"Calm down, calm down, you will see them again soon." Dumbledore forced himself to suppress his inner anxiety and comforted himself.
At this moment, he remembered Albert's warning and realized that he was too anxious.
Even if there were no traces of magic left on the door in front of him, it would not be a wise move to reach out and touch it. What's more, the door in front of him was just a wooden door. It was very unusual that it could be preserved relatively well after such a long time instead of being completely decayed.
Dumbledore whispered a spell and poked the wooden door in front of him with his wand, but there was no response.
"Am I overthinking it?" Dumbledore murmured.
However, he still did not intend to reach out and touch it, but waved his wand, allowing the wooden door in front of him to open by itself.
A ball of light flew out from the tip of the wand and floated directly into the dark house in front, completely illuminating the interior.
The house was completely abandoned. There were thick cobwebs on the ceiling, and the walls and roof of the house had collapsed to varying degrees. A rotten rafter had fallen down, giving people the illusion that the whole house would collapse completely with just the slightest touch.
Dumbledore walked in cautiously and observed the situation inside carefully. However, he did not find any traces of remaining magic.
The Horcrux isn't here
The old man turned his gaze back to the strange wooden door at the entrance. When he stretched out his hand wearing dragon leather gloves to touch the wooden door, there was still no response.
After carefully studying the wooden door for a while, he confirmed that there was no trace of black magic on it. He took off his gloves again and stretched out his hand to touch the wooden door. It seemed that a magical suction force spread from the wooden door and sucked Dumbledore in.
After coming to his senses, Dumbledore found himself standing in a dark room.
As if because someone had broken in, some kind of creepy blue magic flame suddenly burned in front, and blue magic potion began to spread around, as if to burn the invader to ashes.
If it were just an ordinary wizard who encountered such a situation by chance, he would probably panic and be burned to ashes by the devil's flames.
Even if you can calm down, you can't solve the problem of approaching death.
However, the person standing here was Dumbledore. He raised his wand calmly and began to recite a series of strange spells quickly. He pointed his wand forward, and the original blue magic flame suddenly churned up, and then completely extinguished, and the surroundings fell into a dead silence and darkness again.
A ball of light suddenly flew out from the tip of the wand, instantly dispelling the surrounding darkness.
Dumbledore looked around with the help of a glowing spell, and his sight fell on the strange statue in front of him, but he quickly moved his gaze away from the statue and continued to observe the surrounding environment.
The area here is not large, surrounded by rough walls, and the entrance is the wooden door behind him. What surprised Dumbledore the most was that he actually saw traces of dark magic on the wooden door, which means that if anyone tried to open the door and leave, they would most likely fall into Voldemort's trap.
That's right, given Voldemort's character, he would never let anyone who broke in here leave easily.
Dumbledore did not continue to pay attention to the door, but turned his gaze back to the strange statue in front of him. He seemed to hear whispers coming from the statue, as if someone was talking to him.
However, Dumbledore seemed unaffected by the whispers. He stared at a ring on the portrait with concentration and sadness. His deep blue eyes were no longer filled with wisdom, but sorrow instead.
He walked slowly towards the statue, staring at the black gem on the ring without blinking, trying to identify whether it was the resurrection stone he had always dreamed of.
That's right, the black gem has the mark of the Deathly Hallows on it.
"Ariana!"
Dumbledore's lips trembled slightly, his eyes were soaked with tears, he stretched out his arms tremblingly, he had waited for this moment for too long. He wanted to see Ariana, to see his dead parents, to...
Dumbledore took the ring from the statue with his gloved hand, and when he tried to put it on his finger, his hand suddenly stopped moving.
"We should return to Hogwarts immediately," Dumbledore suppressed the suppressed desire in his heart and held the ring tightly in his hand.
"Fox!" the old man summoned his phoenix.
A ball of golden-red flame appeared out of nowhere, and Fawkes responded to Dumbledore's call.
"Quick, take me back to Hogwarts."
Dumbledore kept his eyes fixed on the ring which he held firmly in his hand, and left with the help of Fawkes.
After returning to Hogwarts, Dumbledore couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The familiar environment made his tense nerves relax. He put down his wand, his eyes still fixed on the ring in his hand.
At this moment, Dumbledore couldn't wait to see his family.
He had waited for this moment for too long.
