chapter 7 Why only six horcruxes

"Oh? My successor?"

The interest in Dumbledore's eyes grew stronger.

In his long life, he had seen too many interesting young wizards.

However, the beginning of the story of this "Professor Snape" is undoubtedly the most brilliant one.

"So Professor Snape, um, is that what I'll call you in the future?"

Dumbledore's blue eyes stared happily at Snape. "What do you want me for, my professor?"

"Severus—you're usually called by first name."

Severus frowned, Dumbledore's tone of coaxing children was really unpleasant.

Of course, this kind of attitude is not surprising. Anyone who comes from decades later will find this kind of thing incredible.

Luckily, he was ready long before he sent the owl letter.

"At the end of the second floor of the principal's office, there is a special oak door."

Severus didn't answer Dumbledore's question, but started telling a seemingly unrelated story to himself.

"The oak door leads to an unremarkable tower at Hogwarts that has never been visited by students, and at the top of the tower is an ancient book with a somewhat peeling black dragon hide cover. Its pages have been there since the Big Four put it there when the castle was completed It has not been touched by human fingers since. Beside it stands a small silver inkwell with a long faded quill in it."

"When a child in England first shows his gift for magic, the quill flies out of the inkwell, trying to write the child's name into the great book."

"The book bears powerful and enduring magic. Unless it receives sufficient proof that a man possesses magical abilities, the quill will refuse to write a name upon it."

"This is the only institution that Hogwarts has selected students to enter for thousands of years. We call them..."

"—the Book of Admission and the Pen of Acceptance," Dumbledore replied mildly and softly.

As the headmaster of Hogwarts, he often stayed quietly in this tower for hours, hoping to observe their actions.

In addition, before the start of each year, the headmaster of Hogwarts also goes to the tower to transcribe and record the enrollment list for this year.

"I've seen your name—Mr. Snape. But I can't remember the names before and after your name."

Dumbledore sat up straight, wand flat on his lap, and looked at Severus meaningfully.

"I don't know you..."

"Above my name is Sirius Black, and below me—"

Severus froze for half a second, his voice softening.

"Lily Evans. From Cokeworth like me."

"..."

Completely correct.

This black-haired boy served as the principal.

Dumbledore tapped his wand twice with his fingers.

The invisible wave of magic rippled and spread throughout the room in an instant.

The windows closed gently, and the door clicked and locked.

"Then, Professor Snape—"

Dumbledore frowned and rubbed his wand, seeming to be trying to find the words.

"Let's go back to that question, what is your purpose for looking for me? Or, is there anything I should do?"

"The Dark Lord."

Severus replied.

"Hogwarts has been breached, and I don't know how it will end."

Whether or not Dumbledore's final plan worked was completely unclear to him.

However, Severus knew that starting from the resurrection of Voldemort and the siege of Hogwarts Castle itself represented a serious problem with the plan.

If one must find a mission for this unimaginable time travel, it may be to reverse the bad result.

Well, from any point of view, the possibility of Hogwarts teachers and students defeating Voldemort head-on is extremely low.

His voluntary sacrifice was nothing more than adding a little bit to the slim possibility.

"The Dark Lord created Horcruxes, and we must destroy all Horcruxes, in our generation."

"Otherwise, many innocent wizards will die because of this in the future."

Horcrux?

This is Tom's shortcut to victory over death?

Dumbledore's eyes flickered, it seemed that his previous guess was in the wrong direction.

but……

Dumbledore ignored the warnings that hadn't happened, but raised his wand again, looking at Severus sternly.

"Oh, ordinary wizards and members of the Order don't call Tom the Dark Lord, Severus."

Things from the future may be true, but it's hard to say which side you're on.

"I was a Death Eater."

Severus replied dryly.

"I joined the Order of the Phoenix later, but I'm still lurking there because—"

"I trust you."

A small smile flashed across Dumbledore's blue eyes behind half-moon lenses.

"Otherwise it should be Tom standing here, not me, the old man, right?"

"Then Mr. Headmaster—"

"You can still call me Severus." Snape interrupted angrily.

"Well, Severus," Dumbledore shrugged, "in your experience, what should we do now?"

"Very simple, three things—"

Severus glanced up at the old man and replied calmly.

"First, collect Horcruxes. The Dark Lord's undead ability..."

"Actually, you can also call him Tom Riddle." Dumbledore interrupted with a smile.

"...Riddle, uh, Riddle's madness exceeds our imagination."

Severus twitched his face, glared fiercely at the old wizard who "had a grudge", coughed lightly and continued.

"From what we know in 'Future', he created more than one Horcrux. Unless all the Horcruxes are destroyed, he cannot be completely killed."

"Multiple... Horcruxes?" Dumbledore frowned, keenly grasping the key point, "How many?"

Dark wizards can split their own souls through evil things such as murder.

The separated soul fragments are transferred to an object to form a horcrux-a horcrux can tear a person's soul apart and seal a part of it.

In this way, even if the body is destroyed, it will not die. Because there is still a part of the soul that has not been damaged and remains in the world. But the soul should remain intact, and to split it is an evil act against nature. The more the soul is divided, the more unstable it becomes. Therefore, most cruel dark wizards are unwilling to make Horcruxes, and they prefer to die happily.

"Seven—if you guessed 'before' correctly." Severus replied softly.

"Conjecture?"

"Because we only found seven of them. But that's about it."

Severus recalled the information he knew before, counting it one by one.

"Tom Riddle's student diary, his inseparable snake Nagini, Marvolo Gaunt's ring, Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's cup, Ravenc Law's crown, and..." Severus suddenly paused, changed the topic, and stopped abruptly, "Well, we have to consider a few now."

"Find them, destroy them, and destroy the Dark Lord—Tom Riddle before he recreates new Horcruxes, and you will defeat him completely."

"Wait. Severus, if I'm not mistaken..."

Dumbledore interrupted with a raised palm, unhurriedly pointing out the problem.

"Just now... it seems that you only mentioned six in total?"