A dead snake shaped like an S was nailed to the front door.
It symbolized the pure-blood family of Salazar Slytherin. This was the house where Voldemort's mother Melop Gaunt, his uncle Moffen Gaunt, and his grandfather Marvolo Gaunt lived. Perhaps the group of Muggles that Ian and Grindelwald encountered had heard from rumors passed down from Voldemort's estranged father's side about the presence of a wizard nearby.
"There are traces of magic here."
Ian waved his wand, revealing a series of hidden protective spells. Grindelwald, standing beside him, nodded approvingly and then raised his wand to cast a spell as well.
Suddenly.
More protective spells that Ian hadn't detected appeared.
"Hiss~"
Ian could already feel how seriously Tom Riddle had protected this place. Perhaps if those Squibs and Muggles really found this old mansion, they would meet a particularly tragic end. He differentiated the methods on the old mansion and, in comparison, Grindelwald's prior punishment seemed like good fortune for those people.
"If you ask me, he might as well find a stone, make it a Soul Artifact, and throw it into the ocean," Grindelwald sneered, using his wand to wipe away all protections. The extensive protections took even someone of his strength a good amount of time to dismantle, showing how insanely meticulous Tom Riddle was.
"I think he might as well make the whole planet his Soul Artifact," Ian blinked, as the older and younger man casually critiqued the infamous Mysterious Man, Voldemort.
"If he had that kind of ability, would he still need to make Soul Artifacts?" Grindelwald pushed open the door lined with decaying snake bones, and a wave of dust immediately assaulted them.
No one had visited this place in years. Ian pinched his nose in distaste. After clearing things up, he finally made out the layout of the room—it was truly shabby, filled with broken chairs and a single broken table.
The kerosene lamp shade on the wall was also battered, almost impossible to restore. Even for Muggles, this kind of living environment would be considered impoverished.
It's hard to imagine that this place once housed the Lytlin heirs.
It appeared the Gaunt family had once been wealthy and prominent, but their fortune was long squandered. In the final generation, they really could only live in such a humble abode. The last generation's members included the father, Marvolo, the son, Moffen, and the daughter, Melop. Melop was Voldemort, Tom Marvolo Riddle's biological mother.
"The item is here." Although Grindelwald had never been here, the moment he entered, his eyes locked onto one of the broken cabinets.
This is the kind of skill prophets have.
"Take out the box I gave you, and open it," Grindelwald said as he walked to the cabinet, opened the drawer, and a delicate ring appeared before his eyes.
The top of the ring held a black gemstone. He didn't touch this legendary treasure but turned to look at Ian, who was studying the golden box.
"Click~"
It took Ian quite a while to understand the mechanism and trigger it. The golden cubic box opened like flower petals.
Inside was already placed a Pendant Box—Slytherin's Pendant Box.
Seeing the Pendant Box that was supposed to belong to a specific family appear here, Ian looked a bit dumbfounded. He quickly looked up to see Grindelwald looking at him with an amused expression.
"This thing..."
Ian's reaction was mostly due to how absurd things felt, considering Harry Potter hadn't even started school yet, and three of Voldemort's Soul Artifacts had already been found.
"Put this ring with the items in your box," Grindelwald gestured with his eyes for Ian to go over, and then watched him pick up the Resurrection Stone from the drawer.
He was visibly reluctant to touch the Soul Artifacts.
"While I don't think you're foolish enough to try, I should remind you not to even think about putting on this ring, at least not until you clear the curse on it."
Grindelwald gave a serious warning.
Ian nodded.
He looked down at the two Soul Artifacts in the golden box, still feeling a bit like it was a dream.
"The Resurrection Stone, Slytherin's Pendant," Grindelwald stepped forward, calmly observing the items in the box with no hint of his past desire for the Deathly Hallows.
"They share a close connection, and our pitiful Black Demon King didn't even realize this." His words left Ian slightly stunned.
"What connection?"
This was clearly beyond Ian's current knowledge.
"I don't know either, but you can take your time to research it. I'm just someone who reads a lot," Grindelwald shrugged and headed towards the door.
"You're leaving this with me?"
Ian hurriedly followed Grindelwald out of the shack.
"Dumbledore doesn't want to destroy it, and I don't want it left with me, making me feel sick. You're the only person both he and I trust. Whatever you do, don't let Dumbledore see that Resurrection Stone."
"This thing can't actually bring people back to life, not even the ones it summons are the real dead," Grindelwald reminded Ian before taking out that South Korean kimchi box used as a Door Key.
"Wait a moment."
Ian quickly raised his hand to stop Grindelwald.
Under the curious gaze of this Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Ian started running around the vicinity of Gaunt's Old Mansion like a lost ant, as if searching for something.
"What are you doing?"
Half an hour later.
Grindelwald finally couldn't help but ask, seeing Ian coming back with tools transformed from items in the house, then enthusiastically heading into the depths of the forest.
"I still need to get ready for tomorrow's class!"
Grindelwald somewhat regretted not applying an insect-repelling magic potion before leaving home, and he couldn't help but voice his displeasure towards Ian, who was constantly making a racket in the distance.
"Coming! Coming!"
Sweating heavily, Ian ran over with a big backpack.
"What did you do!?"
It turned out that prophets are indeed not omniscient, as Grindelwald's voice was filled with as much shock and horror as when Snape saw Ian brewing Amortentia.
No way around it.
For what Grindelwald saw in Ian's backpack were...a lot of human bones, the amount was terrifying, even the fallen-out teeth alone numbered in the hundreds.
"Did you dig up the entire Gaunt family graves!?"
There will always be someone in shock.
Why couldn't it be the first generation?