“Voldemort had no idea about the hallows so he ended up converting the ring into a horcrux, one that I destroyed” said Dumbledore.

“When I got my hands on the ring, I was beyond ecstatic Harry. I could finally see my sister, I could finally apologise to her. However, that was all for naught. The ring was cursed and that, as you know, led to that black hand last year and I never really did get to meet my sister.” Said Dumbledore sadly.

“The Hallows are powerful no doubt but they are probably a little too powerful for any single wizard to handle. As the saying goes, ‘absolute power, corrupts absolutely’. I was not above that either Harry, the thought of owning the hallows and being the master of death, even in my old age was…exhilarating to say the least” Dumbledore spoke with self-mockery dripping from every word.

“What I want to tell you Harry, is that, don’t keep thinking about the past. Don’t try to rely on artefacts to finish your quest. There is no need for you to martyr yourself, just become so powerful that it would even give Voldemort pause” said Dumbledore kindly.

“I know it’s not easy, but I do believe you can overcome this. You might have been thrust into a quest you don’t want to do but at the end of the day, Voldemort won’t stop just because you no longer want to play his game. So the only thing you can do, is to make sure you come out on top”

“This time, without having to sacrifice anyone else.” Said Dumbledore with force.

There was a lull in the conversation as Harry mulled over everything Dumbledore said.

After mulling over it for a while, his expression slowly cleared up. His earlier depression clearing up significantly and a small smile appeared on his face.

“Okay!” Dumbledore clapped his hands loudly and spoke cheerfully, seeing his efforts having helped Harry.

“Enough, serious talk, there is much that needs to be done in here and not much time left to do it in” said Dumbledore as he got up.

“Um…Professor, where exactly is here?” asked Harry.

“I’m not sure how to explain it Harry, but this is what would be called a Mindscape. An incorporeal space created by the mind which can quite easily affect the corporeal.” Said Dumbledore.

Seeing Harry’s confused look, he continued. “Basically, everything that happens here is actually happening in your mind but it’s very much real and would have actual effects on you”

“I see. What is it that you said we need to do here?” finally having understood, Harry asked the question that had been plaguing him since he had arrived in this space.

“Do you see that black fog there? The one you were walking towards earlier?” asked Dumbledore, pointing towards the black fog from earlier.

“Yeah, what about it? It seems rather eerie though” answered Harry with a shudder.

“That my boy, is what Voldemort left behind on you when he tried to kill you 17 years ago. That is a portion of his soul that tore and attached itself to you” said Dumbledore with an oddly cheerful voice, completely belying the serious conversation they were having.

“You know, after everything that has happened so far, I’m not even surprised that a portion of that bloody snake’s soul is stuck on me” Harry said, with a look of disgust.

“That’s exactly how it is, now the only thing you need to do is destroy it!” Dumbledore laughed and gave Harry a slight push.

“How exactly should I go about destroying it?” Harry cocked an eyebrow towards Dumbledore.

“That I wouldn’t know my boy, I myself don’t understand souls very well” answered Dumbledore with an apologetic tone.

“Well, fine. I’ll give it a shot” Harry heaved a heavy sigh and walked towards the fog.

“Oh by the way, Professor…” Harry turned around, wanting to say something to Dumbledore only to find that he had already vanished.

“Well, that’s just brilliant, isn’t it? Not even a goodbye” said Harry with a frown.

Harry turned around and walked towards the black fog. The cry of that creature hadn’t seized for a single moment but Harry had already learned to tune it out.

Once he reached the black fog, he raised a hand and touched it.

He expected it to feel at least a little disgusting but he just felt a slightly cold sensation travel through his body and the fog quickly cleared up.

In the center of the area covered by that fog, Harry saw an absolutely grotesque child like figure curled up. The figure kept crying out shrill and downright irritating cries.

When Harry took a closer look, he could make out some of Voldemort’s facial features on that grotesque figure.

“So that’s what his soul shard looks like” grimaced Harry.

“Time to take care of this” he said, then raised his hand to summon his wand.

