[HP]Aluet

My lips haven't left the cup for a long time.I took small sips of the freshly filled wine in the glass until the water level dropped to half. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Riddle getting away from the crowd and walking beside me with a relaxed expression.

"I want to change seats with you, sir." The strange man next to me didn't shirk, and immediately stood up and left his seat. Riddle thanked him politely, and then sat down.

My hands trembled involuntarily.

He didn't say anything, he pinched my cup, and took the cup away from my hand without any explanation.The wine glass dangled in front of him before being placed on the table.

I looked at his peaceful side face anxiously.He finally spoke, but his eyes were fixed on the wine glass in his hand, without squinting, it seemed very casual, but it made people stand upright: "Where did you go?"

I took a deep breath, organized my words for two seconds, and finally responded in as calm and unwavering a voice as possible: "I don't like proms, you know, I don't like dancing, and I don't have much to talk to, so I went to Just walk upstairs and let the wind go."

"is it?"

His deep eyes turned to me, I quickly looked away, and nodded calmly: "Yes."

"You don't like dancing," he repeated. "What if, I invite you?"

I was startled, and saw him let go of the hand holding the wine glass and stood up, looking down at me condescendingly, with his body always straight, and stretched out his hand.From the indifferent demeanor to the arrogant posture, I feel that this is not an invitation, but an order.

He didn't give me any room to say no, but I did it anyway.

"I don't know how to dance, you know that." My tone was pleading, "Besides, I'm not used to wearing this kind of shoes, they hurt my feet a bit."

Riddle ignored my words at all, and stood in front of me maintaining this posture. My eyes glanced to the side calmly, and first caught sight of Ranbusi's striking silver hair. Several Death Eaters also noticed the abnormality here.

They were shocked that the Dark Lord was standing in front of a "Death Eater", and this "Death Eater" sat on the seat and asked him to wait. What was even more shocking was that their Lord Dark Lord was still stubbornly standing where he was.

I sensed the dangerous hostility hidden in his eyes.

I closed my mouth, lowered my head not to look at Riddle, and silently put my hand on it.He held my hand with such force that it was about to crush my bones, but I didn't dare to make any sound.

He took me to the middle of the ballroom, where we were mixed among the dancing guests, and we were well hidden by the swinging dress.

I tried not to let my footsteps go wrong, and the pain in my ankle became more and more obvious.At the climax of the music, he raised his hand, and I twirled under his hand, my waist was suddenly wrapped, and there was a pulling force, and I fell back into his arms without standing still. I almost sprained my foot.

Just as I was about to break free, his other hand came around from behind and held me tightly in his arms. The hard bones of his jaw pressed against my shoulders, and he clamped my jaw with his cold and slender fingers. Forcibly adjusted my face at an angle.I groaned in pain, furrowing my brows tightly.

"Look." Riddle's low and ethereal voice rang in my ears, and the hot breath he exhaled hit my ears, but I didn't feel anything other than fear.My eyelashes trembled, my jawbone was pinched, and even the numb pain went all the way to my brain.The eyes looked in the direction indicated by him.It was an oil painting hanging high on the wall.

The background color is old gray-yellow, and the impact of contrasting colors is very strong. I can vaguely recognize countless blurred and distorted human faces. In the center, the expressions are different, and the red pigment is not evenly blended, like flowing water, showing vertical lines of different lengths and thicknesses.

Horror is my first feeling when I see it, and it is also the most intuitive emotion that hits me first; followed by a kind of almost maddened resentment, scarlet, exhausted eyes dripping with blood and tears; and then Then there is endless depression, those brushstrokes that are mainly black and intertwined with pure colors are like hands struggling to stretch out in the abyss, and each color represents the most extreme evil, they seal my heart from all directions The body and internal organs imprison my mind and soul; the last is sorrow, the shocking sorrow, as if from the distant past, ethereal and lonely - I am sure it is a substance, I hear the cry of me deep in my heart, So in the empty space, the four walls gave me an echo.

"Do you know who the author is?" Riddle asked me.

"Astur Knoss."

"Then do you know its background?" His icy voice struck my soul.I shook my head.

"This is one of the illustrations he made for his own novel," Riddle said quietly, as if stating a very ordinary story, "This one is called The Wrath of Samuel. An unarmed mortal wants to escape from death. He rescued his wife, but on the way back from hell to the world, he listened to the devil's slander and extended the knife to an innocent woman. However, he didn't know that his wife's soul was hidden in that woman's body, and he learned the truth Later, his eyes were red, but he never thought of any crimes on his hands, so he was trapped in hell forever under the trend of anger and hatred."

His hand moved from my chin to my neck, I felt suffocated for a moment, my eyes were dark, and two tears fell down the corners of my eyes.

"As for the reality..." He paused, "The style of Astule's paintings in the later period is all this gloomy, because he once betrayed his only friend, so he spent the most tormented period of his life in regret and pain." 20 years, committed suicide in 1559."

I didn't understand what he wanted to express, but that cold and dangerous attitude made me shudder from the inside out.

"It's a pity that you have been away for too long and didn't have time to appreciate these paintings."

He was threatening me for his guesses.

Since what happened at Krell's wedding reception, although he didn't notice anything, he was definitely suspicious of me, and I could feel him starting to be more wary of me than before - I'm sure I didn't show anything. Flaws, even if he has suspected me for a long time, he can't produce evidence.

I guess maybe he thought I'd done something, but I just went to Orion and didn't do anything else.

Conceited and suspicious person.I thought sarcastically.

