Chapter 809: first test

Chapter 809: first test

 Chapter 809 The First Test

 “I think you could be a little bolder.”

In the principal's room at Hogwarts, the portrait of Principal Armando Dippet squatted next to a portrait of a knight with an excited look on his face, as if he was expecting something.

“We are just portraits anyway, so why are we being so rigid? It would be better to make those thorns twice as long.”

“But if it gets longer, the mace will turn into a meteor hammer.” Kyle picked up the palette again and said, “Would it be a little too bulky?”

"It doesn't matter, just enjoy it." Another big-nosed wizard squeezed over, "I've always wanted to try this kind of weapon, just go ahead and draw it."

Kyle nodded and traced the spikes again with his wand.

Magic Portrait Technology, Kyle found it from the bookshelf in Principal Dumbledore's office. He originally just looked through it with the intention of giving it a try, but he didn't expect that it actually existed here.

  Simply put, you grind special herbs and ores into paint, use the wand as a paintbrush, and use magic words to embed the paint into the canvas.

  If it is a portrait, another process is required, which is also the most difficult part, but decorations do not need to be so troublesome. As long as you have a rough understanding of alchemy, you can get started in a few days.

And the required ores and herbs can be found here, just in the utility room in the corner.

 The only difficulty is the level of painting.

Kyle's level is very average. What he draws is like graffiti and looks 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 randomly found a portrait of a knight outside and brought it in.

Although the knight himself was not happy for someone to add some messy things to his portrait, he finally compromised after the earnest 'persuasion' of several principals.

Hence the scene just now.

Kyle took the wand to modify the portrait and quickly completed the creation.

When he put down his wand, Principal Dippet immediately picked up the... mace... maybe a mace?

Well, Kyle didn’t know what he drew. If he had to describe it, it was probably a big eggplant filled with iron drills.

Although the style was a bit strange, the principals seemed quite satisfied. Principal Dippet held it like a treasure and walked straight towards another portrait not far away.

 “Woooo…uhhhhh…”

Phineas was being **** there, and his mouth was blocked. He couldn't say anything. He could only struggle and whine.

 It was obvious that he knew what was going to happen next.

“Can you help me cover the painting?” Kyle asked thoughtfully.

 He is soft-hearted and cannot bear to see this.

"There's no need..." Dippet said, but after thinking about it, he changed his mind, "Forget it, let's cover it up. I need to maintain my image."

“No problem,” said Kyle, finding a velvet tablecloth and placing it over the portrait where Phineas sat.

 It’s no problem now.

"Someone, let him go. We are going to have a fair one-on-one duel... Don't help any of you!"

The thick velvet tablecloth not only covered the portrait, but also blocked part of the sound. Kyle could only hear some intermittent shouting. Based on these, it was difficult for him to guess what was going on inside.

But it can also be seen from here that the principals should be quite boring on weekdays, so Kyle doesn't mind doing good deeds and giving them some fun.

 But just when he was about to draw the second picture, Fox, who had been sleeping just now, suddenly woke up, and then opened his wings and flapped twice.

 This is to remind Kyle that someone is coming.

Kyle immediately put everything in his hands and on the table into the drawer.

The person that Fox can specifically remind must not be Professor McGonagall. Who could it be that he actually came to Dumbledore at this time...

Kyle thought so, and at the same time, he quickly took out a piece of silver-white hair, threw it into the polyjuice potion that came from Slughorn, and drank it.

 It tastes really bad...

But at this time, Kyle had no time to worry about the taste.

Soon, with two perfunctory bangs, the door of the principal's office was pushed open from the outside, and a person walked in quickly.

The black cloak was thrown behind him, and he looked like a lying bat walking upright.

 “I heard you’re back.”

Snape walked to the middle of the principal's office, minding his own business. He was about to say something, but suddenly frowned and sniffed around.

"What is the taste?"

Kyle panicked. Snape must have smelled the polyjuice potion. After all, he came too quickly and there was not enough time for the smell to dissipate.

