Fox did not choose to inform the others. Perhaps it felt a blood relationship with Cyrus, which made it think that he was not a bad person.

The principals in the frame were unable to leave, which led to a quarrel between them, and soon led to a war of words.

The old headmaster of the Black family naturally took on the criticism from the other headmasters on his own, but soon, under Cyrus's gaze, they shut their mouths, closed their eyes and began to play dead -

It’s not quite right to say that they are pretending to be dead, as most of them have indeed been dead for many years.

Taking his eyes away from the wall, Cyrus looked around at the exhibits in the principal's office. It was almost the same as he remembered. He slowly walked to the table with claws on all four legs. Fox pecked the back of his hand affectionately, without the tense attitude they had when they first met in the Shrieking Shack.

Cyrus paced slowly in the principal's office, looking for a secret passage that might lead to the Pavilion of Knowledge.

The people in the portrait were all nervous and watched Cyrus' every move with squinted eyes.

"The true form is revealed!"

He waved his wand, and magic immediately filled every corner of the principal's office, revealing all the secrets of the room to Cyrus.

“Crack—”

The strange table suddenly made a crisp sound, as if something broke. Then, the drawer of the table popped out a little, revealing a silver light.

The passage to the Knowledge Pavilion is in the drawer?

Cyrus was stunned for a moment, and he suddenly felt like Doraemon.

Time tunnel, right?

Cyrus approached the table carefully, fearing that some protective spell might be placed on it.

However, one advantage of being an enemy of white wizards is that Dumbledore will not leave curses on certain things like Voldemort did, because curses themselves are a kind of black magic. In fact, black magic is divided into three categories: curses, poison spells and evil spells.

The three famous unforgivable curses are all curses.

But despite this, Cyrus was still very cautious, believing that it is better to be safe than sorry.

Instead of reaching out to touch the drawer directly, he cast several general antidotes first, and then used a levitation spell to control the drawer to open.

His eyes widened immediately.

In the drawer there was not a secret passage leading to the Pavilion of Knowledge nor Doraemon’s time machine, but a silver crown!

——Ravenclaw's Diadem!

"Dumbledore didn't destroy it?" Cyrus was surprised.

Dumbledore had spent most of his life fighting Voldemort, and Cyrus couldn't think of any reason why he would keep a Horcrux after discovering it. Unless -

"Unless he intends to find Voldemort's other Horcruxes by studying this one."

Cyrus hesitated.

The book "Advanced Dark Arts" which records the evil magic of Horcruxes is now in Dumbledore's office. The old man must have read it many times, trying to find a way to crack the Horcruxes.

He may have a deeper understanding of Horcruxes than Voldemort.

There is a connection between the Horcrux and the original body, and this connection itself is based on the existence of the soul. Perhaps because of this, Dumbledore believes that there may be a connection between the Horcruxes.

But what he didn't know was that this connection had been severed on that night several years ago.

Harry is the only Horcrux still connected to Voldemort.

Cyrus picked up the crown and examined it in his hands.

The last time he lost the crown, he felt it was a pity. He had a very pleasant conversation with the soul fragment inside the crown. The other party also helped him a lot and allowed him to refine the magic stone.

Cyrus would naturally not miss such a treasure. The wisdom of the crown might be of great help to him.

He put the crown away.

After seeing Cyrus's action, the principals in the photo frames could no longer pretend to sleep and began to sigh.

Most of them watched Dumbledore fight Voldemort until now, and finally made some progress and got a Horcrux, but it was stolen by Cyrus again! "I reminded Dumbledore to destroy it earlier!" Phineas complained, covering his mustached face.

"Come on, you are the first person who supports Dumbledore to keep this thing." Armando said, "You also said that Cyrus helped your great-grandson to clear the grievances, so he must not be a bad person!"

Phineas was speechless.

Armando Dippet looked at Cyrus with complicated eyes.

Fifty years ago, it was because of this student that he was forced to resign.

At that time, he had not yet seen Tom Riddle's true face, and thought that Tom was a child with excellent character and academic performance, but with a miserable life.

"I'll take the tiara." Cyrus looked up at the portraits and said deliberately, "When the time comes, tell Dumbledore that he shouldn't take things that don't belong to him."

Cyrus was responding entirely to something Dumbledore had said in the Shrieking Shack.

Of course, in reality, he himself was not the owner of the crown.

After getting the Horcrux, Cyrus was actually very satisfied with the result of his trip to the principal's office.

Come to think of it, except for Harry and Slytherin's pendant, all the Horcruxes have been collected by him at this moment.

The crown, the ring, the golden cup, even himself.

“I should find time to get the pendant as well,” Cyrus thought.

He had already collected so many Horcruxes, but there was still one missing that was left out there, which always made him feel a little uncomfortable. Moreover, Cyrus inexplicably felt that these Horcruxes might be useful in the future.

After getting the crown, Cyrus did not choose to leave immediately.

Harry hadn't given him any news yet, there was still a long time before the dinner was over, and he hadn't found the location of the Knowledge Pavilion.

His eyes swept around the office and finally stopped on a hat.

——The Sorting Hat.

As a hat that has existed since the Gryffindor era, perhaps it knows the secrets of the castle? The Sorting Hat seemed to have noticed Cyrus's gaze, and its face immediately showed a human expression full of fear.

"What do you want to do?" it said in a hoarse voice.

It can be seen that if it didn't have legs, it would have run away in fear long ago.

"Nothing, I just want to ask you something." Cyrus took the gray hat off the rack and put it on his head.

The Sorting Hat's two wrinkled eyes immediately opened huge.

It screamed at the top of its lungs:

"Azkaban!"

Cyrus: ???

Azkaban, huh?

