Hogwarts: A little lion in the skin of the Eagle School

When Kreacher saw that Dumbledore had come for the locket, he pursed his lips and remained silent.

He turned around and ran to hide somewhere.

Seeing this, Dumbledore did not give chase.

Instead, she led John into the kitchen and found a place to sit down.

"Let's wait for Sirius to return."

It was at this moment that Professor Lupin had the opportunity to ask what had happened.

"Dumbledore, what's going on?"

John also looked at Dumbledore with curiosity.

He originally came to ask about his soul, but somehow he was suddenly brought back to the Order of the Phoenix, which left him somewhat bewildered.

"Well, how should I put it... our Mr. Merrick has discovered something very important for us."

"Something important enough to defeat Voldemort."

"—Voldemort's Horcruxes."

With that, Dumbledore gently placed the locket on the wooden table.

Horcrux?

Upon hearing this term, even a well-informed professor like Lu Ping frowned and began to ponder.

John, on the other hand, had never heard of this thing before.

"John, the first thing you need to know is..."

"A Horcrux is an item made using extremely evil dark magic."

"Moreover, the conditions under which it was made were incredibly cruel."

Before giving a formal explanation, Dumbledore first gave John a very serious warning.

To prevent John from having any misconceptions or wild fantasies about Horcruxes.

"But Horcruxes have only one function."

"That is to store the soul fragments of the Horcrux owner, so as to ensure that the soul of the Horcrux owner will still exist in the world after the physical body perishes, waiting to be resurrected."

"In other words, as long as the Horcrux is not destroyed, its owner can never be killed."

"And this locket is Voldemort's Horcrux."

John was also taken aback upon hearing this.

There are such shameless props?

No wonder even someone as strong as Dumbledore couldn't handle Voldemort.

"Then why don't we just destroy this?" John said.

"No, based on the information I have, Voldemort likely prepared more than one Horcrux..."

?

Can these cheating items be stacked?

"So you mean we need to find out how many Horcruxes Voldemort has first, and then find and destroy them all?"

Although the principles behind Horcruxes are still unclear, John has grasped the general idea.

"Yes," Dumbledore said calmly.

John remained silent.

The mere fact that they need to investigate a few Horcruxes is enough to drive anyone crazy, let alone searching the entire world for the Horcruxes he's hidden...

Even the usually carefree John found Voldemort troublesome for the first time.

Seemingly noticing that John's confidence had been shaken, Dumbledore spoke up again to comfort him.

"Don't be afraid, John."

"All magic has its patterns, especially black magic."

"No matter how many Horcruxes Voldemort has prepared, we can find them—as long as we know him well enough."

John realized what the principal meant.

Yes, we have Dumbledore.

Such a trick would be easily countered by Dumbledore.

So he asked Dumbledore expectantly.

"Hey Principal, where are we in the investigation right now?"

Dumbledore stroked his long, white beard, then spoke slowly with an air of confidence.

"We haven't found anything yet."

After a brief silence.

"......ha?"

You haven't found anything, so why are you acting all confident?!

"Ahem—don't rush me, John, I haven't finished yet."

Seeing John's exasperated look, Dumbledore cleared his throat awkwardly and raised his hand again to soothe him.

"Actually, we've already discovered two Horcruxes."

"Oh! That's good news. Counting mine, that makes three!"

Hearing Dumbledore's words, John regained his spirits and smiled.

"No, including you two."

John: "..."

"And another one is a Voldemort diary that Harry found three years ago."

John: "..."

"So after all that talk, you haven't found a single one?"

"Ahem...it'll be soon, I've been checking it out lately..."

Lu Ping, who had been standing to the side, remained silent, listening to their back-and-forth conversation with a mixture of amusement and satisfaction.

He knew how busy Dumbledore had been lately; he used to have time to tell them corny jokes and occasionally pick out some candy.

However, ever since the Phoenix Order was rebuilt, he has always been decisive and unsmiling whenever he comes.

This chat and banter with John has surprisingly brought back some of Dumbledore's former brilliance.

Perhaps it's because Dumbledore really put too much pressure on himself.

The Horcrux that John suddenly brought back gave him a breakthrough and relieved some of the pressure on his shoulders.

Having listened to so much from the sidelines, he had already understood the current situation, so he slowly spoke.

"Dumbledore, given the Death Eaters' strong desire to break into the Ministry of Magic this time, could it be that one of Voldemort's Horcruxes is hidden there and they want to retrieve it now?"

John agreed with Professor Lupin's words and nodded in agreement, but Dumbledore shook his head.

"First of all, Voldemort would not hide Horcruxes in the Ministry of Magic; that's not a suitable place to hide things."

"The only items that can be kept in the Ministry of Magic, besides the personal belongings of its staff, are the Ministry of Magic's property."

"The Death Eaters are clearly heading towards the Department of Mysteries. Obviously, they're not looking for someone's personal belongings, but rather something stored within the Ministry of Magic."

"The items stored by the Ministry of Magic in the Department of Mysteries will undergo strict screening and testing, and even Horcruxes are not exempt from this."

"Unless he bricked the Horcrux into the walls of the Department of Mysteries..."

"But even if he did that, there's no need for him to go through the trouble of getting the Horcrux back; it would be safer to keep it inside."

"So the Death Eaters wanted to break into the Department of Mysteries for something else."

Dumbledore briefly explained the logic behind hiding the Horcruxes to the two of them.

"Where could that Horcrux be hidden...?"

Clearly, after hearing about this bugged item, John's attention was completely drawn to this Horcrux.

no way.

It's like playing a game and encountering a boss with a strange mechanism.

Now that the mechanism is clear, only by dispelling the mechanism can the BOSS be truly defeated.

His strategic focus was naturally entirely on how to crack the mechanism.

"Don't worry too much about John. We just need to follow Voldemort's footsteps and explore little by little until we find the answer."

"Voldemort would not hide the Horcruxes in a place that he himself could not easily reach, much less throw them into the deep sea where he himself could not find them."

"Because even the world's strongest magic has a force it cannot withstand, and that is the erosion of time."

"The same applies to Horcruxes."

"If he really wanted to achieve immortality, he would find a place where the Horcruxes would be well hidden and have extremely strong security measures."

"That way, it will be convenient for him to maintain it every hundred years or so."

"And given his arrogant nature, he wouldn't just randomly choose a roadside stone as a Horcrux."

"Anything that can become his Horcrux must be an object with special value or significance."