From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"Wait... if it's not against the rules, how did she get the information?"

Chapter 559 Taking Advantage of a Time Difference

"Alright, that's all for today's lesson. Oh, by the way, Harry, you can stay behind for a bit."

The routine lessons for the warriors were over, and just as the three of them were getting up to say goodbye, Harry suddenly heard Dumbledore say this.

'That's strange... I haven't been doing too badly lately, have I?'

Harry was a little uneasy—he didn't know what had happened that required Dumbledore to keep him behind for a private talk, even though he wasn't learning very slowly.

The special lessons for the warriors have been going on for more than half a year, and Dumbledore has already tailored five different spells for them—although they are all variations of common spells, they are extremely easy to use.

He didn't understand why he was suddenly kept behind—he hadn't gone out at night, hadn't lost many points in the college, and had worked hard in Quidditch, so there shouldn't be anything that would concern the headmaster, right?

'etc!'

Harry suddenly remembered something—Hagrid had recently introduced them to a new friend who wasn't very popular, could it be because of him?

But didn't Dumbledore know that?

Harry wasn't quite sure. He thought Dumbledore should know, but didn't Hagrid keep a dragon back in his first year?

That's not right either—the professor said that Hogwarts has all sorts of security measures to prevent outsiders from intruding. When they went to the Astronomy Tower to send the dragon away, it seemed like a perfect plan, but now that I think about it, how could Hogwarts possibly have such a big security risk?

'So the headmaster knows and is planning to settle scores with Hagrid?'

'But that doesn't make sense—Hagrid even kept giant spiders in the Forbidden Forest, and Dumbledore didn't say anything about it.'

Various thoughts raced through Harry's mind, but there was nothing he could do except feign composure—Hagrid had looked quite worried earlier, and he couldn't betray Hagrid based on his own speculation.

"How have you been lately, Harry?"

Dumbledore's smile was kind, but it put immense pressure on Harry.

"It's very fulfilling, Principal. Well, I mean, the academic pressure in fifth grade is still quite high."

“Yes, a little, but I think you can handle it,” Dumbledore said, looking at Harry with a gaze that made Harry uneasy. “I heard from Professor Moody that you are perfectly capable of passing the Auror intern interview now.”

'Isn't this about Hagrid? Great.'

Harry breathed a sigh of relief, but tried to suppress the expression on his face—he barely succeeded.

"Really? That's great."

He tried to appear cheerful, but couldn't think of a better response to Dumbledore's words.

"So, do you understand Horcruxes now?"

Before Harry could regret his poor response, Dumbledore suddenly brought up a completely new topic.

"Hornet?"

Harry's eyes widened—he had never heard of such a thing before.

Professor William's course covered a vast amount of self-defense theory and practical skills, along with various training methods. Professor Moody's course, on the other hand, was strict and demanding, with a wide range of attack techniques. This content, along with the exhausting courses, was deeply etched into Harry's mind. However, he had never heard of any Horcrux-related terms.

"No?"

Dumbledore looked surprised – he hadn't expected that neither of his two professors had taught this student the relevant knowledge.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a little resentful towards Slughorn—look, look, even professors of self-defense don't teach students about Horcruxes, yet you, a potions professor, are teaching about Horcruxes all the time!

It's one thing to teach someone, but even now they keep the secret tightly under their belt, as if they're taking it to their grave!

He spent more than half a year, but still only managed to extract a small amount of corrected memories from Slughorn. As for the memories he truly needed, he remained at a loss.

The only good news is that what he previously only guessed about Slughorn has now been completely confirmed.

"Yes, no, Professor."

Since it wasn't about Hagrid, Harry would definitely tell him everything he knew—to be honest, Dumbledore's sudden question was really frightening. He originally thought that Cho's question about Miss Granger was frightening enough, but today he realized that it was even more difficult to lie when facing Dumbledore.

"No…"

Dumbledore hesitated for a moment—it was still a bit too early to be an apprentice Auror; he still had time…

"That's good. Don't talk about this with any friends, don't look up the meaning of this word, and don't ask any professors about it."

Although he didn't know why Dumbledore had suddenly become so serious, Harry nodded solemnly nonetheless.

-

"How did you come up with the idea of ​​using Harry?"

In the headmaster's office, William, who had been summoned at the last minute, was completely bewildered—Dumbledore was actually telling him about his helplessness regarding the Horcrux investigation, and also mentioned that he had suddenly had a fleeting impulse to have Harry take over.

“He will, if Harry asks him.”

Dumbledore's words seemed nonsensical, but William knew perfectly well that he was referring to Professor Slughorn.

"But I must remind you that the most favored student in the entire school right now is Neville—Professor Slughorn truly has an unparalleled talent for discovering students' strengths."

William said this with a strange expression—because Neville hadn't faced any criticism after his outstanding performance.

Yes, no, even among Slytherins, after a brief moment of disbelief, some even felt that Neville was indeed deserving of such excellence—the reason being simple: the Longbottom family is one of the Twenty-Eight Holy Houses…

It's amazing, but that's the school's atmosphere, and that's the kind of family education they received. William doesn't have the power to forcibly change those students' minds. He can only hope that the Ministry of Magic will continue to be powerful and suppress the momentum of pure-bloods, so that they can accept it once they get used to it.

As for now—if he had the ability, he might as well find a way to go to America and persuade the Dark Lord; at least the task would be simpler, and there would be fewer people to persuade…

"Yes, Neville is very good."

