So, it really is a Horcrux?
When the Tree of Wisdom transmitted the ring's detailed information directly to his consciousness, the weight that had been hanging heavily in Adrian's heart finally settled with relief.
He calmly retrieved a bottle of shimmering liquid from his briefcase.
Liquid Fiendfyre. Effective every single time against dark magic.
"Professor Dumbledore," He said, extending his free hand, "give me the Horcrux. I'm prepared to destroy it safely."
As he spoke, he deliberately shook the dangerous blue liquid in the crystal bottle.
However, Dumbledore acted as if he hadn't heard Adrian speak at all, as though the words simply hadn't reached his ears through some invisible barrier.
"The Resurrection Stone..."
He murmured in a voice Adrian had never heard him use before—hollow, yearning, and desperate. His blue eyes had become strangely empty yet somehow simultaneously keen with frenzied focus. His fingers trembled, visibly shaking as he slowly, moved to slip the ancient ring onto his right ring finger.
Adrian's heart clenched with alarm—something was wrong!
This wasn't normal Dumbledore behavior. He wouldn't be so careless with a suspected Horcrux.
Fortunately, Adrian had maintained his combat readiness, his wand still gripped firmly in his hand throughout the entire exchange.
"Accio ring!" He shouted without hesitation.
Quick as lightning, he swung his wand in the precise arc required for a powerful Summoning Charm.
The ring embedded with the black gemstone immediately flew from Dumbledore's trembling grasp, torn away by magical force. It arced through the dusty air toward Adrian, spinning as it came.
But Dumbledore reacted just as swiftly, with the reflexes born of decades of dueling experience. With barely a visible flick of his wand, an invisible barrier appeared in the air, blocking the ring's flight path.
Clink!
The ring struck the magical shield and was successfully intercepted, falling to the wooden floor with a metallic sound. It spun several times between the two wizards before settling.
"Adrian..." Dumbledore's voice emerged low and strained, that set off every alarm in Adrian's mind.
His eyes carried a dangerous glint that Adrian had never seen before. "This is the Resurrection Stone... I cannot possibly miss this opportunity... surely you can understand. I need this. I need them back."
Looking at the strangely unfamiliar Headmaster standing before him, alarm bells rang loudly in Adrian's mind.
Dumbledore's consciousness had definitely been affected by the ring!
"Professor Dumbledore," Adrian said carefully, attempting to use calm words to restore his rationality without provoking a violent response, "you've been affected by dark magic. You're not thinking clearly."
"I've never been more lucid than I am now, Adrian." Dumbledore walked step by step toward the fallen ring, his expression disturbingly blank, emotionless.
"The Gaunt family ring, set with the legendary Resurrection Stone—I couldn't possibly be mistaken. The Elder Wand, the Cloak of Invisibility, and the Resurrection Stone—I'm sure you've heard the ancient legend of the Deathly Hallows."
Adrian nodded slowly while communicating with the Tree of Wisdom, requesting a analysis of Dumbledore's condition.
[Status: Mental interference detected. Subject is experiencing magic similar to compulsion magic targeting grief and regret.]
As expected, Though Dumbledore claimed with absolute conviction that he wasn't affected, the body was honest and wouldn't lie.
"The Resurrection Stone," Dumbledore stopped directly before the ring and said with eerie calm, staring down at it like a man looking at salvation,
"The legendary Hallow that can summon back the dead... you know what this means, Adrian."
Adrian's gaze locked onto Dumbledore's every movement, watching for the moment he would bend down. "Magic can indeed create miracles, Professor—I've seen impossible things happen. But... this ring absolutely cannot truly bring people back from the dead."
Dumbledore slowly bent down. His fingers hovered mere inches above the fallen ring, trembling visibly at the tips as he fought some internal battle between desire and reason.
"Even if there's only a one in ten thousand chance..." His previously steady tone finally wavered, cracking with raw emotion, "I must try. How can I not try? So many years of regret..."
Adrian shrugged with apparent casualness, though his muscles were coiled and ready.
