"One of my students has some questions he would like to ask you."
"Oh?"
Dumbledore stepped slightly aside, revealing Gerald behind him.
Nicolas Flamel's gaze shifted behind Dumbledore. His bright eyes suddenly widened, and he blurted out, "Merlin, you're one of the Greens?"
Dumbledore and Gerald both froze.
How did Nicolas Flamel know he was a Green?
"Master Flamel, my surname is indeed Green."
"There's no mistake, no mistake. You look exactly like Joseph. Those eyebrows, those eyes, the curve of that chin-you have his face down to the last detail," Nicolas Flamel said in an almost murmuring voice.
Joseph?
Gerald immediately thought of his ancestor Joseph Green, the master alchemist who had received the Order of Merlin, Second Class.
His ancestor's alchemical device, the Star-Gazing Disc, was still lying inside his Object-Storing Talisman.
"You knew my ancestor?"
The expression on Nicolas Flamel's deathly pale face shifted, and an extremely complicated emotion surfaced in his bright eyes.
Then he nodded.
"Of course. We... we were once good friends."
After saying this, he glanced at Dumbledore, then sighed and opened the door, stepping out of the way.
"Come inside first. Whatever you have to say, we can discuss it indoors."
Gerald followed Dumbledore into the house.
The sitting room was simply furnished, with a few old-looking armchairs, a fireplace with a feeble fire burning inside, and bookshelves along the walls crammed with specialized works on alchemy in various languages.
An extremely faint scent of herbs hung in the air, mingled with dried rose petals and some spice he had never smelled before.
Before Gerald could take a closer look at the furnishings, a voice came from the other end of the corridor.
"Good heavens, Albus, you haven't visited in so long. Ah-"
The speaker was an elderly woman. She walked unsteadily,