The days at Hogwarts

Loren swung his arm, causing the wand to swing downward.

The killer whale patron saint swung its tail, and its majestic body seemed to move clumsily, stirring up a turbulent wind in another dimension.

The giant whale rushed forward recklessly.

The patron saint's actions were silent, and even the snakes and insects in the woods outside the house fell silent. For a moment, everything was silent. But Loren seemed to hear the roar coming from the distant deep sea, and invisible ripples spread in another dimension.

The impact area was covered with Riddle's phantom, the resurrection stone ring, and the old wizard with white beard.

The silvery-white light of the guardian angel blocked the view and nothing could be seen clearly.

"I have never seen such a magnificent patronus. It is truly amazing." The old wizard's hoary voice came through the light.

"Principal Dumbledore!" Loren shouted in surprise. He quickly put away his Patronus and rushed to Dumbledore's side. "Principal, you finally woke up!"

His hands stopped shaking, and there were no rings on them, nor were there any dark curses or runes.

It seems that no one was infected.

Loren looked to the side, but he could no longer find Riddle's vague figure. But Gaunt's ring was still intact on the table, still emitting a dangerous and evil aura.

He sighed in disappointment. He thought his killer whale patronus was different from others, and it would be a fatal blow to the evil soul of Voldemort hidden in the ring, and it could be raised directly to him.

It seems like I'm overthinking...

Chapter 194 Myrtle: Hermione, when you die, we will die together

Watching boys take a shower

Myrtle's bathroom.

The beige glass with diamond-shaped grids shone brightly, illuminating the entire bathroom. Thanks to Loren's repair of the toilet, the bathroom floor, which had been flooded for years, was no longer damp, revealing its original color.

Hermione sat cross-legged on the ground, holding up a square glass bottle, and poured the green grass juice into the crucible in front of her at a uniform speed. Then she picked up the stirring spoon and stirred the liquid evenly.

Be careful to ensure that the 12 lacewings in the pot are heated evenly, and be sure to add water when the liquid level drops due to evaporation. Hermione has been repeating these steps for the past few days, but she does not find it boring, but enjoys it.

The process of brewing high-level potions gave her a fulfilling feeling, and her brain was happily absorbing knowledge and experience.

"What are you doing?" a shrill female voice asked.

Hermione looked up and saw Myrtle floating in the air, looking into the pot. She had a satisfied smile on her face, a bit like Loren.

This was her first time facing Myrtle alone, she had always been with Loren. Hermione felt ashamed of being caught doing something shameful in someone else's territory.

After they decided to brew the Polyjuice Potion here, they had intended to say hello to Myrtle, but since Myrtle was away for the past few days, they had never had the chance to say hello.

"We were planning to discuss this with you, but you weren't here these days..." Hermione said, and suddenly asked curiously, "I remember you've been living in the cubicle, where have you been these days?"

"Hehehe~" Speaking of this, Myrtle laughed excitedly: "Did you know that there is a bathroom on the sixth floor that serves only the prefects and the captains of the Quidditch team?"

The prefects' and captains' bathrooms? What does that have to do with you?

Hermione nodded blankly. "I heard the twins mention it when they were teasing Percy. Is there anything special about the bathroom?"

In order to brew potions these days, Hermione had not taken care of her hair. The thick curls covered her entire head. There was fatigue in her voice and a sense of unkemptness.

She was born a Muggle, didn't look pretty, hid in the bathroom alone, no one was with her, and I heard that she was even ostracized by the girls.

Myrtle felt that Hermione was a bit like her, and she felt a sense of closeness in her heart. She had the idea of ​​becoming friends with Hermione.

Just like every living little witch has her own best friend, those little witches who hang out in groups will share secrets that are difficult to talk about in a corner and discuss topics that sound impolite.

During her long time as a ghost, she had seen scenes like this countless times. Hiding in the cold and heavy castle stone wall, with only one ear exposed, she could hear it.

