A broken Hogwarts

Chapter 119 Closing
In the principal's office, Dumbledore watched the two young wizards disappear behind the door with deep eyes, and suddenly sighed deeply.

His always energetic expression turned vicissitudes and tiredness in a blink of an eye, and he really looked like an old man.

He slowly opened the drawer under the desk, and took out an ugly gold ring with rough workmanship, inlaid with a black gemstone that had been cracked by the flames.He touched the triangular eye-like pattern engraved on the gem with emotion, and suddenly said softly: "How long do I have, Severus?"

Snape lifted the curtain behind him and came out, still holding a bottle of golden potion in his hand.He frowned and said: "About half a year, it's hard to estimate the time accurately. Although the curse has been curbed well, it has been eroding your magic power and gradually growing, making you weaker and weaker. In an instant, it was strengthened to the point of irreversibility."

"Half a year..." Dumbledore sighed, and put the ring back in his hand, "Only at this time, people will realize that they have so many things that they haven't done yet."

"Have you finally realized what a stupid thing you've done? I thought you didn't care about death at all." Snape said sarcastically, "If you stopped running around and squandering magic like this year, you might still live longer."

"Yeah, yeah, I thought I could arrange everything properly, and then die calmly." Dumbledore's expression became a little fragile for the first time, and his bright blue eyes dimmed, as if blindfolded. There was a gray mist. "However, I find that I may have committed an unforgivable mistake, a terrible oversight..."

Hearing this, Snape stared at him closely, and said calmly and gloomyly, "Why do you say that? The Dark Lord didn't get the Philosopher's Stone."

"Yes, Voldemort didn't get the Sorcerer's Stone..." Dumbledore repeated, his expression becoming more tired, "After that night, he fled back to the Black Forest in Albania, except that the Sorcerer's Stone was really stolen. Apart from leaving, nothing seems to go beyond my plan..."

"You mean, the Aether Society?" Snape frowned deeply. "How on earth did they manage to break through your protection and steal the Sorcerer's Stone? And I couldn't even steal the Philosopher's Stone at Hogwarts." Find traces of their infiltration."

"Nobody knows exactly what happened that night, Severus. You know, I had to deal with the International Confederation of Wizards far away that day, though I found myself having to rush back to Hogwarts all day long. Ci, but by then it was too late."

"I'm more inclined that they replaced it quietly after Harry got the Philosopher's Stone, although Harry assured me that the Philosopher's Stone he got in the Mirror of Erised was the same one, and there was nothing unusual after that Situation... but it is indeed the most manipulative stage."

"However, the theft of the Philosopher's Stone is not too important. The wealth and eternal life it represents may be very important to some people, but it is actually worthless to us." Dumbledore closed his eyes, his brows darkened. Deep wrinkled, "What I want to say is, Owen Shafik, have you noticed any changes in this child?"

Snape narrowed his eyes, the black pupils blank and indifferent.He said slowly, "I don't know."

"Yeah, it's hard to say clearly, even I can't see it." Dumbledore said, "I paid attention to this child when I first started school. He is more mature than children of this age, or a little too mature He's not a bad boy, but he's not bad at heart, he's bright and clear-headed, maybe it's not a bad thing to have such a kid by Harry's side..."

"But when I finally had time to get up close and personal with Harry's friends, I belatedly realized that the kid had changed and I couldn't see his heart. You know, At my age, even if you don't use magic means, it's hard for someone to hide their thoughts in front of me. But for this child, I can only say that I can't see clearly."

"Maybe he just learned Occlumency, which is not uncommon in wizarding families with a long tradition." Snape said in a low voice, "I don't know what you are suspicious of, Dumbledore? Or, are you aware of it?" What?"

"No, it's just intuition. Unfortunately, my intuition has always been accurate, although this time I hope that I have made a mistake." Dumbledore said with some difficulty, "The last time I felt this way was when I was a teenager. Voldemort, when he learned to disguise himself in front of everyone. Do you know? Now they are almost carved out of the same mold. It seems that the appearance I see is false, and what is hidden inside is not what……"

"I realize that I may have made a terrible mistake, an unforgivable mistake... I've been busy all year getting everything out there, and neglecting things close at hand..." Dumbledore He said in an erratic tone, "That night, Voldemort fled back to Albania, which means that Quirrell should be dead. But how did Voldemort know in time that he had to go back?"

"I'm too arrogant, Severus, I think I can control everything. I always thought that Quirrell was lurking in Hogwarts by Voldemort's remote control. I believe you can watch him enough, and Harry can also grow ...but then it dawned on me, what if Voldemort was at Hogwarts this year? What if he had been with Quirrell all along?" Dumbledore said very slowly, "You said that more than once you ran into Pass Owen Shafik to Quirrell's office..."

