It's obvious that the allure of food varies from person to person.

"Albus...stop spacing out! Is it that the desserts on the table don't suit your taste?"

"..."

The old man didn't answer.

Dumbledore, who had just returned to the Headmaster's office, was standing by the door, studying Grindelwald, who was sitting behind the desk, with a meaningful gaze, paying no attention to the desserts on the table.

A strange and terrible atmosphere gradually spread throughout the room.

"...Um, Headmaster? You probably didn't have a good dinner, here are some desserts I specifically saved for you..."

"..." Dumbledore responded with a calm gaze.

"...Uh...Albus?"

Grindelwald pondered a strategy while trying to shift Dumbledore's attention to the food.

"What did you say to that child earlier?"

"Just some old stories, nothing dangerous, a beautiful love story!"

Grindelwald's clumsy explanation had no effect, only earning him an even colder expression.

Just as Grindelwald was about to try another approach, Dumbledore suddenly sighed, and then, the old man walked over wearily, casually picking up a piece of pudding covered in maple syrup sprinkles and putting it in his mouth.

"Why, when everything is running smoothly, do you still think about adding some unstable variables to it?"

"Well...you know, I'm not entirely optimistic about the future the child described, or how should I put it...fairy tales are ultimately unattainable illusions, and she will eventually have to return to reality."

"You're playing with fire, Gellert! You should know the worst consequences, right?"

"Of course, of course!...Naturally! Don't you want to see where that child's limits are? This isn't learning how to wave a wand in the classroom, this is subverting the whole world! From magic to science, from matter to thought!"

Grindelwald wagged a sugar-dusted finger, grinning carelessly.

"How could I be willing to stand far behind the scenes as a spectator when there are such interesting things? While my name still has some use..."

"You won't succeed. After all this time, you still don't understand the reason for your initial failure—"

Dumbledore looked at Grindelwald calmly, and said softly with a smile.

"I'm not saying there's some huge loophole in your plan, but that child...from the very beginning, she wasn't driven by a thirst for power, hatred, or even protection—our era is over."

"Even if I'm on one side of the scale? My dear Albus, you never believed in conviction."

"No matter who it is, she won't use sacrifice as a bargaining chip, don't you understand? She is different from us."

Dumbledore shook his head and casually waved his right hand.

The next moment, all the portraits in the Headmaster's office that were secretly eavesdropping disappeared behind the curtains.

"Even you, Gellert Grindelwald, she wouldn't allow you to sacrifice yourself to ignite the door to a new world—as for why I didn't stop that young lady who just left the office? I know that's what you want to ask."

Dumbledore said firmly, looking at his old friend of nearly a century with a half-smile.

"I'm just curious, how many more times do you have to fail to understand how terrifying that girl is?"

"More? That's some rather troubling confidence."

Grindelwald raised an eyebrow and snorted softly.

"Hearing you say that, Professor Dumbledore has already seen the ending...I wonder when you mastered the ability of divination?"

"It's just, a little bit of insignificant reasoning."

A smile appeared on Dumbledore's face, his gaze lingered on the messy dining table for a moment, and he suddenly said.

"I almost forgot to ask, is the red wine provided by the Hogwarts kitchen tonight delicious?"

"The same as usual, unfortunately, I didn't give you any—wait?!"

Grindelwald answered casually, his face gradually stiffening.

Along with Dumbledore's inexplicable question, a small detail that he had previously ignored suddenly emerged, and Grindelwald suddenly felt a chill, as if his entire body was injected with ice-cold dry ice.

An indescribable feeling, as if all the moisture in his body was about to turn into sweat and evaporate instantly.

"In Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, even if students and professors eat at the same table..."

Dumbledore said, shaking his head with pity, and took the last piece of jackfruit candy from the petrifying old dark wizard's hand.

"That doesn't mean the table is reliable. Underage children are not allowed to drink alcohol. It seems that you still insisted on this when you were with Ailiana before—don't worry, it's just the simplest delayed petrification potion."

"..."

Grindelwald's body gradually stiffened, his upper and lower jaws locked together, unable to speak.

The dark wizard, who had been almost invincible in the magical world for the first half of his life, could only move his eyeballs, looking at Dumbledore in surprise and doubt.

