v4 Chapter 178： devil

"I represent the magical world, thank you for your efforts." Dumbledore stood up and bowed to Tom and Hermione very seriously.

"Professor, you are overrated!" Hermione stood up abruptly, expressing that she could not afford Dumbledore's great gift.

"No, this is what you deserve. You have made too many contributions to the wizarding world." Dumbledore said seriously, "You and Yordle's attack on Voldemort is greater than the results of the entire Order of the Phoenix. need more."

Hermione was embarrassed by Dumbledore's praise. She had her hands behind her back, and her toes paddled on the ground.

Seeing her shy appearance, Tom and Dumbledore both smiled: What a wonderful girl!

As soon as the two looked up, their eyes met, and they saw the aunt's smile on the other's face, and both of them were a little embarrassed.

Dumbledore coughed softly and turned everyone's attention to the locket.

"Since it's Slytherin's relic, I'm afraid it will have to be opened by Parseltongue." He carefully looked at the locket in front of him and tried to open it. After several failures, he came to the same conclusion as Tom.

"I have to say, Yodel, you are really a wizard with a keen sense of smell." Dumbledore complimented Tom meaningfully.

"Everyone has their own talents, that's all," Tom said vaguely.

"Yes." Dumbledore nodded, and instead of delving into Tom's problems, he whispered, "If it's Parseltongue, then we'll probably need his help—or who of you will say snakes. Goofy?"

Tom would speak, but after struggling for a moment he chose not to confess to Dumbledore. And although Hermione trusted Dumbledore very much, but when she saw that her boyfriend had no intention to explain, she obediently shut her mouth.

"Please wait." Seeing that there was no response from the two of them, Dumbledore had to stand up from his chair and walked out of the office. After a while, he returned with Harry.

"Professor, I don't understand-" Harry was a little confused, he didn't know why Dumbledore suddenly found him and brought him here.

Then he saw Tom, Hermione, and the locket on Dumbledore's desk.

"Harry, I need you to do me a little favor." Dumbledore asked Harry to sit across from him and spoke to him in a very gentle tone, "I want you to stare at this locket and put the letter S on it. Think of it as a snake and say to it: Open."

This request was absurd and uninhibited, but since it was Dumbledore's request, Harry wouldn't say much even if he was confused.

He stared at the gleaming "S" and imagined it as a little snake coiled on a rock.

【What am I doing? Can I really do it? ] A series of questions flashed through Harry's mind. He felt that he looked a little stupid now. At the same time, he also hoped that Dumbledore, Yordle, or even Hermione would be able to explain to him afterwards.

While his mind was in a mess, he also stared at the locket in front of him, and a strange emotion rose in his heart: he seemed to hear the heartbeat in the locket.

Is it alive? !

Harry was startled by the thought. He tried hard to convince himself that it was impossible, but as time passed by, he believed more and more in his own thoughts, and the heartbeat in the box became more and more obvious.

In that locket, something seemed to be moving uneasily, and the heartbeat in the box became clearer...

This emotion infected Harry, causing goose bumps on his back, and he was also inexplicably nervous, and couldn't help but feel a little pity for the little life in the box.

[Locked in a small box, out of sight of the sun, today we have to peel off its protection and expose it to everyone's sight...]

"Harry, are you alright?" Dumbledore's voice came from afar, suddenly awakening Harry and pulling him out of his weird mood.

"Professor...I..." Harry then noticed that his back was already wet with sweat, and drops of cold sweat were dripping from his temples.

At this time, the wall clock on the wall showed that the time had passed a quarter of an hour.

Tom and Hermione stood on the sidelines the whole time, watching with their own eyes as Harry lost his mind a little, and then a bean-sized bead of sweat appeared on his forehead.

It wasn't until Dumbledore spoke that Harry came to his senses.

"Professor Dumbledore, I feel that that thing is alive." After the sweat on his body subsided, Harry looked at the locket with some fear, and wanted to seek some help from Dumbledore.

"In a sense, there's nothing wrong with how you feel." Dumbledore's voice had a magical power that could make one feel at ease. After Harry heard his voice, the whole person's mood was inexplicably calm, and there was no longer the weird feeling of anxiety just now.

"There is indeed something like life in the locket, but I can assure you that it is not innocent and innocent. I want you to open this box for me and let us destroy it." Dumbledore went to his desk On the shelf next to it, remove the Sorting Hat from above.

"Me?" Harry pointed to himself in disbelief and asked, "Why me?"

What he said was euphemism, what Harry really meant was that there are three people in this room, who is not better than me? Why do you want me to open the box with this half bottle of vinegar?

"Harry, believe in yourself, you are special." Dumbledore looked at Harry with love, trust, and encouragement in his eyes.

Encouraged by the sight, Harry looked at the locket again.

This time, there was more movement in the locket, and that anxiety reappeared in Harry's mind. Only this time, Dumbledore stretched out his left hand and put it on Harry's shoulder.

The shoulder suddenly sank, and Harry turned his head to look at Dumbledore in confusion, Dumbledore smiled at him, and let him focus on the letter.

Being interrupted by Dumbledore, the restless emotions in Harry's heart dissipated directly, and he could concentrate on the letter S and imagine it as a small snake.

Dumbledore drew Gryffindor's sword from the Sorting Hat and shoved it into Tom's hand while Harry was brooding.

"Wei Wei is not very convenient right now, you can solve it."

Tom didn't say much, just stood silently in front of Hermione, ready to go.

Harry looked at the letter, his eyes gradually dimmed, and the letter seemed to move.

"...on!" he said. It's just that what he spit out was not an English word, but a hissing roar.

The small gold **** on the locket snapped open with a click, exposing the delicate lining inside. What's in the box makes people feel sick just by looking at it, because there are two moving eyeballs inside!

