Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle

In the open space by the window in the corridor, Dumbledore was wearing a dark blue velvet pajamas with silver-thread embroidered stars and moons dotted on the satin. He wore crescent-shaped glasses and had a gentle smile. He did not have the majesty of a legendary wizard, but rather looked like an old man who could not sleep at night and went out for a walk.

The administrator, Argus Filch, stood opposite, holding a dim oil lamp, his back hunched. Although he was skinny, he had a double chin, his loose skin twitched slightly, his brows were tightly furrowed, his pale face looked a little gloomy at night, and his light-colored eyes bulged out, which was a bit scary.

"Principal Dumbledore, I'm absolutely certain that some students have violated school rules and are wandering around the castle at night. Peeves also said so. There are some first-year kids wandering around in the middle of the night. I must catch them!" Filch's voice was fierce and his expression was a little ferocious.

Dumbledore spoke slowly, without any hurry: "Please calm down, Mr. Filch. This may be a prank by Peeves. Don't fall into his trap."

"Even if it's a trap, we should chase them and see what happens." Filch was a little anxious and didn't have the patience to wait for Dumbledore to speak. "Headmaster, they're almost getting away!"

"If you insist..." Dumbledore stepped aside.

Filch immediately chased towards the stairs, followed by a cat named Mrs. Norris. He nodded slightly as he passed Melvin, as a greeting.

Melvin blinked, amused.

After waiting for the administrator to walk away, he slowly walked up to the principal and said, "Good evening, principal."

"good evening."

"The student who was out for the night stroll just now was Potter, right?"

"Hmm..." Dumbledore hesitated for a moment, as if seriously considering this possibility. "It's possible. Or maybe it's just a prank played by Peeves on the caretaker. They never get along."

"They've already broken into that corridor on the fourth floor, haven't they?"

"You mean the students who wander around at night..." Dumbledore continued to pretend to think, "If they are chased and have no choice but to go somewhere, they might actually break in there."

"They've already gone into that room and seen Fluffy, right?"

"..."

Dumbledore adjusted the frame of his glasses, realizing he couldn't let Melvin continue his questioning. "Perhaps this is all just a prank played by Peeves on the caretaker. I don't know the details of the matter. I'm just an old man with insomnia. I couldn't sleep, so I got up to take a walk and look at the moon tonight."

"Ah!"

Melvin chuckled. "I worked in a theater for half a year and have seen many professional actors. Principal, your acting is a little poor."

"Really? Professor Keltborn said the same thing..."

Dumbledore's smile grew gentler, and he unknowingly changed the subject: "He used to be the instructor of the school drama club, and he once asked me to help him choreograph a performance for Beedle the Poet's classic 'The Fountain of Good Luck'..."

"It brings back memories. Back then, I was a Transfiguration professor and was vying for the role of the Unlucky Knight. However, my acting skills were outperformed by a fourth-year student, so I ended up being responsible for the stage effects."

Melvin raised an eyebrow: "Then we should still go together?"

"Is such that."

Dumbledore grinned, not caring about his manners at all. "Melvin, please allow me to call you that. Professor Marchbanks once said that you resembled me when I was young, but I must say that you are far better than I was then. Your arrival has added a different kind of vitality to the castle."

"I'm not more handsome than you in terms of appearance."

"I was more handsome back then."

“I doubt it.”

“Your courses are not only about imparting knowledge, but also about teaching them the lessons of life.”

Dumbledore smoothed his beard and smiled, his eyes narrowed. "When I passed by the courtyard this day, I heard the lecture you gave to the two Mr. Weasleys. It was very interesting, especially your insights into the limits of jokes. Neither I nor other professors had ever thought about this before..."

His blue eyes shone with memories: "The Weasley twins have caused a lot of trouble. Sometimes their pranks are beyond the limit. The Gryffindor classmates who are familiar with them can tolerate it, but the students from other colleges in the same grade find it annoying and even have conflicts.

"Molly, that is, Mrs. Weasley, their mother sent several howlers about this, and there were also complaints in the letters she sent to me."

