Hogwarts: A Chinese-Style Professor

Chapter 287 Dumbledore's Mental Inertia

“I will consider what you’ve said—whether it’s Professor Binns or the hair dyeing issue.”

In the silent and quiet atmosphere, Dumbledore stood up and ended the conversation.

Li Wei looked at his solemn expression, shook his head, and remained silent.

"Snapped."

With the sound of firecrackers exploding, the two figures disappeared from the spot.

When their feet touched the ground again, the two had returned to the headmaster's office at Hogwarts.

“The moment of truth has finally arrived,” Dumbledore said, placing a stone basin on the table and looking at Levi. “How many do you think there will be? Perhaps we have actually destroyed all the Horcruxes, leaving only the last golden cup?”

Li Wei poured the memories from the bottle into the meditation basin, and while waiting, he said softly:

"Does it matter? Whether there are a few left or not, it won't affect our ability to end this."

After saying this, he and Dumbledore put their heads into the Pensieve one after the other—their bodies left the ground and fell into the darkness, landing in Slughorn's office from many years ago.

The much younger Slughorn sat in a comfortable winged armchair.

He had thick, glossy straw-yellow hair and a ginger-yellow mustache. He sat in a comfortable winged armchair with his feet resting on a large velvet cushion, holding a small glass of wine in one hand and picking through a box of pineapple preserves with the other.

Six or seven teenage boys sat around Slughorn, among them Tom Riddle—Mavolo's black gemstone gold ring gleamed on his hand.

"Tom, I believe you'll be Minister for Magic within twenty years. Maybe even fifteen, if you keep sending me pineapple preserves—I have very strong connections in the ministry."

Slughorn flaunted his connections.

Looking at his smug appearance, Li Wei couldn't reconcile it with the image of the timid old man from before.

“I don’t know if politics is a good fit for me, sir,” Tom Riddell said. “First of all, I have no background.”

“What are you saying?” Slughorn said cheerfully. “With your talent, it’s obvious that you must come from a respectable wizarding family.”

You have a bright future ahead of you, Tom. I've never misjudged a student.

Dumbledore glanced at Livy and said, half-jokingly:

"His judgment is indeed excellent."

"Come on, Dumbledore," Levi said calmly. "When you say you have good judgment, are you referring to your view of the Dark Lord as the future Minister of Magic?"

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow and remained silent.

The two watched quietly as things unfolded—seeing how Voldemort, in the past, had patiently coaxed Slughorn into revealing the method for creating Horcruxes.

Slughorn clearly altered his memories during this process—he even made 'himself' righteously refuse Tom's inquiry about how to make Horcruxes.

Fortunately, this does not affect the final conclusion.

"Just out of curiosity, I want to ask, is a Horcrux really that useful? Can a soul only split once? Would it be better to split it into multiple pieces to make you stronger? For example, isn't seven the most magical number, seven—?"

"My God, Tom! Seven!"

Isn't wanting to kill someone evil enough? In any case, splitting a soul into seven pieces is evil enough.

Slughorn looked very uneasy, staring wide-eyed at Riddle—he clearly regretted having had such a conversation with him. When they finished speaking, both Levi and Dumbledore clearly saw Tom's expression—filled with ecstasy, like when he first discovered he was a wizard, a joy that, instead of making his face more handsome, made it look somewhat ferocious.
“It seems your prediction was correct.” Levi and Dumbledore stepped out of the Pensieve and said calmly, “Congratulations, Professor.”

Dumbledore smiled easily and said happily:
"Yes, but the road ahead is still long—the fewer Horcruxes there are, the harder they are to find."

At this point, a warm light, completely out of character for this legendary wizard, ignited in his eyes, like a general who had set his sights on a goal, filled with a determination to fight to the death.

Sniff.

Li Wei's nostrils twitched, and he asked Dumbledore, "Do you feel something igniting?"

Dumbledore was somewhat taken aback and couldn't help but ask:

"What's on fire?"

This is his office; there's no way it could catch fire here.

Li Wei, expressionless, pointed to Dumbledore's heart and said calmly:

"It must be your heart that has been ignited."

? ?
“Livy.” Dumbledore’s voice carried a rare hint of helplessness. “I didn’t expect you to have a talent for telling corny jokes.”

"Don't be so tense, Dumbledore." Li Wei looked at the 'old man' who seemed ready to trade one for three of the remaining Horcruxes and said calmly, "Actually, Voldemort's matter isn't as important as you think."

"What's the meaning?"

Dumbledore looked at Livy with some doubt, quietly concealing his surprise and incomprehension.

“Suppose—” Levi gazed calmly at Dumbledore, but the serene black pupils cast a shadow of unease within him, “what if we failed to destroy all the Horcruxes, and Tom resurrected prematurely?”

"how."

"Yes, what would you do?"

Dumbledore was about to answer instinctively, but quickly swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue and frowned as he thought about it.

He never considered the possibility of him and Levi killing Tom—for four reasons.

First: Killing Tom before destroying all the Horcruxes is pointless; it will only make him more vigilant—if he fails, his return will be even more stealthy and dangerous.

Second: Killing Tom was not an easy task—Dumbledore did have one or two truly exceptional opportunities, but he hesitated.

Now, Tom is unlikely to give him another chance.

Third: That astonishingly accurate prophecy—the prophecy has already been made: the one who will end the Dark Lord's life will be Harry, not him.

Fourth: Harry may be hiding a cruel truth that he is not yet certain of, or does not want to be certain of.

The combination of these four factors led to a mental inertia in Dumbledore – he had to prepare everything so that Harry could ultimately bring everything to an end.

However, Livy Dumbledore had personally witnessed the other party's terrifying lightning magic.

With the two of them working together, even Voldemort couldn't stop them.
Dumbledore looked up at Livy, his eyes gleaming:

"You mean, if Tom comes back to life, we'll just kill him ourselves?"

(End of this chapter)