"Very good, thank you all for your cooperation."
After Ollivander checked Harry's wand, Dumbledore stood up from the referee's table and spoke to everyone present.
"You can go back to class now... Oh, maybe it would be better to go directly to the auditorium to eat, since they will be finished soon anyway."
As he spoke, he winked at the five warriors playfully.
Harry, who had been feeling very depressed, finally felt that something went well today.
He stood up and started to leave, but the man with the black camera jumped up and cleared his throat.
"Take a picture, Dumbledore, take a picture!" Bagman slapped his thigh in sudden realization and shouted excitedly, "What do you think of a group photo of the referee, safety officer and warriors, Rita?"
"Well, let's take a group photo first," said Rita Skeeter, her eyes constantly wandering between Dracula, Krum, and Harry, the people most likely to make big news, "maybe a few individual photos later."
The photo shoot took a long time.
No matter where Madame Maxime stood, she would easily block others, and the room was too small for the photographer to stand far away, making it difficult to get her into the shot.
Finally she had to sit down and the others stood around her.
Karkaroff kept twisting his goatee with his fingers, trying to curl it; Cedric shyly smiled at the camera; Fleur shook her hair and smiled stunningly...
It was somewhat surprising that Krum was hiding behind everyone, as people thought he should be used to things like taking photos.
The photographer seemed particularly eager to put Fleur in the front, but Rita Skeeter always caught up and insisted that Dracula, Harry, and Krum be placed in a more prominent position.
Then, she insisted on taking individual photos of the referees, safety officers, and warriors one by one.
However, Dracula ignored him and left the room, so she had no choice but to turn her attention to the "easy to bully" Harry and Krum, taking photos of each warrior.
It took a long time for the warriors to finally get out.
By the time they arrived at the auditorium, the students who were in class had already finished their meal.
For Harry, this only happy thing seemed to have turned into something a little bit worse.
…
After Dracula left the room where the interview was arranged, he went straight to the office of the Defense Against the Dark Arts assistant teacher assigned to Riddle, which was not far from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
Pushing open the door, a handsome black-haired young man was seen reading a book. When he saw Dracula coming, he showed a somewhat surprised expression.
"Professor Dracula, aren't you dealing with the matter of the Final Four Tournament? Why did you suddenly think of coming here?" Riddle stood up and asked, "The students' homework has been corrected today. Do you need to take a look?"
He put down the book in his hand, picked up a thick, neatly arranged stack of parchment from the desk by the window, and handed it to Dracula.
"I'm not here to check your work." Dracula waved his hand and pushed the homework back.
If it weren't for Harry's wand's connection to Voldemort, which suddenly reminded Dracula of his assistant, he might have ignored Riddle to a large extent.
This teaching assistant, who was found very hastily from the diary, has become extremely low-key since he was discovered by Dracula while trying to find Slytherin's remains in the previous school year.
Every day he just conscientiously arranges and corrects the homework of the young wizards, gives demonstrations in class when necessary, and occasionally serves as a sparring partner in the duel club...
In addition to work, Riddle has been reading books, reading different magic books... According to him, he only has the memory of Voldemort before he was 16 years old, and the accumulation of magical knowledge is far from enough, so he must continue to learn.
It was truly the speech of a model student.
Dracula certainly had no reason to stop him from furthering his studies. After all, he was doing a very good job as a teaching assistant, the kind that even a sarcastic professor like Snape could not find fault with.
Of course, Dracula had no intention of finding fault.
Having a reliable teaching assistant to handle the various trivialities of being a professor will give you the opportunity to have fun! Why not
Dracula turned his attention back to the book that Riddle had just placed on the desk.
This is a rather thick tome, with a faded black leather cover and a string of letters in a strange font written on it -
"The Secrets of Cutting-Edge Black Magic".
"Advanced black magic? That's something to brag about. How about reading this book?" Dracula casually picked up the big book and opened the first page.
Before Riddle could warn him, a hideous black skull suddenly emerged from the title page of the book, let out an ear-piercing scream, and rushed towards Dracula.
However, before Dracula could react, the skull seemed to be frightened and immediately turned around and wanted to return to the pages of the book.
The next moment, two slender fingers pinched the black mist at the back of the skull and lifted it in front of his eyes like a puppy.
"Interesting, is this a dark magic trap set by the author of this book?"
Dracula looked at the skull with great interest. He thought that the image of the skull in the Dark Mark might have been inspired by this skull.
"Let me see... The fog is probably just a bluff, and it mainly has a mental impact."
Dracula said to himself, "Oh, is the author of this black magic book actually a good person? Will the wizards who don't have enough strength to withstand the black magic in this book be frightened by this skull, thus achieving a warning effect?"
Riddle was watching this scene with a look of shame on his face. He always felt that even though he had worked very hard to improve, he was still not from the same world as the professor.
Every time he opened the book, he had to be prepared to avoid being distracted by the skull, which would reduce his learning efficiency in the following time.
…But to Dracula, this skull was as weak and harmless as a suckling puppy, not to mention that it affected his spirit.
"Professor Dracula, I guess this author can't be called a good person. He is very arrogant..." Riddle said, "In my opinion, the author probably thinks that wizards who are not powerful enough are not qualified to read his works."
"Oh, if that's true, then it's quite arrogant." Dracula sneered and shook his head, then began to flip the book back.
This tome is worthy of the name "Secrets of Cutting-Edge Black Magic". The various black magics in it are organized quite completely and accurately, with very few mistakes or omissions.