"Guess what that child said to me when she left the hall? So much so that I had to trot back?"

Dumbledore stood up, stepped over Grindelwald, and pulled a clean syringe from the desk drawer.

"The red wine sent to the upstairs office tonight was mixed with petrification potion. Remember to give Grandpa an injection to control that old guy's precarious blood sugar after you get back, and please pass on a message for me..."

Dumbledore awkwardly opened a bottle of insulin injection, fumbling around Grindelwald's body.

"Those who provoke disputes are punished twice as harshly if they lose—you've already lost miserably."

……

At the same time.

Ravenclaw Tower, girls' dormitory.

"Very good, let it go—there's nothing wrong with this letter."

Ailiana gently stroked the head of the food storage, waved her wand, and the letter on the table was folded and sealed again.

As the underground queen of Hogwarts, she can't monitor all external communications, but it is a basic information security and counter-espionage measure to focus on monitoring those "extradition personnel" from Russia.

Naturally...

"You're free, go and deliver the letter...from the Scottish Highlands to St. Petersburg, that's not an easy journey. Maybe Hogwarts will have to add a geography class afterwards, ur—"

Ailiana flickered with a glittering white light on her finger, gently poking the chubby-faced barn owl that had been caught.

Coo?

Coo! Coo coo coo!

The next moment, the big fat chicken, which was originally a little wilted, instantly regained its energy and fluttered its wings energetically.

Just like the recovery effect on the human body, when the healing runes take effect, they do not distinguish what form of life the other party is. Ailiana discovered this when she stayed at the Scamander's house during the holidays.

Healing is not an instantaneous behavior, which means that it can be improved as a long-term buff.

If you want to give an example, it is roughly similar to optimizing the one-time HP recovery magic in later online games into a HP recovery HOT magic that continuously heals the target for a period of time after being cast on the target.

Because she is not very proficient yet, the duration is not long, but it is still useful to some extent.

"Okay, you've been buffed. Go..."

Ailiana tied the envelope back to its ankle and walked to the window, gently releasing it.

Then, the girl glanced at the girls lined up behind her, and said gently with a half-smile.

"This window is lent to you, remember not to read the letter on my bed, otherwise I will definitely beat you half to death! You know, one of the Caslana family mottoes is to keep promises—okay, I'm going to find Luna."

"Caslana, don't go too far, obviously..."

"If you say one more word, I'll stew your owl! Along with your boyfriend's!"

Ailiana glanced at the girl who fell silent instantly, shook her head helplessly, and threatened fiercely.

"Remember, if you are still by my bed tomorrow morning... hmph, then wait for owl soup!"

With the end of the "Potato War" last semester, the window-side bed in the Ravenclaw dormitory suddenly became very popular.

Of course, this is not because the scenery outside has suddenly become better.

In Hogwarts, where electromagnetic signals are completely shielded, inter-house love can mostly only be conveyed by letters.

As the only two houses in Hogwarts with independent towers as dormitories, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students naturally have unique advantages in pouring out their hearts to each other—unlike Muggle schools with dormitory administrators.

The dormitory order after lights out in Hogwarts relies almost entirely on the management of the prefects of each house.

And when the house prefects, and even the student council president, openly say good night to their "boyfriends" and "girlfriends" in the dormitory with owls, and can say good night to each other until the middle of the night, the few half-open windows that can send owls naturally become the most important "military strategists" must compete for.

Even couples from the same house will secretly send each other messages after lights out.

Of course, in addition to this, there are some more special groups.

For example, those who wait bitterly by the window, watching the dog men and women chatting warmly with envy, while waiting for the echo of their long letters of concern - even if most of the time there is only one sentence, "I'm going to sleep," it is considered a good night to each other.

There are also those single little wizards who sleep peacefully in the corners where the moonlight cannot reach, holding pillows and bedding.

And……

"Ailiana, don't move your hands, I'm sleepy—"

"You're pressing my hair..."

"Oh—then why don't you sleep in your own bed?"

"They're sending letters over there, huff..."

"Then who were you writing to just now? I heard the food storage's voice!"

"Sleeping, sleeping—I'm so sleepy."

"..."

