Tofu Pudding Must Be Sweet

In mid-December, Hogwarts Castle welcomed the first snow of the year in its sleep.

"Ron, what exactly was that thing Hagrid brought out of Gringotts?" Harry asked Ron as he stuffed a meat pie into his mouth.

A few days earlier, Horatio had deliberately taken Harry to the classroom guarded by Fluffy, the three-headed dog, and guided him toward the truth.

"Hermione, did you find out who Nicolas Flamel is?" Harry asked Hermione about the name he had gotten from Hagrid yesterday.

"No. I checked all the famous Wizards from the past century and couldn't find the name Nicolas Flamel." Hermione angrily worked on a meat sandwich.

"Why not ask Horatio? Maybe he knows something?" Ron asked, setting down the braised pig trotter in his hand.

"Ask him? Do you have any idea how happy he is right now?" Hermione glared coldly at Horatio, who was surrounded by little witches from every House.

"I'm full." Hugging the books beside her, Hermione hurried out of the Great Hall. The cover of the book in her arms clearly read, <Secrets of the Deep Palace: How to Drive Away Those Seductive Butterflies>.

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance and helplessly shook their heads.

With one week left until Christmas, Professor McGonagall came to the Gryffindor common room to register the students staying at school for the holiday.

"You're not going back to visit the orphanage?" Professor McGonagall asked speechlessly as Horatio came over to sign up.

"What's there to go back to at the orphanage? I love Hogwarts. The environment here is great, and the people here are fun to talk to. I'm not going back."

Professor McGonagall rubbed her forehead. She had originally planned to return to her hometown for Christmas, but this little troublemaker was staying behind. She had no choice but to remain and keep an eye on him. Otherwise, whether Hogwarts would still be standing by the time she returned would be a question.

Horatio felt that Professor McGonagall truly understood him. He had been planning to take advantage of the smaller crowd to run some stress tests on Hogwarts and see how many bombs it took to demolish the place.

The day before Christmas, Hermione successfully evolved into Nurse Hermione and chased away all the little witches around Horatio.

"Come on, I'll take you to the station." Horatio took Hermione's hand and climbed onto Nut.

Hermione smugly watched the little witches—and perhaps a few little wizards—grit their teeth around them. Sitting behind Horatio, she tightly hugged his waist and buried her face against his back.

With a piercing eagle cry, Nut spread her wings as she ran forward, then soared into the air beneath the envious gazes of countless young wizards, flying beyond Hogwarts.

"Hermione, don't hold on so tightly. Your airfield is digging into me." Horatio felt the hard ribs behind him as he guided Nut.

A cross-shaped vein popped up on Hermione's forehead, and she began pounding Horatio's back with her little fists.

"Stop hitting me, I was wrong." Horatio begged. "By the way, I need to tell you something."

Horatio told Hermione about his plan with Dumbledore and invited her to join it.

Hermione thought for a moment and agreed. Horatio let out a breath of relief. Without Hermione's help, Harry and the others would never get past Snape's challenge even in eight lifetimes.

"Remember, keep it secret from Harry and Ron." Horatio brought Hermione to the platform. "I'll have Isis bring your Christmas gift to you."

Hermione nodded, gave Horatio a tight hug, then turned and walked toward the Hogwarts Express. From inside the carriage, she kept waving at Horatio.

Only after the train had gradually left the platform did Horatio mount Nut again and return to Hogwarts.

On the first day of Christmas, Harry and Ron were boredly playing Wizard's Chess.

"What do you think Horatio is doing?" Harry asked, looking at Horatio, who was facing the Great Hall wall and doing something unknown.

"No idea. Also, Harry, you're checkmated." Ron said after using his queen to take Harry's rook.

At that moment, Horatio stood facing the Great Hall wall. He took out a bottle of red spray paint and drew a circle on the wall, writing the Chinese character for "demolish" in the middle.

Horatio nodded. Based on visual inspection, this wall should have been one of the Great Hall's load-bearing walls. He then calculated its strength and estimated how much explosive would be needed to blast it apart.

After finishing the calculations, he began pulling detonators from his bag and stuffing them into the cracks in the wall.

Just as he was about to take out the detonator switch, he felt something in his bag vibrating.

Horatio took out the Fleur Alarm and saw it flashing red continuously. "That's not right. Aren't I at Hogwarts? Why is this thing going off? Could it be broken?"

Just as Horatio was about to dismantle it and see what had gone wrong, he heard a familiar roar from the entrance of the Great Hall.

"HORATIO!!!"

Horatio turned and saw Dumbledore standing at the door with a silver-haired, blue-eyed girl in blue robes.

"Pheobe???" Horatio staggered back several steps in horror, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Like some blue hedgehog, Pheobe charged at Horatio, grabbed his ear, and twisted it. "Horatio, you've gotten awfully capable after just a few months apart, haven't you? Explain to me what you meant by 'white-haired witch old hag,' 'blue-robed, blue-eyed washboard,' and 'short-tempered great ape'! And you even dared burn my Howler! A few days without a beating, and you're already tearing up the roof!"

Pheobe pinned Horatio to the ground and gave him a thorough beating while Horatio screamed out apologies.

Dumbledore walked over. He did not stop Pheobe from beating up Horatio. He merely silently removed the detonators from the wall cracks, then looked at Horatio with a gleeful expression. "You little brat, someone can finally keep you in line."

Seeing Dumbledore's gloating face, Horatio instantly understood that he had brought Pheobe into Hogwarts. "Old Deng, you're finished! I'm burning all those old-man photo books in your drawer! And that copy of Passionate Years in the Barn won't survive either."

Dumbledore's face changed dramatically, and he hurried back to the headmaster's office to place those books under the highest level of protection.

Professor McGonagall took Pheobe's hand with a delighted expression and asked her to transfer to Hogwarts no matter what. She said she would teach Pheobe everything she knew.

Considering Madam Maxime's guidance, Pheobe politely declined Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall looked deeply disappointed.

Pheobe then said that after graduation, she would consider coming to Hogwarts as a teaching assistant.

Professor McGonagall excitedly offered Pheobe a position as a Transfiguration teaching assistant on the spot, saying that she did not need to wait until graduation—she could come whenever she wanted.

Late at night, a dark figure with glowing red eyes darted into the Great Hall and began arranging the hall.

The next morning, when Harry and Ron came for breakfast, they discovered that a huge stage had been set up in the center of the Great Hall.

Two young men were performing a stage play on it. One blond young man called himself Gellert Grindelwald, while the other red-haired young man called himself Dumbledore Jr.

They met and fell in love in a house, confirmed their relationship in a barn, and were about to enter the hall of marriage hand in hand when a young man named Newt suddenly appeared and snatched Gellert Grindelwald away right in front of Dumbledore Jr.

After enduring countless hardships, Dumbledore Jr. finally found Gellert Grindelwald again. However, they disagreed over whether tofu pudding should be savory or sweet, causing them to part ways.

When Gellert Grindelwald prepared to lead the Sweet Faction in conquering the world, Dumbledore Jr. stopped him. In the end, Gellert Grindelwald fell into Dumbledore Jr.'s arms and used his last strength to stroke Dumbledore Jr.'s face as he said, "Tofu pudding must be sweet."

From then on, Dumbledore Jr. treated sugar like his life. No matter what he ate, he had to add sugar.