13بخش

I had him from an egg, you know. Tiny little thing he was when he hatched.

No bigger than a Pekinese. A Pekinese, mind you.

How sweet. I once had a fish. Francis. He was very dear to me.

One afternoon I came downstairs, and he’d vanished.

Poof.

That’s very odd, isn’t it? It is, isn’t it?

But that’s life, I suppose.

You go along and then suddenly, poof!

Poof. Poof.

It was a student who gave me Francis.

One spring afternoon I discovered a bowl on my desk…

…with just a few inches of clear water in it.

And floating on the surface was a flower petal.

As I watched, it sank.

Just before it reached the bottom…

…it transformed into a wee fish.

It was beautiful magic.

Wondrous to behold.

The flower petal had come from a lily.

Your mother.

The day I came downstairs…

…the day the bowl was empty…

…was the day your mother…

I know why you’re here.

But I cant help you.

It would ruin me.

Do you know why I survived, professor?

The night I got this?

Because of her.

Because she sacrificed herself.

Because she refused to step aside.

Because her love was more powerful than Voldemort.

Don’t say his name. I’m not afraid of the name, professor.

I’m going to tell you something.

Something others have only guessed at.

It’s true.

I am the Chosen One.

Only I can destroy him, but in order to do so…

…I need to know what Tom Riddle asked you years ago in your office…

…and I need to know what you told him.

Be brave, professor.

Be brave like my mother.

Otherwise, you disgrace her.

Otherwise, she died for nothing.

Otherwise, the bowl will remain empty forever.

Please, don’t think badly of me when you see it.

You’ve no idea what he was like, even then.

I was in the library the other night…

…in the Restricted Section…

…and I read something rather odd about a bit of rare magic.

Its called, as I understand it…

…a Horcrux.

I beg your pardon? Horcrux.

I came across the term while reading…

…and I didn’t fully understand it.

I’m not sure what you were reading, Tom…

…but this is very dark stuff, very dark indeed.

Which is why I came to you.

A Horcrux is an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul.

But I don’t understand how that works, sir.

One splits ones soul and hides part of it in an object.

By doing so, you’re protected, should you be attacked and your body destroyed.

Protected?

That part of your soul that is hidden lives on.

In other words, you cannot die.

And how does one split his soul, sir?

I think you already know the answer to that, Tom.

Murder.

Yes.

Killing rips the soul apart. It is a violation against nature.

Can you only split the soul once? For instance, isn’t seven…?

Seven?

Merlin’s beard, Tom. Isn’t it bad enough to consider killing one person?

To rip the soul into seven pieces…

This is all hypothetical, isn’t it, Tom? All academic?

Of course, sir.

It’ll be our little secret.

Sir.

This is beyond anything I imagined.

You mean to say he succeeded, sir, in making a Horcrux?

Oh, yes, he succeeded, all right. And not just once.

What are they exactly?

Could be anything. Most commonplace of objects.

A ring, for example.

Or a book.

Tom Riddles diary. It’s a Horcrux, yes.

Four years ago, when you saved Ginny’s life in the Chamber of Secrets, you brought me this.

I knew this was a different kind of magic.

Very dark, very powerful. But until tonight I had no idea just how powerful.

The ring? Belonged to Voldemort’s mother.

Difficult to find. Even more difficult to destroy.

But if you could find them all, if you did destroy each Horcrux…

One destroys Voldemort.

But how would you find them? They could be hidden anywhere.

True. But magic, especially dark magic…

…leaves traces.

It’s where you’ve been going, isn’t it, sir?

When you leave the school? Yes.

And I think perhaps I may have found another.

But this time, I cannot hope to destroy it alone.

Once again, I must ask too much of you, Harry.

Have you ever considered that you ask too much…

…that you take too much for granted?

Has it ever crossed your brilliant mind that I don’t want to do this anymore?

Whether it has or hasn’t is irrelevant.

I will not negotiate with you, Severus. You agreed. Nothing more to discuss.