HP meets at Hogwarts

Chapter 160 Seven True Memory

Ann attended Jill's funeral, which was austere.That fire devoured so many lives, and in the end, only a charred skeleton of a house and distorted corpses remained for those who were still alive.

"Pain is not punishment, death is not failure, and life is not necessarily reward."

Dumbledore put a cup of honey lemon tea on the table in front of Ann. Ann lowered her head and played with the silver earrings in her hand without raising her head.

Dumbledore didn't speak, and for a while, the headmaster's office fell into silence.

"You do understand," An said vaguely, "Does the second sentence refer to yourself?"

Dumbledore took a sip of the mead he was holding and said patiently, "You'll understand later, Ann."

"Actually, I don't understand now, you know how sad Harry will be when you die? He lost his parents, his godfather, and you..."

When Ann mentioned the godfather, her voice trembled a little.

"We have no choice. After becoming the president of the Order of the Phoenix, I think you understand better what we have to deal with is a group of cunning and powerful opponents." Dumbledore still said patiently, "The reason why Harry can To become the Harry who dared to face Voldemort, he must pass my level."

The rotating silver earhook paused, and An was stunned for a moment, then slowly exhaled from the depths of her lungs.

"It can be regarded as confirming your determination again." An finished drinking the tea on the table in one breath, "Then I'm leaving."

When Ann stood up, Dumbledore said in a slow and serious tone, "Ann, you have to understand that this was just an accident."

Squinting her eyes, An also answered slowly, "I know."

When Ann quickly walked to the door, Fox called out happily to Ann.An responded with a smile.

"Oh, by the way, Miss Granger may be outside the door."

Ann paused.

"She asked me a few times, after breakfast, lunch, dinner these days."

Ann nodded, opened the door and went out.

Coming down from the spiral staircase, a stone door opened.

Sure enough, Hermione was standing next to the stone monster.As soon as she saw Ann, she gave Ann a big hug.

Hugging Hermione tightly, Ann asked with a smile, "Why are you here?"

"Wait for you, I know you'll be back today." Hermione said.

"How did you know?"

"Ask."

"Why don't you write to me directly?"

Hermione shook her head and said with a smile, "I have a surprise for you. Let's go. Speaking of which, I have never sent you back to the Slytherin common room. Ah, and you haven't been to the Slytherin common room these days. I will make up for your lessons, and leave the rest time for the next few days to me."

With a knowing smile, Ann said, "Okay, then I will trouble Miss 'Know It All', the number one in grade."

Hermione pinched Ann's face, "You're welcome..."

"Well, it still doesn't work." An smirked, "In order to repay you, I will give you an extra reward."

"What reward?" A curious tone.

An Song let go of Hermione, turned around, and slightly bent her knees, "Come on, this is a high-level treatment."

Hermione wrapped her arms around Ann's neck with a smile, and Ann easily carried Hermione on her back, bouncing upside down.

The moonlight spilled into the corridor through the huge glass windows inlaid on the wall of the eighth floor, and the scenery from the heights of the castle was cold and clear.

"Hermione..."

"Ok?"

An smiled and showed two small canine teeth, "Do you now have a feeling that you stand tall, see far, and the scenery is particularly good?"

Hermione was taken aback, then rubbed Ann's soft hair vigorously, "Okay, are you calling me short in disguise?"

"Haha, and showing off that I'm taller than you in disguise..."

Ann carried Hermione on her back, and slowly descended from the highest floor of the castle to the first floor. During the period, she also specially picked some remote and varied stairs. The two chatted easily about the history of every painting they encountered on the road and the past. Occasionally, Ann quietly tilted her head and joked with Hermione about some portrait characters with stubborn personalities and weird behaviors in the castle.

It was not until the Slytherin lounge that Ann put Hermione down.

As soon as she stood up straight, Hermione wrapped her arms around Ann's neck, and wiped the sweat off Ann's forehead with a handkerchief, "Tired?"

"I'd love to." Ann said, pecking Hermione's lips, "Besides, you're not heavy. It seems that I'll cook you more delicious food when I get a chance in the future."