The old man took out the sword of Gryffindor from the cabinet and slashed it hard on the ring on the table. A terrible black shadow surged out from the ring and disappeared in a long scream.
That was the soul that Voldemort kept in the ring.
Dumbledore finally succeeded in destroying another Horcrux.
However, this was not what Dumbledore cared about most. He had already put down the sword of Gryffindor in his hand and kept muttering how to use the Resurrection Stone. He planned to use the Resurrection Stone to summon his long-deceased parents and sister Ariana.
When Dumbledore reached out to pick up the destroyed ring, an accident happened.
A heart-wrenching pain spread from his fingertips throughout his body, almost making him lose consciousness.
The ring also fell off the finger and fell on the table, and the portraits who had originally planned to watch silently were all awakened.
The intense pain brought Dumbledore back to his senses. He looked down at the three black, burnt fingers, his lips trembling slightly. "I was careless. I haven't made any progress in all these years."
I was so naive to think that as long as I destroyed the Horcruxes, I would be safe. However, Voldemort would definitely curse the Horcruxes. "
Dumbledore picked up the wand and tried to lift the curse on his hand, but the effect was not obvious. The curse left by Voldemort on the Horcrux was slowly eroding his vitality, and his life was taken away all at once. Perhaps Voldemort did not want the intruder to die immediately!
"Severus, I need your help. Please come to the headmaster's office immediately." Dumbledore walked towards the fireplace with the help of the table. He grabbed a handful of road powder and sprinkled it into the fireplace. Shortly after the flames started, Snape walked out of the fireplace.
"What happened, Dumbledore?"
Snape walked out of the green flames and looked at the weak Dumbledore in shock. He had never seen the old man so weak.
"I seem to have been hit by a vicious curse. Do you have any way..." Dumbledore raised his charred palm.
"It's not difficult for me to guarantee that it looks like a particularly powerful spell." After examining Dumbledore's palm, Snape pointed his wand at the hand and whispered the spell.
Dumbledore looked at his dead hand and asked softly, "Did it work?"
"No, I just temporarily contained the spell and imprisoned the curse in your palm. It will continue to spread sooner or later, and this spell will continue to strengthen over time." Snape looked down at the broken ring and the sword of Gryffindor, and asked angrily, "Do you think that destroying the ring can break the spell on it?"
"Almost... I must have lost my mind..." Dumbledore changed the subject and asked, "Severus, how much time do you think I have?"
Snape hesitated for a moment and replied: "Probably two or three years."
"That's enough time."
"Is that enough time?"
Snape was irritated by Dumbledore's casual tone and asked angrily, "Why did you wear the ring? You must have known that it was cursed, why did you touch it?"
Dumbledore smiled bitterly and said, "The temptation is too great!"
"What temptation?"
Dumbledore did not answer.
"I'll make you some potion to help you stop the injury." Seeing that Dumbledore didn't intend to answer, Snape didn't intend to continue asking. He frowned and said, "You can contact that magical guy. Maybe he can help heal your injury."
"You have done a great job, Severus." Dumbledore said calmly, "Remember to keep this a secret for me."
"I'm afraid this won't be easy. Everyone will notice it soon."
Snape turned and disappeared into the fireplace.
“So, is this what Albert was referring to?”
After Snape disappeared into the fireplace, Dumbledore looked at the ring on the table and murmured, "What a fool I am."
Dumbledore picked up the ring and walked towards his bedroom.
After closing the bedroom door, he closed his eyes and turned the ring in his hand three times according to the formula for using the Resurrection Stone.
Three figures appeared beside Dumbledore. They were neither ghosts nor living people with flesh and blood, but more like memories that had become entities. They surrounded Dumbledore with smiles on their faces after reuniting.
"I'm sorry, Ariana, I didn't take good care of you." Dumbledore raised his head and apologized to his sister with tears in his eyes. "Aberforth is right, it's all my fault, everything is my fault, I killed you!"
"I never blamed you." Ariana reached out and touched the old man's head, as if comforting a sad child.
"I shouldn't have done that." Dumbledore said sadly, "I knew you were not in good health..."
"I'm sorry, Albus, it's all our fault that we left the burden to you." Mr. Dumbledore looked at his son who was older than him, feeling full of guilt.
If he had not acted impulsively and been thrown into Azkaban, perhaps things would not have turned out like this.
The shackles of life trapped his most talented son, who should have soared high like a bird.