The Gryffindor feast lasted all night.
Everyone was in their pajamas, celebrating one moment after another. Professor McGonagall, transformed into a tabby cat, crouched quietly in a corner—in this joyous moment, the students had forgotten their professor's presence.
And Professor McGonagall hadn't bothered to stop their excesses.
The twins pulled out a series of new pranks, selecting lucky, excited individuals from the crowd as test subjects. The hilarity was palpable, but the stunts always ended with a flick of Damon's wand, preventing further escalation.
Justin Finch-Fletchley, led by Seamus, entered the common room, shook Harry's hand, and offered a sincere apology—he hadn't found a good opportunity to apologize to Harry about the Parseltongue incident.
Hagrid appeared at 3:30 a.m. and slapped Damon on the shoulder, causing him to roll his eyes.
The aftermath of the feast had a lasting effect on every Gryffindor, and even the final exams couldn't dampen their enthusiasm.
In the blink of an eye, Damon's second year officially came to an end.
They rode the Hogwarts Express home again. Ten people filled the compartment, designed for six.
Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny, Luna, Cho Chang, Fred, George, and Neville—they all crammed into the same compartment with him.
Damon watched as they set off Fred and George's last few fiery fireworks and practiced disarming magic against each other.
Everyone was surprised to discover that Harry and Ron were the best performers—Harry and the others were a bit surprised, but Ron's performance was jaw-dropping.
"Little Ronnie—you've really grown up! I can't believe you've achieved so much without making any noise!"
"It looks like we're not the only ones getting better—little Ronnie's catching up too."
Ginny said nothing, but her sparkling eyes flickered from Harry to Ron shyly—and to Ron, that was the ultimate validation.
"Please, if you really admire me, could you please start by not calling me that?"
"Oh—of course—no more Little Ronnie."
"Ron Weasley—the new savior!"
the twins exclaimed, making everyone in the car laugh.
Harry laughed along, not minding that Ron was taking some of the limelight. He quietly turned to look at Qiu Zhang beside him. She was also laughing, but also tilted her head—she was looking at Damon.
Harry felt a strange feeling in his heart—a jealousy so intense it almost made him scream.
But the next moment, he became alert, took a deep breath, and activated the Occlumency technique he was still learning—both Dumbledore and Damon were concerned about this ordinary savior of his. He couldn't let them down!
The jealous thoughts just now must have been caused by Voldemort's spirit!
I'll show him who is the master of this body!
"What's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell?"
Qiu Zhang noticed Harry's abnormality and asked with concern.
Ginny, who had been secretly watching Harry, suddenly turned her head and saw Harry blushing as he replied to Qiu Zhang:
"No, it's okay. I'm probably too happy, so I'm a little short of breath."
"Really? You really use your spells well."
"Hey - hey -"
Ginny turned her head again and pouted at the smirking Harry.
"Like an idiot."
Damon's summer vacation was quite fulfilling.
Originally, this summer was supposed to be a three-month campaign to exploit the identity of Caliban Mortos and severely crack down on the Dark Magical World.
However, Caliban's identity was prematurely disabled, and his plan was thwarted—he should have had nothing to do next.
But then there was another problem with the Horcruxes.
He had already accessed his memories through the Pensieve and recalled the seven Horcruxes and their specific locations.
Excluding the diadem and diary, which he had destroyed, the remaining seven Horcruxes were the chalice, the ring, the locket, Nagini, and Harry.
The easiest to find was naturally Gaunt's ring. Unfortunately, when Damon visited the Gaunt mansion, it was clearly already explored, and the ring, which Dumbledore was supposed to have found, was missing. This incident filled Damon with a sense of crisis and prevented him from enjoying a leisurely summer. The
locket was kept in Voldemort's childhood cave, but it was a fake. The real Horcrux had been taken by Sirius's brother, Regulus Black, and was now believed to be in the possession of Kreacher, the house-elf.
Although Damon was somewhat intrigued by Voldemort's magic, which claimed that only by drinking the liquid inside could one access the contents—after all, it was something even Dumbledore couldn't solve—he felt a certain reluctance to specifically search for Voldemort's childhood haunts, and enter a dark cavern, so he lost interest.
Although Dumbledore constantly talked about retirement, he probably wasn't ready to risk his health to find that fake Horcrux—at least he should have taken him with him.
Damon had repeatedly told him to notify him immediately if he found the Horcrux. Dumbledore wouldn't act rashly. If that didn't stop him from committing suicide, then Damon had no other options.
Since the locket was safely at 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius's ancestral home, they could postpone the search for now—it was protected by a spell, making it impossible for Voldemort or himself to find it.
Sirius's storyline was about to begin in third year, so he could inform Sirius once he became involved.
The remaining cup was hidden in Gringotts, owned by Bella Trix, a Death Eater currently serving a sentence in Azkaban.
Damon immediately infiltrated Gringotts upon discovering Gaunt's ring was missing. After some effort, he recovered the cup and decisively destroyed it, later using Transfiguration to create a replica.
This left only Nagini, Harry, and the ring as the seven Horcruxes.
Harry's situation proved thorny, as Voldemort needed to be reborn through his blood. So, this summer, Damon sought to uncover Voldemort's current state.
So, he embarked on a solo international trip to the Albanian forests to uncover what was happening there.
As a minor wizard and a renowned Transfiguration master, he couldn't leave the country through standard channels, unable to explain his situation to the Ministry of Magic officials. Therefore,
he resorted to smuggling.
Using a Portkey would have been a better option, but Damon distrusted their teleportation methods. Deciding there was no rush, he resorted to a somewhat drastic method.
He flew there on his magic broom. He
first used the magic map to guide the approximate direction, and then set off directly from the orphanage, flying all the way with an illusion spell that was so advanced that it could ignore magical sensing barriers.
He rested when he was hungry, thirsty, or tired, and flew wherever he wanted.
It was a bit like a bike trip in his previous life, but more relaxing and comfortable.
Looking down from a high altitude, Damon felt a great sense of freshness in the British landscape, which he had not seen carefully before.
He flew and stopped all the way, and occasionally stopped to stop when he saw a scene that interested him - it took him almost five days to reach the forest of Albania.
This forest was cold and decayed, and even in the middle of summer, it exuded a gloomy smell.
There was no sound inside, only a dead silence.
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