"Magic potion, Horace wants me to agree to his purchase of thirty-five sets of automatic stirring crucibles, and insists on giving them to me." Kyle remained calm on the surface and pointed to a few bottles on the shelf next to him.

 "Automatic stirring crucible..." Fortunately, Snape did not doubt this statement, and sneered and stopped caring.

“When he meets a student like Longbottom, he will know how short-lasting those high-end goods are.”

 “Don’t say that, Severus, Neville is still very good in some ways.”

"Yes, his mind is well preserved and always new." Snape said in a long voice: "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 recently been planning to lure him out of the school."

“Harry is not an impulsive person, he knows where he is safest.”

 “Are you sure?” Snape smiled, although it wasn't very pretty.

"I've told you many times before, he is just like his father, he has a bad personality, is stupid, and more importantly... is self-righteous."

Snape listed Harry's shortcomings in detail, "Do you think he will listen to you and stay in school? I dare say that others only need to use a little trick to get him to run out of school on his own."

“Remember the crystal ball from the Department of Mysteries? When Potter left school and went to the Ministry of Magic to be a hero, he probably didn’t discuss it with you at all.”

 “But we all found out later, didn’t we?”

"Yes, because he naively thought that riding on the Yeqi could hide everyone, but he forgot that not everyone can't see the Yeqi. At the same time, he also saved his own life." Snee "But that just goes to show his stupidity," Pugh said.

“Severus, perhaps we should pay more attention to his merits.”

"So you're telling me that theory again? He has a good heart?"

Snape looked a little impatient, "But being kind-hearted can't help him resist the death curse. If that guy Kyle hadn't happened to be there, he might not have been able to hold on for you to rush over."

“To be honest, I really don’t understand where he got so many… fantastic ideas. I just saw some insignificant fragments from the Dark Lord’s memory, and I foolishly thought that I could solve all the problems on my own.

"He is not even as good as Kyle at this point. At least Kyle knows how to use magical animals to deal with Death Eaters instead of stupidly holding a wand and doing it himself."

"Hmm...Severus." Kyle couldn't help but made a little noise, interrupting Snape who was talking.

What does it mean to be worse than Kyle? This sounds so awkward. He usually arranges himself with Dumbledore like this?

"What do you want to say?" Snape glanced at him, "Don't tell me your theory again, I have my own judgment."

"No, you misunderstood. What I actually want to say is, are you a little biased against Kyle? As far as I know, other professors think he is pretty good, and even Minerva thinks he has the potential to become the new principal. ”

Snape didn't speak, but looked at him with a strange look, "I don't deny this, but so what."    "I mean... you can try to accept him, at least for me personally I think there are few young wizards of his age who are...well, better than him."

Even though he was acting like Dumbledore, Kyle was still a little embarrassed by praising 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, "Are you referring to the act of coaxing an eleven-year-old witch before the sorting, telling her that the Sorting is to face the Death Curse, that is excellent?"

Kyle's hand holding the cup shook so that he could spit out the tea he just drank.

He never expected that Snape would still remember it, even though it was seven years ago. Not only did he remember it, but he also spoke out about it.

"Of course not, but Severus, I think...Kyle's intention is actually not bad." He explained with some guilt: "We all know that using the Sorting House to scare the freshmen is a small tradition among British wizards. Anyone who comes from a wizarding family has experienced it, right?"

 “Sorry, I don’t have one.” Snape said calmly.

"it's a pity."

 “What’s a pity?”

 “You missed a very interesting memory.”

"I don't think so." Snape shook his head.

Kyle wants to say something more.

 He ​​suddenly found that this was a good opportunity to use Dumbledore's identity to persuade Snape to let go of his prejudices from another angle.

It's just that 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 has never given up on killing him."

"As long as he is in school, he is safe. Tom dare not declare war on Hogwarts at this time."

 “You can't keep looking at him,” said Snape.

 “But he has no reason to leave school.”

 “How can you be so sure if it concerns Black?” said Snape.

Kyle paused, "What do you mean?"

