Chapter 719: Resurrection Stone (Edited)

After a quick turn, Fish returned to the ground, wrinkling his nose and immediately making a disgusted face.

With a brief glance around, Fish recognized that the main location of his memories was once again the old Gaunt house.

However, compared to the first time he had visited the Gaunt house, this time it was indescribably dirty. The ceilings were covered in cobwebs, the floor was dark and slimy, there was moldy food on the table, and a pile of rusty pots and pans.

There was also a sour stench and a strong smell of alcohol in the air, causing Fish, who had a keen sense of smell, to cover his nose.

Thankfully, it was just a memory because otherwise Fish would probably have gone crazy again from the alcohol.

A man with overgrown hair and beard covering his eyes and mouth sat in an old, dirty armchair, and at his feet, there was a jumble of empty bottles, with a flickering candle among them, the only source of light in the room.

The man in the armchair had his head lowered and his limbs relaxed, as if he were dead, but the gentle breathing and slightly moving chest confirmed to Fish that the man was only asleep or drunk.

Due to the alcohol smell and the sourness of his breath, Fish could barely identify him as the man called Morfin Gaunt, Voldemort's uncle, from the last memory.

As Hermione and the others entered this memory, a loud thud was heard at the door, and Morfin, in the chair, woke up, raising his wand in his right hand and gripping a short knife in his left.

The door creaked open, and teenage Voldemort entered, holding an old-fashioned oil lamp in his hand.

Morfin recognized Voldemort's appearance with sleepy eyes and stood up unsteadily, the empty wine bottle at his feet rattling and clinking.

"You!" he shouted, "You!"

Morfin, mistaking Voldemort for his father, lunged drunkenly with his wand and short dagger raised.

But following Voldemort's "Halt" in Parseltongue, Morfin stopped, looking at him with wide-open eyes.

The two stared at each other for a long while before resuming their conversation in Parseltongue.

With Harry translating, Fish and the others observed as Voldemort extracted from Morfin the story of his origins and the current state of his relatives.

Then, an extraordinary darkness engulfed them, enveloping everything.

This time, Dumbledore and Fish didn't need to get the others out of the way. Naturally, they took flight and returned to reality after the darkness had swallowed everything.

"Is that all?" Harry immediately asked, "Why did it suddenly turn dark? What happened?"

"Because Morfin couldn't remember anything after that." Dumbledore gestured for everyone to sit down. "He woke up the next morning lying alone on the floor, and the Sorvolo ring was missing. Meanwhile, in the village of Little Hangleton, old Tom Riddle and his parents died without a scratch in their own mansion."

"The Killing Curse..." Hermione murmured.

"Yes, the Killing Curse doesn't usually leave wounds... the only exception is sitting right in front of me." Dumbledore nodded at Harry's scar and continued, "The Ministry immediately knew that a wizard had committed the act. They also knew that a man with a history of hatred towards Muggles lived across the street from the Riddles and that this man had been in prison for attacking one of the victims in the case."

"So the Ministry of Magic found Morfin, and without much interrogation, without the use of Veritaserum or Legilimency, he immediately confessed, giving details that only the killer would know, proudly admitting to killing those Muggles, claiming he had been waiting for this opportunity for years..."

"Did Voldemort steal Morfin's wand and use it to kill people?" Harry asked, sitting up straight.

It wasn't too hard to guess the truth.

Although, according to Dumbledore, Morfin had waited for the chance to have a wizard harm a Muggle, any moment was an opportunity, and Morfin hadn't hidden his thoughts at all, so the story had many holes if one thought about it.

But sadly, the English Ministry's ability to handle things has been in ruins for decades. Or rather, the Ministry back then, like the present one, was accustomed to turning a blind eye to suspicions and trying to close cases as quickly as possible to make up for it.

"So, the ever-present question, what clues have you found in this memory?" Dumbledore asked, raising his palms. "Please, give Harry and Mr. Weasley the chance to shine, Hermione."

Hermione, who was about to speak, shut her mouth resentfully.

"The ring..." Harry said, shivering through his body.

Knowing that Marvolo's ring had become a Horcrux and that it had required a human life to create it, he immediately had a terrible suspicion in his mind...

"Voldemort used his father's death to make a Horcrux with that ring."

"I cannot be certain," Dumbledore sighed, "But it is not impossible, and in the meantime, it was with this clue that I found the old Gaunt house and obtained the ring from within."

He took a black gemstone out of his pocket and placed it on the table, the same gemstone that had been set in the Gaunt ring.

Then, Dumbledore lifted his charred index finger of his right hand, waving it in front of Fish's face, and added, "I let my guard down and got caught in the spell Voldemort left on the ring."

Without thinking, Fish took the black gemstone and brought it closer to his eyes, examining it closely, seeing that it was covered in web-like cracks, but in the midst of them, he could make out a pattern of vertical lines, circles, and triangles.

"Let her go!"

Hermione took a moment to react to Fish's speed and shouted as she slapped at the jewel in Fish's hand, trying to take it off.

But Fish's reflexes were too quick to be easily struck, and he swiftly raised the jewel above his head, leaving Hermione with no chance to hit it.

"What are you doing, Hermione?"

Fish furrowed his brow, looking at Hermione, who had suddenly lunged at him.

"Don't worry, Hermione, I lifted the spell on it a long time ago," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "If it were dangerous, I wouldn't have put it in front of you."

Hermione then responded, "I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore..." She apologized with a smile.

Although she had acted out of concern, she had also done so out of mistrust towards Dumbledore.

Dumbledore wasn't going to blame Hermione for this. He smiled and waved his hand, then turned his attention to Fish with a look of doubt but also a hint of anticipation.

As soon as Fish realized that Hermione wasn't going to grab the jewel anymore, he lowered his arm and continued to look through the gem.

Dumbledore kept his eyes fixed on Fish, attempting several times to ask him to return the stone but stopping abruptly.

Only when he saw that Fish had inadvertently turned the gem three times in his hands and nothing had happened did he feel relieved and asked, "Have you found anything? Why do you keep playing with it?"

"Fish doesn't know nya..."

(?ω?)

Fish scratched his head and said with a confused expression, "This stone gives Fish a feeling of closeness and aversion at the same time, Fish doesn't know why nya..."

After that, he kept turning the "black gem" over and over in his hands for a while, then looked at it under the light, tapped it with his wand, and grabbed it, hitting it against the corner of the table a few times... with no response.

"Nya!"

Finally, irritated, Fish lost his patience and, before anyone could react, he grabbed the inexplicable black gem and put it in his mouth, then bit down hard.

"Boom!"