Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 1077: Departure

“When he summoned these people, did it happen under your eyes, professor?”

“Yes, right under my eyes!”

Evan sighed again. Tom Riddle during his student days was truly terrifying. Forming the D.A. (Dumbledore’s Army) was already not easy for him and his friends, but look at what they had been doing when they were students. Under Dumbledore’s eyes, a dark force formed, recruiting Death Eaters to build a real army.

From this perspective, Evan couldn’t compare to him.

In fact, strictly speaking, without Riddle’s diary, Evan would not be as strong as he was now.

Most of the initial magical knowledge was taught to him by Lord Voldemort during his student days.

There were many things that Evan was using now…

It could be said that without Voldemort, there wouldn’t be the Evan of today.

If he had relied on himself to learn and master those profound knowledge, he would probably still be struggling with those magic books.

Whether he could comprehend and summarize it all was another matter.

Of course, without Voldemort, Evan would have been happy and relaxed, spending the past few years at Hogwarts peacefully, dealing with classwork like Colin, Ron, and Neville, and going on dates with Hermione every day…

Thinking about it, this kind of world without Voldemort seemed actually quite nice, didn’t it?

“I just said that he was very guarded with me, which was wise. He did not try to deceive me as much as he did with many of my colleagues. He once told me he was determined to start anew and I chose to give him this opportunity,” said Dumbledore, seemingly sensing what Evan was thinking. “I have to admit, there was a time when he truly deceived me. Riddle gathered many followers in the school, but he controlled them rigidly. They were never detected in open wrongdoing, although their seven years at Hogwarts were marked by a number of nasty incidents to which they were never satisfactorily linked, the most serious of which was, of course, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which resulted in the death of a girl. As you know, Hagrid was wrongly accused of that crime.

“So, unfortunately, although he was once my student, I have not been able to find many memories of Riddle at Hogwarts, not many useful ones,” said Dumbledore. “Few who knew him then are prepared to talk about him; they are too terrified. What I know, I found out after he had left Hogwarts, after much painstaking effort, after tracing those few who could be tricked into speaking, after searching old records and questioning Muggle and wizard witnesses alike.”

The terrifying aspect of Voldemort lay not in his power but in his ability to manipulate and deceive even Dumbledore’s intelligence.

When he gave up on these pursuits and instead pursued pure power, he became less frightening!

At the very least, he had the possibility of being defeated. Although he was powerful and immortal, he had a fatal weakness.

“Those whom I could persuade to talk told me that Riddle was obsessed with his parentage. This is understandable, of course; he had grown up in an orphanage and naturally wished to know how he came to be there. It seems that he searched in vain for some trace of Tom Riddle senior on the shields in the trophy room, on the lists of prefects in the old school records, even in the books of Wizarding history. Finally he was forced to accept that his father had never set foot in Hogwarts. I believe that it was then that he dropped the name forever, assumed the identity of Lord Voldemort, and began his investigations into his previously despised mother’s family. Regarding this memory, we won’t delve into it for now, but I can tell you with certainty that he believed that the woman could not be a witch if she had succumbed to the shameful human weakness of death.

“All he had to go upon was the single name ‘Marvolo,’ which he knew from those who ran the orphanage had been his mother’s father name. Finally, after painstaking research through old books of Wizarding families, he discovered the existence of Slytherin’s surviving line. In the summer of his fifteenth year, he left the orphanage to which he returned annually and set off to find his Gaunt relatives. As I just said, that place had special significance for him. It was once the place of his dreams, and it was also the place where the dreams were broken.”

“So, he hid the ring in that house?” Evan asked again.

“Yes, at least I think so!” Dumbledore replied affirmatively. “That’s also my destination.”

He waved his wand, and the Pensieve on the table and the two crystal bottles containing memories vanished from the table.

“It’s about time; we have to set off after dark. I think since the Ministry of Magic is looking for us, we’d better act like we are wanted,” said Dumbledore, pausing for a moment. “Oh, by the way, since that ring is now a Horcrux, I think it’s best if we bring a weapon.”

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a flash of golden light, and Fawkes the phoenix appeared above the living room, carrying the tattered Sorting Hat.

He hovered and threw the Sorting Hat into Evan’s arms.

“Oh, Fawkes brought it over!” said Dumbledore. “Please take it, Evan, we are leaving now.”

The true Gryffindor could get Gryffindor’s sword from the Sorting Hat, which was their weapon.

Evan hurriedly stuffed the Sorting Hat into his arms and held Dumbledore’s outstretched left hand with his right hand.

Dumbledore grabbed Fawkes with his right hand, and another burst of golden light flashed, and they disappeared from the living room!

A few seconds later, the two of them appeared out of thin air on a country lane.

Fawkes chirped lowly, flew into the distance, sprinkled with golden light, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The night wind blew slowly, and the thick clouds in the sky covered the stars. In front of them was Little Hangleton.

It was somewhat similar to the scene Ogden had seen in his memory, but many houses in the village had been renovated and the layout had also changed.

Only Riddle House stood quietly on the hillside in the distance, just like before.

The place was now in ruins, seemingly uninhabited for a long time. Several windows of the house were boarded up, the tiles on the roof were incomplete, and the ivy was crawling all over the house. It looked damp and desolate, just like the lost Riddle family, like a scary haunted house.

“No one in the village dares to go near there. The murder case half a century ago left a deep impression on them,” said Dumbledore. “Well, let’s go to the Gaunt hovel. Be vigilant, Evan. I don’t think Voldemort would leave everything to chance; he might have left the ring there.”

“Got it,” Evan nodded and added, “You be careful too, Professor!”

He wasn’t worried about himself, but rather feared that Dumbledore might succumb to temptation if he came across the Resurrection Stone…

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