Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures - H.P.S.T Chapter 1725: I Believe

Harry looked up at Sirius, and everyone else stared at him in disbelief.

“I love this idea!” Mad-Eye Moody shouted. “Storm Hogwarts — I’ve been waiting for this day, to drag Voldemort out of his hole!”

“I support Sirius,” Harry said immediately.

Several others voiced their agreement, and a low murmur of discussion rose in the room.

“Now is not the best time to storm Hogwarts for a final battle, Sirius, you know that,” Lupin said quickly. “We’re not ready yet. There are many thorny issues we haven’t figured out.”

“A decision must be made as soon as possible,” Sirius said firmly. “We’re not ready, but Voldemort isn’t either. When both sides are fully prepared, how much chance do you think we’ll really have?”

“But what about those issues? For example, Ron, who’s unconscious upstairs. If he really has Voldemort’s Horcrux magic attached to him, we still don’t know how to destroy it,” Lupin continued.

“We all know how to destroy a Horcrux,” Sirius said flatly. “You just don’t want to accept it. It’s a bit cruel for that boy, but someone has to make the sacrifice.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Mrs. Weasley, who had been standing by the fireplace, let out a loud sob. Her eyes were red; she had cried countless times in recent days.

The rest of the Weasley family immediately gathered around her, and the room fell silent again.

Harry’s heart, which had just lifted, sank instantly.

Yes, there was still Ron!

He was the one who had told everyone that Ron was possessed by Horcrux magic.

So-called Horcrux magic referred to what Voldemort — back when he was still Tom Riddle at Hogwarts — had done at the centaur temple, where he stole Gryffindor’s Philosopher’s Stone. In that process, he murdered a centaur, split his soul, and created a special Horcrux whose core was magic itself.

That magic was now attached to Ron. Harry had confirmed this when he invaded Voldemort’s mind. At Malfoy Manor, Ron had indeed attacked him, taken him to the Dark Witch, setting off the series of events that followed.

After rescuing Ron, they checked him and found he wasn’t under the Imperius Curse.

The reason Ron had acted that way might truly have been because Voldemort’s Horcrux magic was attached to him. It was a form of control even more advanced than the Imperius Curse, acting directly upon the soul.

No one knew what to do; Everyone present knew very little about the principles behind Horcrux magic. The only certainty was that, like the ritual to become an evil god, it was an evil spell created by Herpo the Foul. Voldemort used it to achieve immortality; and his Horcruxes had the ability to control people.

Anyone who came into contact with them could be controlled.

Ron had been controlled once before, back in his second year.

That time, however, the thing controlling him was Riddle’s diary — an object with a physical form. Destroying the diary had been enough. But this time, the Horcrux magic itself could not be found at all.

Perhaps killing Ron was the only option. Once the host was gone, that Horcrux magic might lose its effect.

No one had spoken about it aloud in recent days, but among many of them, it had already become an unspoken understanding.

Ron had to die.

“There must be another way. Ron’s been controlled many times before, but he always regained his senses, and this time will be no different,” Harry said wearily, his mood worsening.

After losing Evan, he was about to lose Ron as well.   

Harry barely listened to what the others were saying anymore. His thoughts were consumed by this one thing.

He wished he could enter Voldemort’s consciousness once again.

Perhaps then he could find out what the Horcrux magic attached to Ron was. But since the last battle, Voldemort had sealed his mind, and Harry hadn’t been able to enter it again.

Harry believed it was his fault that both Evan and Ron had met with disaster in succession.

He could not accept an outcome like this. And there was an even darker premonition haunting him — Voldemort’s shrill laughter echoed in his ears again and again, filling him with a dreadful sense of foreboding.

Maybe… he, too, was a Horcrux!

After Ron’s death, it would be his turn next. No one could escape death.

At that moment, Harry heard someone mention Dumbledore. He couldn’t explain why, but hatred towards Dumbledore flared up in him again. The headmaster must have known everything — yet he had told him nothing.

During this period, from Rita Skeeter’s book The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, Harry had learned a great deal about Dumbledore’s early years — things utterly different from what he had imagined.

Maybe Dumbledore really was that kind of person, Harry couldn’t help thinking. He had never truly known anything about the headmaster’s past. Was it really as Sirius and the others said — that everything Rita Skeeter wrote was pure fabrication?

Or was it all true, but simply no one wanted to talk about it?

Perhaps even Sirius had been kept in the dark. After all, Dumbledore was so much older than him; how could Sirius possibly know what Dumbledore had been through in his youth?

Harry’s thoughts spiraled chaotically. He felt that maybe he should hear Hermione’s opinion. He knew she was reading that book as well, and they hadn’t had a proper conversation in a long time. But Harry wasn’t sure if he should bother Hermione with this now. The news of Evan’s death must have devastated her — more than anyone else present.

The fact that she hadn’t broken down crying in front of everyone like Mrs. Weasley already showed how strong she was.

But if he didn’t speak now, there might never be another chance.

After some discussion, the group agreed with Sirius’s suggestion to storm Hogwarts. Since the last battle, there had been no news from within the school, and everyone was worried, wondering how Professor McGonagall and the other students were doing.

Oh, and then there was Snape!

That lackey of Voldemort — that loathsome old bat. The hatred in Harry’s heart surged ever stronger. It was time to settle things with Snape once and for all.

“Let’s storm Hogwarts then, but we need to gather manpower; that will take time. Everyone, prepare as best you can,” Lupin finally said. “As for Ron, we’ll try again. There might still be another way. If there are no objections, then today’s strategy meeting ends here.”

One by one, everyone filed out, including the utterly grief-stricken Weasley family.

Soon, only Harry, Hermione, Sirius, and Lupin remained in the room.

“I believe Evan will come back; he will definitely come back, right at the final battle,” Hermione suddenly whispered. “I’m going to search for the key to Hufflepuff’s secret treasure. That way, when Evan returns, we’ll be able to open the secret vault left behind by the Four Founders of the school and gain their help.”

Translating_Wizard

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