"With all due respect, Professor," He said in a slow tone, "you have absolutely no chance of success. If you insist on this course... well, I suppose I shouldn't try to reason with you when your mind clearly isn't operating normally—"
Before he finished speaking, Adrian suddenly launched his attack without warning.
"Stupefy!"
A dazzling scarlet Stunning Spell shot toward Dumbledore like concentrated lightning.
Dumbledore seemed to have anticipated this. He dodged moving lightly to the side. The spell grazed his long silver hair, close enough to disturb it, and blasted a gaping hole in the wall behind him. Cracked wood exploded out with the impact.
Dumbledore looked at Adrian with genuine disbelief across his face, momentarily shocked out of his obsessive focus.
An ordinary Stunning Spell could actually blast through a solid wall like a cannonball!
Anyone directly hit by it would probably "sleep" under Madam Pomfrey's care for an entire day at minimum.
Such devastating effect was definitely not something to joke about or underestimate.
In fact, the assessment was exactly correct.
Adrian hadn't held back at all with his spell power—when facing the acknowledged strongest wizard in the world, holding back would be not just foolish but potentially suicidal.
Since he'd made the decision to physically intervene and stop Dumbledore, he had to fully commit and see it through.
His spell had been amplified by one hundred percent through "energy enhancement"—doubling its base power, turning a standard stunning spell into something that approached lethal force.
"Please, Professor," Adrian said softly, though his wand remained raised in ready position. "Don't make me actually fight you for this. I don't want to hurt you, but I will stop you from putting that ring on."
Dumbledore's wand hand shook. The ring wobbled slightly on the floor between them.
"They're gone, Adrian," Dumbledore whispered, his voice breaking with decades of suppressed grief suddenly rising to the surface. "So many years have passed... and I never got to tell them what I needed to say..."
He closed his eyes tightly, and tears began sliding down his cheeks. "Just one moment. One single chance to say I'm sorry for everything, for my arrogance, my ambition, my terrible mistakes. Is that so much to ask?"
"I feel your pain, Professor" Adrian said more gently. His tone softened considerably. "But this isn't the way. This is Voldemort's trap. And even if the stone somehow were truly genuine rather than cursed, what it brings back isn't truly them. They would be shadows, echoes, copies. You should know this better than anyone."
Dumbledore stood frozen for a moment. Then he slowly lowered his wand, suddenly looking far more exhausted than Adrian had ever seen him as though he'd aged another decade in seconds.
The powerful wizard seemed to diminish, becoming simply an old man carrying unbearable regret.
"You're right," Dumbledore said hoarsely, his voice rough with suppressed emotion. "Of course you're right."
He pressed his free hand to his face, covering his eyes as though ashamed to be seen in such a vulnerable state. "What was I thinking? I know better than this. I've always known better. And yet here I am..."
"It's not your fault," Adrian said, relaxing his aggressive stance slightly but keeping his wand ready and alert. "The ring was specifically designed by Voldemort to exploit that exact weakness. This was a targeted trap."
"Perhaps," Dumbledore said with bitter self-blame. "But the weakness was already there. Tom merely... found it and pressed on the wound. He's always been exceptionally skilled at identifying vulnerabilities."
He looked down at the ring on the floor with a complex mixture of intense longing and deep disgust on his face. "Pick it up, Adrian. Quickly. Before I do something foolish again. I don't trust myself near it."
Adrian hesitated, studying his face carefully. "Are you sure you're completely—"
"I am myself again," Dumbledore interrupted with firm conviction, though his voice still held lingering tremors. "The compulsion has broken. And I am deeply ashamed. Please, take it and destroy it immediately before my resolve falters again. I clearly cannot be trusted with it."
At this moment, seeing the clarity return to Dumbledore's eyes, Adrian's anxious heart finally relaxed somewhat.
For someone of Dumbledore's caliber and mental fortitude, Voldemort's mind-affecting magic wouldn't maintain its hold for very long, not once the victim became consciously aware of the manipulation.
