Hogwarts Study Panel

Chapter 334, Section 333: Choice
"You need to return these things to their owners and apologize to them."

Professor Dumbledore said calmly,

“I will find out whether you did it or not, and I also want to warn you: Hogwarts does not tolerate theft.”

Riddle showed no shame whatsoever. He stared coldly at Dumbledore, as if weighing him in his mind.

Finally, he said in a dry, monotone voice:

"Understood, sir."

Beside Sheen, the white-haired Dumbledore's voice was calm:
"Then comes the second choice: how to face one's own actions."

Then the image started flowing again—

Riddle put the small pile of stolen goods back into the cardboard box, his face still expressionless.

After finishing tidying up, he turned around and said to Dumbledore without any politeness:

"I do not have money."

"That's easy to solve."

As Dumbledore spoke, he pulled a leather money pouch from his pocket.

“Hogwarts has a fund specifically for those who need financial assistance to buy textbooks and robes. Some of your spellbooks will probably have to be bought secondhand, but—”

Where can I buy a magic book?

Riddle interrupted Dumbledore, took the money pouch without a word of thanks, and began to examine a thick Galleon.

Professor Dumbledore and Headmaster Dumbledore both had extremely solemn expressions on their faces.

After a long pause, the white-haired Headmaster Dumbledore finally spoke:
"Finally, it's about how to choose to face the interests."

At that moment, the images in my memory shattered like bubbles.

A few seconds later, Sheen felt himself floating lightly through the darkness once again, before landing steadily in his office in reality.

He was somewhat dazed from the recent detachment; the Pensieve meditation always had this effect.

"Time is playing tricks on us,"

Dumbledore pointed to the dark sky outside the window and said,

"Goodbye, child."

Sheehan was taken aback. Headmaster Dumbledore had just shown him Voldemort's childhood, but then said nothing.

When his gaze swept over, Headmaster Dumbledore was smiling kindly:

"Well, I hope you didn't miss the last point because you were sleepy, Sheehan—young Tom Riddle loved collecting trophies."

You saw that box of stolen goods he hid in the room. They were all taken from the children he had bullied; you could say they were souvenirs of some particularly vile magical tricks.

I guess you've read that book. If you have any questions, perhaps you'll have some answers now.

As for what I want to say, child… it's to choose your life carefully. But I must say, no one has done this better than you.”

The door to the principal's office was closed.

Dumbledore stood on the edge of the window; different choices always led the story in different directions.

The deeper memory threads of the Pensieve store entirely different scenes.

The classrooms on the fourth floor, the secret room in the basement, the missing seamless extension bag, and the new children's house that has sprung up from the ground.

His mustache twitched, as if he had remembered something happy.

……

Sheen was still pondering as he walked out of the principal's office.

It seems that Headmaster Dumbledore has discovered the secret of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and it's likely that he tacitly approved of Dumbledore learning "Poison Magic".

This also means that the plot doesn't change much, or if it does, it deviates in the right direction. That's what I want to see.

Avoiding the excited patrolling young wizards, Sheen quickened his pace. His Soul Transmutation skill had reached the level required for "Expert," and soon he would be able to deal with Voldemort's soul within Harry.

But what exactly are the little wizards doing?
With a slight concentration, Sheen effortlessly saw the black cat portrait in their hands.

Sheen, who was about to practice soul transformation: "..."

At night, the snow that had started falling in the morning turned into a fierce blizzard. Thick, dark snowflakes danced in the sky, sealing every window, making the castle much darker than usual.

A black cat finally found a place to stay. Its ears perked up, and it could hear the little wizards running happily down the hallway.

Fortunately, there weren't many people in the deeper part of the fourth-floor corridor; most of the young wizards were gathered around the black cat statue.

Offerings are now laid out beneath the statue, and the black cat sometimes feels that this is too strange.

After it quietly moved the offerings away, the offerings only increased next time, so it had no choice but to let it go.

Besides the rumors recently spread by the Castle Cat Club, something else has become a popular rumor at Hogwarts School since this morning.

"Ah, it's silly baby Potter! What's Potter doing? Why is Potter acting so suspiciously—oh, Potter, you little rascal, look what you've done, manipulating snakes, thinking it's so funny—"

The black cat's ears twitched as it heard a strange sound.

It turned out to be Peeves. It chuckled and skipped past Harry on the fourth floor, knocking Harry's glasses askew.

"Get out of the way! Mischievous Pikachu! Blood Man Barrow is here!"

Harry yelled, and Peeves hurriedly backed away, but still stuck his tongue out at Harry.

“I’m not like him, and I could never be a good fit for Slytherin!”

"After Peeves left," Harry said loudly.

Ever since leaving the principal's office, he had been gripped by a panic he couldn't explain.

"I'm in Gryffindor..."

A voice inside him was speaking.

"But the Sorting Hat originally intended to put you in Slytherin."

Soon, another voice retorted.

The two voices had been arguing for so long that Harry wanted to throw himself into the black lake covered with a thin layer of ice to calm down.

In his confusion, Harry caught a glimpse of a dark shadow flash by. The shadow looked very familiar, and he quickly rubbed his eyes.

"Mr. Black Cat!"

he shouted.

It's the Hogwarts Castle's cat; it even knows Voldemort's diary, so it might be able to answer my questions!
But the shadowy figure had vanished, leaving him only to hang his head in disappointment.

That night, Harry couldn't sleep for several hours. He watched the snowflakes drift through the castle windows through the gaps in the curtains around his bed, feeling utterly lost.

In the gray world, he eventually drifted off to sleep.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a hazy space, and on the familiar "Children's Home" sign, a black cat was using its paws to place its tail.

"Mr. Black Cat!"

Harry exclaimed in surprise.

The black cat nodded in a human-like manner.

"You know—"

At this point, Harry had so much to say that he couldn't utter a word for a while.

The black cat, however, was not in a hurry at all; it seemed to be taming its tail.

　Something came up today, will update at 6 AM tomorrow.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)