Harry's punch was hard, hard enough to wake him up.

He waited until the potion had fully taken effect and healed his wounds before leaving the old house.

Harry carefully wrapped the ring with Transfiguration and did not even dare to throw it into the Sorting Hat. Instead, he took the pocket that he had used to hold his motorcycle and put it in separately, for fear that this thing would cause some unexpected disaster.

They walked out of the house.

The Hat parked obediently in front of the door, and even used the magic carried by the motorcycle itself to clean the stains on itself, as if it had always been there, quiet and well-behaved, a good motorcycle.

"No one saw it." Harry patted it.

The Sorting Hat immediately replied, "Of course not. I was very careful and pressed the same button as before..."

Halfway through the conversation, it realized something was wrong and its voice became panicked: "Hey, Harry, I'm not running around and jumping around like a little wizard showing off!"

"Yeah, I know. You've been staying here very well." Harry nodded perfunctorily while helping Dumbledore onto the motorcycle.

"Of course, I am a very responsible hat. Um... now I should say that I am a, oh, no, a very responsible motorcycle?" The Sorting Hat muttered. It was now considering the extremely serious issue of self-awareness.

But it soon put these things behind its mind. The four giants did not leave it with the brain capacity to think about these issues. Besides, whether it was a hat or a motorcycle, as long as it could show off to Godric, it would be fine.

"What's wrong with Albus?" It was more concerned about this matter.

Dumbledore looked a little weak, his face was pale, and his robes were stained with dust, blood, and some strange things that looked like vomit.

"You know, I'm old now." Harry also stepped on it, carefully holding his feet. "I fell when I was going upstairs and nearly knocked my brain out."

"I think it might be the stomach." The hat flashed its headlights a few times and flew up steadily. "Do we need to go somewhere else?"

"Let's go back." Harry said, looking towards the Gaunt house.

Maybe, one night a few months ago.

Senior Tom was also like this, standing at the door and looking up in the direction of Hogwarts.

What is he thinking, what would he be thinking?

The hat took off. After a whole day of practice, it became completely familiar with its new body and flew freely in the air, at high speed but smoothly. At least it was not like in the beginning, when it would occasionally get startled and stuck.

By the time we flew back to Hogwarts, it was already dark.

There were many little wizards outside the castle, they were excitedly playing snowball fights. This was the most lively Christmas in the history of Hogwarts. Most of the little wizards did not choose to go home after the Christmas ball, since the most important Christmas was over anyway.

It would be better to stay in school. There are not many opportunities like this where you can play without studying in the castle.

In the principal's office.

As soon as they got in through the window, Dumbledore couldn't wait to speak before he sat down: "Harry, take out the things."

Harry ignored him, flicked his wand, and the Patronus flew out.

After hesitating for a moment, he decided to take Snape with him among the people he notified, even though in his eyes, Snape was no less dangerous than Dumbledore. He might lose his mind after seeing the ring just like the century-old man.

But as the only master of dark magic in the school, it is necessary to call him over.

"You don't believe me," Dumbledore sighed, sitting down against the wall, watching the Sorting Hat chatter away, sharing with Godric how he felt about his outing today.

"I believe you." Harry shook his head and took out his pocket, "but I don't trust your brain."

Dumbledore was stunned: "What difference does it make?"

"That's nearly a hundred years of obsession." Harry looked at him and said calmly, "You are truly great to have achieved this. Now there is only one step left, and I can't let you fail."

Controlling desire is the most difficult thing.

And Dumbledore, day after day, persisted in this way for more than a hundred years, shrinking himself in this small house and not indulging it.

He is not weak and has always been firm.

Of course... just controlling this desire of his own almost exhausted all his strength, and he seemed a little powerless in other aspects.

After knowing what happened, Harry even felt embarrassed to scold him again.

"You are praising me." Dumbledore was a little surprised. "This is really rare. I should take a photo as a souvenir."

He hasn't finished speaking yet.

There was a panic knock on the door, and before the person inside could answer, the person outside pushed the door open impatiently.

"Minerva?" Dumbledore asked in surprise.

McGonagall said with a straight face: "Harry said that you suddenly lost your mind and wanted to do something stupid, and only came to your senses after being beaten. He was a little worried about you, so he asked me to come and help."

Dumbledore was stunned, his face full of surprise, and looked at Harry.

Is this how you send messages via Patronus?

"You believe what Harry says?" He took a deep breath.

McGonagall nodded: "Harry has always been trustworthy, and..."

