From Hogwarts to Sturhaven

"Do you need me to come with you?" Ivy volunteered, as he also needed to check if Sirius Black was still in jail.

“I’m afraid not, Ivy,” Dumbledore replied. “Fudge probably wouldn’t want to see a young wizard who isn’t on the visiting list.”

"Alright then, I'll wait for you to share the good news with me." Although he was a little disappointed, Ivy didn't show it on his face at all.

The old headmaster laughed again: "I've come to share something with you—some memories."

Dumbledore got up and walked to a shelf filled with small bottles. The silvery substance floating inside the bottles was the memory extracted by wizards using magic.

Ivy knew that most of those memories were about Voldemort, and ever since Voldemort first wreaked havoc in the wizarding world, Dumbledore had been trying to figure out his past.

Dumbledore picked and chose from the shelves and finally selected a bottle.

“I think I might have found one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes.” He shook the crystal bottle with his slender fingers, and silver memories swirled within it. “These memories belong to Morfin Gaunt, Voldemort’s uncle.”

It's the Resurrection Stone. Ivy immediately realized the answer.

No, to be precise, it's a family heirloom ring of the Gaunt family; the Resurrection Stone is merely an ornament on it.

Dumbledore poured the memories from the bottle into the Pensieve, then took out his wand and stirred it inside.

“It is thanks to Merlin that I was able to collect these memories. When Morfin Gaunt was imprisoned in Azkaban for some crime, I had just obtained these memories from him when he died and was buried next to the prison.” Dumbledore gestured to the Pensieve.

Ivy stepped forward and put her face into the stone basin.

It was as if he was falling from the void, and it took a while before he stopped. Ivy looked around at the scenery.

The ground was dirty and messy, and it was dark all around, as if there were no lighting fixtures at all.

A few seconds later, Dumbledore landed as well: "This is Gaunt's Old House, located in Little Hangleton."

It was dirtier, messier, and worse than Ivy had imagined. Mold was everywhere, and cobwebs hung from the ceiling; perhaps thanks to this, there were hardly any flies in the room.

A man lay on the only relatively intact armchair in the room, rotting along with the rest of the house. Ivy noticed a gold ring on his hand, with a black gemstone engraved on it. The gemstone was the Peverell's emblem, the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. The triangle represented Harry's Invisibility Cloak, the inner circle was the Resurrection Stone, and the vertical line represented Dumbledore's Elder Wand.

"That's Morfin Gaunt." Along with Dumbledore's voice came a heavy knock on the door.

Morphing Gaunt awoke with a start and grabbed his wand and dagger from beside him.

A tall, dark-haired, and handsome young man named Voldemort walked in. If only his appearance were described roughly, Ivy would find that he looked almost exactly like herself.

However, anyone who has actually seen them knows that they are two completely different people, with vastly different facial features. Voldemort's appearance makes him seem arrogant and sharp-tongued, while Ivy is more inclined to display her confidence and composure.

The two people inside the room began to speak in Parsleyan.

From his uncle, Voldemort learned that his father was a Muggle and his mother was a pitiful woman who stole a treasure and ran away from home. The two had an argument, and then darkness descended.

Ivy and Dumbledore were lifted into the air and returned to the headmaster's office in the blink of an eye.

"The Soul-Stealing Curse?" Ivy asked.

“My guess is pretty much the same as yours. Whatever kind of magic it was, it caused Morphing Gaunt to lose her memories afterward.” Dumbledore sat back down in his chair and asked with considerable curiosity, “You can understand Parsleyan?”

“Not just snakes, I can communicate with all animals.” The Stryker Apprenticeship gave Ivy the ability to choose a first-circle spell from the Bard’s List, and Animal Communicating was Ivy’s choice. Although he did learn Parseltongue from the Book of Domination, there was no need to tell Dumbledore about it.

“A remarkable talent,” Dumbledore exclaimed, then added, “I think you must have noticed the Slytherin locket in their conversation?”

Ivy nodded. In her memories, Morfin Gaunt accused Voldemort's mother, Merop Gaunt, of stealing Slytherin's locket when she ran away from home to elope with a Muggle.

