Chapter 55: Gryffindor Little Wizards Won't Fall into Darkness. Right?
Dumbledore took a cluster of cockroaches from the table.
"Care for one?"
Professor Snape scowled, leaned back a little, his eyes with disgust, his thin lips clenched tightly, "I have no desire for that disgusting thing."
Dumbledore shrugged, "Well, more for me then. They're actually quite tasty."
"I was referring to Dylan!" Professor Snape's voice was low.
Dumbledore chuckled, "I never knew you cared so much about a little wizard."
Professor Snape frowned, "He has now plunged headlong into a very dangerous situation."
"How?" Dumbledore asked, with some astonishment, "He shouldn't have access to anything really dangerous."
"Yes, but it's not quite impossible!" Snape jeered.
Dumbledore looked at him, "You're saying that he might, through curiosity about spells, learn those forbidden spells that twist the mind?"
"More than probable, more than that."
Professor Snape smiled icy, "If there is a safe way, he will definitely do it."
Dumbledore furrowed his brow.
Snape continued, "Not just today he inquired about how to resist the Fiendfyre Curse."
"After my answer, he started asking me how Amortentia functions."
"Even?" Dumbledore was shocked again.
This Dylan, clearly just a first-year little wizard, how could his research aim be so. broad?
"What is he researching that for?"
Snape sneered again.
"Amortentia induces people to have intense infatuation, but it is false emotion. He just explained to me suddenly, and I was thinking he was being foolish again, but lo and behold."
Professor Snape's expression turned gloomier.
"He is fully aware of how Amortentia works, and what he really wants to research is, since Amortentia induces false emotions, can other emotion-inducing potions be brewed!"
"Evidently, he is absolutely going to try and use potions to attempt to research dark magic!"
Professor Snape sneered at Dumbledore, his face serious.
But as he spoke, Dumbledore sat for a moment, then couldn't resist looking upwards, a flicker of interest, even some hope, in his eyes, "So, is it possible?"
"No!"
Professor Snape's face was as dismal as the sky before a storm.
"Yes, it probably can't be done, hahaha."
Dumbledore smiled twice dryly.
As it turned out, alchemy was interesting after all.
He thought, saying, "That child always comes up with some strange but somehow convincing ideas."
"At least I never thought whether the emotions provoked by potions can replace a distorted mind, hence making the employment of dark magic possible."
Professor Snape's eyebrows fell slightly, almost into a knot.
Looking at his face, Dumbledore coughed twice again.
"Of course, whether or not this is possible, the elimination of dark magic is too easy, and the consequences are irreversible."
"If a wizard takes the use of dark magic for granted entirely, then sooner or later their mind will also get warped by it."
Seeing Dumbledore say these words, Professor Snape's face relaxed a bit.
"I even asked him if he had learned dark magic, but he said he wanted to learn the difference between dark magic and normal spells."
"And then?"
"I'm sure he wasn't lying. He really wants to learn dark magic."
Dumbledore nodded kindly upon hearing this.
He didn't question a word of Snape's.
So, although three professors had come "to complain" about Dylan in one evening.
It was clear that Dylan had not actually wandered. The ideas he had proposed were only due to his too creative mind and lack of knowledge regarding some common sense within the wizarding world.
Most importantly, Dylan would ask the professors any questions he might have, and not just one.
This alone suggested that Dylan's intentions were not malicious, and he was not secretly practicing dark magic on his own.
He looked up and said to Snape, "He's young. We have plenty of time to guide him. And no matter what, he's a Gryffindor. You know, dark wizards are few in Gryffindor."
Professor Snape's eyelids blinked.
"Hmph!"
He zipped up his black robes, turned around, and strode away.
Watching Snape's retreating figure, Dumbledore's expression turned solemn as he pondered.
Should he.?
The wind and snow ceased overnight.
Hogwarts lay wrapped in a white cloak of snow.
It was very cold outside.
But Dylan, all wrapped up in his blankets, wasn't in the mood to get up.
He had discovered a new use for the magic robes!
For a hundred Galleons, he could magic his robes into cozy pajamas, the soft绒毛 enveloping him with comforting warmth.
But reversing the pajamas back into robes didn't cost anything, but magic-ing the robes back into pajamas would cost another hundred Galleons.
"Oh no, he did not! That charm effect I purchased does not even hold!"
Coal Ball shrank back into his arms, pulling increasingly inward as Dylan rose from sitting down.
He didn't change his pajamas to robes immediately but sat up, taking in the presence of a pile of gifts lying before him at his feet.
"So many?" Dylan was quite surprised.
He couldn't help burrowing back into blankets, worming toward the outermost end.
Peeking out of their hiding place, Coal Ball also stuck out his dark head from behind Dylan's collar.
Dylan unwrapped the largest gift.
"Woah!"
The first thing that he noticed was a Gryffindor scarf and glove set.
Dylan took it up and stroked it. The magical wool was incredibly soft and also had the magical property of automatically maintaining body temperature.
This was from Professor McGonagall.
Apart from that, there was also a book titled "Advanced Transfiguration: A Guide to Transforming Complex Beasts."
And the entire year's publication from the last year—"Transfiguration Today."
"Wow!"
Dylan was even more thrilled with this present.
"Transfiguration Today" had a lot of great and erudite scholars of Transfiguration writing papers and articles for sharing and discussion.
Dylan had saved some issues, which had already proven useful to him.
It was not that he did not want to buy a year's worth of "Transfiguration Today," though it was actually quite expensive, and he had some money left over.
The fact was that subscribing to this magazine was extremely inconvenient. First of all, one needed to write a request letter to the publishers, and they accepted subscriptions only at the beginning of the year.
There was a limit on the number of subscriptions one could make, and even bookstores did not stock it.
"This gift is too extravagant. Compared to this, my gift..."
(End of chapter)