298. Second Horcrux
Luna stood in the doorway of the Headmaster's office, holding the Ravenclaw crown tightly in her arms, and she looked at the brass knocker in the shape of an eagle's head in the doorway for a moment, and then looked firmly at the command Dumbledore had told her.
The oak door at the end of the spiral staircase was slowly pushed open, and the three wizards in the office all looked at the little girl who was a little nervous.
"Lady Lovegood, it's a pleasure to meet you." Dumbledore stepped out from behind the table and walked up to Luna with a smile on his face.
"Deng, Headmaster Dumbledore, hello." A nervous Luna hurriedly replied, then turned her gaze to Lockhart and Quirrell to say hello.
"It's nice to see you again, Luna." Lockhart had a familiar smile on his face.
"Me too, Professor Lockhart, and Professor Quirrell."
Quirrell smiled and nodded.
"I think you already know why you came here." Dumbledore conjured a chair for Luna to sit down.
Luna nodded, "Your letter says that Professor Lockhart and Professor Quirrell have found the ghost that will remove the parasite from my spirit. β
"Strictly speaking, it should be a soul fragment." Dumbledore corrected, then said with a smile,
"But it doesn't matter what he is." With that, he asked Luna to place the Ravenclaw crown on the table.
"Will it be destroyed?" Although it was clearly stated in the letter, she couldn't help but ask.
"Of course not." Lockhart shook his head with a smile, then picked up the golden crown and sighed at Quirrell.
"I didn't expect that we would see the relics left by the founder of our academy in this way."
"Professor Dumbledore, does it really give wisdom to wizards who possess him?" Quirrell had been graduating for several years, but the legend that had been circulating in the academy for seven years had kept him interested.
Dumbledore took the golden crown in Lockhart's hand, his expression a little complicated.
"Maybe. It's in Rowena. Ravenclaw had disappeared before it died, and aside from the legends it had left behind, only its first owner knew if it could really give wisdom. But I think it's more likely that the so-called wisdom makes our minds more agile, and maybe there are other more mysterious magics that we obviously can't discover. β
Luna was intrigued by their discussion of the Golden Crown and couldn't help but ask.
"Is it possible that soul fragment in there really to be Rowena. Memories of Ravenclaw? β
"No, it won't." Dumbledore's tone was steadfast.
"How many years have passed since Ms. Rowena died, and even if she did have memories back then, so many years have long since faded. And I've tried to find it and asked Ms. Gray. It's Rowena. Ravenclaw's daughter, Helena. Ravenclaw. She didn't tell me if she knew where the crown was, but she complained that it wasn't as magical as her mother said it was, and that it was no different from a normal crown, except for its strong attraction to her. β
"A strong attraction?" Luna looked at the Golden Crown thoughtfully.
Seeing that Luna had distracted from the tension just now, Dumbledore quickly used a stunner charm to put her to sleep. Because it would be a very intense pain and weakness for her to return the soul fragment from her spirit to the Golden Crown, it was undoubtedly the best choice for her to let her do it unconscious in order to prevent accidents.
Lockhart consciously picked up his wand and used a special spell to confirm the location of the soul fragment in Luna's spirit. Then he quickly cast a spell with a spell.
Quirrell was not idle at this time, he slowly applied some of the potions he had prepared to Luna's forehead, and then poured a potion with a strange taste on the golden crown, the potion quickly vaporized into a white mist after touching the golden crown, and then the mist seemed to be invisibly attracted to Luna's forehead.
"Soul Traction!" Lockhart silently uttered the incantation, and a gray beam of light shot out from the tip of his wand.
Soon after the spell fell on Luna's head, a pained expression began to appear on her peaceful face. Dumbledore looked at Luna with a serious face on his wand, ready to come to the rescue at any time.
As Lockhart increased the power of the spell, the mist on Luna's forehead suddenly turned into a young man's expression of struggle.
"Hurry back!" Quirrell aimed his wand at the Golden Crown the moment the misty face appeared.
The invisible tug began to suck the mist on Luna's surface back into the Golden Crown.
"No, no, no." It was as if a reluctant roar came from the void.
A smile appeared on Lockhart's face when he heard this voice, indicating that they had successfully pulled the soul fragment out of Luna's spirit, although Luna may be weak for a while after waking up, there will be absolutely no side effects, and even because of parasitism, her spirit may be stronger.
But at this moment, the mist that was drifting back suddenly gathered rapidly between Luna and the Golden Crown, and a human figure slowly appeared.
