Things turned out just as Zhang Xiao had expected: Dumbledore kept saying things of little use right up to the end of their conversation.
Though he did his best to make the conversation more meaningful.
Zhang Xiao, however, was not an innocent young wizard like Harry or Malfoy.
In the end, both Dumbledore and Zhang Xiao knew they could not tell the whole story.
Yet they still sat stiffly at the table, "racking their brains" over the "clues" in the prophecy.
Finally, having "regrettably" "found nothing," Zhang Xiao could only leave for now. They would talk again when there were more "clues."
Watching Zhang Xiao disappear through the doorway, Dumbledore sighed softly and rubbed his forehead as though nursing a headache.
Of all the things Sybill could have prophesied, why did it have to be the end of the world...
Zhang was no ordinary young wizard. Dumbledore felt it would be hard to fool him the way he fooled other people.
Even if his deception was well-intentioned and meant to protect them, and even if it had always worked before.
"Dumbledore, so you still cannot tell Zhang?"
A portrait that had never spoken before broke the silence with a quiet question.
Dumbledore nodded wearily.
"Yes. Though I trust Zhang, and believe he will not become the next Voldemort or entertain ideas of ruling the world or other people.
"But he is a genius. An astonishing genius."
"But what does that have to do with whether Zhang is a genius?"
As a "fan" of Zhang Xiao, Phineas was deeply dissatisfied with Dumbledore's decision. He even thought Dumbledore was discriminating against Slytherin and could not bear to see it flourish.
"A genius may be unmoved by money, power, or beauty, as I once was. But a genius can easily be seduced by