumbledore walked away.

"And the thing that is fighting Professor Black is called a Horcrux." Dumbledore pointed to the locket, "It was also made by Voldemort. Since you have Voldemort's magic power, you can naturally react to it."

"So my headache is because of that... Horcrux?" Harry asked doubtfully. He walked closer to the bookshelf and looked at the exquisite locket.

Sirius subconsciously wanted to stop Harry from getting close to the Horcrux, but Dumbledore raised his hand to indicate that it was okay.

The locket was open inside the wooden box. The scary pair of eyes that were sometimes black and sometimes red were gone. What was reflected in the delicate glass lenses were Harry's own eyes.

"To put it simply, there was a soul sealed inside." Dumbledore explained the function of the Horcrux, "It is a fragment of Voldemort's own soul."

"It's those two..." Harry tried hard to find adjectives to describe the strange scene he saw.

"That's what the magic power of this Horcrux looks like." Dumbledore said. "We don't know what the soul fragment really looks like, because it is currently fighting Regulus in his body."

Harry tried hard to think about the meaning of the old man's words. After a moment, he asked with some horror: "If...Mr. Black fails, will the fragment of soul...Voldemort...take over his body and be resurrected?" "

"The worst case scenario is this." Dumbledore nodded slowly and replied.

"Then how should we help him!" Harry asked anxiously, "We can't watch like this! You must have something to do, right?"

"You can't help me."

It was not Dumbledore who answered Harry, but a much younger voice.

Regulus, who had been unconscious and lying on his back, suddenly spoke in a relaxed tone.

"You're awake!" Sirius shouted in surprise. Just as he was about to help Regulus up, he cautiously pulled out his wand and pointed it at the person lying on the ground.

"who are you?"

"How can I prove this? If the Dark Lord engulfs my consciousness, he will definitely disguise himself and make it difficult for the people closest to him to see through it." Regulus was still lying there, staring at the ceiling with his hands and feet spread out. He said expressionlessly, "And if all my memories are read by him, then no matter what method you use, you will not be able to check the authenticity."

Sirius was momentarily speechless.

"Do you still remember the magic you showed me when we met a few months ago when you first came back?" Dumbledore suddenly said.

"Is this your plan? Mr. Headmaster?" Regulus stood up, waved his wand vigorously, and chanted a spell loudly.

"Call God Guard!"

As the spell took effect, the mighty silver lion erupted from his wand, landed on the ground, and patrolled around.

A smile appeared on Dumbledore's face.

Harry and Slughorn looked at the lion lying at Regulus' feet in amazement, turning its huge head and looking around.

Although the two people were surprised at different points.

"How could you do this! And your Patronus...you are more Gryffindor than me!" The expression on Sirius's face was mixed, and he looked like he was going crazy. "If mother sees This, what do you think she will say?"

Finally, he also shouted: "Call the gods to protect you!"

A huge bear-like dog jumped to the ground and showed its fangs in a demonstrative manner towards Regulus' lion.

Although they both looked vicious, Harry was certain that these two shining silver creatures were absolutely harmless.

"Sirius, it seems that we can confirm for the time being that the person in front of you is Regulus, not Tom Riddle." Dumbledore concluded.

"Tom Riddle?" Sirius put away his Patronus and asked doubtfully.

"It's the mysterious man. Tom Riddle is the name he used when he was in school." Slughorn, who had been silent for the whole time, suddenly said.

Some color returned to his face, and it was not as pale as before. It seemed that the patron saint of the Black brothers had eased his fear.

Sirius suddenly burst into laughter.

"Tom Riddle... When I was in solitary confinement, I even wiped the badge with his name on it! No wonder he wanted to change his name... Tom... Hahahaha!"

"Yes, he thinks the name Tom is too ordinary, and he is destined to be anything but ordinary..." Dumbledore said with some emotion, "In fact, he did do extraordinary things, even though it was terrible."

"Anyway, we have killed his Horcrux. Does this mean that we can completely defeat him?" When Sirius spoke, he tried hard not to turn his eyes to Harry.

"Horace? What do you think?" Dumbledore suddenly asked Slughorn.

"I...oh...of course, we made a good start, didn't we..." Slughorn's eyes were wandering around, and his answers were hesitant.

"Why don't you ask the person involved how he feels?" Regulus suddenly walked to the bookshelf, took the locket out of the wooden box, and held it in his hand.

The patron saint lion quietly disappeared at some point.

"Are you okay?" Dumbledore asked softly.

Regulus suddenly stuck out his tongue and licked his lips.

"What do you want to do?" Sirius asked alertly, his wand already raised and pointed forward.

As soon as he finished speaking, Regulus's left eye suddenly turned red, just like the pair of eyes in the locket before, and then, an unidentifiable hissing sound came out of his mouth.

At this time, even Dumbledore tightened his grip on his wand, his expression became solemn again, and he stared at Regulus with bright eyes.