"When I bring you out, don't leave my sight." He finally said in my ear, and then let go of his hand. I lost my restraint and took a few greedy breaths.He left me and went straight to his seat at the table.

My arms hung limply by my side, trembling uncontrollably.I felt a sweeping sense of powerlessness—because the clenching of my fists for a long time had exhausted my strength.

After so long, I still can't completely overcome my fear of him.

After missing the chance to be crowned by Ravenclaw, everything seemed more confused. Riddle became more and more wary of me, and I don't know what changes will happen in the future.

He probably thought that a threat would dissuade me from harming his interests.Unfortunately, not possible.

From the moment he killed my father, he should have realized that unless I die, I will never make him feel better.

I decided to be more proactive.Like, attacking the Death Eaters around him.

Although Irina has a stubborn temper, judging from her current attitude, I can feel some changes, and I still need to take it slowly——

Alphard is fine, but he became a Death Eater too late, so he may not know any useful information.

There is one more person...

After I returned from the banquet, I slipped out late at night, and of course, left suspicious items like the double-sided mirror in the room.

I sneaked into Lestrange Manor, flew in from the backyard, found Claire, and knocked on the window for a long time before waking him up.After waiting for a while, he finally came out with sleepy eyes. I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to a more secluded place outside.

He broke away calmly, his gaze was a little dodgy, and he kept looking at the low place, not daring to raise his head.

"What do you want from me?" He asked weakly.

"No big deal, don't be nervous, I just want to ask you a question." I replied.

"Tell me." He nodded slightly, his head still half down.

"You have been with Lord Dark Lord for a long time, do you know when he started making Horcruxes?"

He raised his head suddenly, his pupils constricted, and he looked flustered: "You..."

"Don't worry." I comforted, "You just need to answer, and I won't let you do anything else—you don't have to be afraid that I will be bad for him, you should do whatever you want, it's just a very normal person. problem."

He hung his head again and didn't speak for a long time.

"I know you're afraid of him." I remember the time I stopped him near the Riddle House.The reason why I came to him to ask, besides the favor he owed me for saving his life, was his fear of Riddle.At that time, he was just a manslaughter, which could make him afraid of being imprisoned and afraid of being like that. Riddle probably threatened him with something.As for the threat, it is easy to explain.Krell's character, after gradually understanding Riddle's nature, he will definitely shrink back—but he knows a lot, and he is relatively timid and fearful. If he really gets out of control and encounters threats from Ministry of Magic staff or someone It will be difficult to handle all the messy things about Riddle and the others.Therefore, among the members of the Death Eaters that I know well, he is not an avid black magic enthusiast, nor does he follow Riddle because he admires Riddle's black magic attainments, but rather—fear.

And I saved him once from this fear.

I knew he would be difficult to deal with, so I didn't want to dig deeper from him.If it's tight, I'm not sure if my kindness to him is worth the fear of Riddle in his heart—I don't think it's [-]% worth it.

"It's not a particularly critical issue, is it?" I said, "Don't worry, I assure you, you won't get involved in anything. As for the fact that I came to you today, you can just pretend nothing happened. There is no need to be mentally burdened."

He hesitated for a moment, then said hesitantly: "Specifically... I don't remember, he mentioned the Horcrux issue to us in the fifth grade, but I really don't know when he started... he At that time, it was said that someone needs to make a sacrifice for this ... We have never taken it seriously, because he will not be with us in everything."

"Then do you know the exact number of Horcruxes?"

"I don't know..."

I sighed in disappointment.

"But..." Krell hesitated for a moment, "He...he mentioned a number casually when he was discussing black magic with us and mentioned Horcruxes—he said, he said...if the soul can be divided into..."

I waited anxiously for him to remember—

"By the way - if the soul can be divided many times - say - seven times - seven is a magic number, isn't it?"

"Seven?" I was taken aback.Ravenclaw's diadem, Hufflepuff's cup, and Slytherin's pendant, those are the only three I know.Counting the Gryffindor sword that he has not yet obtained, there are only four treasures from the four major colleges. How do I know what the other three are?I hope he only made those three pieces now, but I have to consider a problem-"sacrifice"... If it is said that one person needs to be killed to make one Horcrux, then he must kill the first person to make a Horcrux. As far as I know, the first time I saw him commit murder was the summer vacation when I was promoted to the fourth grade from the third grade, and at that time, he was about to enter the sixth grade.

Perhaps at that time, he was already planning to make the first Horcrux.

For a while, I couldn't think of what he would use as a container to split the soul besides the treasures of the four major colleges.But from this point of view, most of them must be some more precious objects.

such as……

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration came to my mind.

I remembered that he had gone to Morfin Gaunt to take a ring which he still wears every day.

This suspicion is very reasonable.I can't break the Ravenclaw's diadem with the Pulverizing Curse or the Fire Curse, and other Horcruxes probably have this characteristic.If you want to know if that ring is a Horcrux, you can find out if you have a chance to try it.

"Thank you, Claire." I patted him on the shoulder, "You go and rest, it's okay." After I finished speaking, I turned into a bird and flew away from Lestrange Manor, deliberately staying behind since I left. The window slit was back in my room.

I lay on the bed and closed my eyes.After a while, however, I sat up again.

He still had to sneak in to find the things he was carrying close to his body while he was asleep, and it was hard to get a chance at other times.

Although a little risky...

My body began to tremble uncontrollably due to tension.

However, with my Disillusionment Charm and silence, it's almost impossible for him to notice—unless, he's up most of the night.