After parting ways with Snape, Lynn did not head straight back to his office. Instead, he followed the spiral staircase upward until he arrived at the eighth floor, stopping in front of a grotesquely ugly stone gargoyle.
"Password?" the gargoyle asked coldly.
"Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum."
The password changed often, but every member of staff was informed of it.
The gargoyle sprang aside, and the wall behind it split in two, revealing a spiral stone staircase slowly moving upward.
This was Lynn’s first visit to the Hogwarts Headmaster’s office.
Pushing open the gleaming oak door, he found himself looking into a spacious, beautiful circular room.
"There really are a lot of high-grade items in here..." At that moment, what Lynn saw looked less like an office and more like a treasure vault.
Aside from the legendary item he had already seen before, Godric Gryffindor’s Sorting Hat, there were all kinds of other objects as well, including the epic-grade Pensieve.
And in the glass display case behind Dumbledore’s desk in the center of the circular room hung a radiant sword:
[Item Name: Godric Gryffindor’s Sword]
[Type: Weapon]
[Rarity: Legendary]
[Properties:]
[Goblin-Made] (repels dust and dirt, never needs cleaning or polishing, and is immune to rust, acid, or corrosion of any kind)
[Strengthened by the Worthy] (this sword can absorb any substance or energy it comes into contact with, so long as it would make the sword stronger)
[Trial of Courage] (can only be wielded by a "true Gryffindor")
"Lynn?" Dumbledore came slowly down the spiral staircase in the center of the room. By now, he had changed into a star-patterned nightshirt.
"Professor Dumbledore." Lynn turned and gave a slight bow.
"Sit, Lynn. You haven’t come this late merely to admire my office, I imagine. There must be something more important."
Lynn sat down, ignored the magical sweets Dumbledore pushed toward him, a dish of Cockroach Clusters, and went straight to the point.
"About the Chamber of Secrets, and this possible ’Heir,’ I have important information."
The smile on Dumbledore’s face faded somewhat. He folded his fingers together on the desk.
"I’m listening."
"Well... in my homeland..." Lynn chose his words carefully, "there is a type of spellcaster who falls into corruption in pursuit of eternal life. Through an evil ritual, they tear their soul away from their body and store it inside a special container."
"As long as that container remains intact, no matter how many times their body is destroyed, they can return after a period of time."
Lynn looked at Dumbledore and slowly spoke the word:
"I call this sort of creature a lich, and the container that holds the soul is called a phylactery."
Dumbledore fell silent for a moment. Around them, the hissing of the silver instruments in the office suddenly seemed much louder.
"As far as I know..." Dumbledore’s voice became low and hoarse, "what you are describing is an extremely evil branch of Dark magic that functions in a similar way. It is called a Horcrux."
"Yes." Lynn nodded. "The underlying principle is basically the same."
"Why bring this up now?" Dumbledore asked, his gaze sharpening.
"Because I’ve seen one."
Lynn delivered that bombshell calmly.
"Inside Hogwarts, one student is carrying an old black diary. On the surface it looks completely ordinary, but it is wrapped in revolting strands of black soul-energy, and it is greedily feeding on the life force of its holder."
Dumbledore straightened in his chair.
"Who? Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley."
Lynn sighed and continued, "From what I can sense, that diary has already formed a deep soul-link with Miss Weasley. If we act rashly and seize or destroy it before fully understanding how it works..."
"The soul fragment inside the diary may strike back wildly in self-preservation," Dumbledore finished for him. "The worst-case outcome would be Ginny’s soul being torn apart, or completely taken over by that fragment."
"Exactly." Lynn nodded. "A lich’s phylactery usually comes with extremely vicious defensive mechanisms."
Dumbledore closed his eyes and lightly tapped his fingers against the desk.
"You’re right, Lynn. Your caution is the correct approach."
"If that diary really is what I think it is... acting recklessly would only lead to tragedy."
"So the owner of that diary..." Lynn asked carefully, "is Voldemort?"
"Tom Riddle. That was his name when he was a student," Dumbledore said softly. "If that diary truly is a Horcrux, then it answers a mystery that has troubled me for years."
"It explains why, on that Halloween night, after his own Killing Curse rebounded on him, he did not die, but instead lingered on as something ’less than a ghost.’"
"As long as the phylactery, or Horcrux, still exists, he can never truly die," Lynn added. "That’s also why I was able to kill him over a thousand times in the Albanian forest and still not finish him off."
"..."
Dumbledore rose and walked to the window, looking out into the dark night and the rain beyond.
"Lynn, in your world, how many phylacteries would a lich normally create?"
"One," Lynn answered without hesitation. "The soul is both precise and fragile. Splitting it even once is already the outer limit of what defies natural law. Creating multiple phylacteries may increase safety, but it would also make the primary soul highly unstable, perhaps even insane."
"Yes, but..." Dumbledore turned back, his blue eyes shining with a chilling intensity. "Given Tom’s personality, one Horcrux would never have satisfied him."
"He may have... cut his soul into many pieces."
Lynn knew perfectly well that Voldemort had made seven Horcruxes, but naturally, he could not simply tell Dumbledore that outright.
"So unless we find and destroy the Horcruxes, we can never truly eliminate him?"
"That’s right. Which is why we must be patient."
Dumbledore looked at Lynn, his tone grave.
"As for Miss Ginny Weasley, continue to observe her, but do not startle the enemy. Since the diary is feeding on her life force, there must be a threshold. Before that threshold is reached, we need to find a safe way to separate it from her."
"I’ll keep watching her," Lynn said with a nod.
"Thank you, Lynn," Dumbledore said sincerely. "This information... is extremely important. It seems there are many things I need to begin preparing for."
"It’s only right. This concerns the safety of all the students, especially... Mr. Harry Potter."
"Well, it’s late. I should get some rest as well." Dumbledore ate one of the Cockroach Clusters, and the smile returned to his face.
"Oh, Headmaster." As if remembering something, Lynn pulled out a sheet of parchment from inside his robe and placed it in front of Dumbledore.
"If you don’t mind, could you satisfy a bit of my curiosity?"
After all, Divination was completely useless on someone so obviously far above his level, like Dumbledore.
"So this is the little device that’s become so popular in the school lately?" Dumbledore said with a smile.
"That’s right. The activation phrase is ’Adventure begins.’"
Dumbledore adjusted his glasses, picked up the wand lying on the desk with his long fingers, pointed it at the parchment, and said, "Adventure begins."
As the ink appeared across the page, Lynn finally saw Dumbledore’s "panel" for the first time:
[Name: Albus Dumbledore]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Wizard]
[Level: 15 (98%)]
[Attributes:]
[Strength: 8]
[Dexterity: 11]
[Constitution: 11]
[Intelligence: 20 (+1 Level) (+1 Feat)]
[Wisdom: 17 (+4 Level) (+1 Feat)]
[Charisma: 16 (+1 Level)]
[Feats:]
[Leader’s Bearing] (his words can inspire confidence in allies)
[Observant] (Wisdom +1)
[Linguist] (Intelligence +1, proficient in Mermish, Gobbledegook, and Ancient Runes, and can create his own ciphers)
[Advanced Alchemy] (mastery of all kinds of alchemy and magical item creation)
[Greatest White Wizard] (proficient in nearly all magic outside the spell system, casts without consuming spell slots, and all such magic gains the effects of every Metamagic option)
[Master of the Elder Wand] (can fully draw out the abilities of the legendary item [Elder Wand])
[Love] (understands the essence of love, and knows its intimate connection with magic)
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