As a master in the art of brain encryption and an elderly man who has seen many upheavals in his life, Dumbledore has always been very composed in front of others, including Amortentia. His emotions rarely fluctuate as dramatically as they did just now.
Amortentia immediately realized that there must be some story between Dumbledore and this stone.
Dumbledore, who suppressed the inner turmoil, was also examining Amortentia's investigation of some things. According to Amortentia, he was investigating something. After a brief moment of contemplation, Dumbledore immediately realized that Amortentia was investigating almost the only possibility of the Deathly Hallows.
Facing Amortentia who tried to penetrate his mind, the elderly Dumbledore moved his lips slightly, but surprisingly, he didn't know what to say.
Offer him a wake-up call, hoping he will turn back from his ways?
The purpose of Amortentia chasing the Deathly Hallows does not require much guesswork. He probably already knows that he will touch that barrier soon. He must also be aware that there is no higher peak behind that barrier, only an impenetrable cliff, with no way to go, so he hopes to use the power of the Deathly Hallows to elevate himself to the height of those legendary witches and wizards?
Dumbledore was well aware that Amortentia Blaine was a wizard obsessed with power, but unlike most ambitionists in history, Amortentia was not enraged by the 'hegemony' brought by power. He focused on the power itself. He hoped to witness the limit of magic.
At the same time, Amortentia has love in his heart. He respects the personality of others and human nature. He does not disdain others just because he has exceptional magical talent and far surpasses the power of ordinary wizards. To be honest, neither he nor Gellert had such broad perspective and mature mindset at this age.
Trust——
The word "Trust" suddenly jumped into Dumbledore's mind. He looked into Amortentia's eyes, the pair of genuine eyes hidden by a small illusion remained clear. Amortentia calmly returned his inquisitive gaze, and those eyes did not harbor more ambition.
"You're right—"
Dumbledore relaxed the tense air around him, a smile reappeared on his withered cheeks, and he said happily,
“Sarachas Slytherin did indeed turn it into a ring.”
Amortentia's brows furrowed, and Dumbledore drew his wand, as Amortentia had done before. The tip of the wand twirled in front of him, and after a few moments of stable smoke, the pattern materialized.
There was a hand that looked very young by its skin color, and this hand was wearing a black gem ring on its index finger, adorned with a heavy gold band. The black gem on the ring was none other than the resurrection stone that Amortentia had seen in Helga Hetchpache's memories!
"This is--"
Amortentia furrowed his brow and spoke softly.
"Voldemort's hand, he wore this ring in front of you when he was studying at Hogwarts?"
"Not at all—"
Dumbledore gently shook his head.
"Tom is not a wise man, but you must admit that he is one of the most intelligent children in most people's eyes. He would not have shown me this ring because he cannot explain to me how a child raised in an orphanage obtained such a valuable ring."
Before Amortentia could raise any doubts, Dumbledore explained.
"Years ago, while investigating Tom's past, I accidentally discovered that he received this ring from his uncle. It's a complex story, Amortentia. Now is not the right time to share it, for we both have things to do!"
"What kind of trouble have you encountered?"
Amortentia nodded. Dumbledore gave his reason for knowing about the ring, but Amortentia could tell that Dumbledore was withholding some information. But just as Dumbledore did not want to know what Amortentia was investigating regarding the stone, Amortentia did not want to pressure Dumbledore to reveal what he did not want to say. This was the unspoken understanding between the two of them.
"It's also related to Tom's Horcruxes--"
Dumbledore looked very troubled. In front of Amortentia, he didn't have to put on a facade of omnipotence. He furrowed his brow and sighed with a worried expression.
"Exactly, Amortentia, you must remember when we together destroyed the Slytherin locket that we took from your childhood home in Sirius's basement. That was our third Horcrux, and we also know that Hagrid's Golden Cup was turned into a Horcrux, and almost certainly, the ring Tom will turn into a Horcrux. To be honest, this surpasses my expectations. Once I realized that Tom had created more than one Horcrux, I prepared myself to invest a great deal of energy into this matter. You see, Amortentia, this is the fifth one!"
"So--"
Amortentia understood.
“Are you worried about how many Horcruxes Voldemort has created? We have discussed this issue before, Headmaster Dumbledore. It is unlikely that there will be more than ten, and I believe Voldemort's soul strength does not exceed yours—”
"In this matter, we must be cautious, we must have precise control, Amortentia," Dumbledore sighed as he said.
This is indeed a very difficult thing. Voldemort would not go around telling everyone how many 'life-saving tokens' he plans to create for himself.
"Do you have any ideas, Headmaster?"
Amortentia glanced at the piece of paper in front of Dumbledore and asked, acknowledging that Dumbledore was the main force in this matter.
"We can only search for some clues in Tom's past--"
Dumbledore was in deep thought.
"I believe in an old friend of mine--Horace Slughorn, who was the head of Slytherin before Severus. He was also one of Tom's favorite professors at Hogwarts and had the greatest influence on him. I believe he has some key information. Since the locket was destroyed, I have been corresponding with him, but he has refused to talk to me about Tom."
"To be honest, this is not surprising. Most people who knew Tom do not want to talk about him anymore. But I think it's time for me to have a face-to-face conversation with my old friend, you understand that, Amortentia. We all know that Tom will be back among us in a few months. We must speed up our efforts to make things clear so that we can reduce the number of sacrifices."
Amortentia nodded with a solemn expression, and suddenly, his eyelids trembled.
Slughorn, he has an impression of this man. The current Head of the Office of Witches and Goblins at the Ministry of Magic, Darcus Cresswell, had mentioned him in his presence. Darcus told him that Slughorn seemed regretful that he hadn't become the head of Slytherin.
"Let's split up, Amortentia,"
Dumbledore got up from his chair and quickly took his traveling cloak from the rack on the side, then turned to Amortentia and said,
"Let's hope we can both bring back good news. Oh!"
Dumbledore walked over to Fawkes and only then snapped back to reality. He turned to Amortentia with an apologetic smile.
"If you don't mind, I hope Fawkes can come with me. It's not a bad thing for a young man to walk on his own feet—"
Thump—
Looking at the disappearing figures of Dumbledore and Fawkes into the flames, Amortentia rolled his eyes.
When Amortentia returned to his office, the owl that had eaten and drunk had already left. He simply packed his things and, just before leaving, suddenly remembered something and hurried back to his desk. He picked up a quill and quickly wrote something on the paper.
A streak of lightning between the fingers lifted the piece of vellum, causing it to automatically fold into a delicate paper crane. Then, three copies of the cranes flapped their wings like meteors and flew out through the gap between the open owl's window.
The tower of Gryffindor.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were discussing something intensely as they flew down the stairs from the warm common room, exited.
A shaft of white light shot up from the bottom of the stairs, circled around them three times above, and then dived down. Hermione, quick as a flash, caught the paper crane.
"What's going on, Hermione?" Harry looked at Ron with a question, "Is it the Krum apology letter?"
"Oh, it's not that," Hermione flipped through the letter with an annoyed look, "It's from Professor Blaine again. He's on leave again."
(Chapter ends)
