Harry Potter and the Burnt Badger

"Please come to my office. -Dumbledore"

It seemed that Professor Dumbledore had finally returned and was still able to write letters. His condition was probably not too bad. After all, Moon did not see the old man's name on the Marauder's Map last night.

This was great news, but the problem that followed was that Moon's original plan to write a manuscript while he was free on Friday night was completely in vain.

At this point, he had no other choice but to put away the note sent by Professor Dumbledore, then pulled out a piece of paper from his notebook, and wrote on it:

“I only have time to write one article about the Duel Club this week, so I’ll leave the rest to you.

PS I still can’t post about Gilderoy Lockhart, thank you. "

Then, the note was casually posted on the back of the office door.

There is definitely no need for a signature. Anyway, as long as they see the content, anyone in the school newspaper office will realize that it is his message.

It was a rare opportunity to take the initiative to become the hands-off shopkeeper. Moon's mood became very good. Now he no longer needed to worry about the weekend schedule. The work had been dispatched anyway.

Darling, is this the beauty of being a "capitalist"?

He picked up his bag, hummed a tuneless tune, opened the door and walked away.

…………

"You look very happy?" Professor Dumbledore looked at Moon with a smile. He was wearing a dark gray retro wizard robe with a phoenix embroidered with bright silver thread, and placed his hands gently on the table. , his fingertips occasionally tapped the tabletop intentionally or unintentionally.

——The most important thing is that these two hands are intact, and there are no strange new accessories on them.

"Indeed, three weeks after the start of the school year, the principal of our school finally returned safe and sound. Isn't that worth being happy about?" Moon spread his hands and joked: "If my guess is right, what is Professor McGonagall's mood right now?" Probably better than me - but she'll probably complain to you first."

Professor Dumbledore's brows raised, and his eyes couldn't help but slide to the side. It seemed that Moon had told him what he had just experienced. "It's not bad at all, Moon. Professor McGonagall just left not long ago. Of course, I have to say, her musical talent is not as high as yours, so the tunes she hums are not very beautiful."

Moon smiled, thinking that if Professor McGonagall heard this evaluation, Professor Dumbledore would probably have to be criticized again.

"So -" Professor Dumbledore picked up a strange-looking gummy candy from the familiar tray on the table. After being rejected by Moon, he gently threw it into his mouth, and then whispered in a satisfied tone. : "——Has anything unusual happened at school during my absence?"

"Yes, and I think this semester may not be peaceful." Moon calmed down a little bit of his lightness, straightened his expression, and spoke out the premonition he had in the divination class that day, "I received another prophecy, but this time This kind of premonition prophecy is more broad, and it does not have strong guidance for the time being. If you pay too much attention to it, it may be misleading."

"But regarding the symbol of the snake, you can at least pay a little more attention, and maybe you will gain something. On Harry's side, there has been no movement at the moment."

Moon copied the snake pattern on the page and took it out of the small bag on his waist, then handed it to Professor Dumbledore.

"Sorry, you just mentioned...receiving?" Professor Dumbledore took the paper and looked at Moon in surprise. "If I remember correctly, you should have made more prophecies on your own initiative in the past?"

"That's right, Professor." Moon nodded and said, "This time it can be said to be almost completely passive, and the sign is very strong - but I didn't find out what this means."

The old man waved his palms and signaled to Munn not to take it too seriously, "Don't worry, Munn, it doesn't mean anything. Prophets are like this, sometimes active and sometimes passive. The reason why this thing surprised me is just because of the It’s just a change.”

Moon didn't ask any more questions. The old man had no need to fool himself on this kind of thing, so he took the initiative to change the subject, "Where are you, Professor? You should have gained something from this trip. Or are you actually... Go out and find a place to eat sweets and candies for weeks?”

So people are very strange creatures. Before Professor Dumbledore came back, he was worried about something happening to Professor Dumbledore every day, for fear that he would find the ring and wear it on his finger; now that Professor Dumbledore is back , and his hands were empty, without any curse, Moon was confused about whether Professor Dumbledore really missed it.

