Fawkes, who had been lazily cleaning his feathers, suddenly shivered for no clear reason. The phoenix raised his red eyes and looked around the room for potential threats, finding nothing but a seemingly harmless young wizard with barely developed magical power. Happy there was no danger, he closed his eyes to go back to resting.
However, the supposedly harmless Adrian had already reached out his hand under the pretense of friendly bonding and future communication opportunities.
His fingers hesitated in the air briefly before Adrian noticed Fawkes still sleeping. Carefully, he reached out with a single finger to stroke the phoenix's beautiful feathers.
The moment contact was made, Fawkes's eyes snapped open. After a tense staring contest between wizard and phoenix, Fawkes, confirming Adrian meant no harm, still swatted firmly at the offending hand with his wing, eyes flashing with warning.
A phoenix's dignity was not to be treated so casually.
However, no amount of phoenix pride could match Adrian's persistence. As Dumbledore's companion, Fawkes had considerable intelligence and self-control. The phoenix couldn't very well attack Adrian, so after several minutes of an amusing game of hide-and-seek around the office, Fawkes reluctantly gave in to the petting.
This tolerance was largely due to Adrian's complete lack of bad intentions, otherwise, those fingers would have been burned immediately.
"Never thought I'd live to see the day I'd be petting a phoenix," Adrian said happily as he ran his hands along Fawkes's feathers, drawing on his previous experience with parrots. His goal was to build enough friendship that the phoenix wouldn't resist a small blood sample.
Gradually, Fawkes went from irritated to acceptance, eventually even raising his proud head to allow Adrian to stroke the delicate feathers around his neck.
While petting Fawkes, Adrian studied the legendary phoenix carefully. Fawkes looked like an oversized turkey decorated with stunning golden-red feathers. Majestic though he appeared, Adrian couldn't help but wonder how he might taste...
As Adrian's mind wandered down this food-related path, he began mentally listing cooking methods: deep-fried, roasted, grilled, braised, sautéed...
Just as Adrian was thinking about the merits of flame-roasted phoenix, a gentle voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Fire is a phoenix's natural habitat, you know. Perhaps you should consider alternative cooking methods..."
Adrian spun around to find Dumbledore's tall figure entering through the doorway. Despite being well over a hundred years old, the greatest wizard of the age showed no signs of weakness, moving with energy and even enough humor to joke with Adrian about his inappropriate thoughts.
Fawkes, apparently sensing the direction of Adrian's thoughts, immediately flew up and pecked Adrian's head in anger before perching on Dumbledore's arm, glaring at Adrian.
The phoenix had never imagined that the harmless-looking student had actually been thinking about roasting him.
"Professor," Adrian asked innocently while rubbing his stinging scalp, "how did you know what I was thinking? Can you read minds?"
"Sometimes a person's actions and expressions reveal their thoughts quite clearly," Dumbledore replied mysteriously, neither confirming nor denying the accusation.
Adrian nodded with understanding, though internally he was far less charitable.
'Right, and I'm the Queen of England. You manipulative old man.'
Perhaps because his card was still active, Adrian had sensed a subtle force probe his mind the moment Dumbledore spoke. The intrusion vanished as quickly as it had come, but Adrian was certain it had been Legilimency. Somehow, in his enhanced state, he could perceive such soul-based magic.
Curiously, Dumbledore made no further mental intrusions. Instead, he settled into his fancy chair behind the desk, his long blue-purple robes pooling around him as he gestured for Adrian to sit. From a drawer, he produced a bunch of sweets and placed them on the desk.
"Would you care for some cockroach clusters? Or perhaps the new flavor of fizzing honey candy?" Dumbledore offered, selecting treats for Adrian to try.
Adrian pulled back from the infamous cockroach clusters but showed interest in the fizzing honey candy. He unwrapped one and popped it into his mouth.
The initial burst was pure honey sweetness, but then the candy pieces seemed to develop minds of their own, bouncing wildly around his mouth and dodging his teeth like some sort of magical popping candy. It was intensely sweet but surprisingly pleasant.
Dumbledore didn't rush into questioning. Instead, he poured Adrian a glass of iced lemon juice, creating the feeling of a casual chat between friends rather than an interrogation. As Adrian sipped the refreshing drink, his initial anxiety began to fade, and he found himself ready to explain the evening's events.
Naturally, Adrian didn't repeat Hermione's clumsy lie from earlier, it had been painfully obvious, and he doubted even a first-year would believe it, let alone Dumbledore.
Moreover, Adrian remained uncertain whether Dumbledore might use Legilimency during his account, or simply read his expressions and body language for clues.
So Adrian stuck largely to the truth, leaving out only the most crucial details.
His version went like this: Before the Halloween feast, he'd learned from Harry that Hermione was hiding alone in the bathroom, upset about something. Concerned, he'd gone looking for her. Running into the troll in the corridors, he'd ducked into the bathroom passage to hide, only to find Hermione trapped there. Seeing her in danger, he'd stepped forward to fight the troll.
To make it more believable, Adrian even provided a detailed account of the battle itself.
The main concerns were the pre-prepared iron spikes he'd used to limit the troll's movement, and any traces of sleeping potion that might be detected on the creature's dead body.
The spikes were difficult to explain, though Adrian could claim he'd been practicing transfiguration and shrinking charms, which was technically true. He'd been working on such items for days, with numerous classmates as witnesses. No matter how thoroughly Dumbledore investigated, that would be the only logical conclusion.
As for the sleeping potion, Adrian deliberately didn't mention it. Even if detected, Dumbledore had other suspects, most notably Quirrell, who had the strongest motive for releasing the troll in the first place.
Adrian quickly reviewed his story for any potential gaps or inconsistencies.
However, Dumbledore's next response made Adrian feel like he'd thrown a punch at cotton...