"On behalf of the magical world, I thank you for your contribution," Dumbledore stood up and bowed solemnly to Tom and Hermione.
"Professor, it's too much praise!" Hermione stood up abruptly, indicating that she couldn't accept such an honor from Professor Dumbledore.
"No, it's what you deserve. You've made too many contributions to the magical world. Besides, Yodel's fight against Voldemort is more valuable than all the achievements of the Order of the Phoenix combined," Dumbledore spoke seriously.
Hermione felt a bit embarrassed by Dumbledore's compliments. She placed her hands behind her back and shuffled her feet on the ground.
Seeing her adorable appearance, both Tom and Dumbledore smiled. What a good girl!
When they raised their heads, and their eyes met, they saw the conspiratorial smile on each other's faces, and both felt a little embarrassed.
Dumbledore coughed softly and redirected everyone's attention to the locket.
"Since it's an object from Slytherin, it's likely that it can only be opened using Parseltongue," he observed the pendant carefully in front of him and attempted to open it. After several unsuccessful attempts, he came to the same conclusion as Tom.
"I can't help but say, Yodel, you truly are a wizard with a keen sense of smell," Dumbledore praised Tom with profound meaning.
"Everyone has their own talents, that's all," Tom replied evasively.
"Yes," Dumbledore nodded, not delving further into Tom's matters. Then he spoke in a low voice, "If Parseltongue is necessary, we might need your help, or do any of you know how to speak Parseltongue?"
Tom knew how to do it but chose to feign ignorance, refusing to admit that he could speak Parseltongue. On the other hand, although Hermione trusted Dumbledore, seeing that her boyfriend had no intentions of revealing his ability, she also remained obediently silent.
"Please wait a moment." Seeing that neither of them responded, Dumbledore stood up from his chair and left his office. After a while, he returned with Harry.
"Professor, I don't understand..." Harry was a little confused. He didn't know why Dumbledore had suddenly sought him out and brought him there.
Then he saw Tom and Hermione, and he also noticed the locket on Dumbledore's desk.
"Harry, I need you to do me a small favor," Dumbledore asked Harry to sit in front of him, speaking with a soft and kind voice, "I hope you'll look at this pendant and see the letter 'S' as the shape of a snake, and then say, 'Open.'"
This request seemed strange, but coming from Dumbledore, Harry wouldn't question it too much. Although he had many questions in his mind, he decided to save them for now and do what Dumbledore asked. He stared at the shiny "S" and imagined it as a small snake curled up on a rock.
[What am I doing? Can I really do this?] A series of questions crossed Harry's mind, making him feel a bit silly at that moment. At the same time, he hoped that Dumbledore, Yodel, or Hermione would explain everything to him later.
While his mind was in turmoil, he also kept staring at the locket in front of him, and a strange emotion welled up inside him: as if he could hear the heartbeat inside the locket.
Was it alive?
This idea frightened Harry. He tried to convince himself it wasn't possible, but as time passed, and every second that went by, he believed more in his thought, and the heartbeat inside the locket became more apparent.
Inside that locket, there seemed to be something restless, and the heartbeat within the locket became clearer...
This emotion infected Harry, making him feel chills down his spine. He became nervous for no apparent reason and felt a little compassion for that small creature inside the box.
[Locked in a small box, without seeing the light of day, today we're going to strip it of its protection and expose it to everyone...]
"Harry, are you okay?" Dumbledore's voice came from afar, snapping Harry out of his strange thoughts.
"Professor... I..." Harry realized that his back was already soaked in sweat, and cold drops were falling from his forehead.
At that moment, the clock on the wall showed that fifteen minutes had passed.
Tom and Hermione were watching all the while, seeing how Harry gradually became distracted and how he sweated on his forehead.
Until Dumbledore spoke, Harry came back to himself.
"Professor Dumbledore, I feel like that thing is alive." After the sweat on his body calmed down a bit, Harry looked fearfully at the locket, seeking some help from Professor Dumbledore.
"In a certain sense, your intuition is not wrong," Dumbledore's voice had a magical power that soothed people. After hearing his voice, Harry suddenly felt calm, and he no longer had the strange uneasiness he felt earlier.
"In fact, there is something akin to life in the locket, but I can assure you it's not an innocent or pure entity. I want you to help me open this box and get rid of it." Dumbledore approached the shelf next to his desk and retrieved the Sword of Gryffindor from there.
"Me?" Harry asked incredulously, pointing at himself, "Why me?"
He phrased it delicately, but what he really meant was, "Why me, when there are three people here who are stronger than me? Why do I have to be the one to open the locket?"
"Harry, trust yourself, you are special." Dumbledore looked at Harry with an affectionate, confident, and encouraging gaze.
Dumbledore's words inspired Harry, and he looked back at the locket.
This time, the noise inside the locket was louder, and that sense of unease resurfaced within Harry. However, this time, Dumbledore placed his left hand on Harry's shoulder.
Harry felt a bit weighed down on his shoulder and looked at Dumbledore in confusion, who smiled at him and asked him to focus on the letter.
Distracted by Dumbledore, Harry calmed down and was able to concentrate on the letter "S," imagining it as a small snake.
As Harry emotionally prepared himself, Dumbledore retrieved the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat and handed it to Tom.
"The Soul Fragment is not in its best state right now; take care of it."
Tom didn't say much, just stood silently in front of Hermione, preparing to act.
Harry looked at the letter again, and his eyes began to unfocus; he felt as if the letter was moving.
"Open..." he said, only he didn't pronounce the words in English but rather hissed them.
