the Gambler

Harry's thoughts slowly sank into the boundless darkness, and the indescribable sense of emptiness made him feel like he was walking on the edge of a cliff, and he knew he was starting to waver again.The seed of doubt was buried deep in an unknown corner of his heart. He didn't deliberately ignore or stop it. If someone tried to poke the loose soil, it would thrive.

Everything is depressing.

There are too many mysteries about Tom.The layers of lies that came out of the other party's mouth made Harry wonder that one day he would be entangled by himself.It must be funny.

Harry smiled wryly, the manuscript open on his lap.Without the curse, he should have guessed that there must be some sort of agreement between Tom and Voldemort.Whether he can understand it or not, his intuition tells himself that the story itself is a signal for the two to communicate with each other.Tom hopes to convey some important information through the manuscript.

behind your back.

Harry didn't know when Tom started counting on him, although he wasn't much better.Harry is not a saint, otherwise he would not be able to suppress his doubts and break the agreement.This is unexpected and reasonable.They were originally a relationship that used each other, and it was simply impossible to trust each other.Even so, a certain part of his body was still aching, and his life had never been normal, even the only relationship he held in the palm of his hand was so deformed.

Pressing his face to the cold floor, Harry let out a sigh, the hard cover slipped off, and the yellowed paper opened with the movement and stayed on one of the pages.The handwriting on it was newly added, and the ink was completely different in depth.His breathing suddenly became rapid, and the extreme excitement caused the blood to continuously rush to the eardrum.This is it!Harry stretched out his slightly trembling hand to the diary, his fingertips brushed across the round and beautiful flower body, a strange tingling sensation was transmitted to the cerebral cortex, large blood dripped slowly from the fingertips, and was quickly absorbed by the pages.Those fonts began to twist and reassemble at a rapid speed.

[Put on the ring. 】

The first thing that popped into Harry's head was the Gaunt ring.The Resurrection Stone, one of the three Deathly Hallows.Harry squeezed the hard object in his pocket tightly. It sounded like Tom was sure that Voldemort would die, which meant that the other party did intend to bring down the Dark Lord.In this case, why did Tom want to resurrect Voldemort again?Harry is too aware of Tom's character, as long as it hurts his own interests, even if he treats his future self, he will not hesitate to kill him.And now Voldemort is exactly such an existence.

'You know we're one and the same, Harry. ' Voldemort's voice suddenly sounded.

Harry really thought about it. Voldemort kept repeating this sentence in the few rare confrontations, and he also took it as the other party's means to persuade him to change his position. Coupled with the weird triangle relationship, Harry didn't seem to have any doubts at all. over this point of view.The authorities are confused by the onlookers, if he jumps out of his own misunderstanding-if the sentence itself is not attached with meaning but just stating the facts?What if it was Harry's misinterpretation from the very beginning?

Plus, Voldemort had sworn to never cheat Harry again.The reason he gave was very realistic. Unlike Tom, he already had everything he wanted, and he didn't need to use such despicable means to achieve his goal.If Voldemort was telling the truth, were they really the same person?

Voldemort knew Tom better than Harry did, and he must have caught evidence in the other to confirm his point of view.soul?Harry knew that their magical bases could compete with each other, so the only possible explanation that could be deduced was the quality of the soul.Last year's rune project, Harry and Tom discussed this issue, and came to the conclusion that the difference in the quality of their souls was the reason for the difference in gravity.Immediately afterwards, Voldemort re-absorbed how many soul pieces Merlin knew, almost blocking the ring's function?It sounds coincidental but not impossible, magic has always been a wonderful thing, its mystery is breathtaking.

This then leads to new questions.If they were now identified by magic as the same person, Tom and Voldemort would be forbidden from killing each other.He remembered the wound Voldemort shared with Tom, though the latter said he didn't feel pain, and if that statement itself was a lie—

Tom and Voldemort are linked.

Before today, it seemed Voldemort had never actually attacked Tom.Yes, Harry had seen the exact opposite, Tom had easily done Voldemort harm.He had a bold guess, if the quality of the soul also determines the effectiveness of the attack, before Diagon Alley, Tom had an absolute advantage, and that was the reason why he was firmly on Harry's side.But the battle of Diagon Alley made Tom realize that the situation was starting to get complicated. Erasing Voldemort's existence would also erase his own existence-in addition, Tom made it clear that he did not want to give up Harry, so his weird behavior had a perfect According to the explanation, cooperation with Voldemort is a compromise.

So, what was Voldemort thinking?Does he know Tom's real purpose?How did Tom plan to deal with the resurrected Voldemort?

Harry turned over, Merlin!His head is already a bit hazy from overthinking, maybe he really needs the Ravenclaw diadem to boost his intellect!

