The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Without a doubt, this is the back side of Azkaban.

Moriarty's eyes grew brighter and brighter, which explained the familiar feeling he had, and the black seawater further confirmed that this was Azkaban.

Dumbledore noticed it too, and his expression turned sour.

"For Death Eaters who lack sufficient reverence for magic and life, Azkaban is a place they never want to remember. So? The White Cloak is not a Death Eater."

Dumbledore looked relieved, but his eyes betrayed a growing tension.

Moriarty understood his thinking: even the most vicious Death Eaters wouldn't dare come to Azkaban.

Who is hiding on the island near Azkaban? They are probably not a nobody.

"Rather than marveling at Azkaban here, I prefer to take action—go and see for myself."

As Moriarty spoke, he lightly tapped his staff on the sea surface, took a step, and easily placed his feet on the water.

"Meow!"

Sophie transformed back into her white cat form and jumped onto Moriarty's shoulder.

Only Dumbledore remained still; he slowly extended his right hand, blocking Moriarty's path.

"I don't recommend you go ashore to explore," Dumbledore said gravely. "There's something I need to tell you. The Dementors, the guards of Azkaban, often gather on the back side of Azkaban, and this area of ​​the sea is their territory."

"But we saw it, the white cloaks... what do you call them? Liches? They passed behind Azkaban, and the Dementors didn't find a trace of them, not a single one. Doesn't that say enough?"

"Meow~" Sophie said disdainfully, "Lich are not living beings, so how could Dementors detect them! The most powerful White Wizards dare not enter the island. Your number of haters has increased, Headmaster."

Dumbledore remained unaffected and calmly explained, "Not being a living being doesn't mean you don't have emotions. During our battle with the lich, the lich cast so many curses on us—I dare say that even the two most terrible dark wizards of the last hundred years didn't have as many curses as they did. And magic, especially dark magic, is always inseparable from emotions."

He looked at Azkaban, which appeared pitch black in the night, and frowned deeply: "The fact that the Dementors didn't give any warnings is already quite telling, especially since it's a lich. Liches need humans too, right? How could a Dementor not attack something different?"

Sophie licked her lips slightly; what she said made sense.

Moriarty suddenly smiled and said to Dumbledore, "You've never trusted Dementors, have you?"

"Yes," Dumbledore's voice became firm and resolute, "In fact, when I was a few years older than you, I suspected that Dementors were not naturally occurring, but rather the product of some dark wizard!"

Moriarty's heart skipped a beat as he saw a fleeting look of reminiscence cross Dumbledore's eyes, and at the same time, he smiled.

"I might be one of only two people in the world who has ever had such doubts, but I eventually gave up on that idea. Wizards are enough; why should I care about Dementors?"

Dumbledore returned to the main point: "I just wanted to say that there are too many uncertainties if we are not well prepared and rush onto the island."

Moriarty looked at Dumbledore with a sense of mystery. If the Dementors were mysterious, then this old man before him also held many secrets.

As he said, there are two people in his world who suspect that Dementors are man-made, and the other one might be Grindelwald.

It would be so cool if Dumbledore and Grindelwald were thinking together; even Rowling wouldn't dare say they could think of such a thing!

After a slight smile, Moriarty made up his mind.

He turned to face Azkaban: "Since the problem lies with the Dementor guards, let's not go onto the island, let's go check on the Dementors!"

"Perhaps tonight you can rekindle my long-dormant passion." Dumbledore smiled slightly.

The two exchanged a knowing glance, cast illusion spells on themselves, and slowly walked inside.

As Dumbledore passed an Auror post, he remarked, "It seems the ministry has increased its manpower after the breakout."

"Rufus Scrimgeour," Moriarty said, referring to the Auror's Chief of Staff, "He's a pretty responsible wizard."

"We have more manpower, but the danger has also increased." Dumbledore quickly scanned the group of Dementors.

Dementors possess a keen sense of perception; staring at them for even a second longer could be detected.

Sophie didn't have this concern. She blinked her cat eyes and glanced around. Now she was a harmless cat, and her animal emotions weren't intense.