Luna looked at the face so close at hand, and fell asleep in a second. Did she really think she was a three-year-old child?

Then, she turned her head and looked at the window by Ailiana's bed.

Whether it was the food storage or the captured brown barn owl, they had disappeared at this time, leaving only three or four girls wrapped in plush blankets sent by the elves, sitting carefully by the wall waiting for a reply.

Hogwarts students cannot actively summon house elves in the dormitory. This is a privilege that belongs only to a few people.

Luna, who has been studying those magical creatures since she was a child, knows very well that even the house elves in Hogwarts will not act casually without clear orders - taking matters into their own hands is a very serious mistake.

Luna's pale silver eyes looked at Ailiana's slightly twitching ears, and she knew that the girl was not asleep yet.

"Why don't you tell them? There's really no need to be so..."

"What are you thinking? I'm the future Dark Lord—the super fierce kind!"

Ailiana muttered unhappily, tugged at the quilt, and turned to the other side.

She really is that kind of domineering but somewhat gentle witch, Ailiana.

This gave her a baseless premonition: even if Ailiana really became the Dark Lord one day, those guys who stood clearly in opposition to her would probably survive inexplicably, and then everyone would live happily together, right?

…………

"Come, I've specially sorted out some materials, and I'm sending them to everyone now - this is unpublished content - "

Unknowingly, a week of Hogwarts' classes had passed, but Ailiana still found it a little unbelievable whenever she saw Gilderoy Lockhart preparing courseware and explaining behavioral techniques on the stage.

Perhaps it was because the influence of movies and novels in her previous life was too deep, she would still have unreal feelings from time to time.

As one of the most well-known best-selling authors in the magical world, Gilderoy Lockhart still maintains his bursting sense of camera presence, even in courses for first-year students, he maintains an extremely bright smile and a rigorous teaching attitude.

Even if he repeatedly emphasized that most of his previous works were purely fictional, he could not erase the increasingly legendary discussions among the students.

In the eyes of most students, this "Grammar Class" professor, who has never shown magical strength in Hogwarts, may be no less powerful than the four Heads of Houses, and those modest words are just to make them focus on the textbooks.

As the course deepened, any students who were a little smarter could find evidence from the *Lockhart Series Novels*.

Fictional stories have a hard time presenting a sense of realism in detail, and there are no perfect novels in this world.

This is the truth that Professor Lockhart told the students in the first Grammar Class. At the same time, this is also the reason why he requires students to write short essays based on their own experiences - and it has become the core point for students to study.

Except for a few works that obviously use exaggeration, Professor Lockhart's most novels do not lack real details.

In other words...

"Professor Lockhart is not a liar! Ailiana, you're just jealous!"

Hermione flushed angrily, snatching her timetable from the white fluff ball.

On that timetable, all the grammar classes were circled by her with pink hearts - in fact, it wasn't just Hermione who did this, at least one-third of the girls did... especially in Ravenclaw House.

"There have indeed been many female ghost incidents in Bandon, which were finally successfully driven away by a mysterious wizard. Whether it is local reports, or sporadic literature records in the magical world, even the weather is exactly the same as the details Professor wrote in *Break With a Banshee*." (Note 1)

"As for what you said that the professor has never been to Thailand, maybe he just heard it from somewhere..."

Hermione Granger glanced at Ailiana and raised her chin proudly, "That can only mean that you didn't read the professor's book *Break With a Banshee* seriously at all. The place the professor said in the book is in Ireland, and it has nothing to do with Thailand!"

"Eh? Ah this—" Ailiana blinked.

This wave, the wave of betrayal is finally not jkr, this time it is changed to a certain publishing house...

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Note 1: (free)

In many translated books, even on Baidu Encyclopedia, *Break With a Banshee* is written as "Waeng" instead of "Bandon", based on the line Gilderoy Lockhart once said: "I didn't get rid of the female ghost of Waeng by smiling."

Most non-deep hp book fans will be misled by the translation and mistakenly think it refers to Waeng in southern Thailand. (Click to expand)

Unfortunately, Rowling is not referring to "Surat Thani Province" in Thailand, but to the hometown of the banshee - Ireland, a town in County Cork, the "Bandon" located in the wide valley of the Bandon River.