Archaeologists at Hogwarts

Chapter 380 Conversation
379 talk
"If I understand correctly, after a short period of comfort, Hai Erbo showed his fangs again, intending to attack Harry, right?"

"That should be the case, Mr. Er. And he has done this once, under the nose of Professor Highmore."

"That doesn't sound too good. No wonder you're in such a bad mood. What do you think, Toby?"

"I?"

Toby looked exaggeratedly at Harry and Dumbledore who were sitting on the sofa opposite him.

"I'm just curious why your conversation has to be in my office? This is my office!"

"Don't be so stingy." Dumbledore said gently, "Otherwise, where do you want me to go? Hogwarts no longer has my office. Are you willing to drive me away again?"

what?
Harry felt as if he had heard some terrible information, and he lowered his head quietly, trying to reduce his sense of existence.

"I didn't say that." Toby's tone was still dissatisfied.

"Since this is the case, it seems that we have no other better methods in a short time."

Dumbledore left Toby alone, he turned his head to look at Harry again and said, "Tell me how you feel, Harry, what do you think about this?"

What else could Harry have thought, he didn't know what to do, he was always doing what Professor Highmore ordered.

These troubles are not something he can bear alone.

Dumbledore seemed to have expected this a long time ago, and he said with concern: "If it's really difficult to speak, how about James instead? Do you want to meet your father? I can give him a long vacation at any time .”

"He knows?" Harry asked in surprise, with a flustered expression on his face.

"Not yet." Dumbledore said truthfully: "I haven't figured out how to tell him the news. After all, Herbo is not only related to your own life, he also had a relationship with James-perhaps the word is not That's accurate - but he's also [worked with] James for a long time. There are times when I have to worry about his feelings, too."

Toby couldn't help laughing out loud, which sounded like a sneer.

"[Working together]? Thank you for coming up with this word, just say it's not a subordinate. Why, is James still afraid to admit this?"

Dumbledore turned to look at Toby, the expression on his face was also a little cold.

"But sometimes, words can do more harm than black magic. You still don't know how to take care of other people's feelings, how can you say it so directly in front of Harry."

Toby immediately retorted: "This is the biggest difference between you and me. I really don't understand why you have to hide it. If it were me, I wouldn't do it. Otherwise, I wouldn't know my identity until the end. What is dead, at least let me have a psychological preparation in advance."

"Really?" Dumbledore said calmly: "You really don't hide from others? Then how did I meet Grindelwald in the Shrieking Shack, and why did I go to the Ministry of Magic now?" , these are not all caused by you?"

Harry looked left at Toby and right at Dumbledore.

"Or, I'd better go back first."

He cautiously suggested: "I feel better now, okay?"

Judging from his tone, even if the two disagreed, he would probably get up and run away immediately, not wanting to get involved in the quarrel at all.

To Harry's relief, they finally agreed and stopped embarrassing themselves.

There was a brief silence in the room after Harry left.

Toby picked up the cold lemonade glass, moved it to his mouth and took a small sip.

After he put down his glass, he finally broke the silence and asked, "Azkaban's transfer is complete?"

"That's right." Dumbledore, who was sitting opposite him, showed a trace of exhaustion: "Although it is very troublesome, fortunately, we have moved them away. Not many people know where they are hiding, and even if they know, they probably won't be able to find them." It's okay to tell you, Delia Island, you should know this location, and the five-legged monsters live on this small island."

Toby nodded and said nothing, but his eyes were still on Dumbledore.

"I know what you really care about."

Dumbledore sighed in a rare way: "Voldemort escaped, and no one found him, and no one thought that he could hide in Azkaban all the time. If old Barty hadn't discovered the anomaly in advance, it is impossible to say where he is. How long are you going to hide there?"

Toby's hand gripped the water glass a little harder.

"What a pity. Otherwise we would have had the opportunity to use him to study Horcruxes."

Dumbledore shook his head and said: "Now I feel more and more that this is a trap. Haierbo's purpose is really obvious-just when Harry had a problem, he let us know about another Horcrux maker. It's really a coincidence where people appear."

"It is estimated that he has already guessed that you will not be able to resist doing this. Find a way to capture Voldemort and force him to find out the specific method of making Horcruxes. Then compare it with Harry."

Toby disagrees with Dumbledore's statement.

"Then what can we do? Turn a blind eye to these things?" He sneered at the book: "If I lived with this attitude, I would have died long ago."

But the expression on Dumbledore's face became even more serious.

"Look, he even knows your character."

For a moment, this made Toby speechless.

"Forget it, forget about him."

Toby put the water glass on the table a little angrily, and made a bang: "Let's think about how to help Harry get through this time, he has become more and more dangerous, and now there is only one way to do it." saved him."

"I know." Dumbledore had expected this, and he looked up to meet Toby's gaze.

"Occlumency, that's the only way."

Toby nodded silently.

If you want to avoid the influence of the Horcruxes on Harry, Occlumency is the only magic that can help Harry.

But the problem is that this magic is too complicated, even for adult wizards, it is difficult to learn it.And Toby is not optimistic about Harry being able to do this.

Although Harry has learned how to be a devil, he still hasn't been able to summon his Patronus until now. It's hard to prove how superb his magical talent is, at least it hasn't reached the benchmark identified by Toby.

"I read in McGonagall's letter that you intend to have Slughorn teach Harry?"

Dumbledore mentioned Toby's previous thoughts: "And this is not your real purpose, because you know very well how difficult it is. You actually want to do it by virtue of Harry's identity-that is, Lily's son , use him to get close to Slughorn, and extract from him the specific method of making the Horcrux that Slughorn learned, so that we can use it for comparison?"

"That's right."

