"Deal with them? You mean destroy them directly?"
Harry looked at the Horcruxes still embedded in the rings as he asked the question. Even now, he could barely name most of them. Though quite a few looked ancient and magnificent, after seeing the grotesque appearance of Voldemort's soul just now, and realizing that such a horrifying essence was hidden beneath those elegant exteriors, Harry simply could not bring himself to like them at all.
"Destroy them?"
Avada could not help laughing.
After spending so much effort researching a way to strip out the soul without damaging the vessel, aside from solving the most important problem—Harry's situation—wasn't the whole point to preserve these ancient and precious historical artifacts?
"Come to think of it, I don't think I've had the chance to tell you where these objects Voldemort chose as Horcruxes actually came from. No wonder you'd ask that… Come take a look."
He beckoned Harry and Ron over and had them come closer to examine the objects carefully.
"For example, this one—the golden cup you carried before, Harry. This is Helga Hufflepuff's own cup, the one left behind from the founding of Hogwarts."
"That cup is that cup?!"
Harry only blinked blankly, but Ron, standing beside him, practically jumped in shock as he stared at the gleaming, exquisitely crafted golden cup.
"You mean the legendary cup that can never be filled no matter what, the one that can easily hold all the food in Hogwarts?"
"It's… that powerful?"
Harry stared at Hufflepuff's Cup in disbelief.
Two years ago, he had spent several days carrying that thing around!
"That's the one."
As expected, Avada smiled, then pointed to the locket on the innermost ring.
"And this one—see that serpent-shaped letter 'S'? This is one of Slytherin's relics. Though this is probably just one of the more ordinary items among the many things he left behind. Supposedly, his true treasures were taken by his descendants to Ilvermorny. But there's no doubt this belonged to Slytherin himself."
This time, Harry and Ron looked rather uninterested.
After everything with the Chamber of Secrets, they did not have a particularly good impression of Salazar Slytherin, one of Hogwarts's founders.
"And then there's this—probably the second most valuable object in the lot, and likely the most famous as well: Ravenclaw's diadem."
Thunk.
Harry nearly jumped at the sudden dull noise beside him. When he turned, he discovered the source—
Ron had dropped straight onto the floor, sitting there with one hand still trembling as it pointed at the object called "Ravenclaw's diadem."
At that point, Harry knew the thing really did have exactly the sort of staggering background Ken had claimed.
"Ravenclaw's diadem?"
Ron did not even bother standing up. He spoke in a hushed voice, as though afraid of accidentally disturbing something.
"The diadem that grants the wisdom of Rowena Ravenclaw to anyone who wears it? The diadem that's been missing for hundreds of years?!"
"And then Voldemort found it and turned it into a Horcrux."
Avada casually poured cold water over Ron's excitement, calming him down a little.
"It can increase the wearer's speed and efficiency of thought, but the effect probably isn't as exaggerated as you're making it sound. After all, Rowena Ravenclaw herself, who was capable of creating this item, must have possessed intelligence at the absolute highest level—something no external object could ever truly match…"
As he spoke, he could not help feeling a little nostalgic.
Ravenclaw's diadem had been the first Horcrux he ever obtained. Several of his greatest trump cards—such as mental links, the Imperius Curse, and the long-term refinement of his spiritual talent—had all come from studying this diadem. Of all the Horcruxes, this was probably the one that had helped him the most.
"Can I try wearing it?"
Ron pleaded, and even Harry looked tempted—but Avada swiftly refused.
"Not yet. Voldemort's soul is still hidden in it. Even I haven't dared wear it these past few years."
The two of them jolted, only then remembering that, yes, there was indeed that small problem.
"This diary doesn't really have much of a background. It was just one of Voldemort's personal belongings from the past… So what about this ring?"
Harry's gaze skipped right over the familiar black diary and landed on the ring. Ron followed his gaze, then frowned slightly.
"That symbol… Is this Grindelwald's?"
"Grindelwald?"
Harry felt a moment of surprise and relief.
He had thought the ring might be one of Godric Gryffindor's relics. He definitely did not want an object belonging to his own House founder to have been defiled by Voldemort.
"You mean the Grindelwald Dumbledore defeated?"
"That's him. But this object doesn't belong to Grindelwald."
Avada hesitated over whether he should reveal the existence of the Deathly Hallows to them, but after considering it, he decided they were better off not knowing too much.
"That symbol is actually the crest of an extinct wizarding family. That family was called Gaunt—once one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, and also confirmed descendants of Slytherin's bloodline."
For the moment, he had no intention of telling Harry the true origin of that symbol.
Because doing so would basically be the same as telling him that both the Potter family and the Gaunt family Voldemort belonged to were bloodline branches of the Peverell family. And that would mean that just after finally removing Voldemort's soul from himself, Harry would immediately discover that he and Voldemort still shared a blood connection…
Even though, after so many generations, that blood tie should have become so faint as to be almost meaningless, it was still the sort of thing that left a bad taste in one's mouth.
Unlike in the original story, Harry now lived a relatively carefree life. He had not been dragged into competing in the Triwizard Tournament, nor did he have to shoulder the fate of some prophesied savior. Aside from being a bit more famous than usual, he was just an ordinary student. Even Snape's teaching attitude had improved quite a bit following Voldemort's downfall.
In a life as rare and comfortable as this, Harry was probably better off knowing fewer unpleasant truths.
And as for the Invisibility Cloak, one of the Deathly Hallows, it had already lost its original value in Avada's eyes now that he understood the mysteries of the soul. So it might as well stay with its original owner, serving its proper purpose—sneaking around at night and avoiding Filch.
"So the Gaunt family? In that case, does that mean this ring was a relic left behind by Voldemort's mother or some other relative?"
After Avada's explanation, Ron's enthusiasm immediately faded quite a bit, but then he suddenly thought of another question.
"But if that's the case, why is Grindelwald's symbol exactly the same as the Gaunt family's?"
"Who knows? Maybe he had some blood connection to the Gaunts too. That family already produced one Dark Lord, after all…"
Avada lied smoothly without changing expression.
Ron was not the first person to raise that question. Back in the day, quite a few of Grindelwald's lower-ranking followers in the Acolytes had also assumed he was actually a member of the Gaunt family. Some even speculated afterward that Grindelwald's downfall might have been one of the reasons for the Gaunt family's rapid decline…