A Conversation in the Headmaster's Office

Eighth Floor of the castle, Headmaster's Office.

Dumbledore, whom Andy and Hermione had been discussing, was sitting in the Headmaster's Office at that very moment, frowning in thought.

He had indeed found out.

The portraits and ghosts throughout the castle were Dumbledore's eyes and ears. Nothing that happened in the castle could escape Dumbledore's notice—as long as he wanted to know about it.

The office was silent. The portraits of former headmasters and headmistresses on the walls pretended to be busy with their own affairs, but the glances they kept shooting at Dumbledore revealed how badly they wanted to hear the gossip.

They all wanted to know how Dumbledore intended to handle this matter.

This was something Hogwarts had not seen in a thousand years.

For the first time, the Four Great Houses had united as one, and their goal was actually to drive out a professor.

If the Four Founders of Hogwarts had known about this, who knew whether they would have been more angry or more gratified.

Headmaster Phineas Black was clearly not a very patient man, and he decided to say something to break the deadlock.

"Who will dare say that Albus Dumbledore is Hogwarts' greatest headmaster in the future? When I was headmaster, something this absurd would never have happened at this school!"

Phineas Black sounded somewhat smug. "I heard it was our Slytherin students who started this? Ha! If you ask me, they did a splendid job!"

Headmistress Dilys Derwent ignored Phineas Black and looked at Dumbledore. "Albus, how do you intend to deal with this?"

The moment she asked that question, every portrait stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Dumbledore. Even Phineas Black fell silent.

"Ah! I was thinking about something else."

Dumbledore looked as though he had just woken up. "It may be a little troublesome, but driving Quirrell out of Hogwarts is fine too. It saves me quite a bit of trouble."

Dumbledore frowned as he pondered. Where exactly had things gone wrong?

Well... it had to start several months ago.

Voldemort was still alive. His shattered soul had been active in the forests of Albania—Dumbledore had known that for a long time.

It was not until Quirrell visited the forests of Albania that Voldemort left that place.

After that, Dumbledore received word that someone was after the Philosopher's Stone.

So Dumbledore decided to play along and use the Philosopher's Stone to lure Voldemort into taking the bait.

Harry Potter was about to enroll, and Dumbledore had to make sure the boy possessed enough courage to face Voldemort.

At the same time, he wanted to verify something else: whether the protective magic on Harry Potter still worked against Voldemort.

This child of prophecy was the only hope Dumbledore could think of for defeating Voldemort.

Could Dumbledore defeat Voldemort?

Nobody knew! Because Voldemort would never fight him to the death.

And since they would not fight to the death, Dumbledore naturally could not kill Voldemort.

Besides, Voldemort had a way to avoid death.

At first, the plan had actually gone smoothly.

Dumbledore sent Hagrid to bring Harry to Hogwarts, while also having Hagrid retrieve the Philosopher's Stone stored at Gringotts.

Hagrid was a careless man. He would never hide things from Harry.

As long as Harry had enough curiosity, he would sooner or later learn about the Philosopher's Stone. If he possessed justice and courage, he would take action to protect it.

After that, Dumbledore only needed to wait patiently.

But who could have imagined that the famous Harry Potter did not even know the Unlocking Charm?

Forget discovering the Trapdoor guarded by the Three-Headed Dog—he had not even gotten through the door.

Of course, Dumbledore could not be blamed for that.

Dumbledore had been a magical genius in his youth. For a minor spell like the Unlocking Charm, he could learn it without even opening a book.

It was like Einstein being unable to imagine that someone might not even know what one plus one equaled.

Did that really need to be taught? Still, one failure did not matter. Dumbledore had another year to plan at leisure.

However, this action by Slytherin had thrown all of Dumbledore's arrangements into disarray.

Just as Andy had said, even the headmaster could not oppose every student. Driving Quirrell away was the shared wish of all the students, so Dumbledore could only compromise.

Since dismissing Quirrell had become inevitable, Dumbledore naturally needed to alter his plans.

Click, click!

The revolving staircase slowly moved, and Snape, dressed in black robes, pushed open the door to the Headmaster's Office and walked in.

There was a trace of mockery on his face. "It seems you're in a good mood."

"Ah! Yes!"

Dumbledore revealed a gratified expression. "For the first time, the students have united. Let me think, what did they say? Ah! They vowed to defend their right to learn to the death."

"From that perspective, Quirrell truly was somewhat unqualified. Miss Granger of Ravenclaw even wrote me a letter of complaint before!"

Snape's face remained expressionless.

Other than dealing with Voldemort, Snape and Dumbledore had never seen eye to eye.

"I investigated it. Malfoy really did start this matter."

As he said this, a trace of confusion appeared on Snape's face. "But I know Malfoy. He does not have the ability to plan something like this."

Just think about what Draco Malfoy had done this past week! He had arranged a midnight duel with Ron and Harry, then immediately gone to Filch to report them.

Could a Little Wizard like Malfoy come up with the idea of contacting all the students and driving out a professor together?

Absolutely not! "I don't think Malfoy was the mastermind either."

Dumbledore interlaced his fingers before him, his tone calm. "However... unless we force Malfoy to tell the truth, we will never know who the mastermind was."

"But I cannot think of a reason to do that."

Dumbledore continued, "Although the method was slightly extreme, writing letters of complaint does not violate school rules."

Snape did not believe Dumbledore's nonsense for a second. He looked straight at Dumbledore and asked, "You should already have your suspicions, shouldn't you?"

"..."

Dumbledore was silent for a moment.

"Severus, could you keep an eye on a child for me?"

Dumbledore's tone was somewhat complicated. He seemed ashamed of his own actions.

As he spoke, Dumbledore took a letter from a drawer and handed it to Snape—it was the letter of complaint Hermione had written.

Snape merely glanced at it, then immediately understood what Dumbledore meant. "You mean Collins? He does have some talent, but he is only eleven this year!"

"But I am already over a hundred years old!"

Dumbledore did not avoid Snape's gaze. "I can sense that the child is filled with a fervor for magic. Sooner or later, he will become curious about the Dark Arts."

"Severus, we cannot stand by and watch a gifted child be led into darkness by the Dark Arts."

"I fear I will not have much time this year, so I can only trouble you with this."