Falsifying history is good business

Lin You knew very well that the friend Dumbledore was referring to was the retired old professor who was a senior snob and regarded education as an investment opportunity for his network, and the former Slytherin Headmaster Horace Slughorn, who was known for his vanity.

He asked deliberately: "An old friend who knows Voldemort's secret? He is not a Death Eater, right?"

Dumbledore shook his head: "Horace? Of course not. Horace is not a bad person. He was the Potions Professor at Hogwarts in his early years. When he was in school, Tom was his most admired student."

Lin You teased, "It seems that Tom Riddle is not ignorant of respecting teachers. Although the secret was known by his teacher, he was able to bear it and not kill to silence him. Comparing the two, you are also Tom's teacher, but his attitude towards you is obviously much worse. Do you think this is your problem? Did you fail as a good teacher?"

"I really did do a terrible job." Dumbledore's sigh was much more sincere than Lin You's ridicule.

"However, what you said about Horace being a good man is not entirely true, right? He clearly knew Voldemort's secret, but he kept it secret for so many years. Objectively speaking, he was helping Voldemort keep it secret. If you had known the secret of Voldemort's Horcrux earlier, you wouldn't have had to take so many detours for so many years."

Dumbledore had a different view: "To err is human. I am not saying that we should be tolerant without principles, but different situations should be treated differently."

"Are you sure you can make him talk? He has kept silent for more than ten years since the fall of Voldemort." Lin You thought of the original plot and felt that Dumbledore was not sure. Now he could only take one step at a time.

Dumbledore did not deny this: "Horace is my old friend, and the stubbornness common in old people is also obvious in him; but I will find a way, he is not without weaknesses."

"In fact, there is no need for any complicated methods. Just find the person and bring him to me. I will use 'Legendary Mind' on him and everything will be solved." Lin You gave a bad idea.

"Horace is not that easy to deal with. Legilimency has no use on him."

Lin You smiled strangely: "Of course, ordinary Legilimency is useless, but the Forrest family's Legilimency will definitely work. Don't forget, we are very close to the source of magic - both white magic and black magic."

"No, no, no, I think we should try my method first." Dumbledore waved his hands repeatedly. He knew too well the weirdness of the Forrester family. Although successive Earls of Goff were all decent, no one would believe that they had never learned any evil magic.

Anyone who can make friends with the devil will certainly not be so rigid in his moral standards.

"Okay, you go and try first; however, my patience is also gradually running out." Lin You's words were half true and half false, "Voldemort has caused more and more turmoil, not only in the wizarding world, but also in the Muggles. There are many reasons that restrict my hands and feet, and this feeling is not good."

If "the riot caused by Voldemort" is replaced with "the riot in the Harry Potter story world", Lin You's words would be 100% true.

However, Dumbledore couldn't tell the difference or the truth. The old wizard nodded, also exhausted: "I will get Horace to tell the truth as soon as possible."

"If he refuses to tell the truth, we will show him all the Horcruxes we have found, including Harry's living Horcrux. Oh, and the story of Regulus. We need to let him know how much trouble we have encountered and how many unnecessary sacrifices we have made because of the Horcruxes. If Horace cannot be made to speak in the face of so many facts, then it means that he is not the good man you say he is."

Hearing his brother's name being mentioned, Sirius's anger was almost instantly ignited: "Dumbledore, take me with you, I want to ask the old walrus in person; I want to look into his eyes and make him tell the truth."

Dumbledore quickly tried to comfort him: "Horace is also your professor, Sirius; calm down."

Lupin also advised: "Professor Slughorn is not a bad person. Remember, he liked Lily, James, and you very much when he was in school. He also invited you to join his club."

"Huh, he does like Lily, but you say he likes me?" Sirius sneered, "Yeah, he didn't hate me when I first entered the school, and he always talked about the Black family. But after I fell out with my family, he wished he had never known me."

