The lights in Dumbledore's office all lit up the moment they stepped in. The portraits of the past headmasters were snoring softly in the photo frame. While Harry was still looking at the layout of the office, Dumbledore had already directed the meditation basin to fly to the desk.
"Harry, the memories I'm going to show you tonight are not easy to come by. I think this is the most important one of all the memories I've collected." Dumbledore took out a small crystal bottle from the luxurious castle-like shelf where he kept his memories.
Harry noticed that the contents of the bottle were not easy to pour into the meditation basin. It seemed to be a little condensed. He couldn't help but wonder if memories could also change.
Dumbledore pointed at the meditation basin and made an inviting gesture to Harry. Harry approached the stone basin, bent down obediently, and immersed his face in the memories. He experienced the familiar feeling of falling through the void again.
"I really want to know where you got this information from. You're more well-informed than most of the professors in Hogwarts." This was Horace Slughorn, whose voice was much younger.
Six or seven boys sat around him, all of them about 15 or 16 years old. Harry recognized Liddell at a glance. He had the most handsome face. He looked the most relaxed. He smiled and said, "Professor, is it true that Professor Meles is going to retire?"
"Oh, Tom, I can't just tell you that I know, can I?" Slughorn's hand picked out a piece from a box of pineapple preserves. His eyes were wide open and his face was full of smiles. He looked energetic and had thick, shiny yellow hair.
"And thank you for the pineapple. It's my favorite. But how did you know?" Slughorn narrowed his eyes and asked curiously, leaning forward.
Liddell raised the corner of his mouth and smiled gently. His eyes narrowed slightly. "Intuition."
After the gathering ended, the boys stood up and filed out. Liddell didn't move from his seat, deliberately falling behind. He obviously wanted to be alone in the room with Slughorn.
Slughorn glanced at the hourglass and asked, "I think we still have some time. Tom, is there anything else?"
"There's something … Professor." Liddell frowned slightly as he endured Horace calling him by the name that he thought was too common. Then, he slowly approached his potions professor and asked in a low voice, "One night, I was in the forbidden section of the library... and I read about some rare magic materials. I thought you might be able to give me some pointers." Liddell approached Slughorn. "If I remember correctly, that thing is called... a soul vessel."
Slughorn's kind face suddenly became very stern. he shouted at Liddell, "What did you say?! I've never even heard of such things. Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you. Get out of here! And don't mention this to me again! "
Slughorn waved his arm and the room distorted. Black fog filled the room. Harry couldn't see Slughorn or Liddell. The memory ended there. He raised his head from the meditation basin.
"Confused, right?" Dumbledore looked at Harry. "I'd be surprised if you didn't."
"I don't understand what happened just now." Harry wiped the water droplets off his face in confusion.
"This may be the most important memory I've collected, but it's also a lie. This memory has been tampered with by its owner, our old friend, Professor Slughorn." Dumbledore explained, "So the truth-telling serum and the mind retrieval can't be counted as real evidence because it can be tampered with … Otherwise, when you were sued by Foggy last year, things would've been simpler …"
"Why would he change his memory?"
"Why? Yes, why? I guess he's ashamed of it. He thinks he created the Lord Voldemort. " Dumbledore looked at Harry. "I asked you to get close to Slughorn, and you did it. Next, I want you to persuade him to hand over this memory."
Dumbledore's hand brushed across the meditation basin. He looked down at the slowly spinning silver memory in the basin. The neither solid nor liquid thing in the meditation basin slipped from his hand. "This memory is everything. Without it, we'd be blind."
On the first weekend after returning to school, Gatekeeper Filch stood at the entrance of Hogwarts Castle and carefully checked the documents in the hands of the wizards, which were signed by the guardians and allowed to visit Hogsmeade.
Although the snow around the path leading to Hogwarts had melted, it didn't mean it was warm and comfortable. The melted snow made the weather even colder and wetter. Dark clouds hung low in the sky. Even so, the wizards of Hogwarts still took advantage of this rare opportunity to go out.
On the muddy and slippery path, Luna danced lightly to the sound of her strange singing. Ginny and Hermione, who had dressed up a little, walked side by side behind her, talking and laughing. The beautiful little witches became the scenery on the road.
Hogsmeade was very lively on Saturday because of the visit of these little wizards. Honey Duke was crowded with Hogwarts students. At this time, the little wizards were attracted by the dazzling array of goods and turned their eyes away from the beautiful witches.
Rows of shelves were filled with the most delicious and juicy candies. When Ambrosius Fromm, the owner of Honey Duke, went to Hogwarts to attend Professor Slughorn's dinner party, he carried all kinds of candies in a basket that he had cast Traceless Stretching Spell. He gave these candies to the students who attended the party. As he had expected, most of the wizards who received his candies became his loyal customers.
However, the ice cream that Ambrosius thought would be popular with the little wizards was ignored. Except for Luna Lovegood, the famous crazy girl from Ravenclaw, who had just come in, no one wanted to eat ice cream in this cold weather.
At this time, in Diagon Alley.
Unlike the bustling scene in the past, in front of a rectangular house with a huge dome in the center and a semicircular dome in the front and back, many Aura were maintaining order. A large group of reporters crowded outside the door. Many of them were foreign media who had heard the news about the British magic circle and had specially come from abroad. They crowded and pointed their camera equipment at the center of the road that the Aura had opened up. Although this was a new thing in the British magic circle, it did not prevent it from attracting the attention of the foreign wizards. As long as the situation continued to develop, the effect of this forced positive development would be much better than Luna's previous two-person deception.
The Aura, who had specially selected good-looking men and women, stood at the door and said gently and helplessly, "Ladies and gentlemen, please be quiet. Don't crowd. Be careful."
Today was the inauguration ceremony of the Ravenclaw Temple in Diagon Alley donated by Family Harris. Many celebrities in the magic circle, even the local pure-blood families who were secretly fighting with the Harris family, were invited to attend. At least on the surface, they still maintained enough dignity and courtesy to each other.
On such an occasion, as the nominal voter of Ravenclaw, Allen stood in the temple hall where he had cast the Traceless Expansion Spell and quietly waited for the inauguration ceremony of the Ravenclaw Temple to begin.
The wizards who had received the 'grace' of Ravenclaw dressed up and took the initiative to contact the media, telling how they had received the grace of Ravenclaw. As the first batch of beneficiaries after Ravenclaw's divine manifestation, Allen had privately sponsored this group of people who had been unemployed for a long time due to illness in St. Mungo's Hospital. Except for Katie Bell, who would still complete her studies in the school, these wizards, who did not have a stable source of income because of their own misfortune, all agreed to stay in the new temple and become part of it. They would later preach in Diagon Alley.
The temple had elegant arched windows on the walls, hanging with blue and bronze silks. The ceiling was a dome decorated with stars, and the dark blue carpet below was also decorated with stars. Many ravens were flying and resting under the stars above the dome, adding a lot of mystery to the temple. The surrounding walls were all made up of huge bookshelves. If it were not for the huge white marble statue of Ravenclaw and its dragon-shaped relief pedestal, as well as the pulpit and benches in front of it, which was even bigger and more solemn than the common room of Ravenclaw, the graduates of Ravenclaw would have thought that they had returned to Hogwarts.
Even the ghost of Ravenclaw's academy, Ms. Gray, was floating near the statue of her mother in Hogwarts. This not only added to the feeling, but also seemed to prove that this event was real.
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