Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world

Chapter 94: Boring Levels and Rearrangements
With fireballs floating above their heads, the two men passed through a corridor filled with devil's nets and arrived at the third level.

There are a sky full of winged keys and a flying broom next to them. It is obvious that this level was set up based on Harry's flying skills after he showed his talent for Quidditch.

Vaughn didn't even have the desire to comment on this level, and just uttered an interjection:
"Tsk!"

In the later chessboard levels, he didn't even have any interjections.

Dumbledore was eager to hear the "users'" feedback: "Vaughn, what do you think of these two levels? I've been thinking for a long time about how to balance the strengths of Harry and the others with the power of the levels themselves."

"For the flying key level, I asked Phoenix (Professor Flitwick) to cast the 'Ten Thousand Arrows' spell on those keys. If you don't follow the rules and use your flying broom to grab the right key, you'll be attacked."

"This giant chessboard formation originates from an ancient spell called 'Stone Pillars'. It's Minerva's favorite and can temporarily bring these giant stone sculptures to life. I invited Minerva to set up an endgame, which is sure to satisfy Ron."

"There are two more levels to go. One involves a troll, which will test Harry and Miss Granger's fighting abilities. The other involves potions, which will test their logical thinking and courage."

After saying this, Dumbledore looked at Vaughan with a smile, as if waiting for his admiration.

But what he waited for was Vaughn's expressionless face. Vaughn looked at his head covered with a soft hat, as if trying to guess what was inside.

He commented "euphemistically": "Honestly, Albus, these levels are boring!"

Dumbledore's smile froze, and he couldn't help but explain, "You mean they're not difficult enough? Vaughn, you have to understand, they're not meant to guard against anyone. They're just a test for Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They're only 12 or 13-year-old wizards. It's too difficult..."

"No!" Vaughan interrupted him. "It has nothing to do with whether it's difficult or not. It's just not interesting enough, not vivid enough. Take the flying key, for example. What are you testing? Harry's flying skills? Wasn't his performance in Quidditch good enough?"

"And there's the Devil's Snare ahead. Besides Hermione, what do you expect Harry and Ron to learn? Remember for the rest of their lives that the Devil's Snare is afraid of fire? How many times in their lives will they encounter the Devil's Snare?"

"The same goes for the chessboard. Harry and Hermione are both terrible at chess. They can't help at all. Ron is basically the only one who can help at this level. Are you trying to urge Harry and Hermione to study wizard chess well in the future? Or are you trying to use the final deadlock to play a sentimental trick?"

"The giant monster level is even more speechless. I guess it was set up by Quirrell? It has basically no value in existence."

Vaughn looked at Dumbledore and said mercilessly, "Albus, haven't you noticed? Although you did notice the characteristics of each of the three of them, when you designed each level, you focused too much on one of them and ignored the other two..."

"You're not testing Harry, Ron, or Hermione individually, you're testing the whole team. What's the point of these so-called levels, other than letting them show off their well-known strengths? Testing should not only validate their strengths, but also their weaknesses and the problems they have with each other, so they can learn to grow."

These words left Dumbledore speechless.

He was originally very proud of his design, but after Vaughn's series of questions, he looked back and felt that it was indeed meaningless.

Dumbledore fell into deep thought. After a moment, he didn't say much. He just took Vaughn through the "worthless" troll level and the potion level surrounded by magic fire.

It wasn't until the potion level that Vaughn offered a somewhat positive review. "It's quite interesting, a logical deduction question, but I bet only Hermione could come up with the correct answer. The potion leading to the next level, however, is only two sips long, which makes it quite challenging."

"Did the professor cast a spell so that it would always only have enough for two people?"

Finally hearing a positive comment, Dumbledore replied cheerfully, "It's not Severus, it's me who set the rules here. Only two people are allowed to pass through the firewall. The method is to find the correct potion and drink it. Other than that, no other methods are allowed. And the amount of potion is only enough for two people."

"This is to ensure that only Harry faces Quirinus alone, and also to prevent Quirinus from destroying the potion when he passes through. According to the rules, even if he destroys it, the potion will be restored and wait for the last person."

Vaughn had some impression of this kind of magic that was similar to setting rules.

Of course not in this life, he is not yet exposed to such advanced magic.

It is the memory of the original work in the previous life.

It was a similar magic that Voldemort used to hide Slytherin's locket in the caves he visited as a child.

He placed the locket in a glass container and then filled the container with a potion that would make life worse than death. Anyone who wanted to get the locket had to drink all the potion inside. It would be useless to pour it out or take it directly.

