Study Days at Hogwarts

  Chapter 1226 Not far from death

  Since the last broadcast, the number of students who wanted to join the "Defense Association" suddenly increased for some reason.

  Perhaps, for most students, it is necessary to learn some useful skills in this chaotic era. No one knows how long the Second Wizarding War will last.

   As for whom to favor in this war?

  No one really needs to think about it except probably Slytherin students.

  Because they have only two options: fight Voldemort, or remain neutral.

   As for falling to Voldemort, no one is willing to die unless they have a brain hole or have been controlled by the Imperius Curse.

  Looking at the number of dark wizards currently killed by the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic, I think on my knees that there is no future in joining Voldemort's camp.

   Moreover, due to Albert's interference, the Ministry of Magic played an active role in combating dark wizards, causing wizard families who might have remained neutral before to resist the mysterious man.

   It's not that they don't want to remain neutral, but that after Scrimgeour built the shelter, many wizards felt a sense of crisis.

  Since it is to fight against dark wizards and fight against mysterious people, it is natural to choose a good place.

   The Order of the Phoenix formed by Dumbledore is the best choice. After all, Dumbledore's reputation is so great that everyone is willing to gather by his side, but it is not easy to join the Order of the Phoenix, and there are few ways.

   As for joining the crisis response team of the Ministry of Magic, there are certain thresholds. After all, during the duty period, it is very likely that you will directly face dark wizards, which is very risky.

  The "Defense Association", which pays more attention to protecting everyone's safety, has naturally become the first priority of many people.

  No matter how you look at it, Albert is quite a competent leader. After joining the Defense Association, he not only taught everyone how to protect themselves, but also didn't require everyone to fight against the mysterious person, but only hoped that they would secretly support Harry Potter.

   As a result, more people secretly expressed to Harry that they wanted to join the Defense Association.

   This made Harry feel inexplicably irritated, and it was Hermione who helped record the list in the end.

   "I really don't understand, why do they all like to join the Defense Association? If it were me, I would definitely join the Order of the Phoenix."

   Ron stared at the long list and couldn't help asking his doubts.

   "They only know the way to join the Defense Association, and most of them just want to become peripheral members, and don't want to really get involved in this war." Hermione put away the list and looked at Harry, a little worried about the other party's situation.

   "It's okay, just a little depressed."

   "What are you depressed about?" Ron asked puzzled, "Because everyone is rushing to join the Defense Association? Maybe you can ask Dumbledore to see if the Order of the Phoenix recruits new members."

"I thought my Defense Against the Dark Arts level was not bad, but after listening to the broadcast that day, I suddenly realized that I was no different from everyone else." Harry was really depressed. He suddenly realized that he was just a rookie, at most It means having more experience and mastering more magic than others.

   This makes him look like he's better than everyone else, when in reality it's the other people who are really bad.

  Ron and Hermione looked at each other, not knowing how to comfort Harry.

   "Okay, it's almost time, I have to go to class." After Harry took out his pocket watch to check the time, he went directly to the principal's office.

  Dumbledore looked at Harry, who had remained silent after entering the office, and asked, "You seem depressed."

   "I don't think it's possible to convince Professor Slughorn to hand over that memory!" Harry said without confidence.

   "You should believe in yourself and have confidence in yourself. This is very important, Harry."

  Dumbledore gestured for Harry to sit down, and conjured a glass of butterbeer out of thin air and placed it in front of Harry.

"I plan to try to get Professor Slughorn drunk on April 28, which is his birthday, and make him hand over that memory." Harry lowered his voice and said his plan: "Although I never I didn't mention the Horcrux before Professor Slughorn, and I will take Felicia at that time, but I still can't be sure whether the plan will be successful. I always feel that Professor Slughorn seems to see through my Purpose."

  Dumbledore looked at Harry with a gloomy face and fell silent. He found that the boy in front of him seemed to be under a lot of pressure.

   "You should have confidence in your plan." He comforted: "It doesn't matter if you fail, you still have time, so don't have psychological pressure and do it according to your own ideas."

  However, these words did not have much soothing effect after all, because this matter still needs to be done by Harry after all, and it must not fail. It is obviously impossible to say that there is no pressure in his heart.

  Harry never had Dumbledore's confidence in himself, the pressure fell on him, and he couldn't breathe even more.

