In the quiet midnight, a figure suddenly appeared at the corner of the street. It was an elderly man, wearing a robe that didn't fit in with the surroundings. The old man took out a silver lighter from the pocket of his robe, flicked it open, and held it high. The nearest street lamp went out with a "puff". After a while, the whole street fell into quiet darkness again.
The old man looked around and made sure that there was no one around before he walked towards a nearby dirty alley. The stench made him frown slightly. He walked into the alley and soon stopped in front of an old house and knocked on the door.
After a few seconds, there was a noise behind the door, and then the door opened a crack.
"Oh, God! I was almost scared away by your letter. What important matter is there that requires you to come to me in person?" Mundungus opened the door and complained to the elderly man outside.
"It's best if we don't talk about it here," said Dumbledore, smiling.
"Yes, come in first."
Mundungus quickly stepped back, making room for the door, and invited Dumbledore in.
After Dumbledore entered the room, he cautiously stuck his head out of the door and looked around, only closing the door again after making sure that there was no one.
Although Mundungus knew that the possibility of being followed was low, he could not risk letting others know that he was in contact with Dumbledore, otherwise the Death Eaters might come to his door one day.
"If it's anything dangerous, don't come to me." Mundungus looked at Dumbledore uneasily, asking him why he came.
"Don't be nervous. I just came to confirm something with you and to get some information." Dumbledore motioned for Mundungus to sit down and speak slowly.
"Confirm what?" Mundungus asked warily.
"You took something from 12 Grimmauld Place, didn't you?"
"Oh, you mean the rubbish?" Mundungus' heart skipped a beat, and he quickly said, "I asked Sirius, and he said he didn't want the rubbish anymore, so I..."
"Don't be nervous. I just want to know if there is a locket among the things you took away." Dumbledore stared into Mundungus' eyes and asked, "Is that thing still with you?"
“Is it valuable?”
Mundungus's eyes were somewhat evasive, not daring to look directly at Dumbledore.
"Valuable, in a way." Dumbledore smiled, "But the locket is also dangerous."
"Dangerous, dark magic items?" Mundungus muttered, taking a suitcase from the corner of the room, and took out a golden locket from the box and handed it to Dumbledore.
"It shouldn't be like that. I've held it myself before and there's nothing wrong with it. I just can't open it. But... to be honest, I think it should be very valuable."
"Luckily you didn't open it."
Dumbledore did not reach out to take it, but looked up and down at the locket in front of him. Sure enough, it was the same as Slytherin's locket he remembered, with Slytherin's snake mark on the gold lid.
"What will happen if we open it?" Mundungus asked curiously.
"I don't know. Something very terrible may happen." Dumbledore couldn't tell what kind of dark magic Voldemort had cast on the locket, but he was sure that the dark magic on the Horcrux was very dangerous.
"Something very terrible?"
Mundungus was so frightened that his hand trembled and the locket fell directly on the table. He stood up hurriedly and took several steps back, trying to get away from the locket on the table.
Dumbledore looked at the terrified Mundungus and felt inexplicably funny, but seemed to remember something and took out a bag of Galleons from his pocket and put it on the table.
"This is?"
When Dumbledore took out the purse, Mundungus almost pounced on him and grabbed the bag of money tightly in his hands.
"Your reward."
"Is this for me?"
Mundungus couldn't help but stare at Dumbledore with his eyes wide open in disbelief.
"Well, I need your help to get some information."
"What news?"
Mundungus hesitated, fearing that it might be troublesome.
"As far as I know, someone privately offered a large reward of Galleons for Albert." Dumbledore took out the dragon leather gloves and put them on his hands, then picked up the locket and put it into the wooden box prepared in advance.
"Oh, I know about this." Mundungus quickly counted the Galleons in the bag and said casually, "I heard that the Malfoy family offered a reward of 10,000 Galleons for Anderson's life. Many guys in the gray area are interested in this matter."
