The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 550: Memory and the Past (Part ) (Please subscribe, please bookmark, please vote)
The first memory Harry saw in Professor Dumbledore's house today was that of the house-elf Hokey, whose owner was a very old and very wealthy witch named Hepzibah Smith.

Voldemort, who was still called Tom Riddle at the time, gained the trust of this eccentric but wealthy old lady with his good looks and his ability to manipulate people's hearts. During one of their meetings, the old lady proudly showed Tom her treasures: the gold cup passed down from her ancestors Hufflepuff and the locket of Slytherin. Then she saw a flash of red in Tom's eyes, but she thought it was just light.

It was a fatal mistake, Dumbledore told Harry, and Hepzibah Smith died two days later, the Ministry having determined that the house-elf Hokey had accidentally put poison in her mistress's evening cocoa.

Harry firmly believed that this was impossible, and he believed that Voldemort had tampered with the memory of the house-elf Hokey, just as he had with Morfin. Dumbledore agreed with his theory.

"When Hokey was convicted, Hepzibah's family discovered that two of her most valuable treasures had been lost. At the same time, the clerk at Borgin and Burke's, the young man who had often visited Hepzibah and who had always pleased her, had resigned and disappeared." Dumbledore said:

"Harry, I need to remind you of certain details in the story at this time. Voldemort has committed another murder. This time, it is not for revenge, but for profit. He wants the two rare treasures that the poor old woman showed him. Just as he robbed the other children in the orphanage, just as he stole his uncle's ring, this time he stole Hepzibah's cup and locket."

"I even have some evidence that Voldemort did not kill much in order to hide himself when he was not powerful in the early days. The first killing was the murder of his father's family, and the second was the accidental use of the basilisk to kill a Hogwarts student. What we are seeing now is his third murder, and the first murder after leaving school." Dumbledore said slowly.

"But," Harry said, frowning, "this is really crazy... taking such a big risk, killing an innocent person, losing your job, and even leaving in a suspicious manner. Just for..."

"Perhaps," Dumbledore said, "But Voldemort believes that he is a descendant of one of the four great masters of Hogwarts and has a great bloodline. So it is understandable that he has a special preference for these precious relics of the four great masters."

Dumbledore then shared his memory with Harry, which was the memory of Dumbledore refusing Voldemort, who had been disfigured by dark magic, to teach at the school.

"Why?" Harry looked up at Dumbledore's face after reading this memory. "Why did he come back? Do you understand?"

"I've basically figured it out, thanks to your friend Ryan. He found something in the school that confirmed my guess and gave me a new understanding of some of Voldemort's actions. I think you have learned from Ryan what the Horcrux is, but I still lack the most important piece of the puzzle. When you get Professor Slughorn's memory, I will tell you everything, Harry." said Dumbledore.

After listening to Harry's narration, Ron looked at Ryan with shocked eyes: "I can't believe it, buddy. You can actually help Professor Dumbledore, but can you tell me what specifically you helped the headmaster with?"

As he finished speaking, Harry turned his head and looked at Ryan, looking very interested in the question Ron asked.

"No, I can't." Ryan smiled and shook his head. "Since Headmaster Dumbledore doesn't want you to know, he must have his reasons. The information I have now is not complete. If I tell you what I know, I am worried that this incomplete information may give you a wrong signal."

"Okay." Harry nodded helplessly. "I guess now I can only think of a way to get that crucial memory from Slughorn as soon as possible."

"Well, I can only wish you good luck." Ryan wished from the bottom of his heart. He didn't know how Harry should get the memory this time when all the giant spiders in the Forbidden Forest had been cleared. In the next week, Harry racked his brains to think about how to make Slughorn hand over the real memory, and even discussed with Ryan from time to time, but there were not many good ideas.

However, when Harry was subconsciously flipping through the Half-Blood Prince's Potions textbook, he found an interesting magic. This magic was recorded in a blank space in the textbook with a spell (Sectumsempra) and three interesting words below: "against the enemy".

He originally wanted to find a place to practice by himself, but after remembering what Ryan and Hermione said before, he picked up the textbook and went to Ryan who was finishing his paper to ask him to identify the magic. The reason why he didn't go to Hermione was because if he went to Hermione, she would definitely greet him with a lot of preaching.

"Sectumsempra?" Ryan followed Harry to the sofa where he was sitting and looked at the spell. He found that he could not remember what the spell was. After all, he mainly read translated novels in his previous life. He could recognize some transliterated spells quickly, such as Avada, but now he really could not remember what this spell was.

"Got it, wait a minute." Ryan said as he took out a gold plate inlaid with a circle of mithril characters, then drew out his wand and recited the spell towards the blank space in the middle of the gold plate.

In an instant, a crack appeared in the center of the gold plate. At the same time, the two runes on the gold plate near where Ryan's right hand was holding turned blood red and black respectively.

"So that's it!" Ryan finally figured out what the spell was. This should be the famous Shenfeng Wuying in the legend. Unfortunately, the Chinese version of the novel used a free translation for this spell, so he didn't recognize it when he saw it just now.

"What?" Harry asked curiously. He didn't hear what Ryan muttered.

"It's like this. This magic is an offensive spell that can create a wound on the human body or object as if it were cut by a sword." Ryan put away the gold plate and said to Harry.

"It sounds all right. It's a spell similar to the Cutting Spell, right?" Harry said excitedly.

"It's not just that." Ryan pointed out the key point. "The biggest difference between this magic and the cutting spell is that the part damaged by this spell cannot be regenerated by any means, but it can be healed by a counter-spell. It should be considered a relatively dangerous black magic. I personally suggest that you never use this spell on your classmates before you have mastered the counter-spell."

"Is it really like this?" Harry showed a lingering fear, he remembered the hand that Sirius had lost forever. "Thank you so much, otherwise I would definitely make a big mistake."

"So like I said last time, whether it's a spell or a potion, we'd better understand their effects clearly before using them. Otherwise, if they don't have the effect we want, it's just a small matter. If there is a bad counter-effect, then it will be a big problem." Ryan warned seriously, and then returned to his original seat and worked with Hermione to do some homework assigned by the professor.

(End of this chapter)