However, no matter how much he tried to imagine his wand, it wouldn’t appear.

He tried to make a cabinet appear and one materialised not too far from him. He tried to do the same with various other articles and other than living beings, he could summon pretty much anything else.

However, his wand seemed to be a no go. He couldn’t summon it no matter how much he tried.

Getting fed up with trying, Harry started rolling up his sleeves.

“Looks like I’ll have to do this the old way” said Harry.

He cautiously approached the screaming figure and when he was an arm’s length away from it, he extended his leg, prodded the figure with it and quickly jumped away.

Seeing that the figure didn’t react much to that, Harry approached with a little more confidence this time.

He got closer to it, then punched it in the side really hard. However, despite the power he put into that punch, there was hardly any damage to the figure.

It’s cries became slightly more shrill and the frequency increased but other than that, it didn’t seem to be affected much by his punch.

Feeling discouraged, Harry stood around wondering what he can do to destroy it.

He knew that horcruxes could normally only be destroyed with a killing curse, fiendfyre or something like basilisk venom.

Having no wand, Harry couldn’t exactly cast a killing curse or fiendfyre. Not that he even knew how to cast the latter.

The only thing remaining was basilisk venom. He imagined a bottle of basilisk venom and he found that a bottle materialised in his hand.

He quickly took the cap off and poured a little on the figure but the moment the venom got near the figure, it vanished like it never existed.

“Argh!” screamed Harry in frustration.

‘Didn’t Professor Dumbledore say that things are real in here?’ wondered Harry.

Thinking it through, Harry recalled the last time he used basilisk venom on a horcrux. Back in his second year in Hogwarts, when he used a basilisk fang to pierce the diary.

Wanting to try something similar, he materialised a dagger and coated it in basilisk venom. He then approached the figure and swiftly stabbed at it.

At first the dagger seemed to have been stopped at the skin but slowly but surely, he could feel the dagger making its way into the figure’s body.

As the dagger pierced the body, the figure started to scream even more loudly. The screams became so shrill that Harry could feel his ears hurt. However, he continued to push the dagger into the figures body.

Once it was all the way in, upto the hilt, he pulled the dagger out and noticed that the hole seemed to be closing at a visible rate.

He sighed in relief for a moment, feeling glad that he had coated the dagger in the poison but then just to be sure, he emptied the entire bottle of poison into the wound that was closing at a visible rate.

Feeling accomplished, Harry stepped back and prepared himself to watch the show.

Minutes passed by, then what felt like an hour passed by. The dagger wound had long since closed up, making it impossible to tell there was a wound there in the first place. However, the figure still continued to scream without any signs of it actually dying.

As he watched the figure writhe around, Harry felt anger build up inside himself.

“Just how much do you want me to suffer before you’re happy!?” he bellowed at the figure.

“You won’t even let me have my own body to myself!?” he screamed.

His desire to kill that figure started to build up, more and more. Until finally, he decided to just use a killing curse to get rid of it, lack of a wand be damned.

He started punching the figure, all of his desire to kill put into his fists. Without him noticing, his hands had started to glow green.

The brighter it glowed, the more damage the figure seemed to take. It screamed louder and louder, tried its best to move away from Harry and his attacks but it was incapable of moving.

After several minutes of pummelling the figure into the ground, he noticed a change in the figure.

Its body seemed to have cracks in it. The cracks appeared on various parts of the body and slowly spread, creating a web of cracks that seemed to join together.

As the cracks became bigger, parts of its skin fell off and a green light started shining from inside it.

Soon, the cracks seemed to cover its entire body and the green light was blinding causing Harry to cover his eyes.

“What the…”

Suddenly, the figure burst into a ball of green light. The ball hovered in place for a moment and then before he could even react, it zipped towards him and quickly entered his chest.

He felt a warm sensation in his chest which stayed in place for a very short while before moving quickly towards his head.

Before he could even register what had happened, the warmth had reached his head and he quickly lost consciousness.

Just before he blacked out completely, he felt like he heard a gentle voice.

“Goodbye, Harry my boy. I hope we don’t have to meet for a long while.”