Good things come in pairs
Before the planned trip to Diagon Alley, came the good news that the Order of the Phoenix had made a major breakthrough in Horcruxes.
"Dumbledore got reliable information from Slughorn: Voldemort may have created seven Horcruxes! Ha! I knew that old man was no ordinary person. What professor would discuss Horcruxes with his students? Tsk, Slytherin." Sirius relayed the latest developments to the trio after returning from a meeting at Black's old house. "Dumbledore said you played a part in this, Harry. If you hadn't successfully persuaded him to return to Hogwarts to teach, he wouldn't have moved in earlier, and Dumbledore wouldn't have gotten the information we wanted so easily."
Sirius was overjoyed and wanted to open a bottle of champagne to celebrate, but Hermione stopped him. They were still minors—although they had drunk alcohol before, they were under the influence of an aging agent at the time, so they weren't strictly minors.
"Besides the diary and locket we already know about, Moody, Lupin, and Tonks discovered another Horcrux from Voldemort at Gaunt's old house in Great Hangleton: a ring," Sirius continued, sharing information. "Dumbledore said the ring was somewhat unusual—to be honest, I didn't see anything unusual about it. Maybe it was unusually ugly? A bulky gold ring with a pure black gemstone; I must say the Gaunt family's taste is questionable—anyway, based on the peculiarity of the Slytherin locket, Dumbledore deduced that Voldemort might have also found the Hufflepuff Cup and the Ravenclaw tiara and made them into Horcruxes. Now the Order of the Phoenix is searching for these two items with all its might—Merlin, thankfully, Gryffindor's sword has always been kept by Dumbledore!"
“Well, I don’t think Voldemort would choose to turn Gryffindor’s sword into a Horcrux?” Ron interjected, raising his hand. “I mean, dislike is mutual.”
“Gryffindor gets ten points for Mr. Weasley’s impeccable logic,” Professor Black said fairly. “But because you spoke up for the head of the dark wizards, Gryffindor gets another twenty points deducted.”
Although she knew it was just Sirius joking and wouldn't actually affect Gryffindor's gems, Hermione still glared at Ron.
Harry's adoration for Dumbledore was beyond words. "Merlin's mustache! Dumbledore identified two Horcruxes based solely on guesswork?!"
"Of course, some investigation was done. After graduating, Voldemort worked as a salesman at Borgin & Burke's for a year and was very popular with the customers—yes, that dirty, dark, and gloomy shack—Dumbledore went to Borgin & Burke to verify and confirmed that he had obtained the locket and the golden cup during that time—oh, of course, using some little tricks you're all familiar with, you know, not everyone is willing to open their hearts to Dumbledore..."
"A salesman? He really knows how to be flexible." Harry couldn't imagine Voldemort serving customers, using the Crucifixion Curse to warn rude customers? Or using the Imperius Curse to boost his sales? Perhaps that's why he's "so popular with customers"—those who don't like him are all eliminated by Avada Kedavra.
Sirius shrugged. "Judging from Borginbock's memories, Voldemort obviously did a good job."
Hermione remained objective. "I think he's capable of anything if he wants to. Don't forget he got straight O's in his OWLs, started researching all sorts of bizarre dark magic while still in school, and committed so many horrific atrocities." She concluded with a strange remark, "And someone like that is pursuing immortality?"
Ron tried to offer a reasonable explanation, "Like, the richer people are, the stingier they are?"
“It depends on the person. I don’t think Malfoy is stingy. His family replaced the Nimbus 2001 for the entire Slytherin team.” Harry gave two examples in a row. “And I heard that Malfoy bought Crabbe and Goyle’s candy.”
“That’s true.” Although Ron disliked Malfoy, he couldn’t find fault with him in this respect.
Sirius, unwilling to lose to Malfoy, declared, "And me! I'm not stingy either! I can equip the entire Gryffindor team with Firebolts!"
Harry and Ron were immediately excited when they heard this.
Hermione, “…” She’s so stupid, why did she try to understand a madman?
Hermione took a deep breath. "Anyway, this is good news. It seems that defeating Voldemort is just around the corner."
Harry's thoughts returned to the present. "But aside from the relics of the four founders, the remaining Horcruxes are too hard to guess. If Malfoy hadn't taken out the diary—I really don't understand why he did that—who would have thought that Voldemort would put a piece of his soul in an ordinary Muggle diary?"
