Chapter 193 The Life of the Despised Merope
"Merope loved her husband deeply, and she couldn't bear to continue to control him through magical means. She was so obsessed with it, and their long relationship made her believe that Riddle also fell in love with her, or maybe she I thought my husband would stay for the sake of the children.”
"So she let go of her control on Riddle, but Riddle didn't think so. He was frightened. When he regained consciousness, Riddle immediately fled back to Little Hangleton."
Dumbledore waved his wand, and the snakes and insects hidden in the mansion were dispersed, and they lined up densely to crawl along the wall and into the woods outside. The scales and tentacles ran over the leaves under the tree, making bursts of rustling sounds.
Loren huddled behind Dumbledore and followed him into Gaunt's old house.
There are three rooms in this house. The large room in the middle doubles as the kitchen and living room, and there are two doors leading to other rooms.
The blackened stove was broken and full of chips. Next to it, a dirty armchair hung with corroded snake bones. The table was covered with dust, a moldy and rusty pot lay on the floor, and a pile of dirty pots and pans sat on the shelves along the wall.
"After being abandoned by old Tom Riddle, the pregnant Merope wandered alone in London. She needed money, warm clothes and food to nourish the fetus. To this end, she had to sell Slytherin's Locket. Price: 10 gold galleons."
When Loren heard this, his face was full of disbelief: "10 Galleons? Even the toilet used by Slytherin is still more than 10 Galleons. Isn't she a wizard? Why doesn't she use magic to get food from Muggles? ?”
"Well," said Dumbledore, "maybe she could. But I think - and I'm speculating, but I believe I'm right - I think Merope stopped using magic after her husband abandoned her. No more. She probably doesn’t want to be a witch anymore.”
"Of course, there is another possibility. Her unrequited love and the despair it brought greatly weakened her strength. Even when Merope was in labor, she was unwilling to raise her magic wand to save her baby. life."
"On December 31, 1926, Merope died on a dark and windy night. She gave birth to Voldemort in a Muggle orphanage, named him Tom Marvolo Riddle, and hoped that little Tom Riddle would be born. Del was able to have the same good looks as his father."
Loren raised his eyebrows: "Principal Dumbledore, could it be that you have sympathy for Voldemort's mother?"
Dumbledore sighed: "In that kind of family, Merope has never felt loved, nor has the ability to love someone."
He had mixed feelings about Merope. He had read Bob Ogden's memories and thought that she was different from the rest of the Gaunt family, and that there was still a trace of love in her heart.
After a pause, Dumbledore asked: "What do you think of Merope?"
"Well -" Loren thought for a while, "Pity, hateful, and pathetic. This is her own choice, and everyone should be responsible for their own choices."
Merope twisted Riddle's will and forced him to accept her deformed love, dooming this relationship to a tragic ending.
"Everyone should be responsible for their own choices..." Dumbledore repeated, falling into long memories.
"and after?"
Hearing the inquiry, Dumbledore came back to his senses: "Later, the 17-year-old Voldemort returned here and learned the truth about his life experience. He killed the Riddle family and put the blame on Morfin. He also stole the ancestral inheritance of the Gaunt family. The ring, I think - this is another guess, I still think I'm right - Voldemort made the Gaunt ring into a Horcrux."
His eyes searched the room.
Loren also opened his magic vision and felt the fluctuations of magic power.
A thick and deep black magical aura was constantly emanating from a clay pot on the shelf. The evil and dangerous feeling was hard to ignore.
Dumbledore smiled: "Voldemort was too confident. He thought that what he did was perfect. He firmly believed that no one knew that he was related to the Gaunt family, and there were no clues pointing to him in the investigation of the murder, so he felt relieved. The ring is hidden here."
Although he thought Voldemort was careless in hiding the ring, Dumbledore still remained vigilant. He stretched out his wand and tapped the pot twice.
The clay pot flew smoothly off the shelf and onto the table. Then it was turned upside down and the contents poured out.
Ding bell dong!
The black sapphire ring fell on the table and made a crisp sound.
