While Harry was still in shock and confusion, a golden-red flame suddenly appeared in the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office, illuminating the dim atmosphere of the office.
"Oh? Looks like we have a visitor."
Dracula curled the corners of his mouth and walked towards the direction of the fire.
An old man with white hair and a long white beard that reached to his waist strode out from the firelight.
His face was solemn, and he asked straight to the point: "Professor Dracula, I heard from Severus that you took Harry Potter away?"
"You're a lot later than I expected, Dumbledore." Dracula chuckled and said to the old man, "In fact, I thought Snape would contact you earlier!"
Snape might have been addicted to scolding young wizards in the Dueling Club, or he might have subconsciously not thought that Dracula would harm Harry Potter. He stood on the stage of the Dueling Club and gave a long speech before he finally remembered that Harry had been taken away.
So Snape used a special Patronus Charm to send the message to Dumbledore who was in the headmaster's office.
After receiving the news, Dumbledore went to Dracula's office as soon as possible to prevent any possible accidents from happening to Harry, who was extremely important to him.
However, this period of time is already very ample.
It was enough for Dracula to detect the relationship between Harry and Slytherin, find out Harry's memory, and even pull out Riddle's diary, which had been bewitching Harry's mind, from his arms.
"Actually, you came at the right time. I have a surprise for you." Dracula smiled with interest, then turned sideways, allowing Riddle's figure to appear in Dumbledore's sight.
Even a wise old man like Dumbledore's expression became extremely stunned in an instant.
"Tom?" Dumbledore looked at the handsome black-haired young man in front of him in surprise, "You are..."
His eyes flickered quickly, and his memory seemed to go back to sixty years ago—
The handsome black-haired young man in front of him looked exactly like the brilliant Tom Riddle when he held high the Award for Special Contribution to the School!
"Long time no see, Professor Dumbledore." Riddle showed a flawless smile and bowed gracefully to Dumbledore. "My memory actually still remains at the time when I won the Special Contribution Award for the school - at that time, you were the only professor who questioned it."
"So you are the Tom from sixty years ago?" Dumbledore frowned, his sharp eyes seemed to penetrate the slightly illusory figure in front of him.
After a moment, he suddenly revealed a look of understanding.
"So that's how it is..." Dumbledore nodded slightly, then turned to look at Harry who was full of doubts, "Harry, could you please go back to the Gryffindor common room and rest for a while? Professor Dracula and I have something else to discuss."
"But... I think this matter has a lot to do with me, Professor!" Harry said hurriedly.
Harry certainly didn't want to leave. He still had a lot of things he hadn't figured out, and a lot of questions he hadn't asked. He was full of doubts about what had happened today!
"When the time is right, I will explain everything to you, Harry." Dumbledore looked into Harry's eyes, his expression still gentle, yet extremely firm. "But please go back now, okay? You have been through so much today, it's time for you to have a good rest."
Harry opened his mouth, wanting to tell the two professors that he was not tired at all and did not need to rest at all.
But seeing Dumbledore's increasingly tough eyes, he finally nodded silently, turned and left the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office.
He left the blank diary in his office, lying quietly on the cold ground...
When Harry left, only Dracula, Dumbledore and Riddle were left here.
"You are the Horcrux that Tom made after he killed Myrtle, right?" Dumbledore looked at Riddle first and asked in a deep voice.
"I can't hide it from you, Professor Dumbledore." Riddle said softly, "I really want to know, is there anything in this world that can be hidden from you?"
"There are too many things I don't know, Tom." Dumbledore shook his head slowly. "If your performance at the Wu Orphanage hadn't left me with a preconceived impression and made me wary of you, I would have been fooled by your performance like the other professors."
"I am honored to hear the greatest wizard in the world say this!" Riddle's voice gradually cooled. "I never thought that even after so many years, the greatest wizard in the world is still called Albus Dumbledore."
"I originally thought that the 'me' outside would only need a few years to replace you... However, not only did he fail to achieve this, he was defeated by a baby!"
Listening to Riddle's cold words, Dracula raised his eyebrows slightly and asked with interest: "You seem to be quite dissatisfied with your original body, Mr. Riddle."
"That's right, Mr. Dracula." Riddle looked at Dracula and gave him a meaningful look. "The 'I' outside not only failed to fulfill the wish he made when he was young, but he even became more and more stupid. He completely fell into the powerful force."
Dracula's expression became more intriguing, with an exaggerated arc at the corner of his mouth.
"So what do you think, Mr. Riddle?" he asked.
"Professor Dracula!" Dumbledore's voice suddenly resounded throughout the office, interrupting the conversation between Dracula and Riddle. "I think I have an obligation to remind you not to forget our most important purpose—"
"Voldemort cannot be truly destroyed until all of his Horcruxes are destroyed!"
Dumbledore turned his gaze towards Riddle, his eyes sharp, "Tom, I guess Voldemort must have more than just one Horcrux, right?"
"So there are things that Professor Dumbledore doesn't know." Riddle shrugged and smiled. "Of course, according to our thinking, a single Horcrux is definitely not foolproof."
"As for how many Horcruxes he made...even I don't know. After all, I only have memories of Voldemort before he was sixteen."
"I see." Dumbledore nodded slightly. "Thank you for the clue, Tom. I am also very happy to see you again without your face distorted by the dark magic."
Then, he gently raised his wand, "But I'm sorry, Tom, you should have guessed it - as a Horcrux, there can only be such an ending..."
A wisp of red flame gushed out from the tip of Dumbledore's wand, burning violently in the air. In an instant, it expanded to the size of half the room, and rushed towards the blank diary on the ground, burning violently.
