Archaeologists at Hogwarts

Chapter 382 Old Tom and Little Tom

381 Old Tom and Little Tom

In this way, Ginny and Luna, who happened to appear on the scene, returned safely to the castle.Although still confused about what happened, after all, even Dumbledore is back, this matter will definitely not be so easy to handle.

On the other side, after appeasing Hagrid, Dumbledore also walked back into the paddock.

Toby was standing opposite Old Tom, imitating the posture of the death steward who did not know when to appear, staring down at Old Tom's lifeless eyes.

At this time, Old Tom was still repeating over and over again——

"He got the knowledge of Horcruxes from me. I don't regret doing so. He has no way to face death at all. Sooner or later, he will have to pay for it."

After Dumbledore came back, Toby thought about it and said, "It seems that we have found out who taught You-Know-Who's Horcruxes. It was his Muggle father. If I'm not mistaken, Hai Erbo must be in the mysterious place. He spent a lot of thought on him, even his parents didn't let it go, they arranged all of this early on, and managed to convey the knowledge about the Horcrux to the mysterious man through Old Tom's mouth."

Dumbledore came to Toby and stopped, his light blue eyes stared at the young face of old Tom - this is the credit of the plant Animagus, old Tom, who was barely alive, came back to life with this body Come here, it's just that my brain is not working well.

"I really didn't expect that." Dumbledore said, "Try to keep him under control, and don't let him come out and scare the students again."

Toby turned his head and looked over and asked, "You're leaving, won't you stay and help?"

"There's nothing to do here for the time being." Dumbledore said calmly, "And, don't you have another helper—Gellert Grindelwald, let's see if he can help you."

"Besides, I don't mind if you tell him about my threat to Slughorn today. I really want to see the expression on his face, but unfortunately he probably won't want to See me."
-
When Toby found Lockhart in the big ship, he was staying in his own cabin, wrapped in a thick leather jacket, warming by the fire, and holding a cup of steaming hot chocolate in his hand.

"You live comfortably." Toby leaned on the door frame and said, deliberately opening the door to let the cold air pour into the room.

"Close the door quickly." Lockhart muttered and moved his body on the sofa chair, making a creaking sound.

He went on to say, "I'm not as relaxed as you think. What kind of magic circle you left for the warriors makes me confused. I don't know what to do to help Krum."

"If it can be solved that easily, it won't be a problem I set up." Toby finally walked in and closed the door, then turned around and said, "Where is Grindelwald, I have something to discuss with him. "

Lockhart looked through the glass, he looked Toby up and down and said: "Your tone seems to be calling for a servant, that's Grindelwald. But don't worry, I will help you keep it secret, as long as you don't wait a while Just let me go outside to collect firewood, I don't want to go out in this weather at all."

"up to you."

Toby said indifferently, he came to the wall where he saw Grindelwald last time, and tried to tap twice with his fingers.

Maybe it's because this method really works, or maybe it's just that Grindelwald has been watching him since he entered the room-in short, within a few seconds, the familiar face appeared on the wall.

The place where Grindelwald is seems to be very windy, and there are waves of ripples on his face.

Before he could speak, Toby said first: "You guessed wrong, from the very beginning. Instead of becoming more conservative, Dumbledore was more radical than we imagined. Just now he threatened a An old friend who has been with you for a long time. Do you have anything to say about this?"

Still before Grindelwald could speak, Lockhart began to mutter instead: "Doesn't this sound normal? You have done this to Snape before, and Dumbledore is your teacher again. Either you learn He, or he learned it from you-it is estimated that the former is more likely."

Toby opened the door silently, and Lockhart, who was curled up on the sofa chair, jumped up and closed the door. He showed a friendly smile and gleaming teeth and said, "No, I'm just kidding, don't Really kicked me out."

Fortunately, Grindelwald rescued Lockhart in time.

"This is indeed a bit beyond my expectations."

He kept his eyes on Toby when he said this.

"Why?" Toby frowned and asked, "Could it be me who influenced him?"

Grindelwald smiled and said: "You seem to have forgotten one thing, it was you who attracted Dumbledore's devil, not me - since you clearly know that Ariana is the key, so is her devil. Very It may be because of this reason that Dumbledore can see himself more clearly, or it may lead him to another wrong path-if it is the latter, then our situation will be even more difficult."

Toby didn't forget this, but Dumbledore hadn't summoned the devil for a long time, so let him ignore this clue.

However, after listening to Grindelwald's words, he immediately retorted: "It's not us, it's just you. I can change back to that obedient student anytime, anywhere, but you are different, you have no chance to do it again .”

"It sounds so sad." Grindelwald said, but his tone was completely different from the meaning of this sentence, and even seemed a little relaxed.

At this moment, Toby suddenly asked: "So who is the warrior you have chosen? Harry? Or Cedric?"

Facing Toby's sudden attack, Grindelwald's answer was still calm.

"No, I didn't get involved in this matter."

"Of course you would say that." Toby sneered, "Even if I asked Dumbledore this question, he would probably only give the same answer."

"Dumbledore?" Lockhart couldn't help being surprised: "Didn't he have to discuss it with you before making such a decision? Are you even suspicious of him?"

Toby looked at Lockhart, and there seemed to be a lot of pressure in his gaze - at least Lockhart thought so, he really hoped he hadn't said much.

But Toby replied uncharacteristically: "He is the best at hiding secrets. I think this is his most powerful talent, much stronger than any magic."

"I think so too." Grindelwald replied with a smile: "Tell me, what else do you want to talk to me about? It's impossible to just come here in disguise to mock me."

"Of course not all of them."

Toby stared at the wooden face on the wall and asked, "Have you found the mysterious man?"