The eyeballs are black and bright, like Tom Riddle's eyes when he was young. Of course, these piercing eyes are not only like Riddle's, but also like...

The moment she saw the eyeballs, Hermione even had the illusion of seeing Tom's eyes. But she quickly realized that it was definitely not Tom's eyes, because he would never look at himself in that way!

It was a cold, ruthless look, as if the owner of the eyeball didn't understand human emotions at all.

After being exposed to the air, his eyeballs began to move frantically, as if he wanted to escape from the locket, but was stopped by the decorations that looked like small stained glass windows inside.

"Smash it!" Dumbledore exclaimed, stepping forward at the same time, pressing the locket firmly on the table.

Following Dumbledore's orders, Tom went to the locket and hung the point of his sword above his eyeball.

He only needs to send the tip of the sword lightly to destroy the Horcrux in front of him.

"Tom?" A surprised voice floated out of the locket, and then there was a hint of crying in the voice: "Is it Tom?"

Tom was startled, the voice was actually Hermione's!

The next moment, the pair of eyes changed, becoming Hermione's eyes.

Looking at those brown eyes, the sword in Tom's hand became heavy, and his arms were stiff and uncontrollable.

"Save me!" Hermione's voice in the locket was full of panic: "The Hermione outside is fake! That monster replaced me! She took my body!"

Hermione, who was standing behind Tom, widened her eyes. She never imagined that Voldemort's remnant in the locket could say such a thing.

It's just a simple alienation scheme, Tom won't be fooled... Should? Hermione didn't have much confidence in Tom, she knew the boy would have a near-zero IQ when it came to some issues.

"This..." Tom swallowed.

"Save me!" Hermione's voice in the locket was already crying, "I shouldn't have touched that box secretly behind your back!"

"Tom, stab!" Dumbledore exclaimed, his voice echoing throughout the office.

"Professor Dumbledore, I'm Granger!" Hermione in the locket was flustered and incoherent, "I, that, the guy outside is fake! Don't be fooled by her!"

Hermione, who was standing behind Tom, couldn't bear it any longer, and she shouted angrily: "It's too much! Bloody mouth, Tom, hurry up—"

Hermione shut her mouth, because she saw Tom's eyes filled with an emotion called doubt, and his heart was disturbed in a few words.

"Yordle, there is no such spell in the magic world that can silently replace a person's soul." Dumbledore persuaded Harry from the side.

"That's Lord Voldemort's magic, what's impossible?" Hermione in the locket shouted anxiously.

Tom was silent, a flash of blood red in his eyes.

Seeing Tom like this, Hermione and Dumbledore both shut their mouths, knowing that anything they say now can only be counterproductive.

The two of them looked at Tom anxiously with Harry, and saw the large beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Get me out, I'm with you—" Hermione in the locket was still chattering.

"Enough!" Tom roared angrily, and then the sword light flashed, and an extremely loud metal collision sounded in the office, followed by a scream with a very long tail.

Dumbledore stepped back quickly and drew his wand from his robe, but nothing happened next, only the sound of Tom gasping in the headmaster's office.

Hermione saw that the locket on the table had been pierced sideways by the Gryffindor sword. Tom was so strong that the tip of the sword pierced through the locket and pierced the table below.

"Hermione wouldn't add the word lord to Voldemort," Tom said in a shaky voice after a few gasps. 【Note】

He let go of the hilt of the sword and straightened up, with a few crackles from his spine.

The sword just now seemed to have overdrawn all his strength.

He turned his head to look at Dumbledore, as well as Harry and Hermione, and showed a weak smile: "Fortunately it was negligent, otherwise I'm afraid I really can't get out..."

Hermione took two steps forward and hugged him, leaving him paralyzed in her arms.

"It's all right, it's over." She put her arms around Tom's head and said in his ear, "You are the bravest warrior!"

"I assure you with my soul that Miss Granger has not been replaced by anything strange," Dumbledore said with a smile. He came to the table, looked at the locket that was shattered and smoked, and the table that had been devastated, and complained, "Your hands are strong enough."

Dumbledore stretched out his hand to draw the Gryffindor sword, and found that the card was very dead, and he didn't move at all when he pulled it hard.

Harry stood quietly to one side, keeping silent, trying to reduce his presence.

"He's just a manipulative devil!" Tom said angrily.

"Yes, he is such a person, good at finding holes and weaknesses in people's hearts. I should be glad that he is now obsessed with the power brought by black magic and has forgotten these abilities." Dumbledore agreed with Tom's words, and he took out My own wand, just a little on the hilt, and the sword jumped out of the table I won't let you pay my table," Dumbledore blinked and said a wit. "Okay, you go back first, I believe Mr. Yodel needs a good rest. "

Dumbledore was right, Tom, who was tortured by Voldemort for a while, needed a lot of training.

Hermione walked out of Dumbledore's office with Tom and a worried Harry.

"Harry, I know you've got a lot of questions to ask, but it's not a good time—how about tomorrow? We'll tell you."

Seeing Harry's expression of hesitating to speak, Hermione understood what he meant, but it was obviously not a good time to speak, and she could only apologetically ask him to come back tomorrow.

"Okay." Harry glanced at the weak Tom, suppressed the complicated thoughts in his heart, and said that it was understandable that he could wait until tomorrow to talk to them again.

"Thank you." Hermione helped Tom away.

She took Tom to the Room of Requirement.

——

Four thousand words in two, good night~

(｀??ω????)—monthly pass

(｀??ω????)—recommended ticket

Note: Voldemort, whose English name is Voldemort, is generally known as Lord Voldemort on the Death Eater side, while Dumbledore who dares to say his name will definitely not add the prefix Lord.