After hearing Wade's words, it took Dumbledore quite so ti to respond:
"Are you suggesting that we destroy it as well?"
"I think that decision should be yours to make," Wade replied. "This Horcrux is quite unique... I've been hesitating about how to handle it."
Dumbledore was silent for a mont before saying, "…Then let take a look at it."
"Such an important item, of course, I wouldn't carry it with ," Wade said. "To avoid accidents, I left it at the school."
"In your dormitory?" Dumbledore frowned slightly. "That is not a very secure choice. A Horcrux could easily tempt students or even house-elves to help it escape."
"Not in the dormitory, but in the Room of Requirent, on the Seventh-floor of the castle." Wade explained: "Do you rember? That's where I found Ravenclaw's diadem, which Voldemort also turned into a Horcrux."
The last ti Wade had been completely honest with Dumbledore was also in this cave, on the small boat leading to the center of the Black Lake.
At that ti, he had ntioned the process of finding the diadem in the Room of Requirent. However, with another of Voldemort's Horcruxes right in front of them at that ti, Dumbledore hadn't pursued the topic further.
Wade believed that soone like Dumbledore couldn't possibly forget such details after hearing them. But afterward, the headmaster never pressed for more information.
In the past, Wade had thought that this respectful distance between them was reassuring and fostered trust. There was no need to repeatedly bring up the destroyed Horcruxes.
But now, he felt… perhaps it wasn't that Dumbledore was unwilling to use more extre ans to investigate; it was that he possessed an extraordinary level of restraint and patience.
"Ah… a very clever idea."
Dumbledore closed his eyes briefly, as if freeing himself from so emotion.
He said with a relaxed tone, "If it's in the Room of Requirent, then apart from yourself, no one else could easily find it… That may indeed be the safest place in the world..."
He thought of Voldemort's attempt to apply for a job at the school, of the diadem Horcrux that had been hidden at Hogwarts for decades, and of his own accidental discovery of the Room of Requirent.
"Voldemort realized this very quickly, yet I never thought of it... I was always so smug about my knowledge of the school... Ralph was right; I am far too arrogant..."
—Ralph?
Wade found the na sowhat familiar, as if soone had ntioned it to him before.
After carefully recalling for a mont, he rembered.
—It was Maggie who ntioned it.
He said that Ralph was the oldest house-elf in the school, even much older than Dumbledore.
House-elves can live for over 200 years. In ancient wizarding families, a house-elf often serves several generations and holds the family's deepest secrets.
Wade waited for a mont, giving Dumbledore ti to finish his self-reflection, then asked, "Shall we return to the school? I'll go find the Horcrux and bring it to you."
Dumbledore did not object.
He grasped Wade's arm, and Fawkes perched on Dumbledore's shoulder.
With a flash of fire, they appeared on the seventh floor of the castle.
Beside them was the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy, still being hit on the head with clubs by trolls in ballet tutus, looking as silly as ever.
Wade paced back and forth three tis in the corridor, and a familiar door erged from the wall. He turned to Dumbledore and said, "Professor, please wait here for a mont."
"All right," Dumbledore replied patiently.
Wade opened the door, stepped inside, and shut it behind him. He let out a long breath.
Unclipping the pouch from his waist, he tossed it to the floor. The pouch instantly transford into a suitcase.
Wade opened the suitcase, retrieved a box enchanted to block magic, and opened it to reveal a black notebook lying quietly inside.
This was Tom Riddle's diary.
The Horcrux... had been with Wade all along.
Even during classes, the pouch—disguised as a school bag—was always by his side. When he transford into a peregrine falcon, he carried the pouch in his talons.
Though the diary had always remained silent, and though Wade had locked it securely in the magic-blocking box, he would never allow such a cursed object to be in the sa house as his parents.
Leaving it at school, where it risked being discovered and taken by soone? That was even less acceptable.
The reason he had said otherwise earlier was simply the oppressive atmosphere in the cave—or perhaps Dumbledore's repressed emotions—which had made Wade uneasy.
But back at the familiar surroundings of the school, Wade relaxed. He also noticed that Dumbledore had quickly reverted to the wise and composed elder he was accustod to.
Thinking about the cold hand that had just gripped his own, Wade sighed softly.
Ariana—Dumbledore's sister's death—even after a hundred years, remained an unhealed wound in Dumbledore's heart.
With a click, Wade shut the suitcase, returned it to its pouch form, and tucked it into his pocket. Then he picked up the box and exited the Room of Requirent.
"Professor, this is the Horcrux I ntioned—the last one I could find," Wade said.
Dumbledore hesitated briefly before taking the box. When he opened it and saw the diary inside, he paused in mild surprise.
"This is Tom Riddle's diary."
Wade explained, "At the start of my second year, I saw Lucius Malfoy slip it into Ginny Weasley's cauldron during the chaos. I found an opportunity to take it."
"It's a sentient diary. It even tried to communicate with . But I kept it locked in a box and never took it out."
Wade didn't explain why he did this.
Since, in Dumbledore's understanding, Wade was a wizard with a gift resembling foresight, wouldn't it make sense that he foresaw the dangers of Voldemort's diary?
Dumbledore took the diary and gazed intently at its battered black cover. He opened it to the first page, where the na "Tom Marvolo Riddle" was written.
In the headmaster's hands, the diary appeared docile and ordinary, as if there wasn't a trace of sinister magic about it.
But Dumbledore seed to see sothing intriguing. His eyes scanned the blank pages.
After a long mont, he closed the diary.
"Thank you, Wade," Dumbledore said softly in a warm tone. "This diary might very well be the first Horcrux Voldemort ever made... I believe it will tell us many useful things."
"As long as it's helpful to you," Wade replied. "I just hope that when you're done studying it, you don't destroy it with that fla spell you used earlier. You can use a basilisk fang instead—leave it intact. This diary might have other uses…"
Lowering his voice, he whispered a few words.
Dumbledore looked surprised, then smiled.
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