Holding the Curse Doll in his hand, Dumbledore looked at Arthur uncertainly.
"This thing…"
"It won't actually kill someone, will it?"
His concern was understandable.
The curse power Arthur had manipulated moments earlier had genuinely unsettled him.
Arthur waved dismissively.
"Relax."
"It'll just make someone unlucky for ten days to half a month."
Naturally, Arthur kept the rest to himself.
Exactly how unlucky that person became was difficult to predict.
Best-case scenario?
They spent several months bedridden.
Worst-case scenario?
They became a lifelong vegetable.
Arthur had already guessed exactly who Dumbledore intended to use the Curse Doll on.
There was really only one possibility—
Dolores Umbridge.
The pink toad.
Fudge's most loyal subordinate.
Arrogant.
Authoritarian.
Self-righteous.
Completely unreasonable.
Arthur had never liked her either.
That was why he had specially prepared this wonderfully unpredictable Curse Doll.
As for exactly how miserable Umbridge's future would become—
that depended entirely upon her own luck.
Dumbledore remained skeptical.
Who could suffer continuous misfortune for half a month without something terrible happening?
Still—
since Arthur had already created it, there was no reason not to use it.
At worst, Dumbledore could personally keep an eye on Umbridge.
That way she wouldn't become so unlucky that she got run over by a carriage—or worse.
What Dumbledore didn't know was that his decision to remain near Umbridge during the curse's duration would produce an unexpected result.
Every unfortunate event Umbridge suffered—
she blamed on Dumbledore.
And honestly?
She wasn't entirely wrong.
Eventually, Umbridge became convinced that Dumbledore possessed some terrifying invisible assassination method.
The fear utterly broke her.
From that day onward, she never dared oppose Dumbledore again.
In the end, she resigned from the Ministry and disappeared from public view.
Of course—
that was a story for another time.
After putting away the Curse Doll, Dumbledore addressed everyone.
"Well."
"Everything is settled."
"We should return."
"Not quite."
Arthur immediately shook his head.
"There's still one loose end."
Dumbledore frowned.
"What now?"
Arthur replied,
"Voldemort still has one Horcrux remaining."
"You'll need to find it."
Dumbledore looked confused.
"I thought only the final Horcrux remained."
"How is there still another one?"
Had Voldemort somehow created a new Horcrux?
Arthur shook his head.
"I'm talking about that last Horcrux."
"The Voldemort I destroyed was the main soul."
"The one Death resurrected."
"The final Horcrux is probably still hidden somewhere."
Arthur had only realized this after destroying Voldemort.
There was a fundamental difference between a main soul and a soul fragment.
Most notably—
the soul imprint carried by the main soul was significantly larger.
When Arthur destroyed Voldemort, he noticed the soul imprint was larger than the combined imprint of the four soul fragments he had previously fused together.
That alone proved the truth.
The Voldemort he destroyed had unquestionably been the original main soul.
Dumbledore finally understood.
Initially, he had assumed the Voldemort they fought was simply a version resurrected from the final Horcrux.
Instead—
Death had resurrected Voldemort's actual main soul.
After processing this revelation, Dumbledore asked another question.
"That still leaves us with a problem."
"We have absolutely no idea where the Horcrux is hidden."
"How are we supposed to find it?"
Arthur thought briefly.
Then he took out the spirit ashes he had used to summon "Voldemort."
Dark curse power flowed through his fingers.
The cubic spirit ash gradually transformed into a circular disc.
The finished object looked nearly identical to the tracking disc previously used to locate Bellatrix.
This new version could track Voldemort's final Horcrux.
Truthfully, Arthur never intended to keep "Voldemort's" spirit ashes permanently.
Their entire purpose was to let him watch a battle between two Voldemorts.
Now that Voldemort was dead—
the ashes had become useless.
Arthur had no interest in carrying around a noseless electrical socket disguised as a villain.
Turning the ashes into a tracking artifact was simply efficient recycling.
Some might argue that this wasted the Grave Glovewort used to create the ashes.
Arthur would disagree.
Soon, the Spirit Tuner Roderika would be moving into the Zen Garden to serve as caretaker of the Grave Glovewort fields.
Once that happened—
he would have as much Grave Glovewort as he wanted.
This tiny expenditure meant nothing.
Arthur tossed the disc toward Dumbledore.
"You already know how to use this."
"I probably don't need to explain it again."
Dumbledore caught it and silently nodded.
At the same time, he internally exclaimed:
Unbelievable.
Less than thirty seconds.
That was all Arthur needed to create yet another highly specialized cursed artifact.
And he still claimed his skill with curses was merely "fairly good."
Dumbledore genuinely wanted to know—
what level qualified as true mastery?
Of course, Arthur had no idea what Dumbledore was thinking.
If he did—
he would simply tell him the truth.
Among all the powers he possessed, curses were actually one of the abilities he used the least.
"Ah."
Arthur suddenly remembered something.
Turning toward Harry, he said,
"Harry."
"I need to borrow your Invisibility Cloak."
Harry blinked.
"Urgently?"
"The sooner, the better."
Arthur nodded.
"Very urgently."
Harry shrugged.
"Alright."
"Once I get home, I'll have Hedwig deliver it."
By now, Harry was already accustomed to Arthur occasionally borrowing the Invisibility Cloak.
However, ever since learning it was one of the legendary Deathly Hallows, Harry couldn't help feeling curious.
What exactly did Arthur want it for?
Still—
Arthur hadn't explained.
So Harry chose not to ask.
Nearby, however, Snape had already reached a conclusion.
Given how well he knew Arthur—
there was only one likely explanation.
Arthur intended to cause trouble for Death.
After all, the two had just become enemies.
And the Invisibility Cloak was famously said to be capable of hiding even from Death itself.
The connection wasn't difficult to make.
If Hermione had heard Snape's thoughts, she would have agreed immediately.
After all—
she was the only person present who had heard every word of Arthur's final conversation with Thanatos.
Without even thinking, Hermione knew exactly why her cousin wanted Harry's Invisibility Cloak.
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