Hermione's mind raced. "Perhaps we shouldn't be thinking about what exactly made the Horcruxes—that's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Instead, we should be thinking about where Voldemort might have hidden them—like that cave he considers incredibly safe." She glanced quickly at Sirius. "Or maybe he'll entrust them to someone—like Malfoy, one of his trusted subordinates. But would Voldemort really keep all his Horcruxes scattered around? That's too risky. I mean, I have seven Horcruxes, and I have top-tier strength—can't I just carry one with me?"
The trio exchanged a glance and said in unison, "That snake!"
“Harry was connected to the snake next to Voldemort from the same perspective as him, during the dream when Mr. Weasley was attacked.” Hermione spoke quickly. “At the time, we thought Harry had made contact with Voldemort himself, but then we realized that Mr. Weasley was clearly bitten by a snake, so how could it have been Voldemort who caused it? So it was that snake!”
Harry and Ron's mouths couldn't keep up with their thoughts, so they could only nod frantically.
“Gryffindor, 50 points! For Miss Granger’s brilliant deduction!” Sirius whistled. “As you said, the Order of the Phoenix has now set its sights on my dear cousin. As for the location of the Horcruxes, Dumbledore finds it highly suspicious that Voldemort returned to Hogwarts twice to seek employment.”
Hermione blushed with excitement. "Oh, as expected of Dumbledore!"
Ron exclaimed even more excitedly, "Hermione, you're amazing!"
Harry was so proud; that's Hermione for you! But then again, if there's any place in Hogwarts suitable for hiding things, he felt there was one place that seemed perfect.
The Gryffindors formed a circle, with Sirius's phone in the center, and the trio greeted Dumbledore on the other end of the phone.
“Oh Harry, and Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger, you sound like you’re doing well. Looks like you’ve had a pleasant summer.” Dumbledore’s voice was always calm and composed. “I don’t hear Miss Campbell?”
"Queenie is still sleeping! Uh, she doesn't usually sleep this late... we just played Wizard's Chess together until very late last night..."
"Wow, Queenie has learned to play Wizard's Chess? I want to play with her sometime!" Ron was a seasoned Wizard's Chess enthusiast; even Bill and Percy couldn't beat him at it.
"Yes, that silly chess piece only listens to the wizard, I have to modify it!"
Hermione couldn't help but raise her voice, "Let's get down to business!"
“Oh… I’m sorry…” Harry stammered out his guess. If he wanted to hide something in Hogwarts, he would definitely prioritize the Room of Requirement. Who could prove that Voldemort didn’t know that room existed? He could even find the Chamber of Secrets in Slytherin.
Dumbledore listened and said, "Excellent, Harry, a very good idea. Of course, you'll pass through that corridor when you leave the Headmaster's office. I'll go and look for it."
They had just ended the call when Sirius's phone beeped with a text message from Lupin.
Sirius read it aloud, "Bigfoot, you were walking too fast just now, and I forgot to tell you something: I'm getting married to Tonks." A smiling emoji followed by the text.
……ah?
Harry and Sirius's expressions of surprise were identical.
"The two of them? Getting married?"
"No...who? With whom? Am I seeing things? Remus and—how could this be!"
Hermione seemed to have known all along, and she said happily, "They've finally made it this far, congratulations!"
What's remarkable is that Ron wasn't surprised at all. "Oh, one night I got up to go find something to eat when I was hungry, and I overheard my parents talking about it as I passed by their room. They told me to keep it a secret." Because he had already been surprised.
"..." Sirius was completely baffled. He practically pressed his phone screen against the screen, repeatedly reading those few lines of text. How could they be together? No, how could they possibly be together? Nymphadora was his niece!
Sirius's fingers flew as he replied to the unexpected text message with good news, and the force of his fingers clearly showed his attitude towards the matter.
Lupin responded quickly, calling directly.
"Sirius! Come at me if you have a problem! And—don't call me, Nymphadora!" The person on the other end hung up the phone decisively after saying that.
Sirius was bewildered for a moment.
Harry cautiously began, "Um, Sirius, are you alright?" Although he was a little surprised, from Sirius's perspective, Lupin and Tonks were from different generations, and he was still Tonks' family, so it was understandable that he disagreed...
“Forget it, I can’t control it.” Sirius quickly came to his senses. “You know, Andromeda was the first in our generation to betray the family—although Black insists that she was the one who was expelled—Tonks has the exact same temper as her.”
"Hahahaha—now I'm his elder!" Sirius laughed as he texted Lupin, "I'm going to make fun of him about this for the rest of my life!"
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