the Gambler

The last class in the new Hogsmeade before the weekend was herbalism. It was clear that the bustling place was no longer there, and Harry didn't really have much interest. After struggling for a while, he decided to tell Ron his decision.Ron was very sorry when he first heard it, but after Harry explicitly hinted that the other party could be alone with Hermione, the cloudy weather turned sunny, and his smile was not to mention brilliant.

Harry was still a little conflicted, the feeling of being excluded was getting stronger and stronger, but he had to grit his teeth and endure the decision he had made.

The herbalism classroom is in the greenhouse outside the castle. It is very difficult to find the target in the violent snowstorm. Fortunately, Tom thought of using the location spell on Sprout, and everyone followed the guidance of the wand to reach the classroom smoothly.The glass room is very warm, and you can see the white snow outside in any direction.They quickly took off their scarves and gloves and hung them on the brackets and began to chat. After a few minutes of excited noise, the professor cleared his throat and signaled everyone to look at the plants in front of them.

It was a plant with intertwined roots, covered with fingernail-shaped protrusions, and there were small purple-black fruits at the ends of the curved branches.Neville was the first to move. He had already put on thick dragon leather gloves. He scratched the roots of the tree with one hand, and carefully cut off the berries with the scissors. The plants made weird giggles, and his whole body twisted Twisting back and forth, the sharp blade cut through the surface of the fruit, and the foul-smelling dark green liquid shot out nearly two meters away, and no one around the boy was spared.

Tom frowned in disgust. He too was caught off guard. Who would have thought anyone could be so clumsy?If Sprout hadn't looked their way sympathetically, he'd have had the urge to hex that reckless Gryffindor.Harry was not much better either, he grabbed his sleeve and vigorously rubbed the stain on his face, the disgusting smell made him retch, and the stench disappeared only after using 'Clean and Fresh' a few times in a row.

"At least Mr. Longbottom has completed the task." Sprout clapped his hands and added ten points to Gryffindor.Neville was not used to being praised, and his face flushed instantly, which made his skin red and purple, as if he had been beaten up.The witch walked slowly from the other side of the long table, saw that none of Harry had moved, and criticized severely: "You have fallen behind for a long time, hurry up!"

"Okay, professor." The four answered in unison, and Harry stretched out his hand to the weird plant the moment the words fell.

"There is no good way to deal with it?" Tom looked at the trembling plant in front of him in disgust. If it kept twisting, it would be unavoidable to cut the peel. Salazar, he has no plans to accept another stinky juice attack .

"Many herbal medicines do not allow magical intervention, which will greatly reduce the efficacy of the medicine." Hermione raised her chin and spoke confidently, but Tom snorted coldly and ignored it.Hermione turned her head angrily, and began to accuse Ron of irregular operations.

"She is really like Minerva, the same nerd." Tom commented coldly, "But at least Minerva still knows a little bit of Quidditch, and she didn't bury her whole head in the pile of books."

"You're just dissatisfied with her attitude, so there's no need to explain." Harry struggled to cut off a berry, his arms trembling uncontrollably, and his muscles were stiff from the posture he had just placed.

"Get me one too."

"dream."

"I'm much more disgusted by this thing than the plants of that era." After putting a protective spell on himself, Tom carefully cut off the berries and threw them into the plate in front of him.The fruits collided with each other and made a squeaky sound.

After Sprout walked around the greenhouse, checking everyone's progress, she asked to peel the berries, and Tom nearly knocked over the plate in anger.

"This thing is disgusting." Ron wrinkled his nose and complained dissatisfiedly. Now that the whole greenhouse was surrounded by stench, Harry felt that it was better to stay outside and freeze than to stay inside.What's worse, in order to prevent the magic from failing, the room is sealed, and there is no possibility of air circulation.He could see the blue veins popping out of Tom's forehead, and the strength of the opponent's grip on the prop made the poor metal scream.

"Stop talking nonsense, we can go out sooner after finishing it." Hermione picked up the knife, and the slippery fruit in her hand was still struggling, and the witch looked away in disgust, "Merlin, this is really annoying. "

"I don't want to grow this thing in the garden. Fred and George don't know what pranks they will do with it. Maybe in a few days, stinky candy will be produced."

"Don't talk nonsense! Hurry up and peel off the skin while it's fresh!" Sprout shouted again, her patched hat shaking from side to side at the movement.

Harry quickly put his berries on the cutting board, Tom stopped the point of the knife just as it was about to cut into the surface.Facing Harry's doubts, the boy just shook his head to indicate Hermione's direction.Harry turned his head, just in time to see Hermione's face was sprayed with stinky juice again, and even her fluffy curly hair stood up a lot.He suddenly felt that the berries in his hands were more terrifying than the Hungarian Horntail, who knew when they would attack suddenly.