Vaughn felt that this was the most interesting part of all the levels he had seen tonight.

Moreover, their target tonight was also cast under this spell by Dumbledore.

The two drank the potion, walked through the purple wall of fire, and came to the last room. There was nothing in the empty room except a mirror standing in the middle of the room.

Vaughn glanced around. "This is the abandoned classroom where the Mirror of Erised used to be... I remember it was originally on the fifth floor. Did you move the entire classroom here?"

Dumbledore smiled playfully: "Yes, this is a small privilege of being the headmaster. Remember I said that Hogwarts would not refuse some trivial requests of the headmaster. Its staircases can be moved around, and of course the rooms can be moved around too."

Damn it!
Let Lao Deng pretend to be successful.

Vaughan admitted that he was a little envious. This castle that had existed for a thousand years was the greatest wealth and secret of the entire Hogwarts, and the privileges of the Hogwarts headmaster were more numerous and important than he had imagined.

Dumbledore ignored Vaughn's sour expression as he walked over to the Mirror of Erised and stared into it.

A moment later, Vaughan saw with his own eyes a piece of blood-red stone, as translucent as crystal, fall out of thin air into Dumbledore's slightly open palm.

He glanced at the Mirror of Erised again with a complicated look, and before it completed the constraints of the rule magic and resumed its function, Dumbledore pulled down the dust cloth to cover it.

He turned around and handed the blood-red stone in his hand to Vaughn.

"It can be loaned to you for a week. Now, Vaughn, it's your turn to fulfill your end of the bargain."

Taking the magical alchemical artifact, Vaughn ignored the message that popped up on the system panel. He curled his lips and replied, "You've made a fortune, Albus. I'm going to redesign all the levels!"

Dumbledore's eyes lit up slightly: "Oh, can I hear your thoughts?"

"Don't worry, we can talk slowly. I believe you will be very satisfied with my idea. Of course, since my magical ability is far inferior to yours, you have to help me."

"No problem," Dumbledore replied simply.

But looking at Vaughn's smile, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

Harry and Ron felt like they were being driven crazy.

Ever since Vaughan came back and started to review for extra classes, Hermione has burst out with great enthusiasm for reviewing. The blank pages of her diary which records her review plan are rapidly becoming thinner, while the part filled with handwriting is visibly thickening.

Even more terrifying was that one day, as time entered mid-March, Hermione suddenly said in horror, "There are only 3 weeks left until the exams!"

Not only did she push herself even harder, she also started making review plans for Harry and Ron!
It's not like the two of them didn't protest, but when faced with Hermione's argument, they said, "You don't want to fail the exam and repeat the year, do you?"

At the youthful age, even if he is a poor student, he still has to save face. No little boy wants to be embarrassed like that.

So, night after night, they could only bury themselves in heavy homework and terrifying review plans.

Fortunately, Hermione didn't always have time to supervise them; she would spend two hours a day with Vaughn.

That was the only chance Harry and Ron had to breathe a sigh of relief and give their wound-up brains a break.

As for Vaughan, he became mysterious again.

No one knew what he was doing. Every day, people could only see him in class, and he would disappear after class.

Harry thought Vaughan might be developing a new potion again.

Because his current condition is exactly the same as when he was developing the wolfsbane potion last year.

Ron disagreed. "Don't be silly, Harry. That guy isn't that hardworking. He only spent two months developing the Vaughn beauty line, and then played around with it for a full six months!"

Then, that afternoon, Peeves, who had been away for a long time, set his sights on Ron again.

"Poor, stupid Weatherby, why do you always say bad things about the Big Devil behind his back? Of course, Peeves loves it. Tell me more, Uncle Peeves still has a lot of tricks he hasn't used yet, hehe!"

Peeves, his mouth wide open and wide, hurled some kind of paint at Ron, sending him scurrying off in panic while doing somersaults across the classroom.

It now loves working for Vaughn, because when Vaughn orders it to do something, no other ghost will stop it. Even the Bloody Baron, whom it fears the most, turns a blind eye to its pranks.

Peeves can use his mischievous talents to the fullest.

For two days in a row, Ron was tortured to the point of being nervous and depressed. He was caught twice in the act of speaking ill of Vaughn behind his back, so much so that after that, he looked at everyone in the common room as a traitor who had told on others.

The only people he didn't doubt were Harry and Hermione - they were his friends, how could they hurt him?

Ron thought naively and foolishly.

In addition to the heavy workload and review every day, the trio also did not forget to pay attention to Lou Williams.

They would take a little time every day to pass by the door guarded by Lu Wei, lie on the door and listen to the thunder-like snoring of the huge three-headed dog inside.