The clouded, obsessive look in Dumbledore's eyes had already completely faded away, replaced by his normal sharp intelligence. Voldemort's mind affecting magic ultimately couldn't overcome the formidable willpower of this generation's greatest wizard.
After resting and collecting himself for about half a minute, breathing deeply to center his thoughts:
"I must sincerely apologize to you, Adrian," Dumbledore said with genuine remorse in his voice. "I fell completely into Voldemort's trap. Pick up the ring and destroy it properly. At least in this aspect, you're far more professional and objective than I am. You don't carry the same... vulnerabilities."
"No need to blame yourself so harshly, Professor," Adrian said, shaking his head dismissively.
Then he slowly, carefully picked up the ring from the dusty floor, holding it at arm's length and avoiding direct skin contact with the metal.
After thinking for a moment about the situation, he spoke: "I have a way to cleanly eliminate the piece of Voldemort's soul fragment inside through a purification process, and most likely without damaging this Resurrection Stone itself."
"What?" Dumbledore's shoulders tensed reflexively for a brief moment.
But then they quickly relaxed, and he deliberately moved several steps away from the ring now in Adrian's possession, physically distancing himself from temptation.
"Do as you see fit," He sighed heavily, resignation clear in his tone. "The Resurrection Stone cannot truly resurrect the dead and return them to life... I've known that truth for a very long time."
Adrian smiled faintly, feeling relieved.
It seemed Dumbledore had returned completely to his former sage-like demeanor and wisdom.
Now Adrian could finally deal with Voldemort's Horcrux with peace of mind.
After picking up the ring carefully from the ground, he took out his portable briefcase portal device. The Tree of Wisdom could potentially absorb Voldemort's soul fragment through the portal connection.
At this point, he no longer particularly intended to hide his methods from Dumbledore.
Because once he successfully extracted this final needed soul fragment, he would no longer need to carefully collect more pieces.
The remaining Horcruxes could simply be destroyed directly with Fiendfyre.
Opening the briefcase flat on the dirty floor, Adrian also retrieved the purification potion from his supplies.
Now everything was ready.
"That potion is..." Dumbledore looked at the mysterious liquid thoughtfully, his vast knowledge trying to identify it.
"It can separate Voldemort's soul fragment from physical objects without destroying the container," Adrian explained briefly, not wanting to go into excessive technical detail.
Then he carefully poured the purification potion onto the ring in his hand, coating it thoroughly, and waited for the expected result.
Thirty long seconds passed in tense silence.
The expected scene didn't appear at all.
The ring showed absolutely no reaction. The potion simply sat there like ordinary liquid.
"It seems your method didn't work as planned," Dumbledore observed, looking at Adrian with a strange, confused expression.
"No," Adrian said grimly, his jaw tightening as realization hit him. "That's not the problem at all."
His eyes narrowed. "Voldemort's soul fragment isn't inside this ring. This isn't a Horcrux at all. This is a fake. We've been played like complete fools."
At this precise moment, the information from the Tree of Wisdom also abruptly changed in his consciousness:
[Name: Fake Marvolo Gaunt's Ring]
[Previous judgment was in error due to complex concealment enchantments. My sincere apologies, sir.]
The Tree of Wisdom very rarely provided incorrect information or made mistakes in identification.
Adrian looked at the ring in his hand with fresh suspicion, his left eyelid twitching with irritation.
Voldemort's disguise work had actually been complex enough to fool even the Tree of Wisdom's analytical capabilities?
'How truly... interesting.'
After hearing Adrian's statement, Dumbledore's gaze instantly sharpened with alarm.
He strode forward quickly, took the ring from Adrian's hand, and examined it carefully.
"You're absolutely right," Dumbledore confirmed after a long moment of intense scrutiny.
He spoke in a heavy voice with a distinct trace of gravity and frustration: "This isn't a Horcrux at all. The evil aura permeating it is completely fake—an illusion spell, truly exquisite work. Tom didn't actually hide his Horcrux here. Or rather, he did once, but no longer."
