From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"I'm running out of materials, you'll have to solve it yourself..."

William looked at the vault in front of him with embarrassment—only five more vaults left to complete the preliminary inspection, and he could call it a day.

Chapters 5, 4, and 7 went smoothly.

"Not a single one..."

After inspecting the last vault, William sighed in disappointment, then watched Dumbledore restore the original protective measures—he wasn't so good at magic in that area.

In short, Gringotts can discover a theft, but not a large-scale theft. Ideally, Gringotts should discover that its vault is on the verge of being burgled, and that thieves are trying to open the vault but are stopped.

That sounds a bit demanding—but thankfully we have Dumbledore.

Anyway, after searching the vault for a long time, they found that only an inconspicuous cup was missing. Considering Bella's current situation, it's unlikely that anyone will discover this for at least six months.

"Even if Voldemort had the courage, he couldn't create Horcruxes indefinitely. The soul is an incredibly complex entity, and there is a limit to how much it can be split."

Dumbledore carefully patched up the last loophole in the vault, then turned around, his face showing no sign of disappointment.

Finding even one Horcrux was already incredibly lucky; he had even come prepared to fail from the very beginning.

“I don’t care about that. As for Horcruxes, it’s amazing he dared to make them—” William looked at the golden cup in his hand, which was covered in layers of magic and dragon skin. “And he used such expensive stuff. He’s practically an antique enthusiast. Could he have turned Gryffindor’s stuff into Horcruxes too?”

“I checked the Sorting Hat, and although it had a lot of complaints, it wasn’t.”

Dumbledore stated matter-of-factly, "The sword of Gryffindor has appeared many times throughout history, but this—"

He paused for a moment, then added, "It's also very safe."

"That's strange..."

William looked into the Gringotts tunnels; they were probably three or four miles underground. "Is this all the known relics? I mean, is there some undiscovered Gryffindor relic that he found?"

"But here's the question—it's not just the Dark Lord who's obsessed with collecting the relics of the four founders. For most wizards, even if they have no practical use, the relics of the four founders are still excellent collectibles. How exactly did he manage to collect them all?"

"Yes... how did he collect them?"

Dumbledore also looked into the tunnel. Although the two of them had just broken into Gringotts' vault, neither of them showed any fear on their faces, nor did they even seem inclined to discuss the matter elsewhere.

"That's it! I've got it!"

William suddenly seemed to remember something and started reaching into his pocket. He then pulled out a small booklet filled with dense writing and quickly flipped to the middle section.

After graduating from Slytherin in 1945, Tom Marvolo Riddle applied to become a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Headmaster Armando Dippert declined his application because he was underage.

'The standards were much higher back then—by the time I got there, I was already having to go to Azkaban to find a professor…'

William confirmed that this was the place, and then took the opportunity to complain about himself again.

"This is?"

Dumbledore looked with great interest at the relatively blank page William had opened—each page had only one line of large text, the rest of which was filled with densely packed supplementary information.

"The student files obtained from Filch and the resumes found from various sources, then the information gleaned from the Death Eaters was marked in red ink and speculations were noted in purple ink. This was very useful for filling in the gaps."

William turned to the next page, where there were even more blank spaces.

Intelligence is unknown from June to September 1945.

Below this large text was a distorted red label: 'According to rumors and clues provided by Lady Grey, the Dark Lord may have gone to Albania recently and obtained the Ravenclaw crown.'

'The intelligence is unconfirmed. There's a record from seventh grade that can't be found; it's possible they smuggled themselves in seventh grade...'

'There are indeed accidental deaths in the local murder record, and the local Ministry of Magic's death record also includes cases of Muggles being murdered by wizards... but because no suspect has been caught, it still cannot be corroborated...'

"It's not this page either, that's too general."

William turned the page again.

In September 1945, the Dark Lord joined Borgin Burke's crew, working for Klaxtakus Burke.

This page is different; it has a lot of writing on it.

'A well-known smuggling shop, they'll smuggle anything and everything. I think I supplied them before…'

The checkout was very quick and efficient; the owner has a great reputation in the industry.

'How come every single person I ask has worked with me? This heartless boss hasn't even been convicted in Azkaban yet…'

'It's still family business... unbelievable, and they have connections everywhere, it's impossible to investigate...'

'Damn it, they're even supplying goods to high-ranking officials in the Ministry of Magic—how are we supposed to investigate this?'

'Finally, I found out someone in the know—damn it, Klaxtakus Burke wasn't killed in the last war? He actually got the Dark Lord to do that?'

'What is the Dark Lord doing? What is he wasting his time in this store for? This isn't like him…'

'A gift, several rare magical items, and some extremely hard-to-find materials… given to me by that shopkeeper, what's the point of me checking… can't I do anything about it?'

Below these smaller prints is a line of purple text: "Severe obstruction, investigation put on hold."

"It seems the investigation isn't going very well, Li."

Dumbledore smiled as he looked at the words William had written and shook his head.

"It didn't go very smoothly. They had already sent the gifts, but at that time, the Dark Lord hadn't shown any signs of resurrection yet. I didn't expect things to go wrong at Gringotts, and the investigation was delayed for a while."

William spread his hands. "After all, I really can't believe he had this quirk of using such valuable things to make Horcruxes—so he went there just to find good Horcrux base materials?"

