Ron's face grew serious.
"You mean, this is the thing you picked up at the edge of the Forbidden Forest?"
"Yes." Hermione nodded and said.
"I need to go out for a bit." Harry quickly stood up, put the gemstone into his wallet, and then said to Ron, "Ron, you and Seamus go to the Headmaster's Office and inform Dumbledore about this... Lavender, you and Parvati take Hermione to Madam Pomfrey's hospital wing to check if there's anything wrong with her."
"Okay!" they said as they stood up.
After leaving the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry walked forward using Revelio to check the surroundings.
After confirming the castle was clean, he went down the steps to the edge of the Forbidden Forest to investigate.
After about half an hour of investigation, Dumbledore arrived there as well.
"You're just in time, Professor." Harry looked up and said to Dumbledore, "I suspect that the Death Eaters have randomly placed similar gemstones at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. To prevent the students from picking them up, I think we should check it out."
The professors gradually arrived, and after listening to Harry's account, they joined the investigation team.
It wasn't entirely fruitless; near Hagrid's hut, they found a black gemstone, and at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, they found three more.
"What is this thing?" Professor McGonagall looked at the pitch-black gemstone and frowned, "I can sense this evil power, but..."
"This should be a creation of Dark Magic." Harry said, "But we don't know the specific principle yet, and the attack Katie Bell suffered a few days ago was caused by such a gemstone."
"Is there really such a thing?" Professor Flitwick leaned back tactically.
"Yes." Harry nodded, "The Death Eaters infiltrate every nook and cranny, and these gemstones are imbued with a tempting magic spell... Luckily, we found them in time; otherwise, Hermione would have been in danger..."
"This matter needs to be widely informed to all students." Dumbledore immediately said, "We need to ensure the safety of our students!"
Back at the castle, Harry went to the Headmaster's Office once again.
On the table between him and Dumbledore were four neatly laid out black gemstones.
"My suggestion is..." Harry said to Dumbledore, "to send these things to the Ministry of Magic, let them examine what exactly they are... Of course, we can give two to the British Ministry of Magic and the other two to the European Ministry of Magic. What do you think?"
"Good suggestion, I accept." Dumbledore rubbed his temples and said, "By the way, you should be prepared; we suspect the American Magic Congress has already sided with Voldemort..."
"What?" Harry hadn't expected Dumbledore to say such a thing.
"The American Magic Congress has been delaying, not allowing us to enter to catch Voldemort, which can only mean one thing—they have sided with Voldemort. There's no other explanation." Dumbledore said, "The International Wizarding Union plans to pressure the American Magic Congress at the next conference. If they refuse our entry again, then we assume they have already sided with Voldemort."
"And then what?" Harry asked.
"Then we'll just force our way in," Dumbledore said with a chuckle, "There's always a way."
When he returned to the dormitory, Hermione was already sitting in the common room waiting for him, with Ron accompanying her.
"How did it go?" The two of them asked with concern.
"We found them, a total of four, counting Hermione's, that's five." Harry rubbed his eyelids and said.
However, Hermione furrowed her brow.
"No, Harry." She said, "Think about it, how many Horcruxes does Voldemort have in total?"
"Seven." Harry said without thinking, "If you count me... seven is a magical number... wait, you're saying there are more than just these five gemstones?"
"Precisely, there are six." Hermione said, "Don't forget, Katie received a gemstone earlier, right?"
Harry nodded and took out the Crystal Ball.
"Looks like we won't be sleeping tonight." He said with a yawn.
"You're going to call Dumbledore?" Ron asked curiously.
"Yes." Harry nodded, "It's related to the school; even if there's a possibility, we can't let our guard down."
With that, he dialed Dumbledore's number, recounting Hermione's suspicion to him.
Sure enough, Dumbledore's brows furrowed.
He agreed with this notion.
"Let's do this." Dumbledore thought for a moment and said, "Have the male and female class prefects lead everyone to the Great Hall, just like when Little Sirius came to Hogwarts three years ago."
Ron and Hermione were the first to receive orders, knocking on every student's door, bringing the sleepy students to the Great Hall.
After a long while, students from the other three houses slowly arrived.
"The faculty and I will conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore said to the students as Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick closed all the doors of the Great Hall, "For your own safety, I think you may need to spend the night here. I ask the class prefects to stand guard at the entrance to the Great Hall, and the male and female heads of the student council to stay inside to manage the situation—report any incident to me immediately."
At this point, Professor Dumbledore paused.
"Get a ghost to pass a message to me."
With that, he waved his magic wand, conjuring hundreds of sleeping bags and placing them in the center of the Great Hall.
Harry walked to the center of the hall and cast the Reveal True Form Spell.
Good, the students present were all safe.
"Are all the students here?" Dumbledore asked after seeing Harry use the magic spell.
"Slytherin is all here!" Draco was the first to say.
"Ravenclaw is also all here!" Padma replied.
"Gryffindor is all here!" Hermione said.
"Hufflepuff is all here too!" Hanna said.
Since the students from all four houses were present, it indicated that at least the last gemstone was not among these students.
That's a good thing, Harry thought, at least it means no student is in trouble.
Dumbledore turned and left the Great Hall, and Harry followed.
Subsequently, the Great Hall was filled with whispers.
The students who experienced a similar incident last time had not yet graduated, and they were excitedly recounting the previous events to their peers—how Little Sirius escaped and how the school conducted the investigation.
"Everyone, get into your sleeping bags!" Hermione reminded in a loud voice, "No more talking, lights out in ten minutes, keep quiet!"
"This is pretty cool." Neville whispered to Seamus, "I wonder what Harry is off to do, is he helping the professors with the investigation too?"
"Probably." Seamus answered, "But it feels like we're back to the old days, doesn't it?"
"But no one wants to go back to those days." A nearby Ravenclaw student said.
"Heaven knows what happened..." A Hufflepuff student said worriedly, "Do you know? Could you share with us?"
"Lights out now!" Hermione reminded, "Alright, no more whispering, go to sleep!"
All the candles went out immediately.
The Great Hall turned pitch black, and the sound of students conversing quieted down.
Just quieted down, because Seamus and Neville were still sharing today's events with the uninformed students from other houses.