Hermione giggled.

In the dormitory, only Fanny was still awake, holding a copy of "Frontier Quidditch Tactics" and reading it happily.

As soon as An came in, Fanny's eyes lit up, she closed the book, put it on the bedside table, and stepped on her slippers to get close to An.

"Hermione is back?"

"How do you know?" Ann put on her slippers and walked to the bathroom.

Leaning against the door frame of the bathroom, Fanny said with a smile, "Your good friend, I plan to do the same thing with her, okay? But I have to say that people in Gryffindor College are very brave. Dare to block Dumbledore on the first day."

A relevant picture popped up in An's head, and he smiled.

"Looking at you like this, I can tell that it was the right choice for me to wait for you in the dormitory tonight." Fanny got the answer, turned around and walked to her bed.

In the next few days of March, life seemed to be back on the usual track again. The lower grade students still had a strong sense of curiosity and novelty about magic. Creates a small explosion.

The fifth graders were busy with their OWL exams, and when they saw students hurrying past with a pile of books in the corridor, they were most likely to be them.

In Dumbledore's office, Scull reviewed the various data on a piece of parchment and nodded, "In general, there is no problem. The transfer of deposits between Gringotts in London and Gringotts in Paris has always been efficient. If you do this, the future The Ministry of Magic is looking into your estate, and it's going to be very hard to track down that expenditure."

Stretching, Scull put the parchment into a large envelope.

Just as he was about to stand up, there was a knock on the office door.

Scull and Dumbledore looked at each other, and then Dumbledore said, "Come in."

It was Harry who opened the door. He looked excited and held up a small glass bottle, "Sir, I got it, I got Slughorn's memory."

Dumbledore was stunned for a moment, and then a smile broke out on his face, "Oh, Harry, this is really exciting news! It's really great!"

Scull was also taken aback for a moment, then stood up with a strange expression.

Harry didn't notice, he went straight to the Pensieve, where Dumbledore was already standing, and he reached out to take the glass bottle from Harry's hand.

Dumbledore glanced at Scull, who nodded and followed.

Harry couldn't wait to be the first to lean into the Pensieve.

This is Slughorn's office many years ago. A young Slughorn, with thick, glossy grass-colored hair and a ginger mustache, sits in a comfortable winged armchair with his feet resting on his shoulders. On a large velvet cushion, a small glass of wine is held in one hand, while the other hand is picking through a box of candied pineapple.Six or seven teenage boys sat around Slughorn, among them Tom Riddle.Marvolo's black-sapphire gold ring gleamed on Riddle's hand.

Riddle was asking, "Sir, is Professor Mellors retiring?" when Dumbledore landed beside Harry.

Scull stood behind the two of them. He looked around the environment first, and then looked at Riddle with his arms folded.

"Tom, Tom, I know I can't tell you," said Slughorn, wagging a frosted finger reproachfully at him, but winking again. "I have to say, I wonder where you got your news, boy. You know more than half the faculty."

Riddle smiled, and the other boys laughed too, casting him admiring glances.

"You ghost, you can know things you shouldn't know, and you are careful to please important people - by the way, thank you for your pineapple, you guessed it, this is my favorite -"

The boys snickered.

"—I believe you'll be Minister for Magic in 20 years. Maybe in 15, if you keep sending me pineapple preserves. I've got strong connections in the Ministry."

The other boys laughed again, and Tom Riddle just smiled.

"I don't know if politics is for me, sir," said Tom Riddle, after the laughter had died down. "First of all, I have no background."

The two boys next to each other looked at each other and smiled.

"Well," said Slughorn brightly, "you must come from a respectable wizarding family with a talent like yours, that's all too clear. You have a bright future, Tom, and I've never missed a student. "

The little golden clock on Slughorn's desk struck eleven.

"My God, is it time already? Time to go, boys, or we'll be in trouble. Lestrange, hand in your essay tomorrow, or you'll be in detention. And you too, Avery."

The boys filed out.Slughorn got up from his chair and carried the empty glass to the table.Movement behind him made him turn around, and Riddle was still standing there.