The dust attached to the surface of the ring was shaken off by the vibration, revealing its mysterious and primitive appearance. The black gemstone on the ring reflected a faint light in the gloomy room.
Putting the pot back on the shelf, Dumbledore and Loren tacitly moved forward to observe the ring.
The ring was large, as if it were made of gold, with rough craftsmanship, and a heavy black stone embedded in it.
A strange heraldry is engraved on the black stone, a symmetrical triangle enclosing a circle with a vertical line in the circle. It looks like a triangular eye with a vertical line in the middle of the pupil.
The deep and thick black magic aura, the evil and dangerous feeling emanates from this ring.
"Headmaster, there is a very powerful curse on the ring." Loren said, suddenly remembering the plot about Dumbledore's finger.
The movie does not explain the specific scene when Dumbledore destroyed the ring, but when he took out the destroyed ring, he was still cursed that could not be lifted.
Loren turned his head and looked at Dumbledore, and found that he was in an abnormal state.
Dumbledore seemed to be unable to hear Loren's voice. He ignored Loren and seemed to be fascinated by the ring, staring at it.
His expression was filled with painful compassion, and his eyes were filled with deep sadness and grief. His calm and wise eyes in the past were completely gone.
"The symbol of admiration for Lil, the symbol of the Deathly Hallows..." Dumbledore murmured, completely ignoring Loren's existence.
"Resurrection Stone... Ariana..." His eyes were full of hope, and his fingers trembled slightly, as if he wanted to wear the ring.
"No, no, the boundary of death is difficult to violate..." Dumbledore's remaining mind was working, and his face showed a struggle.
"Principal! Principal Dumbledore!" Loren shouted loudly, trying to wake up Dumbledore, but it didn't work at all.
He shook Dumbledore's body with his hands, and Dumbledore had no reaction to external stimuli.
There was something wrong with the ring. Loren noticed something was wrong. Even if Dumbledore wanted to use the Resurrection Stone to resurrect his sister, he would not be like this if he struggled with family affection and the cognition of life and death.
If Dumbledore was awake, he would be tempted by the Resurrection Stone, but he could not be completely immersed in the illusory world.
Loren slightly opened his eyes, guided his eyes to blur the focus, and entered the deep magical vision that Dumbledore had taught.
All the things in the room suddenly faded, leaving only the outline of the body drawn by white lines like line drawings. All the lines twisted and intertwined like water.
He saw that between Dumbledore's eyes and the ring on the table, a flowing line was pulled.
It was indeed the ring that was affecting Dumbledore!
Thinking carefully, the diary can absorb people's emotions, explore the desires deep in their hearts, and even control Ginny to release the basilisk. It is not surprising that other Horcruxes have similar effects.
"Principal, wake up!" Loren called out in a shocking voice, picking up the wand in his hand to make some big noise.
"It's useless. He is indulging in his own fantasy." A voice said softly.
Loren suddenly noticed that there was another figure beside him, a tall black-haired man wearing a magic robe belonging to Slytherin College. The outline of the man was blurred, and he didn't look like a ghost, but more transparent than a ghost.
"【Thunderbolt Pierce】"
A blazing red light penetrated through the door of the main house and hit the house on the side. The explosion destroyed the entire side house in an instant. The dust that had been deposited for more than ten years was blown into the woods with the wind and waves, breaking the long-term desolation here.
Riddle was not annoyed by the spell on his face. He showed an elegant and friendly smile: "I don't have a physical body now, and the spell doesn't work on me."
Of course I know it doesn't work on you, but I feel uncomfortable if I don't try it... Loren complained in his heart.
He held the wand tightly, and was alert in the direction of Tom Riddle. While the phantom opposite was not paying attention, he slightly side-glanced to observe Dumbledore's state.
What made him a little anxious was that even with such a huge explosion, Dumbledore still showed no signs of waking up.
The trembling in his fingers has spread to his palms. When this trembling spreads to his entire arm, Dumbledore will put on the ring with a vicious curse.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" Loren asked knowingly, stalling for time while thinking of a solution.