“That’s a family heirloom of the Gaunt family, Marvolo—Gaunt Morfin and Merop’s father, valued it highly, along with another treasure,” Dumbledore continued, explaining the connection. “It’s a Gaunt family gold ring that Morfin wears on his finger.”

When Morfin woke up the next morning, Voldemort had already left Gaunt's old house, taking the gold ring with him.

"A murder occurred in Little Hangleton, killing three people: Riddle Sr. and his parents. Investigators from the Ministry of Magic found Morfin, who confessed to his crimes. Through testing with the Flashback Charm, the Ministry of Magic determined that Morfin's wand had cast the Killing Curse, the very weapon that murdered the Riddle family. He was thrown into Azkaban, where he eventually died. The only thing that troubled him was the gold ring that Voldemort had taken."

Dumbledore's hint was quite obvious, and Ivy felt she should respond: "So, you believe that ring is Voldemort's Horcrux?"

“Obviously.” Dumbledore paused for a moment. “A murder that kills three people is enough to make a Horcrux. I’m just not sure… Voldemort was still in school at the time, I didn’t expect him to be exposed to such evil magic so early.”

Dumbledore, who hadn't seen the diary, couldn't believe that Voldemort had such madness back when he was still in school.

But that gold ring was Voldemort's second Horcrux.

“What do you want me to do?” Ivy asked.

“Let’s go to Little Hangleton together, see Gaunt’s old house, and Riddle House, and the location of the murder. Maybe we’ll find something,” Dumbledore sighed. “Even if we find nothing, it doesn’t matter. At least we have plenty of time.”

"Shall we leave now?" Ivy asked again.

“No need to rush,” Dumbledore said. “I’ll wait until I get back from Azkaban, and then find a weekend.”

"I don't have to go to class right now," Ivy reminded her.

“Oh! I forgot.” Dumbledore laughed. “Then I’ll wait until this poor old man has some time… Once a person gains some fame, there’s always endless paperwork to do…”

"Like Lockhart replying to fans' letters?" Ivy raised an eyebrow and teased.

Dumbledore laughed: "A large part of the time I spend in my office is indeed taken up by constantly writing letters."

Chapter 176 The Voice from the Armor

Hogwarts has many secrets, but you could also say it has no secrets at all.

By breakfast the next day, the whole school already knew that Harry had attacked Filch because he was going to punish Harry by making him clean chamber pots.

Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table with a gloomy face. Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape had decided on the contents of his detention yesterday.

Yes, Harry is going to be put in solitary confinement for a little bit of mud.

Snape originally wanted him to clean chamber pots at the school hospital, the kind that can't use magic, but Professor McGonagall thought he shouldn't continue to be in the same space as Filch, so she arranged for him to help reply to Lockhart, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Harry finds it hard to compare which is more devastating.

The thought of having to face Lockhart's gleaming eight teeth every night for the next week sent a shiver down Harry's spine.

“Well done, Harry!” Fred and George sat down beside him. The last conflict with the Slytherin Quidditch team hadn’t resulted in the brothers losing points to Gryffindor.

However, Harry knew that they were still very cautious at this time, and they had even stopped playing with their favorite dung bombs. They were avoiding Filch, Mrs. Lorris, and Peeves all the time, for fear of losing a point or two.

But Gryffindor's adventurous nature hadn't disappeared. George affectionately put his arm around Harry's shoulder and grinned, "You did what we wanted to do but didn't dare to. Fred and I are overjoyed to see that Gryffindor has a successor!"

"It really wasn't me..."

"Mmm-hmm~" Before Harry could finish speaking, Fred held up an index finger and shook it. "We know who it is, or rather, what it is?"

"'Ominous'? Isn't that right?" The two brothers sandwiched Harry between them, looked around the Great Hall, and then lowered their voices, saying, "There are no outsiders here, so tell us how you did it?"

Harry was a little annoyed. Why were people always unwilling to believe him? But then he thought about how that big black dog always appeared and disappeared mysteriously. If Harry hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he probably wouldn't have believed it either.

Thinking about this, Harry couldn't help but feel a little dejected: "I told you, it really wasn't me... I even saved Filch's life!"

Fred and George exchanged a glance, both noticing Harry's lack of interest, so they wisely changed the subject: "Hagrid has brought in some new little guys, maybe you'd like to go see them. I dare say, that big guy is the most interesting fellow in this castle besides Peeves!"