Toby's voice was a little hesitant. He still had a key question to say, but Dumbledore asked it right away.

"I am satisfied that you have figured out exactly where Horace got his Horcruxes. But the question is, do you also know that he taught Voldemort the Horcruxes?"

"Has this been confirmed?"

"Not yet." Toby took two deep breaths and said, "Well, I haven't seen any proof so far, but Slughorn confided to me another thing--Lily had I asked him how the Horcrux was made, and Lily learned about the Horcrux from Snape, so I couldn't help but want to ask about it."

Dumbledore was obviously hearing the news for the first time.

He stared at Toby for a while, and then said; "It's a good thing I'm back, otherwise I don't know how long you would have kept it from me. You still haven't given up your plan to seek revenge from Severus, and now you have another reason gone."

Toby didn't admit or deny, but his silence said the answer.

That's right, how could he give up on this matter.Even if he didn't have the influence of looking for the clues of Hai Erbo, he would find a way to find Snape and punish him for his betrayal.

Dumbledore sighed again and fell into a long silence.
-
After returning to the dormitory, Harry has been sitting on the bed in a daze. He has nothing to do now, he can only take out the golden egg he got from the previous round and fiddle with it.

There is a ring of grooves on the top of this golden egg, which can be easily pried open.

But after prying it open, there is a magic circle inside, which looks very mysterious—that is, it is difficult to understand.

This is a difficult problem that Professor Haimo left for the warriors. Only after solving it can they know the content of the next round of competition.

Harry wondered where Fleur and Krum were still having a headache, and they hadn't taken ancient magic lessons, so they could only hurry up and learn from scratch.

For this reason, Ms. Maxim also protested sternly, the content was almost the same as before, saying that Professor Highmore was treating Hogwarts warriors favorably.

Then Professor Highmore admitted it.

However, he promised that he would not intervene in the second round of the official competition. This magic circle was the last problem he left behind, so after careful weighing, Ms. Maxim accepted the proposal.

It was really hard for Harry to understand Ms. Maxim's actions, what exactly did Professor Highmore do in Beauxbatons.

Staring at the magic circle floating on the surface of the golden egg, Harry's gaze gradually became distracted, and his thoughts drifted away.

Just at this time, Ron, who had just finished class, rushed back in time.

He pushed open the door, glanced carefully at Harry who was in a daze, and after hesitating for a while, he called out, "Harry, Harry?"

Harry snapped back to his senses.

He pretended that nothing happened and asked, "What's the matter? That crazy woman asked you to call me back?"

Ron opened his mouth wide: "I didn't know you would call her that - no, we're over, you... do you want to go for a walk or something? Let's talk by the way?"

His intention to untangle Harry was obvious.

"Hermione will go too."

Well, of course there will be Hermione.

"Not yet."

Harry suddenly felt tired of explaining it, and he tossed the golden egg aside, giving Ron an unassailable reason.

"I'd better look for Qiu. I haven't looked for her much since the game ended."
-
"Albus, why are you here?"

In the potions office, Slughorn looked at the visitor standing outside the door in surprise.

"Should I call you Minister now?"

He was very happy when he said it.

"I don't think there is any need for such a relationship between us."

Dumbledore refused with a smile: "Just call me by my name, are you preparing lessons?"

Slughorn glanced back at the snacks on the coffee table, the honey water filled with ice cubes on one side, and the magazines on the other.

"Cough, of course." He disappeared all these things very calmly, and replied solemnly: "Of course, I am preparing lessons—no, you are not the principal now, and I don't need to report to you— -Is there a problem?"

He finally came to his senses, turned those disappeared things back, picked up a piece of crispy biscuit and enjoyed it slowly.

"Just catching up with old friends."

Dumbledore naturally sat on the other side of the coffee table and said, "I think there should be no problem, right?"

Slughorn snorted twice, but he pushed the tray full of pastries towards Dumbledore's hand.

"As long as you don't startle me like you did today, there's nothing wrong with it."

But Dumbledore didn't pick up the snack and enjoy it.

He was still looking into Slughorn's glasses until the other's gaze began to avert.

"But I have a problem."

Dumbledore changed his attitude and said that it happened so suddenly that Slughorn's arm holding the glass of water froze.

"There's one thing I noticed early on."

Before Slughorn accepted his change, Dumbledore continued: "Many years ago, you noticed a change in my attitude towards you, and then decided to leave Hogwarts on your own."

"It wasn't until this year's vacation, when I also decided to leave Hogwarts, that you decided to come back to teach. I think you love this profession, and it's easy to satisfy you, especially if you can transfer at will The resources for the students—the premise is that they are good enough.”

"What do you want to say?" Slughorn didn't expect Dumbledore to reveal this tacit secret so suddenly, and his tone trembled.

"What I want to know is simple, Horace."

Dumbledore said calmly: "That's what you care about. Don't tell me that there is nothing. Both you and I know that this is impossible."

Slughorn immediately became angry: "No, there's nothing, don't worry about me - the big deal is that I'm leaving Hogwarts, there's no need to use this method to force me to leave - I'm leaving now, that's fine Bar."

He packed his luggage very quickly, and he was ready to leave the office with the suitcase almost in the blink of an eye, without hesitation at all.

But just as he was about to open the door, a familiar yet unfamiliar voice suddenly came from behind him.

So strange that he thought the man sitting on the sofa was no longer Dumbledore.

In other words, this is the real Dumbledore.

"You may have forgotten that I am no longer the headmaster of Hogwarts, but the Minister of Magic."

"Although the guarding of Azkaban has had to tighten the Ministry's manpower, I think it's okay to arrest a questionable old professor."

"Don't make it hard for me, Horace."

(End of this chapter)