Chapter 608 Nurmengard

"Professor, why didn't we just apparate to Professor Slughorn's house?"

"Because that's just as rude as kicking down someone's door."

"..."

On the outer streets of Barberton Village, four figures walked slowly in the snow and walked out of the garden path. Most of the lights in the houses on both sides of the road had been extinguished, leaving only a few streetlights to illuminate them. Snow.

The sound of rustling footsteps on the snow echoed quietly, and the slightly dim light stretched the shadows of the four people. They shuttled between the light and dark areas. Hermione didn't pay much attention to the chat between Harry and the principal, but spoke out own doubts.

"Professor, Mr. Slughorn taught at the school a long time ago. In this case, he and Voldemort..."

Loren, who was walking next to her, turned around and looked at the little witch who was frowning slightly. She couldn't help but sigh that Miss Know-It-All was really quick in thinking.

"What?" Harry looked at Dumbledore in surprise.

The tall and thin old man kept walking, with some snowflakes on his silver hair and beard, and his eyes were as calm as water: "Yes, Tom Riddle was once Horace's favorite student, and no one at the same time could compare with him. Compared with... Horace at that time was still very young, not yet bald, and always showed off his thick and shiny yellow hair..."

Accompanied by the howling wind on the snowy night, the calm and powerful narration brought several people back to the peaceful Hogwarts decades ago.

Young Slughorn not only has extraordinary talents in potions, he is also good at discovering students with outstanding talents to join his circle and giving them special treatment. He founded his own Slug Club to provide a platform for people he admired to communicate.

As an exceptionally qualified and handsome student, Tom Riddle is polite and quiet, hungry for knowledge, willing to communicate with professors, often able to draw inferences from one instance, and even enlighten professors on some wonderful magical issues. He has almost just entered the Huo University. Gwartz attracted the attention and sympathy of all the professors.

It was no surprise to Slughorn, who had a unique vision. He personally trained Riddle, taught him secret and profound magical knowledge, told him the unknown rules of the magical world, and guided him into the upper class society of wizards, but he also This resulted in irreparable mistakes.

"Horace was a good enough wizard that he knew the secrets of Horcruxes and told his in-depth knowledge to his favorite student at the time, Tom Riddle..."

Harry's eyes immediately widened with a look of shock on his face: "But, sir..."

"This time I asked Horace to return to Hogwarts to be the Potions Professor again. I do have another purpose..." Dumbledore said unhurriedly, "I hope you will be in contact with him in the process of contacting him. , to explore the deep secrets about Horcruxes."

Hermione was a little confused: "Why don't you just ask him directly?"

"I tried." Dumbledore sighed slightly, "But I couldn't get the answer. After Horace found out that he had caused the disaster, he felt regret and shame about it, and he kept trying to cover up the mistakes he had made..."

"Try Legilimency? Or Veritaserum?" Loren tried to make a suggestion.

Hermione gave him a wide-eyed glare.

How could the professor use that method?

"Horace is an experienced and very capable wizard. He is also very accomplished in Occlumency. He is a master of potions. Veritaserum is difficult to work on him..." Dumbledore shook his head. "I once forcefully asked him to hand over the memory about the Horcrux, but I only got a modified false memory."

Hermione's eyes opened even wider.

"Trying to forcefully obtain the truth from Horace will not work." Dumbledore said, his eyes quietly falling on the three of them, with a slight smile on his face, "So I hope you can adopt more clever methods. Way to make him express his feelings."

"..."

The dim street lights silently illuminated the snowy ground, and the snowflakes falling from the deep blue night sky fell gently, making the old man's beard whiter.

Hermione and Harry were concentrating on thinking about Slughorn's memory, while Loren went through it in his mind, and he vaguely recalled the incident--in the end, Harry drank a sip of Felixir, and that night Under the guidance of the goddess of luck, I gained memories and learned that Voldemort was preparing to make 7 Horcruxes.