Talking about this matter, the professor looked at the giant snake graphic on the paper and said with some regret: "Although it wasted a lot of time, unfortunately, I did only eat a small dessert that was not worth mentioning. It's a A good start, but I’m not very satisfied with the result.”

"I think it's a good thing to be able to escape unscathed." Moon said with great disapproval: "Talent is the foundation of everything. Don't forget, professor, compared to the so-called backup you left behind, I think you are still alive. You are more of a deterrent to those secret societies of dark wizards."

"Okay, what you said makes sense." The old man smiled. "Of course, like I said, I didn't get nothing this time. At least, I successfully grasped the idea and confirmed how Voldemort survived to this day. Yes - that's right, Moon, Voldemort is still alive, one hundred percent, I'm sure of it."

Professor Dumbledore did not play off as usual, but whispered the answer very straightforwardly: "Horcruxes."

After all, Moon already knew the answer, so it was difficult to pretend to be too surprised, so he simply nodded thoughtfully, "This is... quite in line with Voldemort's style."

In fact, he is not ignorant of Horcruxes. As early as the past two years, he has read a lot of banned books related to black magic in the library. Although there is no specific description of Horcruxes, Horcruxes can be mentioned. After all, there are still a few of them.Therefore, he had already seen the name of the Horcrux three or five times in the book, so it was normal to have the most basic concept.

Under the circumstances, it was obviously quite reasonable for him to react this way.

Professor Dumbledore folded the parchment with the snake image in half, put it away in the drawer, and then said, "Do you want to hear the basis for my judgment?"

"That's what I asked for, Professor." This time Moon showed a genuinely curious look, "Could it be that you have found a Horcrux?"

The old man stood up and walked towards a shelf by the wall. "That's not true. Someone reminded me of this -"

He took a picture frame off the shelf and placed it in front of Moon.Moon raised his eyes and looked over. Most of them were familiar people: Professor Dumbledore, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Bablin, but they were all younger than they are now.There was also a short, fat man he had never seen before, with straw-colored hair that was beginning to show Mediterranean influence and a sparse ginger-blond beard. Although Moon did not recognize this person, in fact, his identity was already obvious. If exposed.

"Horace Slughorn." Sure enough, Professor Dumbledore said this man's name, which was exactly what Moon had guessed.

"You may not know this person, or you may have heard of his name. In short, he, like everyone in that photo, has taught in this school. At that time, Professor Snape had not yet arrived. , he serves as the professor of Potions. If I were to give Slughorn an evaluation, I would say that he is a very typical Slytherin. In him, you almost Can find all the quintessential Slytherin qualities.”

When mentioning the past events, Professor Dumbledore was obviously very emotional. When he saw Moon looking at the photo, he picked up the photo frame again, and while looking at the five smiling faces on it, he also showed a smile on his own face. With the same smile, "Ah, Horace, actually I haven't seen him for some years."

"Of course, today's theme is not nostalgia." The old man shrugged and put the photo frame back to his hand. "It's about what Slughorn did when he was still a professor. I think you may have guessed something. , Moon, yes, Slughorn was once Voldemort’s Potions Professor, but at that time, Voldemort’s name was still ‘Tom Riddle’.”

As Professor Dumbledore talked about it, Moon finally realized that as early as his second grade, Professor Dumbledore had already begun to suspect that Voldemort had created Horcruxes.

Two years ago, when Quirinus Quirrell returned to Hogwarts and colluded with Jacob Thor, Dumbledore immediately recognized one thing in his heart, that is, Voldemort was absolutely superior. In the human world.Maybe he was in poor condition, maybe even just hanging on, but Voldemort was definitely not dead.Otherwise, Jacob Thor would have no reason to take risks and do those things with Quirrell.

After confirming this matter, Dumbledore's mind quickly popped up with the figure of Ben Camp - or to be more precise, it should be the figure of Nathaniel.