Once, they even ran into Dumbledore there. The old headmaster had just come out of the door. He was sweating profusely from exhaustion after doing something unknown. His usually clear and bright eyes had become a little dull.

He also looked a bit nervous, and kept mumbling to the empty room beside him:
"I'm over a hundred years old. How could you order me around like this? You left all the heavy work to me. What have you done?"

“Yes, I invited you, but I only asked you to participate. I didn’t know your redesign would be so huge…”

"Oh—yes, that's a great idea, wonderful. The problem is, it's such a huge project and I have to do it, right?"

Hiding in the corner of the corridor, the trio looked at each other, watching the old principal, who seemed to be crazy, staggering away while arguing with the void.

They certainly didn't think Dumbledore was crazy.

“Maybe he’s with someone who’s used the Dispersion Charm,” Harry thought of his Invisibility Cloak. Ron, however, had a different idea: “What do you think Dumbledore is doing? It sounds like he’s discussing some kind of project with that invisible man.”

"They might be redesigning the mechanism protecting the Philosopher's Stone!" Hermione said suddenly.

Harry and Ron's eyes lit up when they heard this.

Yes, it is very likely that Fluffy was guarding the entrance to the mechanism, and Dumbledore also came out from there.

What else could the "project" that Dumbledore just mentioned be other than the mechanism that protects the Philosopher's Stone?
This made the two of them feel slightly relieved.

Regardless of whether Snape is the man in black robes or not, at least the man in black robes himself does exist.

And he is most likely a professor who participated in the design of the Philosopher's Stone mechanism.

They have been paying attention to Lu Wei these days because they are on guard against the black-robed man whose identity is still unclear, who might suddenly break through the mechanism and steal the Philosopher's Stone.

Now, seeing Dumbledore redesign the mechanism, they finally felt relieved.

Unfortunately, things in the world don't always go according to their wishes.

Two days later, when they came to that corridor again, the trio was surprised to see...

Dumbledore brought several professors with him.

Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, Snape, and Professor Quirrell and Hagrid.

The trio were afraid of being discovered and didn't dare to get close. They couldn't hear what Dumbledore said to them before he took them into the room that Fluffy was guarding.

It seems that the plan is to allow professors to continue to participate in the design of the mechanism.

The three of them returned to the Gryffindor common room with heavy hearts.

There were other people in the lounge, so Ron could only lower his voice and said angrily, "Has Dumbledore lost his temper? Didn't he realize that the man in black robes was one of the professors? Since the mechanism was being redesigned, why did he let them get involved again... I'm not targeting Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, but Snape..."

He was extremely anxious. These adults really made him worry-free.

Harry and Hermione didn't know what to say.

They discussed it for a while and decided to find another opportunity to remind Hagrid.

The opportunity soon arrived. The next day, Harry received a text message from Hagrid:

“It’s almost hatched!”

I received the text message from an owl while I was having breakfast this morning.

So, in the following time, Harry and Ron were very restless. They even wanted to skip the morning class and rush to Hagrid's hut.

But Hermione firmly disagreed.

"You guys are so happy to leave on your own, but have you ever thought about who will make up for the points you lost because of your absence?"

Ron was very dissatisfied with her attitude. He glared at the Slytherin sitting opposite him:
"Vaughn didn't come today either. Oh, in fact, he didn't come to class yesterday either. Why didn't you say anything about him?"

Harry, who was anxious next to him, nodded subconsciously, and then was stepped on hard by Hermione.

Harry bared his teeth, but dared not say a word.

Hermione lowered her voice and said angrily, "If you can add 30 points to Gryffindor every day, I will no longer care about you!"

Harry and Ron were discouraged. It was easy for them to lose 30 points in a day, but if they wanted to add points, they would have to wait for the sun to rise in the west.

In the end, the two of them were not thick-skinned enough to feel at ease and put the blame on others. However, for the entire class, they were still shameless and tried to reason with Hermione and appeal to her emotions.

"How many people in the wizarding world have seen a dragon hatch? I bet we may never have the chance to do so again in our lifetime. Remember my brother Charlie? He's never seen a dragon hatch in Romania, and the mother dragon won't let you unless you kill it."

"Yes, Hermione, what a rare opportunity. We...we can also treat this as social practice. You can even write a paper on it."

In order to convince Hermione, Harry said nonsense that he himself did not believe.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "Do you want the professors to arrest us all? Also, keep your voice down. Look over there..."

