After quite a commotion, Snape finally sat back down under Dumbledore's calming words.

He stopped paying any attention to Hermione. He was afraid he'd die of rage right there in the office.

Instead he looked at Dumbledore.

"Had enough of this farce, Albus?"

Accusation sharpened his voice.

"Isn't it time to explain where you've been for the past half year? Those fools at the Ministry have been scouring the entire world for you. Don't tell me you simply ran off somewhere quiet to enjoy the peace."

"I did indeed travel quite far, Severus."

Dumbledore stopped hiding it.

"Over these six months, I set out to accomplish two things."

"The first was naturally to search for Hermione."

He glanced toward her, a helpless smile crossing his face.

"As it turns out, that entire effort was wasted."

Snape cast Hermione a sideways look and scoffed.

"As for the second matter." Dumbledore's expression turned grave. "I went searching for Tom's Horcruxes."

Horcrux.

The word landed, and Snape's expression shifted immediately. The sullen scowl dropped away. The look he turned on Dumbledore grew tight.

Now they were getting to it.

"In the middle of last year, during the battle at the Department of Mysteries, I did see Tom."

Dumbledore spoke slowly.

"Which means that when Hermione destroyed his physical body, she did not truly kill him. He still has other Horcruxes out there. He can reshape a body and return."

"And the method of resurrection, I fear, would be the same ritual used in that graveyard."

He reached into his pocket and produced a black wooden box.

Dumbledore drew his wand and tapped the lid lightly three times.

Click.

The lid sprang open.

An intensely cold, malevolent aura seeped out from inside, identical to what had emanated from the Diary back in the Chamber of Secrets.

At the center of the box sat a golden ring, set with a black polygonal stone. Faint markings etched its surface: a triangle and a circle, overlapping.

Countless magical runes encircled the ring like shackles, sealing it in place.

"The Gaunt family ring."

Dumbledore said quietly.

"An heirloom of Tom's mother's family, and one of the Horcruxes he created — just like the Diary Hermione destroyed before."

Snape stared at the ring for several seconds.

"Now that you've found it, why not destroy it outright instead of sealing it and hauling it back to Hogwarts? Do you think we don't have enough trouble here already?"

"It has already been destroyed," Dumbledore said. "There is no longer a shard of Tom's soul inside it."

"Then why keep it sealed?"

Snape was baffled.

He couldn't compare to either of them, perhaps, but his own magical ability was hardly low. He recognized the exceptionally sophisticated sealing charms wound around the ring.

"Because an extraordinarily dangerous Dark Magic curse still clings to it."

Dumbledore sighed. "Tom set it there to protect the ring. I destroyed the Horcrux, but I could not purge the curse. To prevent anyone from touching it by accident, I had no choice but to seal it and bring it back."

Snape nodded slowly, accepting the explanation.

Viewed that way, the object was genuinely perilous. Having Dumbledore carry it personally was probably the safer arrangement.

Beside them, Hermione frowned faintly and shot Dumbledore a puzzled look.

He caught it. He returned a gentle smile.

Hermione said nothing.

"Besides this one, are there other Horcruxes?" Snape asked.

Dumbledore shook his head, then nodded.

"Yes, and no."

He closed the box. "I cannot be certain how many Horcruxes Tom has left, but I know of one place that may be hiding another."

"The defensive mechanisms there are exceptionally difficult to crack, however. I fear I cannot retrieve it alone."

Snape gave a scoff, his tone carrying a flicker of genuine surprise.

"There is actually something that you, Albus Dumbledore, cannot retrieve?"

Dumbledore nodded without embarrassment.

"Yes. The magic Tom left behind in that place is exceedingly insidious. Unraveling it demands a heavy price. I am old. I cannot endure that kind of ordeal."

He turned toward Hermione.

"Which is why I need Hermione's help. It was only because I could not find you this past half year that I had to put the matter aside."

Snape made a sound of acknowledgement and didn't press for further details.

Since Dumbledore was enlisting this dreadful girl, there was nothing for him to worry about. If those two joining forces still couldn't manage it, then frankly no one in the world could.

"If you need anything from me, just say so," Snape said directly.

Dumbledore nodded. "There is, in fact, one thing."

"I need you to brew the most potent Veritaserum possible. Strong enough to drag out every secret a person is hiding."

"Veritaserum?" Doubt flickered through Snape's eyes. "Whom are you planning to interrogate?"

"Someone who knows things," Dumbledore said slowly. "He may know exactly how many Horcruxes Tom created."

"And he refuses to talk?"

Snape cut straight to the point.

"Not only does he refuse to talk," Dumbledore sighed, "he has modified his own memory. Buried the truth under a fabricated false one."

Snape let out a cold laugh, a murderous edge showing in his eyes.

"If that's the case, why bother with all this trouble?"

"Seize him directly. If he can falsify a memory, he's clearly a skilled Occlumens — but no Occlumens alive could hold out against the three of us. Breaking through his mental defenses would not be a problem."

On the subject of Occlumency, no one in this room understood it better than Snape.

"Use Legilimency directly. If necessary, have Granger put him under the Imperius Curse. I refuse to believe anyone could keep secrets standing up to that."

Hermione gave Snape a silent thumbs-up.

It had been quite a while since she'd used the Imperius Curse on anyone. Honestly, her fingers were itching.

"Severus." Dumbledore shook his head. "He is no Death Eater. He is not truly a wicked man. He is simply a wretched soul who got swept up chasing a reputation."

"And he and I share some history. Unless absolutely necessary, I have no wish to use methods that would shatter his mind."

"The Veritaserum is a last resort, a fallback if nothing else works. The better outcome is persuading him to hand over that memory willingly."

Snape went quiet for a moment. Something seemed to click.

"A Slytherin?"

He asked it under his breath.

Dumbledore did not deny it. He simply said nothing. That was answer enough.

After a long pause, Snape exhaled.

"Understood. Once the Veritaserum is brewed, I'll hand it directly to you."

"Thank you, Severus."

"Those are all the leads I have for now." Dumbledore smiled. "If there's nothing else, go and get some rest. The hour is late, and Hogwarts will have plenty of things waiting for you tomorrow."

Snape stood to leave.

He had nearly reached the door when he stopped. He turned and looked back at Hermione.

"One more thing, Miss Granger."

His voice carried unmistakable displeasure.

"In six months, we tracked down two of the Dark Lord's Horcruxes. Searching for you turned up absolutely nothing."

"You really ought to be proud of yourself — you're harder to find than a Horcrux."

His face was cold.

"Next time you decide to vanish, kindly give us some advance notice. So we aren't caught completely off guard."

Hermione didn't snap back the way she normally would.

She could hear it, he was still sore over everything that had unraveled because of her disappearance. It was her absence that had set the whole chain in motion. Because of her, Snape had spent half a year effectively imprisoned at Hogwarts, playing the obedient fool to Dolores Umbridge every single day.

"You're right. This one was on me."

Hermione looked at him with a warm smile.

"You've had to put up with a lot. To make up for the mental suffering of these past six months, I'll personally prepare a generous gift for you before long, consider it my formal apology."

She blinked, her expression the picture of sincerity.

"I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

Snape studied her with deep suspicion.

He had a strong feeling she was up to something again.

"Hmph."

He couldn't figure it out, so he stopped trying. A cold scoff, and he pushed open the door and was gone.

Hermione listened to the footsteps fade down the corridor. Something seemed to occur to her, something entertaining. The smile on her face slowly shifted into something else entirely.

➤ Next: Grindelwald's Hiding Place

Chapter 368 - Grindelwald's Hiding Place

Don't want it?

That's not up to you.

Maybe when the time comes, you'll be the one begging me for this gift.

Dumbledore watched her, knowing she'd landed on some new scheme. He shook his head helplessly.

......

After Snape left, only Dumbledore and Hermione remained in the office.

The teasing look on Hermione's face vanished in an instant. The lazy demeanor dropped. She leaned forward.

"Talk. What's going on?"

Dumbledore's hand paused on his teacup, his eyes flickering.

"What do you mean?"

Hermione gave a cold laugh and pointed at the box on the desk.

"Stop playing dumb, Albus."

"Snape couldn't tell — but you think I can't?"

She looked him straight in the eyes, her presence bearing down hard.

"A Dark Magic curse is a Horcrux's protection. Once a Horcrux is destroyed, the curse can only be broken before it — not after."

Hermione tapped the air in quick succession. Runes similar to those surrounding the ring gleamed into view around it.

"The seals on this thing would take even me some real effort to crack. You're treating a piece of wreckage like it's made of gold. That has nothing to do with any Horcrux."

Dumbledore's smile stiffened.

He was quiet for a moment. Then he slowly removed his spectacles and wiped them.

Hermione didn't push. She leaned back in her chair and waited.

The office went still.

After a long silence, Dumbledore spoke.

"You are always so sharp, Hermione."

He sighed, gaze settling on the box.

"It's because of the stone."

Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"The Resurrection Stone?"

Dumbledore looked up, genuine surprise in his eyes.

He hadn't expected her to know that too.

Then again, whenever she was at Hogwarts, she spent most of her time in the library. She was practically a permanent resident of the Restricted Section. Knowing this wasn't so surprising after all.

"You really do know everything."

Dumbledore gave a rueful smile and put his spectacles back on.

