Voldemort had only ever regarded the ring as a Gaunt family heirloom—
a black stone ring engraved with the so-called "Peverell crest."
He didn't even know that Peverell was the surname of the legendary three brothers.
To him, the symbol was merely some obscure emblem of the Gaunt lineage.
Then again, that was hardly surprising.
Someone like Voldemort would never bother reading The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a children's storybook meant for young witches and wizards.
Later, Voldemort turned the Resurrection Stone ring into a Horcrux and placed it back inside the Gaunt house, surrounding it with layers of powerful protective magic.
Unfortunately for him, those protections were meaningless to Arthur.
Arthur didn't even need to force his way in—he simply walked straight into the Gaunt manor.
The reason he could do so with such ease was simple.
During his trip to the Albanian forest the previous summer, Arthur had obtained a large number of Voldemort's diaries, which conveniently recorded how to bypass or dismantle the enchantments placed upon this very house.
This served as a valuable life lesson:
Never write everything in your diary.
Better yet—don't keep one at all.
Because if your diary ever falls into the wrong hands, you're socially—and existentially—dead.
Arthur found the Resurrection Stone inside a cabinet within the Gaunt house.
After casually dissolving the Dark Magic Voldemort had left on it, he picked up the ring.
The black gemstone embedded in it was a diamond-shaped octahedral crystal.
Through the stone, one could clearly see the Peverell symbol—the mark of the Deathly Hallows.
A vertical line, a circle, and a triangle.
They represented the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak, respectively.
Arthur stared at the symbol and suddenly had a stray thought:
Why is the Resurrection Stone represented by a circle when the stone itself is diamond-shaped… while the Invisibility Cloak, which is a four-sided object, is represented by a triangle?
He quickly dismissed the thought.
Some questions simply had no answers.
Arthur stopped wasting time and smoothly extracted Voldemort's soul fragment from within the ring.
Moments later, the Dark Lord's remnant soul condensed into a black crystal, which Arthur stored away in his system space.
Arthur hadn't deliberately set out to oppose Voldemort, yet by now he had already destroyed four Horcruxes.
Nagini was also currently in his possession.
Which meant that if Voldemort hadn't yet created his seventh Horcrux, then all he had left were Hufflepuff's Cup and Harry himself.
And even that number might soon decrease.
Arthur had long since set his sights on Hufflepuff's Cup.
He wouldn't allow his collection of the Four Founders' relics to be missing even a single piece—especially when that cup might contain Hufflepuff's legacy.
But that was a matter for the future.
Right now, Arthur had a new idea.
If the Resurrection Stone could summon the souls of the dead…
what about someone who had been dead for hundreds of years?
Arthur put on the ring and attempted to summon Merlin.
Nothing happened.
He tried the other Hogwarts founders.
In the end, only Rowena Ravenclaw responded.
Yet what appeared before him had no memories of her life.
Seeing the sorrowful, hollow expression on the summoned Ravenclaw, Arthur waved his hand and dispersed her form.
It seemed that summoning a soul with the Resurrection Stone also had conditions.
At the very least, the summoner needed a sufficiently deep impression of the person they wished to call back.
Arthur had little concrete understanding of Merlin or the other three founders.
Only Ravenclaw—because of the statue Rowena—was someone he had a tangible concept of.
That was why he had been able to summon her.
But just as Arthur already knew, the Resurrection Stone didn't truly revive the dead.
It merely summoned a presence that lay somewhere between illusion and reality—
not quite a soul, not quite a memory.
And because Arthur's understanding of Ravenclaw herself was incomplete, what he summoned lacked even basic awareness.
Arthur removed the ring and snorted.
As expected, this thing was utterly useless to him.
He already wielded death itself.
Once he fully understood the principles behind the Resurrection Stone, he could probably mass-produce the damned thing.
Arthur pocketed the ring and left the Gaunt house.
Before departing, he carefully restored every enchantment Voldemort had placed on the manor.
He found himself genuinely curious.
When Voldemort eventually returned, saw that all the protections were still intact—
yet his Horcrux had vanished—
what kind of expression would be on his face?
What Arthur failed to consider, however, was that in the original timeline, the first person to remember the Gaunt house wasn't Voldemort at all.
It was Dumbledore.
After leaving the manor, Arthur didn't head home immediately.
Instead, he went to a nearby graveyard.
This was where Voldemort's father—Tom Riddle Sr.—was buried.
Arthur knew this from Voldemort's diaries.
After murdering his father and grandparents, Voldemort had framed his uncle, Morfin Gaunt.
Following the Ministry's investigation and judgment, they had even thoughtfully arranged proper burials for Tom Riddle Sr. and his parents.
As much as Voldemort loathed his Muggle father, he still had to bury them properly in public.
Ironically, Voldemort should be grateful he hadn't reduced his father's remains to ashes.
Otherwise, the ritual requiring "the bone of the father" would have been impossible.
Arthur's reason for coming here was simple.
He wanted to add a little something extra to Voldemort's eventual resurrection.
He located Tom Riddle Sr.'s grave and opened the coffin.
Arthur left the remains themselves intact.
Instead, he used alchemy to fuse the bones of a pig and a snake into the skeleton—
all while perfectly maintaining the human skeletal structure.
For Arthur, whose alchemy had long since reached its peak, this was trivial.
Soon, the pig and snake bones merged seamlessly into Tom Riddle Sr.'s remains.
If nothing went wrong, Voldemort would be resurrected sometime next school year.
Arthur couldn't help but feel a flicker of anticipation.
What kind of surprise would Voldemort experience when he used these… enhanced bones?
As for the possibility of Voldemort being captured by Dumbledore in Albania?
Arthur didn't even consider it.
If Dumbledore had truly caught him, Voldemort would have returned to Hogwarts long ago.
Arthur might not know all of Voldemort's talents, but the man was undeniably skilled at framing others and escaping.
Finding someone in a massive forest was hard enough—
finding a wraith-like soul fragment was practically impossible.
For all Arthur knew, Voldemort had already reunited with Peter Pettigrew and fled Albania entirely.
...
By the time Arthur returned home, it was nearly dinner.
Hermione had already woken up.
The moment she saw him, she happily rushed over and pecked him on the cheek.
Behind her, Mr. and Mrs. Granger exchanged a glance, then both sighed with helpless smiles.
Ever since learning about the Philosopher's Stone, they had known this day would come.
Wizards already possessed miraculous power.
And their inner circle had gone even further—
gaining access to the Philosopher's Stone and the promise of extended life.
Under such circumstances, ordinary societal conventions held little sway.
The couple had discussed Hermione's emotional future more than once.
Every discussion ended the same way:
Hermione was never going to leave Arthur.
After all—
what girl could resist a man who was powerful, handsome, gentle, capable of granting immortality, and endlessly protective?
Such a man couldn't be found with lanterns—or even with the sun itself.
From that perspective, Hermione was incredibly fortunate.
She didn't need to search.
He was already right beside her.
Having reached that conclusion, the Grangers chose not to interfere and allowed things to unfold naturally.
They simply hadn't expected Hermione to fall this quickly.
But since they had already decided not to intervene, all they could do now was accept reality.
Arthur, far from emotionally clueless, immediately understood Hermione's intention.
She was testing her parents' reaction.
From his angle, Arthur could clearly see the resigned smiles on the Grangers' faces.
The couple noticed his gaze as well.
Mr. Granger raised a finger and tapped his temple—
A clear signal.
Connect via mental communication.
Arthur's expression grew thoughtful as his spiritual power quietly reached out.
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