Loren raised his head and glanced at Dumbledore quietly, wondering whether to wait for Harry to find out by himself, or whether he would make up a story and take the time to tell the principal about the result...

Forget it, we’ll talk about it later.

Loren shook his head, put this question aside for the time being, and brought up another matter: "Professor, you just mentioned the Dark Mark and Ms. Bathilda Bagshot in the room, what happened to her? Well, why haven’t you seen any reports?”

"In order to prevent panic, Scrimgeour suppressed the Daily Prophet's report. That happened last night..." Dumbledore sighed softly, his voice low and somewhat sad, "Voldemort took advantage of The night attack killed Lady Bagshot and left the Dark Mark hanging in Godric's Hollow all night."

"I remember Bagshot was the compiler of "History of Magic," right. Why did Voldemort attack her?" Harry was a little confused.

"I couldn't figure it out at first, but when I went to Ms. Bagshot's residence to conduct on-site investigation during the day, I found some clues. There was a photo missing from her room."

"photo?"

Dumbledore said softly: "Yes, about her nephew, Gertler Grindelwald."

Hermione suddenly relaxed her breath, as if a flash of inspiration flashed through her mind, and many pictures flashed before her eyes, including the Death Eaters who had been lingering in Hogsmeade to inquire about information. Rita had once published it in the Daily Prophet A special report about Dumbledore and Grindelwald, about the legendary duel...

Loren immediately thought of the Elder Wand. He looked up at the old principal and couldn't help but ask: "Voldemort will definitely go find him. Principal, don't you need to inform Nurmengard in advance to take precautions?"

Dumbledore lowered his head and smiled at him: "Aren't we on the way to Nurmengard?"

…

The towering Nurmengard Castle is located in the wilderness far away from human habitation in Austria. The towering gray tower is like a sharp blade piercing the clouds. The external walls are covered with traces of time. The moss and ivy vines have shrunk and dried up due to the severe cold, leaving only darkness. The stiff branches cling to the wall like the claws of a howling banshee, and the entire building sleeps in the snow, silent and majestic.

Only a solitary lamp calmly illuminates the entrance to Nurmengard, and a faded sentence is engraved on the stone pillar next to the iron gate: For the greater good.

A slight ripple spread through the space, the power of magic broke through the air barrier, a banging sound exploded in front of the door, and a group of four people suddenly appeared in this solitary lamp.

Harry breathed in the cold air, as if he had just suddenly risen from the bottom of the lake and broke through the water. He greedily sucked in the fresh air due to the feeling of suffocation, and his chest heaved violently. Although the feeling of Portkey was easier than Apparition, the long-distance transmission across the country was still frustrating. His face turned red, and he was in a daze for a long time before he gradually came back to his senses. He heard Dumbledore's voice reaching his ears smoothly.

"Grindelwald studied at Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He showed extremely high magical talent at a young age and had excellent grades. However, he did not spend his energy in the right place, but devoted himself to evil black magic. When he was sixteen years old, he was expelled for conducting unallowed evil experiments, attacking a classmate and almost killing himself, and blatantly violating many school rules...

"Grindelwald and his witch-hunters committed numerous crimes, including several murders, openly violated the Statute of Secrecy, carried out large-scale terrorist attacks, and established a power base at Nurmengard Castle in Austria... In 1945, he He tried to seize control of the magical world, but lost in the final critical duel and was imprisoned in Nurmengard for a long time..."

Loren retracted his gaze from looking at the prison, quietly glanced at the old principal, and added in a low voice: "The mainstream voices in many countries believe that Grindelwald is an undoubted dark wizard, but there are also many countries that are deeply influenced by his thoughts. , believes that Grindelwald is a complex character who cannot simply be judged as good or bad. He is a complex character, idealistic, talented, and must achieve his goals at all costs..."

Dumbledore shook his head with a smile and pushed the door open with a few people.