"Stop howling. I've already graduated from Azkaban." He answered in his mind. "I'm a fresh graduate from Hogwarts, a special technical school at that. It's really not easy to find a job. After I got out of Azkaban, my job opportunities are much wider. At least I can be a dark wizard. Do you think it's necessary for me to go to Nurmengard for further studies and take the wizard doctorate exam?"

The Sorting Hat immediately shut up.

How it wanted to take out the sword of Gryffindor and chop off the head of Cyrus, the evil Slytherin kid!

But it can't.

The goblin sword cannot be taken out whenever it wants. Only a true Gryffindor can get the sword.

"What on earth do you want? You finally escaped from Azkaban, yet you dare to come to Hogwarts? And you're in Dumbledore's office..."

The Sorting Hat really wanted to ask Cyrus if he was tired of living.

It would be completely understandable if Cyrus took the Horcrux, but now that the Horcrux has fallen into the other party's hands, it is a bit puzzling that Cyrus does not want to leave but instead puts himself on his head.

"Have you heard of the Pavilion of Knowledge?" Cyrus asked bluntly.

He didn't care at all that the Sorting Hat told Dumbledore his purpose. Besides, it was not a secret that should not be revealed. Ancient magic was not dark magic, and pursuing power and knowledge was not a fault.

but--

"The Pavilion of Knowledge? I've never heard of it. It sounds like a place that a Ravenclaw lady would build." The Sorting Hat thought for a moment and answered truthfully.

It knew that the Big Four had left many special magical traces in the school. At that time, there was no such thing as a principal in Hogwarts, and the four colleges taught completely separately.

In order to teach their respective students, the four founders naturally built some places that were unknown to others.

However, these secrets have always been discovered by someone over the past thousand years. Although the Sorting Hat spends most of its time on the shelf in the principal's office, it knows a lot about the secrets of Hogwarts.

But Qiuzhi Pavilion - this is indeed the first time I have heard of it.

"Not Ravenclaw, not that long ago," Cyrus said.

In fact, he didn't know what era the four wizards who used ancient magic lived in. It seemed that none of them were the headmasters of Hogwarts. Perhaps there was no such position at Hogwarts in that era?

In the end, Cyrus failed to get any useful information from the Sorting Hat.

He wanted to continue asking, but at this moment the fake Galleon in his pocket suddenly began to get hot. He took the Sorting Hat off his head and put it back on the shelf.

"What's wrong?" He was still thinking when the Sorting Hat was suddenly taken off, feeling a little surprised.

"Our pleasant conversation ends here. A nasty person is coming back." Cyrus said lightly.

"Dumbledore is back? How did you know?" asked the Sorting Hat in surprise.

"He has a spy in Hogwarts!" Phineas on the wall couldn't bear it any longer and shouted, "I guess it's Snape!"

"Why not Malfoy?" asked another headmaster.

"Need I say more? Malfoy is a noble pure-blood."

“…”

Cyrus ignored the portraits' antics. Snape and Malfoy were suspicious, but who would have thought that the person who tipped off Cyrus was Dumbledore's favorite, the savior Harry Potter? He quickly walked back to the elevator and disappeared under the gaze of the Sorting Hat and the portraits. —— "Squeak——"

The door opened and a shrill sound lingered in Dumbledore's ears.

He recalled the pumpkin juice at the dinner and walked into his office generously, but he immediately found that the atmosphere in the office was not right. The portraits sighed one by one, as if they were regretting something. Even the Sorting Hat, which usually stayed on the shelf to write the school song for next year, sighed.

"What's the matter, everyone? Are you disappointed about having a peaceful dinner this year?" Dumbledore said briskly.

I don’t know when it started, but it seems that Hogwarts on Halloween Eve is never so peaceful.

Maybe twelve years ago?

That was the night the Dark Lord killed Lily and James.

Since then, something has to happen every Halloween Eve. The year before last, it was a giant monster, and last year, it was a basilisk attack! In short, Dumbledore finally had some peace this year, although he still had a lot of troubles. He was of course aware of the battle of Gringotts, and now the mood among the goblins was very dissatisfied, and there was also the unjust case of Sirius...

But at least Hogwarts was peaceful tonight.

"What a beautiful night!" Dumbledore exclaimed.

The former principals looked at each other, and no one was willing to tell the bad news.

In the end, under everyone's gaze, Phineas, who usually talked the most, became the representative.

"Something bad has happened, Dumbledore!"

"What's wrong? Don't tell me there is any bad news." Dumbledore said jokingly.

In fact, after seeing the expressions of the portraits, he had made full mental preparations. He could calmly accept anything. Even if Phineas told him that someone escaped from Nurmengard, he would not find it strange.

However, when Phineas spoke, Dumbledore's expression changed briefly.

"Things are terrible, you - you should check your drawer!" Phineas covered his face.

"drawer?"

He suddenly pulled out the drawer that originally contained the crown, and now it was empty.

The seriousness of the matter was beyond his imagination.

"He stole it!" said Lady Dilys De Winter sadly. "We wanted to tell you, but he used magic to seal the frame in the office."

"We really shouldn't have suggested that you keep the crown for research." Armando said apologetically.

Dumbledore fell into a long silence, and the headmasters were silent too. They knew how much Dumbledore had put into destroying Voldemort, but at this moment, he still failed.

But Dumbledore's pessimism did not last long, and he soon cheered up.

"By the way, I also want to ask, was it Voldemort or Cyrus who stole the tiara?"

"It's Cyrus," Phineas answered immediately, "I think he may have an accomplice in the castle."

Dumbledore lowered his head and thought.

"Are you... okay?"

Dumbledore nodded: "I just feel a little sad. Something always happens on Halloween. I almost wonder if this is also Voldemort's curse."

(End of this chapter)