Chapter 809 The third test
"I think you could be a little bolder."
In the headmaster's office of Hogwarts, the portrait of Headmaster Armando Dippet was squatting next to a portrait of a knight with an excited look on his face, as if he was expecting something.
"We are just drawing a portrait anyway, why be so reserved? It would be better if you could make the thorns twice as long."
"But if it's longer, the mace will turn into a meteor hammer." Kyle picked up the palette again and said, "Wouldn't it be a bit too heavy?"
"It doesn't matter, as long as it's fun." Another big-nosed wizard squeezed over and said, "I've always wanted to try this kind of weapon. Just draw it."
Kyle nodded and traced the spikes again with his wand.
Magic portrait technology, this is what Kyle found on the bookshelf in Headmaster Dumbledore's office. He originally just flipped through it with the mentality of giving it a try, but he didn't expect that it was actually here.
To put it simply, it is to grind special herbs and minerals into pigments, use the magic wand as a paintbrush, and use magic runes to embed the pigments into the canvas.
If it is a portrait of a person, another process is required, which is also the most difficult part, but decorative items do not need to be so troublesome. As long as you have a basic understanding of alchemy, you can get started in a few days.
Moreover, the necessary minerals and herbs can be found here, in the utility room in the corner.
The only difficulty is the drawing level.
Kyle's level is very average. What he draws looks like graffiti and is out of place in the whole painting.
Fortunately, he was aware of this and did not create directly on the principal's portrait. Instead, he went outside and found a portrait of a knight and moved it in.
Although the knight himself was not happy about someone adding some messy things to his portrait, he finally compromised after several principals' earnest "persuasion".
So this scene just happened.
Kyle used his magic wand to make some modifications to the portrait and soon completed the creation.
When he put down his wand, Principal Dippet immediately and eagerly picked up the... mace... or maybe it was a hammer?
Well, Kyle didn't know what he had drawn. If he had to describe it, it was probably a big eggplant with many skewers stuck in it.
Although the style was a bit strange, the principals seemed quite satisfied with it. Principal Dippet held it like a treasure and walked straight to another portrait not far away.
“Wuwu…Mmmm…”
Phineas was tied up and his mouth was blocked. He couldn't say anything. He could only struggle and whimper.
It was obvious that he knew exactly what was going to happen next.
"Do you need my help covering the painting?" Kyle asked considerately.
He is soft-hearted and can't bear to see this.
"There's no need for that..." Dippet said, but he thought about it and changed his mind, "Forget it, I'll just cover it up. I need to maintain my image."
"Sure," Kyle said, and he found a velvet tablecloth and draped it over the portrait where Phineas sat.
No problem now.
"Someone come and release him. We need to have a fair one-on-one duel... No one of you should help!"
The thick velvet tablecloth not only obscured the portrait, but also blocked some of the sound. Kyle could only hear some intermittent shouting, and based on this alone, it was difficult for him to guess what was happening inside.
But it can also be seen from here that the principals should be quite bored on weekdays, so Kyle doesn't mind doing good deeds and giving them some fun.
But just as he was about to paint the second picture, Fox, who had been sleeping, suddenly woke up and spread his wings and flapped twice.
This was a reminder to Kyle that someone was coming.
Kyle immediately stuffed everything in his hands and on the table into the drawer.
The one who could have caused Fawkes to specifically remind him could not be Professor McGonagall. Who could it be that actually came to Dumbledore at this time...
Kyle thought so as he quickly took out a strand of silver hair, threw it into the Polyjuice Potion he got from Slughorn, and drank it with his head tilted back.
It's really hard to drink...
But at this time, Kyle didn't have time to care about the taste.
Soon, accompanied by two perfunctory bangs, the door of the principal's office was pushed open from the outside, and a man walked in quickly.
The black cloak was thrown behind him, and he looked like a bat walking upright.
"I heard you were back."
Snape walked to the middle of the headmaster's office and was about to say something when he suddenly frowned and sniffed around.
"What is the taste?"
Kyle's heart began to panic. Snape must have smelled the Polyjuice Potion. After all, he came too quickly and there was not enough time for the smell to dissipate.
"Potions. Horace wants me to agree to let him buy thirty-five sets of automatic stirring crucibles and insists on giving them to me." Kyle maintained a calm appearance and pointed to several bottles on the shelf next to him.