Even good people like Dumbledore and Lupin were embarrassed to defend their old colleague and teacher.

"I'm going to ask that old walrus myself, if...if he is really responsible for Regulus' death...Hmph!" Sirius gritted his teeth.

Before Dumbledore could figure out how to appease and reject Sirius, he heard Lin You adding fuel to the fire: "You're right; it's only natural to seek justice for our deceased relatives!"

These words blocked all the old wizard's excuses.

Dumbledore had a splitting headache and was glad that Earl Goff didn't need to go to Hogwarts, otherwise... he would have been eleven years old last school year.

"We can't go there directly. Let's go back first and take Harry with us. Seeing him might remind Horace of Lily." The old wizard's headache only lasted for a moment. When he realized that it was not easy to refuse Sirius, he immediately began to think about how to turn a bad thing into a good thing.

Regulus was a victim, and so was Lily. Since Sirius wanted to question Horace from the moral high ground in the name of "the victim's family", he might as well raise this "high ground" a few points higher.

"I wish you all the best, Professor." Lin You was not good at interfering in such matters. At the same time, he did not forget to give a reminder, "Be careful. In hindsight, the reason why Voldemort attacked Sirius might be related to Regulus. He had already suspected Regulus, so he wanted to get the whereabouts of the locket from Sirius, but he might not know that the Horcrux had been destroyed. Similar attacks may happen again."

"I'm not afraid of that noseless guy!" Sirius shouted with his neck stiffened.

Lin You said disdainfully: "But you still don't have the courage to call out that name directly until today; do you want me to teach you how to spell the word 'Voldemort'?"

Sirius' neck thickened with rage.

But Lin You continued, "You are not alone now, but a member of the Order of the Phoenix. If Voldemort targets you, those who travel with you and carry out missions with you will be in danger. Among these people, there may be someone like Mr. Lupin, who is employed by the Forresters."

Dumbledore had no choice but to speak up to vouch for his student: "I will keep a close eye on Sirius, Your Excellency."

"I'll wait for your news." Lin You saw the guest off.

Less than two days later, the guests who had left returned to Forrester Manor; and there was one more person, Harry Potter, than when they left.

The boy who survived was full of curiosity about the Forrester family. He was excited but also uneasy from the moment he entered the manor. Even with Remus Lupin by his side, Harry's condition did not improve much.

To be precise, Harry Potter was not only curious about the name "Forrest", but also had a good impression of it. The head of this family helped him remove the soul fragments of Voldemort and hired Lupin, giving the werewolf a decent job and a relatively stable life. Just these two things made Harry Potter selectively forget many bad rumors he heard from other channels, such as "traitor of wizards" and "partner of pure-blood families".

In fact, according to good friend Ron Weasley, the Forresters have another advantage that is worth everyone’s friendship—rich! Rich! Super rich! Especially at the end of the second game of the Triwizard Tournament, when the little lady of the Forresters casually gave away the magic gem, even the always sharp-tongued Hermione could not refute Ron’s point of view.

"Whether pure-blood, half-blood or Muggle, who wouldn't want to be friends with such a rich and generous person? Even Professor Dumbledore is a friend of their family, isn't he?" Ron Weasley said with certainty.

Hermione could only emphasize: "Professor Dumbledore is definitely not friends with them because they are rich, but because they are decent people."

"He's a decent rich man!" Ron never forgot his original intention.

Recalling the bickering between good friends, Harry's mood gradually calmed down, and the uneasy feeling dissipated a lot. As a result, when he woke up and began to observe other people, he found that the adults' attention was not on him at all. Even Lupin, who was always the most careful, was now focusing on a glass bottle in Dumbledore's hand.

"It seems that your method is effective, Professor Dumbledore; Mr. Slughorn has finally come to his senses and is determined to reveal Voldemort's secret?" Lin You could see clearly that there was a ray of silver light flowing in the glass bottle, which was the memory extracted by the wizard.