"Parseltongue? How do you know that?" Slughorn asked in disbelief.

No one else understood what the hissing meant, except Harry, who heard Regulus say "close."

The locket, which was originally open, closed with a click after receiving Regulus's order.

Regulus blinked his left eye, and his eyes returned to their normal color.

"What are you doing?" Sirius blocked Harry behind him, pointed his wand at Regulus and roared, "Who the hell are you?"

"This is the second time you have asked me the same question within 5 minutes, brother." Regulus looked at the locket carefully and replied in a casual tone, "I just want to show that the Dark Lord left A little gift for me.”

Sirius was about to speak, but Regulus said first: "When I destroyed that soul, I also gained some of the Dark Lord's power and memories."

"Remember..." Sirius had just said half a word when Regulus interrupted him.

"Very fragmented memories. There are only fragments of how he got the locket and the process of making it into a Horcrux. The only thing Riddle in it is that he doesn't know what happened after the soul split."

"How do you know..." Sirius spoke again, but was interrupted again in the second half of his sentence.

"Legilimency, he is good at this. You see, he can simulate the appearance of our parents simply by mining our memories, and thanks to his gift..."

"Stop reading my mind!" Sirius yelled unbearably.

"I'm sorry, I just learned a new skill and couldn't help but want to show off." Regulus showed a smile as if his prank had succeeded, and then turned to Slughorn, "We have solved a big problem, Slughorn. Professor, if you would like to appreciate this locket now, I can help."

"Um...Okay...I mean, you don't get many chances to see a treasure like this..." Slughorn forced a smile.

The locket lay quietly in Regulus's hand,

"The simplest way to use it is that he can store things, just like this..." Regulus walked to another shelf, picked up a weapon similar to a medieval flail, and waved it twice.

Then, he reopened the locket and pointed it at the flail.

In a flash of light, the rather small flail disappeared.

"The Traceless Stretching Charm, but this is too... boring." Sirius immediately recognized the spell, but his tone was a bit disdainful, "I originally thought that the things belonging to the founder of Hogwarts were better than your shabby leather bag. A little more advanced.”

Although Slughorn said nothing, a hint of disappointment could be read in his eyes.

"Be careful what you say." Regulus flicked the locket gently.

The flail suddenly appeared in front of Sirius. After hovering for half a second, it fell from the air and hit the ground heavily. The spikes on the hammer head stained with black blood were less than an inch away from Sirius' feet.

"This is..." Sirius lowered his head and picked up the flail. Looking at the spikes on it, he couldn't help but shake his legs.

"Compared to ordinary things that use the Traceless Stretching Charm, this locket is more convenient to access." Regulus explained, "It also has a function, which is to detect whether the people around you have malicious intentions towards you. Of course , there is no way to verify this now.”

"Magical..." Slughorn praised perfunctorily and said insincerely, "I, an old man, did get a lot of surprises today. It may be the most unforgettable Christmas in my 100 years of life. We are It’s not the time to…”

Regulus took out his pocket watch. It was almost noon.

"Kreacher should have already prepared lunch. I don't want to be criticized by Phineas's portrait as being 'rude' or 'under the grace of the Black family'," he said half-jokingly.

"Horace, how long has it been since we had lunch together? How about just reminiscing about our friendship as colleagues?" Dumbledore also said to Slughorn with a smile.

Slughorn finally gave in and followed Sirius and Harry up the stairs.

Obviously, Kreacher had never been idle. When everyone returned to the restaurant, a table of delicious food was already ready.

After eating half a bowl of pineapple preserves and drinking a large glass of aged mead, Slughorn's mood finally seemed to be normal, and one of his jokes made the whole table laugh.

"Horace, we need to talk." After the meal, Dumbledore took Slughorn and sat down in the living room.

Sirius took Harry back to the bedroom, and Regulus wisely hid in the kitchen, pretending to clean with Kreacher, leaving room for the two old men to talk.

"Listen to me...Albus, that experience made me ashamed and regretful. I'm afraid...it was because of me that Tom embarked on this path." Slughorn said ashamedly, " If that's the case, I don't have the face to meet those who died because of this, Lily..."

"He will become like this just because he is Voldemort. Even if you don't teach him many things, he will know them through other means." Dumbledore comforted his old colleague, "It has nothing to do with you."

"Do you really think so?" Slughorn raised his head and looked at Dumbledore for a moment.

"Really." Dumbledore said seriously, "But you can't escape forever. Your student Regulus was once a follower of Voldemort, but he stole the Horcrux ten years ago. In order to correct the mistakes he made, today we also saw how he defeated that thing."

Slughorn grunted.

"We can defeat him, be brave, Horace," Dumbledore said encouragingly.

"Okay...well, we need a quiet place...just you and me."

After saying this, Slughorn seemed to have lost his strength and collapsed on the sofa.