The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 529 Poison Antidote
After class the next morning, Harry told the friends he thought were trustworthy about the assignment Dumbledore had assigned him. Ryan listened to Harry's story with Hermione in the common room. In addition to the task, he also told Harry about Dumbledore's attitude towards Harry's hearing the conversation between Malfoy and Snape.

"Slughorn must be determined to conceal the truth of the past. If even Dumbledore can't get the memory now, it's unlikely that you can get it." Ryan was not optimistic about Harry's action, he said bluntly. "As for the Horcrux, I must say that the You-Know-Who is worthy of being a powerful and extremely evil Dark Lord. He was able to consider this issue at that age and try to get access to such dangerous knowledge."

"No matter how difficult it is, I have to - wait, you said you know what a Horcrux is?" Harry looked at Ryan in surprise.

"Yes." Ryan nodded slightly and continued, "As an alchemist, I do know about Horcruxes, a very niche and evil alchemical product. Since the headmaster has let you know the existence of Horcruxes, it means there are some things I can tell you."

After clearing his throat, Ryan said seriously, "A Horcrux is an alchemical tool that is used to hold the souls of humans after they have split their own souls by killing them."

"How evil." Harry shook his head in disgust. "Then why did Voldemort create such an evil prop? Can it provide him with powerful magic?"

"No, the function of the Horcrux is to provide the user with eternal life." Seeing Harry's mouth open in surprise, Ryan smiled: "You are not interested in this thing, are you? I understand that eternal life is attractive to everyone-"

"Of course not." Harry interrupted Ryan's teasing and said firmly, "This is too evil."

"Not only that, the sequelae are also very serious." Ryan continued: "According to the existing information, when the user slices his own soul, he will also slice out his brain. You can see that the mysterious man completely lost the wisdom and charm of his youth in the later period. At the same time, the sliced ​​soul may form another person after meeting certain conditions. Due to the evil of the Horcrux, this new self and the original self cannot coexist in harmony, and only one of them can survive in the end.

"And what else do you know about Horcruxes?" Harry felt a little uncomfortable after hearing this, and he thought of the prophecy between himself and Voldemort, so he hurriedly urged Ryan to continue.

"Hide a part of it in an object outside the body. In this way, even if the body of the Horcrux user is attacked or destroyed, he will not die, because there is still a part of the soul left in the world, intact. Of course, existing in this form is worse than a ghost, and not many people are willing to live like that." Ryan said the last key point.

"So, the Voldemort we met in the first grade was in that state, right? The cloud of mist that flew out after Quirrell died." Harry recalled the Voldemort he saw in the first grade.

"Yes." Ryan nodded. "In theory, one person can only make one Horcrux. But I can tell you that Dumbledore and I have destroyed far more Horcruxes than this number. I think the task that Professor Dumbledore assigned to you is to help you figure out how many Horcruxes the You-Know-Who has made."

"But how can I get that memory?" After listening to Ryan's explanation of the Horcruxes, Harry seemed even more frustrated. He didn't think he could get Slughorn to tell him something so important. But now he also knew the danger of the Horcruxes, and felt that Ryan was risking his life to fight on the front line, so he, the opponent of Voldemort in the prophecy, must not do nothing.

"I don't know either." Ryan shrugged, because he had cleared Aragog a long time ago, so the original story of Slughorn's true feelings after getting drunk at Aragog's funeral could not have happened. However, Ryan thought he still had something to tell Harry: "Since you already know what a Horcrux is, then you must also know that Professor Slughorn definitely wants to hide this matter from others, so don't ask him directly."

"Of course." Harry nodded with a wry smile. "It seems that he is very likely one of the culprits who caused Voldemort's death! How can I ask him directly in this situation?" At this time, Harry also roughly guessed why Dumbledore had been running around recently: he should be looking for other Horcruxes. But he would never tell anyone about this.

In the following time, Harry said that Dumbledore thought that the conversation between Snape and Malfoy that Harry heard was not important, and the headmaster once again confirmed his trust in Snape. Ryan and Hermione could only comfort Harry at this time and said that Headmaster Dumbledore might have his own arrangements that needed to be kept secret.

Ryan was a little confused about what Professor Dumbledore was trying to do, because he was not going to die this year, and he didn't understand why he would let Malfoy cause trouble.

It was obvious that Hermione also had doubts. After Harry left, she turned around and asked Ryan, "What do you think our headmaster is planning? I don't believe Dumbledore can't see that Malfoy is doing something for the You-Know-Who, and this matter will affect Hogwarts."

"Maybe our headmaster wants to set a trap for the You-Know-Who. You have to know that conspiracies can only cause great harm when they are unknown to others. And now from what Harry said, our headmaster should know about this. So you don't have to worry so much." Ryan comforted Hermione. Of course, he also thought so. But just in case, he still did a lot of work on the Vanishing Cabinet that Malfoy had repaired in the past two days and the entire Room of Requirement.

Harry seemed to have told Ron and Ginny about these things, but it seemed that Ron and the others could not come up with any good ideas. Because Harry still looked very distressed these two days, often pulling his hair helplessly. Ryan was even a little worried that Harry would become bald before middle age. You know, even in the wizarding world, there is no way to cure baldness. Otherwise, Slughorn, as a top potion master, would not let himself be like that.

Now that we have mentioned the Potions class, we have to say that Slughorn has come up with something new in the new Potions class. Unlike Snape, who liked to have everyone brew potions step by step, Slughorn preferred to let everyone learn how to apply these potions in life. For example, in the new class, he gave each student in the classroom a bottle and asked everyone to make an antidote for the mixed poison in the bottle.

"According to Gorbarot's Third Law, the antidote to a mixed poison is greater than the sum of the antidotes to each of the individual ingredients. There are more than a dozen poisons in this bottle of medicine. It seems that today's class assignment is a big project." Hermione whispered beside Ryan. She was always a little uncomfortable with Harry's higher grades in Potions class than hers even though he simply copied books, because she always disliked the practice of taking shortcuts. This time, she felt that she finally had a chance to beat Harry.

"It's not that complicated." Ryan reminded. "A piece of fecal stone is enough. The poison here is not that strong."

"Shut up." Hermione turned her head and stared at Ryan. "What difference would it make if I did this than if I did this?"

Ryan shrugged helplessly. Hermione was stubborn in some aspects. She would stick to her heart and deal with it flexibly on important matters. But in her daily life, she was still a little rigid as before. However, Ryan didn't hate Hermione like this, because sticking to principles was not a bad thing.

"Then I can only wish you good luck." Ryan said and started to busy himself with his own things. Of course, he would not use a method like bezoar which did not require much technical skills. As an alchemist, he had a better way.

(End of this chapter)