"Not yet. You should be able to tell that I'm busy with this matter. By the way, the wind at sea is really strong. It is estimated that there will be a tsunami in the near future."

"Come on, don't think that using this kind of rhetoric can lead me to the bait. Who knows where you are hiding now, at least the students you left on this boat must not know."

"It's good that you know." Lockhart breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this sentence, he was finally free from the torture of worrying day and night.

Immediately afterwards, Toby changed the question again.

"Do you know Death Castle?"

It seems that this time he got an idea, not only Grindelwald, but even Lockhart's expression changed a lot.

Under Grindelwald's gesture, Lockhart began to say in a tone that would not be annoying as much as possible: "Death Castle. Well, I have been there once. Don't look at me like that, you should have known that I was I followed you a long time ago, and secretly learned a lot about magic circles, of course, Death Castle is no exception."

"Besides, you may not believe it. I went to Death Castle earlier than you. I already knew about this castle when you were still inquiring about it. It's a pity that I didn't dare to go too far. Breaking in too far, even giving up on putting my name in the hall roster made me feel bad, very bad."

Toby looked at them sarcastically: "So you came up with an idea, let me go in to die first, and then make plans, right?"

"You can't say that. Well, that's what it means." Perhaps because Grindelwald was emboldening himself, Lockhart simply let go of his worries and said: "But there is no way, to be honest, At that time, I wanted to stop you indirectly, didn't you see the death steward? I've never seen such a weird thing, and no one would want to encounter it—what I said is true."

"It seems that I still have to thank you?" Toby still had a sarcastic tone.

At this time, Grindelwald opened his mouth to ease the atmosphere and said: "Did you ask why the Castle of Death is the reason? This seems to be your real concern, but it doesn't matter if you don't want to say it. What we can tell you is ——In addition to the roster, Gilderoy also made other discoveries, that is, the relationship between the black feather and the residents in the castle. You should also be able to guess that it is related to the soul, which is very rare."

soul?

Toby frowned suddenly.

What if the way the death steward communicates with old Tom is also the soul?
After all, from the look of old Tom, you can tell that the corners of his mouth are so awkward that ordinary people can't communicate with him at all.

Lockhart saw that Toby seemed to understand something, and then turned and left the cabin without even closing the door.

"It's really rude." He muttered in a low voice, and reluctantly walked over to close the door tightly.After he turned his head, he found that Grindelwald's face on the wall was also gone.

"The professor should be busy with something, well, that should be it."

He found a reason to comfort himself for Grindelwald's leaving without saying goodbye.
-
soul.

Toby was still thinking about the key information that Grindelwald reminded him of this point. He walked all the way in the direction of the ancient magic office. On the way, he saw Durmstrang's students swimming in winter. What a group of crazy lads.

After returning to the castle, Toby ignored the students in the corridor, but everyone could see that Professor Haimer was in a hurry, so he approached both sides of the corridor one by one, not daring to disturb him.

Al and Angela were back in the office, they hadn't shown up before—especially when meeting Dumbledore, Angela always didn't like him, thinking he was Toby's worst enemy.

"Where is the mysterious man's Horcrux?"

As soon as Toby walked in, he asked Al, "How much is there?"

So far, they have found many of Voldemort's Horcruxes - the diary that was completely destroyed in the Mason Gate, Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's gold cup, Ravenclaw's diadem, and The ring of the Gaunt family that was just found not long ago—it was worn by old Tom on his finger, but it completely lost its function as a Horcrux. The broken soul that was originally hidden in it has long since disappeared.

Dumbledore speculated that it was because of the way Haier Bo used the Horcrux and the black feathers in Death Castle that Voldemort's father, Old Tom, was resurrected.

In addition, there is one of the most special horcruxes——Harry Potter, he is the only remaining horcrux in Hai Erbo, and he is also the only living person.

Toby kept sweeping his eyes over the three objects in front of him—the gold cup, the locket, and the diadem.

These are the only remaining functioning Horcruxes, and they are all relics of the founder of Hogwarts.

"I really can't bear it."

Toby's gaze skipped over the locket, and after careful consideration, he glanced at Lady Hufflepuff's gold cup, and finally focused on Ravenclaw's diadem.

"I'll choose you."

Apart from Slytherin's locket, the remaining two relics were no different to Toby.The only difference is that Ms. Ravenclaw's crown also contains her own will, which may be more helpful for the next experiment.

He picked up the crown under Al's eyes, and if Angela hadn't stopped him, Al would have been so distressed that he would have snatched it back.

"I'll be back in a minute."

Toby said last to them.
-
Deep under the castle, Slytherin's chamber of secrets.

Old Tom returned here again, and in his blank vision, Toby Highmore appeared from the dark end of the passage, gradually revealing a more complete figure.

"Since I can use the black feather to sense the existence of the death steward, so that it does not dare to show up in the castle, then it should not take you away for no reason."

"You want to kill the mysterious man, right? Apart from this, what else would make you willing to follow him away?"

"Hope I'm not mistaken."

Toby took out the crown, and surrounded by armor, he put the crown on Old Tom's head with his own hands.

It wasn't until this time that Old Tom started to move. He pressed his palm on the top of his head, and his fingers brushed the lines on the surface of the crown little by little.

In the next second, he suddenly disappeared, showing the abilities that a plant Animagus should have.

"Sure enough, it's a soul." Toby raised his eyebrows and said, looking at the empty venue, he muttered to himself: "Is this the ability that the death steward bestows on you? What is its purpose?"

"How could you use this body so proficiently? Is it because you have seen magic before? From Merope, what have you learned?"

"In short"

He conjured up a chair and slowly sat on it, silently waiting for Old Tom's return.

"I hope you can bring back good news. It would be even better if the threat of the mysterious man is resolved by the way."

(End of this chapter)