He originally wanted to reject this idea, because with Voldemort's arrogant attitude after gaining power, he would never be willing to use or even learn that kind of ancient magic with extremely obvious flaws.But soon, the name of Horcrux uncontrollably occupied Dumbledore's thoughts.

The more he thought about it, the more Dumbledore thought it was very possible.Compared to the spell that trapped Nathaniel's soul, the Horcrux had almost no flaws and could bring Voldemort the power of immortality.As for the methods of making Horcruxes, Dumbledore happened to have some knowledge of them.

Murder, what could make Voldemort more happy or even excited than this?

Chapter 20 Slughorn's Escape

"From this, judging from my understanding of Voldemort, I almost concluded that he created Horcruxes to save himself from death." Professor Dumbledore said calmly, "And, I'm afraid, more than One - I'm not sure how many Horcruxes he created, but it's conceivable that with his temperament, one Horcrux will never satisfy him."

"And after confirming this...I immediately had another idea in my mind."

The old man's eyes fell on the photo again.

"Slughorn... before Voldemort gave up the Muggle name Tom Riddle and was still studying at Hogwarts, Slughorn was the professor with whom he had the best relationship. I have suspected that Slughorn may have unintentionally 'contributed' some help to Voldemort's future reign of terror, and that help is definitely not small."

The reason why Slughorn is a typical Slytherin is because he attaches great importance to interests and always upholds the belief of "making friends with useful people". He also enjoys the aura brought to him by those acquaintances. and benefits.

Having faith, and actually receiving positive help from the behavior guided by faith, the two form a closed loop——

The stronger his belief, the more he will make friends with people who have a high probability of becoming famous in the future, or even those who have already become famous; and the tangible benefits he will get from making friends with those people in the future will also make his belief stronger.

Under this circumstance, he naturally formed a very good teacher-student relationship with the boy Tom Riddle. If we want to say which professor in the entire Hogwarts school is the most trustworthy when Tom Riddle encounters difficulties, The first person to seek help would be Slughorn.Because at that time, little Tom's talent was fully demonstrated.He is extremely academically excellent and has a charming personality. As an orphan, he is able to gather a very high-quality circle around him.Almost everyone believes that as long as Tom Riddle is willing to join the Ministry of Magic, he must be the future Minister of Magic.

How could Slughorn miss such a student, even a student of Slytherin's own house?

From Dumbledore's point of view, since he had confirmed that Voldemort had most likely created Horcruxes, and in connection with the fact that after Voldemort graduated from Hogwarts and was rejected for applying for a teaching position, he abnormally and persistently refused when he returned from his graduation trip. Although he received an invitation from the Ministry of Magic, he chose to join the Borgin-Bock store as a small clerk.

From this moment on, Dumbledore guessed that Voldemort had probably made up his mind before graduation and was determined to create, or even had created, a Horcrux.

In other words, the relationship between Voldemort and Horcruxes is most likely inseparable from Slughorn, a professor who was keen to take care of little Tom.

So Dumbledore began to contact Slughorn - and at this time, Slughorn had not actively contacted Dumbledore for some time.

If it were placed on others, this matter might not be commendable.Maybe it's because of the heavy workload, or because there are too many things to do. A person will always be hindered by troubles of one kind or another, and gradually lose contact with friends.

But if it were Slughorn who had retired and still regarded interpersonal relationships as a lifelong honor, then this "never proactively contacting" would become very suspicious.

After a little investigation, Dumbledore immediately discovered that Slughorn's lack of contact almost started around the time of Jacob Thor's arrest.Moreover, Slughorn not only cut off contact with Dumbledore, he even stopped exchanging letters with most people one after another, as if he had completely disappeared from the world.

Obviously, either Slughorn suddenly died in an unknown corner; or he was deliberately hiding.

So, Dumbledore immediately decided to finish everything at hand.He first went to see an old friend and picked up something, then came back and sent a reply to Moon, and then went to visit Nicolas Flamel, who had already made an appointment.After returning to the UK, he left those two memories for Munn, and then led Munn to complete the previous arrangement and eliminate the dark wizards from the Bloodsworn.

