HP/LOTM: Visionary - 375

Chapter 375: Memories of the Past and Potions Class

After completing the ritual, Tom returned to the old Gaunt house. He returned the wand that had killed his own flesh and blood to Morfin Gaunt, then used magic to plant memories of murder in his mind.

He stole the Gaunt family's greatest treasure—Marvolo Gaunt's ring, which held the Resurrection Stone, and then disappeared into hiding.

Morfin Gaunt was subsequently arrested by Aurors, readily confessing to the murders. The Aurors arrested him, held a swift trial, and set an execution date.

The perspective suddenly switched to Dumbledore. Dumbledore went to Azkaban to visit Morfin Gaunt in order to understand Voldemort's past.

During his visit with Morfin Gaunt, he extracted his memories. Understanding the truth, Dumbledore wanted to exonerate Morfin Gaunt.

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Magic at that time still opposed Dumbledore, so they ignored his request for a retrial. They directly administered the Dementor's Kiss to Morfin Gaunt.

The memory ended abruptly here.

"Aiden, why was there a memory of you sleeping in Hogwarts Castle just now?" Harry couldn't help but voice his confusion.

"Didn't I already tell you about the Deep Realm Kings before? I once faced a Deep Realm King—Entropy—and obtained a core fragment from him. Afterward, I returned to the past and participated in the founding of Hogwarts, becoming the hidden fifth founder. But leaving the power of Chaos in the present world wasn't an option. To weaken it as much as possible, I used the castle to bring it into the sea of consciousness to sleep, while I myself used this opportunity to return to the present day." Aiden smiled at Harry.

Harry was shocked by this revelation and was unable to find words. He finally understood the meaning of what Aiden had told him after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.

"However, this isn't something particularly important. After all, the past has long been buried by time. What we need is the future."

Aiden waved his hand, and a mist descended. The second memory began to appear.

This memory was from fifty-three years ago, so the current Slughorn was much younger than he is now. His hair was thick, like thatch, his body was thin, and his stomach wasn't puffed out like it was now.

Surrounding him were all Slytherin boys. Harry also saw Horace addressing someone beside him as Lestrange.

"Lestrange, is he your roommate?" Harry turned back.

"Yeah, he's Edmund's great-great-grandfather," Aiden explained.

Then Horace, in the memory, spoke. "Oh, it's already very late. I think you wouldn't want to be caught by Professor Dippet."

Then he sent all the students out.

A hand snapped Horace's hourglass, drawing his attention.

"Ah, this isn't..." Horace started speaking, but the surrounding memory was engulfed in white mist.

"What's happening, Aiden?" Harry turned back, confused.

"This is the consequence of memory being tampered with. The owner of the memory doesn't want its contents discovered by others."

Aiden looked at the Horace before him, seemingly lost in thought.

Then an abrupt voice rang out. "You won't have a good end doing this!"

This evasive voice also let Harry hear Horace's guilt.

"Well, Professor, I just want to understand something I saw in the Restricted Section. After all, I can only seek your help. Other professors aren't like you—they might misunderstand me."

Young Tom walked before Horace and earnestly asked for his guidance.

"Continue," Horace poured himself a glass of wine.

"I previously searched the Restricted Section of the library and found some knowledge about a magic that allows people to resist death—Horcruxes."

Then the white mist in the memory surged up again. Horace waved his hand violently, driving Tom away.

"I know nothing about this. Even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you."

As Horace waved his hand, the memory began to dissipate. The sixth memory ended here.

In the dream, Aiden sat in a chair while Harry barely managed to stand up, leaning on it.

"Looks like you're at your limit. Peering into the past through dreams has placed great strain on you."

Aiden saw through Harry's condition at a glance and applied an angel-level soothing effect to him. Harry's body rapidly relaxed, and his mind became refreshed.

"Then, after the lesson ends, I'll leave you with an assignment. Get the real memory from Horace."

A wand appeared in Aiden's hand. He pointed it at Harry, and then Harry was kicked out of the dream.

"Damn it!" Harry suddenly sat up in bed.

"Hmm, what's wrong?" Ron was woken by him and glanced at the sky outside before lying back down to continue sleeping.

Harry tossed and turned in bed with worries on his mind until dawn, when he told Ron about last night's experiences.

"That's crazy. Aiden is actually over a thousand years old," Ron touched his chin.

Smack

Harry hit him on the head.

"Why?"

Ron covered his head, wanting to glare at Harry, but saw a pair of heterochromatic pupils fading away.

"Huh? Did I do something just now?" Harry was confused.

"Oh, nothing. Since you want to know things, why not just ask Professor Slughorn directly? It's simpler," Ron scratched where he'd just been hit and quickly left.

Harry felt this suggestion wasn't reliable, so he went to the library to find Hermione.

"Since even Professor Dumbledore couldn't get it directly, I think you should first win over Professor Slughorn, then slowly work on getting his memory," Hermione put down her book and answered.

Harry felt this approach was somewhat troublesome, so he told Hermione, "Ron suggested I just ask him directly."

"Oh, really? Then follow Ron's advice," Hermione hugged her books and left directly.

In the afternoon Potions class, Hermione didn't even sit with Harry and Ron. She moved her cauldron next to Aiden's.

"Phew, dear Miss Granger, what did they do to anger you this time?" Aiden teased.

"How did you... did you read my mind again?" Hermione crushed the pods forcefully.

"You know, how many times these years have I been used as a vent when you three argue?" Aiden rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I'm very sorry, Aiden... what I mean is..." Hermione felt bad about treating her friend this way.

However, a certain dragon didn't mind at all. He was simply joking.

"All right, you all need to use that book well, and be sure to keep it safe," Aiden instructed.

Horace explained Gorbalock's Third Law to everyone today.

"Who can answer what this law states?" Horace looked around.

Hermione decisively raised her hand to answer.

"Not bad, Miss Granger," Horace gestured for her to answer.

"The antidote to a mixed poison is greater than the sum of each individual antidote," Hermione recited from the textbook and earned ten points for Gryffindor.

Then Horace asked them to brew an antidote potion for a mixed toxin.

Targeted potion-making isn't particularly difficult, but Aiden decided to get fancy. He decomposed and mixed the properties of two antidotes, wanting to try violating Gorbalock's Third Law.

The final result was naturally failure. Aiden compensated for the missing properties through magic. So simply mixing two antidotes won't work after all.

This episode went unnoticed by Horace. He tested Aiden's potion, nodded in satisfaction, and left.

While Harry submitted a Bezoar stone according to the Half-Blood Prince's notes, which prompted Horace to greatly praise his boldness and talent in Potions.

As expected, the top student in this Potions class was again the young Prince Harry.