Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 32 Pensieve

"Dong dong..."

"Please come in."

Melvin knocked on the door and two translucent silver figures floated past him.

Ms. Grey saw Melvin and nodded slightly, a faint arc that could be considered a greeting. The Bloody Baron had a blank expression on his face and followed behind without saying a word.

The two ghosts left the office lightly. They were very polite ghosts. They left through the main door out of respect for the principal. Unlike other ghosts in the school, they treated the walls as air and moved back and forth in a straight line. Sometimes when they were walking on the road, a cold head would suddenly pop out from the ground.

Melvin walked into the office and subconsciously looked at Fawkes, the phoenix nestled in the Sorting Hat, nodding and smiling at it.

"Chirp!"

The phoenix is ​​a beautiful thing, but its cry sounds like a sparrow. I don’t know who it learned it from.

"Good evening, Melvin."

Dumbledore watched the scene with a smile, holding the teapot and said to him, "If you don't mind, I'd like to drink something sweet."

"Then I'm here just in time..." Melvin sat down and took out the ice cream from the paper bag and handed over a box. "Try it, it's lemon flavored, a new product from Florin's Ice Cream Shop."

Dumbledore opened the brown paper box, and the ice cream was steaming. The color and smell were very fresh. The sweet and cool air drifted into his nose, and he couldn't help but smile.

Melvin opened the chocolate-flavored one himself and said, "Principal, I need your help with something. Can I borrow the Pensieve for a moment?"

Dumbledore asked doubtfully, "The Pensieve?"

"Remember what we talked about in New York? I want to write stories about wizards and explore the forms of magical drama." Melvin didn't want to hide it. "I went to Diagon Alley to find suitable equipment that could match wizards and magic for filming and projection. I didn't find the equipment, but I met a wizard who understands technology. He suggested using memories to make film. The Pensieve is the projection equipment, so I want to borrow your Pensieve to do some research."

Dumbledore looked at him and smiled: "A movie from the Muggle world, right?"

"Principal, do you know anything about movies?"

"Don't imagine me as a lonely old wizard hiding in a castle all day. I'm not a closed-minded and conservative pure-blood either. You might not imagine that I have a complete London Underground map tattooed on my left knee," Dumbledore said with a bit of pride. "I'm a Muggle-savvy person."

"I got it now."

Melvin didn't know what was so proud about having a subway map tattooed on his knee, and he didn't dare ask, for fear that the old principal would insist on showing it to him.

"Someone planned to build a cinema in Godric's Hollow decades ago, but it didn't work out."

Dumbledore took a sip of cream and said thoughtfully, "Your idea is theoretically feasible. However, the Pensieve itself has its flaws. Furthermore, the audience needs to bury their heads in the basin to watch, making it unsuitable for public screenings. The stone basin is just a container; the silver mist within is the key. You could consider changing the design of the vessel. You could learn from the Mirror of Erised and make a mirror that projects memories. How about calling it the Memory Mirror?"

"I will think about it."

I have an idea for the magic projection equipment.

Melvin made a mental note of these thoughts.

Dumbledore's lips curved up, his heavy heart gradually lightening. "I haven't been using the Pensieve lately. I have some information about it. Take it with you when you leave. If anything comes of the wizarding film, I hope to be among the first to see it."

"Of course!"

The principal is still very reliable when he is serious.

Melvin picked up a wooden spoon, scooped out a piece, and put it in his mouth. A rich, sweet cocoa flavor filled his mouth; the ice cream made with the Freezing Charm definitely had a different texture. Dumbledore looked at him with a gentle smile, increasingly convinced that hiring Melvin was the right choice: "There's one more thing. The package you sent, labeled as containing Dark Magic items, was handed over to Minerva by Filch without being opened. You'd better come up with a reasonable explanation."

"To help you arrange protective measures."

Melvin then explained his design ideas, hoping to get the school to reimburse the expenses. "I'm planning to imitate the Muggle Chamber of Secrets. Another way to call it a haunted house is to call it something like the Shrieking Shack, but without the ghosts or spirits. By setting the scene and limiting the lighting, I'll create a terrifying atmosphere and build psychological pressure. These defective Dark Magic items are just props, and the traps I've set are limited in power. My main purpose is to help Potter and the others overcome their fear."

"What Potter, I don't understand what you are saying."

Dumbledore denied it perfunctorily, "But I personally like this design. I also have some horror stories circulating in the British wizarding world. I hope they will be of help to you."

Melvin looked at the old principal and asked, "What about the cost of purchasing the props..."

Dumbledore calmly looked away. "Financial matters are under the approval of the Vice-Headmaster. Please go talk to Minerva."

……

The negotiations with the vice-president were not going well.

Professor McGonagall believes that the purchase of these items was Melvin's personal behavior, the ownership belongs to Melvin personally, and the use is not for teaching purposes, so the expenses cannot be reimbursed.

Melvin, of course, strongly objected.

The teaching aids haven't been used yet. How does Professor McGonagall know that they are not for teaching purposes?
Even if the ownership does not belong to the school, the school should at least pay him a rental fee.

The reasons were strong and sufficient, but unfortunately it still failed to pass the review because these props were used for the project proposed by Dumbledore, which was a personal project, and the rental fee should be asked from Dumbledore.

“The superiors follow suit and the subordinates pass the buck to each other.

"Hogwarts is a serious bureaucracy..."

Melvin glanced at the defective black magic artifacts on the table, then at the Pensieve not far away, his expression complicated.

The Pensieve is worth tens of thousands of Galleons. Dumbledore can lend it to you just by asking for it, so why would anyone ask for rental fees?

"Let's study the Pensieve."

Melvin gave up worrying about it, stood up and walked to the stone basin.

A shallow stone basin, seemingly carved out of a single piece of stone, perhaps granite. The year of its creation was unknown. The edges of the surface were blunted, and the edges were engraved with fine runes, some of which were runes, while others were unrecognizable.

The basin contained some kind of silver substance, which was between liquid and gas, like flowing clouds, slowly swirling and surging, and the ripples were shining with crystal light.

Unlike rare items like the Mirror of Erised, these memory-replaying instruments are not uncommon. Similar to flying brooms, they come in different styles and have varying performances. The Pensieve is one of the most advanced ones.

Melvin placed the wand against his forehead, applied a little force with the tip of the wand, and pulled out a strand of silver thread.

The silver threads fell into the stone basin and quietly melted into the silver mist. The fluorescent light spread, presenting a slightly hazy scene: a water snake with horns on its forehead coiled on the treetop, with no vertical pupils in its eyes, only a silver-white color.

Leaning over the clouds in the basin, his consciousness fell into the void. When he came to his senses, Melvin found himself standing under the shade of a snakewood tree.

The horned water snake whispered to him, "Melvin, leave school. I see your future is not here."

"..."

(End of this chapter)