Dumbledore was speechless after Damon's words, and he looked at him with a hint of helplessness.
This student was truly rebellious. Not only did he have no respect for his teacher, he even tried to exploit him.
Although his responsibility was indeed heavy, he felt a certain uncertainty when his own student pointed it out so bluntly.
Actually, Damon's words were already very tactful.
One wonders how much more complicated Dumbledore's feelings would have been if he had directly expressed his inner thoughts, "Old Dumbledore, you're old enough to be making money, who gave you permission to rest?"
One wonders if nineteenth-century Westerners would have accepted a hellish joke.
The three of them set an agenda, and Damon wrote a letter to Borgin Blog, asking the powerful black shop owner to get him a Pensieve. Although Dumbledore already had one, since Dumbledore had decided to teach Harry Occlumency himself, Damon suspected he would use it.
Great Hangleton, central England.
Nagini, cloaked in black robes, had finally arrived here after a long journey.
She walked along a country road, flanked by tall, tangled hedgerows. Above her was a summer sky, as clear and blue as a forget-me-not.
Nagini followed her inner guidance—she felt a familiarity with the place, even though she had never been beneath the dense shadows cast by the ancient trees. Nagini found the house she remembered—half-hidden among the tangled trees—the old Gaunt house.
Nagini slowly approached the dilapidated house.
A corner of the roof had caved in, the stone walls were covered in moss and cracks, and the window frames were empty like blind eye sockets.
For some reason, looking at the house, Nagini felt herself becoming increasingly irritable.
"Ah!"
Her beautiful features furrowed, and she crouched on the ground in agony. She felt a flood of memories flooding back from her mind. They were about herself, her story, the story before Voldemort made her into a Horcrux.
"Blood Curse Nagini. I... I am the Blood Orc—Nagini."
She opened her eyes in panic, staring at her hands, unable to comprehend what had happened to her.
Hadn't the curse permanently transformed her into a viper, rendering her mindless? How could she now have her memory and sanity restored?
"Nagini! My loyal servant! Do not forget my command!"
Before the young girl could process what was happening, a powerful mental innuendo, accompanied by a ferocious roar, echoed in her ears.
The old Nagini would never have been able to disobey such an order.
But now, with another Horcrux destroyed by Damon, Voldemort's soul fragment was gone—meaning that the main soul now held more energy in Nagini—which should have been shared among the other Horcruxes.
According to Voldemort's prediction, Nagini would gradually find his other Horcruxes. Even if there were any mishaps along the way, at least two or more would be activated. By then, there would be three clones imbued with Voldemort's mind roaming the wizarding world, greatly increasing his chances of resurrection.
Now, Nagini had a mind of her own. Something inexplicably seemed to be changing.
Nagini's face struggled—she was too weak. She couldn't rely on her partially restored sanity to resist Voldemort's will. She lacked the resolve, nor the strength.
Nagini pushed open the wooden door, locked by a snake.
Sand.
As the door opened, clouds of sand fell, and the air inside felt damp and sticky.
Nagini hesitantly crossed the living room, her gaze darting between the shattered furniture. An inexplicable sense of familiarity grew stronger.
She came to the fireplace, her gaze resting on an old stone wall, blackened by dust and smoke.
She reached out her finger and gently pressed the edge of a brick. Strangely, the stone gave way slightly—Voldemort, so clever, had chosen not to conceal his treasure with magic, but rather with the very Muggle methods he despised—he believed this way, no one else could find it.
With a soft click, a crack slowly opened in the floorboards beside the fireplace, revealing a hidden compartment.
Nagini leaned in and pulled out a small ebony box, its lid intricately carved with serpentine patterns.
Hesitantly, Nagini opened the box. An ancient gold ring lay quietly on the velvet cushion, its face set with a dark golden gem. A deep, shimmering glow emanated from its center, as if consuming anyone who gazed at it.
It was Gaunt's ring. The incredibly captivating dark golden gem within was the legendary Resurrection Stone. Voldemort had studied it carefully and dismissed it as a ridiculous legend.
He believed that perhaps one day Dumbledore would find the ring and place a vicious curse on it - even if Dumbledore was involved, he would have to pay a huge price.
But this curse wouldn't harm his soul—they shared a common origin.
Nagini placed her finger on the center of the ring and gently closed her eyes.
For one second, two seconds, three seconds
, the entire room fell silent. Nothing happened.
But then, at some point, the room began to resonate with the hissing of a venomous snake—"hiss~~~~~~~."
The fragments of Nagini's soul, now fused by Voldemort's own disintegration, now poured into Gaunt's ring. As the original soul merged with the fragment, the dormant soul gradually awoke.
"Woo—"
A terrifying whimper echoed with the man's roar. A dark soul, a noseless, ugly human face, flew out of Gaunt's ring and coiled around Nagini.
"I sense a familiar aura from you—who are you? Why am I here?"
Nagini instinctively knelt on one knee, her voice trembling as she responded:
"You are the great Dark Lord, and I am your loyal servant!"
"Servant? Why do I sense the same feeling from you? Even more powerful than mine? Huh?!"
"You lost to Harry Potter and lost your body. Your soul was struck by Damon White and was helplessly shattered—you decided to place your hope in your own soul fragment, so I came to awaken you."
"Are you kidding me?"
The black soul screamed and pressed against Nagini's face—this move startled Nagini.
"I, I'm telling the truth. How dare I lie to you?"
"You mean, I, the great and omnipotent, lost to two people? And that's not even counting Dumbledore!
Where is Dumbledore? Where is he?"
"I didn't know you kept saying Damon White's name before you died."
"Damon White."
The ugly black face's eyes narrowed into a line, looking like a snake.
"I have no body. Don't resist. Let me merge into yours."
"Yes."
Nagini instinctively sensed something was amiss, but she was too weak to refuse or resist.
The awakened soul merged into her body.
When Nagini raised her head again, a smug smile, completely uncharacteristic of her, appeared on her face.
"Harry Potter, Damon White. When did these two figures appear in the wizarding world?"
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(End of Chapter)