After waiting for a little while, Tom put the knife flat on the berry, slowly rotated and squeezed the fruit, and when the whole skin began to become wrinkled, he slowly cut a hole from the side, and the purple berry juice slowly leaked out. Slowly flow into the glassware attached below.Harry raised his brows, and Hermione's uncomfortable exhalation came from behind, and Tom raised the corners of his mouth, smiling very innocently.

In the next class, Hermione didn't speak a word to them again. After handing the bottle to Sprout, Ron followed the angry witch and disappeared into the blizzard. Before leaving, he didn't forget to say goodbye to Harry. .

"You're narrow-minded," said Harry. "You could tell Hermione."

"I thought she'd read so many books, she'd always use her head to think about it." Tom mocked, turning his head to look at Harry, "It's our time alone now, will you go to Hogsmeade tomorrow?"

"No, I didn't—" Harry's words were interrupted by a sudden sharp pain, the scar was burning hot, the blood kept gushing out from the open wound, and the whole snow was covered with bright red liquid.He could hear Tom yelp in surprise, and the concern the Slytherin showed made him want to hold his face in his hands.He tried to tell Tom that this was normal, but only a hoarse guttural sound came out, and the next second, he was surrounded by darkness.

Voldemort was furious.

Harry could feel the Dark Lord's fury, so much that the walls of Occlumency were broken.He could look at the room in front of him through Voldemort's eyes, a dilapidated old house, with broken walls and furniture everywhere, cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, and a thick layer of dust on the table in the middle of the house.He remembered seeing this room, in the memories Dumbledore had provided.Morfin Gaunt's room.

Voldemort was standing in front of the magic-wrapped cupboard, but it opened and it was empty.Harry noticed a Galleon-sized circular mark in the center of the dust, with a small bump at one end.

What was there originally.Something important to Voldemort, but now gone.

Voldemort was very angry. He obviously didn't expect anyone to guess where he hid the Horcrux, the ruins of Morfin Gaunt's house that he hated.The monstrous rage made Harry sweat in pain, he didn't know how long he could endure the torture, the severe pain made him scream, many hands pressed him on the soft fabric, and the noisy sound was ringing in his ears humming.He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids were too heavy to move.

Someone grabbed his jaw and forcibly opened it, and poured the disgusting liquid into his mouth. The mucus slowly slid down the esophagus into his stomach. He coughed dryly a few times, but the thing still didn't come out.

"Relax, Harry." Said a familiar anxious voice, rubbing a hand through his messy hair, cold fingertips came out of the knots, slowly stroking around the scar shape on his forehead, he The pain suddenly became much less, as if some kind of tranquilizer was introduced into the body along with the touched skin.

Tom.Voldemort.

Tom and Voldemort.

He just knew that two people were fighting for control of his mind, and no matter what Tom did, Voldemort finally chose to leave and give him back the boy's body.Harry let out a long sigh of relief, and rubbed his palm against Slytherin, the bright light fell on his eyelids, feeling very warm.He struggled to open his eyelids.

"Mr Potter—"

"I need to see the headmaster!" Harry's first words after waking up made Tom frowned, McGonagall hurriedly left the room after understanding, and 5 minutes later, she reappeared behind the dusty Dumbledore In the medical wing.Noticing Harry's hesitant expression, Dumbledore signaled McGonagall and Tom to leave.When the door was closed heavily, Dumbledore pulled the chair next to the hospital bed and sat down.His expression was very serious.

"Voldemort is angry at Gaunt's old house, sir." Harry noticed that the muscles in Dumbledore's face twitched indistinctly, and even the crazy flicker in his eyes disappeared.

"He found out that Gaunt's ring was destroyed." Dumbledore said calmly. "It seems that we need to speed up the process. He has realized that the Horcrux is in danger. Although I don't know what made him so This will undoubtedly affect our future plans."

"That's where I got the Horcrux. Voldemort planted a lot of powerful protective magic around Gaunt's ring. That thing will actively identify the identity of the intruder and attack. If it weren't for me, let me say without humility, If it were someone else, they might have been eroded to death by black magic. Isn't it a good deal to exchange an arm for a piece of Voldemort's soul?" Dumbledore rolled up his sleeves, "I returned to Hogwarts after destroying Gaunt's ring , it was Snape who helped stop the jinx from spreading. But it wasn't permanent, Harry, and we won't talk about it now."

"The curse will continue to erode you?" Harry's voice became as soft as a whisper, and he suddenly felt that the scorched black marks on it were so hideous, burning his retinas.Noticing Harry's mood, Dumbledore pulled his sleeve back over his arm.

"Horace's memory is important, you have to speed up, as you can see, I am not so strong anymore."

"