Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 344 Grindelwald and the Gaunt family

"Deal with? Does that mean destroying them outright?"

Harry looked at the Horcruxes still embedded in the ring, the ones he could barely name, and asked them—although many of them looked quite ancient and ornate, having just witnessed the hideous appearance of Voldemort's soul, and thinking about the terrifying nature hidden within their exquisite shells, Harry simply couldn't like them.

"destroy?"

Avada couldn't help but laugh—he had gone to such great lengths to research a method to directly extract the soul without affecting the vessel, not only to solve Harry's problem, but also to preserve these ancient and precious historical artifacts…

"Speaking of which, I don't think I've had a chance to tell you about the origins of these items that Voldemort chose to become Horcruxes. No wonder you're asking... Come and take a look."

He beckoned Harry and Ron closer to examine the items more closely: "For example, this, Harry, the golden cup you used to own—this is the golden cup Helga Hufflepuff left behind, the one from the very beginning of Hogwarts."

"Is this the golden cup?!"

Harry just blinked blankly, but Ron next to him was immediately startled, staring at the glittering, exquisite golden cup in amazement: "Is that the legendary golden cup that can never be filled and can easily hold all the food from Hogwarts?"

"This...is that amazing?"

Harry stared in disbelief at Hufflepuff's golden cup—he had spent several days with it two years ago!

"That's the one."

As expected, Avada smiled and pointed to the locket at the innermost part of the ring: "And this, see that snake-shaped letter 's'? This is Slytherin's relic... Although this should just be one of his many relics, it is said that his real treasure has been taken to Ephamoni by his descendants... But without a doubt, this is Slytherin's own."

This time, Harry and Ron seemed a bit uninterested—after what happened in the Chamber of Secrets, they didn't have a very good impression of Salazar Slytherin, the founder of Hogwarts.

"Then this is probably the second most valuable item in this batch, and also the most famous—the Ravenclaw tiara."

thump.

Harry was startled by a sudden thud beside him. Turning around, he discovered the source of the sound—Ron had collapsed to the ground, his finger trembling as he pointed at the so-called "Ravenclaw tiara"...

Now Harry knew that this thing was indeed, as Ken had said, incredibly important...

"Ravenclaw's tiara?"

Ron didn't even bother to stand up, and he spoke very softly, as if afraid of accidentally disturbing something: "That crown that grants Rowena Ravenclaw's wisdom simply by wearing it? A crown that's been missing for hundreds of years?!"

"Then Voldemort found it and turned it into a Horcrux."

Avada shrugged, pouring cold water on Ron's enthusiasm and calming him down a bit: "This thing can indeed increase the user's thinking speed and efficiency, but the effect shouldn't be as exaggerated as you say—after all, Rowena Ravenclaw herself, who was able to create this item, should already be at the pinnacle of intelligence, a level that can't be matched by external objects..."

As he spoke, he couldn't help but feel a little emotional—Ravenclaw's crown was the first Horcrux he had ever acquired, and several of his trump cards, such as the psychic link and the Imperius Curse, as well as the long-term optimization of his mental abilities, were all obtained through studying this crown. It should be considered the Horcrux that helped him the most.

"Can I try wearing it?"

Ron pleaded, and Harry also became somewhat expectant, but Avada quickly rejected the idea: "Not now. Voldemort's soul is still hidden in this. I haven't dared to wear it for years..."

The two of them jolted awake, then remembered that there seemed to be such a thing.

"This diary shouldn't be anything special; it's just one of Voldemort's old belongings... So what's this ring?"

Harry's gaze swept past the familiar black diary to the ring, and Ron followed suit, then frowned slightly: "This mark...is this Grindelwald's?"

"Grindelwald?"

Harry was both surprised and relieved—he had thought the ring would be a relic of Godric Gryffindor, and he certainly didn't want the possessions of his house's founder to be defiled by Voldemort: "Is it Grindelwald, the one defeated by Dumbledore?"

"That's him, but this item doesn't belong to Grindelwald."

Avada hesitated for a moment before deciding whether to tell the two about the Deathly Hallows, but after some consideration, she decided to keep them in the dark: "This symbol is actually the emblem of an extinct wizarding family, the Gaunt—one of the original Twenty-Eight Holy Families, and also a confirmed descendant of Slytherin."

He didn't plan to tell Harry the true origin of the badge for the time being, because that would be tantamount to telling him that the Potter family and the Gaunt family, to which Voldemort belonged, were both branches of the Peverell family, causing him to discover that he was actually still connected to Voldemort by blood after just exorcising Voldemort's soul...

Although after so much time, the blood connection between them should have weakened to the point of being negligible, it is still quite unsettling.

Unlike the original story, the current Harry is living a carefree life. He's not involved in the Triwizard Tournament, nor does he have to bear the fate of the prophesied son. Apart from being a little more famous, he's just an ordinary student. Even Snape's teaching attitude has improved considerably since Voldemort's defeat. In this rare and comfortable life, it's best to let him know as little about the troublesome things as possible.

As for the invisibility cloak, one of the Deathly Hallows, it was no longer of any use to Avada, who had already learned the secrets of the soul. So he left it in the hands of its original owner, so that it could continue its nocturnal wanderings and evade Filch...

"The Gaunt family? So this ring is a keepsake left by Voldemort's mother or some other relative?"

After Avada's introduction, Ron's interest waned considerably, but then a question suddenly occurred to him: "If that's the case, why is Grindelwald's symbol exactly the same as the Gaunt family's?"

"Who knows? Maybe he's related to the Gaunt family by blood? After all, that family has already produced a Dark Lord..."

Avada continued spouting nonsense without batting an eye—Ron wasn't the first to raise this question. Even many low-ranking members of the Witchcraft under Grindelwald's command back then believed that Grindelwald was actually a member of the Gaunt family. Some even speculated that Grindelwald's downfall might have been one of the reasons for the rapid decline of the Gaunt family...

(End of this chapter)