"You're going to pay for it." He looked angrily at Lockhart and Quirrell, who were still using the spell.
"No, it's you who will pay the price." Dumbledore's majestic voice rang out from behind the mist.
The mist doesn't need to turn its head, it will appear directly behind it.
"Albus. Dumbledore? Misty shouted in a tone that was both unwilling and desperate.
Quirrell and Lockhart looked at the mist man in front of them, and they both felt a little familiar, especially Quirrell, he always felt that this person must have seen this person, and even known him for a long time, but he couldn't remember anything, until the tone of the mist calling Dumbledore made him have a flash of inspiration.
"Voldemort?" Quirrell looked at the mist man in front of him in shock.
"Oh? Do you know me? "The Mist Man, also known as Voldemort's face, has changed back.
"How is this possible?" Quirrell looked at Voldemort in disbelief, unable to figure out that Voldemort, who had almost died at Harry's hands, was still in school.
After Quirrell called out Voldemort's name, Lockhart, who was still thinking about where he had seen him, shook his hand and almost broke the spell. He finally remembered where he had seen it.
Tom. Riddle.
He knew Voldemort's original name, and when he first began to 'create', he had learned a lot about the powerful wizards in the wizarding world, and the first on the list was the famous Voldemort.
"Volt, Voldemort?" Lockhart had a tearless expression on his face, if he knew that this time it was against Voldemort, he wouldn't have come with a wand against him, now it's okay, he has directly become Voldemort's enemy, when he thinks about it, he shuddered a little, thinking that he can't stop it now.
"Humph!"
A cold snort interrupted Lockhart's thoughts, and with a wave of his wand, Dumbledore's mist could no longer maintain his human form, and he reverted back to a cloud of mist that was still struggling.
"You're going to regret it.
The wizarding world will be in my hands, and I am immortal........."
With a final roar, the mist was finally sucked up by the Golden Crown.
Lockhart and Quirrell didn't have a smile on their faces, one slumped in their chairs shivering, and the other had a puzzled expression.
"Professor Dumbledore, why Voldemort?" Quirrell asked suspiciously, and Lockhart barely controlled himself from shivering, watching Dumbledore wait for his answer.
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows,
"Knowing some things is not necessarily a good thing."
Lockhart was furious,
"You already knew? Why don't you tell us. β
Dumbledore gave him a faint look.
"Tell you, are you still willing to help Luna?"
"I ......" Lockhart twitched the corners of his mouth as he looked at Luna, who had returned to Sleeping Beauty, and the fear in his heart made him unable to say the word willing.
"But now that you know it and you've become an enemy, it's better to know more than nothing." Lockhart gritted his teeth and replied unwillingly.
Dumbledore looked at Quirrell with the same expression, pondered for a long time before shaking his head and saying.
"Since you really want to know.
It's a Horcrux. β
"Horcruxes?" Lockhart hadn't really heard the word, and looked at Dumbledore a little confused, waiting for him to explain.
"Horcruxes?" Quirrell was different, after all, he was once a scholar and a tyrant, and his tone was full of fear and unimaginability.
Dumbledore nodded, and introduced the Horcruxes.
Lockhart gasped.
"Doesn't that mean he murdered several people? And if he doesn't destroy all the Horcruxes, he won't really die? β
"If the Horcruxes are destroyed too much, he won't be much better, if he doesn't die."
"And how many are these? Ravenclaw's crown was ruined by him. Quirrell looked at the Golden Crown with a faint reluctance, although it would not be destroyed, it was equivalent to being formatted, and from then on there was no longer any connection with Ravenclaw.
"I destroyed one last year, it's a diary."
"Day, diary?" Lockhart swallowed, and suddenly thought of the journal he had picked up last year.
"The diary that can communicate with the person he owns is that he released the basilisk in the secret room."
Lockhart didn't want to speak at this time, and he was wrapped tightly in a thick fear.
"Destroy him quickly." Quirrell didn't know about the journal, and McGoth didn't tell him, thinking that Dumbledore had found and destroyed it himself.
"Follow the method you laid out earlier."
Lockhart and Quirrell were given a moment of relief, and then Dumbledore used a spell to control the Golden Crown, and then Quirrell and Lockhart simultaneously cast an unforgivable spell on the Golden CrownβAvada's Death!
The Golden Crown let out a terrible wail in a violent tremble, and then a puff of black smoke slowly drifted out of the Golden Crown.