The sky is clear and cloudless in late spring, and the sun brings warmth to the earth. But this was not felt in the woods outside Little Hangleton, where the old trees cast a cool, dark and dense shadow. Let Ryan, who was standing in the woods, shudder involuntarily.

"Don't be nervous, you should trust me and Professor Moody. Dumbledore said in a mild tone.

"It's fine, I just suddenly felt a little cold in the shade. By the way, Professor, what the hell is this place?"

"This is the former home of the Gaunt family, who claim to be direct descendants of Slytherin, where Voldemort's mother was born, and from which his so-called Slytherin lineage derives. Dumbledore explained.

"Slytherin descendants, but—" Ryan said incredulously, pointing to the shack in front of him, for knowing was one thing, and seeing it was another. Looking at the shack in front of him, he really couldn't associate this with the Slytherin name.

"But that's just the way it is. Dumbledore said slowly. "The Gaunts are a very old wizarding family, known for their restlessness and violence, a character trait that has become more pronounced from generation to generation due to their habit of marrying close relatives. Their lack of rationality, coupled with their penchant for extravagant pomp, led to the fact that the family's fortune was squandered several generations before Voldemort's maternal grandfather, and they could only be reduced to this point. ”

This proves that the problem of consanguineous marriage is manifested, regardless of whether it is magical or not, but it is revealed more slowly in the presence of magic.

"Alright, let's clean up this first, Ryan you can see if there's anything out of the ordinary. With that, Professor Dumbledore began to wave his wand to clear the collapsed roof. Ryan, on the other hand, took out his portable alchemy array and a large pile of jars and jars, ready to search for traces of magic around him. Professor Moody glanced at the two men and then clenched his wand and stared around warily.

With a few drops of blood and a pinch of mixed powder placed on the alchemy array, blue-white flames ignited on the six corners of the six-pointed star on the alchemy array. At the sound of Ryan's incantation, the flames began to move rapidly along the runes and lines on the alchemy array. Finally, a flame was lit on the entire alchemy array.

The materials in the center of the alchemy circle slowly floated in mid-air in the movement of the flames, and mixed with each other under the command of Ryan's gestures. The result is a greenish-looking mass of powder.

"Whoever walks through will leave a trace. Ryan recited the incantation in the Old Latin language, and as the words fell, a gust of wind suddenly appeared, blowing all the powder on the alchemy table in the direction of the room that Professor Dumbledore had just cleared.

Soon, the entire house was covered in a glowing green powder. The powder slowly settled down over time, and finally all of it fell to the ground.

"That's it. Ryan said to the two professors on the other side. Professor Dumbledore smiled, and walked straight into the ruins of the Gaunt house. Moody, on the other hand, leaned against the door of the ruined building, staring warily at his surroundings.

As Ryan stepped through the door, Moody whispered, "I'm not mistaken, you're doing a great job." ”

Most of the powder in the room had completely disappeared, but there were five or six places where a glowing green glow appeared. This means that these places have a magic reaction, so there are far fewer places to search.

Everyone searched the past one by one according to the size of the magic reaction, and something was dug up in each place where the magic reaction occurred. However, the Gaunt family did fail, and the things that were dug up were some broken knick-knacks, worthless.

"Okay, let's see what this is. Dumbledore came to the least reactive place: behind the decorative stone slab above the fireplace, and after cleaning the dust from the decorative slab, they could see a snake crudely carved into the slate.

"The Gaunt family badge?this place is quite in line with Voldemort's character, he must have a sense of ritual when placing these things, and he will not put them randomly. Professor Dumbledore spoke, waving his wand and removing the slate.

Strangely enough, there is nothing behind the slab, only a complete stone. However, there is a rectangular green spot of light on the stone.

"Ah, it's an illusion. Before Ryan could do anything, Dumbledore shouted out the mechanism, and after a few unresponsive waves of his wand, his wand emitted a silvery glow.

In the light of the light, a groove appeared in the stone. A golden box was placed in a groove. However, on the mouth of the groove, many green runes appeared.

"Repel harmful magical creatures, fire and weather, reinforce, curse and fight back-" Watching the runes, Professor Dumbledore reported the functions of those runes one by one. Ryan watched from the sidelines to see how Dumbledore had recognized and destroyed the things.

"Alright. Professor Dumbledore reached out and took the gold box from the top of the table. It turned out that he had avoided the gap where the magic was most concentrated, and then took out the box by making a hole in the side after destroying the magic on the stone.

Seeing that Professor Dumbledore was going to open the lid of the box right here, Ryan hurriedly stepped forward to stop him: "Professor, we have all got the things, and we are not in a hurry for a while." Wouldn't it be better to go back to the office and deal with it?"

"It's true that I'm getting a little impatient. Dumbledore stopped reaching for the box, pulled a dragonskin pouch from his bosom and threw it in. Ryan could tell that the bag was made of real dragon skin, not leather products such as dragon skin gloves made by dragon vein creatures that are listed on the students' lists every year.

The accumulation of a hundred years of wizards is indeed not to be underestimated, whether it is knowledge or wealth. It seems that the estimation of the true strength of that pure-blood vote needs to be adjusted a little higher, maybe there are a few ancestors in the basement of each of those families, ready to uncover the coffin at any time.

After confirming that nothing was missing in the room, the three of them returned to the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts on the Phoenix Express.

——

In Professor Dumbledore's Headmaster's office, the three of them gathered around the table and looked at the gold box on the table.

"I've checked that there's nothing wrong with the box, so I'll open it. With that, Dumbledore reached for the gold box again, but was still stopped by Ryan.

"Professor Dumbledore, this gold box is made by elves, and the special materials and methods are insulated from all of our investigative methods. What if there's a curse on something like that, especially since you've said that person is good at demagoguery, even if the mechanism inside can control you for only a few seconds. So I thought I'd just open the box, so that you could easily control me even if there was any mechanism. ”

"I'm not old enough to need an underage child to protect me from danger. Hearing this, Moody also stood up. "Why don't I do it. Ryan, you're too young, and some curses could kill you in an instant. I think I can carry it a little longer in this situation, and Albus will be able to control me and avoid danger if something happens. ”

Eventually, Professor Moody took over the task of opening the box. Ryan, on the other hand, stood behind Dumbledore and watched him warily.