Standing in front of the Riddle Manor, Link felt his body trembling slightly.
He couldn't tell if this came from nervousness or excitement, but the one thing he was sure of was that it definitely wasn't fear.
For this expedition, Link had made plenty of preparations.
Aside from the equipment on him, he had also estimated the places Dumbledore might take him.
Ruling out impossible choices like Ravenclaw's diadem, the most likely locations were the sea cave (false locket), Gringotts (golden cup), and the Riddle Manor (Resurrection Stone).
The other two were simple.
At worst, they'd return empty-handed; at best, they'd bring back something.
But the Riddle Manor was different.
Because in the original story, during the Triwizard Tournament, the Riddle Manor had always been Voldemort's hideout.
In other words, their trip to the Riddle Manor this time not only meant a chance to retrieve the Resurrection Stone, but also the possibility of running directly into Voldemort himself, while he was still in an extremely weakened state.
This was simply heaven-sent.
"Do you know what this place is?"
Just then, Dumbledore's faint voice sounded again.
Link frowned, tightened his grip on his wand, and stared warily at the old mansion as he said, "The Riddle Manor, you just said it yourself."
"No, no, no, what I mean is, do you know what the Riddle Manor actually is?" Dumbledore shook his head, not waiting for Link to answer before continuing on his own.
"This place was originally called the Gaunt Shack, the last dwelling place of the Gaunt family."
Dumbledore's pupils slowly dilated, as if recalling something. "The Gaunt family were the last descendants of Salazar Slytherin."
"They were very proud of this fact. In order to preserve the purity of this noble bloodline, they chose inbreeding."
"The result was that their descendants grew more and more stupid, irritable, and unstable. The powerful magical talent that should have run in their veins slowly disappeared."
"In the end, after generations of decadent squandering, the Gaunt family fell into ruin."
"The very last of the Gaunt line was Tom Riddle... Voldemort."
"Tom was the concentrated embodiment of the Gaunts' centuries of so-called glory."
"As a boy he was polite, incredibly gifted, and intelligent. But his birth was an accident, or rather, a scandal that the entire Gaunt family despised."
"Like one of those tired, cliché tragic romances, Tom's mother, born into the Gaunt family but stripped of magic because of inbreeding, treated as little more than a servant, fell in love with a Muggle. Tom was the result of her using a love potion to ensnare that man."
"But how could a love sustained only by potion ever last?"
"That so-called happy family life ended the moment the potion wore off."
"The abandoned Tom was brought into Hogwarts by me. I thought he would gradually grow into a good child. Unfortunately, I underestimated the hatred and ambition in his heart."
"The very first time that child gained power, he returned to the Gaunt home, avenged his poor mother, slaughtered his uncle and grandfather, and took this shack for himself."
"From what I know of him, if he truly hid Horcruxes, this place would definitely be one of the hiding spots."
Even though Link had already known this part of the story, he still didn't interrupt Dumbledore.
Only after Dumbledore finished speaking did he say with some irritation, "I don't think this is the time for a history lesson. If this old house really means as much to Voldemort as you say, then he could very well be hiding inside right now!"
"Don't worry, Link," Dumbledore tilted his head back slightly, as though letting the cold night wind caress his face, or as though sensing something. "I don't smell him. He is definitely not here."
At those words, Link's taut muscles loosened a little, though disappointment welled up inside him.
He had no reason to doubt the strongest white wizard of the age.
Since Dumbledore said Voldemort wasn't here, then this place should be empty.
"But you're right, time waits for no one. Let's begin." Dumbledore spoke again.
With that, his long-stilled legs finally moved.
Link hurried after him.
The two of them pushed open the rusted, decaying iron gate, stepping on withered grass and scattered stones as they walked toward the shadowy old house now shrouded completely in hazy moonlight.
During this, Link sharply noticed that on the open ground they were crossing there was a faint trail, like a small path trampled out by repeated footsteps.
This made Link tense up again.
It meant that someone had been entering and leaving the Riddle Manor often, and aside from Voldemort, Link could think of no one else it could be.
Compared to him, Dumbledore was far more calm, strolling along with an easy face.
As he walked, the dead grass and stones before him crumbled apart one after another, as though some powerful magic was clearing the way ahead.
When they reached the Riddle Manor's great door, its crest long gone, the wood decayed beyond recognition, that magic crushed it into splinters.
Only then did the force fade, spreading instead in a wider, gentler sweep into the mansion's depths.
At the same time, the structure of the ground-floor kitchen revealed itself before Link's eyes.
It was the worst room he had ever seen, second only to the Shrieking Shack before its renovation.
The difference was that the Shack had been full of animal corpses and dung, while here, the floor was only covered in a thick layer of dust, crisscrossed by dense footprints and serpentine crawl marks.
All the tables and chairs were gone, leaving only a heap of plates and cutlery on the counter, some still stained with dried, black smears of rotten food.
