The Floo Network entrance of Hogwarts is in the fireplace of the bar called "Three Broomsticks" at the entrance of Hogsmeade.
Lin Ze stepped out of the green flames and accidentally hit his knee on the stone arch of the fireplace.
Madam Rosmerta glanced at him from behind the bar.
"Sir, would you like a cup of Butterbeer before we go? You look a little tired."
"No, Madam Rosmerta, I'm in a hurry." Lin Ze waved his hand.
"It's up to you." Rosmerta put the cup back on the shelf and looked away.
Lin Ze has walked the road from Hogsmeade to the castle many times in his memory.
When he was in school, he had to walk this uphill road every time he went to Hogsmeade at the end of the weekend. At that time, he always carried Honeydukes's paper bag in one hand and put it in his pocket with the other, complaining to his classmates that Potions Class hadn't finished writing his thesis.
Now that he has truly experienced this journey personally, he has a different mood.
The moss that emerged from the cracks in the stone slabs was softened by the afternoon sun and was a bit slippery when stepped on. The shrubs on both sides of the road grew more vigorously than I remembered, and some bushes even reached past my knees.
On the way, as he walked, he turned a piece of parchment into a paper kite and flew towards Hogwarts Castle.
Lin Ze When he walked to the castle gate, the door was already open.
Professor McGonagall stood there with his hands folded in front of him, his dark green robe looking particularly solemn in the shadow of the porch.
"Mr. Lin." She nodded slightly.
"Professor McGonagall, please come out and pick me up in person." Lin Ze said politely.
"Dumbledore asked you to go to his office. It just so happens that I have to go to the tower for inspection, so I will wait for you here." McGonagall turned around and motioned for him to follow.
The two passed through the Entrance Hall and walked onto Marble Staircase.
The portraits on the wall poked their heads out of their frames one after another, gesticulating and talking about Lin Ze.
Walking to the door of Seventh Floor Headmaster's Office, Professor McGonagall stopped.
She looked at the huge stone beast and said, "Cockroach Clusters."
The stone beast jumped to the side, the wall cracked in the middle, and a spiral staircase slowly rose.
"Go up." McGonagall tilted his head towards the stairs.
"Thank you, Professor."
McGonagall nodded, turned and left, the footsteps gradually fading away in the stone corridor.
Lin Ze stood on the spiral staircase, which took him all the way up.
The wooden door of the office was not closed, leaving a crack.
He pushed the door open and went in.
Dumbledore's office is very large, with three or four newspapers spread out on the table.
Fawkes was perched on the perch by the door, tilted his head and glanced at Lin Ze, and let out a low cry. Lin Ze could hear some threatening meaning.
"Don't pay attention to it. It is molting its feathers recently and has a bad temper." Dumbledore came out from behind the bookshelf, wearing a purple robe studded with golden stars, with the classic Half-moon Spectacles on the bridge of his nose.
"Sit down." Dumbledore pointed to an armchair by the fireplace, and sat on the opposite side of the chair.
The tea tray was ready, Darjeeling, with a plate of ginger biscuits beside it.
Lin Ze sat down on the armchair and took a piece of ginger biscuit.
The biscuits were a little over-baked, with a dark brown ring around the edges, but they were still crispy when bitten.
"Hmm... it tastes good." Lin Ze still praised it, and the corners of Dumbledore's mouth curved up visibly.
"Tell me, what do you want from me?" Dumbledore didn't say much.
Lin Ze swallowed the ginger biscuits and patted the crumbs on his hands.
"The things I want to ask are a bit complicated, so please don't think I'm verbose."
"My greatest advantage is that I'm not afraid of other people's nagging." Dumbledore picked up the teacup, and the heat blurred his Half-moon Spectacles lenses.
"What I want to ask is, which side of Death Chamber is Veil in Ministry of Magic Department of Mysteries."
"Oh... there..." Dumbledore put down the cup, his tone seemed to be lost in memories.
"I visited that place once when I was young. At that time, I thought it was just an old piece of cloth hanging on a stone arch, nothing special."
"What did you think at the time?" Lin Ze grasped the key point of Dumbledore's words.
"Yes, when I came into contact with more things later, I realized there was something wrong with it in retrospect, but I never went back."
"Why are you asking this?"
Lin Ze did not answer immediately, but said in one breath what Amycus told him, the three addresses on the map in Sterling's hand, and the phrase "Those who cross this line must become this line" in Mia's great-grandmother's notes.
At the end of the story, he took out the folded piece of paper from his pocket and spread it out on the coffee table.
Dumbledore's eyes fell on Lin Ze's face. "Newgrange Tomb, I went to that place when I was young. I was doing archaeological research with a friend."
Dumbledore stood up, walked to the bookshelf by the window, and slowly traced his fingers on the spines of the books.
"Muggle Archaeologists believe that Newgrange Tomb was built five thousand years ago, but I saw some runes on the stone walls there that should not have appeared in that era. The runes themselves are blurred, but the symbol system has a clear affinity with modern Runes."
He pulled out a dusty old book from the bookshelf, opened it to a certain page, and placed it in front of Lin Ze.
On the page is a black-and-white photo of the carvings on the inside of the stone wall, with several crooked symbols on it.
"I have seen these symbols on Death Chamber and Veil. Please understand the confidence of a person who has a photographic memory."
"There may indeed be some connections between Newgrange and Death Chamber's Veil that we don't know about, but there have been a lot of things around me over the years, so I don't have time to confirm them. As I get older, I put these things aside."
"Then when did you go Death Chamber?" Lin Ze asked.
Dumbledore picked up the tea cup and did not drink it immediately.
"Let me think about it... well... I was only seventeen years old at the time. Because I made a bet with some classmates, I sneaked into the restricted area of Department of Mysteries in the middle of the night." The old man's eyes were shining, as if he was recalling something interesting.
Lin Ze did not ask about the specific content of the bet.
Some old things will naturally be told when the person concerned is willing to tell them. If they are not willing to tell them, you can't pry them open with a crowbar. What's more, the person sitting opposite is Dumbledore. The things that the old man doesn't want to talk about, Wizarding World is probably the only one who can figure it out in his own mind.
Dumbledore took a sip of tea and when he put the cup down, the bottom of the cup made a gentle "ding" sound on the saucer.
"There was another person who slipped in with me."
"I won't mention that person's last name. Anyway, he didn't do anything good afterwards." Dumbledore put his glasses back on, and his blue eyes flashed behind the lenses.
"The two of us stayed in Death Chamber for less than a quarter of an hour. When I saw that Veil, I thought it looked like a hijab of something."
"Hijab?"
"Yeah." Dumbledore nodded.
"Like a hijab on something."