Hogwarts: Even Voldemort Can't Stop Me From Studying

Chapter 886: Chapter 257: Seven Fragments of Soul?

Immediately, the surrounding scene rippled like water, and Dumbledore landed beside Vid.

The two stood in the corner of the memory in the office, hearing Slughorn say, ”Then hurry and ask, child, hurry and ask...”

”Sir,” the young Tom looked at Slughorn, his face holding a mask-like standard smile, and said softly, ”I want to ask if you know about... Soul Artifacts.”

Slughorn was slightly taken aback, he stared at the politely smiling Tom, covering up his thoughts by saying, ”... Defense Against the Dark Arts subject, isn’t it?”

Tom shook his head and said sincerely, ”No, Sir, I read about it in a book and didn’t quite understand.”

”Hmm... yes...”

Slughorn was getting a bit tense, fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

He vaguely said, ”It’s hard to find a book detailing Soul Artifacts at Hogwarts, Tom. They are very evil things, very evil.”

The candlelight cast flickering shadows on the handsome side of Tom Riddle’s face, and he leaned slightly forward, saying respectfully:

”But you obviously know well, Sir? I mean, a wizard like you...”

Vid watched Tom as if he were a skilled anatomist, his words the scalpel, slowly dissecting Slughorn’s psychological defenses, extracting every step of creating a Soul Artifact from his mouth—

Murder, soul splitting, using this destruction to seal the separated soul fragments away in an object.

In this way, even if the main body is killed, because part of the soul remains in the world, one would not die completely.

Slughorn’s fat fingers twisted together, the handkerchief was soaked with sweat, clearly unwilling to elaborate more.

But maybe it was Tom’s persuasive speech, or maybe he didn’t want to appear ignorant, anyway this chubby professor, sweating profusely, couldn’t help but explain the making of Soul Artifacts in detail.

Until later, he sensed the burgeoning evil desire in the young man before him, Slughorn became increasingly fearful and couldn’t help but shout:

”Don’t ask me, I don’t know—I don’t look like I’ve tried, do I? Do I look like a murderer?”

Tom pretended apologetically.

Out of a fondness for talent, and a subconscious smoothness maintaining a mutual relationship, Slughorn overlooked the unease in his heart, self-deceptively interpreting the conversation as a pursuit of academic interest.

Then Tom asked again, ”Can the soul only be split once? Wouldn’t splitting it into more pieces be better, making you stronger?”

His face displayed a kind of pure yearning for power, as if he wasn’t aware of the evil, nor did he see the horror before the elderly man’s eyes.

Tom asked bluntly, ”Isn’t seven the most magical of numbers? If it were split into seven...”

”My goodness, Tom!” Slughorn couldn’t help but exclaim, ”Seven! Isn’t it evil enough to kill one person? In any case... splitting the soul is already evil enough... and to split it into seven pieces...”

He stared at Tom in shock, his face showing deep fear and regret, clearly scared by the greed and uncovered evil of the young man before him.

After Tom left, Slughorn sat in his chair, panting for a long time before getting up and pouring himself a glass of rum.

The bottle and glass clinked as Slughorn’s hand was trembling all the while.

After draining a full glass in one go, he stared blankly for a while, suddenly raised his magic wand, and cast a spell on his own head.

The next second, the scene in the memory shattered like a broken mirror.

Slughorn’s terrified face, the candy and photographs on the table, and Tom Riddle’s leaving with a menacing smile—all twisted into countless silver wisps of fog, swirling and rising around the two, morphing into destroyed Soul Artifact shapes.

Dumbledore was not seeing this memory for the first time; obviously, he had thought it over even before Vid arrived.

”Horace obscured this memory.”

Dumbledore said softly, ”When I realized that Tom had created more than one Soul Artifact—especially that diary, indicating that this evil act might have started while he was still at school.”

”And back then, the one who undoubtedly could have given him such guidance was Horace Slughorn, who liked Tom Riddle the most. I searched my memories and discovered that for a period, Horace was obviously distancing himself from Tom.”

”But when I went to find him, Horace used a tampered memory to muddle through, trying to make me believe they hadn’t spoken at all.”

”Because of guilt and shame?” Vid said, ”He said what shouldn’t have been said, helping Voldemort become an immortal monster.”

”I think fear surpasses guilt,” Dumbledore said softly, ”He fears having become a demon’s teacher, and fears more that Tom might come back to silence him.”

Vid shook his head, the sympathy born from seeing Slughorn’s miserable state quietly dissipating: ”If not for the vanity, he wouldn’t have had to suffer like this.”

”We all have temptations that are hard to resist, child.”

Dumbledore said calmly, ”Horace enjoys material comforts, likes associating with successful people, offering special care to some students in school to ensure they provide some benefits after graduation, like sending two free game tickets...”

”This isn’t a major flaw; it’s just that some people innately know how to exploit others’ weaknesses.”

He sighed, ”When I discovered the problems with the memory, I went to Horace immediately, only to find he was already prepared to leave his residence.”

”To persuade him to cooperate voluntarily, I told him that Voldemort showed signs of revival, and as a result, he pretended to comply, then disappeared without a trace...”

”... only to be captured by Voldemort?” Vid interjected speechlessly.

No wonder Slughorn so readily handed over the memory after regaining consciousness—he must have regretted it countless times while being tortured by Voldemort.

”Yes.” Dumbledore said, ”Fortunately, we now still know the answer—Voldemort planned to make six Soul Artifacts for himself, plus his own broken one, the soul split into seven pieces in total... or rather, what he thought was seven pieces.”

”The first is the diary...” Vid looked at Dumbledore.

He placed the diary in the Masking Spell box and handed it to Dumbledore for study. The two had previously agreed not to simply burn the diary.

Dumbledore nodded slightly, ”Yes, it’s still in my possession, in a safe place.”