"Your advice was very effective; of course, Sirius and Harry also played a big role." Dumbledore gave the credit to everyone.

"Are you sure it's true?" Lin You asked again; he remembered that the fat old man Horace had given a memory in his early years, but it turned out to be a fake that had been modified.

"We'll know after we see it; I don't think he'll fool me with false memories twice in a row." Dumbledore paused for a moment before adding, "I hope not!"

It doesn't matter if you deceive Dumbledore, but if you use the same method to deceive the head of the Forrester family... the old wizard sincerely hopes that his old friend will not do such a stupid thing.

Lord Goff is not the kind of man who wants to be held at gunpoint.

"Stop talking and take a look!" Sirius urged anxiously.

"Have you got a Pensieve?" asked Dumbledore.

Lin You shook his head: "There's no need for that thing." He waved his wand lightly, and the glass bottle flew from Dumbledore's hand. The "memory" inside suddenly expanded, exploding from a line into a dazzling silver flower.

Countless silver spots of light fell like snowflakes, but they hovered at a height of more than half a person and no longer fell.

The light spots quickly connected together to form a complete light curtain, like the movie screen used by Muggles.

An image slowly emerged; it was a conversation between a middle-aged man and a teenager, which took place in a corner of Hogwarts Castle, not far from the professors' offices.

The two talked as they walked. The dim environment indicated that it was already evening, perhaps close to the Hogwarts curfew; because there were no other students around them.

The conversation started out as a routine discussion between a professor and a student, then extended to the soul and immortality, and then involved the forbidden black magic.

When talking about Horcruxes, the middle-aged Horace's face changed; but the person in front of him was his favorite student, and the tone was so relaxed that it seemed as if he was just talking about history, so Horace thought he should not make a fuss about it.

So after a few warnings that had little deterrent effect, the professor began to share some knowledge about Horcruxes.

At this time, the conversation entered the most crucial part - how many Horcruxes can one person create?
Tom Riddle, a student, relaxed Horace's guard with his very deceptive smile, and said jokingly: "I would choose seven; the number 'seven' is magical."

At this point, the contents of the memory all ended; the silver light converged into a line again and retreated into the glass bottle.

"Real memories, no traces of modification or concealment." Dumbledore secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then began to summarize the information in the memory, "Seven Horcruxes; or rather, Tom intended to make seven Horcruxes, but it is not clear whether he put it into practice."

"If 'seven' is the upper limit, that means there are at most two Horcruxes out there, and one of them can basically be confirmed to be the Ravenclaw Diadem." Lin You smiled, "Finding the remaining two will be our main goal for the next period of time."

"He said seven, so we are sure there were only seven? How can it not be more?" Sirius was used to arguing, but this question also raised the doubts in Lupin and Harry's hearts.

"Because of the power of magic." Lin You replied.

Of the four Gryffindors present, only Dumbledore seemed thoughtful after hearing this. The other three had the same reaction and were confused after hearing the answer.

"What do you mean?"

"The power of magic is rooted in the soul and is activated in the mind. In the theory of Muggle philosophy, magic is a kind of pure idealism. Precisely because of its idealism, those words that come from the heart and blurt out often have a certain 'prophetic' nature."

When Lin You was explaining, he was thinking not only of the world of Harry Potter, but also of the world of The Witcher.

In that world where magic has completely different properties, magic is more sensitive to mental effects; many times, even people who have never learned magic can resonate with the ubiquitous chaos magic as long as they have pure thoughts in their hearts.

Many of the toughest curses that witchers deal with are not caused by warlocks, but rather are tragedies caused by extreme and pure will.

Although the story world of "Harry Potter" is different from that of "The Witcher", the impact of idealism is similar.

When Voldemort uttered the number "seven" as a student, the outcome was already determined.

Although Voldemort only made six Horcruxes on his own will, he accidentally turned Harry Potter into the seventh; even he himself did not realize it from beginning to end. (End of this chapter)