"Dumbledore's signature firestorm?"
Feeling the air suddenly become scorching hot, Riddle gently closed his eyes and let the flames penetrate his illusory body and move towards the diary.
He knew that he couldn't escape from the hands of the most powerful wizard in the magical world, so he didn't hold any hope.
Riddle waits for another man to strike.
' I have given all the hints, I hope it can arouse his interest... ' He thought with his eyes closed.
For a long time, Riddle did not feel the pain of the diary being burned.
So he opened his eyes and saw two different colored but extremely bright and gorgeous flames that almost filled the entire space of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office, confronting and competing against each other as if they were competing against each other.
On one side was a red color that was thicker than magma, and the evaporating heat seemed to be able to ignite the eyes of all the wizards present!
On the other side was a white object that was colder than bones. Although it was in the form of fire, Riddle could not feel any trace of heat from it. Instead, he felt a chill that penetrated deep into his bones!
The two flames touched each other scorchingly, dissolving each other, neither giving in.
"Professor Dracula, have you really forgotten our most important goal?" Dumbledore's voice came from the sticky red, and his voice was unprecedentedly serious. "Don't you want to do your part for the safety of Nico's Philosopher's Stone and his and Perenelle's lives?!"
"Mr. Principal, I have always protected the old man's Philosopher's Stone and never forgot it." Dracula's voice sounded from the white flames, "But I thought you already understood that destroying Voldemort has never been my most important goal..."
After a moment of silence, the red flame suddenly began to shrink and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Dumbledore's figure emerged from it, and a faint red light could be seen on the wand in his hand.
"I have always believed that your attempts to find any interesting things in the world are based on a solid bottom line." He said in a deep voice, "Nico has always told me this. He told me that although you are a little cynical, you still have the firm principles of a noble..."
"Professor Dracula, but I don't see any principle in your choice to protect Voldemort's Horcrux today!"
"Since you can't tell, why bother to say more? It's better to use personal strength to decide who is right and who is wrong!" Dracula smiled evilly, "I have wanted to fight with you for a long time, Dumbledore. Let me see what kind of surprise the greatest wizard in the magic world can bring me!"
The black and red cloak behind Dracula moved without wind, and waves of dark aura emerged around him without reservation. Gradually, a dark moon quietly appeared in the office, cold and heavy.
Dumbledore's expression changed slightly, and then he sighed softly.
"Professor Dracula, I won't fight you here." He said softly, "Choosing the battlefield inside Hogwarts Castle, do you want to tear down the entire castle? Many students will be injured or even killed!"
After saying that, the phoenix Fawkes landed on Dumbledore's shoulder and gently spread out a pair of broad wings.
"I hope you don't regret what you did today, Professor Dracula." He looked at Dracula deeply and said finally.
The next moment, a golden-red flame wrapped Dumbledore's whole body and instantly brought him to the headmaster's office.
In the principal's office, two other professors were already waiting there.
"Albus, did you fight with Professor Dracula?" Professor McGonagall asked anxiously. "I clearly felt in the office on the second floor that there was an extremely strong magical fluctuation coming from the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office! I came here to ask Severus and then I learned that you just happened to go to Professor Dracula's office."
"What kind of conflict did you have that you had to resort to violence to resolve it?!"
Very rarely, Professor McGonagall rushed to the headmaster's office without even putting on her hat.
Compared to Professor McGonagall's anxiety, Snape's face looked even more nervous. "Albus, why did you suddenly take action?"
"Tell me, did Dracula do something bad to Potter?!"
Looking at the nervous Professor McGonagall and Snape, Dumbledore suddenly laughed happily.
"Don't be nervous, Minerva, Severus." He said with a smile, "I did fight with Professor Dracula, but it was just a good show performed by the two of us!"
Dumbledore stroked Fawkes' feathers, thinking back to what had just happened -
After learning that Harry was taken away by Dracula, he was very anxious, so he asked Fawkes to take him into the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office immediately.
"You've come at the right time. I have a surprise for you." Looking at the uninvited guest in front of him, Dracula said meaningfully.
Dumbledore saw that there was a brilliant light flowing rapidly in Dracula's eyes, and there seemed to be some other information and content rotating in those wine-red eyes.
So he also activated Legilimency, colliding the two people's spirits and thoughts together -
"The results of Potter's blood test are out, and I think it's necessary to let you know." Dracula looked at Dumbledore's sharp eyes behind his half-moon glasses and communicated with him silently, "I have checked, Potter does not have any Salazar blood, but he can use Snake Tongue."
"So... my judgment was correct, right?" Dumbledore said silently, "Did Voldemort really accidentally leave the soul fragment in Harry's body, making Harry an alternative Horcrux?"
"That's right, so if Voldemort is to be destroyed, the Potter child must also die!" Dracula said, "Is this really an ending you can accept?"
"Huh—" Dumbledore exhaled silently, "I will certainly not let this happen. I have already made a plan..."
He quickly transmitted the plan he had prepared to Dracula's spirit.
"I have to say that your plan requires too many coincidences." Dracula frowned, "And the price you pay is too high. You are using yourself as a pawn!"
"I have lived enough for more than a hundred years. It doesn't matter. As long as I can succeed, that's enough." Dumbledore smiled silently.
"Forget it. I want you to live a few hundred more years so that you can experience what it means to be tired of living!" Dracula sneered. "I have another plan. Do you want to hear it?"
"Of course, I need you to cooperate with me to put on a good show in front of Riddle!"
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