Chapter 56: Chapter 56 Professor Dumbledore?
"This outcome is a foregone conclusion, Jon, but you have certainly opened my eyes today."
Slughorn stared at Jon, who had been wrapped into a dumpling and flicked the wand in his hand and aimed it at the wagon window behind him.
A glass-shattering sound, which was inconspicuous in the fierce storm, rang out, and the cold, damp air came into the storeroom from outside the wagon.
"I will wait by the side of that student of mine until the day this wagon really comes to the end of the road, and for the sake of having taught here for two years, I will try to persuade him to leave a way out for you and other students."
After finishing the last sentence, Slughorn's fat body rushed out of the wagon window and completely disappeared into the dark, rainy night.
The storage room went quiet, the vines transformed out by the transfiguration spell did not disappear because the caster left, and Jon's body which was still tied to the floor could not move.
Beech did not leave with Slughorn, he was standing on the top of Jon's head, looking around left and right, in fact, he actually did not know what had happened, only due to the reward given to him by the fat walrus, he helped a little in return.
Jon's face did not show much frustration at this moment, he was looking at the window where Slughorn escaped, with a thoughtful expression, it is unknown what he was thinking.
Two or three minutes passed in such a quiet contemplation before Jon tried to call out at the empty room.
"Professor Dumbledore?"
His voice seemed abrupt in a room where he was alone, and Beech, who was standing on his head, looked alertly from side to side as if trying to find out who Jon was trying to talk to.
And just two or three seconds after Jon's voice fell, an old man with crescent-shaped glasses and long grey hair and a beard manifested in the corner!
Dumbledore then smiled and stood by the wall, meeting Jon's blank gaze.
"..."
Jon swore he really just wanted to try it out, the means by which Slughorn got his wand back, in the end, was just too suspicious, so suspicious that he could do nothing but exhaust his mind infinitely before he could guess an absolutely daring possibility.
This possibility that appeared in his mind made him feel ridiculous, and he opened his mouth to call out Dumbledore when he felt he was subconsciously looking for an excuse for his failure.
But when Dumbledore really appeared in front of his eyes, Jon froze.
His eyes stared unblinkingly at Dumbledore, and Dumbledore's azure eyes were also looking at him gently.
"That was a beautiful levitation charm at the end, Jon, and I've never seen a student use such a basic spell in such an exceptional way. If it weren't for me, Horace would have been disgraced tonight."
The old, calm voice just expressed the praise for Jon so unabashedly, as if he was supposed to be a reasonable bystander and the fight just now was just usual sparring between a student and a teacher!
Jon's breathing became rapid, Dumbledore was here, if he could not think of who was leading this play of betrayal, then he had lived more than twenty years of his last life in vain.
"Professor-"
His words were not even halfway through when Dumbledore drew out his wand and flicked it lightly towards the vines that entangled Jon while interrupting.
"I know you have a lot to ask me, but this may not be the right place for a long conversation. Kingsley and the men should have just brought the injured Lily into the wagon by now, and Filius and Minerva are still searching for Horace's 'body' in the pouring rain. If you don't mind, you can come with me to my office where we can have a nice chat."
As he spoke he pulled up Jon, who had been untied from the floor and walked ahead, leading him out of the storage room.
Beech still lay bored on top of Jon's head at this time, he now had no treasure he wanted to steal and did not want to go to Hagrid, Jon's hair became a temporary nest for him.
Jon, of course, does not bother with Beech's behaviour, his mind seems very crystal clear, after he saw Dumbledore, everything made sense now, but it also seems like a jumbled-up mess, he felt that everything he perceived til now might be wrong like a well-thought-out conspiracy.
He just followed Dumbledore into his office together.
This place is still the same as when he first came, a golden perch erected next to the desk, a wide but worn wooden cabinet for storing wands in the southern part, half a wall full of portraits of past Headmasters, as well as the real Hogwarts crest above the portraits.
After taking a seat in his office chair, Dumbledore picked up a piece of parchment from his desk top, the words on it were obviously all reproduced from book-printed text, and there was no way to identify the person from the handwriting.
"When I first received this letter, I was wondering who exactly might have such keen observation and in-depth magical world general knowledge reserves, at first I thought it might be either Minerva or Filius, but if it was really them, there would be no need for this letter to appear, they would simply come to me and clear it up face to face."
Jon attentively noted that Dumbledore did not mention Lily's name.
"I couldn't have guessed that the person who delivered this letter to me was actually just a new student who had only been at Hogwarts for less than a year or a student that Horace had just got himself."
Dumbledore looked at Jon and then turned his head to look at the letter in his hand, tutting in surprise.
Jon took a deep breath, he had calmed down now and made himself calm enough to ask the appropriate questions.
"So, professor, you knew from the beginning about the teacher and his intention to steal the philosopher's stone? Or rather, from the beginning you worked with him to plan for him to steal the philosopher's stone and send it to the Dark Lord?"
Dumbledore crossed his fingers in front of his body, and calmly answered Jon's question.
"The owner of the philosopher's stone - Nicolas Flamel is my dear friend who I spend a great deal of time with, we once worked together to discover the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and because of that, we developed a deep friendship. At the beginning of this journey of exile, he was the one who gave us financial support by using the philosopher's stone to turn gold, which enabled the daily operation of this school, but three years ago, after he witnessed the dark reign of the Dark Lord in Britain and reaching a certain secret pact with the French magical government, he no longer wanted to stay in this filthy magical world. So he gifted me his most precious possession, the philosopher's stone, and then accepted his own death openly with his wife."
"Before he died, he made a trip to the British Ministry of Magic under the guise of his philosopher's stone being stolen and met with the most powerful Dark Lord, where he ridiculed his policies and ambitions, laughed at his self-righteous pureblood pride, and vented all his dissatisfaction with the way he had turned the world into. The Dark Lord had indeed changed a lot compared to before, he was not even slightly annoyed by Nick's mockery, but accepted his criticism calmly and finally sent someone to escort him safely back home. It was just, after that day, he began to send his men to search for the whereabouts of the philosopher's stone."
"He actually must have known very well that there could only be one place the philosopher's stone could possibly end up, and that would be my hand. Well, given that, I of course found a suitable reason and way to deliver this stone that he wanted to get into his hands."
Jon stared into Dumbledore's eyes, it was obvious that Dumbledore's tone was unusually calm when he said this, but it made his heart beat inexplicably faster.
"Then the teacher he-"
"He is the most suitable person, he has been the head of Slytherin for nearly fifty years, and almost all the pureblood wizards who now occupy important positions in the Ministry of Magic are his students. The people who think they are familiar with him also know about his timid and fearful character, and the Slughorn family is also one of the most prominent pureblood families in the magical world, and all of these together won't let anyone have any doubts about his status and bloodline nature. Even if he had taught in this wagon for a year, it would only make people think that he was actually duped into this by me in the first place."
"Taking the philosopher's stone back will gain him the welcome of all Death Eaters and pureblood families, and then he will enter the inner circle of the dark lord, and provide us some vital intelligence and information without anyone knowing during the most critical period."
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