"At the same time, in Little Hangleton, the entire Old Riddle family was also dead," Dumbledore said, "killed by the Killing Curse."
"Was it Tom?" Harry immediately thought of a possibility.
"The Muggles did not know what exactly happened, but the Ministry of Magic knew it was the work of the Killing Curse—and they also knew that not far from Little Hangleton, there was a family who deeply hated Muggles, and this family had also attacked the Old Riddle family before, so they immediately went to the Gaunt house."
Dumbledore, saying this, stroked his white beard: "The Ministry of Magic did not waste much effort, Moffin believed he had killed the Old Riddle family himself, and even felt extremely proud of it, so he was sent to Azkaban without much of a process."
"He was very scared about losing the ring, repeatedly saying that Old Marvolo would kill him for it—but he also confessed to me about his past deeds, perhaps his years in Azkaban truly weighed on his conscience."
"It might not be repentance, maybe he just doesn't want to die," Harry did not believe Dark Wizards would turn over a new leaf, "even without Tom's framing, this Moffin Gaunt would become a scoundrel in the Magic World—so what about that ring?"
"I have good reason to suspect that the ring was stolen by Voldemort and turned into something evil," Dumbledore said.
"Something evil?" Harry suddenly remembered something that had happened before, "Professor, I recall there was once a diary of Voldemort in Slytherin, where he appeared as the young Tom; and the notebook Pansy held was the one attached to the back of Quirrell's head... perhaps Voldemort split his soul..."
Saying this, the two exchanged a glance and said in unison: "He made a Soul Artifact!"
"That notebook should be a Soul Artifact created by the young Voldemort," Harry pondered for a moment and said, "The Voldemort in the notebook is the young Tom Riddle, who disguised himself as a girl, deceiving people in Slytherin."
"From what I know, the process of creating a Soul Artifact involves acts like murder to split the wizard's soul, extracting a fragment and placing it into an object outside the body, which becomes the Soul Artifact."
Dumbledore paused, reaching out to take an orange candy.
"In this way, even if the wizard's physical body was attacked or destroyed, they wouldn't die, as a part of the soul fragment remains intact in the world, unharmed."
"If I remember correctly, at that age, he had just opened the Secret Chamber and used the Snake Monster's gaze to kill Crying Myrtle," Harry tapped the table, saying, "He split his soul in this way, making the Soul Artifact... which would be his notebook."
"But this doesn't quite make sense, Harry." Dumbledore frowned, saying, "Last year in the Slytherin Secret Chamber, Miss Parkinson held that notebook, within which was the soul of the Voldemort attached to the back of Quirrell's head from the previous year... Why is this so?"
"Perhaps for some reason unknown to us," Harry told Dumbledore, "at least I have eliminated that part of Voldemort's soul."
"No, Harry." Dumbledore sighed and said, "Having a Soul Artifact means achieving immortality, even if you've used some powerful magic spell, you can't kill his soul, that's what a Soul Artifact is."
"In this way, it makes sense; once the soul is split, it becomes extremely unstable, which is why Voldemort eventually became more and more volatile, as if suffering from madness," Dumbledore said with a hint of emotion, "And it's for this reason that many Dark Wizards, even if they have the ability, are unwilling to create Soul Artifacts; they would rather embrace death openly than split their souls."
"Can only one Soul Artifact be made?" Harry asked curiously.
He had learned about Soul Artifacts from Sebastian, who at the time, driven mad, wanted to save Annie and researched such dark things to try to break the Black Magic Curse's influence for Annie and extend her life.
But he only had a simple understanding and didn't know the specific details.
"Uncertain." Dumbledore said, "Theoretically, a soul can split infinitely, but no one has ever gone through such a thing... Ordinary wizards can't endure this kind of pain, Harry."
"But Voldemort is not an ordinary wizard; he has a pathological desire to escape death and achieve immortality," Harry said.
Dumbledore acknowledged Harry's statement and then said, "To confirm our conjecture, the pressing task now is to find that ring, to verify if it's indeed a Soul Artifact."
"I don't think Voldemort would easily let you find that ring, Professor Dumbledore," Harry said with a sneer, "a man like him, who cherishes life so much, I tend to think he hid the ring somewhere hard to find... If I were him, I would hide the Soul Artifact in Gringotts' vault... perhaps Omnius's portrait is also placed inside a vault."
"It's not impossible," Dumbledore nodded, "But the problem is, among so many vaults in Gringotts, where would he have hid the Soul Artifact?"
"We're not in a rush to find all of these Soul Artifacts," Harry said with a yawn, "This is a long battle, Professor Dumbledore, I think we should carefully analyze and trace back and eventually confirm exactly which vault..."
"That's all we can do," Professor Dumbledore said.
After leaving the Headmaster's Office, Harry went to the Great Hall.
Today is the last day of the term, tomorrow the House Cup winner will be announced in the Great Hall, and the day after, it will be the official start of the holidays.
Harry plans to continue searching for information about the Merlin Ruins during the holidays, he wants to rescue Cassandra as soon as possible.
Additionally, he also needs to look for traces of Omnius.
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