"Automatic stirring crucible..." Fortunately, Snape did not doubt this statement. He sneered and didn't care.
"When he meets a student like Longbottom, he will know how fragile those high-end products are."
"Don't say that, Severus, Neville is still excellent in some aspects."
"Yes, his mind is well preserved and always looks new." Snape said in a long tone: "Okay, you know I'm not here to discuss Longbottom with you."
"Then why did you come this time?"
"Potter," Snape said, "I need to remind you that it's best to keep an eye on him. The Death Eaters have been planning to lure him out of the school recently."
"Harry is not an impulsive person. He knows where he is safest."
"Are you sure?" Snape smiled, although it was not a very pretty smile.
"I have told you many times before, he is just like his father, bad-tempered, stupid, and more importantly... self-righteous."
Snape enumerated Harry's shortcomings in detail, "Do you think he will listen to you and stay in school? I dare say that it only takes a little trickery for him to run away from school.
"Remember the crystal ball in the Department of Mysteries? When Potter left school to be a hero at the Ministry of Magic, he probably didn't even consult you."
"But we all knew that later, didn't we?"
"Yes, because he naively thought that riding on the Thestrals would conceal his identity from everyone, but he forgot that not everyone could see the Thestrals. At the same time, he saved his life." Snape said, "But this just shows how stupid he was."
"Severus, perhaps we should pay more attention to his strengths."
"So you're going to tell me that theory again? He's kind-hearted?"
Snape looked a little impatient. "But kindness can't help him resist the Killing Curse. If Kyle wasn't there, he might not have survived until you got there."
"To be honest, I really don't understand where he gets all those... wonderful ideas. He just saw some insignificant fragments from the Dark Lord's memory and foolishly thought he could solve all the problems by himself.
"He's not even as good as Kyle in this regard. At least Kyle knows how to use magical creatures to deal with the Death Eaters instead of just foolishly taking a wand and doing it himself."
"Um...Severus." Kyle couldn't help but make some noise, interrupting Snape who was talking nonstop.
What do you mean he is not even as good as Kyle? This sounds so weird. Is this how he usually arranges his affairs with Dumbledore?
"What do you want to say?" Snape glanced at him. "Don't tell me your theory anymore. I have my own judgment."
"No, you misunderstood. What I actually wanted to say is that you are a little too prejudiced against Kyle. As far as I know, other professors think he is quite good. Even Minerva thinks he has the potential to become the new headmaster."
Snape didn't say anything, but just looked at him with a strange look, "I don't deny this, but so what."
"What I mean is... you can try to accept him. At least I personally think that there are few wizards of the same age who are better than him... um."
Although he was using the appearance of Dumbledore, Kyle still felt a little embarrassed to praise himself. In order to ease the atmosphere, he could only pick up the cup on the table and pretend to drink tea.
"Excellent?" Snape raised his eyebrows. "Do you mean that coaxing an eleven-year-old little witch before the sorting and telling her that sorting means facing the Killing Curse is excellent?"
Kyle's hand holding the cup shook, and he almost spit out the tea he had just drunk.
He never thought that Snape still remembered what happened seven years ago, and not only did he remember it, he even told it out loud.
"Of course not, but Severus, I think... Kyle's original intention is not bad." He explained with a guilty conscience: "We all know that using the Sorting House to scare new students is a small tradition among British wizards. Anyone who comes from a wizard family has experienced it, right?"
"I'm sorry, I don't have any." Snape said calmly.
"it's a pity."
"What's a pity?"
"You missed out on a very interesting memory."
"I don't think so." Snape shook his head.
Kyle wanted to say something else.
He suddenly realized that this was a good opportunity to use Dumbledore's identity to persuade Snape from another perspective to let go of his prejudice against him.
But Snape didn't seem to want to hear this.
"Okay, I'm not here to talk to you about Kyle today. We're talking about Potter." He continued, "The Dark Lord never gave up on killing him."
"As long as he is in school, he is safe. Tom doesn't dare to declare war on Hogwarts at this time."
"You can't keep watching him," said Snape.
"But he has no reason to leave school."
"If it's about Black, would you still be so sure?" said Snape.
Kyle paused, "What do you mean?"
"Don't you think?" Snape said with disgust, "If there is anyone who can make Potter run away from school desperately, it can only be that big dirty dog."
