Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 25: Night Tour

"Um……"

Passing the corner of the stairs, Melvin glanced at the corridor on the fourth floor. The room where Lu Wei was was a few corners behind, so he couldn't see anything.

"Room of Requirement? You mean there's a hidden secret room in Hogwarts Castle that the four founders cast a hidden spell on. It will only be revealed when someone really needs it..."

"I'm leaning towards Ms. Helga Hufflepuff."

Dumbledore walked ahead, ascending the stairs, his footsteps soft. "She understands the fun of life and often surprises students with gifts."

"A surprise, a gift." Melvin calmly retracted his gaze and followed half a body length behind. "Since it's a gift, why not reveal it directly or leave clues for students to explore."

"I don't know either. That was a thousand years ago."

"Does the Room of Requirement have what I want?"

"Maybe there will be. When it appears, it will always be arranged to meet the needs of the person seeking help and be able to solve the difficulties they encounter."

"How did you find it?"

"Well..."

Dumbledore's tone matched his footsteps, neither hurried nor slow, his voice clear in the corridor. "It was many years ago, when I was still at Hogwarts. I remember it was the second half of my fifth year. My friends and I were busy preparing for the upcoming exams, our minds were full of review, and our heads were dizzy. In a hurry to go to the toilet, I took the wrong road, turned two corners, and found myself in a room I had never seen before. It was beautifully decorated, with all kinds of exquisite and luxurious chamber pots inside."

"potty……"

Melvin pursed his lips, unable to tell whether this experience was true or not, and didn't want to ask in detail.

It feels like Dumbledore's real experience, but it's unlikely to be Dumbledore's real experience. It sounds like something made up to appease children.

Dumbledore didn't feel that his story was false or clichéd at all. He spoke in a serious tone and analyzed it seriously:
"After the Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations, I had some free time and went back to investigate carefully, but I couldn't find the room anymore. There was no trace of it, as if it had completely disappeared.

“When sixth grade returned to school, I spent a few months experimenting and figuring out some patterns.

"It probably only comes in at 5:30 in the morning, or only at the quarter moon, or when someone is looking for the toilet and has a very full bladder."

"..."

Melvin quickened his pace slightly and came to stand beside him. "I'm not really concerned about the triggering conditions mentioned above. I'm only interested in the final conclusion. How many experiments did you run to come up with this conclusion?"

"Hmm...I can't remember."

"Anyway, that was the end of my schooldays exploring the mysterious room before I even knew it was called the Room of Requirement."

Dumbledore's tone seemed to have become much happier. "I've been in contact with the Room of Requirement again. I've taken over as Transfiguration Professor. The caretaker at the time was Mr. Apollyon Pringle. He was much stricter than Filch, and his punishments were more radical. To avoid his routine searches, students needed a room hidden enough to hide prohibited items. I noticed that the name of the Room of Requirement was beginning to spread among a very small number of students..."

"Later, when I took over as headmaster, the house-elves discovered I was investigating that mysterious room. These castle staff, who knew Hogwarts best, answered my questions. They said it was a magical room that had existed since the school's founding. For nearly a thousand years, the elves had used it as a cleaning tool room and a transit lounge...

"By the way, the students at that time were willing to trust me, the professor of Transfiguration, and were willing to temporarily store the prohibited items with me."

"..."

Melvin stopped and said, "How can you be worthy of Principal Armando Dippet? He trusts you so much that he's even willing to hand over the entire Hogwarts to you."

"So after I took over as principal, I stopped helping students hide prohibited items."

"..."

The eighth floor of Hogwarts Castle is a highly utilized floor. Turn right at the stairs and you will find the portrait of the Fat Lady. The hole behind the portrait leads to the Gryffindor common room. Continue walking past the portrait hole and you will find Professor Flitwick's office around the corner.

Melvin couldn't understand why the Ravenclaw Headmaster's office was located next to the Gryffindor dormitory?
Dumbledore was unable to answer his question. Their destination was on the left side of the stairs.

Walk straight along the corridor and turn three or four corners, and you will see a white wall with a huge carpet hanging on it.