Melvin knew he was trying to change the subject, but since they were once colleagues, he didn't pursue the question of acting. "Their original intention was to bring laughter to a dull life. Even without me, they can slowly grasp the limits and discover the true meaning of pranks."

"It won't be as smooth as it is now. Maybe I'll have to learn some lessons and suffer after I graduate and become an adult."

Dumbledore changed the subject, "Speaking of what happened during the day, you asked them for prank props in order to set up a protective barrier for the Philosopher's Stone, right?"

"Yes."

"I happen to know a place with a lot of old props. Maybe you can find what you want there."

Chapter 25: Night Tour

"Um……"

Passing the corner of the stairs, Melvin glanced at the corridor on the fourth floor. The room where Lu Wei was was a few corners behind, so he couldn't see anything.

"Room of Requirement? You mean there's a hidden secret room in Hogwarts Castle that the four founders cast a hidden spell on. It will only be revealed when someone really needs it..."

"I'm leaning towards Ms. Helga Hufflepuff."

Dumbledore walked ahead, ascending the stairs, his footsteps soft. "She understands the fun of life and often surprises students with gifts."

"A surprise, a gift." Melvin calmly retracted his gaze and followed half a body length behind. "Since it's a gift, why not reveal it directly or leave clues for students to explore."

"I don't know either. That was a thousand years ago."

"Does the Room of Requirement have what I want?"

"Maybe there will be. When it appears, it will always be arranged to meet the needs of the person seeking help and be able to solve the difficulties they encounter."

"How did you find it?"

"Well..."

Dumbledore's tone matched his footsteps, neither hurried nor slow, his voice clear in the corridor. "It was many years ago, when I was still at Hogwarts. I remember it was the second half of my fifth year. My friends and I were busy preparing for the upcoming exams, our minds were full of review, and our heads were dizzy. In a hurry to go to the toilet, I took the wrong road, turned two corners, and found myself in a room I had never seen before. It was beautifully decorated, with all kinds of exquisite and luxurious chamber pots inside."

"potty……"

Melvin pursed his lips, unable to tell whether this experience was true or not, and didn't want to ask in detail.

It feels like Dumbledore's real experience, but it's unlikely to be Dumbledore's real experience. It sounds like something made up to appease children.

Dumbledore didn't feel that his story was false or clichéd at all. He spoke in a serious tone and analyzed it seriously:

"After the Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations, I had some free time and went back to investigate carefully, but I couldn't find the room anymore. There was no trace of it, as if it had completely disappeared.

“When sixth grade returned to school, I spent a few months experimenting and figuring out some patterns.

"It probably only comes in at 5:30 in the morning, or only at the quarter moon, or when someone is looking for the toilet and has a very full bladder."

"..."

Melvin quickened his pace slightly and came to stand beside him. "I'm not really concerned about the triggering conditions mentioned above. I'm only interested in the final conclusion. How many experiments did you run to come up with this conclusion?"

"Hmm...I can't remember."

"Anyway, that was the end of my schooldays exploring the mysterious room before I even knew it was called the Room of Requirement."

Dumbledore's tone seemed to have become much happier. "I've been in contact with the Room of Requirement again. I've taken over as Transfiguration Professor. The caretaker at the time was Mr. Apollyon Pringle. He was much stricter than Filch, and his punishments were more radical. To avoid his routine searches, students needed a room hidden enough to hide prohibited items. I noticed that the name of the Room of Requirement was beginning to spread among a very small number of students..."

"Later, when I took over as headmaster, the house-elves discovered I was investigating that mysterious room. These castle staff, who knew Hogwarts best, answered my questions. They said it was a magical room that had existed since the school's founding. For nearly a thousand years, the elves had used it as a cleaning tool room and a transit lounge...

"By the way, the students at that time were willing to trust me, the professor of Transfiguration, and were willing to temporarily store the prohibited items with me."

"..."

Melvin stopped and said, "How can you be worthy of Principal Armando Dippet? He trusts you so much that he's even willing to hand over the entire Hogwarts to you."