"Tom wants to take advantage of Sirius?"
"Don't pretend, you must know, otherwise you wouldn't let him come to Hogsmeade." Snape said, "Yes, that's the closest place to Hogwarts, even if Potter ran over, he wouldn't be out of sight.
"But I must remind you that no matter how close it is, it does not belong to the school. Keep an eye on Potter and don't let him be dazzled by the nickname 'Savior Star'. He cannot kill the Dark Lord.
"You don't even need a Dark Lord. Barty Jr., Antonin, Oren, Potter can't handle any of them."
"Do they already know Sirius is in Hogsmeade?"
"Not yet, it's just that someone has proposed this idea." Snape shook his head, "But even if it is not discovered, it can only be concealed for a while. Although the method you use is very clever, the sudden addition of a new store in Hogsmeade will inevitably arouse other people's suspicion.
"Also, if you stopped delivering Polyjuice Potion to him in person, maybe he could stay hidden longer."
Kyle knew that Snape must have mistakenly thought that the smell of Polyjuice Potion he had just smelled was prepared for Sirius, but he did not explain, which was fine.
"I'll keep an eye on it," Kyle said.
"It better be this way."
Snape said nothing more after that.
But he had no intention of leaving. He just stood there, looking at her without blinking.
"Um...do you have anything else to say?" Kyle asked.
"Are you playing dumb with me?" Snape frowned, his voice turned cold, "Regarding the matter I mentioned to you before, we agreed two months ago that you would give me an answer when school starts again. Now you are pretending that you don't know?
"Do you need me to provide you with a bottle of potion to help you recall your memories?"
As he spoke, he pulled a red bottle out of his robe pocket and threw it on the table.
The bottle was spinning on top, and Kyle's heart suddenly began to lift.
Two months ago...it should be when the school had just been on vacation, but he was just a fake, not the real one. What did they say at that time, and what did Dumbledore promise...he had no idea at all!
What Dumbledore was thinking was not mentioned at all in the letter.
"Ah, Severus, you really should be more considerate of an old man's poor memory," Kyle said, but he was already panicking.
If it were any other professor, Kyle wouldn't be so nervous at all, but Snape was different.
Having been around Voldemort for so many years, Snape's reaction and judgment abilities were too sharp. If he said something wrong, he would probably immediately realize that the Dumbledore in front of him was a fake.
At this time, Kyle only hoped that Professor McGonagall could come over and help him solve this problem. As long as he could find a way to get him away, there would be no problem.
But Kyle forgot that it was class time now. Just because Snape didn't have a class didn't mean Professor McGonagall didn't have a class either.
As time went by, Snape's eyes became more and more unfriendly, and the air pressure around him became lower and lower, but Professor McGonagall never showed any intention of showing up.
"Severus..."
Kyle had no choice but to say, "I'm sorry, I may disappoint you, but I'll stick with my previous answer."
"But you didn't tell me the answer before." Snape narrowed his eyes and said, "That's why I came to see you today... Why do I feel that you are a little strange today?"
"In fact, I already said that the other day." Kyle deliberately ignored his last words and rubbed his hands on his robe behind his back. "It's just that you didn't notice it."
For some reason, Snape froze for a moment, as if he was recalling something.
"Things are far from over... Oh, so this is your answer?" Snape suddenly sneered, "Then I really didn't realize what you meant, so you made the decision at that time, but you didn't tell me?"
Kyle breathed a sigh of relief. Even though it was a bit risky to say this, at least he won the bet.
Dumbledore is like this, always saying strange things. If you look for the answer with a certain degree of certainty, you will most likely find a sentence that can be forced into his sentence.
However, Kyle did not answer Snape's question because he had no idea what he should say.
And the more you say at this time, the more mistakes you will make. The best solution is to let Snape guess for himself.
But his attitude undoubtedly made Snape even angrier.
"You're always like this, thinking you have everything under control, but refusing to tell others your plans." He almost roared.
"I'm so sorry, Severus."
"You don't need to apologize to me. Everything I did was not for you." Snape did not stay here any longer and turned and left.
"I really shouldn't have wasted my time looking for you."
The door was slammed shut, almost knocking Fawkes off his sleeping perch nearby. He flapped his wings and barked in the direction Snape had left.
"Don't get excited, Fox." Kyle comforted Phoenix, sat in the chair and let out a long sigh.
