Hogwarts: Don't call me the Staff Maker

Chapter 787 Riddle Mansion

"Harry, are you sure we're not in the wrong place?"

In the early hours of the morning, on an unknown street, Ron looked at the eerie old house on the distant hillside, instinctively took a few steps back, and said, "It really doesn't look like anyone lives there."

"That's great, after all, we're looking for snakes, not people," Hermione's voice came from behind.

She walked to the front and carefully examined the scene before her—it was a village, not very big, about the size of Hogsmeade.

At the highest point of the village, there is a rather grand house, but it is easy to tell from the nearly human-high weeds around it and the vines that cover the entire wall that no one has lived here for a long time.

"Harry, is this the place you mentioned before?"

"That's right." Harry, who was at the back, seemed to be confirming something, and only after hearing Hermione's words did he look away from the old house.

"Little Hangleton, Riddle House."

"Riddle." Ron clicked his tongue, feeling that the name sounded familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before.

"Tom Riddle—the name of the mysterious man!" Hermione took a deep breath, trying to hide her shock.

"A mysterious person!" Ron's expression changed.

He remembered that Riddle was the Mysterious Man's original surname—so that meant they had actually come to the Mysterious Man's lair?

Just thinking about it made Ron's legs tremble, and he didn't want to take another step.

"Harry—Harry, are you sure the snake is here?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure if Nagini is definitely hiding here." Harry hesitated for a moment, then shook his head slightly. "But it's very likely that he's here. I remember what that wall looks like; it's exactly the same as the one I saw before."

"Just because of that dream you had before?"

"That wasn't a dream, Ron. You know, my scar hurt a lot back then, like it was on fire," Harry said earnestly.

Ron didn't say anything more.

He knew very well that whenever Harry's scars started to hurt, he would see a perspective that was not his own in a daze.

Those were the images Voldemort saw; his scars seemed to pull him into Voldemort's soul, where he sometimes saw the great serpent named Nagini.

Harry guessed it was related to Horcruxes, since Voldemort's soul was also hidden inside the snake's body.

This special ability is novel, but also extremely dangerous. After all, the fact that he could enter Voldemort's body through the scar means that the latter could do the same.

Furthermore, Voldemort once used a false memory to lure them to the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic.

After that incident, Harry voluntarily learned Occlumency and never used this special ability again.

Until a few days ago, Harry voluntarily released his Occlumency in order to find Nagini's hiding place more quickly.

It must be said that this method was indeed effective. The next night, he saw some images that did not belong to him again because of the pain in his scars.

After Harry woke up, he brought them here.

As for why Harry knew the way, he couldn't explain it himself, but he just knew where Riddle House was, as if the place had always been in his memory.

"Enough talk, let's go!" Ignoring Ron, who was shaking his head frantically, Harry was the first to head towards Riddle House.

It was still dark, and there was no one on the street. It was so quiet that they could even clearly hear their own heartbeats getting louder and louder.

Finally, they crossed the deserted streets and followed a long-abandoned path to the gates of Riddle's mansion.

Ron's heart was racing, and he felt a tingling numbness in his mouth and tongue, making it difficult for him to speak clearly.

"Harry—should we...should we continue?"

"Let's wait and see," Harry said in a low voice. "I'm a little worried that this is another of Vader's schemes, like last time."

"By Merlin, this is truly astonishing." Hermione turned to look at him. "You actually realized this was a conspiracy."

If they hadn't been together all the time, Hermione would have suspected that the Harry in front of her was a Death Eater in disguise.

The real Harry wouldn't have thought of things so comprehensively.

"Don't say that. I'm not always that reckless." Harry blushed slightly.

Hermione pursed her lips, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the statement.

If Harry hadn't been so reckless, he wouldn't have gone to the Department of Mysteries and stepped right into Voldemort's trap.

But now is not the time to talk about these things.

"How are we going to be sure this isn't a trap?" Ron couldn't help but ask. "Are we just going to wait here?"

"Of course not, leave it to me." Hermione raised her wand and aimed it at the house covered in vines on the hillside.

"Show yourself quickly!"

A gust of wind seemed to blow by, and the surrounding weeds and the vines and leaves on the wall swayed at the same time.

But after the gust of wind passed, nothing changed.

"The Revealing Charm is typically used by Aurors to check for the presence of dark magic in their surroundings," Hermione explained.

Do you remember? We learned that in fifth grade.

"Fifth year—" Ron narrowed his eyes, "If I remember correctly, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor back then was Bellatrix in disguise, right?"

"The professor is fake, but the spells she taught are real, and very effective," Hermione said. "At least we can be sure that the house wasn't under any dark magic."

"That's what makes it even more dangerous," Ron sighed.

"Think about it carefully. If this really is where the mysterious person hid his last Horcrux, how could he do nothing?"

It has to be said, Ron was right.

Both Harry and Hermione hesitated for a moment.

Given Voldemort's personality, he would definitely use every means to protect his last Horcrux, but there is no dark magic here—this is too abnormal.

"Maybe he's confident enough that no one will find this place," Harry said, but his voice trailed off, because even he himself found it hard to believe.

"No matter what, I'm definitely going in." He took a deep breath. "You guys wait for me outside—"

"Harry, what nonsense are you talking about!" Hermione interrupted his plans in an annoyed tone.

"We didn't drop out of school with you to stand guard."

Ron didn't speak immediately, but after a moment he mustered up his courage and nodded.

He was indeed scared, but he was also unwilling to abandon Harry and Hermione and stay outside.

"In that case, I'll be at the front when we go in," Harry said, stepping first into the overgrown yard.

"Ron, stay with me. Hermione, you stay at the back and be ready to Apparate and get us out of here."

"good!"

"no problem!"