Dumbledore's guidance

"Phew, so this was where it was." Su Er carefully glanced to either side. He was alone in the corridor on the Seventh Floor.

What Su Er was looking for was not actually a painting. To be precise, it was a tapestry depicting a troll and a wizard dressed in wizard robes.

The troll on the tapestry was beating the wizard with a huge, thick club.

It hung opposite a white wall.

"What should I do?" Su Er rubbed his chin instinctively, frowning as he tried hard to recall the movie he had watched with his ex-girlfriend.

But memories faded with time. More than a decade had passed, and those already hazy memories had long since dwindled to scattered fragments.

Perhaps he should poke the troll with his wand?

He put the thought into action.

"Oh, apparently not..." Su Er withdrew his wand and rubbed his chin again under the troll's furious gaze.

Next, Su Er tried several other methods he thought might work, such as tickling the troll or poking its eyes.

Unsurprisingly, every attempt failed. The wizard on the tapestry cast a pleading look at Su Er outside it. Thanks to Su Er's harassment, the enraged troll had no choice but to vent all its extra anger on his head.

"What are you doing here?" A gentle voice sounded beside Su Er, startling him out of his thoughts and making him jump.

"Ah..." Su Er quickly looked up at the newcomer, then lowered his head. "Dum... Headmaster, sir."

"Actually, I prefer to be called Professor." Dumbledore stood beside Su Er with a smile and studied the tapestry with him.

"You seem quite interested in this picture?"

"Y-yes, Professor." Su Er nodded. "I happened to come here and thought it was interesting."

"Oh?" Dumbledore gave Su Er an amused look and smiled. "It certainly is interesting."

"His name is Barnabas the Barmy," Dumbledore said. "He did many things in his lifetime, but his most famous feat was attempting to teach trolls ballet."

Su Er nodded obediently, showing interest in the story behind the tapestry.

"In the end, he failed, and the trolls beat him soundly with wooden clubs."

The story was simple, and the atmosphere was awkward.

Su Er chuckled, pretending the story was amusing, but the laughter in Dumbledore's eyes made it clear that he had seen right through him.

"My office is along this corridor. Would you care to come in for a visit?" After they had silently studied the tapestry for a while, Dumbledore spoke first, breaking the awkward silence.

Su Er actually wanted to refuse, but when the most important person in the entire school personally invited him, he could only nod obediently.

It certainly was not as though he had been coerced.

They walked slowly, Dumbledore's explanations occasionally breaking the silence of the corridor. He knew everything about the Castle, and every painting had a lengthy history behind it.

For instance, Dumbledore gave a detailed account of the fire-breathing dragon, whose history could be traced back to the war between goblins and wizards. Su Er also learned that the wizarding village of Hogsmeade outside the school had once served as a command post during the Wizard-Lich War.

"When this dragon attacked Hogwarts, the headmaster at the time subdued it."

"Well, here we are."

Dumbledore led Su Er to a stop before a stone statue of a bizarre-looking monster.

"Password," the monster statue said in a low, muffled voice.

"Honeydukes."

"Correct password." Su Er silently watched the stone monster rotate to face away from them, revealing its rounded backside.

Beyond the stone statue was a spiral staircase. After climbing it and opening the door, they reached the Headmaster's Office.

It was a spacious, brightly lit circular room. Tables with slender legs were covered in oddly shaped silver instruments, and several round containers spun as they puffed white smoke in all directions.

The walls were covered with portraits. Several elderly men and women in them had their eyes closed and were snoring softly, while one frame was crowded with people murmuring among themselves.

As Su Er entered, they all turned their eyes toward him at once.

A large, tall bookcase stood in a corner of the room, its shelves packed with books: [Advanced Transfiguration], [Human Transfiguration Studies], [The Secrets of Alchemy]...

A filthy hat sat in one of the empty compartments. Su Er recognized it as the Sorting Hat.

