The Prisoners of Hogwarts

Chapter 125 A Sudden Question

Chapter 125 A Sudden Question (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

Dumbledore's eyebrows rose in surprise, and genuine curiosity gleamed in his eyes behind his crescent-shaped glasses: "I remember you saying in your stone house that you didn't know exactly how many Horcruxes you had:

Lin Qi shook his head slightly: "I really didn't know before. I only found out the answer to this question by chance some time ago."

Dumbledore tilted his head slightly, remaining silent for only a second before his gaze behind his glasses sharpened: "Was it...the incident where Voldemort used Professor Quirrell's body to try and steal the Philosopher's Stone?"

“That’s right.” Lynch nodded firmly. “If you recall, I set up something around that room.” Dumbledore briefly recalled: “That thing called a camera? It worked?”

"Yes, it worked. Some special footage was captured, revealing just how many Horcruxes Voldemort has created so far."

A brief silence fell over the office, and the fire in the stove seemed to burn even slower.

Dumbledore leaned forward slightly, his entire attention focused on Lynch's next answer.

"So," he slowly asked the core question, "how many Horcruxes did Voldemort actually create?"

Lin Qi did not directly answer the number.

"Instead of giving you a dry number," he said, "see the scene for yourself. It might be more straightforward and... convincing."

After saying that, Lynch turned his head, his gaze passing over Dumbledore and landing on the huge, intricately carved window of the headmaster's office.

His gaze seemed to pierce through the glass, landing on the gloomy sky outside Hogwarts Castle.

Dumbledore looked in the direction of his own light.

At first, there were only a few slowly moving gray clouds in the sky.

But soon, a black spot appeared on the horizon, and it grew larger at an extremely fast speed, flying straight towards the principal's tower.

It was a black crow, entirely painted black.

It flew straight toward the Hogwarts Headmaster's office, its claws gripping a small, gray cloth bag tightly.

Dumbledore opened the window.

The crow darted precisely through the gap, carrying a wisp of cool air from high above, gracefully circling halfway around the room before finally landing on Lynch's shoulder.

The gray cloth bag then fell into Lin Qi's hands.

The crow lowered its head, preened the feathers on its chest with its beak, and then fell silent. The messenger had completed its mission.

"It looks different from the last time I saw it; it looks more like a living thing," Dumbledore said, looking at the raven that had landed on Lynch's shoulder.

"I've made some improvements to it." Lynch lowered his head and untied the rope of the cloth bag in his hand. "Now it can fly much farther."

"I see." Dumbledore looked away from the raven and at Lynch.

Lin Qi reached into the cloth bag and pulled out a square wooden box.

Dumbledore noticed that the box was very similar to the camera Lynch had taken out last time, but it was much larger than the camera. In addition to the protruding metal cylinder, it also had some buttons and wheels on the side.

Lin Qi placed the wooden box on the table.

He looked at Dumbledore: "The best way to play camera footage is in a dark environment, so that it can be seen more clearly."

"No problem." Dumbledore waved his arm, and with a whoosh, the heavy curtains in the headmaster's office were drawn shut, the candles and torches on the walls were extinguished, and even the flames in the fireplace went out, leaving only a few embers.

The entire principal's office was plunged into darkness.

Lin Qi pressed a button on the side of the wooden box, and with a series of clicking sounds, a beam of light shot out from the metal tube on the side of the wooden box and spread into the air of the principal's office.

Dumbledore was astonished to see that the light projected into an illusory yet real image in the air.

But before he could continue marveling at this amazing Muggle creation, his attention was drawn to the content of the image.

In the scene, a dark and illusory shadow lunged at Lin Qi with bared fangs and claws. Lin Qi took a half step back, stretched out his hand, and a straight and condensed emerald green light emanated from his fingertips.

The next instant, the entire shadow was tinged with green.

Snapped!

Lynch pressed a button on top of the wooden crate, and the image froze at the moment Voldemort's soul was tinged with green.

"This is it!" He pointed to the violently churning magical image in the air, completely permeated with an ominous emerald green. "Can you see it?"

Dumbledore's gaze was fixed on the green-tinged image of the soul. After a moment, he took a deep breath, as if confirming an extremely important answer.

Then, his gaze slowly shifted away, refocusing on Lin Qi, his eyes becoming incredibly deep and sharp: "Yes, I saw it..."

"But... Professor Lynch, before we discuss this discovery, there is a more pressing issue... The spell you used to deliver this blow is a very sophisticated killing curse."

"I didn't have a chance to ask you about this that day because of Mr. Potter's unexpected situation."

"I have the opportunity today, and I need your answer."

"Did you not stop researching the Unforgivable Curse during your ten years in the Stone House?"

1

The air in the office seemed to freeze.

Lynch turned his head, somewhat surprised that Dumbledore would pay attention to his question at such a crucial moment in the discussion about Voldemort.

But he quickly recovered from his surprise: "Yes, I have been studying them. But I haven't used them, so you can rest assured that my mind has not been corrupted by dark magic."

Dumbledore didn't let Lynch off the hook: "You've mastered the Killing Curse to an extremely high level. I'm afraid many Death Eaters aren't as proficient in this spell as you are."

"Yes, my understanding of this killing curse has reached its pinnacle. But just as I want to know the sharpness of a knife..."

"I won't choose to cut myself; there are other ways for me to find out just how sharp it really is."

"I'm very curious," Dumbledore leaned forward slightly, his fingertips meeting again to form a spire, "what is a method that allows one to know the result without actually using it?"

"I can measure the blade's 'edge radius' and 'cutting angle', and then understand its material properties."

Dumbledore was a little confused, and his eyebrows rose in surprise again, this time because of the strange combination of words.

His sharp mind had clearly encountered a completely unfamiliar field of knowledge, which caused him to pause for a moment—an extremely rare occurrence.

"Cut edge radius?" he repeated, his tone carrying the curiosity of a scholar encountering a completely new subject rather than mere confusion. "I must admit, Professor Lynch, you've entered a realm beyond the reach of my knowledge. Is this all—Muggle knowledge?"

"That's right, it's Muggle terminology." Lynch waved his hand. "But that's not the point. The point is that I don't need to practice using the Killing Curse to study it—through indirect methods."