With a click, the small golden button on the locket popped open, revealing its delicate interior. What was inside the box was something nauseating because there were two eyes moving vigorously.
The eyes were black and shiny, like the eyes of a young Tom Riddle. Of course, those bright eyes not only resembled Riddle's but also...
In the instant he saw the eyes, Hermione even had the illusion that she was looking into Tom's eyes. But she quickly realized that these were not Tom's eyes because he would never look at her with that expression.
It was a cold and emotionless gaze, as if the owner of those eyes didn't understand human emotions.
Once exposed to the air, the eye started spinning wildly, as if trying to escape from the locket, but it was blocked by the stained glass window-like decorations inside.
"Hurry and destroy it!" Dumbledore exclaimed loudly as he took a step forward and firmly held the locket down on the desk.
Tom followed Dumbledore's command and approached the locket with the sword poised over the eye.
With a swift motion, the Sword of Gryffindor could destroy the horcrux in front of him.
"Tom?" an excited voice floated from the locket and then filled with a plaintive tone: "Is that Tom?"
Tom was surprised. The voice was Hermione's!
In the next moment, the eyes changed and transformed into Hermione's eyes.
Seeing those brown eyes, the sword in Tom's hands became heavy, and his arm stiffened and became uncontrollable.
"Save me!" Hermione's voice inside the locket sounded full of panic. "The Hermione outside is fake! That creature replaced me! It took over my body!"
The Hermione behind Tom opened her eyes in astonishment. She couldn't believe that the fragment of Voldemort's soul in the locket could say something like that.
It was just a simple attempt to sow discord, and Tom wouldn't fall for it... right? Hermione didn't have much confidence in Tom. She knew this boy had an intelligence close to zero when it came to certain matters.
"This..." Tom swallowed hard.
"Help me!" Hermione in the locket had adopted a sobbing tone, "I shouldn't have touched the locket behind your back!"
"Tom, stab her!" Dumbledore exclaimed loudly, his voice resonating throughout the office.
"Save me!" Hermione's voice from the locket had become incoherent. "I, I... the other person outside is fake. Don't let her deceive you!"
The Hermione behind Tom couldn't contain herself any longer and shouted indignantly, "Enough! Speaking in riddles. Tom, hurry..."
Hermione abruptly closed her mouth because she saw a look of doubt in Tom's eyes. Her heart was disturbed in an instant by a few words.
"Yodel, there is no spell in the magical world that can silently replace a person's soul." Dumbledore tried to persuade Harry.
"But that's Voldemort's magical power. What is impossible for him?" Hermione's voice from the locket remained desperate.
Tom remained silent, his eyes flashed with a hint of blood-red color.
Seeing Tom's expression, both Hermione and Dumbledore shut their mouths. They knew that saying anything now would only have the opposite effect.
Both of them anxiously waited alongside Harry, watching Tom and the bean-sized drops of sweat falling from his forehead.
"Save me, and I'll help you with..." Hermione's voice from the locket continued to chatter.
"Enough!" Tom roared angrily, and then, with a flash of the sword, a very loud metallic sound echoed in the office, followed by a long, drawn-out agonizing scream.
Dumbledore quickly stepped back and drew his wand from his robe, but then nothing else happened. The only thing that could be heard in the headmaster's office was Tom's heavy breathing.
Hermione saw that the locket on the desk had already been pierced by the Sword of Gryffindor; Tom had applied a great deal of force, and the sword's tip had pierced through the locket and the table underneath it.
"Hermione wouldn't call Voldemort 'Sir'!" Tom said with a trembling voice after several heavy breaths.
He let go of the sword's hilt and stood up; his spine made a few cracks.
That last thrust seemed to have drained all his strength.
He looked at Dumbledore, Harry, and Hermione, and flashed a weak smile. "Thank goodness she made a mistake; otherwise, I couldn't have made it out of there..."
Hermione took a few steps forward and hugged him, letting him collapse into her arms.
"It's okay, it's over," she consoled him, hugging Tom's head against her ear. "You're the bravest warrior."
"I promise you with my soul that Miss Granger has not been replaced by any strange thing," Dumbledore said, smiling. He approached the table and looked at the pierced locket and the damaged table, jokingly muttering, "You have a lot of strength in your hands."
Dumbledore tried to pull the Sword of Gryffindor out, but it was stuck. He tugged hard, but it wouldn't budge.
Harry remained silent, keeping a low profile, trying to blend in.
"It's simply a demon playing with people's hearts!" Tom exclaimed indignantly.
"Yes, that's what it is, an expert in finding people's weak points and vulnerabilities in their hearts. I must be grateful that he's now obsessed with the power of dark magic and has forgotten these skills," Dumbledore agreed. He took out his own wand and pointed it at the sword's hilt, and it jumped off the table on its own.
"Don't worry about breaking my desk," Dumbledore joked, winking. "Well, now you should go; I think Mr. Yodel needs proper rest."
Dumbledore was right; Tom needed a good rest after the storm he had just weathered with Voldemort.
Hermione supported Tom, while Harry, with his mind filled with complicated thoughts, left Dumbledore's office with them.
"Harry, I know you have many questions, but now is not a good time... how about tomorrow? We'll tell you everything," Hermione said, understanding his desire to talk but clearly recognizing it wasn't the right moment. She asked him to wait until tomorrow.
"Alright," Harry responded, looking at the weakened Tom, holding back his complicated thoughts. He was willing to wait until tomorrow to talk to them.
"Thank you," Hermione said as she led Tom away, ready to tend to all his needs.