Out of some kind of secret envy, she leaned close to Hermione's ear like those little witches who shared secrets, suppressed her excitement, and whispered excitedly: "As long as you pass through the statue of Boris the Fool, you can enter the boys' bathroom and see the prefects taking a bath--"

Hermione's eyes widened: "Ah! This...you, I..."

She hesitated, shocked and didn't know where to start. Shyness, condemnation of Myrtle's bad behavior, and wondering whether the moral values ​​and school rules of the living can be applied to ghosts...

There was so much information in there that even Hermione's brain was a little overwhelmed.

"Oh, that's what I was thinking. If you died, you'd be welcome to come with me and watch the boy prefects take a bath." Myrtle's face turned silver-white with embarrassment.

Ghosts walk through walls, peek, take baths...

When I die...

go together……

Should I thank her for her kindness? Hermione was silent for a moment.

Hermione opened her mouth, wanting to say something but stopping herself. Finally, she asked with a complicated expression, "Does it take so long to peek? I've been brewing potions here for several days."

"Aha!" Myrtle shouted excitedly in a shrill voice and flew around Hermione twice. "This is my accumulated experience. You can't go in and out of the bathroom too often, or you'll be discovered by other ghosts. And I don't know when the prefects take a bath, so I always stay there for a few days, so I can always see them."

Hermione was even more silent, once again deeply aware of the ghost's distortion of character and spirit.

Myrtle was not discouraged when she didn't get a response. She knew that this was how life was, and she would understand it after she died.

Myrtle looked at the cauldron. "What potion are you brewing? Why are you hiding here to brew it?"

Hermione then realized that she had stopped stirring at some point, and the liquid had become somewhat stagnant. She quickly turned the stirring spoon, and waited until the lacewings stabilized before saying, "Because no one else can know, neither professors nor students, can you keep it a secret for us?"

"Oh, it needs to be kept secret!" Myrtle suddenly became more excited, "You are doing something against school rules, right?"

Hermione's heart trembled when she heard the violation of school rules coming from Myrtle's mouth: "Yes, yes. We plan to use this potion to investigate things related to the Chamber of Secrets. However, I can't tell you the specific plan."

Myrtle showed a look of longing and envy: "It's great to complete an adventure that violates school rules with friends..."

Just then, Harry and Ron rushed in from the bathroom: "Hermione! Hermione! We found what you asked us to find!"

Harry was holding a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Ron was holding a freshly torn sheet of paper from an old library book.

It reads: In our country, there are many terrible beasts and monsters roaming around, the most bizarre and deadly of all is the basilisk, also known as the snake king…

Little Hangleton, in the old house of Gaunt.

Because of the big noise that happened before, some small animals in the woods near the old house vaguely felt that it was no longer safe here, and began to move deeper into the valley. The noise of people hurrying on the road brought more life to the valley that had been silent for a long time.

The late autumn wind blew into the dilapidated old house with a chill, making the old man's long white beard shake constantly, just like the heart of the beard's owner, which could not calm down for a long time.

Dumbledore sat at the table, not caring at all about the worn-out stool and dirty tabletop, staring at the Resurrection Stone on the table in a daze for a long time.

The reliable image of this old man with a long white beard is deeply rooted in people's hearts, and his power spans two generations of Dark Lords. So much so that people often ignore that he is over a hundred years old, which is already a very old age even for wizards.

Loren looked at the principal in a daze, worried that he would get lost again but he was too embarrassed to speak up, so he was ready to launch the Killer Whale Attack at any time.

Noticing his defensiveness, Dumbledore forced out an awkward smile and said softly, "Loren, do you know the story of Death and the three brothers?"

Loren nodded, he knew, then shook his head, he didn't know clearly.

Dumbledore's eyes showed a nostalgic look: "When I was a child, this story left a deep impression on me. I heard my mother tell it for the first time, and soon it became the story I begged her to tell most before going to bed. My brother Aberforth often quarreled with me about this. His favorite story was "Crumb the Dirty Goat."

When he said this, Loren tried to find some signs of emotion on Dumbledore's face, but there was nothing. It was as if time had passed so long that the centenarian's yearning for his family had become dull under the erosion of time.

