Chapter 964: Chapter 964: The Disappearance of the Horcrux
"When did this change happen..." Snape’s voice was soft, almost like he was talking to himself.
"There’s no one else here," he said, looking at Kyle. "And don’t make me think you’re an idiot."
"I guess," Kyle took a deep breath, "it must’ve been the night Voldemort was destroyed."
"Exactly. It all started that night." Snape spun around abruptly, and his sweeping cloak nearly smacked Kyle in the face.
Thankfully, Kyle reacted quickly and stepped aside just in time.
Snape really did have a thing for cloaks... Maybe it was because he spent so much time in the dungeons. Without a cloak, it was freezing down here.
Kyle reached up and touched a badge on his collar. A warm breeze stirred, dispelling the clammy chill that clung to the dungeon air.
"You don’t seem like a fool. Take a look at this—it proves your guess was right."
Snape walked behind the desk and pulled out a thick stack of booklets from a drawer.
Kyle stepped closer and saw that they were actually copies of The Daily Prophet, piled together to a thickness that rivaled two books.
Looking more closely, he noticed they all had one thing in common: each contained an article about Dumbledore—and none of them were flattering.
Senile old man. Fool. Madman. Dictator. The bane of every Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Singlehandedly keeping the Auror Office in business...
Wait, there was something odd thrown in there.
Kyle flipped back through the papers, trying to find the article he’d glimpsed just a moment ago, but no matter how he searched, it was nowhere to be found.
That’s when he realized just how many papers were in the stack.
It had to be close to a hundred copies—maybe more. Which meant Dumbledore had been insulted over a hundred times in print.
Most of the articles were by Rita Skeeter, but there were also some names Kyle didn’t recognize at all—no impression of them whatsoever.
Probably just fame-hungry attention seekers without Rita Skeeter’s knack for provocation.
Also curious was the publication date of these articles. Every single one was printed after Voldemort’s fall—not a single copy from before 1981.
Oh, and none from recent years either.
The last one praised Fudge while mocking Dumbledore as a senile old fool. Kyle recognized the date—it was the very afternoon Fudge changed his stance, announced Voldemort’s return, and declared a state of emergency at the Ministry.
After that, the tone of the papers toward Dumbledore suddenly became much more respectful.
"Looks like Voldemort had a special talent," Kyle muttered. "He could actually teach those arrogant blowhards how to show a little respect."
"You already know why that is, don’t you?" Snape sneered. "That’s why you’d rather keep the Dark Lord ’alive’ than tell the world the truth."
Kyle didn’t answer. He just looked at Snape with a strange expression.
"By the way, I’m a little curious—why are you collecting all these newspapers?"
"What?" Snape blinked, caught off guard, then frowned.
"That’s not important. The newspapers aren’t the point."
"On the contrary, I think it’s very important." Kyle shook his head seriously.
Snape fell silent. After a long pause, he said quietly, "You swear you won’t tell anyone?"
Seeing his hesitation, Kyle’s eyes widened slightly, an odd tension creeping over him.
He licked his dry lips and nodded repeatedly.
"Don’t worry. I never reveal secrets. If you’re still concerned, we can sign a magical contract."
"There’s no need for that." Snape hesitated a while longer before finally speaking. "I was afraid Lily Evans would one day become a laughingstock in The Daily Prophet. I wanted Dumbledore to put a stop to it."
"But he didn’t seem to care. No matter how vile the articles were, he never got angry."
"That’s it..." Kyle blurted out, a little disappointed.
"Hmm..." Snape narrowed his eyes. "And what do you think?"
A subtle but chilling sense of danger crept into the air, and Kyle quickly shook his head.
"No, I agree with you."
But inside, he let out a sigh of relief.
Snape collecting newspapers had always been baffling. If Kyle hadn’t known about his feelings for Lily Evans, he might have suspected Snape was gearing up to compete with Grindelwald.
If that were the case, Kyle would’ve seriously considered grabbing Kanna and fleeing as far as possible.