"Can I think that you carelessly put a child under the Dark Lord's nose for a whole year?" Snape stared at Dumbledore with a strange and gloomy expression.

"I don't know, Severus, I don't know..." Dumbledore shook his head, his silvery-white beard trembling tremblingly, "It may also be the Aether Society, you know, the child is facing the Aether Society Sometimes you do something out of the ordinary.”

"People from the Aether Society don't dare to touch Harry, it will hurt them. But we all know that Harry doesn't have that special talent, the only possibility is the protective spell that Lily left him..."

Snape shook his head violently, as if trying to shake something terrible out of his brain.

Dumbledore just continued: "Being burned by that kind of beautiful mark means that they are probably stepping into the most terrifying and dark taboo field of magic. I should have thought that if they set their sights on Harry , then the people around Harry will also become their best targets..."

"I don't know what that child has gone through, but I think, I'm afraid something has changed." He closed his eyes in pain, "Because of my arrogance, I may have indirectly ruined a child's future, Even his soul."

"It's just your guess..." Snape said slowly.

"Yeah, it's just a guess." Dumbledore squeezed out a smile, "So, I think I need more time to see everything clearly. I hope I can save him in time, and I hope I can save him in time."

"Severus, help me pay more attention to him, will you? You see, the kid is not very close to me." He pleaded, "I heard you have a good relationship with his father."

Snape looked blankly at the phoenix perched on the golden perch, nodded slightly, and strode towards the office door.Before going out, he suddenly said: "You deliberately revealed the news that the Dark Lord is in Albania, you are testing him."

Dumbledore didn't speak, just closed his eyes, as if falling into a deep sleep.

……

At the year-end banquet, all the teachers and students of the school gathered together.The Great Hall was decked out in green and silver early on to celebrate Slytherin House winning the House Cup for the seventh year in a row.

There was also a huge banner with a drawing of a Slytherin snake on the wall behind the guest chair. The professors were mostly smiling, and even Professor Snape seemed less gloomy than he used to be.

Dumbledore stood up and announced the scores of the colleges. Nothing unexpected happened. The night when the Philosopher's Stone was stolen was a secret shared by everyone.

With bursts of thunderous cheers and applause erupting around the long Slytherin table, the Academy Cup awards ceremony came to an end.All the young Slytherin wizards were smiling, enjoying the polite applause from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff houses, and proudly cast provocative glances at the lifeless Gryffindor table. .

"We also won this year's Quidditch Cup, there is no suspense at all." Draco said in an understated tone, but his expression was uncontrollably beaming, "We will be able to participate in the selection of Quidditch players next year, haha Li, I won't let the water go, the position of the Seeker must be mine!"

"Then see you on the field." Harry grinned not to be outdone.The two looked at each other and smiled.

Owen scrambled to cope with what Blaise was babbling in his ears, and enjoyed a much larger than usual dinner amidst the excitement of the crowd.Melet rolled in his arms, tasted the food on the table one by one, and then ate the grilled fish intently, eating with elegance and restraint exactly like Owen.

Owen picked up a snow-white napkin and carefully wiped the corners of his mouth, then stroked it lightly with one hand, and a bouquet of white roses appeared in his hand, which he inserted into the goblet on the table.

Daphne reached out and pinched the white rose from the side, put it on the tip of her nose and smelled it, and said with a smile: "Ah, did you just pick it?"

"Yes, I found a large bush of roses on the edge of the Forbidden Forest." Owen chuckled.

"That's great." Daphne put the flowers back into the wine glass with a smile.

The celebratory banquet lasted until very late, and everyone went back to rest and enjoy the leisure time without classes for a few days.

The test results were released the day before the little wizards left school.Unsurprisingly, Owen got the first place in the whole grade, and Hermione could only come in second. The little witch who refused to admit defeat continued to indulge in her studies, as if she wanted to let herself take root in the library.

Almost all the members of the study group passed the exam with high marks, although Neville's Potions was of course dragged down because Professor Snape was hanging around him during the exam, which made him unpredictably out of order .Crabbe and Goyle barely passed the exam, and Draco offered a rare consolation: "At least you've proven that you're a bit smarter than the troll."

When Professor Snape was handing out transcripts to everyone, Harry finally mustered up the courage and extended his right hand to him.

He said in a sincere tone: "Professor Snape, thank you for your teaching this year, I hope I have lived up to your expectations..."

Snape looked down at Harry's palm, then stared at those beautiful emerald green eyes, his gloomy expression with distaste eased slightly, and finally he slowly raised his hand to shake Harry's hand.

Harry was stunned, and looked at him with some surprise, as if he didn't expect this attempt to be so simple and successful.Now it seems that the dean really doesn't seem to be a member of the Ethereum Society...