Beside the bookcase stood a tall perch. A red-and-gold bird with three curled feathers on its head sat there with its eyes closed, nodding its head repeatedly.

"Come, have a seat." Dumbledore conjured two sofas with a wave of his hand. "What would you like to drink? I recommend a glass of the Kitchen's special candy drink."

Su Er shook his head and cautiously perched on the edge of a sofa.

Despite Su Er's refusal, Dumbledore snapped his fingers and ordered two drinks anyway.

The atmosphere sank into awkward silence again. Well, not complete silence-faint voices occasionally drifted over from the portraits on the walls.

Dumbledore took a satisfied sip of his candy drink, produced a little bag from somewhere, and tossed something black into his mouth, crunching it noisily.

It looked like-a cockroach? Su Er's expression became utterly peculiar.

"Um... Professor?" Su Er shifted uncomfortably and spoke up cautiously.

"Oh, would you like some Cockroach Clusters too?" As he spoke, Dumbledore took several cockroaches with a rich chocolate aroma out of his pocket, not forgetting to toss another into his own mouth.

Watching the cockroach-shaped sweets crawl all over the table, Su Er's mouth twitched.

Please keep those for your own enjoyment.

"No, thank you, Professor." Su Er offered an awkward but polite smile.

"All right, all right." Dumbledore muttered a few words and carefully returned the cockroaches on the table to the cloth bag, handling them like treasures. He could not understand why no one appreciated such delicious food.

"There's no need to be nervous. Should I call you Bones or Ellison?"

"Either is fine, Professor." Su Er breathed a sigh of relief as the cockroaches scurrying blindly around were put away. He was not afraid of cockroaches; he simply found them disgusting. Add in some lingering trauma, and even moving to another world had not changed that habit.

After all, anyone who had suffered the nightmare of a cockroach half the size of their palm landing on their face would feel the same way.

"Well, Mr. Bones, Professor McGonagall told me she had discovered a promising young talent. I wanted to speak with you then," Dumbledore said. "It was hardly unexpected, though. The Bones family generally has quite a gift for Transfiguration."

"I hear you've been practicing the Switching Spell recently. Could you tell me why? Under the normal curriculum, you wouldn't encounter this material until your fourth year or later."

Su Er fell silent for a moment, then said faintly, "Because of you."

"Because of me?" A flicker of surprise crossed Dumbledore's face.

"Yes, Professor." Su Er nodded firmly. "Before term started, you and Professor McGonagall conjured a unicorn for my little sister, Angel. When the magic wore off the next day, she was very upset..."

"Before I left home, I promised her I would conjure a unicorn for her when I came back."

"It's also the Christmas present I want to give her."

Understanding crossed Dumbledore's face. "I think you should know that magical creatures cannot be created through Transfiguration."

"I know. It was a horse, Professor. You only conjured a horse with a horn."

"That involves the theory of Layered Transfiguration." Dumbledore nodded. "Applying another layer of Transfiguration over the first. So, Mr. Bones, how far have you progressed?"

In fact, with Professor McGonagall's help, Su Er could already cast the Switching Spell successfully. He could turn a small stool into a horse of roughly the same size.

The difficulty lay in making further changes to an object that had already been transfigured. Suddenly, Su Er remembered that the author of the paper on Layered Transfiguration seemed to be none other than the kindly Professor Dumbledore sitting before him.

After listening to Su Er's account of his progress, Dumbledore pondered for a moment. Faced with Su Er's shining eyes, he could not help smiling. "Actually, your approach is correct, but a few things are still missing."

"You should do it like this..."

Su Er nodded repeatedly as he listened. He wanted to write down everything Dumbledore said with a quill, but after searching every pocket, he could not find one. He could only do his utmost to memorize the profound theories Dumbledore explained.

As the saying went, a few words from a wise man were like hearing a few... no, they were worth ten years of study.

With outside help, the obstacle blocking Su Er's path crumbled as though it had been built from mud.

Everything suddenly became clear.