On top of that, the air was thick with mold and some other stench Link couldn't identify.
Forced by his mild cleanliness obsession, Link quickly cast a Bubble-Head Charm on himself.
Dumbledore, by contrast, acted as if he didn't notice the stench or filth at all, walking straight into the kitchen.
As he passed Link, he even smiled and shook his head, mocking him as though to say he couldn't handle a little smell.
Link didn't argue. They ignored the rest of the ground floor, climbing the rickety wooden stairs that squeaked underfoot, some steps missing altogether.
At the landing, Link turned right and immediately spotted the room most worth investigating in the entire Riddle Manor.
It wasn't hard to find, every other door was sealed shut with boards, while only the one at the corridor's end stood open.
On the dusty, dark floor of the corridor, footprints and snake trails led straight inside.
By now even Dumbledore seemed wary.
He drew his wand and crept toward the room together with Link.
What they saw inside was clear.
This was the master bedroom, and it bore unmistakable signs of recent habitation, signs absent elsewhere.
The floor was swept clean of dust.
The fireplace was full of ashes, with chopped but unburned logs stacked nearby. From the paint on them, it looked like they'd been scavenged from furniture downstairs.
Most striking of all, in the middle of the room sat an old-fashioned baby cradle, piled with blankets and holding a filthy milk bottle, inside of which were traces of yellowish residue.
"They must have lived here for a time." Dumbledore picked up the bottle, shook it twice, and said, "I can smell him here, but very faintly."
Link frowned.
He never understood what Dumbledore meant by "smell."
Curiosity drove him to open his heightened-senses charm. Immediately, waves of strange-colored magical currents filled his vision.
They were far more active and powerful than those outside, as if deliberately amplified.
Most importantly, within them pulsed a dark energy that made both of them uneasy.
Some of it scattered loosely throughout the room's magical currents, but the vast majority coiled inside the fireplace, like a black serpent crouched there.
As Link probed, the black serpent seemed to sense him, raised its head, flicked its tongue, then opened its bloody jaws.
At once, the scattered dark magic in the room quivered in unison.
Even the normal magical currents began to distort under its pull.
When almost the entire room's magic vibrated in rhythm, a faint hum burst through the air.
"Headmaster Dumbledore, I think something's wrong." Link's face was grim.
He had never seen magical currents shift across such a wide area, but he could still feel the danger.
Every hair on his body stood on end, screaming for him to run.
But Dumbledore remained calm. He laid a large hand on Link's shoulder and said, "Don't worry. With me here, nothing will happen."
Then he raised his wand and tapped gently at the air.
Link's eyes widened instantly.
Through his magical sight, he clearly saw Dumbledore's wand tip land directly on one of the black currents.
With that, the trembling surged wildly, breaking past a threshold.
BOOM!
An inhuman roar thundered from the fireplace as firelight exploded outward. A torrent of dark-red flames burst from within, spreading across the room like burning spring fluff.
Link reacted quickly.
Before the cursed fire could engulf them, he pulled on his curse power to form a protective barrier around himself and Dumbledore.
But Dumbledore moved even faster, and more thoroughly.
With a sweep of his wand, a massive spray of light mist erupted, pressing back the fire and shoving it back into the fireplace.
"Fiendfyre. Triggered as a trap," Dumbledore said easily, still so relaxed he had time to lecture.
"I think you saw the setup with your heightened-senses charm. Very advanced spellwork, quite creative. You might learn from it someday."
"This was Tom's parting gift. He wanted the Fiendfyre to erase their traces here, and maybe kill intruders like us."
"But what he didn't count on, was me!"
Dumbledore thrust his wand forward.
At once, light blazed brilliantly, crushing the flames and obliterating the fire-serpent in the fireplace with a final scream.
"Okay! That's done!"
Turning, Dumbledore flashed Link a bright smile.
Link could only force a smile back, while Arkham, who had been peeking from his collar, darted back inside in fear, memories stirred by what it had just seen.
"So this is your current grasp of curse power?" Dumbledore noticed the barrier Link had cast. Curious, he tapped it with his wand.
"Your control is excellent, but the strength is lacking. You should try to improve it."
Link's face darkened.
Magical strength wasn't so easy to raise. This was pure flexing from Dumbledore.
Unwilling to explain that his ability came from a system "cheat," Link dismissed the barrier and said, "Let's get out of here. The Horcrux definitely isn't in this house."
"Oh?" Dumbledore seemed intrigued. "And how do you know that?"
Link knew he was being tested.
He rolled his eyes.
"Don't tell me you didn't notice. Fiendfyre destroys Horcruxes. If a Horcrux were hidden here, how could Voldemort possibly set such a trap?"
"Bingo! Correct!" Dumbledore looked delighted, even jerking his head toward the back. "The Horcrux isn't here, it's behind."
"Behind?"
Link repeated softly, looking in the same direction as Dumbledore.
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