分节阅读173

  n a huan for he was already i-ortal, you see or as close to iortal as any an can be but now, harry, ard with this ration, the crucial ory you have eeded procurg for , we are closer to the se-cret of fishg lord voldeort than anyone has ever been before you heard hi, harry: 39wouldn39t it be better, ake you stronr, to have your ul ore pieces  isn39t seven the ost powerfully agical nuber  39 isn39t seven the ost powerfully agical nuber yes, i thk the idea of a seven-part ul would greatly appeal to lord voldeort”
  ”he ade seven horcruxes?” said harry, horror-struck, while several of the portraits on the walls ade siir noises of shock id outra ”but they uld be anywhere the world — hidden — buried or visible —”
  ”i a gd to see you appreciate the agnitude of the proble,” said dubledore cally ”but firstly, no, harry, not seven hor-cruxes: six the seventh part of his ul, however aid, resides side his renerated body that was the part of hi that lived a spectral existence for any years durg his exile without that, he has no self at all that seventh piece of ul will be the st that anybody wishg to kill voldeort t attack — the piece that lives his body”
  ”but the six horcruxes, then,” said harry, a little desperately, ”how are we supposed to fd the?”
  ”you are fettg  you have already destroyed one of the and i have destroyed another”
  ”you have?” said harry early
  ”yes deed,” said dubledore, and he raised his bckened, burned-lookg hand ”the rg, harry arvolo39s rg and a ter-rible curse there was upon it too had it not been — five the ck of seely odesty — for y own prodigio skill, and for profesr snape39s tily action when i returned to hogwarts, des-perately jured, i ight not have lived to tell the tale however, a withered hand does not see an unreanable exchan for a sev-enth of voldeort39s ul the rg is no lonr a horcrux”
  ”but how did you fd it?”
  ”well, as you now know, for any years i have ade it y bess to disver as uch as i can about voldeort39s past life i have traveled widely, visitg those pces he once knew i stubled across the rg hidden the ru of the gaunt’s hoe it see that once voldeort had eeded sealg a piece of his ul side it, he did not want to wear it anyore he hid it, protected by any powerful enchantnts, the shack where his ancestors had once lived orf havg been carted off to azkaban, of urse, never guessg that i ight one day take the trouble to visit the ru, or that i ight be keepg an eye open for traces of agical ncealnt
  ”however, we should not ngratute ourselves too heartily you destroyed the diary and i the rg, but if we are right our theory of a seven-part ul, four horcruxes rea”
  ”and they uld be anythg?” said harry ”they uld be oh, t cans or, i dunno, epty potion bottles  ”
  ”you are thkg of portkeys, harry, which t be ordary objects, easy to overlook but would lord voldeort e t cans or old potion bottles to guard his own precio ul? you are fettg what i have showed you lord voldeort liked to llect trophies, and he preferred objects with a powerful agical history his pride, his belief his own superiority, his deteration to carve for hiself a startlg pce agical history these thgs, est to that voldeort would have chosen his horcruxr with care, favorg objects worthy of the honor”
  ”the diary wasn39t that special”
  ”the diary, as you have said yourself, was proof that he was the hire of slyther i a sure that voldeort nsidered it of stu-pendo iportance”
  ”, the other horcruxes?” said harry ”do you thk you know what they are, sir?”
  ”i can only guess,” said dubledore ”for the reans i have al-ready given, i believe that lord voldeort would prefer objects that, theselves, have a certa grandeur i have therefore trawled back through voldeort39s past to see if i can fd evidence that such artifacts have disappeared around hi”
  ”the locket!” said harry loudly, ”hufflepuff39s cup!”
  ”yes,” said dubledore, silg, ”i would be prepared to bet — perhaps not y other hand — but a uple of frs, that they be-ca horcruxes three and four the reag o, assug aga that he created a total of six, are ore of a probl