Chapter 56 56. Professor Dumbledore?
"This outcome is doomed, Jon, but you really opened my eyes today."
Slughorn stared at Jon, who had been wrapped into rice dumplings, and at the same time swung the wand in his hand, aiming at the car window behind him.
There was a sound of glass shattering, which was inconspicuous in the storm, and the cold and humid air came into the storage room from outside the carriage.
"I will wait by my student's side until the day when this carriage really comes to an end. Looking at the kindness of teaching here for two years, I will persuade him to leave a way out for you."
After finishing the last sentence, Slughorn's fat body rushed out of the car window and completely disappeared into the dark rainy night.
The storage room fell silent. The vines transformed by the Transformation Curse did not disappear because of the caster's departure. Jon was still tied to the ground and could not move.
Beech didn't leave with Slughorn, it was standing on top of Jon, looking around, it didn't know what happened, it was just because the fat walrus gave it a reward, and it returned the favor A little help.
Jon didn't have a frustrated expression on his face at this time. He was looking at the window where Slughorn escaped, thinking about it, and he didn't know what he was thinking.
After two or three minutes of such quiet contemplation, Jon tentatively called out to the empty room.
"Professor Dumbledore?"
His voice was very abrupt in the room where he was the only one. Beech, who was standing above his head, looked around vigilantly, as if trying to find out who Jon wanted to talk to.
And just two or three seconds after Jon's voice fell, an old man with crescent-shaped eyes, long gray hair and beard appeared in the corner!
Dumbledore stood by the wall with a smile, looking at Jon's dazed eyes.
“.”
Jon swears that he really just wanted to try it out. In the end, Slughorn's method of getting back his wand was too suspicious. It was so suspicious that he could only radiate his thinking infinitely in order to guess an absolutely daring possible.
It's just that this possibility just appeared in his mind, which made him feel very absurd. When he opened his mouth to call Dumbledore, he felt that he was subconsciously making excuses for his failure.
But when Dumbledore really appeared in front of his eyes, Jon was really stunned.
His eyes stared at Dumbledore without blinking, and Dumbledore's blue eyes were also looking at him gently.
"The last levitating spell was beautiful, Jon. I've never seen a student use such a basic spell so specially. If it weren't for me, Horace would be ashamed tonight."
The old and peaceful voice unabashedly expressed its praise to Jon, as if he should have been a reasonable bystander, and the battle just now was just a normal exchange between a student and a teacher!
Jon's breathing became short, and Dumbledore was here. If he couldn't think of who was in charge of this betrayal, then he would have lived in vain for more than 20 years in his previous life.
Before he was halfway through his words, Dumbledore pulled out his wand, tapped lightly on the vines that entangled Jon, and interrupted.
"I know you have a lot to ask me, but this may not be a suitable place for a long conversation. Kingsley and the others should have just brought the injured Lily into the carriage, and Felius and Minerva are still in the heavy rain Look for Horace's 'corpse'. If you don't mind, come with me to my office, where we can have a nice chat."
He said that he had already pulled Jon up from the ground, who had been untied, and then walked ahead, leading him out of the storage room.
Beachy was still lying on top of Jon's head bored at this time. It had no treasures to steal now, and it didn't want to go to Hagrid, so Jon's hair became a temporary nest for it.
Of course, Jon didn't care about Beech's behavior. His head seemed to be very clear. After seeing Dumbledore, he could think of everything, but he seemed to be in a mess, and he couldn't think of anything.
He just followed Dumbledore into his office.
The place is still the same as when he first came here, the golden branch standing beside the desk, the large but dilapidated wooden cabinet with the lower half used to store the wand, the portraits of previous principals hanging on half the wall, and the one above the portrait The real Hogwarts badge.
Sitting on the office chair, Dumbledore picked up a piece of parchment from his desk. The words on it were obviously copied from books, and there was no way to identify anyone from the handwriting.
"When I first received this letter, I was still guessing who would have such keen observation skills and profound reserves of magical knowledge. At first I thought it was one of Minerva and Felius, but if If it was really them, this letter would not have appeared, they should come directly to me and explain it face to face."
Jon noticed very carefully that Dumbledore did not mention Lily's name.
"What I never expected was that the person who delivered this letter to me was actually just a freshman who had only been at Hogwarts for less than a year, and he was also a student Horace himself had just accepted."
Dumbledore looked at Jon and turned his head to look at the letter in his hand again, amazed.
Jon took a deep breath. He has calmed down now, and he has calmed down enough to ask in a timely manner.
"So, Professor, you knew from the very beginning that the teacher was going to steal the Sorcerer's Stone? Or, from the very beginning, you planned with him to let him steal the Sorcerer's Stone and give it to the Dark Lord?"
Dumbledore crossed his fingers and placed them in front of him. He calmly answered Jon's question.
"The owner of the Philosopher's Stone—Nick Flamel is a close friend of mine. We once discovered the twelve uses of dragon's blood together, and thus established a deep friendship. During the initial period of exile, He has always been using the Philosopher's Stone to turn gold to give me financial support, so that I can support the daily teaching and life of this school, but three years ago, he saw the Dark Lord's dark rule over Britain, and After reaching a secret agreement with the French magic government, he no longer wants to stay in this filthy magic world. So he gave me his most precious legacy, the Philosopher's Stone, and then he and his wife frankly Accept your own death."
"Before he died, he went to the British Ministry of Magic in the name of the stolen Philosopher's Stone, and met with the powerful Dark Lord. He ridiculed his governance and ambition, and laughed at his self-righteous pure-blood pride , Confided and vented all his dissatisfaction with him for turning the world into such a way. The Dark Lord has indeed changed a lot compared to before. He was not annoyed at Nick's taunt, but accepted his criticism peacefully, and finally He also sent someone to **** him home safely. Only from that day on, he began to send his men to search for the whereabouts of the Philosopher's Stone."
"In fact, he knows very well that there is only one possible place for the Philosopher's Stone to go, and that is in my hands. If this is the case, I can certainly find a suitable reason and way to deliver the stone he wants to get to him. .”
Jon stared into Dumbledore's eyes. Dumbledore's tone was unusually calm when he said this, but it made his heart beat faster inexplicably.
"Then the teacher."
"He is the most suitable candidate. He has been the dean of Slytherin for nearly fifty years, and almost all the pure-blood wizards who occupy important positions in the Ministry of Magic are his students. Anyone who thinks he is familiar with him also knows that he is timid. A character who is afraid of death, and the Slughorn family is also one of the most prominent pure-blood families in the magic world, and the identity, blood and character will not make people have any doubts. Even if you have taught in this carriage for a year , it will only make people think that he was actually tricked by me in the first place."
"Bringing back the Philosopher's Stone, he will be welcomed by all Death Eaters and pure-blood families, and then he will become the core mainstay of the Dark Lord's subordinates, and will provide us with all the intelligence and information that can be provided without anyone knowing about it. .”
(end of this chapter)