A ruined Hogwarts

In the principal's office, Dumbledore watched the two little wizards disappear behind the door with deep eyes, and suddenly sighed deeply.

His always energetic expression suddenly became vicissitudes of life and fatigue, and he really looked like an elderly man.

He slowly opened the drawer under the desk and took out an ugly gold ring with rough workmanship, set with a black gemstone cracked by the flames. He touched the triangular eye-like pattern engraved on the gemstone with emotion, and suddenly said softly: "How long do I have, Severus?"

Snape opened the curtain behind and walked out, holding a golden potion in his hand. He frowned and said: "About half a year, it is difficult to estimate the time accurately. Although the curse is currently contained well, it has been eroding your magic power and gradually growing, making you weaker and weaker. At the same time, it may also In an instant, it intensified to the point of no return.”

"Half a year..." Dumbledore sighed and put the ring back in his hand. "Only at this time will people realize that there are so many things that they have not done yet."

"Have you finally realized what a stupid thing you have done? I thought you didn't care about death at all." Snape said sarcastically, "If you didn't run around and squander your magic like you did this year, you might still be able to survive." Live longer.”

"Yes, yes, I thought I could arrange everything properly and then die calmly." Dumbledore's expression became a little fragile for the first time, and his bright blue eyes also dimmed, as if he was blinded. There was a layer of gray fog. "However, I found that I may have made an unforgivable mistake, a terrible oversight..."

Hearing this, Snape stared at him closely and said calmly and gloomily: "Why do you say that? The Dark Lord did not get the Philosopher's Stone."

"That's right, Voldemort didn't get the Sorcerer's Stone..." Dumbledore repeated, but his expression became even more tired, "After that night, he fled back to the Black Forest of Albania, except that the Sorcerer's Stone was really stolen. Apart from leaving, everything seems to be within my plan..."

"You mean, the Aether Society?" Snape frowned deeply, "How on earth did they manage to break through your protection and steal the Sorcerer's Stone? And I couldn't do it at Hogwarts either." Find the traces of their infiltration.”

"No one knows exactly what happened that night, Severus. You know, that whole day I had to deal with the drama of the International Confederation of Wizards in a faraway land, although I later found myself having to rush back to Hogwart. tz, but by then it was too late.”

"I'm more inclined to believe that they quietly replaced Harry after he got the Sorcerer's Stone. Although Harry assured me that the Sorcerer's Stone he got in the Mirror of Erised was the same one, and nothing unusual happened after that. situation...but this is indeed the stage where it is easiest to manipulate."

"However, the theft of the Philosopher's Stone is actually not too important. The wealth and immortality it represents may be very important to some people, but it is actually worthless to people like us." Dumbledore closed his eyes and frowned. Frowning deeply, "What I want to say is, Owen Shafiq, have you noticed any changes in this child?"

Snape narrowed his eyes, his black pupils indifferent and empty. He said slowly: "I don't know."

"Yeah, it's hard to tell clearly. Even I can't tell." Dumbledore said, "I paid attention to this child when he first started school. He is more mature than children of this age, or a little too mature. He has a head, but he has a good heart and a smart and sober mind. It might not be a bad thing to have such a child by Harry's side..."

"But when I finally had time to get in close contact with Harry's friends, I realized belatedly that this child had changed, and I couldn't see his heart anymore. You know, At my age, even without using magical means, it is difficult for someone to hide their thoughts in front of me. But for this child, I can only say that I can't see clearly."

"Perhaps he just learned Occlumency, which is not uncommon in wizarding families with a long history." Snape said in a low voice, "I don't know what you are suspicious of, Dumbledore? Or are you aware of it? What?"

"No, it's just intuition. Unfortunately, my intuition has always been very accurate, although I hope I'm wrong this time." Dumbledore said with some difficulty, "The last time I felt like this was when I was a teenager. Voldemort, when he learned to disguise himself in front of everyone. Do you know? Now they are simply carved out of the same mold. It seems that the appearances I see are all false, and I don’t know what is hidden inside. what……"

"I realize that I may have made a terrible mistake, an unforgivable mistake... I have been busy arranging everything outside this year, but I have ignored the things close at hand..." Dumbledore He said in an erratic tone, "That night, Voldemort escaped back to Albania, which means Quirrell should be dead. But how did Voldemort know in time that he had to go back?"

"I'm too arrogant, Severus, thinking I can control everything. I always thought Quirrell was controlled by Voldemort and lurking in Hogwarts. I believe you can keep an eye on him and Harry can grow up." . But after that, I suddenly realized, what if Voldemort is also in Hogwarts this year? What if he has always been in Quirrell?" Dumbledore said very slowly, "You said that you bumped into him more than once Go to Quirrell's office via Owen Shafiq..."