It's really hard to tell—but it's a very useful clue. Given the current situation, there aren't many obstacles to investigating that shop. By checking who the Dark Lord has been in contact with and what valuable items he has handled, we can roughly figure out what kind of Horcruxes he made.

“That’s certainly a useful clue, but I’m more curious about how many Galleons you spent. Should I tell Minerva?”

"Ok?"

William looked at Dumbledore, then turned his head away so that Dumbledore wouldn't notice his knowing expression.

Just now, Dumbledore revealed a big secret—he hardly ever looks at the school's accounts…

"We didn't use Galon much. We focused on an on-campus experimental project, examining the safety level of the surrounding magical world and comparing it with the safety level within the country, and then producing a research report."

William thought for a moment, "I did manage to provoke them a little. In order to obtain accurate information from the local area, I secretly revealed my belief that Albania was safer than the surrounding magical worlds before the research report was released. In less than a week, I received quite a few negative reports from Albania... and they were pretty accurate."

After all, Dumbledore was in the British wizarding world, and his ratings were very authoritative—he did use some of the school's resources.

'...'

Dumbledore's expression suddenly turned somewhat helpless.

"The rest is really hard to find. He resigned from his job at Borgin-Bock and started befriending dark wizards all over the world, learning all kinds of dark magic, and undergoing several difficult human transformations... The records during this period are fragmented and not systematic at all, so I couldn't get them."

The underground was too dark, and William didn't notice the expression on Dumbledore's face. "Those dark wizards are just too dangerous. Smuggling is at most a gray channel. They still can't infiltrate the lives hidden in the dark side of the magical world, so I really don't know how Horcruxes are made... But it seems there aren't many left... I don't believe he can make a lot of Horcruxes... If that's the case, we can only try to seal the Dark Lord."

"I see..."

Dumbledore sighed. "Slughorn is more cunning than I thought... I tried to ask him, but he wouldn't say anything. Fortunately, I'm not worried about him resigning..."

"Harry?"

“Part of the reason,” Dumbledore laughed, “you would never guess, it’s Neville.”

“Navie? You’re joking, Headmaster.”

William shook his head—he didn't usually speak ill of students, but Neville… Snape attacked the third most students, and Neville, who was known as the worst student in Potions class, attracted the attention of Slughorn, who valued talent the most in Potions class?

It's somewhat possible that Slughorn taught self-defense techniques—although Neville's spells were a bit lacking, his fighting style was very rhythmic.

Yes, very rhythmic, that's a very impressive compliment.

His fighting style is distinctive: brave and decisive. His spells are weak and slow to master, but you can grind them down over time. However, when it comes to fighting rhythm, if he doesn't know it, he's really hard to teach...

Even with those additions, it's still not enough; she can barely hold her own against Miss Granger—and that would require a lot of effort.

This is a bit of a dig at both sides, but it's true, Miss Granger really isn't that good at fighting...

"His performance in Potions class has improved remarkably quickly, and Professor Snape was furious about it for a long time..."

Dumbledore said with a smile, something that would anger a certain newly appointed divination professor, "I can tell he's angry with himself."

"I never noticed, Principal."

William put the pamphlet away. "To be honest, I've never seen Professor Snape give anyone in our office a normal look."

The two chuckled softly, and after a while, they secretly slipped out of Gringotts together.

"Please take the golden cup."

William glanced around to make sure no one was there, then handed the item to Dumbledore, still a little unsure—"The curse on this isn't clear yet, it's best not to touch it. Let's go back to school and study it slowly, or you can wait for me."

Is there anything else?

Dumbledore ignored William's earlier words, which were somewhat disrespectful, but he had nothing to say about them.

"I need to go to the vault to get some money, and I also need to look through some old books while I'm still searching for ideas for more Horcruxes."

William's statement was perfectly reasonable—one's own vault certainly cannot be broken into, so wouldn't it be better to enter legally?

-

"Truly a magnificent masterpiece, Master."

Having left Azkaban long ago, Barty Jr. recovered quickly after only a few days of rest and began to gradually participate in the Dark Lord's plans.

Others are not so lucky—after traveling all the way and living in Azkaban for many years, they are now a group of wounded and sick people, almost all of them are recuperating. Although Bella had some objections, they were rejected by the Dark Lord.

These Death Eaters, who have proven their loyalty, can be trusted. With the Purge still sufficient, the Dark Lord wouldn't risk letting them appear—besides, it would be troublesome if they were recognized, and Dumbledore isn't dead yet…

'Once they've secured control of the entire magical world, they can make their move. Right now, they're not that short-handed…'

"Do you have any good ideas, Buddy?"

The Dark Lord toyed with his wand, looking at the loyal servant before him.

He desperately needs someone who, even after his own disappearance, tirelessly devises plans, successfully kidnaps an Auror for questioning, and manages to do so—he simply can't manage it all by himself right now.

Those purgers always occasionally have their own agendas. They are organized around violence, and while they are useful, loyalty only matters when things are going well.

Loyal Bertha… He wasn't planning on trying to imagine waking up to find an Auror standing in front of him, letting her devise a plan, even if successful, the reward might be the Canadian wizarding world… It really was a possibility…

"Your plan couldn't be more perfect, whether it's conquering Iphamoni or disrupting the entire magical society..."

Little Barty exclaimed in genuine admiration.

He absolutely loved the Capitol fire plan and the store sabotage plan; they were audacious yet incredibly profitable.

“My plan is perfect, but that’s all the purgers can do. Barty, you are loyal and reliable.”