Once all this was done, he set off on his journey to find Slughorn.

And the more I searched, the more I became convinced of my own ideas.

Because he began to realize that Slughorn was trying his best to avoid him, as if he, an old man who was over a hundred years old, was some kind of scourge that took people's lives...

…………

In fact, things started much earlier.

Many years ago, when Slughorn first realized that Voldemort, another Dark Lord who had become famous in the outside world, was none other than his former protégé, Tom Riddle, Slughorn was very nervous. Collapsed.

He didn't know that little Tom had actually learned how to make Horcruxes when he went to find him.Not to mention that Little Tom just wanted to confirm from him what would happen if a person made several Horcruxes one after another.

Poor Horace Slughorn, he thought he was the one who showed little Tom how to make Horcruxes, and he still thinks so to this day.

Therefore, he rightly felt that Voldemort's reign of terror had nothing to do with him.He was Voldemort's biggest accomplice, and it was he who allowed Voldemort to feel complacent beyond the scope of death.

As a result, uneasiness, guilt, self-blame... these emotions flooded into his heart, and even completely overwhelmed him for a time.

He became seriously ill as a result, and not surprisingly, Albus Dumbledore, who had become the principal of Hogwarts at that time, treated him with sincerity as always and provided him with various conveniences and care.

This made the guilt in his heart aggravate again.

However, driven by his own excessive egoism, he did not choose to confess his "mistakes" to Albus Dumbledore or anyone. Instead, he made up his mind to bury everything forever. Deep down, I don’t tell anyone.

This secret that could ruin his entire life could only follow him to the grave.

In this way, until more than ten years ago, Voldemort, who seemed to have reached the peak of his power, encountered his Waterloo and was defeated miserably by the young Harry Potter for no reason.

When he learned the news, Slughorn was extremely happy. It is no exaggeration to say that he was even happier than almost any wizard in the entire British wizarding world.

And this is undoubtedly a rather abnormal thing.

This made Dumbledore wary.

However, vigilance was just vigilance after all, and because of past feelings and the lack of any evidence, Dumbledore did not question Slughorn in a particularly tough way. Instead, he only conducted some indirect tests.

After several attempts, Slughorn, who remained silent, handed a piece of resignation to Dumbledore's desk.

There is no doubt that this once again aggravated Dumbledore's suspicion of him, but Voldemort had already been defeated at that time, and it was useless to say more, so the whole matter was settled.

After bidding farewell to Hogwarts, where he had served for many years, Slughorn's life suddenly became very easy.Without Voldemort and the heavy task of preparing lessons, he could enjoy the sunshine, tea and his favorite books at home, or write letters one after another to his friends and students.The only thing that still makes him feel a little sad is that the future stars who will further their studies at Hogwarts will no longer have anything to do with him.

This kind of leisure was maintained until the end of 90 and the beginning of 91.

Then, the news of Jacob Saul's arrest was made public by Cornelius Fudge.

It was also this incident that made Slughorn truly realize that Voldemort was not dead, but had actually created Horcruxes, and was still alive today.Because if Voldemort hadn't been alive, Jacob Thor would never have been able to force his way into Hogwarts at the risk of his life.

And this was precisely the reason why he felt fear and chose to hide: first, Voldemort was not dead; second, Jacob Thor was arrested at Hogwarts.

Voldemort is not dead, which means that the Dark Lord will come back sooner or later, and Slughorn has lost the protection of Hogwarts. As long as Voldemort wants to find him, no one can protect him - unless Albus Dumbledore could give up Hogwarts and let the old fat man serve as a 24-hour bodyguard, or he could return to Hogwarts to teach.

The arrest of Jacob Thor at Hogwarts means that Jacob Thor must have met Dumbledore.So, Slughorn had no idea what exchanges took place or what things were discussed between the two people, and it was even less likely that he would take the initiative to ask Dumbledore.