"Am I to take it that you carelessly left a child under the Dark Lord's nose for a whole year?" Snape stared at Dumbledore with a strange and gloomy expression.

"I don't know, Severus, I don't know..." Dumbledore shook his head, his silver beard trembling tremblingly, "It could also be the Aether Society. You know, that child is facing the Aether Society. He always does something unusual."

"People from the Aether Society dare not touch Harry, as it will hurt them. But we all know that Harry does not have that kind of special talent. The only possibility is the protective spell Lily left for him..."

Snape shook his head violently, as if trying to shake something terrible out of his mind.

Dumbledore just continued: "To be burned by that kind of beautiful mark means that they are probably unscrupulously involved in the most terrifying and dark taboo field of magic. I should have thought of it earlier, if they were targeting Harry , then the people around Harry will also become their best targets..."

"I don't know what that child has gone through, but I think something has indeed changed." He closed his eyes in pain, "Because of my arrogance, I may have indirectly destroyed a child's future. Even his soul.”

"This is just your guess..." Snape said slowly.

"Yeah, it's just a guess." Dumbledore forced a smile, "So, I think I need more time to see everything clearly. I hope it's still too late to recover, I hope it's still too late to save him."

"Severus, help me pay more attention to him, will you? As you can see, that child is not very close to me." He pleaded. "I heard that you have a good relationship with his father."

Snape looked blankly at the phoenix perched on the golden branch, nodded slightly, and then strode towards the door of the office. Before going out, he suddenly said: "You deliberately revealed the news about the Dark Lord in Albania. You were testing him."

Dumbledore didn't speak, just closed his eyes, as if falling into a deep sleep.

…

At the year-end banquet, all the teachers and students of the school gathered together. The Great Hall was decorated early in green and silver to celebrate Slytherin House's seventh consecutive House Cup.

There was also a huge banner with a Slytherin snake hanging on the wall behind the guest of honor seat. Most of the professors were smiling, and even Professor Snape didn't seem as gloomy as before.

Dumbledore stood up and announced the scores of each house. Nothing unexpected happened. The night the Sorcerer's Stone was stolen was a secret shared by everyone.

Amidst bursts of thunderous cheers and applause erupting from the Slytherin table, the Academy Cup award ceremony came to an end. All the little Slytherin wizards had smiles on their faces, enjoying the polite applause from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff houses, and proudly casting defiant glances towards the lifeless Gryffindor table. .

"We also won this year's Quidditch Cup, there is no suspense at all." Draco said in an understatement, but his expression was uncontrollably beaming, "Next year we will be able to participate in the Quidditch team selection, haha Lee, I won’t give in, the seeker’s position must be mine!”

"See you on the field then." Harry grinned unwillingly. The two looked at each other and smiled.

Owen dealt with Blaise's endless chatter in his ears, and enjoyed a much more sumptuous dinner than usual amidst the excitement and noise of everyone. Melete rolled in his arms, tasted the food on the table one by one, and then ate the grilled fish with concentration. Her elegant and reserved eating look was exactly the same as Owen's.

Owen picked up a snow-white napkin and wiped the corners of his mouth carefully, then gently stroked it with one hand. A bouquet of white roses appeared in his hand, and he inserted it into the goblet on the table.

Daphne reached out from the side and pinched the white rose, put it to the tip of her nose and smelled it, then said with a smile: "Ah, was it just picked?"

"Yeah, I found a big rose bush at the edge of the Forbidden Forest." Owen chuckled.

"That's great." Daphne put the flower back into the wine glass with a smile.

The festive banquet lasted until late, and everyone went back to rest and enjoy the leisurely time without classes for a few days.

The exam results were announced the day before the little wizards left school. As expected, Owen got the first place in the grade, and Hermione had to settle for second place. The little witch refused to admit defeat and continued to indulge in her studies, looking like she couldn't wait to take root in the library.

Almost all the members of the study group passed the exam with very high scores. Of course, Neville's potions skills were held back because Professor Snape kept hanging around him during the exam, which made him perform abnormally as expected. . Crabbe and Goyle barely passed the exam, and Draco gave him a rare word of comfort: "At least you have proved that you are a little smarter than the troll."

When Professor Snape distributed the transcripts to everyone, Harry finally mustered up the courage and stretched out his right hand to him.

He said in a sincere tone: "Professor Snape, thank you for your teaching this year. I hope I have lived up to your expectations..."

Snape looked condescendingly at Harry's palm, then stared into those beautiful emerald green eyes, his gloomy expression with a look of disgust softened slightly, and finally he slowly raised his hand to shake it.

Harry was stunned and looked at him in surprise, as if he didn't expect that this attempt would be so simple and successful. Now it seems that the dean is really not from the Aether Society...

