Magical Studies at Hogwarts...

Chapter 298 The Past (Part 1)

"Sour and Explosive Candy!"

Harry gave the command, and the stone monster in front of the headmaster's office jumped aside. The wall behind it split open, revealing a spiral staircase leading upwards. Harry stepped up the stairs until he came to a door with a brass knocker.

He knocked, and Dumbledore's voice came from behind the door.

"Please come in."

"Good evening, sir." Harry pushed open the door and greeted Dumbledore, who was sitting behind the table.

"Good evening, Harry," Dumbledore replied with a smile. "You've had a good week, haven't you? Seems quite busy, and you even got yourself a detention... well, much later than when you were in your second year."

Seeing the conflicted look on Harry's face, he waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, I've already spoken to Snape, and your detention has been moved to next Saturday."

"Okay," Harry replied casually. As a frequent solitary confinement student in Gryffindor, he had been put in solitary confinement by Snape countless times in the past, so he didn't take it to heart at all. All he could think about was what Dumbledore was going to teach him.

Perhaps... a powerful spell?

"I imagine you're wondering how I'm going to teach you, aren't you?" Dumbledore asked, adjusting his glasses.

"Yes, sir."

"Actually, it's less of a class and more of a teaching. What I want to teach you and tell you is not only magic, but also many things from the past."

"I think that after going through so much, you've already come to know some of the truth."

"The truth? Sir, I don't understand." Harry looked at Dumbledore with a puzzled expression, his mind already in a state of confusion.

Dumbledore paused, as if organizing his thoughts, and remained silent for a moment before continuing, "At the end of last term, after you returned from the Ministry of Magic, I promised to tell you everything."

"Yes, but it seems there are still many things I don't know," Harry said.

"That's perfectly normal. No one can know all the truth; that's unrealistic. Besides, I did tell you everything I knew back then," Dumbledore said calmly. "Now, I want to walk with you through the fog that shrouds the truth."

"It's a difficult thing, especially since I've already shown you that I can make mistakes just like everyone else. I can't guarantee that I won't make mistakes on the journey ahead... So, I need you, Harry."

"What can I do, sir?"

"Many, many." Dumbledore said, standing up and beckoning Harry to something he knew very well—the Pensieve. He also took a small bottle from his pocket, inside which something was shimmering with a silvery-white light.

Harry knew very well that it was a memory.

"You have a very keen intuition, and there are some things I need from you to provide an answer from another perspective, which is very helpful in our search for the truth."

He paused, then continued, "Remember what I told you at the end of last semester? The prophecy, and the secret behind Voldemort's immortality?"

"I remember, sir," Harry said, "Hordeal, a form of extremely evil dark magic."

"That's right." Dumbledore nodded. "That's Voldemort's only means of resurrection, and it's also the only way for us to completely destroy him."

"So, are we going to look for clues about the Horcruxes next?"

"You could say that," Dumbledore nodded, then poured the memories from the bottle into the Pensieve and held out his hand for Harry to take.

"We can see it with our own eyes; this is a memory I went through so much trouble to obtain..."

As they spoke, they plunged headlong into that memory.

After a dizzying sensation similar to Apparition, Harry found himself standing on a country road.

Tall hedges lined both sides of the road, and the sun blazed overhead. Not far ahead of them stood a short, stout man, carefully examining a road sign placed by the roadside.

"Who is that?" Harry asked quietly.

"Bob Ogden, formerly worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; this is his memory." Dumbledore lowered his voice as well. "Keep up, and keep reading..."

They followed Ogden along the path, and after a steep downhill stretch, a very impressive house nestled in the valley came into view.

Harry thought they were going to the house, but after Ogden ran down the hill, he turned onto a side path and disappeared into a dark grove of trees.

After walking for a while in the woods, Ogden finally stopped and drew his wand. Harry and Dumbledore also stopped and cautiously followed behind. After walking a little further, they saw a strangely shaped, dilapidated house hidden behind the dense grove.

Ogden proceeded cautiously to the front of the house. He stopped again, staring intently at the dead snake nailed to the front door.

Just as Harry was wondering who had nailed the dead snake to the door, someone suddenly jumped down from a large tree nearby, landing right in front of Ogden. Ogden quickly backed away, but accidentally stepped on his own hem, stumbled, and almost fell.

"You're not welcome here," the person who jumped down said coldly.

"I'm from the Ministry of Magic, I'm..." Ogden stammered.

"I told you, you're not welcome here!"

"Sorry... I don't understand what you're saying..."

Hearing this, Harry realized that the person who jumped down was speaking Parseltongue. Just as he was about to confirm with Dumbledore, he saw the person who jumped down attack Ogden. A foul-smelling, yellowish liquid sprayed directly into Ogden's face, startling him so much that he immediately fell to the ground.

"Morphin!"

An older man rushed out of the room, glanced down at Ogden lying on the floor, and asked, "From the ministry?"

"That's right." Ogden scrambled to his feet, angrily asking, "I suppose you must be Mr. Gaunt?"

"That's right," Gunter said, then turned to Morfin beside him and said, "Go inside and don't say a word!"

Mofen was about to say something, but after being glared at fiercely by Gunter, she obediently returned to the house and slammed the door shut behind her.

"I've come to see your son, Mr. Gaunt," Ogden said, straightening his disheveled clothes. "Was that Morfin just now?"

"Yes, that's Mofen." Gunter was somewhat nonchalant, but quickly became aggressive again.

Are you a pureblood?

"This has nothing to do with today's events!" Ogden replied coldly, seemingly greatly offended. But his tone clearly confirmed Gaunt's identity.

"No wonder, I was wondering why your eyes and nose looked so familiar."

Gaunt's tone was extremely offensive, and his arrogant expression made Harry want to punch him hard.

This guy is even more annoying than Malfoy!

(End of this chapter)