Hogwarts: Voldemort, don't stop me from studying

Wade gave him a [Clean Up] and removed the tiny wood chips.

Fred sat astride the chair and poked Hermione: "Hello! Are you okay? Are you still alive? Do you know what day it is?"

Hermione, who was sprawled on the table, reached out and slapped away Fred's hand that was waving in front of her eyes. She sat up and said in annoyance, "If I had known, I would have asked directly - I've been checking for more than a month!"

Wade flipped through the books on her desk, all of which were about the history of modern magic. Of course, he couldn't find Nicolas Flamel - he was born in France in the 14th century and was written about in earlier books.

"Hermione, why do you want to investigate Nick Flamel?" Ryan asked with concern. When Wade was not around, Hermione always generously answered everyone's questions, and everyone had long regarded her as a true friend.

"I, I just..." Hermione wanted to say it was nothing, because explaining the reason would reveal that they had violated the rules and entered the restricted area in the middle of the night. But when she looked up, she saw that everyone around her was looking at her with concern, with open eyes and sincere expressions.

This made her feel extremely ashamed of her concealment.

"Well - " Hermione hesitated, and finally told them their adventure, and how after the Quidditch game she, Harry and Ron went to visit the gamekeeper Hagrid, who accidentally let them know that the thing guarded by the three-headed dog was related to Dumbledore and Nico Flamel.

"So, the big dog must be guarding Flamel's Philosopher's Stone." Hermione concluded, "I bet Flamel asked Dumbledore to keep it for him! He knew someone was eyeing the Philosopher's Stone, and he and Dumbledore were friends, so he placed the Philosopher's Stone in Hogwarts."

Hermione glanced at Wade and didn't tell him about his last guess - although she now felt more and more that Wade was right, and the whole thing might be a test given to Harry by Dumbledore, but letting other students know that the headmaster treated a certain student specially was not a good thing for Harry.

To understand what it's like to be the center of attention, just look at how Harry was surrounded and chased by his classmates when he first entered school. Hermione knew that her friend had been deeply distressed by this.

"Who is planning to take the Philosopher's Stone?" Ryan asked.

Hermione said: "Harry and Ron both thought it was Snape because his leg seemed to be bitten by the three-headed dog. But I think--"

Before she finished her words, George suddenly asked, "——Qiluo?"

Hermione paused for two seconds before saying, "What does it have to do with Professor Quirrell? Although I also think he is not very competent--"

Chapter 42 Let Dumbledore decide

The Weasleys looked at Wade.

Wade thought about it and did not mention the plot he knew. He just repeated word for word what he heard that day.

He had a good memory in his life, and even though more than a month had passed, there was almost no deviation in the conversation he retold.

Invisibly, it seemed as if a chill was rising from the soles of my feet. The umbrella house fell into a long silence, and no one spoke for a long time.

Finally, Fred broke the silence: "I have to say - this joke is not funny at all - do you understand, George?"

George nodded silently, his face unusually pale.

"So -" Ryan tried to understand, frowning, "Professor Quirrell is not Professor Quirrell, no - should I say, a dark wizard possessed him? He wants to kill Harry Potter? Our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor - is a Death Eater?"

He looked around at everyone, as if expecting someone to suddenly yell, "Did I scare you? Hahaha!"

But no one spoke.

Ryan sat down on the table, and after a while he said hopefully: "Should we go find Professor Dumbledore? All Death Eaters are afraid of him. As long as Professor Dumbledore takes action, he will definitely be able to -"

Hermione shook her head slightly and whispered, "No, you don't understand, Ryan - 'He stepped on my dead body and became a big star' - think about this sentence, Ryan - who else would say that?"

The blood disappeared from the boy's face bit by bit. Ryan clenched his fists, his body trembling slightly: "But - it's impossible - that man is dead, isn't he - everyone knows that he is dead - killed by Harry Potter..."

He seemed to have suddenly bitten his tongue and the sound stopped abruptly.

Hermione looked at him with pity. She could see that the boy actually believed it, but he just didn't dare to admit it.

——As if that person would not be resurrected if he didn’t admit it.

This was nothing to laugh at, as she too felt a shudder.

