days at Hogwarts

Chapter 733: Nutrients for Weeds

The road sign was cut into the shape of an arrow. The paint on it had faded, and the remaining words were barely recognizable, pointing in two different directions:
"Great Hangleton, 5 miles ahead"

"Little Hangleton, 1 mile ahead"

Harry looked back at the shrinking sign, then looked around at the hedges, feeling a little lost. He had seen this before, in the Pensieve, in the memories of young Bob Ogden, about fifty years ago.

Go along the path leading to Little Hangleton, turn right before entering the village, and go into an inconspicuous fork in the road. In front of you is an even narrower and steeper dirt road, mixed with wildly grown weeds and shrubs, and covered with rocks and potholes. The previous footprints have disappeared.

The road under my feet was rugged and difficult to walk on, but fortunately it was not raining, so there was no stubborn mud sticking to the soles of my shoes. I walked into the woods along the dirt road, and my vision suddenly became dark. Dense and lush branches blocked the sky, and on the ground were tangled tree roots, as tangled as pythons.

Loren led everyone into the woods with a nostalgic expression on his face.

Some of them couldn't remember the way, otherwise I could just Apparate them there and there wouldn't be such a difficult journey.

So the question is, why didn't Dumbledore use Apparition when he brought him here last time?

Oh, he is not familiar with the road either, that’s okay.

As a residence for wizards who want to hide their identities, the Gaunt mansion is very well located. It is next to the Muggle village of Little Hangleton, so they can rely on the Muggle village to obtain necessary supplies. It is also far away from human habitation and the terrain is complex and confusing. If trouble comes, even if all the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic are dispatched, the wizards of the Gaunt family can easily blend into the woods and deal with them by relying on their familiarity with the terrain and Parseltongue.

It's a shame that such an ancient and powerful wizarding family, the direct descendants of Slytherin, were actually destroyed from within.

The pride and arrogance of pure-blood families led to long-term inbreeding. By the time of Marvolo Gaunt's generation, his personality had been distorted to the point of being insane. He instilled abnormal ideas into his son Morfin and suppressed and abused his daughter Merope... Marvolo could never have foreseen the fate of the Gaunt family. His daughter, who had a distorted personality, gave birth to a monster with a distorted personality but extraordinary talent, and he buried the last bloodline of the Gaunt family with his own hands.

The whole process fully confirms the saying that the precursor to destruction is madness.

As I walked past an old tree whose age was unknown, the air suddenly became a little more eerie. The surroundings were quiet and cold, without any sound of birds, but there were slight rustling sounds coming from the weeds and treetops.

"Hiss..."

I turned my head suddenly to look at the source of the sound, and saw snakes of various sizes. They were not afraid of people at all, and they looked at them with their tongues spitting out.

Continuing forward, a dilapidated and strange old house came into view.

Dense nettles grew around the house. The cold and humid air caused moss to spread along the walls. Wild grass poked out from the cracks in the stone walls, and parasitic vines grew wildly. Half of the door had collapsed, and the remaining half was slightly open, with a strange snake-shaped metal ornament on it.

"..."

Ron swallowed, his face full of resistance.

The two ladies were in a relatively stable mental state, but they felt a little uneasy and had goose bumps on their arms.

"Gaunt's old house, a place where Felix thought we should come and see."

Loren said softly, stepping on the remains of the venomous snake and fallen leaves and entering the house.

Several houses have collapsed. Some of them could not hold up due to years of disrepair, and some were collapsed by Loren last time. The old principal who led the way had no sense of public morality. He took other people's things and did not think about repairing them before leaving.

Snake skeletons with corroded flesh hanging from their bodies were everywhere, the old stove was full of cracks, the shelves on the wall were broken, and dirty pots and pans were scattered all over the floor. The broken walls were in a mess, and it was impossible to tell which was the kitchen, which was the bedroom, and which was the living room...

"Is there anything Voldemort left here?" Loren turned to look at Harry.

I had searched it last time. Apart from the Horcrux ring I took away, there were only some ordinary things here. Occasionally, some items still had some weak magic power, but they were basically of no research value, such as the door lock of the main door. "I don't know..."

Harry touched his forehead, but this time the scar did not react. He closed his eyes and quietly felt the guidance of the Felicis Felix. After a moment, he opened his eyes, walked to the wall, bent down, dug through the miscellaneous things, and took out a tattered jar.

"Is there anything special about this thing?" Ron came forward curiously.

Harry looked at the shape of the jar and felt vaguely familiar with it. Recalling the scene he saw in the Pensieve, he explained in a trance, "Nothing special, just an ordinary jar. Merope Gaunt accidentally broke it and was severely scolded by Marvolo Gaunt."

"Voldemort's mother..."

Ron exclaimed.

Loren looked around and said to him, "Everything here belongs to the Gaunt family. Not only was it used by Voldemort's mother, but also by Voldemort's uncle and grandfather. If you are interested, you can collect a few pieces. You may be able to sell them for a high price."

"..."

Ron was silent for a moment, then glanced at him and said, "There are a lot of pottery like this in my family, some of which are handed down from our ancestors. Maybe some of them were used by a legendary wizard. If I could sell them, I would have sold them long ago."

"They are certainly not as famous as Voldemort."

"No matter how famous you are, you are still tattered!"

I didn't fall for it.

Others couldn't help but smile.

Harry didn't know what the clay jar was used for. After all, the Felicis Flourishing Elixir was not a magic mirror and could not answer all questions. He just found this thing based on his intuition, put it into the storage scales, and waited for the right time to play the right role.

When they left, they did not take the detour again, but Apparated collectively. The next place was not far from here, just on the back mountain of Little Hangleton.

Unknown weeds grew in the wilderness cemetery. Not far away was an abandoned church. The remains of stone sculptures were scattered everywhere and sunk into the mud. A yew tree of unknown age was particularly thick and stood there alone, like a tall tombstone.

Standing here, you can see the outline of Riddle House and Tom Riddle's grave, which seems to be surrounded by some unknown and solemn atmosphere.

Not far away was the site of the resurrection ceremony. There were dark traces of firewood on the ground and the surrounding grass was particularly lush.

"Voldemort was resurrected here." Harry squatted down, picked up a branch and turned the grass. "The pain of the scar was very slight this time. My intuition told me that I knew what I was looking for was under these grass roots."

"These weeds are more lush than other places. Are they irrigated by the potion from the resurrection ceremony?" Hermione turned to look at Loren and asked puzzledly.

"It is nourished by flesh and blood. Mr. Crouch's flesh and blood."

Loren paused and lowered his voice. "When Voldemort left the body he was parasitizing, Crouch died and his body fell here. The Ministry of Magic staff collected his body the next day, and some of his flesh and blood remained here."

As he finished speaking, Harry had already turned over the shallow layer of soil, and a faint stench of rotting limbs filled the air, intermittent.

Looking down, the soil near the grass roots was a little black.

(End of this chapter)