His face suddenly turned red, and he suddenly wanted to crawl through the cracks in the ground. He said slowly: "I'm sorry, Professor, I mean, I'm sorry for causing you trouble this year..." He didn't know what to say.

Snape was silent for a long time, and then said in a low tone: "I understand, Harry...Potter."

He glanced coldly at the group of young wizards who were watching the show, and his eyes focused on Owen's innocent face for a while, then he threw the undistributed transcript to Draco, turned around and strode left.

"Harry, good job." Blaise gave Harry a thumbs up.

"Stop talking!" Harry buried his face like an ostrich. What has he done to the dean in the past few months? His personality has collapsed, okay...

A group of people laughed happily, and the surroundings were filled with happy air.

…

Before leaving school, Owen finally finished sorting out the black box he brought back from Quirrell. There were too many things in this box he snatched from the black market.

Among them were many potions and potion materials that were prohibited from being sold by the Ministry of Magic. Perhaps many of them came from Shafiq's family's black market potion shop. In addition, there are some alchemical items, black magic books, coins, etc. After transferring the books and some materials to his suitcase, Owen temporarily stored the other items at the base of the Room of Requirement for later use when needed.

He slowly walked out of the Room of Requirement and stopped just a few meters along the corridor. He planned to take away the crown hidden here, and keeping the Horcrux in his own hands would be a bargaining chip, so as to avoid long nights and nightmares.

Before he could open the door to the Room of Requirement again, Owen heard two muffled voices getting closer and closer:

"...There are a lot of things in that room, and together they can be sold for a good price!"

"Excellent, otherwise I guess we'd just have to play with Peeves' chalkheads."

Owen stopped where he was and turned to look in the direction from which the sound came. He saw the Weasley twins walking over quickly, talking animatedly.

"Uh, why are you here..." After seeing Owen, the two brothers smiled coquettishly. They had destroyed all the funds invested by Irving, and they still felt a little guilty when they faced the unsuspecting funder father again.

"Passing by." Owen said with a smile.

"What a coincidence, we were passing by too." The twins said in unison.

"So, you guys leaving first?" Owen moved away.

"You go first, we think it's better to stand here for a while. The scenery here is nice, right?" The brothers said nonchalantly.

Owen raised his eyebrows, remembering that he had met them nearby once before, and he said slowly: "Is your purpose here?"

"You know?" The twins looked at each other, and then showed expressions that said nothing.

"How did you find this place?" Owen tilted his head, feeling a little curious.

"Of course it's the fax machine that suddenly disappeared." The brothers looked at each other and smiled. "It told us how to get money quickly and reasonably at Hogwarts. It's right here, a room where things are hidden! I can't believe it. , we didn’t discover this secret room before!”

"Don't tell me you're selling the stuff inside." Owen's eyebrows moved, and he instantly recalled that the truth fax machine did have this problem. However, the content of the conversation between the two people just now gave him a bad feeling.

"Ah, just a little bit." Fred gestured with his little finger, "You know, there aren't many things in it that can be sold for money."

"Are you so short of money?" Owen raised his hand and rubbed his eyebrows, "Isn't my investment enough?"

"It would have been enough, but..." George shrugged and said, "All the joke products we made were confiscated by Professor McGonagall, and there is nothing left."

Not only that, they originally wanted to steal those things back, but they were caught red-handed and kept in confinement until the end of the semester. Those things would never come back. According to Professor McGonagall, she originally planned to They would have been returned at the end of the term, had the two not been bold enough to sneak into her office.

"So, I want to know if you have sold a crown?" Owen looked at their expressions carefully.

"Crown?" Fred raised his eyebrows, "It depends on which one it is. We just sold an old crown a few days ago, probably a replica of Ravenclaw's crown..."

Owen took a deep breath. Ravenclaw's diadem and Voldemort's Horcrux were sold...sold...

"May I know who you sold to?" he asked.

"Well, we won't sell the buyer's information."

"But we haven't signed a confidentiality agreement, so... we have to pay more!"

The two brothers sang in harmony.

"Okay, you guys haven't tried wearing it, have you?" Owen said as if he didn't mean it. That was a Horcrux created by Voldemort at his peak. Who knows what terrible curses or means of controlling people were on it. If the two of them wore it, Owen could only say that he was lucky.

"Who would wear something that looks like it's for women?" Fred said with a smile, "George, you didn't wear it secretly, did you?"

"Of course not, but I thought you would be very interested." George said with a smile.

Owen looked at the two of them teasing and joking with each other with a strange expression, and suddenly raised the corners of his mouth in an interesting way, and his dark eyes became bottomless. He asked softly: "Then why do you think that crown is fake?"

"You don't think Ravenclaw's diadem would be hidden in a place like this, do you? It's in tatters and hasn't been taken away for so many years." Fred spread his hands.