Hermione, who was born in the Muggle world, should have had no feelings towards Voldemort, but she had read a lot of books before entering the wizarding world, so she understood even better than most students born in wizarding families how many shocking tragedies the "He Who Must Not Be Named" had caused.

Before that man disappeared, his power had expanded to its peak, and a terrifying shadow shrouded the entire British Isles. Even Dumbledore... Everyone said that the person that man feared the most was Dumbledore, because the war never reached Hogwarts, but even Dumbledore could not stop the continuous deaths.

This subtly made Hermione develop a deep fear of that man, but when she wanted to say his name, she opened her mouth but couldn't say it directly.

As if it would awaken some terrible monster.

"Voldi... I mean, You-Know-Who -" Hermione looked at everyone and said, "If You-Know-Who is really possessed by Professor Quirrell - I think we should tell Dumbledore! Wade, why didn't you go to Professor Dumbledore immediately?"

Wade thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps it's because... I find it hard to believe that Dumbledore knew nothing about this?"

Fred nodded: "Dumbledore must have discovered Quirrell's abnormality, but for some reason, he has not taken any action."

George said seriously, "He knows everything."

"But what if?" Hermione asked back, "What if Dumbledore is just suspicious but is still looking for evidence? He may think that Professor Quirrell has only turned to the darkness and doesn't know that the mysterious man is on him! We should find Dumbledore, tell him the truth, and then let him decide what to do!"

"Of course, Hermione, you are right." Ryan said, "Of course we should do this."

"Then why don't we act now?" Fred stood up decisively. "I saw Dumbledore in the hall during dinner! He must be in school now."

Hermione didn't expect him to be so decisive. She asked hesitantly, "Should we call Harry? I mean - the person the You-Know-Who wants to kill is him - Harry should know where the danger will come from -"

Vader thought for a moment. "As you said, Hermione - let Dumbledore decide."

Hermione thought of the "test" he mentioned and nodded silently, with worry in her eyes, as if she was worried that Harry would be killed by Voldemort on their way to find Dumbledore.

Standing in the corridor, Wade took out a bright silver whistle and blew it.

A loud whistle pierced the air sharply and quickly, and a moment later, an owl spread its wings and flew over from the west tower, flew through the window, and landed accurately on Vader's outstretched arm.

"Cool!" Fred whistled.

Owl Ava tilted her head to look at him and cooed twice.

Wade rolled up the written note and let Ava hold it in her mouth. He instructed: "Give it to Professor Dumbledore, and then bring his reply to me."

Ava nodded, spread her wings and flew away. Everyone watched it circle in the sky, then it flew into a window on a small spire.

Hermione bit her finger and said worriedly, "Isn't it possible that Professor Dumbledore doesn't take our letter seriously? Maybe I should write in more detail so that he knows we are not fooling around..."

Fortunately, Dumbledore didn't make them wait too long - maybe only a minute or two, and Ava flew out of the window again.

The owl handed the reply to Wade. On the parchment, written in thin, circle-within-circle handwriting was the following:

"Welcome to my office. The password is Colorful Sundae."

"Colorful sundae?" George muttered, "I don't think I've seen this dessert in the auditorium."

Fred said, "At the end-of-term dinner last year. What were you doing then? Oh, and you slipped a bottle of cockroaches on Montague—"

"Let him think he bought some cockroaches—" George laughed as he recalled the prank. "He never ate any cockroaches again after that! Wait—you took the opportunity to eat my sundae?"

"How can you say I stole it?" Fred said cunningly, "I took it openly, but you just didn't see it -"

The two of them were playing and joking as they arrived at the entrance of the principal's office together. On the way, they happened to meet Michael who was returning from the Quidditch field. He greeted them and naturally blended into the team. No one thought there was anything wrong.

There was an extremely ugly gargoyle sitting at the door of the principal's office. Fred dodged George's attack, jumped to the front and said, "Colorful Sundae!"

The stone beast jumped to the side, and the wall behind it split in two. Behind it was a slowly rising spiral staircase. Several people walked in one after another, and there was a loud bang behind them, and the wall closed again.

The stairs carried everyone higher and higher, and Wade was secretly amazed - in the Muggle world, escalators were of course very common, but this was the first time he saw such a thing in the wizarding world.

So why should we be like Muggles in this respect? - The elevator is always installed where the headmaster needs it.

