Hogwarts Advanced Guide

Chapter 445 Seven Horcruxes
"I—I don't know," Slughorn said weakly.

"My father died first, you know?" said Harry, looking intently into Slughorn's eyes. "You know, don't you? Yes. Voldemort killed him, then stepped over his body towards my mother."

Slughorn shuddered, but couldn't seem to take his terrified gaze away from Harry's face.Tom also cheered up, and he looked at Slughorn intently. He felt that Harry was about to succeed, and he was about to break through Slughorn's psychological defense.

"He told my mother to go away," Harry went on grimly. "Voldemort told me she could have lived. He just wanted to kill me. She could have escaped."

"Oh my God—" Slughorn said softly, "she could have she didn't. It's horrible"

"Yeah," Harry's voice was almost a whisper, "but she didn't move. Dad was dead, and she didn't want me dead. She tried to plead with Voldemort but he just laughed."

"Enough!" cried Slughorn suddenly, holding up trembling hands. "Really, my dear boy, enough is enough. I'm an old man and I don't need to hear it and I don't want to hear it."

"I forgot," said Harry, "you liked her, didn't you?"

Tom narrowed his dark yellow vertical pupils and hissed the letter. He could feel the breath of despair—the seductive breath of despair emanating from Slughorn.

Slughorn absolutely couldn't stand it.

Harry continued to break through Slughorn's psychological defense. He hit Slughorn with words, "But you refused to help her son. She gave me her life, but you refused to give me even a memory."

Tom stuck out his tongue, and he suddenly felt that there was something wrong with Harry's logic.Slughorn didn't seem to have any reason to help Harry, did he?
But thinking that it was for Hera, Tom could understand at once, no matter how he did it, as long as he got the memory, it was enough.

"Don't say that," Slughorn whispered, "if it will help you. Of course it's not a problem but that thing is useless."

Hagrid's thunderous snoring filled the cabin, and Tom watched Slughorn and Harry closely, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"Useful," said Harry clearly, extra forcefully in the cabin, "I need to know, Hera needs to know, the Order needs to know."

"I am the savior, I must kill him, I need that memory."

Slughorn grew paler, his brow glistening with perspiration.

"Are you the savior?"

"Of course." Harry said calmly.

"Perhaps if you had admitted your identity earlier, you could have obtained this memory." Tom whispered in Harry's ear, "There is no need to waste so much time."

Harry snorted and ignored Tom.He had made up his mind that after getting Slughorn's memory, he must find out what happened to Tom.

Tom was so suspicious, he knew too many things that he shouldn't know, and his intelligence obviously exceeded Harry's expectations, which made Harry more vigilant. In his second year, he also encountered an existence with extraordinary intelligence—Riddle's notes.

But Harry knew what was more important right now, and he focused on Slughorn.

"You don't want to get rid of the wizard who killed Lily Evans?"

"Harry, Harry, of course I would, but—"

"Are you afraid that he will find out that you helped me?"

Slughorn said nothing, but looked terrified.

"Hope you're as brave as my mother, Professor"

Slughorn raised his fat hand and pressed trembling fingers to his mouth, looking for a moment like a gigantic baby.

"I feel dishonored," he murmured through his fingers. "I'm ashamed—for what that memory shows. I think I may have done a lot of harm that day."

"You give me the memory and it cancels everything out," said Harry. "It's a very brave and noble thing to do."

After a long silence, Tom leaned into Harry's jacket pocket again, the flickering candlelight made him drowsy, and Hagrid's snoring made him even more disturbed.Harry remained silent, as if he was sure of it.

Slughorn shuddered, but couldn't seem to take his terrified gaze away from Harry's face.Finally, very slowly, Slughorn reached into his pocket and drew his wand. With his other hand he fished out a small empty bottle from under his cloak. Still looking into Harry's eyes, he put the tip of his wand to his temple and removed it.A long silver thread of memory emerged from the tip of the staff.It stretched longer and longer, and finally broke, with silver light floating on the tip of the staff.Slughorn put it in the bottle, and the silver coiled and unrolled, swirling like gas.He corked the cap tightly with trembling hands and handed it to Harry across the table.

"Thank you very much, Professor."

"You're a good boy," said Slughorn, tears streaming down his fat cheeks and into his walrus whiskers, "you have eyes like hers...don't think too bad of me after seeing this..."

He also put his head in his arms, sighed, and fell asleep.

Harry picked up the memory and ran towards the castle. He couldn't wait to go back to the castle and give the memory to Hera.He had been waiting for this memory for a long time, and Hera finally had no excuses to persecute Harry.

But as he walked through the auditorium, he suddenly remembered Tom still hanging on him.He held Tom's body and walked upstairs along the stairs with a complicated expression.He couldn't ask Tom on the first floor. Behind the stairs was Filch's office. Although he had an invisibility cloak, there was still a risk of exposure.

Walking all the way to the eighth floor, at the door of Hera's office, in front of the monster, Harry took off the invisibility cloak.

"Tom, I need you to tell me, what the hell are you?" Harry shook Tom's head vigorously, knocking his red letter aside.

Tom tried hard to fix his head with his body, his head was a little dizzy, "I'm just an ordinary black mamba, except that it's a little bit more poisonous."

"Ordinary snakes don't have such a high IQ, and you know a little too much, don't you?" Harry pursued, feeling that the potion of Felicia was fading away.He couldn't wait to find out about Tom, and with the power of Felicia, he could achieve everything he wanted to do without any effort.

Tom blinked hard, as if to say that he was just an ordinary viper.

"Stop pretending, you have been exposed long ago, I know you are not an ordinary snake." Harry said.

Tom tilted his head, as if he was questioning Harry's IQ, "Is it strange that snakes in the wizarding world are a little bit smarter?"

"This is very abnormal——" Harry wanted to continue asking, but the stone monster statue in front of him suddenly jumped aside, and Hera walked down the spiral staircase.

"Harry, let me guess, you didn't bring what I needed, did you?" Hera smiled openly, walked to Harry's side, glanced at the Invisibility Cloak in Harry's hand, "Come in, don't tell me you want to sleep in the corridor."

"Of course not, sir." Harry took out the small bottle from his pocket and shook it, the silver liquid inside flickered with light, "I brought Professor Slughorn's memory with me."

Hera nodded without showing a surprised expression, as if he had guessed all of this a long time ago, but the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

"Harry, this is exciting news, it's really great, I know you can do it." Hera said very flatly, but he quickly took the memory of Slughorn from Harry's hand, and took Harry up the spiral staircase.

After entering the office, Hera rummaged through the big black cabinet for a long time before finding out the Pensieve and placing it on the table with a bang.

"Now," Hera put the stone basin on the table and poured the contents of the bottle into it, "now, we are finally going to see. Harry, come in with me."

Harry and Tom followed Hera into the Pensieve, they fell in the dark, and fell into Slughorn's office many years ago.

There was the much younger Slughorn, with his bushy, lustrous straw hair and ginger moustache, sitting in a comfortable winged armchair, his feet resting on a large velvet cushion, with a small glass of wine in one hand and a box of pineapple preserves in the other.Six or seven teenage boys sat around Slughorn, among them Tom Riddle.Marvolo's black-sapphire gold ring gleamed on Riddle's hand.

The memory is not too long, and it can even be said that it is too short. Riddle and Slughorn only talked a little bit about the Horcrux.

Slughorn briefly introduced to Riddle the method of making Horcruxes and the principle of immortality. There is no important information here, and this is information that Hera has known for a long time.But apparently that's enough.

To make Slughorn take it seriously, it proves that Riddle only asked him about the method of using Horcruxes to immortalize him-this is probably the most reliable method.

But if Riddle had adopted any other more reliable method, he would definitely have asked Slughorn before he was tempted.Voldemort was by no means a rash man.

"So, making a Horcrux requires splitting the soul?" Harry whispered.

Hera nodded, "That's right, I think Slughorn has said it clearly enough in his memory. Divide souls and hide them in some object outside the body."

"Just like what the mysterious man said before, he was stripped of his body, worse than a ghost, worse than the humblest wandering soul, but at least he is still alive?"

"Few people think like that, Harry, very few, at least it would be better to die." Hera said bluntly, "If it were me, I would rather die simply, as long as." Hera's voice became so small that Harry couldn't hear it clearly.

"Excuse me, what did you say, sir?" Harry asked.

"Nothing, nothing." Hera turned her head slowly, looking at the dark and quiet Forbidden Forest. The moon hung on the treetops, tilting its brilliance towards the earth, and there was nothing there.

"Harry," Hera said in a deep voice, "I believe you understand the importance of the conversation just now. At your age, Riddle is trying to figure out how to make him immortal."

"So you think he's hiding a Horcrux somewhere? Or maybe several?" Harry suddenly remembered the notebook from before, "I almost forgot, Riddle's diary, he definitely made more than one Horcrux, right?"

"Yes, we have mentioned, Riddle's diary, Slytherin locket, Hufflepuff gold cup, and Ravenclaw's diadem." Hera said, rubbing her temples, "I think he made seven Horcruxes."

"Seven!?" Harry couldn't help exclaiming.

"Yes, you heard that right," Hera said, "never before has a wizard split his soul into more than two pieces."

Hera paused, seeming to collect her thoughts, and then said, "Four years ago, Dumbledore obtained evidence that Riddle split her soul."

"Riddle's diary?" Harry asked.

"That's right," Hera nodded, "that's the one that made Albus doubt that, and confused him about how to destroy the Dark Lord once and for all. And it made Albus feel greatly ominous, because the purpose of the Horcruxes was to keep a part of his soul safely sealed away, rather than tossed into someone else's way and risked being wiped out - which actually happened."

"That's why Dumbledore suspected that the mysterious man made more than one Horcrux, right?" Harry asked softly, his expression became serious, and he was clearly aware of the burden on him at this moment—Savior, what a heavy title.

"Yes, even though Albus doesn't want to believe it, he still thinks that Riddle has already made—or plans to make more Horcruxes, so losing one is not so dangerous. I don't want to believe this either, but there seems to be no other explanation that makes sense." Hera said in a deep voice, "This is what Albus asked me to tell you. You must know how to destroy him. Whether we succeed or not, we must find the right way."

Harry was silent, staring into Hera's eyes, trying to get more information from him.

"Also, maybe you haven't noticed, but there are signs that Riddle is becoming less and less human these years. I think that deformation can only be explained by the damage to his soul beyond the scope of what we call general evil."

"So, it all proves that he split his soul more than once, right?" Harry asked.

Hera nodded heavily, "I think this may be our chance, but it also proves that our road ahead is extremely difficult."

"I'll take it on, I'm—" Harry gave an ugly smile, "I'm the savior of the world."

Hera was stunned for a moment. At this time, Tom climbed onto him along the table, and his snake letter lightly brushed the corner of Hera's ear.

(End of this chapter)