"Miss Carlotta Pinkstone, what are you doing here?" Dumbledore asked in surprise.
"Albus, who is she?" Professor Slughorn asked.
"A fifth-year Gryffindor student," Dumbledore answered Professor Slughorn sternly before turning to Pinkstone. "Miss Pinkstone, what are you doing here?"
Pinkstone looked slightly dazed, then suddenly became terrified. Trembling, she said, "Professor, I'm not going to be expelled, am I?"
Dumbledore's brow furrowed even deeper. He stepped forward two paces and asked, "Miss Pinkstone, calm down first. We need to know what you just did here."
Pinkstone clutched her head in both hands, shut her eyes in pain, and struggled to remember something. "I... I don't know... I think I just stuck something onto the castle wall..."
Dumbledore tried to keep his voice gentle, but the urgency in it was still obvious. "Think carefully now. Where did you stick that thing?"
Pinkstone raised a trembling hand and pointed at a painting directly in front of her.
Where she pointed hung an unremarkable oil painting. It depicted only a gleaming golden goblet, with two exquisite pure-gold handles and ornate symbolic engravings carved into its body.
Dumbledore waved his wand and removed the painting from the wall.
The wall behind the painting was a horrifying sight!
The thick, pale-gray marble wall looked as though a pool of pitch-black ink had been splashed across it. Strands of black mist carrying an evil aura seeped outward, as if the darkness were still spreading.
As for the painting, its back had already been tainted by that evil aura.
"Such wicked dark magic!" Professor Slughorn gasped, turning to Pinkstone with a stern expression. "What exactly did you stick to the wall?"
Pinkstone collapsed into the corner, hugging her legs as she murmured helplessly, "I don't know... I really don't know..."
Seeing Pinkstone's state, Professor Slughorn helplessly took