days at Hogwarts

"Riddle was fascinated by his origins. He spent a lot of time looking for clues about his father, Tom Riddle Sr., in the trophy room, the list of prefects in the school archives, and even in magical history books, but of course he found nothing.

"Finally he had to accept the reality that his father was a Muggle and had never been to Hogwarts, which made him completely disgusted with his own name, disgusted with the surname Riddle, and changed his name to... Voldemort.

"A lot of things happened that year, but he didn't give up on solving the mystery of his life experience. He found the traces of the Gaunt family based on his middle name, Marvolo... Riddle discovered that he was a descendant of Slytherin and was proud of it. With his clever mind, he found Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, awakened the basilisk, and accidentally killed Myrtle.

"You all knew the rest in your second year, when he framed Hagrid for the crime and created the first Horcrux... a diary sold in a newsagent's in Vauxhall Road.

"When he was sixteen, he did not return to the orphanage. Instead, he went to Hangleton to look for his Gaunt relatives. You all know the rest. He killed the Riddle family, put the blame on Monet Gaunt, and created a second Horcrux..."

"The ring of the House of Gaunt."

Dumbledore stared at Harry's face, like a professor testing a student in class, and then changed the subject: "Harry, you have faced Voldemort more than once, and you have learned all this information about him. What do you know about him?"

"Uh..." The unexpected question made Harry a little flustered. "He hated his mother at first and admired his father whom he had never met. After realizing the truth, he was proud of his Slytherin blood. He...he was hypocritical. He wanted to have a noble birth."

"That's right..." Dumbledore nodded. "He longs to be different, independent, and famous. He despises emotional ties, connections with others, and anything that makes him ordinary. He is willing to abandon his own name for this."

"..."

Loren looked at Harry, then at Dumbledore, and fell silent.

Are there any similarities between what you two said?

That’s “right”.

"What about other aspects?" Dumbledore continued, "Did you summarize any personality traits?"

Harry answered unsmoothly, "He was cruel and violent. He destroyed other people's lives when he was a student. First it was Myrtle, then the Riddle family."

"It's more like indifference than violence. He is equally indifferent to the lives of everyone except himself, whether they are strangers or blood relatives... He was born of deception and lies, has no love and compassion in his soul, and does not understand the preciousness of life. In fact, I felt uneasy when I was in the orphanage, not because of his Parseltongue, but because of the cruel, secretive and domineering nature he clearly showed."

"I hope that through these experiences you can discover the weaknesses in his character, such as his extreme self-confidence... or arrogance, his rejection of help and company from others, his willingness to do everything by himself, and his unwillingness to place trust in others. This is also true of Voldemort as an adult. Many Death Eaters claim that they have gained Voldemort's trust and that they can get close to him and even understand him."

Dumbledore smiled slightly ironically, "All this is just Voldemort fooling his servants. He never had friends, never recognized friends, and I don't think he ever needed friends."

The old headmaster with gray hair took a sip of tea and looked at another student who was drinking tea and eating biscuits at the table: "Have you seen any characteristics of Voldemort, Loren?"

Loren swallowed the cookie, licked his teeth, and tentatively answered, "He... has a collecting habit?"

Harry was a little surprised. It was hard to say whether this answer was Voldemort's characteristic, but it sounded very Loren.

"That's right!" Dumbledore smiled and seemed to like this answer very much. "Tom Riddle has the same hobby of collecting things as the magpie, such as the box of stolen goods hidden in the wardrobe, the Gaunt family ring, the Ravenclaw diadem, the Hufflepuff gold cup, the Slytherin locket, and the Gryffindor sword that he wanted but couldn't get..."

"We have every reason to believe that he would choose these special commemorative items to make Horcruxes. What we have to do is to destroy these Horcruxes one by one and finally eliminate Voldemort completely." Dumbledore's eyes fell on Loren, with a strange seriousness on his face. "Thank you, Loren."

"Now?" Loren widened his eyes slightly.

Loren knew that Dumbledore was referring to the Gaunt family ring. Three years ago, during the trip to the Gaunt old house, the headmaster could not resist the temptation of family affection and almost fell into Voldemort's curse, so he asked him to keep the ring inlaid with the Resurrection Stone and wait for the time to destroy it.

Dumbledore nodded.

Loren touched the pendant with his right hand, took out a round black stone ball, and placed it on the table.

Harry watched the headmaster tap the stone ball with his wand. A faint golden light flowed along certain specific patterns. It was an alchemical circle that he could not understand. The black stone shell was peeled off layer by layer like an onion, revealing the ring inside.

The ring was slightly larger in size, and the band was made of a yellow metal with a dull luster that looked more like brass than gold. The long years and Voldemort's soul had dulled its luster. The workmanship was very rough, not like it was made by a jeweler, and was not in keeping with Slytherin's aristocratic temperament.

There is a deep and thick black magic on the inside, revealing an ominous meaning.

The ring was inlaid with a heavy black gemstone, which had cracks and seemed to have not been polished or carved. The emblem of the Deathly Hallows was faintly engraved on it, a symmetrical triangle containing a circle with a vertical line in the circle, like an eye with a simple line outline and a vertical line in the middle of the pupil.

Looking up at Dumbledore's expression, the old headmaster was dazed for a few seconds, but he quickly came to his senses and did not do anything irrational.

Not to mention Harry, he hadn't yet realized that this was the famous Resurrection Stone.

If Professor Snape were here, there might be some emotional upheavals...

Who knows?

All kinds of strange ideas flashed through Loren's mind, but he was not too worried. Last time he was in the wilderness of the Gaunt old house and was not well prepared. This time he was in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts. If there was any problem with the ring, he could just reach out and take the sword out of the Sorting Hat.

If it doesn't work, just burn it with a fierce fire, but be careful with the resurrection stone and the principal's beard, don't let them burn...