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*****
As they stepped out of the train station, just like the previous year, many young wizards' parents were already there waiting for them.
Hermione's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Ron's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and Harry's dreadful aunt and uncle had all come to pick them up.
Although Sirius Black had been cleared of all charges, Cornelius Fudge, for the sake of the Ministry's reputation, chose not to immediately make the truth public. After discussing it with Dumbledore and Sirius, they agreed to delay the announcement.
Instead, they planned to hold a grand press conference within the wizarding world on a specific date, to officially reveal the truth and, at the same time, present an award to George, the key contributor to the case.
Fudge's motives were simple—he wanted to wait until George officially joined the Ministry of Magic before making the truth known.
This plan benefited the Ministry, George, and Sirius alike, so no one opposed it.
At present, aside from the Ministry officials and school professors who were present at the time, along with George, Harry, and a few others, the rest of the wizarding world still believed Sirius to be a fugitive on the run.
Therefore, until the Ministry's press conference, Sirius remained in hiding at Hogwarts, and Harry had to continue staying at his aunt and uncle's house.
Once the press conference concluded, Harry would finally be able to live with his godfather, Sirius, at 12 Grimmauld Place.
Watching as Hermione and the others were picked up, George disappeared on the spot by disapparating while under the invisibility spell.
Though still underage, he had long since dismantled the Trace that the Ministry had placed on him, allowing him to use magic freely without fear of being detected.
"The old Black family residence should be right here."
Rather than returning directly to the shop in Knockturn Alley, he first made his way to 12 Grimmauld Place.
His purpose was simple—he had come to retrieve Voldemort's Horcrux, the locket.
He didn't intend to destroy all the Horcruxes just yet, but that didn't mean he would leave them unattended either.
If Voldemort were to relocate the Horcruxes, it would become a troublesome task to track them down again.
Since he already knew their locations, he might as well gather the remaining Horcruxes in one place. When Voldemort was no longer of any use, he could then destroy them all at once.
Arriving invisibly before the dark, weathered door, he released a wave of spiritual energy to scan the entire Black family mansion. He quickly located the locket that contained a fragment of Voldemort's soul.
"Looks like this is it."
He instantly apparated to the second-floor living room, standing in front of a glass display cabinet. George glanced at its contents.
Inside were a rusted dagger, an animal's claw, a coiled snakeskin, a decorative crystal bottle with a blood-filled opal, a biting silver snuffbox filled with wart powder, a multi-legged pincer-like tool that could crawl like a spider, a music box that induced drowsiness, and a keepsake box that no one had ever been able to open.
Reaching out, he picked up the keepsake box and, with a wave of his wand, used a Transfiguration Charm to conjure a perfect replica in its place. Then he vanished once again.
This keepsake box was Slytherin's locket—one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Years ago, Voldemort had hidden it inside a remote seaside cave far from the orphanage where he had grown up, protected by numerous magical enchantments. He even intended to sacrifice Regulus Black's house-elf in the process.
This act made Regulus, once an avid follower of Voldemort and Sirius's younger brother, see Voldemort's true nature.
Regulus gave his life to retrieve the Horcrux, replacing it with a fake and ordering the house-elf Kreacher to escape with the real one and destroy it.
Unfortunately, despite trying countless methods, Kreacher failed to destroy the locket and had no choice but to store it inside the second-floor glass cabinet.
"Seal!"
George cast a sealing spell to suppress the dark power emanating from the Horcrux. After storing it in his inventory space, he headed for Little Hangleton.
At the age of sixteen, Voldemort had gone to the Gaunt family home, knocked his uncle Morfin Gaunt unconscious, and used Morfin's wand to kill Tom Riddle Sr. and the Riddle grandparents, framing Morfin for the murders.
He also stole a family heirloom passed down from Marvolo Gaunt to Morfin—a ring inlaid with the Resurrection Stone—and turned it into another Horcrux. He then laid many magical traps and hid it beneath the Gaunt shack.
George entered the long-abandoned Gaunt house, now overrun with dense nettles. It had been left in ruins for many years. Spreading out his spiritual energy once more, he quickly locked onto the location of the ring.
Forcibly breaking through the magical traps protecting the ring, a black-stone-inlaid ring finally appeared before his eyes.
"Such a vicious curse... no wonder Dumbledore fell victim to it."
The moment he picked up the ring, a surge of powerful curse energy erupted from it, rapidly spreading toward his hand.
However, the holy light energy in George's hand flared up immediately, completely dispelling the dark force.
In the original story, after recognizing the Resurrection Stone embedded in the ring, Dumbledore—overwhelmed by years of guilt over his sister—impulsively put it on, hoping to bring her back.
As a result, he fell prey to the curse Voldemort had left behind, which ultimately forced him to ask Snape to end his life to gain Voldemort's trust.
But at George's current level, such a curse posed almost no threat. If he transformed into a dragon, the sheer magic resistance of his dragon form alone would be enough to withstand the curse's power.
"The Resurrection Stone... a tool that can bring back the dead. I'll have to study this when I have time."
He held the ring up, examining it carefully. Then he cast a sealing spell to lock away the power Voldemort had infused into it and tossed it into his inventory space.
He had little interest in the Horcruxes themselves, but he was genuinely curious about the Resurrection Stone, one of the legendary Deathly Hallows.
To be honest, among the three Deathly Hallows, the Resurrection Stone was the only one that truly intrigued him.
The Elder Wand's enhancement abilities weren't even as effective as the wand he had crafted from his own post-dragonized body. And the Invisibility Cloak, aside from its invisibility, didn't offer anything particularly unique.
But the Resurrection Stone touched on the very laws of life—it could bring the dead back to the living world.
Granted, the resurrection reportedly came with major side effects. The revived would never be happy and would eventually drive the user into madness and despair.
In the world of magical apprentices, he had studied necromantic revival techniques, which could return the dead to the world in the form of undead. Perhaps studying the Resurrection Stone could aid in his understanding of necromantic magic.
His final destination: Gringotts. Once he retrieved Hufflepuff's Cup, he could finally go home.
Gringotts—the place known as the safest location in the wizarding world, protected even by dragons deep beneath its vaults—was, in truth, not so secure when faced with a truly powerful wizard.
Just two years ago, Quirrell and Voldemort had broken in. If Dumbledore hadn't instructed Hagrid to remove the Philosopher's Stone in advance, it would've been stolen.
To George, the defenses of Gringotts were nothing but a joke.
(End of Chapter)