"Come on, Tom, you don't want to be caught outside after lights out, you're a prefect..."

"Sir, I want to ask you something."

"Then ask, boy, ask..."

"Sir, I want to ask you if you know... Horcruxes."

Slughorn stared at him, stroking the stem of the glass absently with his fat fingers.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts subject, isn't it?"

But Harry could see that Slughorn knew it wasn't school work.

"No, sir, I read it in a book, and I don't quite understand it."

"Well... yeah... it's hard to find a book at Hogwarts that details Horcruxes, Tom. It's very evil stuff, very evil," said Slughorn.

"But you obviously know, sir? I mean, a wizard like you—sorry, I mean, if you can't tell me, obviously—I just know if anyone can tell me it's you— So I wanted to ask-"

It was just right, Harry thought, the hesitant, casual tone, the clever compliment, without going too far.Harry himself had had too much experience wringing information from unwilling people to fail to recognize an expert.He could see that Riddle wanted this information very, very badly, had probably been planning for this moment for weeks.

"Well," said Slughorn, not looking at Riddle, but playing with the ribbon on the box of pineapple preserves, "of course it wouldn't do any harm to give you a brief introduction, just to give you a sense of the term. A horcrux is an object that houses part of a person's soul."

"But I don't quite understand what that is, sir," said Riddle.

His voice was carefully controlled, but Harry could feel his excitement.

"That is, you split your soul," said Slughorn, "and hide a part in some object outside your body. That way, if your body is attacked or destroyed, you cannot die, For there is still a portion of the soul left unharmed. But, of course, in this form..."

Slughorn's face scrunched up, and Harry remembered what he'd heard two years ago.

"I'm stripped of my body, worse than a ghost, worse than the humblest wandering spirit...but I'm still alive."

"... Few people think that way, Tom, very few. Better to die."

But Riddle's hunger and thirst are now obvious, his expression is greedy, and he can no longer hide his desire.

"How to split the soul?"

"Oh," said Slughorn uneasily, "you must understand that the soul is supposed to remain whole. To split it is a violation, it is against nature."

"But how did it split?"

"By an act of evil—the most evil of all, by murder. Killing people splits the soul, and wizards who want to make Horcruxes take advantage of this destruction: to seal the fragments of the split soul—"

"Storage? But how—?"

"There's a spell, don't ask me, I don't know!" Slughorn shook his head like an old mosquito-bitten elephant, "Do I look like I've tried it—do I look like a murderer? "

"No, sir, of course not," Riddle said hastily, "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to offend..."

"Where, no offense," said Slughorn gruffly, "it's normal to be a little curious about these things... talented wizards are always attracted to the side of magic..."

"Yes, sir," said Riddle, "but what I don't understand is—just out of curiosity, what I want to ask is, is a Horcrux useful? Can the soul be divided only once? How many pieces are more? Isn't it better, makes you stronger? Like, isn't seven the most magical number? Seven—?"

"My God, Tom!" cried Slughorn, "seven! Isn't it evil enough to try to kill a man? Anyway... splitting the soul is evil enough... and splitting into seven pieces..."

Slughorn looked very disturbed now: he stared at Riddle as if he hadn't seen him before, and Harry could see that he was regretting taking part in the conversation.

"Of course," he whispered, "we're talking about hypotheses, aren't we? Just academic..."

"Yes, sir, of course," said Riddle at once.

"But, Tom... what I'm talking about - what we're talking about, don't talk about it. People won't like it if they know we talked about Horcruxes. It's forbidden at Hogwarts, you know... Dumbledore in particular was fierce..."

"I won't tell, sir." Riddle said and left.But Harry caught a glimpse of his face, which was full of ecstasy, like when he first found out that he was a wizard, and the joy did not make his face more handsome, but rather grim...

"Thank you, Harry," whispered Dumbledore, "let's go..."

The author has something to say:

"Pain is not punishment, death is not failure, and life is not necessarily reward."

——"Grace and Courage" Ken.Wilbur