HP's Lost and the Lighthouse

Dumbledore stood beside Harry and watched as Voldemort turned and walked out of the headmaster's office - he remembered it all too well - and it was pretty much the last time they had a peaceful conversation about Voldemort's last statement that he wanted to be a professor at Hogwarts. talk to each other.

The door clicked shut.

He reached out and grabbed Harry's arm, pulling him out of this memory that was over.

"Why?" Before the two could stand still, the boy raised his head and asked his doubts, "Why did he come back? Have you figured it out yet?"

Dumbledore wasn't surprised he'd asked that question, in fact, he'd shown Harry these two memories - Hedge the Elf's and his own - just to get the teenager to think about it.

For Voldemort, the Slytherin relics were obviously the most important to him, but he didn't just take the locket from Hepzibah Smith that could prove his parentage, Hufflepuff The golden cup also disappeared with the death of the lady.For this, Dumbledore already had a clear guess, but he needed more evidence to prove his idea...

"I have some ideas, but only ideas," he said succinctly.

Before that, it was obviously unwise to tell Harry what he was thinking.So he just put all the evidence he had collected in front of the boy one by one, so that even if little Malfoy did it earlier than he guessed, the memories Harry got could save him a lot of time—— In times of war, more time means more lives lost.

"What thoughts, sir?"

"I'll tell you when you get that memory from Professor Slughorn, Harry," he said. "Find that last piece of the puzzle and it will all make sense...for both of us, I hope."

The boy's curiosity was clearly aroused by this sentence, and his desire to get that memory at this moment was much stronger than when he assured the old man before.In this regard, Dumbledore just smiled helplessly.

"Does he still want to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, sir? He didn't say..."

Dumbledore looked into those emerald eyes full of curiosity: "Oh, he must have wanted to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. The aftermath of our brief meeting proved it. Since I rejected Voldemort, there has not been a black man." A professor of defense against magic can teach for more than a year."

The principal replied thoughtfully, and the smile on his face deepened slightly.

He sent Harry off, checking the time.Memories can always blur a person's perception of time, even though he and Harry just chatted a few words and watched two not too long memories, the time has passed ten o'clock, hanging on the wall The portraits of the previous headmasters have long been snoring softly with their nightcaps on.

Dumbledore hesitated for a while, but in the end he chose not to stay at Hogwarts.

He wrapped his cloak, pushed open the door of the principal's office and left in a hurry.

----------------

Having roughly sorted out Voldemort's life doesn't mean that Dumbledore has nothing else to do, he's still sprawling all over the wizarding world - not all for the very likely future Preparing for the war that happens, of course, paving the way for Harry and making sure he gets some help in any situation is very important.But the old man also needs to say goodbye to some old friends-even though he can't tell them that he is about to die.

Very occasionally, Dumbledore would choose to return to Hogwarts for the night.It was often late at night, and he came from the direction of Hogsmeade by moonlight, returned to the room where he had lived for decades to rest for a night, and avoided the students leaving early, and even the professors didn't know much about it. He used to come back.

Probably because of the curse on his arm, Dumbledore felt more and more heavy and powerless day by day, as if the shadow of death followed him like a shadow.

That night, the old man returned to his office still dragging his heavy body.Although he is physically exhausted, he is really in a good mood. The investigations of the past few days have allowed him to get some clues about the Horcruxes. The puzzle is just a little bit away.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door in the quiet room.

"Come in." He said wearily, turning around to look at the visitor in surprise.

Dumbledore thought it was one of the professors who came at this time, and he was even prepared for someone's sarcasm (that was probably the worst choice).but……

"Harry, what's up so late?"

The boy's eyes were shining, almost comparable to the stars outside the window.He was still panting heavily, but when he heard Mr. Headmaster's question, he showed undisguised excitement: "Sir—I got it, I got Slughorn's memory!"

Dumbledore froze for a moment.He didn't expect that just a few minutes ago he was still thinking about this last piece of the puzzle, but now, it appeared so simply in front of him.He couldn't help but smile: "Harry, this is exciting news! That's great! I know you can do it!"

He quickly walked around from behind the desk, took over the memory in the boy's hand with his good hand, and strode to the cabinet where the Pensieve was placed.

"Now," he put the stone basin on the table and poured the memory into it, his tone was a little hasty, "now, we are finally going to see it. Harry, hurry up..."

He let the boy enter that memory first, followed by himself.

The scene in the memory was not so unexpected by Dumbledore. When he found out that the memory he got from Slughorn had been modified, the old man had already guessed about it.He looked at Tom Riddle with mixed emotions, the child he personally led into the magic world, his student, leaving excitedly with an expression that was so excited that it was a bit ferocious.

"Thank you, Harry," whispered Dumbledore, "let's go..."

When Harry fell back to the floor of the office, Dumbledore was already sitting behind the desk. He looked down at his fingertips, as if thinking about how to speak.

Harry sat down, waiting for Dumbledore to speak.

"I have been waiting for this evidence for a long time," said Dumbledore finally. "It confirms my speculation, proves me right, and tells me that the road ahead is still long..."

"Harry," he said, "I'm sure you understand the significance of that conversation. At your age, Tom Riddle is trying to figure out how to make him immortal forever."

"So you think he succeeded, sir?" Harry asked. "He made a Horcrux? So he didn't die after attacking me? Did he have a Horcrux hidden somewhere? A little piece of his soul is safe." ?”

"A small piece . . . or more," said Dumbledore. "You heard what Voldemort said: what he particularly wanted to know from Slughorn was what would happen if a wizard made multiple Horcruxes, and if a wizard What would be the consequences of killing multiple times in order to avoid death, splitting his soul multiple times, and storing it in separate Horcruxes. No book could give him this knowledge. As far as I know - and I think Voldemort knew too —no wizard has ever split his soul into more than two pieces."