Entering the interior of Nurmengard, there is a long and narrow corridor after the foyer. There is no light and it is pitch black. The air is filled with the smell of rotten wood. There is a thick layer of dust on the ground. It seems that no one has been there for many years. .

What surprised Loren was that there were no signs of magic or alchemy here. There were no cold chains, no heavy iron doors, and no guards with cold expressions. Compared to a tightly protected prison, this place looked more like an abandoned place. tower.

Going up the stairs, the walls are covered with mottled traces of time.

Dumbledore continued to tell the story of his old friend: "Grindelwald was a born prophet. One sunny afternoon, he saw a book about the Deathly Hallows in Durmstrang's library. The book mentioned that by combining three legendary objects, the owner would become the master of Death. That night, he saw a prophecy and knew that he would become the master of the magical world...

"During his short academic career, in addition to studying black magic, he greedily searched for all knowledge about the Deathly Hallows, and even regarded the runes representing the Deathly Hallows as his own symbols. I wonder if Krum followed You mentioned that before leaving Durmstrang, he carved the symbol on the wall... After being expelled from Durmstrang, Grindelwald came to England in order to search for information about the Holy Artifact... Godric's Hollow."

The ancient tower, which no one has set foot on for many years, is not considered dirty. Apart from the smell of rotting dry wood, there is no unpleasant smell of decay, such as rat corpses or fermented feces and urine. Because of the unique structure, the temperature of the tower is even slightly higher than outside. Higher, but not quite warm.

Arriving at the top floor, Dumbledore led them towards the innermost room, his voice never stopping:

“That’s where Ignotus Peverell, the first owner of the Death Cloak, is buried, and his great-aunt Bathilda Bagshot, the famous wizarding historian, happened to live there and provided him with a lot of Books and documents provided him with information for drawing a grand blueprint. He quickly determined his goal to find the Deathly Hallows and use their power to become the most powerful wizard, overturn the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, and establish a The new order allows wizards to become the monarchs of the world..."

"There's something you forgot to tell your students, Albus!"

An old and dull voice came from behind the door, echoing throughout the tower, "You were also a staunch supporter of this grand plan back then!"

The door opened, and a spacious and empty room appeared in front of the four people. The floor was flat, and there was a window on the wall. The iron railings were rusty, the glass was broken, and it was covered with old newspapers. There was almost no furniture in the room. , except for a set of rough tables and chairs, there is only a hard stone bed, which is covered with thin hay and the quilt is bulging. However, according to Loren, who has lived in the ranch for several years, he observes that there are rags stuffed with hay inside to keep warm. Performance is slightly better than air.

The old man was sitting by the window, wearing a starched white but neat and clean cloth robe. He looked at the people at the door, his eyes fell on the silver beard and hair of the tall and thin figure, and he sighed with a smile: "Long time no see, Ah Bu Si, you are getting old too.”

Dumbledore was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted, opened his mouth, and paused: "Long time no see, Gellert..."

Just as this tower does not have the tightly-protected magic as imagined, the prisoners imprisoned here for life do not have the desolation and loneliness as they imagined. The reunion of these old friends after decades of separation does not have the expected grudges and entanglements to fill the heart.

The two simply said hello. Grindelwald, who was legendary for being extremely evil, looked like an ordinary old man. He smiled as he watched them walk in and sit down. He listened to Dumbledore introducing several students, nodded and said hello in turn: "Sorry, the house is simple and there is nothing to entertain you."

Dumbledore stretched out his wand and touched it on the table. A pot of hot tea and several teacups appeared out of thin air, and steam rose.

Harry stared at Grindelwald with some curiosity, as if he was confused that the villain in the books was different from what he expected, and even a little kind.

Loren and Hermione drank tea in silence.

Grindelwald picked up the cup but did not drink it. Instead, he lowered his head and sniffed the hot air, savoring the slight sweetness hidden in the rich tea aroma. He held it in his hand to keep warm: "You came to me in such a hurry. What's the matter?"

Dumbledore looked at him deeply: "I want to hire you as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts."