Albus Dumbledore fastened Gryffindor's Sword to his waist, then rummaged through his cloak pocket and pulled out a silver lighter.
He flicked it open, and with a few crisp clicks, the nearest cluster of lights went out with a soft puff...He tapped the Deluminator eight times; now, aside from the faint silver glint of the sword's blade in the darkness, everything around them was pitch black.
"Let's go," Dumbledore said with a smile.
"Mhm." Jon nodded, putting away the plumwood wand and taking the emerald bamboo wand into his hand as he followed Professor Dumbledore.
"I must say, your suggestion was excellent." Dumbledore spoke with good humor as he walked ahead.
"Alastor and the Aurors have caught seven Death Eaters in the past week trying to break into the Gaunt family's old shack in Great Hangleton. Tom is still as petty as ever, afraid his secrets will be discovered… so just as you predicted, he only dares send one or two at a time."
"Seven already, huh…" Jon chuckled. "With losses like that, it seems our Dark Lord should be starting to realize something's wrong!"
"So... a Horcrux is hidden inside?" Dumbledore lowered his voice. "From my earlier investigations, Marvolo Gaunt was Tom's maternal grandfather... Hmph, a British Parseltongue had to come from the Gaunt line!"
"Exactly." Jon nodded, then asked, "What about the other locations?"
"Remus and Kingsley have been lying in wait around the cave on that isolated island..." Dumbledore continued. "They only caught five Death Eaters trying to enter. Looks like Tom has a bit more confidence in that one's security."
"Right... though he never imagined that the most heavily guarded Horcrux would be stolen by a Death Eater he actually trusted," Jon said with a hint of regret. "Speaking of which—the locket?"
"I almost forgot." Dumbledore stopped walking, refastened the sword at his waist, and searched through his cloak pocket again...
He tossed a damaged locket to Jon.
Jon caught it and examined it carefully. It was made of gold, old and weathered; a serpentine S-shaped letter marked the front, though half of it had been destroyed. Faint traces of pitch-black dark magic remained, though those curses had long been broken.
"The day you told me, I sent Sirius to find Kreacher... After hearing that house-elf's story, Sirius was heartbroken," Dumbledore said with regret. "He hasn't eaten or drunk anything these past few days, mourning his brother Regulus."
"...Still, he personally handed the locket to me. I used Gryffindor's Sword to destroy it—magic and all—just as you instructed," Dumbledore went on.
"I must say, it felt wonderful... like landing a perfect punch right on a goat's snout!"
"Sounds pretty enjoyable..." Jon muttered, curling his lip.
As he spoke, Dumbledore drew Gryffindor's Sword and gave it a firm swing, commenting:
"It reminds me of what you did to my Boggart in that Defense Against the Dark Arts exam more than three years ago... The feeling of holding a wand in one hand and a sword in the other is undeniably cool... Care to try?"
He offered Jon the hilt of Gryffindor's Sword.
"I'm not a Gryffindor," Jon shrugged. "And I stopped playing sword-swinging games when I was three."
"Oh really?" Dumbledore blinked, then added casually, "Let me think... By the summer after my fourth year, I could already turn a round table into a full-grown lion. I even added wings to its back, then flew around Godric's Hollow three times with Ariana riding on it!"
Jon bit his lip and asked, annoyed, "Professor Dumbledore, could you tell me—what's the statute of limitations for the Ministry's rules on underage magic outside school?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but theoretically, it shouldn't reach a hundred years."
...
The two of them walked the path toward Great Hangleton, chatting like friends without any age gap between them.
"By the way, Professor Dumbledore," Jon asked suddenly, "you mentioned the Death Eaters captured at the Gaunt Shack and the island cave. What about Gringotts?"
"Gringotts yielded nothing at all." Dumbledore's expression grew serious again. "I had Arthur and his son Bill speak with the goblins and set up a week-long ambush... but no wizard attempted to enter the Lestrange couple's Vault."
"I see..." Jon nodded thoughtfully.
"Yesterday, Arthur and his son got official Ministry approval, and under the goblins' guidance they entered the vault... But even there, they didn't find a golden cup engraved with the Hufflepuff crest," Dumbledore said with regret.
"It seems the golden cup is still in the Dark Lord's possession," Jon admitted.
According to the original storyline, Hufflepuff's Cup would only be given to Bellatrix Lestrange for safekeeping after Dumbledore's death, stored along with the fake Gryffindor Sword.
But the story hadn't reached that point yet, so the cup must be hidden somewhere unknown—somewhere not shown even in the original work.
A small but troubling loose end...
"Besides the one in the Gaunt Shack, is this Tom's last Horcrux?" Dumbledore asked quietly.
"There's still half a Horcrux left... and you know that," Jon replied softly.
Dumbledore didn't answer. Instead, he turned away from Jon, avoiding his gaze.
...
They were close to their destination now. The run-down house ahead was covered in moss, with many roof tiles missing—barely a place anyone could live in.
"Not yet," Dumbledore said firmly, stopping Jon in his tracks.
A moment later, Jon heard Alastor Moody's voice call out from ahead, "It's Dumbledore! Don't fire!"
Jon quietly pulled up the black hood over his head and stood behind Dumbledore.