Hogwarts: What wicked thoughts could a little wizard possibly have?

Chapter 39: Finding Old Deng as a henchman and creating a portrait

Before he had mastered his skills, Vaughn never imagined facing Voldemort alone.

However, this does not mean he is prepared to abandon the mission.

The system task only says to save the Forbidden Forest Unicorn, it doesn't say that he has to complete it himself!

This is Hogwarts. With Dumbledore here, why would someone so foolish as to go head-to-head with Voldemort?

In the evening, the two, who had walked for several hours to finally emerge from the Forbidden Forest, parted ways at Hagrid's Hut.

Vaughn composed himself, making himself look serious and tense, as if something major had happened.

Then find Professor McGonagall.

"Mr. Weasley, you..."

"Professor, please take me to see Headmaster Dumbledore. I have something important to tell him!"

Professor McGonagall was startled by his expression and stood there for a while before hesitantly leading him to the eighth floor.

As the vice-principal, she naturally knew the password to Dumbledore's office.

"Chocolate Frog!"

Following Professor McGonagall into the principal's office, Vaughn's first visit, the round office was brightly lit and warm as spring.

Upon entering, you'll see a spiral staircase leading upstairs, which is likely Dumbledore's lounge.

A large, semi-circular shelf sat against the wall, filled with books and unidentified alchemical items.

In front of the office’s huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the long table was piled with clutter.

In one corner, there was a scaffold, and Phoenix Fox stood on it, resting with his eyes closed.

Hearing the sound, it opened its eyes and looked over, as did the portraits of past principals hanging on the wall.

"Look, our Slytherin genius has arrived! How wonderful!" a portrait exclaimed with delight.

Vaughn looked at him and guessed that he might be the only headmaster from Slytherin, Phineas Black!

The worst-reputed principal in history.

Even more tragically, the principal's Black family line is on the verge of extinction...

Vaughn gave him a quick bow and then looked toward the fireplace—

Dumbledore was sitting there, still wearing his pinkish-purple nightgown, knitting.

He turned around, waving his knitting needles and calling out, "Minerva, Mr. Weasley, good evening! It's good you're here. Could you help me see if this knitting pattern looks good? I spent ages choosing at the Muggle mall the other day, and I almost got overwhelmed..."

"Ahem, Albus!"

Professor McGonagall glared at him. "Mr. Weasley said he has something important to discuss with you."

Dumbledore looked at Vaughn with curiosity.

Their only encounter was not pleasant in Dumbledore's eyes, and the opinionated Vaughn decisively rejected his advances.

He thought the other person would avoid him for a long time.

Vaughn nodded, and under the watchful eyes of Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore, and a group of portraits, he took the bottle out of his satchel and placed it on the headmaster's desk.

Dumbledore asked curiously, "Mr. Weasley, what is this?"

"Unicorn blood, Headmaster."

With that, Vaughn took out his wand and cast the Revealing Charm.

The scene I had witnessed just hours before reappeared: as the gray mist emerged from the white light, many of the portraits gasped.

The inquisitive smile on Dumbledore's face also disappeared.

He got up and walked to his desk, examining the bottle of soil closely as he waved to the astonished Professor McGonagall: "Minerva, you go ahead and get busy. Mr. Weasley has indeed given me a very important task."

Only after Professor McGonagall left did he raise his head again and look at Vaughn.

"Mr. Weasley, where did you find it?"

Those eyes, showing no sign of aging, were so bright they seemed to pierce through one's very soul!

Hmph, Legilimency? Vaughn, who had been maintaining Occlumency, could sense a strange magical force spreading from Dumbledore's eyes.

But it didn't rush straight into his head; instead, it lingered on the periphery.

"Is it just using mind control to sense my emotions, to determine if I'm lying?"

Vaughn remained calm and replied, "In the Forbidden Forest..."

He then recounted how he had "accidentally" discovered something amiss when he went to see Hagrid that day: the blood flowing from the injured unicorn was suspicious and showed signs of dark magic.

"...Neither the werewolves of the Forbidden Forest nor any other creature could harm a unicorn with dark magic; only a wizard could do that!"

"As you know, I'm quite accomplished in potion making. Although unicorn blood is cursed, from ancient times to the present, there has never been a shortage of daring individuals who have tried to brew it into potions. Generally, these potions are..."

"...The elixir of immortality!"

Dumbledore murmured in response, and with a gentle lift of his hand, without chanting a spell or using a wand, he simply reached for the bottle.

His hand passed through the white light, plucked out the wisps of gray mist, and held them in his palm.

Vaughn stared in amazement at all this. The spellcasting was so skillful, without a staff or a sound, that he couldn't even sense any magical fluctuations.

Dumbledore observed intently for a while, and after a long time, he waved his hand to dispel the gray mist, then looked at Vaughn: "The problem you discovered is important, but I still need to go to the site to see for myself..."

He held out his hand: "Fox!"

Phoenix Fox cried out, flew to his arm, and grabbed him.

"Mr. Weasley, there are sweets and snacks on the table. Please wait a moment, I'll be right back."

With that, he Apparated away. Vaughn wasn't surprised. Although Hogwarts had anti-Apparition spells, these spells didn't apply to anything outside of wizarding systems, such as magical creatures like Fawkes or house-elves.

Without any hesitation, he went behind his desk, found a few chocolates from the candy dish that had floated in front of him, and started eating them.

He had been walking for most of the day and was very hungry.

As he was eating, Vaughn heard someone calling him from the hushed conversation around him: "Hey, Weasley kid."

Vaughn looked up.

It was Principal Blake.

The gloomy-faced old man winked at him: "To be able to detect dark magic in unicorn blood, you're not exactly an honest little fellow, are you? Oh, don't look at me like that. I've never discriminated against dark magic; in fact, I'm quite pleased that you're studying it. How can a Slytherin who doesn't know dark magic be called a genius?"

"I just...want to make a deal with you!"

He blinked and whispered, "Would you like to learn more about the power of darkness? Do me a favor, and I'll tell you where the Black family mansion is. Merlin is my witness; the Black family holds many dark, malevolent, forbidden secrets. If you…"

Before he could finish speaking, an old man with a white beard suddenly rushed into his picture frame, pounced on him, and beat him mercilessly.

"You bastard, you accomplished nothing while you were alive, and now you're ruining the future even after you're dead! I'll beat you to death!"

"Teacher, teacher... that's enough, you old mad dog! I'm already dead, how can you kill me?"

The two started fighting.

Vaughn watched with great interest.