   "Sir, what are we studying today?"

  He took a deep breath and changed the subject.

   "Talk about topics that you must be interested in." Dumbledore didn't seem to intend to let him see someone's memory, but smiled and picked up the milk tea, as if planning to chat with Harry.

   "What topic." Harry asked, raising his eyebrows slightly, "It must be related to Horcruxes."

"right."

  Dumbledore opened the drawer of the principal's desk, and took out the remains of several Horcruxes that Harry had seen in his memory.

"Sir, how many Horcruxes have you destroyed so far?" Harry looked at the remains of the Horcruxes on the table and said to himself, "Riddle's diary, Marvolo Gaunt's ring, And the Slytherin locket."

   "This is the Horcrux that Albert helped find?" Harry's eyes fell on the locket.

"Yes, the situation is a bit complicated. Slytherin's locket was originally hidden at No. 12 Grimmauld Place." Dumbledore picked up the remains of the locket and fell into a short memory, "Later, he was taken out of the way by Mundungus. No. 12, Limo Square, I plan to find an opportunity to sell it secretly, I was lucky to find it before Mundungus sold the pendant box."

   "How could Slytherin's locket be at Sirius' house?" Harry couldn't understand.

   "I think this incident is likely to have something to do with Kreacher, but Sirius killed it, causing all this to become a mystery, but at least we were lucky to find it and have the honor to destroy it completely."

   "If there are seven Voldemort Horcruxes, it means there are four left." Harry murmured as he glanced at the remains of the Horcruxes on the table.

   "No, Harry, if Voldemort divides the soul into seven parts, one of them must be his main soul, so he will only create six Horcruxes." Dumbledore corrected.

   "This is really good news. It means that there are only three Voldemort Horcruxes left." Harry's mood suddenly brightened, which meant that they were one step closer to destroying all Horcruxes.

"Among them, one must be Hufflepuff's gold cup, and the remaining two are probably relics of other Hogwarts founders. I think the legendary Ravenclaw diadem is very suspicious. Do you know the whereabouts of the diadem? Perhaps, we can consider asking Albert to divination the location of the crown for us, maybe he can really help us find it."

   As he said that, Harry suddenly looked up at Dumbledore, remembering that the other party had said that he would take him to find the Horcrux, and couldn't help wondering whether Dumbledore had predicted the location of Ravenclaw's crown through Albert.

  This means that the last Horcrux remains unknown.

   "Maybe, we can seek help from the ghosts of the school, for example...Professor Binns, I remember that he is the ghost of Gryffindor's time, maybe he has heard some rumors."

   "Your idea is very good." Dumbledore said happily, "However, I have found the sixth Horcrux, which is the snake named Nagini beside Voldemort."

   "Snake? Living things can also be Horcruxes." Harry was very surprised.

   "It was really unexpected." Dumbledore said with a smile, "Fortunately, when I went to Crouch's house last time, I accidentally killed the snake named Nagini."

   "So, we only need to find the remaining two Horcruxes now?" Harry was so happy that he was about to jump up, which meant that as long as the last two Horcruxes were destroyed, Voldemort would not be far from death.

   What's more, Dumbledore also promised to take him to find the Horcrux, which means that the whereabouts of the last Horcrux is actually unknown.

"Apart from the Gold Cup, there is the last Horcrux that is suspected to be the Ravenclaw crown that has not yet been identified." Harry suddenly thought of something, suddenly looked up at Dumbledore and asked, "Since you have determined that Voldemort will be the soul Divided into seven parts, why bother with obtaining that part of the memory from Professor Slughorn?"

"I need it to confirm my speculation. It is very unreliable to rely solely on speculation." Dumbledore took a sip of milk tea and said calmly, "Our enemy is Voldemort. Once the number of Horcruxes is wrong, it may All our efforts will be in vain.”

"But why do you believe that Voldemort only divided his soul into seven parts?" Harry asked his doubts again. Dumbledore obviously didn't tell him everything, but he was sure it was not just Albert prophecy.

   "But what if Voldemort divided his soul into eight parts?" Harry hypothesized, "I mean, if he didn't just divide his soul into seven parts, wouldn't our efforts be in vain?"

  Dumbledore glanced at the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and explained softly, "Seven is the most special and magical number among all numbers. I think Voldemort must know about it."

  Harry didn't speak, and continued to listen to Dumbledore.

