That Man Is Not As Important As You Think!

"You think too highly of me, Severus! All you can say is that I have a clue!" Dumbledore said slowly, shaking his head.

By his guess, Tom had six Horcruxes in total…

Now that the diary, diadem and ring were destroyed, he was able to locate the fourth.

All that remained to be dealt with was the humanoid Horcrux, Harry, and the missing Horcrux.

This, of course, was on the assumption that Voldemort had only created six Horcruxes…

Snape frowned at Dumbledore's words. He had expected Dumbledore to have a well-thought-out plan before allowing Pettigrew to escape.

Snape wasn't happy about this, thinking Dumbledore was taking too many risks. If he wasn't so sure, he should have let the Dark Lord continue to sink!

Dumbledore, reading Snape's mind, sighed and said slowly, "If you had known better, Severus, you would have seen that what happened to Lord Voldemort was not so important…"

"He may come back to life now, and when he does, the wizarding community will be in chaos, and you're telling me it doesn't matter?" Snape looked at Dumbledore suspiciously, wondering if the Hundred-Year-Old Man in front of him had been blinded by the Dark Lord's Horcruxes.

"In a manner of speaking, yes!" Dumbledore assured him.

Before Snape could retort, Dumbledore looked at his blackened right hand and continued.

"You told me before that the potion's effect on this kind of injury lasts for about a year. What if the effect wears off after a year? What if the pent-up corrosive force immediately breaks out and kills me?"

Snape hesitated before speaking.

"Not really. The corrosive power will gradually corrode your body, and you will truly die!"

"But you won't be able to keep it up for long," Snape warned. "It will last for the best part of a year, and the process will be very painful. You might find it easier to kill yourself!"

"Is that so? How terrible," Dumbledore muttered to himself, raising his eyebrows, thinking that a total of one and a half years was too short a period of time.

Therefore, he was not sure if he should use other means to make more time.

[Darkness approaches… Shadows cover the sky, and the servants of the Dark Lord will escape… The wizarding world is about to change…]

Dumbledore turned over Trelawney's prophecy in his mind, wondering if it was worth it.

Snape said nothing, waiting for Dumbledore to come up with a reasonable solution.

However, after thinking about it for a while, Dumbledore seemed to remember something, and his eyes fell on a letter on the table.

"Ah… I almost forgot. There's something I haven't had a chance to tell Hulse. The Order of Merlin has sent a reply, and they've gladly agreed to the application for the Order of Merlin! Hulse will soon be the youngest ever recipient of the Order of Merlin…"

Snape's face darkened completely, and he stormed off. He shouldn't have expected anything…

…

In the corridor outside the Headmaster's office, Harry and the others were discussing Peter Pettigrew's escape and Trelawney's prophecy.

"According to the prophecy, Peter must have gone to find You-Know-Who, presumably to help him return…" Hermione analyzed.

"That's just your guess. The prophecy didn't even mention that, did it? And Professor Trelawney has always been crazy. Who knows if she's just making things up…" Ron argued, hoping for the best.

He felt that the resurrection of You-Know-Who was impossible, and that Professor Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic would never allow it.

Harry disagreed, however, as he was more inclined to believe that Trelawney's prediction of Pettigrew's escape was true, and he soon became obsessed with Ron.

Ivan, who was deep in thought, was interrupted by their argument and could not resist reminding them.

"There's no point in us thinking about it now. Peter Pettigrew has escaped, and it's the Ministry's business to find him. There's no way we can intervene. You might as well worry about your upcoming exams!"

Ivan thought it pointless for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to dwell on Lord Voldemort's return, as they were only in their third year and could do nothing about it.

With Ivan's reminder, Harry and Ron remembered that it was exam week in two days, and their expressions changed. They returned to the lounge and immediately picked up their books and flipped through them, looking like they were studying hard.

However, Ivan could tell from their wandering eyes and the fact that they had not turned a page in a long time that Harry and Ron were too worried about the safety of the wizarding community to study.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and the exam week, which had made countless young wizards nervous, finally arrived.

During the first Transfiguration exam, Professor McGonagall gave them many sheepskin scrolls to fill in the seven principles of Transfiguration, as well as transforming the teapot on the table into a tortoise…