"But I recently received reliable information. The crown hidden here is real. That's why I came here." Owen sighed softly, "Ravenclaw's crown, that is a priceless treasure."

"What you said...is true?" The twins' expressions froze.

George jumped up: "I'm going to kill Percy!"

Fred also yelled: "Twenty Silver Sickles! Penelo Crevat bought the Ravenclaw Diadem for only twenty Silver Sickles? That bastard Percy kept helping She lowers the price!”

"I wish I could get it back. You know, Crevat said the crown disappeared that night!"

"I don't believe a word of it! That cunning Ravenclaw!"

The two brothers didn't even bother to enter the Room of Requirement, and ran directly towards the Gryffindor common room.

"If you get the crown back, please consider selling it to me first." Owen shouted from a distance.

Looking at the two people's retreating figures, he slowly narrowed his eyes and whispered to himself: "Oh, that's interesting."

"It seems that the next days won't be too boring." Owen glanced at the wall of the Room of Requirement, turned around and left.

…

In the morning, the little wizards left Hogwarts in the warm sunshine and got on the train home.

Owen sat quietly in the box by the window, holding his chin in his hand and watching the scene passing by quickly outside the window. The bright sunshine poured into the carriage, illuminating his handsome face in half-light.

"Harry, I suggest you use your front teeth as a big stick to deal with your cousin..." Draco enthusiastically gave Harry an idea, asking him to use a few evil curses on his aunt's family during the summer vacation. people.

"You forgot, we can't use magic during the holidays." Harry said desperately. Although he really wanted to do it.

"Oh, I didn't pay attention to this." Draco said slowly, "I can ask my father to find a few people to help you. He will definitely be very happy..."

"Don't, I will have a good time." Harry said quickly, "You know, they don't know that I can't use magic..."

Owen suddenly turned to look at him: "By the way, you didn't catch that rat named Scabbers?"

"Well, I went to see Ron Weasley, but... he valued that mouse very much and was wary of me..." Harry grinned. So many things happened later that he unconsciously put this thing behind him which became increasingly unreliable the more he thought about it.

"I don't think I told you that if you delay for one more day, your family will suffer for one more day..." Owen said slowly.

"Really?" Harry stood up and walked away, "I'm going to find Weasley!"

"What's the point of looking for him now? Now that you can't see Dumbledore, are you looking for a chance to let that mouse escape?" Owen yawned and stroked Melet's soft fur lazily.

Harry calmed down, sat back, frowned and said, "Then we can only wait until after school starts." After saying that, he became a little restless until the sales witch on the train pushed a trolley Come over and distract his attention.

A group of people tasted a lot of candies and snacks bought by Harry and Draco until the train entered platform nine and three-quarters with the sound of the whistle. Owen walked out of the platform with the crowd and saw Mr. Albert at a glance.

"I want to know, Owen, where is the surprise you have prepared for me?" Mr. Albert Shafik stood there standing tall in a dark black robe, not paying attention to the attention of the passing Muggles. salute and waved to Owen.

"It's not time yet, Dad." Owen smiled.

"I'm looking forward to it." Albert looked him up and down and suddenly frowned, "Don't tell me that Hogwarts doesn't have enough money to feed you. Your face doesn't look very good..." he said Then, he was about to reach out and pinch Owen's cheek.

"I'm healthy, Dad." Owen helplessly avoided his father's hand, but he felt very relaxed.

At this time, Draco's long-drawn voice came from the side: "Muggles, I'm warning you, be nice to Harry when you go back. If I hear you treating him harshly again, I will turn you all into pigs! "

Harry pulled Draco's robe helplessly. Opposite him stood Harry's aunt, aunt, and cousin. The three of them had expressions of panic and annoyance on their faces.

"It's not your turn to meddle in our family's business, little brat!" Vernon Dursley's big face turned red and purple, and he waved his arm widely as if to shoo away flies, yelling at him angrily. road.

"I'm Harry's friend, and this is what I'm responsible for." Draco raised his chin arrogantly, looking at them like he was looking at three slugs rolling in the mud, "Do you want to take action? ?Dad, some Muggles are going to hit me!"

Mr. Lucius Malfoy walked slowly over with his cane and said with the same expression as Draco: "What are you going to do to my son, Muggle?"

"We have to go, come on, boy!" Vernon Dursley didn't dare to say anything harsh, he took Harry's clothes and turned around and left.

"Draco means what I mean. In fact, I don't mind sinking you into the Thames." Mr. Malfoy threatened.

"Or hanging in the Tower of London would be a good idea." Mr. Albert also interjected, watching them run away in despair with amusement on his face. Well, even Harry looked gloomy.

Owen glanced at his father, why are you joining in the fun?

Mr. Albert winked at Owen, and the two nodded politely to the Malfoys, then walked out of the slightly crowded station and started on their way home.