Chapter 720 23 Things About Newt and Snake (page 12)

"Professor Snape what's going on?"

Kyle, who was almost knocked over, looked at Snape who was leaving in a hurry and asked doubtfully: "Professor, you didn't deduct his salary, did you?"

"of course not."

Dumbledore adjusted his mood and said with a smile: "Actually, the salary of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is ten galleons more than that of other courses... There is no way, if this were not the case, we would not be able to recruit suitable professors at all."

Kyle believed that it was certainly true that the salaries were high, but he did not express any opinion on whether those professors were suitable. Dumbledore should have known better.

"Boy, I feel that you are thinking of something very rude." Phineas Bright in the portrait suddenly said: "Believe me, my intuition is always very accurate."

"Good afternoon, sir." Kyle looked up at the portrait, "I admit, I was wondering just now whether to remind Sirius to do a proper house cleaning and clear out some useless things.

"...For example, the portrait next to the stairs in the living room."

"My guess is right, you are indeed an impolite little devil." Phineas screamed like a cat whose tail was stepped on: "I warned you not to do this, and Sirius doesn't do it either. Will throw away his grandfather’s portrait.”

"Really?" Kyle said lightly: "That's not necessarily true..."

Next to the stairs of No. 12 Grimmauld Place, there is a portrait of Phineas. He can use this advantage to move between the principal's office and there at will to convey some of Dumbledore's requests or plans.

But usually, Dumbledore would choose to say it himself instead of letting Phineas convey it on his behalf, so the portrait was basically useless.

Sirius had thought about throwing that thing away more than once.

"I'm warning you..." Phineas said sternly, "That's my house, you can't kick me out."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm just making a suggestion." Kyle shrugged. "It's up to Sirius how to do it exactly, but I think he won't mind getting a new painting."

"You!" Phineas was so angry that his beard stood up, and he ran out of the frame with a whoosh. He probably went to No. 12 Grimmauld Place to find Sirius.

"Hahaha, well done!" said a bearded wizard next to him: "This is really interesting. You are the first student to make him feel so defeated."

"Thank you for the compliment, Principal Dippet." Kyle said with a smile.

Because he had been here many times, he was already familiar with these portraits. The one in front of him was Armando Dippet, who was also Dumbledore's former principal.

He and Phineas Black had never dealt with each other. Nine times out of ten times the opponent was hit, he kicked him first, and the only remaining time was because he ran too slowly and failed to catch up.

"Kyle." Dumbledore said softly, "leaving Phineas in Grimmauld Place is still very useful."

"I know, I'm just scaring him." Kyle said, "After all, his portrait has a permanent sticking spell on it, so he can't throw it away even if he wants to."

The corner of Dumbledore's mouth twitched. If he hadn't moved his hands, how would he know that there was a permanent sticking spell on the portrait.

"Don't get me wrong, it was Sirius who discovered it and it has nothing to do with me." Kyle explained, then changed the subject: "Professor, what do you want to see me for?"

"It's a little thing."

"What?" Kyle asked.

"It's about Horcruxes," Dumbledore said.

He took out an ancient stone basin from the cabinet, "But before that, let's take a look at a memory. It took me a long time to find it, and it is also the most important memory I found."

Dumbledore said so, so Kyle would naturally not object.

Dumbledore took out a small crystal bottle from the inner pocket of his clothes. The memory inside seemed to have become a bit condensed due to too long time, and was not so silky. It took Dumbledore some effort to pour it into the pensieve. .

The pensieve began to emit a dense light.

Kyle walked over, and he felt that his consciousness was falling continuously, falling into the silver substances. When he opened his eyes again, there was already another person in front of him.

It was a much younger Slughorn, who still had thick golden hair at this time.

I don't know if he was used to Slughorn's bald image, but Kyle always felt awkward, as if he had a straw on his head.

"Professor Slughorn lost his hair very early." Kyle turned around and said after hearing the footsteps behind him.

"What?" Dumbledore was stunned for a moment, not understanding what Kyle meant.

"Look here." Kyle pointed to the top of Slughorn's head. There was already a small bald spot there, about the size of a galleon.

Dumbledore said nothing, and Kyle's focus was a bit unexpected.

Could it be that the memory he had worked so hard to obtain was to determine when Slughorn became bald?

Fortunately, Kyle did not dwell too much on this issue, but instead looked at the other people talking around him.

It looked like this should be Slughorn's office, with six or seven boys surrounding him.

The one sitting closest to Slughorn was the young Lord Voldemort, who should still be called Tom Riddle at this time.

He gave Slughorn a bag of pineapple preserves. Then they started talking about the retirement of a professor.

Kyle had no impression of the name they mentioned, so he probably wasn't an important person.

"Oh, it's Galadia, Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, my old colleague." Dumbledore said next to him: "He is about to retire, and Riddle probably wants to take over his position at this time. .”

"But you turned him down," Kyle said.

"Yes." Dumbledore said, "I persuaded Armando to reject his application to stay in school, even though many professors at the time, including Galadia, also believed that Riddle was capable enough to take over the position of Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. .”

Dumbledore's expression was very calm.

He was very sure that Riddle's purpose was not to be a professor in the school, but to have other plans, so he rejected the other party's application to stay in the school twice.

"So is he now asking Professor Slughorn to confirm the authenticity of the news?" Kyle asked.

"No." Dumbledore shook his head and said, "He is showing his ability to Professor Slughorn. Sometimes pleading for information is also a kind of ability."

It was exactly as Dumbledore said.

Slughorn looked a little surprised, "Where do you get your information from? Boy, you know more than most professors."

Riddle smiled and said nothing.

"You are such a ghost, you always know things you shouldn't know, and you are careful to please important people..." Slughorn seemed to want to blame Riddle, but his tone was more like ridicule, "Thank you by the way. Your pineapple, you guessed it, is my favorite..."

There was a burst of laughter all around.