░▒▓██▓▒░

Ministry of Magic.

When Fudge arrived to work at the Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore had already been waiting in his office for quite some time.

"Ha! D-Dumbledore?"

Fudge was startled, as if a primary school student was afraid of meeting his head teacher.

"You...why are you here?" He looked very uneasy and put his hat on the hanger very restrainedly.

In the month since Dumbledore vanished, Fudge felt more relaxed than ever. There is no need to seek advice from the other party, all policies are decided by himself. To be honest, this is the first time since he took office for so long that he truly feels that he is the Minister of Magic.

Before, he was more like Dumbledore's puppet.

'All this time has passed, and nothing seems to have gone wrong, right?'

Fudge didn't want to see Dumbledore come back.

It would have been better for him without Dumbledore. Although it was Malfoy who drove away Dumbledore, Fudge himself was now the beneficiary. After seeing Dumbledore, he naturally felt a little guilty.

"I've come to get a few things, Fudge. I want things related to—Voldemort—"

Fudge's face paled a little, and he said tremblingly: "Don't mention that name, Dumbledore."

Dumbledore said sternly: "I know that this name caused too much panic and death back then, but now, it is just a name. Fearing it will only intensify the fear itself, which does no good."

"I, I think we should talk about why you came here." Fudge skipped the topic with sweat on his forehead.

Dumbledore could only continue: "I want to know, his wand should still be kept in the Ministry of Magic, right? No one came here to steal it, yes?"

The Ministry of Magic has a special department that is used to keep the wands of some criminals. Many of the wands belonging to the Death Eaters imprisoned in Azkaban are still in safe hands at the Ministry of Magic.

The Ministry of Magic usually does not use broken wands as punishment for pure-blood wizards, because it is extremely easy for pure-blood wizards to get a new wand.

Not everyone believes that the wand chooses the wizard.

"Yes, of course, 'that' person's wand is kept the most closely guarded, but..."

"I just want to confirm, Fudge. Also," Dumbledore blinked, "I also want to pick up something for another student in advance."

.

.

.

It still takes some craftsmanship and steps to condense the fountain of life into the Philosopher's Stone, but once the biggest problem is solved, the rest is nothing.

Two days before the mandrake fully matured, the red "fountain of life" in the crucible finally condensed into a bright red, but slightly turbid-looking, irregular prismatic stone.

It looks like a small red crystal or a ripe pomegranate fruit.

"It finally worked."

Cyrus held the magic stone with shiny eyes. The magic power contained in the stone was enough to refine endless elixirs, and it was even easier to turn a stone into gold. He gave it a try and instantly turned a table into gold.

It wasn't just the outside, Cyrus cut open the table and the inside had also turned to gold.

Then, he extracted a bottle of blood-red potion from the Philosopher's Stone and drank it in one gulp. As the hot red liquid flowed into his throat, Cyrus clearly felt that the magic of life began to spread inside Ginny's body, filling in the part of her life that was missing before.

The Philosopher's Stone is really refined.

However, it is still a mystery whether the magic stone can create a separate, healthy, and living body. Voldemort had tried to use the Philosopher's Stone, but it didn't work out.

But Cyrus had no time to wait any longer.

The afternoon before the mandrake matured, Harry and Ron found an opportunity to go to the bathroom. Cyrus did not want them to discover the location of the secret chamber at this juncture, let alone——

"Hermione has something to say to me in the school doctor's office." He whispered, cast the Disillusionment Charm on himself, and held the Marauder's Map tightly in his hand.

By this time, his breathing was getting heavier.

He knew it wasn't nervousness, but excitement.

"McGonagall is patrolling on the second floor. I need to make a noise to lure her there."

Cyrus walked quickly in the castle, and when he turned the corner on the fourth floor, he met Lockhart, who was fiddling with his hair and walking back to the office. Then he saw Harry and Ron sneaking away from the Gryffindor team and turning into a path.

"Wouldn't it be better if we took Mr. Riddle with us?"

He heard Ron whisper to Harry.

"I mean, he and Myrtle are students of the same era. Maybe Myrtle will open her heart a little more when she meets someone who has been through the same thing as herself."

"But we are too late." Harry reminded, "Ginny is not in the same class as us."

"You're right," Ron said. They didn't even have a chance to go back and get the invisibility cloak.

Cyrus passed the two of them, and suddenly Harry paused and glanced back.

He seemed to see a familiar shadow, and there seemed to be a strange feeling in his heart - it seemed that at this moment, he had just missed his fate.

But there was nothing there, just a ray of sunlight shining in, and the dust beating softly in the empty corridor.

"What's wrong Harry?" Ron asked.

"It's nothing, let's go."

The two of them didn't dare to wait too long, but Cyrus turned the corner and deliberately made a noise, attracting McGonagall.

"Mr. Potter! Mr. Weasley! What are you doing?" Professor McGonagall pursed her lips into a straight line and looked at the two of them sternly, "May I know where you two seemed to be going?"

"Ah.. we - we were going -" Ron stammered, "we want to - go see -"

"Hermione," Harry said.

Ron and Professor McGonagall both looked at him.

"We haven't seen her for a long time, Professor." Harry stepped on Ron's foot and said in one breath, "We just wanted to sneak to the hospital wing and tell her that the mandrakes were about to grow, even if she is petrified, we wanted to assure her not to worry."

Cyrus heard that McGonagall was so moved by the two of them that she almost cried. He moved on and lifted the disillusionment spell at the door of the bathroom.

He looked up at the wall of the corridor. The writing he left last time was still there, as if no one in the entire castle could clean it up.

He left the second message there——

 "Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber of Secrets forever"

The bright red text seemed to be written in blood, stinging everyone who saw it with fear.

______

Read 14 chapters ahead of the website at my patreon♥