"In the entire history of the wizarding world, no wizard has split his soul into more than two pieces." Dumbledore said calmly, "I think Voldemort should be the first. Become unstable, even if only making a Horcrux."

   "So, Voldemort divided his soul into seven parts in order to maintain the stability of the soul?" Harry felt incredible.

   "Perhaps, he still wants to use this to enhance his own strength." Dumbledore said softly, "But it is undeniable that his thinking is actually okay, and seven is indeed a number with magic power."

   "But... We have destroyed four of Voldemort's Horcruxes, which should not satisfy the number of seven, but his power has not shown any sign of decline." Harry asked his unique opinion again.

   "It is well known that Voldemort was afraid of death."

   "I mean, if, when Voldemort finds that his Horcruxes have been destroyed by us, will he take the risk of trying to divide his soul again and create a new Horcrux?"

   "You ignore the role of a complete soul, Harry." Dumbledore shook his head and said, "Keeping a complete soul is valuable."

"I don't think Voldemort would care about this kind of thing, otherwise he wouldn't divide his soul." Harry said his worries, "Maybe there is an upper limit for a person to divide his soul, but I don't think this way of thinking is suitable for Voldemort, the guy is not quite a person."

"I think that if the magic power is not damaged, once Voldemort realizes that his horcruxes have been destroyed one by one, that guy will definitely secretly split a small piece of soul to make a horcrux, and hide it in order to save his soul." Make sure you are not easily killed."

   "If I were Voldemort, I would definitely do this. Once all Horcruxes are lost, Albert will definitely kill him with a thunderbolt."

  Yes, Harry felt that Albert was hiding just waiting for them to destroy all the Horcruxes before coming out to give Voldemort a hard time.

   "The situation you mentioned is not impossible." Dumbledore did not deny this possibility.

  Will Voldemort create a seventh Horcrux?

   In fact, Voldemort did it unintentionally, and although Harry is not actually a Horcrux in a way, he can exert a Horcrux-like effect.

   As long as the small soul fragment on Harry's forehead is not destroyed, Voldemort will not die completely, but Dumbledore obviously has no intention of telling Harry about this.

   At least not yet.

"It is unheard of to divide one's soul so crazily as Voldemort did," said Dumbledore calmly. "The soul cannot be divided infinitely. Voldemort obviously realized very early on that dividing the soul too many times may bring great harm. That’s why I chose to divide it into seven parts, as I said just now, not only for stronger power, but also to make the soul more stable.”

   "But... the number seven is completely broken, isn't it? Horcruxes don't offer themselves any significant magical protection in the way Voldemort imagined, and I think he must be aware of that." Harry still insisted on his point.

In his opinion, Voldemort doesn't really care much about losing his humanity or his soul becoming unstable. As long as it doesn't affect his strength, he can keep him alive after losing all Horcruxes. Harry believes that Voldemort will definitely not mind splitting them up again. one soul.

"If that happens, I think Voldemort probably won't be afraid." Dumbledore noticed Harry's puzzled look and explained calmly, "When his soul becomes more and more broken, he will leave." It's not far off."

"Harry, you think Voldemort's division of his soul hasn't changed because you don't really understand Voldemort." Dumbledore pulled out the memory from his temple and put it in the Pensieve, "I taught Tom Riddle for seven years, It's clear what he was like when he was young, a clever and cunning kid, maybe not as bright as Mr Anderson, but not much less, but when you look at Voldemort now, you can't imagine they were alone."

  "Dividing the soul many times caused Voldemort to gradually lose his humanity, and his spirit became somewhat abnormal." Dumbledore continued, "Splitting the soul is not without side effects."

"The instability of the soul has caused the connection between Voldemort's main soul and the Horcrux to be completely cut off, and he can no longer feel the state of the Horcrux. Thanks to this, we have the opportunity to live in a place where Voldemort is unaware. to destroy his Horcruxes one by one without being noticed."

"The best proof is that Voldemort didn't respond when I destroyed the ring and the locket." Dumbledore picked up the two Horcrux remains, looked at Harry and said, "If the diary was destroyed, Voldemort was In the state of the spirit body, he cannot detect the destruction of the diary. But now after he is resurrected, he still cannot perceive the destruction of the Horcrux. This is one of the sequelae caused by too many split souls."

  (end of this chapter)