Chapter 289: The Chamber's Aftermath
"What?" Dobby stared with his huge, lamp-like eyes, asking fearfully.
"I can find a way to make your master give you clothing to free you," Dudley said calmly. "But you need to go undercover in the Malfoy home for a while and help me search for something similar to that diary from before."
"No, no, no... I cannot betray my master," Dobby shook his head frantically.
"I'm not asking you to betray your master. Rather, as a free house-elf, you would be helping Mr. Harry Potter accomplish a great cause," Dudley continued.
Harry's mouth twitched slightly. He had a feeling he was being sold out by his own cousin.
Dobby didn't shake his head this time, but showed a contemplative expression.
"I believe you should know that Lucius Malfoy sent one of Voldemort's diaries into Hogwarts, which triggered the opening of Slytherin's Chamber and put all the school's students in danger," Dudley said.
When Dobby heard Voldemort's name, his face showed extreme fear, and his entire body curled up.
"So?" Dudley continued pressing. "This is truly helping Mr. Harry Potter."
At the same time, Dudley handed Dobby a piece of candy.
"You see, we mean no harm," Dudley continued.
Dobby took the candy, and his eyes gradually brightened. He felt that Dudley made a lot of sense, was very reasonable, and no longer feared Dudley as before, but instead felt a sense of closeness.
"You... you can really make my master give me a piece of clothing?" Dobby asked tremblingly.
"Of course," Dudley nodded.
"Well, Dobby is willing to trust you and Mr. Harry Potter," Dobby looked at Dudley, then at Harry, gradually lowering his head. "But is this really possible?"
"Bad Dobby, bad Dobby..."
"You go back first. Next Wednesday at midnight, come to Gryffindor's common room to find us," Dudley said.
"All right," Dobby nodded. He tried it, and the anti-Apparition restriction surrounding them had been lifted.
Pop.
He snapped his fingers and disappeared from Gryffindor's common room.
"Will this work?" Even Harry didn't think it was very reliable.
"How will we know if we don't try?" Dudley said.
"Is that diary really that important?" Harry asked keenly, sensing that the diary containing Voldemort's soul fragment wasn't as simple as it seemed.
"Yes, that diary's existence proves one thing," Dudley explained. "What we need to do now is find similar objects storing pieces of Voldemort's soul. You can simply understand them as Horcruxes."
"Horcruxes?" Harry frowned. This was the first time he'd heard this term. However, based on Dudley's explanation, he already roughly understood its meaning.
"The reason Voldemort cannot be killed is because of Horcruxes. It's an extremely evil dark magic that splits one's soul and stores it in objects. This way, a person's soul will never be completely intact. In other words, he will achieve immortality—deathless, unkillable immortality," Dudley explained simply.
Harry's mouth opened in shock.
"Professor Dumbledore didn't think it was time to tell you, but I believe you have the right to know all of this," Dudley continued. "The reason Voldemort didn't die after the Killing Curse rebounded on him was because of the Horcrux. We're currently uncertain about exactly how many Horcruxes there are, but we can be certain there's more than one. Therefore, before we destroy all the Horcruxes, we cannot kill Voldemort."
Harry fell silent, finally understanding the truth of the matter.
"So you want to have Dobby continue searching for Horcruxes in the Malfoy home, right?" Harry asked after a long pause.
"Exactly. Though the probability of two Horcruxes being in the same place isn't very high, I still think the Malfoy estate should be a priority target," Dudley said. "This diary—Lucius Malfoy didn't know its specific function, which is why he sent it to Hogwarts, trying to create chaos. In such circumstances, even if Voldemort has other Horcruxes in Malfoy's hands, he would never know their purpose."
"So if possible, I want to have Dobby thoroughly search the Malfoy estate, and even, I want to personally enter the Malfoy home and take a good look around," Dudley said.
Harry's expression showed shock.
"You going to the Malfoy estate? No! That's too dangerous. That's not a place where you can casually break rules," Harry said immediately.
Dudley smiled and said, "Don't worry. Even if I really do go, I'll make thorough preparations."
"Besides, we have Dobby as our inside man, don't we?"
Harry frowned, feeling that Dudley's ideas were too aggressive. But he couldn't come up with a better plan either.
"So, how do you plan to make Lucius give Dobby a piece of clothing? That's not an easy thing to do," Harry said.
"I have a way," Dudley had already formed an idea in his mind. Though he hadn't tried it before, based on his understanding, the feasibility of this method was quite high.
After the two finished their discussion, they returned to the dormitory to continue sleeping.
That night was destined to be an eventful one.
Early the next morning, all students received a notification to assemble in the Great Hall by 8:00 a.m.
Many people showed anxiety about this news. Previously, there had been rumours that if attack incidents happened again, Hogwarts would close.
So when they received this morning's message asking all students to assemble in the Great Hall, many people began to speculate, fearing something terrible had happened again.
"Could Hogwarts really be closing?" Neville said, his face pale.
"Damn it, if Hogwarts closes, where am I supposed to learn magic? I don't want to leave here," Seamus said dejectedly.
Even the usually joking Weasley twins seemed unusually quiet today.
Among all the students, only Dudley and his group knew the full story, guessing what announcement was being made today.
"Ron, aren't you worried that Hogwarts might close at all?" Ginny asked curiously, seeing Ron's calm demeanour, even appearing somewhat excited.
"Nothing to worry about," Ron said confidently. "Hogwarts will never close."
Soon, all the school's teachers and students gathered in the Great Hall.
To everyone's great surprise, Professor Dumbledore, who had been missing for a long time, appeared on the podium.