The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 528 Harry's Trouble (Please subscribe, please bookmark, please vote)
"Because the Ravenclaw Diadem was once Voldemort's Horcrux, for safety reasons, I cannot make your contribution public." Dumbledore looked embarrassed. "Of course, after we win, I will let everyone know about your contribution."

"It doesn't matter. Such sacrifices for victory are nothing." Ryan waved his hand and made an indifferent expression. After all, after giving the things to the principal, he got closer to the boss, and by the way, he was able to get a lot of good things through Dumbledore that he couldn't get before. This was already very worthwhile. A little bit of false reputation was nothing. Not to mention that in the current situation, such false reputation would only attract Voldemort's attention. It would be better without such false reputation.

"Excuse me, where did you find this tiara?" Dumbledore asked after he opened the drawer and put the tiara in. "This is very important, so I hope you can tell me."

"The place where students hide things in the Room of Requirement." Ryan felt that there was no need to hide this from the principal, but the process of finding this thing would change a little. He couldn't tell the principal that he already knew this thing was here.

"Didn't I organize a magic prop recycling event at Sirius's house before? So after I returned to school, after I used up the batch of things I got from Sirius's house, I started looking for enough raw materials in the school. As a result, when I was standing at the door of the Room of Requirement and thinking about looking for scraps that no one could use, a huge miscellaneous warehouse appeared in the Room of Requirement. There were a lot of things hidden there by students before. This helped me a lot. Many of the materials in the recent batch of bracelets came from here." Ryan paused here.

Dumbledore smiled and said, "It's okay. The things hidden there are things that no one needs. It's a good idea for you to recycle them. This is also because I didn't think it through before. I didn't consider that even if you have money, it would be difficult to buy what you need. In the future, if you need anything, you can just tell me directly and I will help you find it."

"Thank you then." Ryan smiled and continued. "Later, when I was looking for something inside, I saw this crown on the head of a bust of an old wizard. At the time, the crown looked rusty and not very eye-catching. I just thought that the gem on it might be valuable. As a result, when I reached out to take it, a voice from inside the crown told me to take it and I realized something was wrong. Then I put it in a lead box and took it home to study it slowly. I thought it might be a Horcrux, so I used it to experiment with removing the residual soul. It was not until two or three days ago that I succeeded."

"You are taking too much risk, Ryan. I don't want you to do this again." Dumbledore showed a concerned expression after hearing what Ryan said. "You should have told me this in advance. You have seen the danger of Horcruxes before."

"Don't worry." Ryan said to Dumbledore with a smile. "I think my level is good enough to handle all kinds of magic and dangerous curses on the Horcrux. It can also weaken the temptation of the soul in the Horcrux to me. Not to mention that I received the blessing of the phoenix when I went to the Celestial Empire during the summer vacation, which allowed my soul to communicate with Hermione. If I have the tendency to be controlled by the mysterious person, she will inform you as soon as possible."

"Okay." Dumbledore smiled. "I should learn to trust you young people now, but if you encounter any difficulties in the future, you can come to me. The door of my office is always open to you."

"Thank you so much." Ryan thanked sincerely. Now he could buy some things that he wanted but couldn't before, and he could finally start working on refining the alchemist stone himself.

After a few more words, Ryan said goodbye to Professor Dumbledore and left. When he went downstairs, he saw Harry walking towards Professor Dumbledore's office. It seemed that he was preparing for a new lesson on Voldemort.

Ryan discovered that after the last battle at the Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore began to consciously train young people, especially Harry. It seemed that during the battle with Voldemort, he realized that he was getting old and was slowly becoming incapable of doing things, and felt that it was time to train the next generation.

Harry found Ryan coming downstairs, and after saying hello to Ryan, he went to the headmaster's office. Dumbledore had already cleaned up all traces of Ryan's visit, leaving only the Pensieve on the table.

After Harry greeted the headmaster, Dumbledore first talked about the meeting between Harry and the Minister of Magic during the Christmas holidays. Dumbledore was somewhat moved by Harry's performance, and also mentioned that the Ministry of Magic had been trying to figure out what he was doing, and even sent Aurors to follow him.