It contains a large number of evil magic files, as well as various criminal experiments.
It can be seen that the author of this book cannot be a good person in the literal sense, otherwise he would not have a special liking for these evil cases.
Riddle watched Dracula's movements nervously, hoping that his reading speed would allow him to skip over some important information...
However, the thing he least wanted to see finally happened.
When Dracula turned to a certain page, his movements suddenly paused.
"Horcrux?" Dracula raised his eyes and looked at Riddle with a half-smile. "You read this book mainly for this content, right?"
It is rare. Even with Dracula's experience, it is rare to see books containing specific information about Horcruxes.
However, this book, "The Secret of Advanced Black Magic", covers the process of making Horcruxes, the impact of Horcruxes on the soul of the creator, and the method of repairing the soul...
"Can the soul be repaired?" Dracula said softly.
"Yes, it is written in the book... Only through regret can a split soul be repaired." Riddle nodded slowly and said, "This process is painful and potentially fatal."
"I remember you absorbed soul fragments from other Horcruxes before." Dracula frowned, "If I remember correctly, it was the one in Rowena's crown."
"Isn't this method of fusing souls a form of restoration? I don't think you have any regrets."
"Yes, this fusion only relies on the fact that I am a special Horcrux. It does not count as repairing the soul." Riddle was silent for a moment, then said with some distress, "So I cannot bring out the power of all the Horcruxes."
"Also, I don't know how many Horcruxes that person has made. When I face him again in the future, I don't know if I can gain the upper hand in terms of soul strength."
At this point, he looked at Dracula with burning eyes, "Professor Dracula, you must still have a Horcrux, right? I can always feel it!"
"Are you talking about... this?" Dracula pulled a locket from his pocket and toyed with it casually in his hands.
It was a golden locket with a gleaming green gem inlaid on it, and the gem was in the shape of a snake, just like a real venomous snake.
"Yes, I can feel that this is his other Horcrux!" Riddle opened his eyes wide, and an eager expression gradually appeared on his face, "Professor Dracula, can you let me absorb the soul fragment in this Horcrux? This way I will have a better chance of fighting him!"
Dracula suddenly stopped playing with the locket and held the locket tightly in his hand.
"Do you think that with this soul fragment, you can fight Voldemort alone?" He asked lightly with a smile on his face.
"I think... there is hope." Riddle took a deep breath, "According to my understanding of myself, if I had to choose, I would divide my soul into seven pieces..."
"I already have two pieces, the fragment that I represent and the fragment of the Ravenclaw crown... If I add the one in your hand, I already have nearly half of the soul. I only need to find one more piece to gain the upper hand..."
Voldemort really has another soul in Hogwarts.
Dracula had a playful expression on his face, and he couldn't help but think of the fragment on Harry's body.
"Then how can you be sure that the souls split by Voldemort are all of the same strength?" he then asked, "How can you be sure that the soul fragment Voldemort left for himself will not be the largest one?"
Riddle was stunned.
"So don't think about these tricks. Improving your strength is the hard truth." Dracula stuffed Slytherin's locket back into his pocket and patted Riddle on the shoulder.
"When you have completely integrated the soul fragments in the Royinna Crown, I will give this Horcrux to you."
His meaning was obvious, which was to let Riddle learn to repent and repair his divided soul.
If he ever learns to repent, then he can be allowed to devour all of Voldemort's souls without worry.
But is Riddle really able, or really willing, to learn to regret
Dracula found it difficult.
…
On the Saturday before the first project began, Hogwarts allowed students in their third year and above to visit Hogsmeade village as usual.
Harry had been feeling depressed every day for more than half a month. Hermione advised him to go outside the castle to relax, saying that this might make him feel better.
In fact, Harry was eager to go out and relax, and he didn't need her to persuade him at all.
"But what about Ron?" Before leaving, he suddenly thought of something and asked, "Don't you want to go with him?"
"Oh, well..." Hermione blushed slightly, "I thought we could meet him at the Three Broomsticks..."
"No way!" said Harry flatly.
Ron was the one who took the initiative to quarrel with Harry, and Harry felt that his jealousy was a little unreasonable, so he simply cut off contact with him.
Now Hermione wanted Harry to take the initiative to find Ron, which was of course impossible.
"Oh, Harry, this is so stupid! You two..."
"I'll go, but I don't want to meet Ron. I'm going to put on my Invisibility Cloak," said Harry angrily.
"Oh, all right then..." Hermione huffed, "but I wouldn't want to talk to you if you were wearing that because I wouldn't be able to tell if I was looking at you with my eyes."
So, Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak in his dormitory, went downstairs, and set off for Hogsmeade with Hermione.
Harry felt particularly at ease under the Invisibility Cloak because finally no one was looking at him with malicious or suspicious eyes.
As they walked into the village he watched other students walk past them, most of them with badges of support for Cedric Diggory on their chests, but there were no unpleasant comments and no one deliberately flashed the words "Potter Stinky Shit".
"People keep looking at me now," Hermione said unhappily to the air beside her, "and they think I'm talking to myself."
They walked to Honeydukes to buy a few large bars of freshly-made chocolate ganaches.
At this moment, from a distance, a boy with fiery red hair ran towards Hermione in a hurry.
"Hermione—" the red-haired boy, Ron, panted, "Something bad has happened. I think I just got some news... I think you need to tell Harry about this for me!"
…
…