"Hm?"
After hearing Avada's request, Dumbledore first gave his wand a simple wave, seemingly checking whether there were still any lethal trap spells inside the locket. But very quickly, a puzzled expression appeared on his face...
"This Horcrux... why isn't there even the slightest trace of magic on it?"
"No, not just that. Forget other magical traces... why is there not even any trace of Horcrux magic on it?!"
He immediately made the locket float up, then pulled Avada back a few steps before raising his wand. In midair, he slowly traced mysterious, profound patterns while murmuring a complex incantation under his breath. Streams of spiritual light poured out of the Elder Wand and fell onto the locket, seeping into it like water soaking into paper, then rapidly drawing back out again, carrying strands of information back into the wand.
It was probably some extremely difficult and profound detection spell.
But Avada's attention was not on the spell, nor on the locket.
After all, no detection spell could compare to magical perception for getting straight to the point, and the fact that the locket was fake was something he had known from the very beginning.
What he was really doing was carefully observing the Elder Wand and Dumbledore's soul.
Leach University's hypothesis was correct.
After observing for only a moment, Avada quickly reached his conclusion.
The Elder Wand really is influencing Dumbledore's soul, making his soul coordinate with the wand in drawing out power...
How incredible.
He could not help but marvel inwardly.
Someone had actually managed to put the mysteries of the soul into practical use over a thousand years ago... back in an age when even wands had only just appeared, and human wizards had not yet truly established themselves in magical society?
And Leach University really is terrifyingly powerful. They never even got hold of the actual wand. Just by consulting records and analyzing Grindelwald's sensations while using it, they managed to crack the Elder Wand's secret!
If they really got their hands on the Elder Wand, wouldn't they start mass-producing them on the spot?
No wonder this is the kind of power that can change the entire magical world... In front of them, forget the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix—even the Acolytes would seem a little lacking.
While Avada observed and marveled, Dumbledore finally finished his full analysis of the locket.
"Not the tiniest bit of magic. It is completely and utterly an ordinary object... how is that possible?"
He directly grabbed the locket with his hand and flipped it open.
Inside was a folded piece of parchment.
"To the Dark Lord..."
Only after pushing up his half-moon glasses reflexively did he unfold the parchment and begin to read the contents aloud with a frown.
"I know I will be dead long before you read this, but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can..."
"I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more..."
"R.A.B."
"It seems we have run into the most unexpected of situations."
Dumbledore's expression darkened.
"Someone got here before us."
"Judging from the contents, the one who obtained the real Horcrux should share the same goal as you and me, but this also means we have completely lost track of one Horcrux. We cannot even know whether it has already been destroyed... This is troublesome."
"R.A.B... We must determine the meaning of that name as quickly as possible."
Avada also furrowed his brow in solemn thought while dropping hint after hint.
"Judging by the tone of the letter, he most likely already knew Voldemort personally. At the very least, Voldemort should have been able to recognize his identity instantly from those initials, so he was probably a Death Eater too..."
"And highly knowledgeable, deeply trusted by Voldemort, capable of uncovering information about this cave through secret investigation, and able to deduce that the potion had to be drunk."
Dumbledore immediately began thinking along the line Avada had laid out.
"The most likely candidates would be those pure-blood families with inherited knowledge and a natural political alignment with Voldemort. Surnames beginning with B... Black, Borgin, and Bulstrode are all possibilities. R.A.B..."
"Wait here for a moment."
He quickly said that to Avada, then seized Fawkes and vanished in a burst of fire. Before Avada could even react, he reappeared on the spot again, holding an enormous stone basin in his hands...
He had brought over the Pensieve from his office.
"Professor, what are you doing?"
Avada asked in confusion, and Dumbledore answered at once.
"I need to review my complete memory. Since this R.A.B. was also a Death Eater from a pure-blood family, then there is a very high chance he was one of Hogwarts' students as well, and he must have left some impression on me..."
Avada immediately understood.
Of course. Even Voldemort himself had once been Dumbledore's student.
So as long as he went through his memories, starting from Voldemort's school days, and reviewed every pure-blood student whose full initials were "R.A.B." and who later became a Death Eater, he would very quickly narrow the list down to an extremely small range.
With enough luck, he might even identify the person outright.
That was even faster than going through student records by hand.
"Found it!"
Suddenly, Dumbledore, who had been searching through the Pensieve, gave a slight jolt and lifted his head.
"I've gone through all my memories from those years. Only one person fits every condition..."
"Regulus Arcturus Black, a member of the Black family, a Slytherin, who displayed pure-blood supremacist tendencies and admiration for Voldemort from the moment he enrolled, and was confirmed to have joined the Death Eaters at age sixteen..."
"Let's go, Ken."
He abruptly broke off from his recollection. It was unclear whether those words had been spoken for Avada's benefit or merely to himself. He turned around, summoned Fawkes, and extended an arm toward Avada.
"There is no point in staying here any longer."
"Mm."
Avada said nothing more. He simply took hold of Dumbledore's arm, and in a flash of fire, the two of them returned to the headmaster's office.
"My apologies, Mr. Ken."
Once the flames had faded, Dumbledore said to Avada, "I will need to keep Hufflepuff's Cup for a while in order to transfer the potion inside it. That will probably take a few days... But as compensation, I intend to give you this."
He waved a hand, and a black diary appeared out of thin air, then slowly floated over to Avada's side.
"Rest assured. Tom Riddle's consciousness inside has already been completely suppressed by me. You may study it as freely as you like. I also hope you can soon discover a way to destroy Horcruxes without harming the objects themselves. I believe you can achieve it..."
After chatting a little more about bonus points and rewards, Avada could also see the urgency hidden beneath Dumbledore's expression. So he tactfully took the initiative to excuse himself and leave the office.
And after watching Avada depart, Dumbledore immediately sat back down in his chair, vanished the half-finished letter he had been writing earlier with a quick spell, then drew out a fresh sheet of parchment...
(End of Chapter)