"Thank you..." Harry understood the brothers' good intentions and thanked them in a low voice, while thinking that he should probably go and find Hagrid, since he was an expert on magical creatures and might know what that big black dog was.

However, all of this can only take place next weekend, because he must first go to the Defense Against the Dark Arts office for solitary confinement.

That evening, Harry dragged his heavy legs into Lockhart's office, only to discover, to his dismay, that time seemed to flow differently there.

Although it was only four hours, Harry felt as if he had spent four centuries listening to Lockhart's nagging.

The next day he found Hermione, wanting to work hard and learn the Cleansing Charm.

“You’re pathetic, brother,” Ron said, looking at him with pity. “Lockhart has ruined your brain. Seriously, I’ve never heard you say that before—I need to study hard.”

“Shut up, Ron,” Hermione said haughtily. “Harry learned his lesson from this, didn’t he? If he had cleaned himself up before returning to the castle, none of this would have happened. In short, studying will never let you down!”

She turned and glanced at Ron again, still talking: "Smart people learn from the mistakes of others. What about you, Ron?"

“Oh, okay.” Ron opened the book and, to Hermione’s satisfied look, said the words that filled her with despair, “Let me see your Transfiguration paper, Professor McGonagall wants it to be two feet long!”

Harry glanced up as well. Ron had already written a bit; his handwriting was messy and rough, with large letters. Hermione's paper, on the other hand, was much more orderly, with small, dense letters, revealing her know-it-all nature.

Harry dared to say that Hermione had almost given up on Ron, and he couldn't follow in her footsteps.

So he opened the "Elementary Transfiguration" course schedule, determined to work hard and become a good student, so that he would never again fall into the predicament of being ruined by a little mud.

Although Harry was very determined, some things are ultimately beyond human control.

After staring at the words in the book for only three to five minutes, Harry felt his eyelids getting heavy, his thoughts becoming muddled, and he even forgot the words in the textbook.

He considered giving up, but felt it would be shameful to ask his friend Hermione at this moment. After thinking for a while, the words that came out of his mouth were: "Ron, have you finished writing?"

Ron seemed to have been waiting for him to ask that question, and then he put Hermione's paper between the two of them and began to work on it without saying a word.

Hermione had already noticed the commotion. After giving Harry a sad glare, she picked up the book in front of her and used it to block her view, hoping to avoid seeing it and getting annoyed.

Harry felt a little embarrassed, assuming Hermione was studying again, but upon closer inspection, he realized that what Hermione was holding wasn't any textbook she was currently using.

The gold lettering on the spine clearly identified it as *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*. Harry had never heard of this title before; perhaps it was a collection of fairy tales from the wizarding world?

“I never expected you to read these kinds of extracurricular books. I thought you only read big tomes like ‘Hogwarts: A History’ for your leisure!” Harry was surprised to find that Hermione also had a playful side, and for a moment he felt that the distance between them was no longer so great.

Hermione didn't put down her book, but she still answered Harry's question, though her voice was full of disappointment: "This isn't an extracurricular book, it's a textbook for next school year."

Ron was also taken aback when he heard this: "Huh? I've never heard of this course. Even if you're doing pre-study, this is way too far ahead of its time!"

Hermione slammed the book on the table angrily and hissed, "Next year we'll be third year, and we'll have to choose at least two electives!"

“That’s next year…” Ron had to shrink back because of Hermione’s imposing presence, but he still argued, “Halloween isn’t even over yet… and besides, we might not even choose this course…”

"Did you know that Hogwarts has built a new 'Magical Creatures Breeding and Raising Base'?" Hermione seemed determined to give the two of them a proper talking-to. "Although the course 'Protecting Magical Creatures' is still an elective for third-year students this year, the Board of Governors and the Ministry of Magic have invested in building such a large facility, and it's not just for show. I think it won't be long before 'Protecting Magical Creatures' becomes a compulsory course at Hogwarts. Reading more now will definitely benefit you in the future!"

Hermione's words are indeed reasonable.

Since Hogwarts has already built buildings on the huge plot of land approved by the Ministry of Magic, it's impossible for it to just sit there empty.