Dumbledore nodded. "But you don't know, Harry definitely can... others can't, but Harry can."

Although William didn't know where Dumbledore got such confidence, he couldn't refute it, so he could only change the subject slightly, "So you're sure the memories related to Horcruxes are with Professor Slughorn?"

"Yes, I'm absolutely certain."

"That's strange—why is he unwilling to tell us?"

William looked up, pondering the question. "Are you afraid? Are you afraid of the Dark Lord? But I think he doesn't know about the Dark Lord's resurrection. Even the Americans haven't realized this, let alone Professor Slughorn."

"Is it because you're afraid of losing your reputation?"

"That's true. He taught the Dark Lord and provided him with information about Horcruxes. Some of his students from back then must remember him. If word of this gets out... but that's no excuse for him to give you false memories."

"Could it be that the Horcruxes have always been like a thorn in his side... making him feel that the Dark Lord has never died?"

"But that doesn't make sense either..."

William finally spread his hands in frustration—how could he possibly guess? There wasn't a single clue!

"Why not just lie?"

An idea suddenly popped into his mind and then wouldn't leave.

"cheat?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "He's a very clever and cautious man; you can't fool him."

“It’s alright, we’re only fooling smart people,” and we need to hurry, to create a time gap. The Dark Lord’s return is becoming increasingly rare; we must get this sorted out before then, or who knows if Professor Slughorn will secretly erase his memories.”

This is very likely to happen. If the situation worsens, who knows if Professor Slughorn will destroy his own memory to save himself? That would be a real mess.

"Trying to fool smart people?"

"Or maybe you should scare him..."

William organized his thoughts and slowly began to explain his plan.

"Look, how many Horcruxes have we confirmed have been destroyed and collected?"

"Five now."

"Then let's find a way to tell him that we learned from one of Umbridge's henchmen that Voldemort has four Horcruxes! Each one corresponds to one of the four Houses!"

"A Hufflepuff cup, a Slytherin locket, a Ravenclaw tiara, and a Gryffindor... well, you'll have to provide one of those..."

“Of course, we know that there are more than four Horcruxes. We know that, and according to your reasoning, Slughorn knows that as well.”

“I remember the Ministry of Magic didn’t report much about the Death Eaters’ prison raid, so let’s use that as a starting point,” William thought. “And the Gryffindor common room fire case, let’s use that as a starting point too.”

"The story goes something like this—"

William fabricated an imperfect lie: "The Dark Lord disappeared, but his Death Eaters never gave up, trying to use the methods he left them to resurrect him."

"However, because the Dark Lord has protected his life-saving methods so well, the surviving Death Eaters simply cannot find those key items for resurrection... namely Horcruxes, Professor Slughorn knows about them anyway."

"The leader of this organization that attempted to resurrect the Dark Lord was Umbridge. She had been dedicated to this cause and was also eyeing the Ministry of Magic's supreme position. However, during her search, Umbridge was unfortunately betrayed by Rita and ended up in Azkaban."

“That’s right, that’s exactly it. It was the Horcruxes that gave Umbridge the confidence and ideals to persevere, and it was also the weapon she used to maintain the confidence of her subordinates.”

Although the truth may not be like that—but Umbridge couldn't possibly stand up and refute it, she didn't even leave behind a ghost.

Because this was so logical, even Dumbledore's eyes became strange—could Professor William have guessed correctly?

"Azkaban's rescue operation exposed their weaknesses, allowing you to finally capture a high-ranking hidden Death Eater, obtain relevant intelligence from another angle, and find the Horcrux."

"So you can proudly tell Professor Slughorn that his intelligence is no longer as useful. We've obtained the intelligence and the Horcruxes. Our next priority is to hunt down the remaining Death Eaters who have escaped."

"Of course, we will continue to protect those who may know the truth, as always, to prevent them from being hunted down by the Death Eaters. After all, they discovered that someone had fallen into our hands and revealed valuable information about the Horcruxes."

William stopped making up his story and spread his hands.

Given Professor Slughorn's personality, it would be strange if he didn't rush to reveal the truth and remind Dumbledore—he doesn't seem like the type to wait for the Dark Lord to be hunted down by those escaped Death Eaters.

“Fantastic. Slughorn will definitely not take my protection lightly just because I am so proud of myself for having taken care of everything.”

“But,” Dumbledore looked at William, “Slughorn has never been hunted down all these years, so why are the Death Eaters hunting him down?”

"There are too many possibilities: because they didn't know about it before they rescued Azkaban's prisoners, because they discovered the list of the original Death Eaters that we made, or because we got their initial gathering information from those people?"

"You want to threaten him? Slughorn isn't so easily subdued."

"No, no, I've decided to care more about him—I'll trouble Professor Moody to spend Easter with Professor Slughorn, claiming it's to prevent the Death Eaters from resorting to desperate measures."

“We can even provide Professor Slughorn with excellent security for his house, as long as he feels it is necessary. As long as he leaves Hogwarts, we will give him the best, undisturbed protection and confidently tell him that we are capable of eliminating any intruders.”

"Also, you'll have to go on a business trip because you've discovered the whereabouts of the remaining Death Eaters or something else. In short, you can go anywhere except Hogwarts."

"Also, if possible, let's mock the Death Eaters. They prepared everything—the ritual, the herbs, the necessary materials—but someone managed to find all their Horcruxes, leaving them unable to do anything."

William spoke in a serious tone, then laughed along with Dumbledore.

This kind of protection—it scares everyone half to death!