His face flushed red all of a sudden, and he suddenly wanted to get in through the cracks in the ground.He murmured, "I'm sorry, Professor, I mean, I'm sorry for causing you trouble this year..." He didn't know what to say.

Snape was silent for a long time, and then said in a low tone: "I see, Harry... Potter."

He coldly glanced at a group of young wizards who were watching the show, his gaze stayed on Owen's innocent face for a while, and he casually threw the report card that had not been distributed to Draco, turned around and strode left.

"Good job, Harry." Blaise gave Harry a thumbs up.

"Stop talking!" Harry buried his face like an ostrich.What has he done to the dean in the past few months, the human design has collapsed, okay...

A group of people laughed happily, and there was a happy air around them.

……

Before leaving school, Owen finally finished sorting out the black box he brought back from Quirrell. There were too many things in this box that was snatched from the black market.

Among them were quite a few potions and potion ingredients that were prohibited from being sold by the Ministry of Magic, and perhaps many of them came from Shafik's potion shop on the black market.In addition, there are some alchemy items, black magic books, coins and so on.After transferring those books and some materials into his suitcase, Owen temporarily continued to store other things in the base of the Room of Requirement for later use when needed.

He walked out of the Room of Requirement slowly, and stopped a few meters away along the corridor.He intends to take away the crown hidden here, and holding the Horcrux in his hands is also a bargaining chip, so as to avoid long nights and dreams.

Before he could open the door of the Room of Requirement again, Owen heard two muffled voices getting closer:

"...There are a lot of things in that room, and they can be sold for a good price!"

"Excellent, otherwise I think we'd just have to play with Peeves' chalkheads."

Owen stopped in place, turned his head to look in the direction of the sound, and saw the Weasley twin brothers walking quickly, and the two were talking happily.

"Uh, why are you here..." After seeing Owen, the brothers smiled mischievously.They ruined the funds invested by Owen, and they were still a little guilty when they faced the unsuspecting funder's father again.

"Passing by." Owen said with a smile.

"What a coincidence, we were passing by too." The twins said in unison.

"So, you go first?" Owen moved away.

"Let's go first, we think it's better to stand here for a while, the scenery here is nice, right?" The brothers said nonchalantly.

Owen raised his eyebrows, remembering that he also ran into them once nearby, he said slowly: "Your purpose is here?"

"You know?" The twins looked at each other, and then showed expressions that said nothing.

"How did you find out here?" Owen tilted his head, feeling a little curious.

"Of course it's the fax machine that suddenly disappeared." The brothers smiled at each other. "It tells us how to get money quickly and legally at Hogwarts. Here it is, a hiding room! I can't believe it , We didn’t discover this secret room before!”

"Don't tell me you're selling the stuff in it." Owen twitched his eyebrows, and instantly recalled that there was indeed this problem in the mantra fax machine.However, the content of the two people's conversation just now gave him a bad feeling.

"Ah, it's just a little bit." Fred twitched his little fingers. "You know, there aren't many things that can be sold for money."

"Are you so short of money?" Owen raised his hand and rubbed the center of his brows, "Isn't my investment enough?"

"It was enough, but..." George shrugged, and said in a broken jar, "All the joke products we made were confiscated by Professor McGonagall, and there is nothing left."

Not only that, they wanted to steal those things back, but they were caught, and they were locked up until the end of the semester, and those things would never come back—according to Professor McGonagall, she originally planned to Returning them at the end of the term, if the two hadn't had the audacity to sneak into her office.

"So, I want to know if you have sold a crown?" Owen looked at the expressions of the two carefully.

"The crown?" Fred raised his eyebrows. "It depends on which one it is. We just sold an old one a few days ago, probably a replica of the Ravenclaw crown..."

Owen took a deep breath, Ravenclaw's crown, Voldemort's Horcrux, was sold... sold...

"May I know who you sold to?" he asked.

"Well, we don't sell buyers' information."

"But we haven't signed a non-disclosure agreement, so... we have to pay more!"

The two brothers sang and said in unison.

"Well, you guys have tried wearing it, haven't you?" Owen said seemingly inadvertently.It was a Horcrux created by Voldemort in his peak period. Who knows what terrible curses or means of controlling people are on it. If the two of them wear it, Owen can only ask for blessings.

"Who would wear something that looks like a woman's?" Fred laughed. "George, you didn't wear it secretly, did you?"

"Of course not, but I thought you would be very interested." George also said with a smile.

Owen watched the two teasing and joking with each other with a strange expression, and suddenly the corners of his mouth curled up in amusement, his dark eyes became bottomless.He asked softly, "Then why do you think that crown is fake?"

"You don't think Ravenclaw's diadem will be hidden in this kind of place, do you? It's tattered, and it hasn't been taken away for so many years." Fred spread his hands.