Adrian thought carefully.
"Perhaps the situation is even more concerning than we thought," He said slowly. "The Horcrux was originally hidden here in this shack. He's afraid of losing more, so he sent someone he trusted to retrieve the Horcrux from here and simultaneously set this trap for us. The footprints we saw at the door were probably left during that retrieval mission."
"A very reasonable deduction," Dumbledore acknowledged with a helpless expression.
He looked genuinely embarrassed about the situation. "I've been deceived by a fake Resurrection Stone like a sentimental fool, how embarrassing. Indeed, I am getting old. My judgment is compromised by emotion."
"This is quite troublesome," Adrian said, his face grave with concern. "Since Voldemort already knows we're trying to destroy his Horcruxes, he'll certainly be highly vigilant about the others' locations. He might move them all, hide them even better. This becomes exponentially more difficult."
"Tom is more cunning and vigilant than anyone imagines," Dumbledore agreed somberly.
"Indeed, we absolutely cannot underestimate Voldemort," Adrian agreed, "especially now, after he's already lost three Horcruxes and knows we're hunting them."
"Three?" Dumbledore repeated, slightly stunned by the number.
His mind raced through the list. 'The diary, Slytherin's locket... what else could there possibly be that I don't know about?'
He narrowed his eyes at Adrian with sharp suspicion—his Care of Magical Creatures professor was still clearly hiding important information from him about their campaign against Voldemort.
Seeing this piercing look, Adrian instantly realized he'd let something critically important slip in his frustration.
Regarding Ravenclaw's diadem, he'd deliberately never mentioned it to anyone, not even Dumbledore.
Honestly, he'd almost completely forgotten about that diadem. He'd promised Rowena Ravenclaw that he would eventually return it to Hogwarts or give it to a true, worthy Ravenclaw student. But in the chaos of everything else, it had slipped his mind.
"Perhaps you could explain in detail, Professor Westeros," Dumbledore said with deceiving mildness, putting on his characteristic benevolent smile that somehow made the question more intimidating rather than less.
"About those three Horcruxes you mentioned."
He deliberately emphasized the specific word "three," making it clear he wasn't going to let this pass.
Adrian felt helpless, why could such an elderly man still be so sharp about catching these verbal slips?
Just as he was reluctantly about to explain about the diadem:
[Sir! The ring!]
The Tree of Wisdom's voice rang in Adrian's mind, sounding somewhat urgent—there weren't many things that could make it anxious.
Adrian immediately focused all his attention on the ring still in Dumbledore's hand.
The ring was now faintly emitting a sickly green light from the black stone, barely visible if you weren't specifically looking for it but definitely there and growing stronger.
He felt puzzled about what this meant, but since the Tree of Wisdom had displayed such a strong reaction, the ring definitely had a serious problem developing.
Forget it—there was nothing particularly worth studying about a fake ring anyway, especially one that was apparently about to do something dangerous.
Without hesitation, Adrian reached out and snatched the ring from Dumbledore's hand, threw it forcefully onto the ground, and immediately drew his other wand from his waist, the specialized Flamewood wand.
"Get back!" He shouted at Dumbledore.
Fiendfyre Curse!
This terrible, uncontrollable spell could burn almost literally anything.
A mere fake ring, regardless of what curses it carried, should be no significant challenge.
Fiendfyre, fierce as a living beast made of flame, gushed from the wand tip in a roaring torrent. The cursed fire immediately took on terrifying forms—serpents, dragons, chimeras made of pure destruction. It instantly engulfed the ring on the ground.
Watching Adrian cast the legendarily dangerous Fiendfyre Curse with such apparent ease and control, Dumbledore's face showed barely any reaction beyond raised eyebrows.
He merely stepped back several paces to avoid being affected by this terrifying flame that even most dark wizards feared to use.
Even for someone of his tremendous power, the Fiendfyre Curse was potentially lethal if it got out of control.
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