"So after I took over as principal, I stopped helping students hide prohibited items."

"..."

The eighth floor of Hogwarts Castle is a highly utilized floor. Turn right at the stairs and you will find the portrait of the Fat Lady. The hole behind the portrait leads to the Gryffindor common room. Continue walking past the portrait hole and you will find Professor Flitwick's office around the corner.

Melvin couldn't understand why the Ravenclaw Headmaster's office was located next to the Gryffindor dormitory?

Dumbledore was unable to answer his question. Their destination was on the left side of the stairs.

Walk straight along the corridor and turn three or four corners, and you will see a white wall with a huge carpet hanging on it.

The tapestry was tattered, the wool threads were dull in color, the edges were severely worn, some of the threads were falling off and breaking, and the surface was covered with gray dust and mildew.

The background of the portrait is a gloomy forest and a crooked castle tower, which seems to be not far from the vicinity of Hogwarts.

Several gray-brown mountain giants were sleeping soundly on the haystack, wearing loose pink ballet skirts with lace edges, and holding thick wooden sticks in their hands.

The protagonist Barnabas rests on a tree stump.

"Barnabas was an elective professor four hundred years ago, teaching Care of Magical Creatures."

Dumbledore paused to admire the tapestry and explained to Melvin, "At the time, the Wizarding Council was drafting a definition of human beings, and trolls were the most controversial creatures. They looked similar to humans, with a head, facial features, and limbs, and walked upright...

"Some wizards believe that trolls are distant relatives of giants and should be classified as humans. Others believe that trolls just happen to look that way, and that their essence is still uncommunicative beasts, even worse than some cats and dogs.

"Troll-related topics have been popular for over a decade. The headmaster at the time was... I can't remember who it was. He was studying troll language and was impeached. Barnabas, then Professor of Care of Magical Creatures, began an interesting study. He attempted to teach trolls ballet to prove that their brains were not just for show. As you can see, he failed.

"To commemorate this event, students created this tapestry, which has hung here for hundreds of years."

Melvin observes and analyzes the differences between the tapestry and other images in the castle.

There are many magical portraits in Hogwarts, including those of past principals in the principal's office and famous alumni on the walls of the corridors. These portraits can move freely in and out of other frames in the castle, and even connect to other portraits of the same subject in the world.

For example, Knight Cadogan and his pony, and Ms. Delise Devante, who once served as both the principal and dean of St. Mungo's. Because her portrait is hung in the school and the hospital respectively, Ms. Devante's portrait can be shuttled back and forth.

The image on the tapestry is completely different. Barnabas and the troll have little intelligence, cannot communicate with the outside world, and can only make simple reactions to stimuli.

They performed a fixed drama every day: in the morning, Barnabas taught the trolls ballet, in the afternoon, the trolls beat Barnabas, and in the evening, they all rested.

Day after day, year after year.

This kind of performance, which is almost a stage play, could be extended in length, with more plots, a different background, and even dubbing...

Melvin became interested in tapestries.

"Have you also noticed something wrong with the tapestry?" Dumbledore asked softly.

"Huh?" Melvin turned to look at him. "What's wrong?"

"The tapestry was originally just a joke among the students, a harmless joke. The scenes were originally just for fun research, and Barnabas was still a respected professor..."

Dumbledore stared at the portrait on the tapestry, his deep blue eyes. "I don't know when it started, but Barnabas became Barnabas the Fool. This tapestry has become a cautionary tale of failed teaching. There are always wizards with ill intentions who mention Professor Barnabas, claiming that Muggle-born wizards are just another kind of troll, unable to understand the mysteries of magic, and that one day they will brandish clubs and beat the pure-blood wizards who teach them."

"..."

Melvin remained silent.

I didn’t expect this tapestry to have political metaphors.

This is so Muggle.

"Let's get back to the Room of Requirement."

Dumbledore withdrew his gaze and turned. "Do you see the wall opposite the tapestry? Concentrate on visualizing the location you need. Pass in front of that wall three times, and the door to the Room of Requirement will appear before you."