Principal, please

Chapter 79 Principal, please

"Okay, I believe you. Keep making things up."

Avada squinted at the three guys in front of him, wondering if they were truly destined to clash with him.

Oh, Harry Potter is the one who restrains Avada Kedavra, then it's alright.

The three looked at each other for a moment, and finally Harry was the first to raise his head: "Ken, can you come with us for a second? What I'm about to say is important, it's about what you told me on Christmas night..."

He stopped talking after saying that, and then began to give frantic hints with his eyes.

"...Alright then."

Avada followed the three to the empty classroom where they had been discussing their issues. As soon as the door closed, Harry eagerly asked, "Ken, you said Snape couldn't possibly have wanted to steal the Philosopher's Stone. Can you explain why?"

"...I'm sorry, I can't."

Avada shook his head—he couldn't just reveal Snape's spy identity like that, could he?

"What would you think if we told you we'd found irrefutable evidence that Snape wanted to steal the Philosopher's Stone?"

Harry asked the question nervously while subtly taking a step back, Ron clenched his fists, and Hermione's hand was already quietly resting on her wand...

Avada: ...

"Um, you don't need to tell me so obviously that you're preparing for battle."

He rolled his eyes, ignoring the three's surprised expressions: "You guys should have put your wands in the most hidden and easily accessible place before you came... And Ron, why are you clenching your fist? Where's your wand?!"

"I know what you're thinking. You suspect I lied to you, and even that I'm in cahoots with Professor Snape, who 'wanted to steal the Philosopher's Stone'..."

"So how do you plan to explain this?"

Seeing that her intentions had been exposed, Hermione simply drew her wand, but did not point it directly at Avada.

"...Come with me."

After a moment of silent confrontation, Avada turned around, pushed open the door, and waved to the three of them: "I'll take you directly to Professor Dumbledore and let him explain to you."

He decided to stop wasting his time fooling these guys—he'd just dump the burden on Dumbledore. Didn't he want to raise a savior? Let him deal with this mess himself. His time shouldn't be wasted on this saga…

"You'll be able to see Dumbledore?"

"Of course I can, I know the password to the principal's office too... Come with me, it's on the eighth floor."

Avada strode straight up to the eighth floor, with Harry, his two friends following nervously and curiously behind—they had been at Hogwarts for more than half a year and had never seen what the Headmaster's office looked like.

"This is it."

Avada stopped in front of the stone beast on the eighth floor, then opened his mouth but couldn't make a sound for a long time...

"Um, does anyone here know how to pronounce the rolled 'r' sound?"

Finally, he turned to the three of them and asked somewhat awkwardly.

"???"

"The command is in Italian, but I just can't pronounce that sound..."

"..."

"I can."

Hermione stepped forward reluctantly: "Tell me how to pronounce it, and tell me the part that requires a rolled 'r', and I'll read it."

"Great, the pronunciation is..."

Avada told Hermione about the outrageous name, and she, as expected, pronounced the word with fluent and standard pronunciation...

no response.

"What happened?"

Avada frowned and poked the stone beast, earning a disdainful eye roll—no, a stone eye: "That's an old password, it's been changed a long time ago!"

"Oh, you should have said so earlier."

Avada immediately relaxed: "Sizzling Bee Candy."

"Lemonade?"

"Peppermints?"

"Babylori Beans?"

"Chocolate Frog?"

"Syrup pie?"

"A pile of cockroaches?"

The stone beast finally jumped away in resignation: "Although I really didn't want to let you in like this..."

Avada gave him a smug look, then beckoned the three still bewildered people to walk into the newly opened portal—he wasn't going to remind the stone beast that it could install a function to "lock the machine on a specific person after a certain number of incorrect passwords".

After climbing the spiral staircase, Avada knocked on the wooden door in front of him: "Professor Dumbledore, it's me, Ken."

"Ken?"

The door opened with a click, and Avada immediately saw Dumbledore sitting at his desk, reading something. He habitually adjusted his half-moon spectacles before asking, "Mr. Ken, oh, and Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger… is there anything I can help you with?"

"I see, Professor."

Avada sighed wearily and said, "During the Christmas holidays, Harry and I exchanged information for some reason, and we deduced that what you kept in the fourth-floor corridor was Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone..."

Dumbledore was actually right there when they were exchanging information, but that wasn't something Avada should know, so he had to repeat it to Dumbledore.

"Harry insisted that Professor Snape wanted to steal the Philosopher's Stone, but you know my situation... so I told him it wasn't Professor Snape. But just now he seems to have obtained some evidence that Professor Snape wanted to steal the Philosopher's Stone and came to me to question him. I also feel that they know a bit too much, which could have a destabilizing effect, so I decided to ask you to make a decision."

After saying that, Avada stepped aside, giving the spotlight to Harry and the others.

"I see."

Dumbledore nodded gently, then turned his gaze to Harry and his two companions: "So, you now know that what's stored in the fourth-floor corridor is a Philosopher's Stone, right?"

"Yes...yes, Professor."

The three answered somewhat nervously—logically speaking, this was not something they should know.

"And you also believe that Professor Snape wanted to steal it. Can you tell me why?"

"I saw him threatening Professor Quirrell, just a short time ago, in the Forbidden Forest..."

Harry quickly recounted everything he had seen and heard to Dumbledore, who listened attentively while thoughtfully stroking his beard…

"I see."

After hearing the whole story, Dumbledore nodded and smiled at Harry and his two friends: "I am very grateful that you are so concerned about my friend Nico and that you are willing to spend so much effort to investigate."

"But I can tell you that the Philosopher's Stone is under tight protection and is quite safe. In addition to me, there are the heads of the four houses, including Professor Snape, and Professor Quirrell has also set up protective magic for it, as well as Luwei provided by Hagrid... You can imagine how tight and comprehensive the protection we have built together is."

"I know, Professor. But Snape..."

"It's Professor Snape, Harry."

"Yes, it's him... He's currently trying to get past those tight security measures and is even coercing Professor Quirrell to find a way for him to get through to Luwei..."

"Okay, don't worry so much."

Dumbledore, looking relaxed, waved his hand to interrupt Harry: "I can only say that since I chose to hire Professor Snape to teach at Hogwarts, I naturally have my reasons. As for the Philosopher's Stone... no need to worry, it's perfectly safe. Fulwei the Cerberus alone can keep all intruders out."

Avada's eyelids twitched as he listened: Dumbledore's ambiguous remarks hadn't gotten to the point at all, and wouldn't dispel Harry and the others' suspicions about Snape even a little bit...

Therefore, when Harry, Harry, and his friends learned that Hagrid had revealed Fluffy's weakness and that Dumbledore had left the school for London, they still rushed into the fourth-floor corridor without hesitation to try to stop "Snape" and then use the power of the protective charm to severely injure or kill Voldemort.

Of course, this was just Dumbledore's own calculation; Avada Kedavra knew that the protective charm couldn't directly kill Voldemort in his ghostly state. As for what Dumbledore would do after receiving his anonymous letter, whether he would consider adopting his plan... that was anyone's guess.

(End of this chapter)