Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Peter

Chapter 156 The Riddle Mansion
Peter and Dumbledore left the old Gaunt house together, and Dumbledore rearranged the haystack in front of the door.

"The efforts of the Gaunt family to maintain the pure bloodline are stupid, and they eventually ruined themselves." Peter looked at the dilapidated house in front of him, imagining the glory of the Gaunt family, "The Malfoy family put their own Ideas and actions are very well distinguished, rejecting Muggles in ideas, and intermarrying Muggles in actions.”

Dumbledore nodded, but Peter suspected his thoughts were still on Marvolo Gaunt's missing ring.He pointed to the desolate mansion in the distance, "Over there is the abandoned Riddle Mansion, let's go there and take a look."

The two of them walked through the country road in silence again, and the cry of the nighthawk became more and more bleak. They came to the fence of the Riddle Mansion. There were rusts everywhere, but the door lock was still intact, indicating that there were still people taking care of it. .

Peter looked into the house, and sure enough, there was a dim light on in the gatehouse, other than that, the other windows were dark, reminiscent of empty eye sockets, staring blankly into the night.

Dumbledore clicked on the door lock, it opened silently, Peter suggested: "We'd better change into more Muggle-style clothes."

"Mr. Ogden's kind?" Dumbledore said in a teasing tone.

Peter smiled and said, "Forget about that style, we will definitely be treated as freaks by Muggles."

He cast a spell on himself, and after a burst of light, the wizard robe on him turned into a gorgeous suit, completely in line with the dressing habits of a Muggle gentleman, and beside him, Dumbledore also changed his outfit——

Dumbledore put on a pure white formal suit, with a long swallowtail behind him, a white bowler hat on his head, and a folded red handkerchief in his breast pocket, full of coquettishness .

Peter couldn't help snorting from his nose: "You look like a Muggle magician now, and pigeons seem to fly out of your top hat at any moment."

"It doesn't matter," Dumbledore said with a smile, "When I was suspected by Muggles, I could just perform a magic trick for him."

The moment Dumbledore turned his face away, Peter suddenly noticed that Dumbledore's beard was gone.

"Wait a minute, you actually took off your beard! I've never seen you without a beard. Why do you usually have to cover up this handsome face that still has a charm?" Peter shouted holding back a smile.

Dumbledore took off his top hat and bowed gracefully: "Oh, thank you! It's a good thing it's dark here, otherwise you'd find my face redder than when Minerva said she liked my new handkerchief. "

The two carefully bypassed the gatehouse and walked into the Riddle Mansion. It seemed that the gatekeeper here had fallen asleep.

Peter opened the magic space to explore around.Most of the rooms were locked. There was a thick layer of dust on the floor, windows, and tables. There was nothing of much value in the room. Occasionally, a few strings of extremely old footprints could be found on the floor.

"There's nothing here either," Peter said. "I don't think he's been here. He probably didn't think it was safe."

"It is true that it is very risky for him to come back here. Although he has changed his name and surname, he knows that I know his past. As long as he investigates under the name 'Tom Riddle', he can easily find it here."

Peter gently pushed open a creaking wooden door, and said, "Voldemort has got the Philosopher's Stone, and Quirrell is by his side. A place that is sheltered from wind and rain and sufficiently hidden, this place must be large enough, otherwise he will not be able to brew the elixir of life."

Dumbledore pondered silently beside Peter, and the two opened locked doors one after another, searching all the way to the top attic, but found no trace of magic.

Dumbledore stopped in front of a broken carved window: "Go back, let's visit the venerable Muggle doorman downstairs, if we leave him alone to guard this place, we may encounter Voldemort at any time." It would be too cruel."

The two went back downstairs, and Peter knocked on the window that was still lit.

There was a clanging sound in the room, as if a wooden stick had been rolled to the ground. After a long time, an old man's head poked out of the window.

"Ah, I woke up so late... I thought it was another damn kid, okay, what's the matter with you two?"

"Sir, we want to tell you something," said Peter, "and please move away from here as soon as possible, preferably tomorrow morning."

The old man looked back and forth between Peter and Dumbledore, his eyes resting suspiciously on Dumbledore's white suit.

"Who are you? Why do you drive me away? I've lived here, ahem... all my life!" the old man said forcefully.

Peter glanced at Dumbledore and saw that his blue eyes were fixed on the old man's eyes. Obviously, Dumbledore was doing Legilimency again.

"Mr. Frank Bryce." Dumbledore smiled and held out his hand, but the old man stepped back suspiciously.

"How did you know my name?"

"You fought in the Second World War, in that respect, we have a lot in common, I fought in that war too, but I fought in a different way, with another man."

"What are you talking about? How do you know this?"

"You didn't kill the Riddle family, you were wronged." Dumbledore said indifferently.

The old man's face turned pale, "You... did you know me before? Could it be that you can read minds?"

Dumbledore turned his face and winked at Peter, showing a mischievous expression: "I'm sorry, I'm going to violate the International Statute of Secrecy a little bit next..."

He drew his wand and cast some sort of spell on Frank Bryce, who fell without a sound.

"Let's go," said Dumbledore, "there is one last location left to investigate."

"What did you do to him?" Peter asked.

"It's complicated. Anyway, he'll pack up early tomorrow morning and move to a warmer county in the south, where it's good for his leg he injured in the war, and no one will smear a battle hero as a murderer. He'll A check there, enough to tide him over for a while, and then he'll get a job as a janitor."

"Great arrangement." Peter grabbed Dumbledore's arm, and Dumbledore appeared with his followers again, this time they came near a seaside cave.

In the sound of the waves beside the cave, Peter looked at the gloomy cave, and he thought of the cave, lake and island in Regulus' memory.

"This is where Voldemort kept the Slytherin locket, where Regulus Black died," said Peter.

Dumbledore raised his wand solemnly, pointing the tip of the wand at the hole: "Yes, Peter. Pull out the wand. If we're lucky, we might see Tom himself."

(End of this chapter)