What if Dumbledore learned about the Horcruxes from Jacob Thor...

It's very possible, isn't it?

At that moment, Slughorn abandoned all distracting thoughts and cut off all room for maneuver.He knew that if he still wanted to keep the secret, then he had to leave and hide.Whether it's Voldemort who might come back one day, or Dumbledore who might knock on his door tomorrow, they are his biggest threats right now.If he continued to stay at home, big trouble might be waiting for him. [Note 1]

So he began to flee - at first, he was still hiding in the UK, but he changed two counties one after another, completely covering up his traces, and then began to occupy the magpie's nest again and again, looking for the kind of well-decorated house. Vacant Muggle houses to live in.If there is really no suitable target, then change to another city, or simply change to a county.

In August of this year, Dumbledore began to search for his traces and was noticed by Slughorn.He gritted his teeth, became cruel, and simply made a big circle in the UK, and then ran directly abroad.

He felt that since it was already August, as long as he could delay it for a month, Albus Dumbledore would let him go temporarily and return to Hogwarts. After all, the past two years seemed to be uneventful again. stand up.

However, to his surprise, Dumbledore seemed to be unusually fierce. Even though it was already September, Dumbledore had no intention of giving up.

Week after week.In this way, after running around for more than a month, Dumbledore finally caught Slughorn in a small town on the Swiss border.

…………

"So he confessed honestly?" As soon as Moon asked the question, he rejected the idea himself, "No, no, he definitely didn't confess honestly, otherwise you probably wouldn't be so sorry."

The old man was silent for two seconds, then nodded slightly and said softly: "That's right, Moon, he didn't tell me honestly, he only gave me a...modified memory."

Moon shook his head and sneered, "Since he has already prepared a modified memory, why would he bother to have such a thrilling escape for himself?"

"It's not me he's escaping from, Moon." Professor Dumbledore's eyes became deep, as if he was in a trance. "What Horace really wants to escape is the suppressed sense of responsibility in his heart. He feels that he He couldn't bear that responsibility, so he had to run away as far away as possible, just like a frightened rabbit that would run away as soon as there was any sign of trouble."

The professor sighed and added: "I originally thought that after so many years, he would be stronger and more confident."

"Some people can stare at themselves in peaceful days and find their faults." Moon whispered, "But some people will only be comforted by peaceful days and become more and more lazy and unwilling to face those difficulties." Things. Obviously, Mr. Slughorn is probably the latter."

"No matter what -" the old man raised his hand and waved it in front of him, as if to brush away the sudden depression he had felt. "Although the memory he gave me has been modified, it only erased some of it. The most important thing related to him. With this memory, I can still conclude that Voldemort definitely created Horcruxes."

Speaking of this, he suddenly looked at Munn with a smile, and the brilliance in his eyes was very complicated, including relief, joy, admiration...

Just when Moon felt a little strange, Professor Dumbledore finally said: "At that moment, I really wanted to go somewhere - I always felt that if Voldemort really made a Horcrux, then even if there were no Horcruxes there, If it becomes the resting place of the Horcrux, we will definitely be able to find some clues."

"In fact, that's what I decided before setting off. Once I confirmed the Horcrux from Horace, I rushed there immediately to find a way to solve it and find at least one Horcrux. ."

"However, when I was about to leave, I thought of you."

Moon was amused, "So you didn't go?"

"Of course, I didn't go." Professor Dumbledore blinked, looking quite innocent. "I suddenly thought that if I really went alone and encountered any trouble there, then next time we When we meet, I’m afraid you’ll kick open my office door again, come in, yell at me, and point fingers at me, an old man.”

"So, I gave up the idea and returned to Hogwarts."

When he heard these words, Moon really wanted to raise his hands and feet and give a thumbs up to Professor Dumbledore.At least this proved that his efforts over the past few years were not completely in vain. Every suggestion and advice he gave to the greatest wizard in front of him really had some impact.

But verbally, Moon still chose the most arrogant answer.