"But I recently received reliable information that the crown hidden here is real, and that's why I came here." Owen sighed softly, "Ravenclaw's crown, that is a priceless treasure."

"What you said...is it true?" The twins' expressions froze.

George jumped up suddenly: "I'm going to kill Percy!"

Fred yelled, too: "Twenty Sickles! Penelope Clearwater bought the Ravenclaw diadem for only twenty Sickles? That bastard Percy kept helping She undercuts the price!"

"Hopefully it's back. You know, Clearwater said the diadem was gone that night!"

"I don't believe a word of it! That cunning Ravenclaw!"

The brothers didn't bother to enter the Room of Requirement, and ran straight to the Gryffindor common room.

"If you get the crown back, please consider selling it to me first." Owen shouted from a distance.

Looking at the backs of the two going away, he narrowed his eyes slowly, and said softly to himself: "Oh, it's interesting."

"It seems that the next days will not be too boring." Owen glanced at the wall of the Room of Requirement, turned and left.

……

In the morning, the little wizards left Hogwarts in the warm sunshine and took the train home.

Owen sat quietly in the box by the window, resting his chin on one hand and watching the scene passing by outside the window.The bright sunlight poured into the carriage, casting half light on his handsome face.

"Harry, I suggest you use your incisor stick to deal with your cousin..." Draco enthusiastically advised Harry to use a few curses on his aunt's family during the summer vacation. people.

"You forgot, we can't use magic during the holidays," said Harleyson nonchalantly.Although he really wanted to do it.

"Oh, I didn't notice that." Draco said slowly, "I could ask my dad to find some people to help you, he'd be more than happy to..."

"Don't, I'll have a good time," Harry said hastily. "You know, they don't know I can't use magic..."

Owen suddenly turned his head to look at him: "By the way, you didn't catch that mouse named Scabbers?"

"Uh, I went to Ron Weasley, but... he takes that mouse very seriously, and he's wary of me..." Harry grinned.There were so many things that happened later, he unconsciously put this matter, which became more and more unreliable, behind him.

"I don't seem to have told you that if you delay for one more day, your family will suffer for one more day..." Owen said slowly.

"Really?" Harry stood up suddenly and walked away, "I'm going to find Weasley!"

"What's the use of looking for him now? You can't see Dumbledore now, looking for a chance to let that mouse go away?" Owen yawned, lazily stroking Melet's soft hair.

Only then did Harry calm down, he sat back to his original position, and said with a frown, "Then we can only wait until after school starts." Come here, this distracted his attention.

A group of people savored the pile of sweets and treats that Harry and Draco had bought, until the train entered platform nine and three-quarters with a whooping whistle.Owen walked out of the platform with the crowd, and saw Mr. Albert at a glance.

"I want to know, Owen, where is the surprise you prepared for me?" Mr. Albert Shafik stood out in a dark black robe, not paying attention to the attention of the passing Muggles Li, waved to Owen.

"It's not time yet, Dad." Owen laughed.

"I'm looking forward to it." Albert looked him up and down, and suddenly frowned, "Don't tell me that Hogwarts has no money to feed you, your complexion doesn't look very good..." said Then, he was about to reach out and pinch Owen's face.

"I'm very healthy, Dad." Owen reluctantly avoided his father's palm, but his mood was very relaxed.

At this time, Draco's drawn-out voice came from the side: "Muggles, I warn you, go back and treat Harry better. If I hear you treat him harshly again, I will turn you all into pigs! "

Harry tugged at Draco's robe helplessly, and Harry's uncle, aunt, and cousin stood opposite him, all three of them had expressions of panic and annoyance intertwined on their faces.

"It's not your turn to meddle in our family's business, you little brat!" Vernon Dursley yelled at him angrily, his big face turning purple, waving his arm wildly as if chasing flies away road.

"I'm Harry's friend, and that's my business." Draco raised his chin arrogantly, looking at them like three slugs rolling in the mud, "Do you want to do something?" ? Dad, there are Muggles trying to beat me!"

Mr. Lucius Malfoy walked slowly with a cane in his hand, with the same expression on his face as Draco said: "What are you going to do to my son, Muggle?"

"We have to go, hurry up, kid!" Vernon Dursley didn't dare to say harsh words, he pulled Harry's clothes sincerely, turned around and left.

"What Draco means is what I mean, and I don't mind sinking you into the Thames, actually," Mr. Malfoy threatened.

"Or hanging on the Tower of London would be nice." Mr. Albert also interjected, watching them run away in desperation with a playful expression.Well, even Harry looked dingy.

Owen glanced at his father, why are you joining in the fun?
Mr. Albert blinked at Owen, and the two nodded politely to the Malfoys, then walked out of the slightly crowded station and set foot on their way home.

(End of this chapter)