She looked deeply at her principal and said, "No matter what you do, it won't surprise anyone."

Dumbledore sighed, pulled his beard, and began to reflect, was he really so unreliable?

"So this is true?" McGonagall frowned. "You were really beaten by Harry... I mean, you almost did something stupid. What stupid thing?"

She actually didn't believe Dumbledore would do such a thing.

It was just that Harry spoke up, which made the matter somewhat credible.

She was also certain that Harry was indeed capable of beating up the headmaster - he had yet to beat up this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and now it seemed that the focus had shifted to Headmaster Dumbledore.

"Let's wait until they all come." Dumbledore nodded.

Mag sat down aside, and before long the other three deans arrived one after another, all with serious expressions on their faces.

They had been with Dumbledore for a long time, and they knew some of his past events to a certain extent, and they all knew what kind of person Dumbledore was.

It sounds ridiculous, but it's not impossible.

Dumbledore poured each of them a drink, gave Harry a glass of whiskey in return, and slowly told them what they had encountered today.

"You-Know-Who's child?" Flitwick was surprised. "Does he look like someone who could have children?"

Sprout held his head in his hands: "That's a child, even the You-Know-Who is no exception. He is already over seventy years old, which is considered an old man."

Mag wanted to get involved, too.

Snape's tone was cold: "Does it matter whether he has children or not? The key point is the Horcrux."

"Something even Albus could not resist."

Dumbledore looked at Harry and said firmly, "Harry, take it out. I promise it won't be like this afternoon."

Harry looked at Snape, opened his pocket, waved his wand lightly, and the box flew out.

It slowly opened, revealing the ring inside.

The magical energy surges.

When several people looked at it, their expressions were dull at the same time.

Professor Sprout had the least reaction, and she was almost immediately freed from the spell.

Dumbledore had a dazed look on his face. He was still deeply trapped in the illusion. This time it was slightly better than the last time. He could control his body and not reach out his hand to touch the ring, but he did not want to break free from the fantasy.

Even if it was just an illusion, a mirage, he wanted to look at Ariana a few more times.

Snape looked struggling.

His reaction was much more complicated than Harry had thought. He was completely different from Dumbledore. There was desire on his face, an eager desire, but more of it was regret and guilt. He wanted to raise his hand but didn't dare. He opened and closed his lips, but he just couldn't pronounce the two-syllable word.

To his surprise, McGonagall and Flitwick also reacted badly to the ring.

They were not able to resist the spell as easily as Professor Sprout, but were deeply trapped in it like Dumbledore and Snape, with nostalgia and sighing in their eyes, and Snape even had other emotions that hindered him.

But they didn't, only their desire was aroused, and they both reached out their hands to touch the ring.

"Professor Sprout!" Harry shouted, pulling out his wand and pointing it at the ring.

"Don't worry." Sprout nodded, sprinkled a handful of seeds from his pocket, and waved his wand.

Grow fast!

The seeds matured immediately, and a large bundle of devil vines crawled out and tied up the other professors.

Harry cast a spell, trying to remove the curse from the ring.

The spell was crude, but the technique used was very clever, and after a lot of effort, Flitwick managed to break free from the devil vine and continued to reach for the ring. When Professor Sprout was hesitating whether to release the biting cabbage, Harry finally dealt with it and it turned into a puff of smoke and dissipated.

"Harry." Dumbledore sighed, with a hint of complaint in his tone.

Harry waved his wand again.

Blue flames like wind chimes gushed out, gradually forcing back the devil vines, forcing them to curl up in the small corner under the chair.

"Is this the Horcrux that almost made Dumbledore do something stupid?" When McGonagall came to her senses, she realized what stupid thing she had just done. Her face flushed slightly with shame.

In the box.

Although the spell was lifted, the black gem still exuded a faint, bewitching aura.

"There is a very vicious curse on it." Snape's face was cold, and his expression was even uglier. Although he was talking about the situation of the ring, his eyes would always fall on Harry involuntarily, "Whoever wears the ring will be harmed by the curse."

"At least I have no solution."

Dumbledore was silent for a long time, then he slowly said, "I can handle it before it takes effect, but if it does, I don't think I can do anything about it."

"Then get rid of it," Harry urged.

Dumbledore raised his wand.

The ring floated up, and layer after layer of muddy black liquid peeled off from the ring. The evil aura also slowly faded away.

After a while, the "curse" was visibly lifted.

Dumbledore picked it up and played with it in his hands, his eyes hesitant, tentatively wanting to put the ring on.

Harry held his hand: "Professor, wait."