Three Generations of Dark Lords

Bang.

There was a rapid knocking at the wooden door.

Dumbledore covered the Mirror of Erised with a curtain, regained his composure, and sat back down in his chair.

"Come in."

Professor Snape stormed in, furious. "Headmaster," he said sternly, "Someone has entered the Restricted Section and triggered my magic."

I sensed it, but Hagrid's stupid dog was blocking the doorway and wouldn't let me pass, and almost bit my leg...

Snape suddenly fell silent. He noticed six steaming glasses of milk on the table.

"You caught them?" Snape asked, squinting. "Who were they?"

Before Dumbledore could speak, Snape suddenly said, "Could it be that Stark, that Bad Guys Alliance?"

"Bad Guys Alliance?" Dumbledore his fingertip to the bridge of his nose and pushed up his glasses. "That's a strange way of putting it. From what I understand, they're all excellent students, don't you think?"

"Excellent?" Snape snapped angrily. "The Stark might have some cleverness, Diggory just keeps grinning like an idiot, the Weasley Brothers are always causing trouble, and Cho Chang just follows them around... Oh, and they're selling maps at school, are you going to do anything about it?"

"The Hogwarts Magical Map?" Dumbledore a sip of milk. "William mentioned this to me last year, and I agreed, even giving him a lot of advice."

Snape snorted. "So what about their night out tonight?"

Dumbledore, seemingly prepared, laughed and said, "I've deducted points; five points from each person."

Snape was speechless; he had deducted more than five points from Harry in the first five minutes of class.

He was about to say something when he suddenly noticed a mirror in the corner, mostly covered by a curtain.

"You've taken out that Mirror of Erised again?" Snape frowned. "I remember you telling me... not to be obsessed with what you see, and even less to indulge in illusions."

"Yes, Severus," Dumbledore said calmly. "I'm glad you remember what I told you many years ago."

But Snape kept staring at the mirror, as if he wanted to take a look.

"Would you like to take a look?" Dumbledore's tone remained almost unchanged. "I can let you see it, no problem."

Snape didn't answer, staring intently at the edge of the mirror. Suddenly he roared, "No! Gone... dead... gone... just a fake!"

Dumbledore sighed.

Snape turned around, his eyes vacant, and he was in a strange state, trying to suppress the intense thought.

Except when he was writing to her, Snape didn't want anyone to see him in this cowardly state, including Dumbledore.

After a moment, he recovered and became as cold as before.

Snape asked in a mocking tone:

"Professor, I'm curious, when you look into the Mirror of Erised, what do you see? Is it a blank space, or... can you only see yourself?"

Before Dumbledore speak, Snape said earnestly, "I think a wizard as great as you, without any weaknesses... shouldn't have any feelings that would allow others to hurt you, right?"

It's like...

"Voldemort?" Dumbledore said calmly.

Snape growled, "Don't mention that name in front of me!"

Dumbledore sighed, seemingly hurt.

He said in a sorrowful tone, "Severus, you are as harsh as ever... We are all the same, we all feel pain."

Our lives are full of messy things; I also have sad feelings and things I want to see in the magic mirror.

Life is just so perplexing, I understand.

You don't need to deliberately hurt an elderly person with your words to gain psychological comfort, do you?

A brief silence.

Dumbledore stood up. "Alright, did you bring the Potions?"

We need to check how badly the level design has been damaged, and maybe fix it up a bit.

Dumbledore waved his right hand, and a door opened, where Fiendfyre burned.

He waved his wand, the flames vanished, and the two walked through the door.

Snape asked, "Are you still planning to design the final level as your office?"

"Of course not... I already have a brilliant idea, you see?"

"The Mirror of Erised?" Snape thought for a moment and didn't object.

The two continued walking. Several bottles of Nettle Wine remained on the table; the poison and Potions were gone.

"Thief..." Snape muttered.

However, considering that he had taken the dragon's legs, he didn't bother to argue with William for taking a few bottles of Potions from him.

Even if he suffers a small loss, we can barely even the score!

Snape took several Potions bottles from his pocket and rearranged them on top in the previous order.

Dumbledore picked up another parchment left by William, looked at it for a moment, Snape also came over and began to read it.

A few more minutes passed.

Snape asked suspiciously, "Did you know?"

Dumbledore paused for a moment, then nodded. "Of course I know, it's very simple logical reasoning... Many great wizards don't have this ability."

What, you don't know? Do you need me to explain it to you?

Snape gave Dumbledore a long look. "Then I think I understand."

Snape for a moment and decided to drastically modify the level, as the previous one was far too easy.

He took out thirteen bottles from his pocket and arranged the twenty bottles into two rows, labeling each row with the numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16.

Next to the two rows of bottles, the names Snape and Dumbledore were written on them respectively.

After doing all this, he conjured a quill with his wand and added a sentence to the parchment scroll:

The bottle with Snape's number—drink it and it'll send you back to where you started; the bottle with Dumbledore's number—it'll take you forward... The others—poison!

Following his "guess," Snape administered both the antidote and the poison.

Dumbledore stood by and watched, as quiet as an old man guarding the gate.

After doing all this, the two continued down the corridor and encountered the Black Queen, who was still looking around.

It is still waiting for the chess pieces to return.

Dumbledore shook his head. "I'll come back and tell Professor McGonagall that when replenishing the chess pieces, she should also make sure her facial expressions are right, otherwise how will we know what she's thinking?"

Snape glanced sideways at Dumbledore but said nothing.

The two continued forward and finally saw the key lying on the ground.

Snape, wrapped in his black, tight-fitting pajamas, bent down to pick up a few keys, handed one to Dumbledore, and then rubbed the small hole on the key's wing with his hand.

"It must be some kind of wide-range spell. The key is still quite wet, and the whole thing is made of water. The attack power isn't too strong, but... it's magic I've never seen before," Snape analyzed.

"It's a little magic spell that William invented himself," Dumbledore smile.

Snape was silent for a moment, then suddenly looked up and said in an enigmatic tone.

"Stark is only a second-year student and he can invent such an offensive spell. Aren't you afraid he'll become the third Dark Lord if you let him do this?"

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