The Hogwarts Emerald

Chapter 455 About Horcruxes
Horcrux was a very unfamiliar word to Ada. Even if Dumbledore wrote it out, Ada would not recognize the word.

Ada's research on black magic was not particularly thorough. Although she learned a lot of knowledge about black magic from "Modern Black Magic Progress" and the forbidden section of the library, this knowledge did not contain any content related to Horcruxes.

In other words, Dumbledore touched upon Ada's blind spot in knowledge.

A Horcrux is an object that contains part of a person's soul. The soul is split and the split part is stored in the object. In this way, even if the body is destroyed, the person will not die because there is still a part of your soul in the world that is intact.

This is why Voldemort did not die after the rebound of the Killing Curse, because his Horcruxes were well preserved and fragments of his soul still existed. So he just lost his body and power, becoming a being worse than a wandering spirit.

As for the dark magic of Horcrux, its inventor is unknown, and its first appearance is much earlier than the four giants of Hogwarts.

It is possible that its inventor was the despicable Hercule, as this ancient Greek dark wizard was the first person to successfully create a Horcrux.

The despicable Hercule, one of the earliest and most influential Dark wizards known in the history of magic, invented many evil curses, which made him notorious.

Herpo was an early Parseltongue, and the first Dark wizard to discover that using a toad to incubate eggs would result in a basilisk.

Because it happened so long ago, no one knows the cause of Hercule's death, nor does anyone know how his Horcrux was destroyed.

"Horcrux..." Ida muttered the word, and once again she felt the mystery and unfathomable depth of magic. She said, "Professor, is this why you said you couldn't stop him?"

Dumbledore nodded and said, "Yes, because of the existence of the Horcrux, I can only defeat him, but I cannot kill him. Even if I succeed in destroying his body, he will 'resurrect' again and again."

"If we want to completely destroy Voldemort, we must first destroy his Horcruxes. Otherwise, what awaits us will be his comeback again and again," Ada said, "It's like a nightmare that we can't wake up from."

Dumbledore paced slowly, as if he mistook the Astronomy Tower for the headmaster's office. He said, "Yes, it was only in these few years that I learned about the Horcruxes and realized that Voldemort's power was beyond my imagination."

In this world, apart from Dumbledore, no one can be Voldemort's opponent. Only Ada can fight him now. As for Harry, he can only be beaten by Voldemort now. He is still far from being the savior!
Only Dumbledore can fight Voldemort and has the strength to defeat him.

But Dumbledore is already over a hundred years old, and he will get older day by day. One day he will no longer have the strength to defeat Voldemort. What will happen then?

Voldemort only needs to live up to his reputation as a scoundrel, and survive to the end, and then people can only pin their hopes on Harry. It would be better for Voldemort to be more ruthless and let Harry die, since he is immortal because of the Horcruxes anyway.

But Voldemort chose not to do so. His pride would not allow him to have the last laugh in this way.

Besides, the future is always full of infinite variables. Even the first generation Dark Lord who is good at prophecy cannot predict it, let alone the second generation Dark Lord who is not proficient in this art?
"Ada, do you remember what Voldemort said on the night of his 'resurrection'?" Dumbledore asked.

"I have gone further on the road to immortality than anyone else." Ada tried to imitate Voldemort's tone that night, "conquering death. Now I am put to the test, and it seems that at least one or two of my experiments have worked... because I did not die, even though the spell was fatal."

Dumbledore sighed: "Young people's memory is always enviable!"

Ada knocked on the wall rhythmically. After learning about the existence of Horcruxes, she thought about what Voldemort had said and she instantly got goose bumps all over her body.

Even the three Peverell brothers in the story failed to conquer death. Although Voldemort exaggerated himself a little, he did avoid death. On that night in 1981, he should have been killed by his own spell.

"Professor, when did you realize the existence of Horcruxes?" Ida asked, "Benedict Foley?"

In his first year at the school, Foley served as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He broke into the common rooms of the four colleges and turned the entire castle upside down, but he found nothing.

"Foley gave me a heads-up. He made me realize that there was something that could bring Voldemort back," Dumbledore explained softly. "It's a pity that he couldn't tell me what he was looking for, because he didn't know himself."

"So after him, you invited Professor Cecil. You hoped to learn more about black magic from Professor Cecil and find out this thing." Ada said, taking over from the principal.

Grover Cecil, a learned dark wizard, was a teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts who hurt Ada but taught her a lot.

"That's right. We thought of some possibilities at the time, and Horcrux was one of them," said Dumbledore. "But there is no evidence to support our hypothesis. Voldemort may have used any of these methods."

This happened when Ada was in the first and second grades, and then there was Quirrell peeking into the Philosopher's Stone and the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.

"Diary, Tom Riddle's diary!" Ada suddenly realized.

She always felt that the diary was very strange. Not only did it have its own thoughts and memories, but it could also absorb the vitality of others, allowing itself to separate from the diary and even have a new body.

So that's why Ada couldn't find any magical records like the "diary", because it was a Horcrux! The Horcrux Voldemort made when he was a student!
"It was not until I saw the diary that I was sure that Voldemort used the Horcrux method to ensure his immortality." Dumbledore's expression was very heavy, without any joy. "The diary also made me realize that Voldemort could not have only had this one Horcrux."

The diary from fifty years ago came from Lucius Malfoy. He probably didn't know the function of the diary, otherwise he wouldn't have put it into Ginny's cauldron.

Malfoy was unaware of such an important Horcrux. Did Voldemort not trust him enough? Or was this Horcrux not the only one and therefore slightly less important?
Ada thinks it's both. The diary is just one of the Horcruxes. Voldemort gave the diary to Malfoy for safekeeping, but because he didn't trust him, he didn't tell him the truth.

Malfoy, unaware of the truth, was afraid that he would be liquidated for secretly hiding Voldemort's school belongings many years after Voldemort's downfall, so he pinned the precious Horcrux on Mr. Weasley.

"Where should we find Voldemort's Horcruxes?" Ada asked. "He must have hidden them in a very secret place, perhaps protected by a powerful magic circle. Maybe he gave them to one of his men for safekeeping, just like the diary. We don't even know what the Horcruxes look like!"

Ada was a little excited. Destroying the Horcruxes was equivalent to weakening Voldemort, but the question was where were these Horcruxes? What did they look like?
"I have been trying to find the Horcruxes, but to no avail," said Dumbledore. "So I changed my mind. I hope to collect old stories about him and his footprints to infer the possible hiding places and number of the Horcruxes."

Ada looked at Dumbledore. She was not sure why the headmaster told her such a confidential matter. Was it because he trusted her, or because he wanted her to find the Horcrux together?
"Professor, are you telling me this because you want me to go look for the Horcrux?"

"Of course, you are the most suitable candidate." Dumbledore said, but Ada did not immediately hear the double entendre in his words.

"But not now. You only have one year left in Hogwarts, and this is the only year left of your student life. In this year, don't think about anything, don't do anything, and cherish this most beautiful time."

(End of this chapter)