Hogwarts: I am Snape

Chapter 133 Horcruxes vs. Horcruxes

The party had just ended, and the air was still filled with excitement.

Next to the reading corner, several younger students were still engrossed in a lively discussion.

"Look at this!" A little wizard held up a Muggle comic book, his nose practically glowing with excitement. "These pictures don't move, but the stories are much more interesting than The Tales of Beedle the Bard..."

“Looks like your idea worked,” Barty said in a low voice as he approached Snape, “although the most popular Muggle books aren’t exactly my favorites.”

“The things you like, Barty,” Snape said with a gentle smile, “are things that not many people would like.”

“That won’t do,” Little Barty pouted, his voice clearly showing his displeasure. “What good will it do them to read these children’s books?”

“Different ages have different interests,” Snape said. “However, you’ve reminded me that the current Isshin Society has a very loose organizational structure, which, while helpful for us to recruit members, will hinder the development of cohesion among our best members.”

"What did you think of?" Little Barty leaned forward and asked eagerly.

“Perhaps,” Snape said slowly, “we should make some distinctions within the Society and recruit outstanding members to form a more core organization.”

"What do you want to do?" Little Barty pressed.

“Wait a moment,” Snape said, glancing at the students who were still chatting animatedly at the other end of the classroom.

The two fell silent in tacit agreement, and the last few students packed their bags and left, leaving the classroom quiet.

Snape and Barty walked out of the classroom, closed the wooden door, and headed down the stone steps toward the Slytherin common room.

“My idea is,” Snape’s voice was particularly clear in the corridor, “that we need a more rigorous organizational structure. Only members who have passed certain screening criteria should be allowed to join.”

"you mean……?"

"Glory be with you forever." Snape uttered the command, and the stone door slowly slid open.

“Voluntariness and a sense of honor alone are not enough; we need stronger constraints.” They continued down the stone door into the basement. “A magic contract serves as a method to maintain mutual interests and trust. Members should bear corresponding obligations while enjoying the benefits.”

"Then...do we get a mark on our arm?" Little Barty asked.

Snape shook his head slightly.

The only light in the lounge was the flickering fire from the fireplace. The two sat down in the corner armchairs, the silence so profound they could hear each other's breathing.

“We don’t need that kind of mark,” Snape said. “A common charter and guidelines, which all parties must sign. Everyone, including you and me, should be bound by it.”

“Third grade or above,” Snape added thoughtfully, “with a more mature mind and the ability to recognize advantages and disadvantages.”

Little Barty suddenly sat up straight. His eyes lit up. “In my father’s study—” he lowered his voice, “there’s a book called ‘Ancient Oaths and Blood Pacts,’ locked in a glass case. But he’s going to Brussels next month for a meeting of the International Federation of Wizards. I’ll find a way to ‘borrow’ it.”

“Be careful,” Snape said. “He’s not someone to be fooled.”

Little Barty just grinned. "He never understood me," he said dismissively. "In his eyes, I was just a child who needed discipline."

Snape nodded and did not continue the topic.

His gaze shifted to the fireplace. “There’s another problem,” he said slowly. “I’m graduating next year, and you won’t be here much longer than me. The way core members communicate also needs to be innovated, especially after everyone leaves campus.”

“We can’t always rely on owls to deliver messages,” Barty frowned. “I do know of something called a two-way mirror, but those things aren’t cheap, and they can only be used for one-on-one communication…”

A mysterious smile appeared on Snape's lips. "We don't need to transmit sounds or images," he said. "We just need to use magic to transmit the simplest information—'yes' or 'no,' '1' or '0'."

Little Barty tilted his head in confusion, his straw-colored hair falling across his face. "What use is such simple information?" he asked.

“This is just the first step,” Snape explained. “I have bought a few books on ‘coding,’ which you can look at after you finish elementary and middle school courses if you’re interested.”

"Then you will understand that we can build a complete system in such a simple way to convey any message we want to express."