Anywhere would do—as long as it was far enough away from Snape so they wouldn’t get caught in the bloodbath when Grindelwald showed up.
But now, there was no need for that.
Kyle pretended nothing had happened and continued flipping through the stack of papers.
Snape stared at Kyle’s eyes. Although Kyle was well-practiced in Occlumency and gave away nothing, Snape still had the instinctive feeling that Kyle was thinking something very, very impolite.
"You’d better put those foolish thoughts away."
"I have no idea what you’re talking about," Kyle replied with a polished smile.
"You’d better not," Snape said coldly, shooting him a sharp look before returning to the earlier topic.
"Remember this: you can tell others that the Dark Lord is dead, but under no circumstances should you mention anything about the Horcruxes."
"Is that still necessary?" Kyle shrugged. "Didn’t the Ministry already find out from you?"
"They only saw a portion of the memory," Snape replied. "I trust my Occlumency. Shacklebolt’s Legilimency is nothing compared to the Dark Lord’s. Everything he saw was exactly what I allowed him to see.
"Of course, most of it was true. The only thing missing was the fact that Potter was the final Horcrux—that was Dumbledore’s decision."
"I know," Kyle said. "That part was missing from the memories he provided, too."
"It was to protect Potter. He swore to me he wouldn’t share that with a third person..."
As he spoke, Snape glanced at Kyle again. "Unfortunately... he didn’t keep that promise."
"Hey, I’m the one who removed the piece of Voldemort’s soul from Harry’s body. He didn’t even need to sacrifice himself to the Killing Curse." Kyle’s tone turned sharp. "You and Dumbledore couldn’t do it. I did."
"And you expect me to thank you?" Snape scoffed.
"I think Lily Evans would."
There was a sharp crack, like bones grinding together.
"You’d better not push me any further..." Snape said, enunciating each word slowly, his gaze turning more dangerous by the second...
Damn it. If it weren’t for Kanna, he’d have kicked Kyle out by now.
"I’m just stating facts," Kyle said, though he wisely didn’t press any further.
"All right, let’s get back on track... Aside from Legilimency, didn’t Kingsley try using Veritaserum on you?"
"You don’t think I anticipated that?"
Snape was barely holding back his irritation. "As a former Potions Master, I know at least three ways to nullify Veritaserum."
"So they think they’ve learned the full truth, but they’ve missed the most important part."
"You mean... the number of Horcruxes," Kyle said, raising a brow.
Dumbledore’s memories had actually been quite thorough. Though the parts involving Slughorn and Harry were omitted, the total number of Horcruxes was clearly stated.
Which meant the Ministry only knew there were seven Horcruxes in total—and that six had already been destroyed.
The diary, Hufflepuff’s Cup, Slytherin’s Locket, Ravenclaw’s Diadem, the Resurrection Stone ring, and the Runespoor snake.
To protect Harry, Dumbledore had deliberately left him out of the memory... but that choice had also, inevitably, concealed the location of the final Horcrux.
"You’re not quite as stupid as I thought." Snape’s speech quickened noticeably.
"To the Ministry, Voldemort had destroyed six Horcruxes before he died, and the seventh’s whereabouts remain unknown. That works in your favor."
"Do you know why?"
Kyle had a rough idea, but when he saw the slight smirk tugging at the corner of Snape’s lips, he shook his head. "No."
Snape moved to stand behind Kyle and suddenly let out a low chuckle.
"Do you really think no one knows what you did during the Battle of Hogwarts?"
"What did I do?"
"Fiendfyre—and those Death Eaters who had already surrendered."
"They didn’t exactly surrender," Kyle replied.
"But that’s how it looked to some," Snape said with a mocking tone. "Plenty of Aurors, and Amelia Bones among them, noticed what happened. They believe you intentionally let the Fiendfyre run loose to kill hundreds of Death Eaters."
To be honest, for a split second, Kyle did feel a flicker of unease—but it passed quickly.
Fiendfyre was notoriously hard to control. Without solid evidence, the Ministry couldn’t touch him. And if push came to shove, he could always reveal parts of the truth.