The Joneses in Godric's Hollow are ordinary people, but their neighbors are not.The crooked red bungalow always gave them the feeling that it would collapse in the wind, but Mr. Jones was sure that there had been no accidents next door for decades.Mr. Jones didn't know whether to be grateful or sad. Out of kindness, he offered to help his neighbor—a middle-aged man who liked to wear a black cloak—Adam Wilson repaired the house. The latter shook his head and refused. He was also given a large handful of strange-looking candies.

Perhaps Adam's living habits were not the same as his.

Mr. Jones shrugged. He took one last glance at the other party's small garden, which was as dense as a tropical forest, and turned to walk into the room.When he was about to close the door, he suddenly saw a group of people in strange costumes hurrying along the winding path towards their house.Came for Adam?Mr. Jones noticed that they were wearing the same queer cloaks, of the same dizzyingly bright colour.They stopped in front of Adam's door, carefully looked around, took out a small wooden stick from their arms, and whispered something.In the next second, Mr. Jones was speechless in astonishment, and the door seemed to be kicked open by an invisible force.He blinked to make sure there was no one behind the door.

Mr. Jones froze in place, still holding the phone he had just hung up. Just now, the local police station told him that he was the only resident living near the edge of the forest, and there were no weird neighbors at all.He's a little distraught now, not sure whether to trust his eyes or his ears.Is it all just an illusion?His beautiful and gentle wife had also commented on Adam's weird behavior, so the couple shouldn't have the same hallucinations.Oh, he's a realistic guy, and he's not at all interested in such crookedness.Mr. Jones suddenly remembered that he had inadvertently talked about Adam with the owner of the bar in the town. The way the other party looked at him still made him feel uncomfortable.Later, my wife also complained to herself about being treated as a neuropathy.Over time, they stopped talking about it with the townspeople.

Mr. Jones put the messy thoughts to the back of his mind. He took a steaming biscuit from the plate and listened silently to his wife's happy humming from the kitchen.He didn't intend to tell the other party this discovery, she would be panicked and disturbed.Mr. Jones bit the biscuit, and the rich cocoa taste jumped on the tip of his tongue. Yes, he would never tell his wife.

He just took a sip of black tea when he heard loud discussions outside the door.Mr. Jones jumped up from his chair and put his ear to the door to listen carefully.One of the voices belonged to Adam, he was sure, and several others were unidentifiable.

"—The next target of the Dark Lord's attack is likely to be here. Everyone knows that this is where he lost power last time. Scrimgeour suspects that he will use Godric's Hollow as a place to show his strength." An unfamiliar voice shouted .

"Adam, you need to get out of here, it's too dangerous."

"Then I should stay even more, those Muggles can't resist the Death Eaters at all." Adam said firmly.

"You alone are of little use."

"The minister should send more Aurors here." Adam retorted, "There are not only Muggles here, but also a large number of wizards!"

"We can't scare the snakes—" the voice paused, "and the Aurors in the Ministry of Magic are totally underpowered."

The sound of the conversation gradually faded away, and Mr. Jones' mind became even more confused. He couldn't understand most of the conversation he heard just now.Dark Lord, Muggles, Death Eaters, Wizards, Ministry of Magic?Is that the latest drama line?

Mr. Jones went to bed early that night, and the house shook violently as soon as his head was pressed against the pillow.He and his wife jumped up from the bed, buried their heads and rushed outside, in front of them was a scene more terrifying than purgatory——

The smoky village was full of shrill shouts.Colorful rays of light flew around in the sky, and the residents of the town who were hit by the rays of light fell heavily to the ground, as if they were dead.But this is impossible, Mr. Jones thought, he could feel the weight in his stomach, and for some reason, he always felt that the residents would not get up and smile and say hello to him again.A large number of strangers suddenly appeared in front of him out of thin air, covered from head to toe by black cloaks, and white masks with intricate patterns on their faces.Mr. Jones was pushed hard and fell into the gloomy and dark alley. There was a slight sobbing sound behind him. He turned his head and saw his wife sitting paralyzed not far away.It seemed that they were all rescued by someone who came. He raised his head, and just as he was about to thank him, he was stunned by the familiar face of the other party.Different from usual, this time Adam wore a red robe, and his smiling appearance was replaced by coldness and seriousness.Adam didn't give him a chance to speak, he rushed out quickly, and there was another explosion outside.

Mr. Jones struggled to his feet, and he could see the stream of blood trickling down like a stream.He couldn't help shivering, and looked up at the sky.Immediately afterwards, the scariest thing he had ever seen in his life appeared. A huge green glowing thing rose up slowly, condensing into the shape of a skull, and a black snake emerged from its mouth and swam around.Suddenly, the whole village was filled with screams.Mr. Jones's feet seemed to have taken root, even if his wife pulled them hard, they couldn't move them.

He remembered, that long-sealed memory, a memory that he almost thought did not exist.

Sixteen years ago, he too had seen the dreaded mark hovering over Godric's Hollow.