“I’ll look into this with the others,” Little Barty nodded, promising, though a hint of doubt still lingered in his voice. “It also involves alchemy…”

“This could be complicated,” Snape said, “but it would be very effective. Imagine if we could build a system that could transmit information instantly, even from thousands of miles away. The Ministry of Magic monitors owls, but they don’t understand this at all.”

Their discussion continued late into the night, and by the time the two finally decided to rest, the fire in the fireplace had turned to a faint ember.

The next morning, the sunlight was so bright it was almost blinding. Patches of light filtered through the leaves, the lake water gently lapped against the rocks on the shore, and the sound of birds skimming across the water filled the air.

Under the shade of the trees, Snape and a few friends were sharing breakfast they had packed from the Great Hall, enjoying a rare moment of tranquility in their campus life.

“This morning I was in the tower and saw Professor Dumbledore leave the school.” Pandora sat on the grass next to Snape, squinting her eyes happily as she took a bite of a piece of bread covered in jam. “He was wearing a travel cloak and looked quite hurried.”

Snape had been listening casually, twirling a leaf between his fingers. But suddenly, his fingers paused slightly. "Dumbledore leaving the school?" A vague idea formed in his mind.

“Perhaps to the Ministry of Magic?” he replied, realizing that the headmaster must have gone to Azkaban to look for Morfin Gaunt. This was news they'd received last semester from Bob Ogden that Tom’s uncle was imprisoned in that dreadful prison in the middle of the North Sea.

The topic was quickly overshadowed by the idle chatter of others, but Snape felt a strange unease creeping into his heart.

At noon, the ceiling of the Great Hall was a perfect azure blue, with a few white clouds drifting lazily by. After placing the cutlery on the table, Snape and his companions returned to their respective dormitories.

He lay on the four-poster bed, staring at the patterns on the curtains.

Sleepiness, like a cunning vixen, slipped away just as he was about to grasp it. Pandora's words lingered in his mind, and the unease grew stronger.

He sat up abruptly, his dark eyes gleaming in the dim room.

"You think destroying the ring will break the curse?"

"More or less... I must have lost my mind... Well, that makes things simpler."

Snape's breathing quickened. For a long time, he had believed that the headmaster had put on the ring after destroying Slytherin's.

"More or less..." Dumbledore's future words echoed in his ears.

But what if... what if Dumbledore believed that destroying the Horcrux would render the Resurrection Stone ineffective? Would he choose...?

“Gaunt Manor!” Snape jumped to his feet, his heart pounding. Abbott rolled over, mumbled something, and went back to sleep.

He must act, now, immediately.

The hot summer breeze brushed against his cheeks as the Hogwarts gates closed behind him.

Snape had never actually been to Gaunt's old house. He had only seen the dilapidated stone house in Ogden's memory.

But time was of the essence, and he had to take the risk. He closed his eyes and concentrated all his energy on recalling every detail of the place—the moss on the walls, the nettles everywhere, the twisted trees, the dirty door frame… He felt the magic surging within him, and then it suddenly began to spin.

This time, the feeling of suffocation from the compressed air was more intense than ever before.

When his feet touched the ground again, Snape staggered, grabbing a tree trunk to keep from falling. The side effects of Apparition left him dizzy and nauseous.

“Luckily no one has built a new house here,” he thought, trying to calm his breathing. “Of course, it’s also possible that Tom cast a Muggle banishing spell here.”

When he looked up, he found himself standing in the woods of Little Hangleton. Not far away, Gaunt's old house was even more dilapidated than he remembered, like a forgotten corpse.

Stepping out from the shadows into the sunlight, one sees a large tree trunk that has pierced through the roof, knocking off most of the tiles. The walls are covered with deep green moss, which gleams almost black in the sunlight.

The old house's appearance makes it impossible to associate it with the famous descendants of Slytherin.

Snape stopped, raised his wrist, and glanced at his watch—the dial still displayed a calm blue sky with white clouds and birds flitting about. This was at least a good sign.

"Perhaps it's not that dangerous..." he muttered to himself, but his wand was already gripped tightly in his hand. After all, it was also possible that Tom's magic was too advanced for ordinary detection methods to detect.

