days at Hogwarts

Chapter 608 Nurmengard
"Professor, why didn't we Apparate directly to Professor Slughorn's house?"

"Because that's as rude as kicking down someone's door."

"..."

On the outer streets of the village of Badley Barberton, four figures walked slowly in the snow, out of the garden path. Most of the lights in the houses on both sides of the road had been turned off, leaving only a few street lamps to illuminate the snow.

The rustling sound of footsteps on the snow echoed quietly. The slightly dim light continuously lengthened the shadows of the four people. They shuttled between the light and dark areas. Hermione didn't pay much attention to the conversation between Harry and the headmaster, but expressed her own doubts.

"Professor, Mr. Slughorn taught at the school a long time ago. In this case, he and Voldemort..."

Loren, who was walking beside her, turned around and looked at the little witch with a slightly frown on her face. He couldn't help but sigh that Miss Know-It-All was really quick-witted.

"What?" Harry looked at Dumbledore in surprise.

The tall and thin old man kept walking, with a few snowflakes on his silver hair and beard, and his eyes were as calm as water: "Yes, Tom Riddle was also once Horace's favorite student. No one in his time could compare to him... Horace was still very young at that time, not yet bald, and always showed off his thick and shiny yellow hair..."

Accompanied by the howling wind on a snowy night, the steady and powerful narration brought the group back to the peaceful Hogwarts decades ago.

The young Slughorn not only had extraordinary talent in potions, but was also good at discovering students with outstanding talents to join his circle and give them special treatment. He founded his own Slug Club to provide a platform for communication for those he admired.

Tom Riddle is a student with extraordinary qualifications and handsome appearance. He is polite and quiet, hungry for knowledge, willing to communicate with professors, often able to draw inferences from one example, and even enlighten the professors on some wonderful magical issues. Almost as soon as he entered Hogwarts, he attracted the attention and sympathy of all the professors.

It was no surprise that the visionary Slughorn trained Riddle himself, taught him secret and profound magical knowledge, told him the unknown rules of the wizarding world, and guided him into the upper class of wizarding society, but this also led to irreparable mistakes.

"Horace was a wizard good enough to know the secret of the Horcruxes, and he passed on the in-depth knowledge to his favorite student at the time, Tom Riddle..."

Harry's eyes widened immediately, his face full of shock: "But, sir..."

"I have another purpose in inviting Horace to return to Hogwarts to serve as the Potions Professor again..." Dumbledore said slowly, "I hope that you can find out the deeper secrets of the Horcruxes during your contact with him."

Hermione was a little confused: "Why don't you just ask him?"

"I tried." Dumbledore sighed slightly, "but I couldn't get an answer. After Horace realized that he had caused a disaster, he felt regret and ashamed, and has been trying to cover up the mistakes he has made..."

"Try Legilimency? Or Veritaserum?" Loren tried to suggest.

Hermione glared at him with wide eyes.

How could the professor use such means?
"Horace is an experienced and capable wizard. He has made great achievements in the art of brain occlusion. He is also a master of potions. It is difficult for truth serum to work on him..." Dumbledore shook his head. "I once asked him to hand over his memory of the Horcrux in a tough manner, but I only got a modified false memory."

Hermione's eyes widened.

"It will not work to force the truth out of Horace," Dumbledore said, his eyes falling quietly on the three people with a slight smile on his face, "so I hope you can take a more subtle approach and make him speak his mind."

"..."

The dim street lights silently illuminated the snow, and the snowflakes from the deep blue night sky gently fell, making the old man's beard even whiter.

Hermione and Harry were concentrating on thinking about Slughorn's memory, while Loren went over it in his mind. He vaguely recalled the incident - in the end, Harry took a sip of the Felicis Potion, and that night he regained his memory under the guidance of the goddess of luck, and learned that Voldemort was preparing to make 7 Horcruxes.

Loren raised his head and glanced at Dumbledore secretly, wondering whether to wait for Harry to find out himself, or to make up a story and tell the headmaster the result when he had time...

Forget it, we’ll talk about it when the time comes.

Loren shook his head, put the question aside for the time being, and turned to another matter: "Professor, you just mentioned the Dark Mark and Ms. Bathilda Bagshot in the room. Did anything happen to her? Why didn't I see any reports?"

"In order to prevent panic, Scrimgeour suppressed the report in the Daily Prophet. That happened last night..." Dumbledore sighed softly, his voice low and somewhat sad. "Voldemort attacked and killed Ms. Bagshot at night, and left the Dark Mark hanging in Godric's Hollow all night."

"I remember Bagshot was the compiler of A History of Magic, right? Why did Voldemort attack her?" Harry was a little confused.

"I couldn't figure it out at first, but when I went to Ms. Bagshot's residence to conduct a scene investigation during the day, I found some clues. There was a photo missing from her room."

"photo?"

Dumbledore said softly, "Yes, about her nephew, Getter Grindelwald." Hermione suddenly breathed softly, as if a flash of inspiration flashed through her mind. Many images kept flashing before her eyes, the Death Eaters who had been lingering in Hogsmeade to inquire about the news, the special report that Rita had published in the Daily Prophet, about Dumbledore and Grindelwald, about the legendary duel...

Loren immediately thought of the Elder Wand. He looked up at the old headmaster and couldn't help asking, "Voldemort will definitely go find him, headmaster. Don't you need to notify Nurmengard in advance to be prepared?"

Dumbledore smiled down at him and said, "Aren't we on our way to Nurmengard?"

……

The towering Nurmengard Castle is located in the remote wilderness of Austria. The tall grey tower pierces the clouds like a sharp blade, and the outer walls are covered with traces of time. The mosses and ivy vines have shrunk and dried up due to the severe cold, leaving only the dark and stiff branches clinging to the wall like the claws of a howling banshee. The whole building is sleeping in the snow, silent and majestic.