"Yes. The Resurrection Stone. That seal exists specifically to suppress it."

Hermione frowned slightly.

That was exactly what she couldn't work out.

She'd already noticed that because of her influence, Dumbledore hadn't put the ring on and been struck by the curse the way he had in the original story. He'd found another method to break the curse and destroy the Horcrux entirely.

By any logic, the Resurrection Stone shouldn't tempt him. It was a legendary artifact, yes, but a useless one. A collector's piece at best.

So why was old Dumbledore suddenly treating it like a threat? Why was he more serious about this than he'd ever been about the Horcrux itself?

"The reason?"

Hermione asked directly.

"It's a long story."

Dumbledore shook his head, and didn't answer, not immediately. He shifted direction instead.

"Before I explain, shouldn't you explain yourself first? After you returned from the past, you vanished for over a year. The Ministry was searching. I was searching. Not a single trace of you. Where did you go?"

At that, Hermione looked a little awkward.

She scratched her cheek.

"It really wasn't anything serious. I wasn't missing."

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore frowned.

Hermione's voice dropped a little.

"I just... had a rough landing."

She cleared her throat. "It was a targeting error with the Time-Turner."

"It was originally less than 70 years. But when I mentioned it to Nicolas Flamel, I rounded the number up without thinking. Then there were too many other things to deal with, and I forgot to correct the exact year — so Flamel just set the timer to a full 70 years..."

"So." Hermione spread her hands. "I came back over a year late."

Dumbledore: "..."

The old man's mouth twitched. He genuinely didn't know where to start.

He had lived for over a century. He had weathered more storms than most people could imagine. And this was the first time he had ever heard of someone going missing for a reason like this.

Over that year and more, how much chaos had the Wizarding World been thrown into by her absence?

Fudge had seized the moment to scheme and frame people. Umbridge had moved into Hogwarts. Voldemort had expanded in the shadows. The Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters had torn into each other. Snape had spent months performing subservience at school until he was practically depressed.

Then the Witch reappeared, thunderous, overwhelming, and crushed the Ministry with sheer force. A king returning to reclaim her throne.

Everyone had assumed it was deliberate. That the disappearance was bait, designed to draw the Ministry out, one move in a far larger game.

The truth was she'd rounded a number up on a whim and forgotten to fix it.

Dumbledore looked at the girl's wide, guileless eyes, and felt a whole mouthful of grievances wedge themselves sideways in his throat.

He genuinely couldn't decide whether Hermione was an infallible mastermind or a spectacular scatterbrain.

When she was scheming, her mind was precise enough to play both him and Gellert like instruments and reshape the entire Wizarding World around her fingers.

When she was careless, she was spectacularly, blithely reckless, capable of forgetting something this important without a second thought.

And to top it all off, the reason she'd traveled back 70 years in the first place was because she'd recklessly conducted an alchemy experiment and blown up the Time-Turner.

He truly couldn't tell which one was the real her.

"All right, stop changing the subject." Hermione rapped her knuckles on the desk. "The Resurrection Stone. What's going on with it?"

"When do you think I obtained this?"

Dumbledore gave the box a small shake.

Hermione frowned. "Sometime in the last six months?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Six months is what I told Severus. The real answer is much earlier. Decades ago."

Hermione's eyes went wide.

"It's not that I didn't want to tell you."

Dumbledore rose to his feet.

"It's just that this matter runs too deep. I wasn't sure how to begin."

He walked toward the door. "Before I explain, let me take you to see Gellert. It would probably be better coming from him."

Something shifted in Hermione's chest.

She remembered, the person locked in Nurmengard wasn't the real Grindelwald.

Based on the arrangements she'd made with both of them 70 years ago, and cross-referenced against the Wizarding World's historical record as it now stood, Grindelwald had followed the plan exactly. Years after she left, he staged another rise to power, then in 1945 fought a legendary duel with Dumbledore.

The duel was theater, of course. Performed for the world.

In the end, he was publicly defeated, and used the cover of imprisonment in Nurmengard to slip underground.

Where he'd gone from there, Hermione didn't know.

"Where is he?"

She stood as well.

Dumbledore turned. He looked at her, something complicated moving briefly through his eyes.

"Follow me."

They left the Headmaster's office, moved through the corridor, and arrived at the familiar library.

Dumbledore went straight to an unremarkable side door. He pushed it open. A stone staircase descended into darkness.

Hermione followed.

She knew this place like the back of her hand.

The hidden basement beneath the library. The layout was identical to how it had looked in her first year, proof that in all the years since, almost no one else had been down here.

In the center of the room, standing perfectly still, was a mirror taller than a person.

The Mirror of Erised.

➤ Next: Current State of the Witch Cult