"But you should know..."
When Mundungus finished counting the Galleons and looked up, he met Dumbledore's wand, and then his eyes fell into a brief confusion.
Dumbledore erased Mundungus' memory of the locket. Although the possibility of him leaking this matter was low, the fewer people knew about the Horcrux, the better.
"I hope you can help me find out how many people are interested in Albert's wanted warrant." Dumbledore put his wand back into his pocket. When Mundungus came to his senses, he continued, "I need you to find out if anyone is planning to do something to Albert to earn this generous reward?"
“I know a little about this…”
Mundungus stuffed the purse into his pocket. "Oh, no problem. But why do you care about this?"
"Anyway, help me investigate this matter first. I will have other things for you to do later." Dumbledore reminded: "Don't refuse in a hurry. That bag of Galleons is a deposit."
Mundungus clutched his pocket and muttered, "You weren't in the habit of paying before."
"You can consider that bag of Galleons as Albert's reward," Dumbledore said with a smile.
"I see. No wonder he's so generous." Mundungus nodded in understanding. "But it wasn't those two brats from Weiss's house who came to see me?"
"By the way, what did you ask me to do just now?" Mundungus looked a little confused, as if it was the aftereffect of the Forgetfulness Spell.
"I need you to continue to pay attention to Albert's news. The more detailed the better." Dumbledore thought for a moment and said, "When the time comes, I may need your help in conveying some false information to dispel the suspicion that someone else is targeting Albert."
"That may not be easy. After all, the Galleons are so tempting." Mundungus muttered, "Almost no one can refuse it."
"Don't worry, there are many ways to make them give up this unrealistic approach." Dumbledore said calmly.
"You seem to care a lot about Albert?" Mundungus was very curious why Dumbledore made a special trip for this.
"Albert has provided a lot of help to the Order of the Phoenix." Dumbledore said calmly, "If possible, we don't want him to have an accident."
"A lot of help, how could I not know about it," muttered Mundungus.
"I don't expect you to know much," Dumbledore said, standing up. "This matter must be kept secret, and it is best to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible."
"Okay, if you need anything else, you can come to me," Mundungus assured, patting his chest.
Who doesn't like having Galleons
After leaving Mundungus, Dumbledore immediately hurried back to Hogwarts with the Horcrux he had just acquired.
This time, he was not in a hurry to destroy the Horcrux. Instead, he made himself a cup of milk tea first, and waited until his emotions calmed down before taking out the sword of Gryffindor from the glass box next to him.
"I have to remind you that the last time you played with this thing, you nearly lost your life."
The silver-haired old witch in the portrait on the wall suddenly opened her eyes and spoke as a reminder.
"Don't worry, Dalys. I've made all the necessary preparations this time." Dumbledore came to the desk with the sword of Gryffindor.
The portraits that had fallen asleep opened their eyes one after another and looked at Dumbledore who had picked up the sword of Gryffindor. They were all very curious about what he was going to do this time.
"You were so confident last time, and you almost lost your life!" The old man with a goatee next to him said sarcastically, but he was soon hit by a cane and grimaced in pain.
"I won't make the same mistake twice."
Dumbledore put on his gloves again, took out the locket and placed it on the table, then picked up the sword of Gryffindor beside him, ready to split the locket in half.
However, the sword missed the target and cut the silver chain of the pendant box, then fell heavily on the table.
"Are you cracking the table?" Phineas asked with a smile, dodging the incoming wand.
"I see."
Dumbledore ignored the portrait's teasing. He could clearly feel that the soul in the locket was very anxious. Tom's residual soul obviously felt that the sword of Gryffindor would pose a threat to the locket.
"What the hell is this? I felt like the locket just moved?"
Phineas squeezed into the nearest photo frame and looked at the S snake logo on the locket curiously, muttering in a low voice, "Could this thing be a relic of Slytherin?"
"This is indeed Slicklin's locket."