"If there were a second Wizarding War, would you put the Dementors in captivity?" Moriarty asked Dumbledore.

Dumbledore never trusted Dementors and expressed deep disgust for them.

However, the moment Voldemort returned, Dumbledore advised Fudge to free Azkaban from the Dementors' control.

On the contrary, they are giants.

Dumbledore suggested that Fudge send someone to win over the giants, but Fudge refused. So Dumbledore sent Hagrid and Mrs. Maxime to win over the giants himself.

This clearly shows how much Dumbledore hated Dementors.

Dumbledore nodded without hesitation and said, "Half of the people in the ministry can sleep soundly at night because they know there are Dementors guarding Azkaban! But!"

Any dark wizard can offer Dementors far more power and pleasure than the Ministry of Magic can!

They had already walked around the first floor of Azkaban and found nothing unusual.

Azkaban is huge. Sophie rubbed her aching paws and meowed softly, "How big is this place? Why do I feel like I could walk until dawn and still not see the end?"

"Azkaban may have been protected by a smothering spell or similar magic to ensure it could hold all the criminals in Britain," Moriarty whispered to her.

"Furthermore, through certain spells, Azkaban is hidden and unmappable in the Muggle world."

After recounting the history of Azkaban he had learned from the magic book, Moriarty recalled the question from his trip to Azkaban with Tonks.

"Professor, you did very well in your History of Magic class, didn't you?" Moriarty teased.

"Oh, I don't know how to put it, um..." Dumbledore thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "As far as I know, only two students at Hogwarts have achieved perfect scores in all their subjects throughout their seven years, and those two students are standing right here now."

"Haha," Moriarty laughed, "Very well, so do you know the history of this island? I'd love to have someone tell me about it. I suspect the strange thing isn't Azkaban, but the island itself."

Dumbledore's smile faded. "An island? You've stumped me. Azkaban's history dates back to 1718, but the island's history is definitely much older than 1718. What do you think?"

“I think so too, and I even have a thought,” Moriarty said slowly, “that there are native inhabitants on the island.”

Dumbledore blinked his pale blue eyes and said nothing more. Moriarty did the same. The two walked in silence for a while and then finished the second floor.

"I just realized that the two students the headmaster mentioned are the headmaster himself and Moriarty's master," Sophie said lazily.

Moriarty and Dumbledore exchanged a smile. Sophie nudged Moriarty's cheek with her chubby pink paws and asked, "But Master Moriarty hasn't graduated yet?"

"Isn't this what's going to happen in the future?" Dumbledore said calmly, then stopped in his tracks. "I think we don't need to go any further. The Dementors are not acting strangely."

"It's alright, I had the Specter search every corner of the prison, and there was nothing unusual." Moriarty didn't want to leave either.

Listening to the prisoners' suppressed screams and the Dementors' chilling aura in the prison is a complete waste of time.

"Huh?" Sophie snorted in dissatisfaction, "Why didn't you say so earlier? →_→"

"Sometimes when you get closer, you find you can't see anything at all, but in other situations, you can only see things more clearly by taking a step closer."

Moriarty said calmly, raising his staff at a group of Dementors approaching: "Haven't you noticed that there are unusually few Dementors in Azka's class today?"

"Rare, you mean..." A beam of light reflected from Dumbledore's glasses.

"If I'm not mistaken, most of the Dementors have gone to the back of Azkaban, which is the cemetery. I asked Mr. Rufus Scrimgeour, and he said the Dementors really like that place."

"I don't think so. While it's certainly convenient to absorb souls there, the emotions of a living person and a dead person are completely different. Why would a Dementor go and suck the souls of the dead instead of living prisoners?"

"Continue with your original plan, Professor?"

"It's not impossible for Dementors to be created, just like liches."

Moriarty's gaze swept over Azkaban, and Dumbledore noticed that look, a long-lost feeling rising within him.

Moriarty's gaze was just like the look he and Grindelwald had when they came up with an idea back then—his eyes held the stars and the sea.

No, I'm more focused and determined than them.

(I slept in the wrong position and have had a stiff neck for three or four days (╯︵╰))