The tapestry was tattered, the wool threads were dull in color, the edges were severely worn, some of the threads were falling off and breaking, and the surface was covered with gray dust and mildew.

The background of the portrait is a gloomy forest and a crooked castle tower, which seems to be not far from the vicinity of Hogwarts.

Several gray-brown mountain giants were sleeping soundly on the haystack, wearing loose pink ballet skirts with lace edges, and holding thick wooden sticks in their hands.

The protagonist Barnabas rests on a tree stump.

"Barnabas was an elective professor four hundred years ago, teaching Care of Magical Creatures."

Dumbledore paused to admire the tapestry and explained to Melvin, "At the time, the Wizarding Council was drafting a definition of human beings, and trolls were the most controversial creatures. They looked similar to humans, with a head, facial features, and limbs, and walked upright...

"Some wizards believe that trolls are distant relatives of giants and should be classified as humans. Others believe that trolls just happen to look that way, and that their essence is still uncommunicative beasts, even worse than some cats and dogs.

"Troll-related topics have been popular for over a decade. The headmaster at the time was... I can't remember who it was. He was studying troll language and was impeached. Barnabas, then Professor of Care of Magical Creatures, began an interesting study. He attempted to teach trolls ballet to prove that their brains were not just for show. As you can see, he failed.

"To commemorate this event, students created this tapestry, which has hung here for hundreds of years."

Melvin observes and analyzes the differences between the tapestry and other images in the castle.

There are many magical portraits in Hogwarts, including those of past principals in the principal's office and famous alumni on the walls of the corridors. These portraits can move freely in and out of other frames in the castle, and even connect to other portraits of the same subject in the world.

For example, Knight Cadogan and his pony, and Ms. Delise Devante, who once served as both the principal and dean of St. Mungo's. Because her portrait is hung in the school and the hospital respectively, Ms. Devante's portrait can be shuttled back and forth.

The image on the tapestry is completely different. Barnabas and the troll have little intelligence, cannot communicate with the outside world, and can only make simple reactions to stimuli.

They performed a fixed drama every day: in the morning, Barnabas taught the trolls ballet, in the afternoon, the trolls beat Barnabas, and in the evening, they all rested.

Day after day, year after year.

This kind of performance, which is almost a stage play, could be extended in length, with more plots, a different background, and even dubbing...

Melvin became interested in tapestries.

"Have you also noticed something wrong with the tapestry?" Dumbledore asked softly.

"Huh?" Melvin turned to look at him. "What's wrong?"

"The tapestry was originally just a joke among the students, representing harmless banter. The scenes depicted were originally just for fun research, and Barnabas was still a respectable professor..." Dumbledore stared at the portrait in the tapestry, his deep blue eyes unfathomable. "I don't know when it started, but Barnabas became 'Silly Barnabas,' and this tapestry became a cautionary tale of failed teaching. There are always malicious wizards who mention Professor Barnabas, claiming that Muggle-born wizards are another kind of troll, unable to comprehend the mysteries of magic, and that one day they will be wielding clubs to beat up the pure-blood wizards who taught them."

"..."

Melvin remained silent.

I didn’t expect this tapestry to have political metaphors.

This is so Muggle.

"Let's get back to the Room of Requirement."

Dumbledore withdrew his gaze and turned. "Do you see the wall opposite the tapestry? Concentrate on visualizing the location you need. Pass in front of that wall three times, and the door to the Room of Requirement will appear before you."

Melvin hesitated for a moment, then decided to pretend: "So what kind of room can help me?"

"There are two types of magical rooms in the Room of Requirement. One is completely fake. Everything inside is imaginary and magically fabricated. It only exists inside the room and has no objective entity. It follows Gamp's Law of Transfiguration and cannot be taken out of the room. The other is half-real. The interior of the room is fake, but the items provided are real. Some of these items were stored here by former teachers and students, and some were collected and stored here by the house-elves who clean and organize."

Melvin now understood: "So what I need is the once prohibited item."

Dumbledore nodded, a smile on his face.

Melvin narrowed his eyes at him. "Decades later, these things have been confiscated. The students who trusted you were truly wrong."

"..."

Dumbledore's smile faltered, and he seemed a little ashamed.

