Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 348 Resurrection Stone

Moody remained silent, pointing his wand at Dumbledore as if he hadn't heard a word of what Dumbledore had said.

"……All right."

Dumbledore adjusted his glasses with a sigh. "I first contacted you this year on May 10th, and this time I contacted you to impersonate me last Wednesday. Before that, you were hiding in the safe house. Our agreed-upon code for confirming your identity is 'milk toffee'..."

He paused here, then looked quietly at Moody, who still had the same face as him.

"When you were explaining your plans to me, what were the points of disagreement between us?"

After about two or three seconds, Moody spoke again.

"You still don't trust Wormtail, even though he's bound by an oath."

Dumbledore answered immediately.

"……alright."

Moody then appeared to breathe a sigh of relief, waved his wand to remove the armor charm in front of him, and started counting on his fingers: "First, state the time of the two communications. The second communication must be stated using the weekday, not the date. My location, the code... Hmm, everything matches up."

"Welcome back, Albus—it seems things are going much better on your end than expected?"

"..."

Avada's eyelids twitched as he listened.

So all that conversation that just now seemed like an exchange of information and a confirmation of identity was actually a pre-arranged password?

Does he really need to be this wary? It's one thing to be more cautious when dealing with himself, but he previously "interrogated" the most powerful wizard, Dumbledore—if someone can actually extract this information from Dumbledore, then what's the point of being so wary?

And judging from Dumbledore's words, Moody doesn't seem entirely at ease with Peter Pettigrew either? Did he discover something amiss with Peter? Or is it merely the intuition of a legendary Auror?

"To be honest, you really shouldn't have reacted so dramatically just because you lost your magic eyes."

Dumbledore sighed somewhat helplessly, "I thought having Fawkes bring me here would be enough to confirm my identity—I bet if the materials in this room weren't so incomplete, you'd probably be throwing a miniature anti-theft waterfall at me by now..."

"I've actually thought about doing that."

Moody, using Dumbledore's voice, mumbled and complained to Dumbledore himself, creating a rather bizarre scene in Avada's eyes: "Before I retired, I suggested putting up a thief-proof waterfall outside every entrance to the Ministry of Magic, or at least a simple revealing potion—but those guys always say there's not enough budget… It's ridiculous! Hasn't the Ministry of Magic been infiltrated by Death Eaters enough times in the last decade or so?!"

"...Ken,"

After a moment's thought, Dumbledore decided to ignore Moody's rambling for the time being and turned to Avada, who was standing to the side: "Your return was faster than expected—how was it? Did it go smoothly?"

"Everything went very smoothly."

Moody, still annoyed at being ignored by Dumbledore, interrupted Avada Kedavra, and casually pulled out the glass bottle containing Voldemort's complete soul from his pocket, handing it to Dumbledore: "I don't know where you found such a genius—if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, and confirmed that you weren't joking with me, I wouldn't have believed that a soul shattered into several pieces could actually be pieced back together..."

"It worked? Did you confirm?"

Dumbledore's beard trembled almost imperceptibly. He then took the glass bottle from Moody's hand, took out the Elder Wand, aimed it at the bottle, closed his eyes, and carefully sensed its contents. Avada Kedavra and Moody remained silent, waiting quietly for Dumbledore.

"...It's complete."

Five or six minutes later, Dumbledore opened his eyes again, a hint of surprise and disbelief still lingering in his gaze. His trembling voice was a mixture of astonishment and murmurs, "This is truly a complete soul, without any flaws, not even a trace of being split... It really happened?"

"That broken, sinful soul could actually be restored through external means..."

"Ahem, Professor,"

Seeing that Dumbledore's hands were trembling as he stroked the glass bottle, Avada decided to distract him slightly: "Now that the Horcruxes issue is resolved—I have something to give you."

"Oh? What is it?"

Dumbledore's attention was indeed diverted from the glass bottle, and he turned to Avada and asked.

"this."

Avada picked up the Gauntlet ring that had been lying on the table: "Voldemort's last Horcrux. I didn't dare tell you before because I was afraid it would affect your condition... You should recognize it."

"This is……!"

Dumbledore didn't even take the ring from Avada. After just one glance, he was struck dumb, frozen in place as if bewitched, staring blankly at the ring. This made Moody next to him put his hand back to his wand...

"Take it back, Ken."

Perhaps with immense willpower, Dumbledore finally managed to pull his gaze away from the Resurrection Stone with great difficulty. Looking into Avada's eyes, he gave a wry smile: "You shouldn't have let me see it at this time, Mr. Ken. It's having too much of an impact on my condition. We still have things to do..."

Dumbledore made no attempt to ask Avada where he had obtained the item he had coveted for decades, nor was he curious as to why Avada knew he needed it. Instead, he continued, controlling his gaze, "You can keep it for now, Mr. Ken. I suspect you've had it for some time now, so you're qualified to keep it safe... We'll discuss what to do with it after everything is over."

As he spoke, Avada was surprised to see Dumbledore point the Elder Wand at his temple, slowly drawing out a white wisp of light and throwing it into the air to dissipate. Only then did his expression gradually improve.

Did he simply erase his memory of seeing the Resurrection Stone?

"Then tell me about your situation."

Seeing that Avada had quickly hidden the ring that had bewitched Dumbledore into his pocket, Moody spoke up to divert Dumbledore's attention: "Is the matter resolved?"

"On the contrary."

Upon hearing this, Dumbledore became serious again: "Actually, I came back to tell you that you'll probably have to continue impersonating me for even longer, and while I'm at it, I'll send you some of my beard, or you can use my hair if you don't want to..."

Why is that?

Moody frowned: "What kind of spell did that old man cast on you this time?"

"……cough."

Dumbledore clearly understood Moody's implication and coughed somewhat awkwardly, "Well... the information he gave me this time was a bit unexpected. There are too many variables now, and our original plan has to be changed accordingly..."

(End of this chapter)