Hogwarts Advanced Guide

Chapter 345 A New Trace of the Horcrux
"I'm afraid the matter on my side is far more important than a clown, Hera." Dumbledore said with a smile, but there was no sign of worry on his face at all, and he was still so calm.

"Maybe you're right, Dumbledore, but I can't guarantee that everything will go as you expected. After all, Umbridge and Fudge are not utterly stupid guys." Hera said dryly.

Dumbledore nodded, his blue eyes flashed, "I never doubted that Fudge was a fool, but he was terrified, he couldn't believe all this, in fact, I have no doubt that if it was in a peaceful age, Connery would be a very good leader."

"But it's obviously not an era of peace. The Dark Lord has returned." Hera looked at the ground and put her wand back into her pocket. "Not to mention the Ministry of Magic helping us, it even helped the Dark Lord suppress the Order of the Phoenix."

"I'm afraid this is his purpose." Dumbledore took a deep breath. "He is much smarter than before. He no longer blindly believes in his own power, but starts to take advantage of it."

"This is not good news, is it?" Hera asked, his eyes fixed on Dumbledore, hoping to hear a negative answer from him.

"I'm sorry, Hera, but I have to say that this makes it much more difficult for us to defeat him." Having said that, Dumbledore sighed, "But we are not hopeless."

"Aren't you still counting on Harry? That prophecy?" Hera was a little disappointed, but this had nothing to do with personal feelings, but the fact. "Dumbledore, even if everything went according to your plan and destroyed Voldemort's Horcrux, how can we kill him? His strength is not only his own, but also his loyal followers."

"Of course I know this, but the prophecy clearly stated that only one of them will survive." Dumbledore said firmly, "Harry has the energy to conquer Tom."

"Even if none of us can understand what kind of power this is?"

"Even if none of us can understand what power this is." Dumbledore repeated Hera's words, but his tone was more decisive, as if all of this was unquestionable.

"If that's what you mean, then I know what to do." Hera looked at Dumbledore for a while and said with a sigh.

"Time will tell our choice." Dumbledore said softly.

Hera smiled wryly, "Even if this is likely to lead us to perdition?"

Dumbledore was silent, did not answer Hera's words, but quietly turned his head aside, looking at the waves outside the window.

Hera followed his gaze, and he could smell the sea and hear the crashing waves.He looked out at the roaring sea and the overcast sky in the distance, a cold breeze blowing through the window in his hair.

"Dumbledore, I'm not alone." Hera said lightly, without looking at Dumbledore, he knew that Dumbledore understood what he meant.

Dumbledore pursed his lips, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes slightly, "I won't blame you."

Hera nodded. He and Dumbledore had reached a consensus: if the situation was irreversible, Hera would fall to Voldemort. He was not for himself. He was no longer the same person as before. He still had Penelope and Penelope's family to be responsible. It was impossible for him to drag all of them and Harry Potter to be buried with him.

Dumbledore approved Hera's behavior. In fact, he had no position to blame Hera for this behavior-this was also a common thing when Voldemort gained power before. After all, not everyone has the courage to resist Voldemort.

"Hera, I thought you would be brave." Dumbledore said with a sad tone, "Just like that night in 1991, you can muster up the courage to explain everything to me."

"But it's different, Dumbledore, you know that." Hera's voice was deeper than Dumbledore's.

"Hera, you are more mature than I imagined." Dumbledore's eyes were filled with relief, but at this moment he looked particularly awkward.

Silence, long silence.

"Why is Fox there?"

"Oh, this is a very interesting thing." Dumbledore took out a piece of candy from his pocket, and with his gloved hand struggled to peel off the sugar coating, he stuffed it into his mouth. "Fox will answer the call of those who are faithful to me, especially when they are in trouble."

"Faithful?" Hera felt a little ridiculous, was he loyal to Dumbledore?

This is too ridiculous, he is a Slytherin with the surname of Lestrange, and he will be loyal to Dumbledore, this is too ridiculous.

"I suppose so," said Dumbledore. "By the way, do you know where this is?"

"Beach." Hera said without doubt, after all he could smell the stench in the air.

"What do you think?" Dumbledore asked, sounding now as if he were asking Hera if this was an ideal picnic spot.

"You spent all your past time here?" Hera asked suspiciously, "I don't see any magic here."

"You know about Horcruxes, but I was wondering where would Tom hide his Horcruxes?" Dumbledore asked with a smile.

The conversation between them seemed to have suddenly returned to the previous harmonious state. They all tacitly ignored the somewhat blunt conversation just now, like a group of teachers and students who had a harmonious relationship.

"Would you like to go out and have a look, the scenery here is not bad." Dumbledore stood up, pushed open the door, the cold wind blew through Hera's whole body, and he had to take out another cloak from his small pocket to put on his body - the cloak on his body had several holes, and the biting wind was blowing on his body along the holes.

Presently Hera was standing on a high black rock outcropping, and the waves rolled and foamed beneath his feet.Behind him stood a cliff, the steep rock wall fell straight down, so dark that it was impossible to see his face clearly.Several large rocks, such as the one on which Hera and Dumbledore are standing, appear to have dislodged from the face of the cliff at some point in the past.The surroundings are bare and desolate, except for the vast sea and rocks, there is no tree, no grass and sand.

"How did you find this place?" Hera asked, "I'm afraid it's not easy to find this place?"

"It's more troublesome than you imagined. I had to look up a lot of information and travel a lot before I could barely confirm that it was probably this coast." Dumbledore said, listening to his tone, it seemed that it took no effort at all.