He cautiously approached the stone house. The decaying wooden door hung precariously on its hinges, and no trace of the small snakes could be seen on it anymore. Only a twisted, blurry mark could be barely discerned, making it impossible to tell whether it was a remnant of the past or the wood grain of the door itself.

Snape took a deep breath and gently pushed the door open with his wand.

The door hinges groaned in death, and dust danced in the sunlight.

A soft glow emanated from the tip of the wand. The room was empty, everything covered in a thick layer of dust.

He breathed a slight sigh of relief, although he couldn't tell from the signs before him whether Dumbledore had been there—after all, the headmaster was perfectly capable of restoring all traces—but he had calmed down by now.

Based on his previous experience, the journey to Azkaban could not be accomplished by a simple method like Apparition. Even at his fastest speed, Dumbledore would not have enough time to make a round trip in half a day.

After casting the Powerful Armor Charm, Snape cautiously stepped into the room. The rotting wooden floorboards creaked ominously beneath his feet. Each step he took kicked up a cloud of dust.

Snape covered his mouth and nose, his eyes quickly scanning the room: a rusty stew pot, filthy pottery shards, broken furniture... it looked like an ordinary house that had been abandoned for many years, with no signs of magical activity.

"Show yourself immediately!" He waved his wand, and a silver-blue light swept across the room, but no hidden magic appeared.

"The truth is revealed!" He tried another detection spell, but still found nothing. The failure of conventional detection magic was somewhat expected.

He then cast several other detection spells, but still found nothing. He sensed no disturbance in the magic field, nor did he detect any trace of magic.

"I wonder how Professor Dumbledore discovered Tom's magical traces," he shrugged self-deprecatingly. "No wonder the headmaster always said he knew Tom well and understood his style..."

However, he had his own advantage; he knew for certain that the ring was hidden in a hole under the floorboards, inside a gold box.

Snape retreated outside and stood in the sunlight to think of a solution.

Digging through the floor bit by bit was too time-consuming and potentially risky; Voldemort couldn't possibly leave his Horcruxes untouched by protective spells. He needed a more efficient and safer method.

He quickly took stock of the strongest protective measures he possessed, then suddenly remembered something and pulled out a black-covered diary from his robe—Tom Riddle's diary.

“Hordeal against Horde.” He looked at the diary in his hand and said, “You can only be destroyed by something with extremely high destructive power, so don’t disappoint me.”

Snape quickly cast ear-blocking spells and Muggle-repelling spells around him, and then added multiple layers of protection in front of him, including armor, peace protection, and all-encompassing protection.

Finally, he clutched the diary tightly to his chest, pointed his wand at the crooked stone house: "Powerful Explosion! Thunderous Explosion!"

A blinding red light shot out from the wand, followed by a second, a third...

Amidst the deafening explosion, the Gaunt mansion collapsed like the House of Cards. Stones and wooden beams flew everywhere, and smoke and dust billowed into the sky.

Amidst the chaos, a murky black light shot out from the ruins, like a venomous snake's fatal strike.

The protective spell's transparent barrier was pierced as easily as paper. Snape barely had time to move the diary up before the green light struck the diary heavily on his chest, the immense impact throwing him backward.

"Bang!" He crashed into a row of bushes, the branches tearing his robe.

As Snape struggled to his feet, the diary in his hands was trembling violently, and the black cover was visibly fading and becoming worn.

The trembling didn't stop until a full minute later.

Snape carefully broke the seal, opened the diary, and found a line of blurry, illegible handwriting on the previously blank page: "What are you doing, Snape?!"

“I’ve been attacked, Riddle,” Snape wrote, pulling a quill from his pocket. “I have to get out of here. Listen to me, thank you!”

After finishing writing, he sealed the diary and tucked it back into his pocket.

　Thank you to Yinhe Guard Team, Pig Can Fly, Plate Armor Spirit Master, Thousand Years of Wind and Rain, Xuanqing, Yaoling, Li Lanmei's Dad, Meow Steps on Stars, Tired Gun Girl, and Book Friend 20210101081058003 for the monthly tickets.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)