"Wouldn't you have imagined?" Snape said in a disgusted tone, "If anyone could make Potter desperate to escape from the school, who else could it be but that big, dirty dog?"

 “Tom wants to take advantage of Sirius?”

"Stop pretending, you must know, otherwise you wouldn't let him come to Hogsmeade." Snape said, "That's right, that's the closest place to Hogwarts, even if Potter ran over. It won't be out of sight either.

"But I have to remind you, no matter how close it is, it does not belong to the scope of the school. Watch Potter, don't let him get carried away by the nickname 'Savior Star' again, he can't kill the Dark Lord.

"You don't even need the Dark Lord. Barty Jr., Antonin, Oren, and Potter can't deal with any of them."

 “They already know that Sirius is in Hogsmeade?”

"Not yet, it's just that someone proposed the idea." Snape shook his head, "But even if you don't find out, you can only hide it for a while. Although the method you used is very clever, there are suddenly more people in Hogsmeade. A new store will inevitably arouse suspicion from others.

“Also, maybe he could hide it longer if you stopped delivering him Polyjuice Potions yourself.”

Kyle knew that Snape must have mistakenly thought that the polyjuice potion he just smelled was prepared for Sirius, but he didn't explain it, which was good.

 “I’ll keep an eye out,” Kyle said.

 “It’s better that way.”

 After this, Snape said nothing more.

 But he had no intention of leaving, he just stood there, looking at himself unblinkingly.

 “Um…do you have anything else to do?” Kyle asked.

"Are you pretending to be stupid with me?" Snape frowned and his voice became colder, "As for the matter I mentioned to you before, we agreed two months ago that you will do it when school starts this time. Give me the answer, and now you are pretending not to know?

"Do you need me to provide you with a bottle of magic potion to help you remember it well?"

As he spoke, he took out a red bottle from his robe pocket and threw it on the table.

The bottle was spinning on it, and Kyle's heart suddenly lifted.

 Two months ago...it must have been right after the school vacation, but he was just a fake, not the real owner. What they said at that time, what Dumbledore promised...he had no idea at all!

 What Dumbledore was thinking was not mentioned at all in the letter.

"Ah, Severus, you should really understand an old man's poor memory." Kyle said, but he was already panicking.

If it were another professor, Kyle wouldn't be so nervous at all, but Snape was different.

Having been around Voldemort all year round, Snape's reaction and judgment skills are too sharp. If he says anything wrong, he may immediately realize that the Dumbledore in front of him is fake.

At this time, Kyle just 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, it would be fine.

 It's just that Kyle forgot that it was class time now. Snape didn't have class, but that didn't mean Professor McGonagall didn't have class either.

As time went by, Snape's eyes became more and more evil, and the air pressure around him became lower and lower, but Professor McGonagall never showed any intention of showing up.

 “Severus…”

There was no other way. Kyle just said bravely: "I'm sorry, I may disappoint you. I still have the 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."

“Actually, I already said that that day.” Kyle deliberately ignored his last sentence and rubbed his hands behind his back on his robe. "You just didn't notice."

 Inexplicably, Snape was stunned for a moment, as if he was remembering something.

"The matter is far from over... Huh, so is this your answer?" Snape suddenly sneered: "Then I really didn't realize what you meant, so you decided at that time but never told me?"

Kyle felt relieved. Although it was a bit risky to say so, he simply won the bet.

 Dumbledore is always like this. He always says some strange things. If you look for the answer, you will most likely be able to find a sentence that can be applied mechanically.

However, faced with Snape's question, Kyle did not answer because he didn't know 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.

 But his attitude undoubtedly made Snape even more angry.

“You are always like this, thinking you have everything under control, but you refuse to tell others your plans.” He almost growled.

 “I’m 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 around to leave.

 “I really shouldn’t waste my time looking for you.”

The door was closed with such force that Fawkes, who was sleeping on a perch nearby, was almost knocked off his feet. He flapped his wings and barked in the direction Snape left.

"Don't get excited, Fox." Kyle comforted Phoenix, sat on the chair and let out a long sigh of relief.

 (End of this chapter)