She looked across, and Harry and Ron noticed that Malfoy had been eavesdropping on them. Now that he was discovered by the trio, he was not ashamed. Instead, he sneered at them cunningly and meaningfully.

This made Harry and Ron a little uneasy, and even though Hermione later agreed to take time to go to Hagrid's hut after class, they were not as happy as they had imagined.

After class, the three of them hurried to Hagrid's hut, discussing how much Malfoy had heard.

But they were not Malfoy's inner circle, so of course they could not reach a conclusion. Finally, Hermione said, "Anyway, we have to persuade Hagrid that the dragon cannot stay with him. Otherwise, if he is discovered, he will be finished."

Harry agreed with this, only Ron was not very happy, but he also knew that Hermione was right.

The three of them trotted all the way to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid was already waiting at the door. He greeted them warmly and glanced behind them a few times:

"Where's Vaughn? He didn't come with you?"

"Uh, we didn't see him, Hagrid."

"What a pity! I specially sent the letter to him together. He loves dragons so much!" Thinking of how Vaughn had stared at the dragon eggs before, Hagrid felt sad that Vaughn could not witness the hatching of the dragon eggs with his own eyes.

But in the blink of an eye, he became happy again and quickly let the three people into the hut: "You came at the right time, it's almost out."

Hagrid had taken the dragon egg out of the fire and placed it on the table. The black shell had cracked a little, and the cracked eggshell was stuck together by a thin film, which was wriggling as if breathing. You could see something moving around inside.

Several people brought chairs and came closer to watch eagerly.

Suddenly, accompanied by a crisp snap, the dragon egg cracked open, and thin mucus flowed out. Then, a thin and small "lizard" appeared in front of several people.

It looked ugly - this was Harry and Hermione's first impression - that skinny little thing, less than a foot long, with a wrinkled look almost like a layer of skin covering its bones. However, its wings were very strong, and against its thin body, they looked particularly large and deformed.

Perhaps because it was just born, it had not yet adapted to the feeling of being surrounded by air. The little dragon struggled a few times on the table, raised its head which had no horns but only two small bumps on its skull, and sneezed.

A streak of sparks suddenly spurted out from its long nostrils!
"Oh--"

Two little boys and an older boy shouted in surprise. Hermione, who had been reluctant to come, now forgot her insistence. She took out her notebook and, with her quill pen, wrote down the dragon's physical features, its cry, and the fact that it could spit fire at birth.

She even drew a sketch of it. In fact, she missed her camera at home very much. She should have brought it to Hogwarts earlier!
As several people watched, the little dragon opened its bulging eyes. Its pupils were orange-red and looked like magma.

Hagrid couldn't help but gently stretch out a finger and touch the dragon's head.

But the newborn creature grabbed it in its mouth and bit it hard with its sharp teeth.

Hagrid didn't feel any pain at all. He screamed happily: "Merlin, did you see that? It recognizes its mother. Oh - little baby, this is its mother's finger, not food... Look, what a strong boy, he can breathe fire and bite his prey as soon as he is born!"

“…young man…”

Hermione, who was recording, paused at the column for the dragon's gender and decided to leave it blank for the time being, because as far as she knew, Hagrid had no idea how to tell the gender of a dragon.

Every day he reads books about how to raise a dragon to be big, strong, fierce and powerful!
From this point of view, the Greek guy who sold the dragon eggs to Hagrid really suited Hagrid's taste. The temperament of the Norwegian Spinosaurus was even more ferocious than what was seen in the books.

Hermione is not Hagrid. She knows that this newborn creature does not regard Hagrid as a fellow creature, but as food!

She wrote down the little dragon's temperament in her notebook, then kicked Harry, signaling him not to forget what they had agreed upon before coming.

Harry suddenly realized, hesitated, and felt a little embarrassed to speak.

Hermione glared at him and said to Hagrid, "Hagrid, do you know how fast a Norwegian Spinosaurus grows? We've all read in books before that it will become a huge monster in two months. Your little house can't hide it at all..."

Before he could finish his words, he heard Hagrid suddenly shout, "Who's outside?"

Hagrid hurried to the window and looked out.

Hermione and Harry originally thought that Hagrid was interrupting, but looking at the window, Hagrid's face suddenly turned pale. Harry realized something was wrong and hurried over.

On the cobblestone road that stretched from the cottage to the top of the mountain, a white-haired figure was running towards the castle.

Although he was some distance away, Harry recognized him immediately.

Draco Malfoy!

The entire Hogwarts was second on his list of the most annoying things, and he would never forget it even if it turned to ashes.

Harry's face also turned pale.

It's over, Malfoy saw the dragon!

(End of this chapter)