When everyone was feeling a little dizzy from the twists and turns of the stairs, they finally saw a shiny oak door with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin.

This is Dumbledore's office.

Chapter 43 Dumbledore

Fred strode forward and knocked on the knocker, and the oak door swung open noiselessly.

Dumbledore's office was very strange. The walls were covered with portraits of former headmasters. Some were sleeping, some were looking at them with interest, and some were just empty frames. The long-legged table was filled with strange silverware, which was rotating and spewing small puffs of smoke. The Sorting Hat was placed on a board and seemed to be asleep, making a slight snoring sound.

Behind the door, on a tall gilded perch, stood an extremely beautiful bird. Its feathers were golden and red, and although they were a little sparse, they were still dazzlingly beautiful, and its eyes were very smart as it looked down at everyone.

"Oh my God!" whispered Hermione. "It's a phoenix! I read that Professor Dumbledore has a real phoenix -"

Albus Dumbledore sat behind the desk, wearing a pair of half-moon glasses on his hooked nose and a dark purple robe with irises printed on it. He sat in a high-backed chair and looked at everyone gently with his light blue eyes.

"Welcome, kids. I hope my office didn't bore you."

"Why? This place is awfully interesting, Professor!" said Fred in a bold and lively voice.

Dumbledore chuckled. "You said in your letter that you had something very important to tell me? Now you can tell me."

Everyone looked at each other and urged them with their eyes. Hermione also backed off at this time, because she was also forced to violate the ban and was not willing to turn herself in.

Finally, Wade had no choice but to stand up and repeat the conversation he had heard before, and the others added their own guesses one by one.

Michael's face gradually turned pale. He didn't expect that they were going to the principal's office to talk about such a serious matter. He looked at this and that, feeling like he was the only shocked person at the scene.

Dumbledore listened patiently without showing any surprise. He looked at Wade with a gaze that seemed to be able to see through people's hearts and asked, "Are you sure he didn't notice you when you heard this conversation?"

"I used the Fire Charm before that. I don't know if he noticed the spell. But I hid as soon as Professor Quirrell came in, and he couldn't see me from the angle of the window."

Wade said carefully, "Before he left, I made sure that I made no sound, used no magic, and had no noticeable smell on my body. I waited outside the window until early morning before returning. On the way out, I ran into Griffiths' portrait and Professor Murray. In the subsequent Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Quirrell did not pay special attention to me, and his attitude did not change significantly."

Dumbledore nodded slightly, and then said, "For the time being, it seems that he has not discovered it. But I want you to remember one thing - from today on, try not to think about this matter, and don't look at Professor Quirrell, understand?"

Vader nodded silently.

"Professor!" Ryan couldn't help asking, "Aren't you going to catch him? While he still doesn't know he's been exposed!"

"It's not time yet, Mr. Carrow." Dumbledore said patiently, "In fact, at the beginning of this semester, I found that there seemed to be some distressing changes in our Professor Quirrell, and the information you brought also confirmed my worst guess - but now is not the time to expose him. But don't worry, I have asked a very reliable person to monitor him and ensure the safety of the students."

"So Professor...he really is..." George asked softly.

"I think so." Dumbledore confirmed their guess: "Voldemort has returned to this school again, in a state that no one could have imagined. But he probably didn't expect that his wonderful disguise would be discovered by you children - he is always used to despising those who are not as powerful as himself - oh, actually, you have performed very well."

"But - doesn't everyone say that Voldemort was killed by Harry Potter as a baby?" asked Fred.

"He was indeed severely injured on the night he wanted to kill Harry, and disappeared from people's sight. But he was not really dead, I have always been sure of this." Dumbledore said: "Voldemort is now in a rare state, even the Killing Curse can't easily kill him."

Fred looked puzzled, but Dumbledore made no effort to explain.

"Professor, can I tell Harry about this?" Hermione asked carefully.

"I think not, Miss Granger," said Dumbledore politely but firmly.

"But--"

"Since Voldemort killed Harry's parents, I don't think it's a good idea to let him know that his enemy is right in front of him." Dumbledore said, "I'm afraid Harry can't deal with it as calmly and rationally as you do, which will bring him great danger. So I need you to keep your mouth shut, especially to Harry - can you do it?"

Everyone nodded together.