As Dumbledore's emotions were absorbed by the ring, Riddle's figure gradually became more solid, and the elegant smile on his face became brighter: "Maybe you should call me senior, I was also a student of Hogwarts."
He turned his head to look at the struggling white-bearded headmaster, and his tone was hard to tell whether he was good or bad: "It was Professor Dumbledore who personally led me to school. Oh, no, listening to what you said just now, I should call you Headmaster Dumbledore now."
Loren suddenly had a bold idea in his mind: "Do you have any way to wake up Headmaster Dumbledore?"
Riddle could no longer maintain his politeness and laughed wantonly: "Hahahahaha..."
This seemed like a big joke, and he laughed for a long time before stopping: "Dumbledore brought you here, don't you know my identity? Or are all Gryffindor students so naive and stupid?"
In response to him, he cast two swift spells, and Loren waved his wand continuously: "【God's Edge Without Shadow】【Thunderbolt Piercing】"
"They say that spells don't work on me." Riddle laughed.
But the spell was not directed at him, but at the ring on the table. The transparent blade quickly passed by, followed by the red light of the piercing spell.
Two spells hit the resurrection stone ring, but they had no effect. The surface of the ring flashed and disappeared, and the spell disappeared with it. The sharp edge did not cut the ring, and the explosion of the piercing spell did not sound.
Realizing that this little wizard could not threaten him, Riddle showed his true attitude and looked at the scene with a mocking and cold face: "Give up, the Horcrux is indestructible."
Loren was silent and did not speak, thinking about countermeasures quickly in his heart.
He actually wanted to pull Dumbledore to Apparate and teleport away, but his Apparate had not yet been practiced to the point where he could carry people, and he was afraid that the principal would be missing arms and legs.
And Riddle could already show his body. Loren was worried that after they left, Voldemort would control a few snakes and escape with the ring, which would cause endless troubles.
No matter what, Apparition is the last resort. Losing limbs is better than being cursed to death.
His eyes were fixed on the connection between Dumbledore and the ring, and on the flowing lines of magic. Absorbing Dumbledore's emotions to grow stronger, this kind of thing sounds a bit familiar...
A bit like Dementors...
"Anyway, ordinary spells don't work on Riddle and Horcruxes, so let's give it a try."
Loren raised his wand: "[Expecto Patronus]"
In the old house where the sky was blocked by trees, a brighter light than ever before suddenly lit up. The blazing silver-white light burst out at the tip of the wand and gathered into the figure of a giant.
The house couldn't accommodate Loren's killer whale patronus at all, and most of its body was on the roof.
Riddle looked at this scene in horror. Although he couldn't use the Patronus Charm himself, he knew about this spell and had seen other people's patronuses. Even in the legends that coaxed little wizards, there was no such amazing patronus.
He suddenly had a bad premonition.
Loren swung his arm, causing the wand to swing downward.
The killer whale patronus swung its tail, and its magnificent body seemed to move clumsily, stirring up a turbulent wind in another dimension.
The giant whale rushed forward without hesitation.
The patronus's actions were silent, and even the snakes and insects in the woods outside the house quieted down, and for a moment, everything was silent. But Loren seemed to hear the roar from the distant deep sea, and invisible ripples spread in another dimension.
The impact area covered Riddle's shadow, the resurrection stone ring, and the white-bearded old wizard.
The silver-white patronus light blocked the line of sight, and nothing could be seen clearly.
"I have never seen such a magnificent patronus, it is really amazing." The old wizard's old voice came through the light.
"Principal Dumbledore!" Loren shouted in surprise. He quickly put away the patronus and rushed to Dumbledore's side, "Principal, you finally woke up!"
His hand stopped shaking, and there was no ring on it, nor any dark curses and runes.
It seems that he was not hit.
Loren looked to the side, but could no longer find Riddle's vague figure. But Gaunt's ring was still intact on the table, still emitting a dangerous, evil aura.
He sighed in disappointment. He thought his killer whale patronus was different from others, and it would be a fatal blow to Voldemort's evil soul hidden in the ring, and it could be raised directly to him.
It seems that I thought too much...