Pei Songzhi's annotations to Xiangyang Ji in Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms, Biography of Ma Su in the Shu Book, recorded: "Attacking the heart is supreme; attacking cities is inferior."
With just three Alchemy Golems, Horatio stabbed Dumbledore right in the heart, leaving him to lock himself in the headmaster's office in misery.
Horatio felt as refreshed as if he had downed a cup of Mixue Bingcheng on the hottest day of summer. Then he turned the scene of Dumbledore and Grindelwald breaking up into a GIF, paired it with the song "Dignity," and gave it to Dumbledore as a Christmas present.
That was the finishing blow. Hopefully, Dumbledore was okay.
Pheobe left Hogwarts on the third day of Christmas. Although she had stayed at Hogwarts for less than two days, she had still managed to put Horatio firmly in his place.
Professor McGonagall was overjoyed by this. On the day Pheobe left, she reluctantly bid her farewell and personally escorted her to the station.
After Pheobe left, Horatio was like a husky released from its cage and began tearing the place apart with wild abandon.
That day, Horatio found Professor McGonagall and showed her a bottle of yellow liquid.
Professor McGonagall asked, "What is this?"
Horatio said, "Didn't they say Hogwarts has a lot of secret chambers? I wanted to find them, so I dug a hole in the basement and started digging down. I dug several hundred meters and didn't find any chambers, but I did find oil."
"Professor McGonagall, do we have any students from America? If we do, please expel them, or the oil might start growing mold."
Professor McGonagall's vision went dark after hearing that, and she nearly fainted.
On the fourth day of Christmas, Horatio gave Harry a multicolored stone and said, "I originally wanted to give you another surprise, but Snape offered too high a price. I couldn't refuse."
Thinking of that entire row of top-grade Felix Felicis, Horatio nearly drooled. He claimed that he was simply respecting his elders, and that it was absolutely not because of the Felix Felicis.
"This is how you use it." Horatio handed Harry a note. "Also, it's best to use this only when you encounter unavoidable danger, preferably when no one else is around."
"Why?"
"If you want to die socially, you can use it in public."
Harry put away the stone and said to Horatio, "I found a mirror. It can show me my family. Ron can see himself becoming Head Boy. Can you help me figure out what's going on?"
"Oh, that sounds amazing. Come on, let's take a look."
Harry led Horatio to a mirror. It was an extraordinarily imposing mirror, stretching all the way to the ceiling, with an ornate golden frame supported by two clawed feet. A line of words was engraved across the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.
Horatio stepped forward and ran his hand over the frame. "Crude construction. It only has Legilimency and some shallow soul magic added to it. I could mass-produce ten of these mirrors in a day."
"Although I have to admit your Alchemy is impressive, the Mirror of Erised is far more complicated than you imagine." Dumbledore walked over from behind Harry.
Standing beside Harry, Dumbledore continued, "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. Harry has never seen his family, so he sees them standing around him. Ron has always felt inferior to his brothers, so he sees a version of himself more outstanding than them."
Looking at the family members in the mirror and at himself among them, Dumbledore said wistfully, "But this mirror cannot help us realize our wishes. Those who look into it often waste away before it, becoming obsessed with what they see, even being driven mad."
"Oh? The headmaster's back at full health?" Horatio teased.
A vein popped on Dumbledore's forehead, but he still said calmly, "Thank you for Mr. Horatio's Christmas present. I am very curious about what Mr. Horatio desires most in his heart."
Dumbledore gestured for Horatio to stand before the mirror.
"Tch." Though dissatisfied, Horatio still stood before the mirror. He was also curious about what he truly desired most.
Dumbledore's face darkened when he saw Horatio in the mirror. Mirror-Horatio was dressed in beachwear, lying with his head on Pheobe's lap. Hermione was feeding him watermelon beside him, Hathor was sprawled across his stomach, and Nut was chasing and playing in the air with Isis and Nephthys.
It all looked perfectly normal, didn't it? At most, it only showed that Horatio was a little too flirtatious—if he had not taken out that detonator.
In the mirror, Horatio stroked Hathor with his left hand and pressed the detonator with his right. Behind them, Hogwarts was blasted into the sky amid a violent burst of flames.
Mirror-Horatio mockingly said, "Real men never look back at explosions."
"So the thing you desire most is blowing up Hogwarts?"
Before you continue