Facing Loren's gaze, Dumbledore smiled and said, "I'll tell you the story of 'Crumb the Dirty Goat' when I have the chance. Today I want to tell you the story of the Deathly Hallows. Once upon a time, there were three brothers traveling on a secluded goat path..."

"Death went to an elderberry tree on the shore and made a wand out of the overhanging branches and gave it to the eldest... Death picked up a stone from the shore and gave it to the second, telling him that the stone had the power to bring the dead back to life... Death reluctantly gave his invisibility cloak to the third..."

Until the third brother took off his invisibility cloak and handed it to his descendants, and took the initiative to throw himself equally into the arms of death, it was no different from what Loren knew.

"Rumor has it that if a person legally possesses these three items, he or she will become the 'Master of Death', which is usually believed to mean that he or she is invincible or even immortal." Dumbledore said this casually, in a calm tone.

"I opposed Snape's development of a resurrection potion, but I allowed him to try it because I knew it was doomed to fail, and the process of trying would bring hope and comfort to those who were still alive. Just like before..."

At this point, Dumbledore's blue eyes were filled with a mist, which quickly dissipated. It was so fast that Loren thought he was seeing things.

"I realized one thing a long time ago - that we still cannot bring the dead back to life, and there is every reason to believe that it will never happen."

"Just like in the story, resurrection is a false illusion made up by the god of death in order to reap life." Dumbledore looked at Loren with a strange light in his eyes. "Thanks to you, otherwise I would be like the second one in the story."

Loren didn't want to tear Dumbledore's scar again, so he didn't want to dwell on what happened just now. He poked the Resurrection Stone with his wand and asked, "Voldemort is so afraid of death, why didn't he use the Resurrection Stone?"

"I don't think he recognized the Resurrection Stone. For a man like Voldemort, who would he want to call back to the dead? He is afraid of the dead. He does not know how to love." said Dumbledore.

In fact, Loren felt that, apart from Dumbledore, no other top wizard believed that love had magic. He thought that what Dumbledore wanted to say might be the influence of emotions and soul on magic.

Loren was still puzzled: "Since Voldemort did not recognize the Resurrection Stone, why did you... um, get lost in the illusion of the Resurrection Stone?"

"He just designed a very clever magic. The ring will make anyone who notices it fall into their most desired fantasy, making them wear the ring involuntarily. Then he designed an extremely evil curse on the ring."

Dumbledore paused and took a deep breath. "After I recognized the Resurrection Stone, my emotions fluctuated a little and I relaxed my guard in front of the Horcrux."

How could he not be tempted... Gellert's thoughts were so attractive to him in the past. The core of their plan was the Deathly Hallows! How obsessed he was with them, how obsessed they were with them.

The Resurrection Stone means the army of Inferi to Gellert, and to him, it means the resurrection of his parents and Ariana's forgiveness.

After so many years, the resurrection stone that had been nowhere to be found appeared here. At that moment, he thought he was about to meet Ariana, his mother, and his father. He could tell them about his regrets...

How could he not be moved?

Loren fiddled with the Gaunt ring with his wand: "Principal, what are you going to do with this ring?"

The ring still has fragments of Voldemort's soul attached to it. In addition to the Resurrection Stone, it is also Voldemort's Horcrux.

Dumbledore took a deep look at the Deathly Hallows symbol engraved on the Resurrection Stone. His fingers under the table trembled twice as he sensed his wand, and the gauze-like invisibility cloak flashed through his mind.

He pushed his chaotic thoughts into the deepest part of his mind: "Just like a crown, I want to put it away first and wait for the right time to destroy it."

Isn't it destroyed immediately?

Thinking of the vicious curse above, I remembered the scene where Dumbledore fell from the tower.

Loren put away his frivolous look and turned serious. He stared into Dumbledore's eyes and said, "I want you to destroy it immediately. Right now! In front of me!"

There seemed to be a mature soul hidden behind that gaze. For a moment, Dumbledore almost suspected that he had seen through his thoughts and wanted to avoid those eyes.