"Then why did you destroy it?"
"Dumbledore must have his reasons for doing that." A shrewd witch waved a very thick wand to silence Phineas.
"Someone has cast a terrible dark spell on the locket," Dumbledore explained vaguely.
"So, you're going to just destroy it?"
"Unfortunately, this is the safest approach."
Dumbledore drew out his wand and waved it lightly at Slytherin's locket. The slightly protruding slot on the desk just happened to lock the locket firmly on the desk, ensuring that it could never escape again.
"It's too late, Tom."
Dumbledore raised his sword and slashed it down again.
Before the sword of Gryffindor fell and completely destroyed the locket, its little golden cover actually popped open with a "click".
The locket was filled with thick darkness, and in the darkness there was a pair of strange eyes, blinking at Dumbledore.
"Albus Dumbledore, I see your desire, your fear, Voldemort already knows your plan, you..."
Then, two heads suddenly popped out of the locket. They were the heads of his sister Ariana and his best friend Grindelwald. They madly entangled Dumbledore, trying to stop him from swinging his sword.
"Is it a vision?"
Dumbledore looked these two bubble-like weird things up and down, and without giving them a chance to speak, he changed the sword of Gryffindor in his hand from slashing to stabbing and stabbed it directly into the locket box. A long scream suddenly rang out in the office.
Voldemort's Horcruxes were destroyed.
The illusions of Ariana and Grindelwald disappeared completely.
"It's over!" Dumbledore took a deep breath and murmured, "It's over, Tom. You should be the one who is afraid this time."
After saying that, he used the tip of his sword to pry open the small golden lid of the locket, looked at the silk lining with wisps of green smoke coming out of it, and nodded with satisfaction.
However, as with the previous ring case, Dumbledore did not rush to touch it. Instead, he carefully observed and made sure that there was no trace of dark magic on the remains of the locket before picking it up and putting it in the drawer of his desk.
There was also a notebook with a hole pierced by a basilisk's fang, the Ravenclaw diadem stored in a glass case, and an ugly black gemstone ring. After Dumbledore put the remains of the locket in, the remains of the four Horcruxes were complete.
By the way, he also killed the poisonous snake named Nagini.
It's incredible to think that they have now destroyed five Horcruxes.
If Voldemort created six Horcruxes, the last one should be the Hufflepuff Cup.
"It's all thanks to Albert?" Dumbledore sighed softly.
As long as all the Horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort will be just an ordinary mortal with a damaged soul who can be killed.
Although it still took extraordinary abilities and skills to kill a wizard like Voldemort at that time, Dumbledore was not worried... What worried him was that if he wanted to kill Voldemort completely, he had to destroy the small piece of soul fragment on Harry's forehead that even Voldemort was not aware of.
That meant Harry had to die.
This is undoubtedly a cruel fact that is hard to accept, but it is unavoidable if Voldemort is to be completely eliminated.
"How should I tell him about this?" Dumbledore murmured. He needed to tell Harry the truth at the most appropriate time.
However, it is undoubtedly very difficult to get someone to die heroically. This not only requires extraordinary courage and bravery, but also requires the courage to face death.
Dumbledore had seen too many brave people who flinched in the face of death. He had to give Harry the courage to face death at the most critical moment.
"What should I do?"
Dumbledore's eyes fell on the Resurrection Stone in the drawer, and he murmured: "Perhaps, I should write my will."
"Will? I thought you had written it long ago?" Phineas said in surprise when Dumbledore put the sword back into the glass case.
"Yes, the will has indeed been written, but one part needs to be revised."
Dumbledore sat back at his desk, took a piece of parchment from the side, wrote something on it, folded the paper and handed it to the Phoenix Fawkes.
"Give this to him."
Fox gave a slight chirp and disappeared with the note.
After Fawkes left, Dumbledore picked up his quill and revised his will. He planned to leave the Resurrection Stone to Harry through his will.