Chapter 1366

"This is a frame-up! Voldemort killed the old Tom family!"

Harry answered this very obvious question quite quickly.

Dumbledore nodded.

He said with a smile: "It's very obvious. At the time, Voldemort killed his grandparents and his father, who didn't want him."

"Furthermore, he cast some memory magic on Morfin."

"In addition, he might have stolen Morfin's ancestral ring. Morfin worried about this the most in prison."

"He thought that if the ring was lost, his father would definitely kill him."

Harry subconsciously looked at the ring Dumbledore was wearing on his hand.

Dumbledore blocked the ring with his robe sleeve.

He said without any intention of explaining: "I spent a lot of effort to find this memory from Morfin's brain. In the final period, I kept trying to help Morfin clear his name."

"But Morfin didn't wait; he died in prison not long after."

Dumbledore said, then took out another crystal bottle from his pocket.

Harry and Darren both saw that the memory in this crystal bottle was a bit clumpy, as if it had gone bad.

But memories couldn't go bad.

Dumbledore poured this memory into the Pensieve.

"Before we finish, there is one more memory you need to watch. After watching it, I might need to give you an assignment for the first time."

Darren hardly needed to guess; he knew this was Slughorn's memory.

Sure enough, after they entered, it was indeed Slughorn.

He was still very young then. His hair was also completely black.

His belly was still big, though.

But it wasn't popping buttons like it was now.

He was resting his feet on a footstool.

And six or seven boys were gathered around him.

The most handsome among them was Tom Riddle.

But Harry still thought he wasn't as handsome as Darren.

He was already wearing that ring on his hand.

Clearly, he had already killed his father.

He was smiling and asking Slughorn: "Professor, is Professor Merrythought retiring soon?"

"You clever little thing, even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you!"

Slughorn laughed and scolded.

Then the whole room was filled with smoke.

Then, from the smoke, only Slughorn's unnaturally loud voice could be heard saying: "You will make a mistake, child!"

Then the smoke dissipated.

Judging by the expressions of the children in those memories, clearly, this was not what happened at the time.

At this time, Slughorn was telling all the students to go back.

"It's very late..."

Tom Riddle stayed until the end.

"Sir, I want to ask you one thing."

"Ask quickly, child!"

"Sir, do you know about Horcruxes..."

Smoke filled the room again.

Slughorn's voice rang out as loudly as before.

He said loudly and clearly: "I know nothing about Horcruxes, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. Get out now, child!"

Dumbledore laughed at this point.

"Alright, let's go out!"

He took Darren and Harry out.

A smile appeared on his face: "Darren, what can you see?"

"This memory has been tampered with!"

Darren said without hesitation.

Dumbledore nodded.

"That's right, this is the assignment I want to give you. I need you to make Professor Slughorn voluntarily reveal his memory!"

Harry hurriedly asked: "Headmaster, can't you do it?"

"Yes, Professor Slughorn has studied memories very deeply..."

"After I forced him to give up this memory back then, he likely started carrying the antidote to Veritaserum with him."

"This means we can't even use Veritaserum; we can only make him hand it over consciously."

"Of course, I don't want you to use Veritaserum on him either. I don't want Slughorn to leave Hogwarts."

"Alright, children, it's very late now. I need you to go to bed."

Dumbledore said with a smile.

... The next day.

Harry told Hermione and Ron about the assignment Dumbledore had given them.

"I think it's very easy. As long as you and Darren go together, you two are his favorite students; he will definitely hand the memory over to you happily!"

Ron said while eating breakfast.

Hermione gave him a look of disdain.

"Don't listen to him. Don't alert the enemy. You and Darren must be well-prepared before you go, otherwise he will be on guard against you in the future."

"I think going directly to ask Professor Slughorn for his memory is definitely the stupidest method. You must not do that..."

"If you two could both get it, then Dumbledore, a friend of many years, would have already gotten his hands on it."

"Professor Slughorn is unwilling to give it to Dumbledore, so he certainly won't give it to you."

Hermione said pessimistically.

Harry was a bit unconvinced.