Melvin stopped attacking the principal's conscience and turned to face the wall, imagining the scene he needed:

The secret room where many prohibited items are stored is hidden enough to avoid being discovered...

After walking back and forth three times, as he took the last step, a circle of dust ripples appeared on the surface of the rough stone brick wall, as if ripples were spreading, and a smooth, ordinary, dark-colored wooden door quietly appeared.

"Let's go into the secret room and look for those dangerous and terrifying treasures."

Ignoring Dumbledore's nervous mutterings, Melvin grasped the knob and twisted it without any resistance.

With a little force, he pushed the door open and walked in.

The interior of the room is more spacious than one would imagine. Rather than being an inconspicuous secret storage room, it is more like a warehouse with invisible boundaries.

The dome had a glass skylight, its surface caked with stains and dust, congealing into a substance almost like sludge, blocking out all external light. The gemstones inlaid in the dome and its pillars emitted a dim glow, blending with the faint light emitted by the unidentified objects piled around it. Instead of illuminating the room, it distorted and dispersed the focus of the pupils, further dimming the vision.

Fortunately, there was no mold or moss, and the only smell in the air was the old, stained parchment, which was barely acceptable.

【Fluorescent flash】

A soft silver light lit up, illuminating the room.

What comes into view is a mountain of clutter, with layers of old furniture interlocking to form a support, various metal utensils, armor and magical items of different shapes forming the main body, and old, yellowed parchment books filling the gaps, stacking up into endless hills of clutter.

"The Great Wizards of the Seventeenth Century," the Golden Snitch and Quaffle, a round table from Carpenter's Furniture Store in 1774, a worm-eaten oak cauldron, a dusty knight statue...

There were indeed some objects that exuded a cursed aura, but the magic was very weak, like a lamp that had run out of fuel and could be extinguished by a breeze.

Melvin looked at the junk and said with some disappointment: "I don't think there is anything in here that can help me."

"Treasure hunting adventures require plenty of patience..."

Dumbledore walked into the room first, stepped over several piles of debris, and walked around like a maze to an inconspicuous corner. These messy things were almost piled up into an alley.

He pointed to a dark mass and said, "Look at this."

It was a strange-shaped square object, at least several dozen feet high. If placed in an ordinary classroom, it would almost reach the ceiling. It was supported by a base underneath, like a wardrobe, but not as thick.

Only after looking closely did I realize it was a mirror.

The frames on both sides were covered with dust and their original appearance could not be seen. The faint golden color could be distinguished as brass. The middle part of the mirror seemed to have been simply wiped, revealing a line of cursive inscriptions on the top.

"Eris Stella..."

Melvin read two words and then immediately realized it, reciting it in reverse and whispering, "I do not show you your face, but the deepest desires of your heart."

Looking towards the center of the mirror, his face was not reflected, but an equally dim room. He leaned on the sofa and pressed the remote control. In front of him was not an ultra-thin LCD TV, but a huge CRT TV.

A thick silver snake was curled up next to the sofa, with horns growing on its forehead.

Melvin had an expression that said, "As expected." Those distant memories deep in his soul were his secrets, invisible to the Sorting Hat and the Mirror of Erised.

The TV in the mirror was playing The Simpsons, and the picture quality was pretty good. He squinted his eyes and stared at it carefully for a while, waiting for Dumbledore to come in front of him before looking away.

"What did you see?"

"Personal privacy, sorry for not telling."

Dumbledore was stunned for a moment, then reacted, smiled and shook his head: "Okay."

"What did the principal see in the mirror?"

"I'm sorry, but I'll keep it a secret for now." Dumbledore stared at the mirror for a moment, then spoke to himself. "I found this during the school cleanup before term started. This mirror is magical and too large to be easily moved using Transfiguration. I plan to move it after the students leave for Christmas break and use it as a classroom teaching aid. Perhaps I can put it to good use."

"..."

Tutoring Potter, huh?
Melvin glanced at the inscription above and looked up.

The sight came into view of the towering dusty statues of knights, the dull metal armor, and the ornaments placed on top.

Things like lances, helmets, crowns, etc.

(End of this chapter)