But when he realized that Loren was trying to separate him from the Resurrection Stone and that he was worried about him, Dumbledore felt a long-lost sense of shame.

After a long silence, Dumbledore smiled with relief. He had clearly proved when he was young that power was his weakness, but he still couldn't let go of his obsession even when he was old, and he had unrealistic ideas in his mind.

Forget it, forget it. He is already 111 years old this year, it is no longer his era!

After giving up the illusory idea of ​​collecting the Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore suddenly felt relieved, and even the fatigue brought by the Horcruxes was dissipated a lot.

He raised his hand and gently tapped Loren's nose, then said with a smile, "I am the headmaster of Hogwarts and the chief of the Wizengamot. How could I be tricked twice in the same place?"

"Who knows? You are a wizard, not Merlin." Loren did not give in at all.

Even the explosion of the Piercing Spell couldn't wake up the insane old headmaster. What if one night, Dumbledore couldn't sleep and was emo late at night, and took out the Resurrection Stone? When he was found in the morning, his body would probably be stiff.

"Hahaha..." Dumbledore laughed, "You're right! I'm just an old wizard, not Merlin, nor a god."

He thought for a moment and waved towards the shelf next to him.

The clay pot that had previously stored the Horcrux flew over and landed on the table. Dumbledore picked up the ring and put it into the pot. He picked up his wand and tapped the pot lightly with Transfiguration. Liquid-like waves suddenly flowed on the surface of the fired pot, and then it folded over by itself like paper.

After being folded several times, the pottery jar shrank into a seamless round ball, and its surface was as black as stone.

Dumbledore took Loren's hand and spread it open, then placed the stone ball containing the Resurrection Stone in his hand and solemnly entrusted him, "Although you don't trust me, I trust you. It's not time to destroy the Horcrux yet, and I hope you will keep it until the time comes."

Loren blinked in confusion... What happened? He picked up a resurrection stone for free?

Chapter 195: Fire at Windsor Castle

"Not only is there Transfiguration, but the lower layer of the stone shell is also engraved with a seal and a protective alchemy array. It seems that there are only two ways to open the stone ball and take out the Resurrection Stone intact. One is for Dumbledore to remove the seal himself, and the other is for someone with greater attainments in magic and alchemy than Dumbledore."

"Of course, this is not absolute. You can use Fiendfyre or the Sword of Gryffindor to forcibly open the stone ball, but it will destroy the Resurrection Stone hidden inside."

Loren held the black stone ball in front of his eyes. His gaze penetrated the surface of the stone shell, and he saw the complex alchemical array inside, analyzing the alchemy inside.

After finishing his trip to Gaunt's old house, Loren did not follow Dumbledore back to Hogwarts Castle. Since he had already left school, he simply took advantage of the weekend to go home and enjoy a rare vacation.

Lockhart will be teaching the Memory Charm on Saturday night, so he can stay until tomorrow afternoon before returning to school.

"Loren, it's time for dinner." Bates' voice came from the dining table, full of energy.

Bates placed a wooden bowl and spoon on the dining table, filled with wheat porridge cooked with goat's milk. On the table was salty and fragrant smoked lamb, and a plate of small wild berries of various colors.

He raised his eyebrows proudly. "These wild berries were picked by Wendell and I when we were fishing by the river. I used all my catch today to exchange for these wild berries with him."

It goes without saying that Wendell took the fish to show off to Monica, boasting that the catch of both of them was his alone.

This is what fishermen do.

Loren grabbed a handful of wild berries and threw them into his mouth. He shuddered and frowned because of the sour taste. "Bah, don't pick them in the future. The berries here are sour."

"You are just picky about food. How could it be sour? Wendell and I tasted it before we picked it."

Bates snorted, grabbed a handful of the fruit, and threw it all into his mouth. His expression suddenly became ferocious, and he trembled from the sourness. The juice of the physalis that burst out of his mouth stimulated the blue veins on his neck to swell.

"Not sour," Bates swallowed hard and lied, "Not sour at all..."