113 Chapter 113: Curse

"Arthur...?"

Astoria looked around with her eyes full of fear and spoke in a low voice. Arthur furrowed his brow, realizing that Astoria's condition was not good.

Even though she was a fragile witch to begin with, the fight with Voldemort had taken effect on her health.

"Don't speak for now. Let me treat you first."

Arthur knelt down and spoke softly to Astoria. He then used his mind to check his inventory and get two bottles of the potion.

Gently lifting Astoria's head, Arthur found a suitable angle and slowly fed her the potion.

Astoria obediently did what she was told and finished the drink before falling asleep.

Arthur saw how tired she was and knew it would be a while before she woke up. So, he summoned a sofa and carefully placed her on it.

He sat down nearby and thought about what to do next.

Arthur's original plan was to let Dumbledore deal with the Horcrux while he worked on getting the Resurrection Stone for his research on the secrets of the Deathly Hallow.

However, since Voldemort's Horcrux could be traded for gold coins, Arthur changed his plan.

First of all, he had to figure out how many Horcrux Voldemort had and where each one was.

Two of them were closest to Arthur. One was Harry, and the other was the Ravenclaw Diadem.

The Ravenclaw Diadem was easy to get from the Room of Requirements.

As for Harry, Arthur hadn't figured out how to extract Voldemort's soul from him.

Arthur had not yet figured out how to get Voldemort's soul out of Harry.

After over a year, the system hadn't shown him any sign that he could trade Voldemort's soul in Harry's body for gold coins.

Next on the list was the Resurrection Stone in the Gaunt family's ancestral home.

Arthur had planned to get it during the summer break.

As for the remaining Horcrux—the Hufflepuff Cup, the Slytherin locket, and the Nagini, the giant snake—they weren't something Arthur could get immediately, so he didn't think about them for now.

...

"Arthur..."

Hearing someone calling his name, Arthur snapped back to reality and saw that Astoria had awakened.

Glancing at the time, he realized over an hour had passed.

"You're awake, Astoria."

Arthur gave a small smile when he noticed that the young witch's state had improved.

However, upon seeing Arthur's smile, Astoria shuddered, burst into tears, and choked out,

"Am I going to be expelled? It's Tom... He tricked me. I communicated with him through a diary."

Arthur reassured her,

"Take it easy, Astoria. No one is going to expel you, and I destroyed that diary. Tom won't appear again."

Astoria felt some relief when she heard that Arthur had destroyed the book, but she was still scared.

She was afraid that this would get her kicked out of school and make her family look ashamed.

At the right moment, Arthur asked a question to shift her attention,

"Can you tell me how you got that diary?"

"It was brought from my house to school. My mother bought some Dark magic artifacts from the Malfoy family, trying to find a way to break the curse on our family."

Astoria talked about what happened.

"This diary was one of them. One day, I suddenly found out that I could talk to this diary. Since my mother is always busy and my sister has her own things to do, I started talking to Tom every day to pass the time."

"But after coming to Hogwarts, he started saying strange things to me, like pure-blood supremacy. I felt something was off and tried to get rid of the diary, but he would always reappear next to me after a while."

"..."

As Astoria told her story, Arthur realized what had happened. So Ginny didn't get the book, it makes sense that the Greengrass family accidentally took it.

However, Arthur was also curious about the curse Astoria mentioned.

"It's a curse bound to our family. Every generation of the Greengrass family has a hard time living above forty. My father died on his thirty-six birthday."

As soon as the curse was mentioned, Astoria's expression turned depressed, and she lowered her head.

Arthur listened to this curse and fell silent.

But he comforted Astoria, saying,

"Don't worry, you're still young, and there is plenty of time to find a solution. Maybe one day a method to break this curse will appear?"

Arthur forced a smile, but she didn't hold much hope in her heart.

After all, this curse had tormented her family for centuries.

But Arthur's kindness made her feel good about herself.

Arthur understood Astoria's thoughts, but he wasn't just comforting her.

After all, the thick golden potion, a magical potion that expels all negative conditions, could certainly remove this curse.

He only had one thick golden drink, which he gave to Celestia.

Arthur didn't want to tell Astoria right now; he wanted to surprise her later.

Afterward, Arthur took Astoria and left the Chamber of Secrets.

Most of the young wizards had already returned to the castle.

Arthur made sure there were no students in the bathroom before he and Astoria secretly slipped out, using the Disillusionment Charm.

"When we go back, don't say anything about this. Let's pretend it never happened. I'll take care of the rest, okay?"

Arthur reminded Astoria a few times.

Astoria obediently nodded. She looked at Arthur with full confidence in her eyes.

As a young witch who already admired Arthur, having him save her again greatly affected her innocent heart.

Watching Astoria go downstairs, Arthur turned and headed for the eighth floor.

He was ready to get Ravenclaw's diadem from the Room of Requirements to avoid unnecessary trouble.

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(P.S.: The author isn't very satisfied with these chapters. After all, the young Voldemort is too weak compared to the current protagonist. However, there will be some twists in the Christmas plot ahead, and I'll do my best to write it well. Thank you all for your support.)

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