"I see, I understand roughly."

Amidst the lamentations of the phoenix Fawkes, the condemnations from the Sorting Hat, and the cacophony of explanations from the portraits, Dumbledore quickly pieced together what had transpired in the headmaster's office during those brief few minutes.

Casting a glance at the silver-haired little Loli, who sat quietly in the rattan chair, eyes downcast, appearing obedient and well-behaved as she quietly sipped her iced pumpkin juice, Dumbledore rubbed his temples, a slight headache forming.

In his many years of teaching at Hogwarts, he had encountered many students with peculiar personalities.

But he had never encountered a student like Elena, who could be as obedient and well-behaved as a model student one moment, and more unrestrained than Peeves the next—at least in Hogwarts' long history, she was definitely the first to stew the owl that delivered the acceptance letter.

"Miss Kaslana, it seems you have a rather...unique understanding of the word 'food'."

Combining this with the earlier incident of the missing owl mentioned by Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore even entertained a strange conjecture. In the eyes of this seemingly well-behaved little girl, perhaps everything in the world was simply and crudely divided into two categories: edible and inedible.

"However, this behavior is actually..."

After a moment's thought, Dumbledore carefully chose his words, speaking slowly, while pondering how to guide the girl to understand her problem.

"I was wrong."

Before Dumbledore could finish, Elena blinked her eyes, put down her iced pumpkin juice, and answered earnestly with a serious expression.

"I'm not accusing you, it's just..."

Dumbledore's tone faltered, he shook his head, took a breath, and continued gently.

Based on his many years of experience in teaching students, simply emphasizing or blaming a student for their mistakes, besides repeatedly venting his own anger, didn't really help these children find the right path.

Discussing the problem together from the perspective of an older friend was much more effective than using the identity of a professor to simply exert pressure and command, and this was something Dumbledore was most proud of—he could always become friends with all the students.

—Well, until today.

"I know where I went wrong!" Elena interrupted again.

"Uh, not..."

Dumbledore's smile froze slightly, and he subconsciously raised his hand, preparing to say something.

"Phoenixes are friends of humans!"

"What I did was very wrong!"

"I am extremely remorseful and regretful for everything I have caused!"

"I promise I will never do it again!"

"..."

The silver-haired little Loli placed her hands on her knees and launched into a rapid self-criticism, her attitude extremely upright. Her delicate face was expressive and determined, and she methodically explained her mistakes from all angles, as well as how to correct them.

To the point that even Dumbledore didn't know what to say, and could only awkwardly open and close his mouth.

After rattling off a long string of words, as if rapping, Elena finally stopped, exhaled a long breath, picked up the iced pumpkin juice she had placed aside, and continued to sip it in small sips.

The room fell into an extremely strange silence.

Apart from the whispers of the headmaster portraits watching the fun on the wall, only the faint and aggrieved sobs of the phoenix Fawkes remained.

Dumbledore reached out and gently stroked the beautiful golden-red bird lying beside him. He could clearly feel that Fawkes trembled slightly the moment his hand touched him, indicating that Fawkes' psychological shadow of Elena was more significant than he had imagined.

But the key was, how did she do it...

Dumbledore's left forefinger rubbed back and forth on his wand, his bright blue eyes filled with confusion.

Logically speaking, an adult phoenix Fawkes shouldn't be so easily caught by a little girl who hadn't even learned magic yet, let alone be tormented so thoroughly.

This was the only thing he couldn't understand after listening to everyone's description of what happened in the room.

If phoenixes could be so easily caught and subdued, the magical world wouldn't have rated them as a xxxx-level (dangerous and requiring skilled wizards with specialized knowledge to handle) special magical creature.

"Dumbledore, don't you think your phoenix's mental state is strange?"

At this time, Phileda Spore, who indirectly participated in the chaos, suddenly broke the silence in the room. [Headmaster portrait (see notes)]

Mental state? Dumbledore frowned, carefully observing the phoenix Fawkes. For the first time, a clear expression of fear and unease appeared in its beautiful eyes, as if an animal had encountered a terrifying natural enemy.

Wait... encountered a natural enemy?

Dumbledore suddenly remembered a story Newt Scamander had casually mentioned a few years ago when he returned to school and shared his experiences of observing magical creatures.

A magical characteristic that only appeared in magical creatures, and was extremely rare.

In his long process of studying magical animals, Newt Scamander discovered that some special individuals would be born among magical creatures with powerful magic. Although there would be clear differences in their abilities due to their different species, they all exhibited one extremely obvious common point—these special individuals would spontaneously generate an incredible deterrent force when facing their hunting targets, just like the scent of some carnivorous creatures in the non-magical world would cause their prey to experience muscle stiffness due to fear.

However, when such a situation occurred between magical animals, it wasn't just muscle stiffness. Originating from some mysterious entanglement, it could even affect the magical abilities of the prey being hunted.

Newt Scamander called these unique individuals predators. Their diet range was often more than twice the average of the entire group. If he had been fortunate enough to visit the contemporary British animal ecologist Elton, perhaps he would have proposed a more accurate explanation—the existence at the top of the food chain in the population.

Thinking of this, Dumbledore subconsciously glanced at the harmless-looking Elena, a sense of absurdity rising in his heart. It couldn't be that such a little girl would be connected to some kind of predator, even if she did have half-Veela blood, but Veelas themselves weren't ferocious creatures.

What's more, according to Newt Scamander's research, another crucial point was that all predator intimidation required the hunting target to feel a threat of death, and phoenixes were inherently transcendent beings that were not afraid of death.

"Unless..." Dumbledore raised his head, a layer of light silver light flashing in his eyes, and suddenly asked, "Elena, if I were to give you the phoenix, what would you plan to do with it?"

Give it to her? Elena glanced at the golden-red bird curled up beside Dumbledore with a puzzled look.

"Of course, cut off a wing every day, and then wait for it to liv..."

The little Loli, who was lost in thought, subconsciously answered, but stopped mid-sentence and bit her tongue. "Ptooey, I mean, cut off a piece of fish every day and feed it until it's plump and fat."

As expected!

Dumbledore's face suddenly turned serious. He could feel that the moment Elena's attention focused on the phoenix Fawkes, a very subtle chaos appeared in Fawkes' magic.

The key was, was it the predator characteristic produced by the Veela bloodline, or...?

Dumbledore couldn't help but shudder. This child might be more dangerous than he imagined.

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(Mysterious Journey is begging for food, asking for recommendation tickets for the new book, sob sob sob! The protagonist's cheat device has finally appeared, um, just this one, referring to Mr. Zhao Zhongxiang's "Animal World" and the handsome Bear Grylls's recordings! Righteously asking for recommendation tickets. ~~~ Meow Sob)