He seriously doubted the Ministry would risk going up against him over a few Death Eaters.
If they were really that foolish... then just like Snape had said, the fact that he killed Voldemort would be enough to drive out anyone—even Amelia Bones—from the Ministry.
Besides...
Kyle glanced at Snape. It wasn’t hard to tell from his expression that he wasn’t finished.
"Well... then why didn’t they come after me?" Kyle asked, playing along.
"That’s because I showed them the memory of you killing the Dark Lord," Snape said.
"Now that Dumbledore is gone, if the Dark Lord is destined to return, the only one left who can stop him is you—the new Chosen One."
Snape walked past Kyle, then suddenly turned back, locking eyes with him.
"So they gave up. Pretended to know nothing. As long as that Horcrux remains undestroyed, they’ll continue to treat you with the respect you’re due."
"Well then, I really ought to thank you, Mr. Snape," Kyle said enthusiastically.
"Don’t be so insincere..." Snape took a step back.
"And don’t get the wrong idea—I didn’t do it for you. I just didn’t want Kanna to be upset."
"Then I’ll thank you on Kanna’s behalf," Kyle replied offhandedly, not taking it to heart.
"You—" Snape halted mid-step, turned back with a furious glare. "Get out. Get out!"
Before Kyle could react, he was shoved out the door.
Bang! The door slammed shut right in his face.
Huh?
What’s he mad about this time?
Kyle blinked, puzzled. He was pretty sure he hadn’t brought up Lily Evans.
But the door was already closed, and knocking wouldn’t do any good—Snape clearly wasn’t going to open it.
Honestly, his temper’s just like a Blast-Ended Skrewt—blows up at the slightest thing.
Kyle shook his head and headed toward the stairs, replaying Snape’s words in his mind.
The fact that the Ministry didn’t know Harry was a Horcrux was definitely good news for him.
Kyle couldn’t help but chuckle.
Snape had nailed it—he admitted that he preferred to let Voldemort "live" a while longer, which was why he hadn’t immediately told everyone the truth.
Kyle wasn’t afraid of the Ministry coming after him, but avoiding trouble was always better. Besides, he didn’t want to end up like Dumbledore—shut away in Hogwarts, going nowhere.
So, for the past few days, he’d been making preparations.
Sykes, the Head Healer at St. Mungo’s, was one part of those preparations—but Snape had just given him even better news.
It had already been proven that Voldemort could return from the dead. So, in the eyes of the Ministry, the current situation likely mirrored that of over a decade ago.
Voldemort was dead—but only temporarily. In ten, maybe twenty, or even thirty years, he might rise again.
After the hearing, the Ministry would probably shift its focus to finding the final Horcrux.
Oh, and the other Horcruxes too.
Kyle was certain Amelia Bones wouldn’t be comfortable leaving something that dangerous in anyone’s hands, even if it had already been destroyed.
With that thought, Kyle quickened his pace.
He obviously couldn’t hand over the real artifacts in his possession, so he needed to produce a few convincing fakes before the Ministry traced anything back to him.
Kyle wasn’t worried about being exposed. The originals were already destroyed—after a spin through Fiendfyre, even real ones would look like fakes.
The only tricky part was the magical residue unique to Horcruxes.
But even that wasn’t much of a problem. Kyle had studied Horcruxes in the past—he hadn’t made one himself, but he was no stranger to them.
He was confident he could fool the Aurors. And if necessary, he could always ask Nicolas Flamel to issue a certification—no one would question that.
Kyle climbed the stairs and left the gloomy dungeon behind.
When he reached the entrance hall, he spotted Hermione walking by, with Harry and Ron trailing behind, pestering her for notes.
"Please, Hermione, just lend us your notes."
"You don’t want us to fail our exams, do you?"
Looking at Harry’s pleading expression, Kyle let out a laugh.
The idea of the Ministry running around hunting for Horcruxes was just too funny.
Amelia Bones would never in a million years guess that the final Horcrux... was none other than the Chosen One, Harry Potter.