As McGonagall spoke the password for the principal's office, the stone beast at the door came to life and jumped to the side. The wall behind it split in half, revealing a rising stone staircase, like a spiral escalator.
Professor McGonagall led the two of them up the stairs, and the wall clicked shut behind them. They walked up the stairs in small circles and came to the shiny oak door with a griffon on it.
Shaped copper door knocker.
Although it was already past midnight, there were still voices in the room, which sounded noisy, as if Dumbledore was entertaining at least a dozen people.
But when Professor McGonagall knocked on the beast-shaped door knocker three times, the voices inside suddenly stopped, as if they were turned off. Then the door opened automatically, and Professor McGonagall led Harry and Ron away.
Go in.
At this time, the principal's office was half-dark, and the instruments displayed on the table had stopped functioning. The previous principals on the wall seemed to be sleeping soundly, and only the furtive glances and occasional opening of their eyes proved that they were actually there.
The culprit of the noise just now.
"Oh, it's you, Professor McGonagall... and... ah."
Dumbledore was currently sitting in a high-backed chair behind his desk, looking at the documents on the table in front of the candlelight. He was wearing snow-white pajamas and a purple-bottomed gold-inlaid robe, and he looked in high spirits.
After hearing Harry and the others come in, he looked at Professor McGonagall and the others with his sharp blue eyes.
"Professor Dumbledore, Potter just had a...a nightmare." Professor McGonagall said, "He said..."
"That's not a nightmare!" Harry immediately retorted.
Professor McGonagall looked back at Harry and frowned.
"Okay, Potter, then you can tell the principal yourself."
"I...well, I was sleeping...but this was not an ordinary dream...it was real...I saw it happen..." After taking a deep breath, he said what he was doing
Scene seen in the dream: "Ron's father - Mr. Weasley - was bitten by a big snake."
After Harry finished speaking, what he said seemed to echo in the air, seeming a bit absurd, even ridiculous. Dumbledore leaned back and began to stare at the ceiling. After listening, Ron looked at Harry first.
Lee looked at Dumbledore again, his face began to turn pale and shocked.
"How did you see that?"
"Well... I don't know," Dumbledore's question made Harry feel a little annoyed, because he didn't understand what it had to do with what he said. "In my head -"
"No, you misunderstood, Harry. What I'm trying to say is, do you remember where you were during the attack? Were you standing next to the victim, or did you see the scene from above?"
After Dumbledore described his problem clearly, Harry stayed for a while, and then looked at Dumbledore with a strange look. But he still answered Dumbledore's question. He said:
"No, I am the snake. I see it from the snake's perspective..."
After Harry gave his answer, the principal's office fell into a brief silence. For a moment, no one spoke to break the uneasy calm.
Until Dumbledore looked at Ron, whose face was completely pale, and then asked Harry again, but this time his tone sounded a little serious.
"Is Arthur seriously injured?"
"It was very serious, he bled a lot, he..."
Harry originally wanted to say that he was about to die, but Dumbledore's sudden movement to stand up interrupted the rest of his words. His movement shocked everyone, but they could no longer care about that now.
Dumbledore began to ask the former principals in the portraits to assist him. He first said to an old portrait near the ceiling: "Evra? And you, Delis!"
As Dumbledore finished speaking, a yellow-faced wizard with short black bangs and an old witch with long silver curls in the frame next to them opened their eyes immediately. Both of them seemed to be sleeping soundly just now.
"Did you hear that?"
"certainly."
"The man has red hair and wears glasses. Evra, you need to send an alarm to ensure that he is discovered by your own people-"
After receiving Dumbledore's instructions, the two wizards nodded and exited the frame from the side. However, they did not appear in the frame next to them, but simply disappeared.
"Evra and Delis are two famous principals of Hogwarts, and their portraits are also hung in other important wizarding institutions. They can come and go between their portraits at will, so they can tell us what happened elsewhere.
…”
"But Mr. Weasley could be anywhere else, and we..."
"Don't be anxious, Harry. Worrying and panicking won't solve the problem. Everra and Delis will be back in a few minutes... Professor McGonagall, can you pull up two more chairs?"
After hearing Dumbledore's words, Professor McGonagall took out her wand from her pocket and waved it. Then three chairs appeared in the principal's office. They were all straight-backed wooden chairs. They were not very comfortable to sit on, but
better than nothing.
Harry sat down and found that Dumbledore actually started to pick up his bird. Of course, it was not a strange bird, but our lovely, beautiful and noble Phoenix Fawkes.
He gently stroked the golden feathers on Fox's head with one finger. Phoenix, who was still dozing, immediately woke up, raised its beautiful head and neck, and looked at him with bright black eyes.
"We need a little warning."
As Dumbledore finished speaking, a flash of fire flashed, and the phoenix disappeared. Then Dumbledore quickly came to his experimental table and moved a delicate silver instrument to his desk.
Then he returned to his seat, sat down facing the three people, and began to tap the delicate silver instrument with the famous Elder Wand.
As he banged, the instrument immediately started running and began to make a rhythmic tinkling sound. Then the small silver tube at the top spurted out wisps of light green smoke, which began to gather and swirl in the air...
Dumbledore frowned and looked at the smoke intently. After a few seconds, a few wisps of light smoke turned into a steady stream of smoke, which became thicker and thicker, began to hover in the air, and finally turned into a
Got a snake head.
Harry looked at everything in front of him, completely confused. He didn't know whether the instrument could prove everything he said, so he looked at Dumbledore, but the principal did not look at him, but continued to stare at the
A cloud of smoke.
"Of course that's the case, but they're essentially separate, right?"