"So they don't know where you've gone yet?" Harry asked, hoping to get more information on this question that he was very curious about, but Dumbledore just smiled at him from above his half-moon glasses. "Yes, they don't know, and it's too early to tell you now. I can only say that this matter is very important to defeating Voldemort. Well, we will continue with our lessons next, unless you have something else important-"

Harry quickly told the conversation he overheard about Snape and Malfoy, but Dumbledore advised Harry not to take it to heart because he thought it was not important. Although Dumbledore's answer made Harry very uncomfortable, he finally chose to watch today's memory as Dumbledore requested.

Dumbledore began by introducing Voldemort's excellent performance after entering the school. He also pointed out that Voldemort was already very good at disguise at this time. He even organized a small group of his own and caused many vicious attacks for which no evidence could be found.

Next, Dumbledore showed the memory of Gaunt, Voldemort's uncle. In this memory, he saw Voldemort confirm his identity for the first time. After reading the memory, Dumbledore told Harry that he could confirm that Voldemort used Gaunt's wand to kill his father and grandparents after knocking Gaunt unconscious. Then he framed his uncle for the complicated magic and implanted false memories into his uncle's mind to frame his uncle. At the same time, he also took away the ancient ring. After Harry and Dumbledore criticized the flaws of the Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore solemnly took out another bottle from the pocket inside his robe. Harry noticed that when Dumbledore poured the contents of the bottle, it was not easy to pour into the Pensieve. It seemed a little condensed. Could it be that memory will also deteriorate?

"Harry, this memory is hard-won, and I think it is the most important of all the memories I have collected. Of course, it may also be the shortest one." Dumbledore said, "We will be back in a moment. Well, enter the Pensieve again..."

After the familiar feeling of falling, Harry saw a much younger Slughorn in front of him. The most obvious thing was that he was not bald at this time. Looking around, he found that he was in Slughorn's office. Six or seven boys were sitting around Slughorn, all of them were fifteen or sixteen years old, and their chairs were harder or shorter than his. Before he had time to take a closer look, a voice came: "Sir, is Professor Mellors going to retire?"

Harry realized that the person who spoke was Tom Riddle in his youth, and also the most handsome man in the house.

"Tom, I can't tell you that." Slughorn shook a finger covered in icing sugar that he had just pulled out of the jar of pineapple preserves. "But I'd like to know where you got the information from. You're better informed than most of the professors at Hogwarts."

Riddle smiled, and the other boys also smiled and gave him admiring looks. Slughorn also smiled. "You are such a clever fellow, knowing things you shouldn't know, and being careful to make friends with important people - by the way, thank you for the candied pineapple, you guessed it, this is my favorite, although I don't know where you know these -"

At this moment, a strange thing happened. The whole room was suddenly shrouded in a thick white fog, and Harry could only see Dumbledore's face beside him. Slughorn's voice rang out in the room, loud and unnatural: "--You will make a mistake, child, remember my words."

Then the fog cleared, and Harry saw the little golden clock on Slughorn's desk striking eleven. He began to herd everyone out. But young Voldemort stayed. "Sir, I want to ask you something."

Then ask quickly, child, ask quickly..."

"Sir, I would like to ask you if you know...horcruxes."

Once again the room was filled with fog, and Harry could see neither Slughorn nor Riddle. There was only Dumbledore smiling peacefully beside him. Then Slughorn's voice rang out again, as loudly as before.

"I know nothing about Horcruxes, and I wouldn't tell you even if I did! Get out right now, and don't let me hear you mention it again!"

"Confused, aren't you?" Dumbledore looked at Harry after Harry raised his head. "If you didn't, I'd be surprised."

"What on earth just happened?" Harry asked puzzled.

"Professor Slughorn altered his own memory. He was ashamed of it and wanted to change it to make himself look better. That's why I didn't use Veritaserum or Legilimency, because memories can also be false. So, I'm going to give you my first assignment, Harry. You have to find a way to get Professor Slughorn to reveal his true memory, which will undoubtedly be our most crucial information."

Dumbledore ran his hand over the Pensieve and said, "This memory is everything, Harry. Without it, we are blind."

(End of this chapter)