Only a solitary lamp calmly illuminated the entrance of Nurmengard, and on the stone pillar next to the iron gate were engraved faded words: For the greater good.

A slight ripple spread in the space, the power of magic broke through the air barrier, the sound of explosion exploded in front of the door, and a group of four people suddenly appeared in this solitary lamp.

Harry breathed in deep gulps of cold air, as if he had just emerged from the bottom of a lake. His chest rose and fell violently as he greedily took in the fresh air because he felt suffocated. Although the feeling of the portkey was easier than Apparition, the long-distance transmission across borders still made his face flush. He was in a trance for a long time before he gradually came to his senses. He heard Dumbledore's voice steadily reaching his ears.

"Grindelwald studied at Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At a young age, he showed great talent for magic and achieved excellent results. However, he did not spend his energy in the right place, but instead invested in the evil field of black magic. When he was sixteen, he was expelled for conducting evil experiments that were not allowed, attacking classmates and nearly killing them, and openly violating many school rules...

"Grindelwald and his witch party committed numerous crimes, including several murders, open violations of the Statute of Secrecy, large-scale terrorist attacks, and established a power base in Nurmengard Castle in Austria... In 1945, he tried to seize control of the wizarding world, but was defeated in the final decisive duel and was imprisoned in Nurmengard for a long time..."

Loren withdrew his gaze from the prison, glanced at the old headmaster secretly, and added in a low voice: "The mainstream voice in many countries believes that Grindelwald is undoubtedly a dark wizard, but there are also many countries that are deeply influenced by his thoughts and believe that Grindelwald is a complex person who cannot be simply judged as good or bad. He is a complex person, idealistic, talented, and will achieve his goals at all costs..."

Dumbledore smiled and shook his head, then pushed the door open with a few people.

Entering into Nurmengard, after the entrance hall is a long and narrow corridor. There is no light and it is pitch black. The air is filled with the smell of rotting wood and there is a thick layer of dust on the ground. It seems that no one has been here for many years.

What surprised Loren was that there was no sign of magic or alchemy here. There were no cold chains, no heavy iron doors, and no guards with cold expressions. Compared to a well-guarded prison, this place looked more like a deserted tower.

Going up the stairs, the walls are covered with traces of time.

Dumbledore continued to tell the story of his old friend: "Grindelwald is a natural prophet. On a sunny afternoon, he saw a book about the Deathly Hallows in the library of Durmstrang. The book mentioned that if the three legendary objects were combined, the owner would become the master of the god of death. That night, he saw a prophecy and knew that he would become the master of the magic world...

"In his short student life, in addition to studying the Dark Arts, he greedily sought all knowledge about the Deathly Hallows, and even regarded the rune representing the Deathly Hallows as his own symbol. I don't know if Krum told you that before leaving Durmstrang, he carved the symbol on the wall... After being expelled from Durmstrang, Grindelwald came to England... Godric's Hollow in order to find information about the Hallows."

The old tower, which had not been visited by anyone for many years, was not dirty. Apart from the smell of rotting dry wood, there was no unpleasant smell of decay, such as rat corpses or fermented feces and urine. Due to its unique structure, the temperature of the tower was even slightly higher than outside, but it was not warm.

Arriving at the top floor, Dumbledore led them to the innermost room, and continued to narrate:
"That's where Ignotus Peverell, the first owner of the Death Cloak, was buried. His great aunt, the famous wizard historian Bathilda Bagshot, happened to live there and provided him with a large number of books and documents, which provided him with information to draw up a grand blueprint. He soon determined his goal to find the Deathly Hallows and use their power to become the most powerful wizard, overthrow the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, establish a new order, and let wizards become the monarchs of the world..."

"There's something you forgot to tell your students, Albus!"

An old and dull voice came from behind the door, echoing throughout the tower, "You were also a staunch supporter of this grand plan back then!"

The door opened, and a spacious and empty room appeared in front of the four people. The floor was flat, and there was a window on the wall. The iron railings were rusty, and the glass was broken and covered with old newspapers. There was almost no furniture in the room, except for a set of rough tables and chairs and a hard stone bed. The bed was covered with thin hay and the quilt was bulging. However, according to Loren, who had lived on the ranch for several years, the quilt was filled with rags and hay, which had a slightly better thermal insulation performance than air.

The old man sat by the window, wearing a starched, yet clean cloth robe. He looked at the people at the door, his eyes falling on the tall, thin figure's silver-white beard and hair. He smiled and said, "Long time no see, Albus. You've grown old too."

Dumbledore was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted, opened his mouth and paused: "Long time no see, Gellert..."

Just as this tower does not have the tight protection of magic as imagined, the prisoners imprisoned here for life are not as desolate and lonely as imagined. The reunion of this pair of old friends after decades of separation is not as heart-wrenching as expected.

The two simply exchanged a greeting. The legendary and famous Grindelwald looked like an ordinary old man. He smiled as they walked in and sat down. He listened to Dumbledore introduce several students, nodded and greeted them one by one: "Sorry, the house is simple, and there is nothing to treat you."

Dumbledore extended his wand and tapped the table. A pot of hot tea and several cups appeared out of thin air, with steam rising.

Harry stared at Grindelwald with some curiosity, as if wondering why this villain in the book was not as good as he had expected, and even seemed a little kind.

Loren and Hermione drank their tea in silence.

Grindelwald picked up the cup but did not drink. Instead, he lowered his head to sniff the hot air, savoring the slightly sweet aroma hidden in the rich tea fragrance, and held it in his hands to keep warm. "You came to me in such a hurry, is there something wrong?"

Dumbledore looked at him deeply and said, "I would like to hire you as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts."

(End of this chapter)