But Hera knew how difficult it was. The place where Voldemort hid the Horcruxes must be a place he thought was very meaningful and safe, but it only took Dumbledore more than a month to determine the location of one of them-this is already very fast.

"How did you know for sure?" Hera asked quickly, "You must be sure that the Dark Lord will hide the Horcrux here?"

"I investigated the Wu's Orphanage. They visited here in the summer. I think this is a place of great significance to Tom." Dumbledore paused, glanced at Hera, and continued, "This is the place where he found out that he was not an ordinary child. He threatened two children here, and I knew it early on."

"Then you didn't interfere before?" Hera asked suspiciously, "After all, little wizards are not allowed to cast spells outside the school."

"The law was not sound at that time, and the Ministry of Magic didn't have time to care about a little wizard's magical riot before going to school." Dumbledore said with some regret, lowering his head slightly. "Back then, both the Muggle and wizarding worlds were on fire."

"Grindelwald?"

"Yeah." Dumbledore nodded, and he motioned Hera to walk to the edge of the rock, which had many jagged indentations for stepping on, leading to the giant boulders below around the cliff half way out of the sea.It was very dangerous to climb down from here, and Dumbledore moved so slowly that even Hera could see something was wrong.

"What happened, Dumbledore?" Hera narrowed her eyes, "Are you injured?"

"Oh, it's inevitable, I always have to take some risks." Dumbledore clapped his hands indifferently, "It's better for me to do it than you."

"You'd better ask Poppy or Severus, they are very good at this." Hera stared at Dumbledore's gloved palm, a little worried.

Dumbledore laughed, and he signaled Hera not to worry too much, "Don't worry, I got rid of Severus immediately and checked him out. He brewed some targeted potions for me, and I'm already much better."

"That would be great." Hera nodded, and then continued to ask: "So, where are we going? Don't tell me, you are also here for vacation, I believe you must have found something."

"Of course, in fact, as I just said, I think there is a high possibility that Tom's Horcrux is hidden nearby." Dumbledore said very relieved. "Fluorescent flickering!"

Dumbledore descended to the huge boulder closest to the face of the cliff, knelt down and said a spell.Spots of golden light shone on the dark sea a few feet below him, and this also allowed Hera to see the black rock wall beside him—it was already illuminated, and there was a gap in the cliff.

"A very interesting little magic, but very useful." Dumbledore said with a smile, but Hera knew that it was far from as simple as what he said. Dumbledore almost used his powerful magic power to 'scan' all possible magic traces nearby, and only then did the hidden cave reveal itself.

"See?" Dumbledore asked softly, raising his wand a little higher.Now the seam was completely illuminated, and the dark sea swirled in it.

"This is—" Hera pursed her lips. If possible, he didn't want to enter the Horcrux's hiding place right now. It must be full of dangers, and it wasn't long before he was out of danger, and he didn't even put on a brand new robe.

Dumbledore smiled, "As you see, as you think."

"Dumbledore, I don't think it's a very good—"

"You don't mind getting wet?"

"Uh" Hera hesitated for a moment, lowered his head and thought about it, "Okay, we will enter, but if we encounter danger, we will retreat immediately and come up with a better countermeasure."

"Of course, no one is risking their lives." Dumbledore said with certainty, "But we must be careful not to startle the enemy. We have no way of knowing whether Tom will leave any behind here."

"Believe me, Dumbledore, in this respect, I'm definitely much more astute than you think." Hera couldn't hide the pride on her face, "This is what I do."

"Oh, it seems that people's memory is poor as they get older. I almost forgot your experience in Greece and Albania." Dumbledore smiled awkwardly at Hera, which made Hera a little embarrassed. "I think it was that unusual experience that benefited you a lot."

"To be honest, if possible, I would rather not have that experience." Hera shrugged and said helplessly.

"Okay, let's take a chance, are you ready?" Dumbledore finished speaking, and without waiting for Hera to respond to him, he suddenly became as agile as a young man. He slipped gently from the pebble into the sea water, and swam towards the dark crack on the rock face.With his wand in his mouth, he was swimming in a perfect breaststroke.

Hera took a deep breath, stuffed the cloak she was wearing into her pocket, tied the pocket carefully to prevent the seawater from pouring in, and quickly followed.

The sea water was extremely cold, and Hera's clothes became bulging and heavy after being soaked in water, dragging him down.Hera had to take a few deep breaths to give him some strength, but the pungent but salty and seaweed smell made him want to vomit uncontrollably.

Hera followed Dumbledore with difficulty, the shimmering highlights on the tip of his staff getting smaller and smaller.

Soon, the crack turned into a dark tunnel, and Hera could tell that the high tide tunnel would definitely be filled with sea water, and the mud-stained rock walls on both sides were only two or three feet apart. Under the flash of light from Dumbledore's wand, they shone wetly like asphalt.

Going a little further, the dark passage turned to the left, and Hera saw it stretching all the way to the deepest part of the cliff, and he continued to swim with Dumbledore, his fingers numb from the cold grazing the rough, wet rocks.

Then he saw Dumbledore standing out of the water in front of him, his silver-white hair and black robes glistening with water.Hera followed him and found that there were steps leading to a large cave. He climbed up the steps with great difficulty, and the water splashed down from his soaked clothes.He finally walked out of the sea, the surrounding air was silent and cold, and he shivered uncontrollably.

"Dumbledore, why did we come in in winter, wouldn't it be better to wait until next summer?" Hera said shiveringly, "I don't think the sea water will be so cold at that time!"

(End of this chapter)