A day at Hogwarts.

Chapter 699 Borrowing

The Halloween dinner ended hastily in an eerie atmosphere, and the cheerful melodies swirling in the cafeteria seemed unable to dispel the somber mood that permeated the long tables.

After the students had eaten and drunk their fill, they flocked to the masquerade ball being held upstairs in the castle. The noise, colorful costumes, and strange outfits temporarily masked their unease.

Charles did not join the noisy masquerade party tonight. He quietly slipped away from the crowd and walked up the spiral staircase to the huge, ugly stone monster guarding it.

Dumbledore anticipated his arrival, and the stone monster silently leaped aside, revealing the stairs behind it.

The Hogwarts Headmaster's office was as lively as ever. Most of the portraits of past headmasters on the wall were dozing off, with only one or two occasionally lifting their eyelids to cast a curious glance. Fawkes was standing on his shelf, munching on a pumpkin pie.

Dumbledore sat behind his large desk, his gaze gentle and profound in the candlelight, as he watched Charles sit down across from him and push a plate of roasted nuts toward him.

“Ah, Charles,” Dumbledore’s voice was as calm as ever, gesturing to the snacks for the evening, “I suppose you’ve come about your suspension?”

"Don't worry too much. As the saying goes, 'where there's a will, there's a way.' If you just happen to be sitting quietly in a classroom, I believe no professor would have the heart to turn you away."

This shows that Umbridge's move was unpopular among the Hogwarts professors.

Charles didn't eat any nuts. He leaned back in his chair, relaxed, and showed no sign of frustration or resentment at being severely punished.

He shook his head slightly, looking directly at Dumbledore: "Thank you, Headmaster."

"However, I don't care about the suspension of classes."

He had been thinking about why Umbridge would target him, but he couldn't figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking about it.

The only things one can scheme for are money and sex. Since Umbridge couldn't possibly be after sex, the only thing that comes to mind is money.

As for political connections, Charles felt that Umbridge might have realized that Percy was the only person in the Ministry of Magic who could be considered a true ally on the surface.

He also had another guess: perhaps it was the old man and Grindelwald who were behind it. The old man "knew" that Umbridge had driven out Dumbledore and become headmaster himself, and Grindelwald had some influence in the Ministry of Magic. It wasn't impossible that the two old men joined forces to lead Umbridge to his doom.

Anyway, he couldn't be bothered with it anymore. Judging from the centaur elder's reaction, what happened in that study was quite serious. He decided to focus on dealing with it first.

Dumbledore's eyebrows twitched almost imperceptibly, but he didn't speak; he simply gestured for Charles to continue with his eyes.

“I’ve come today,” Charles said, his tone becoming serious, “because there is something extremely important that I need your help with.”

"Oh?" Dumbledore picked up his teacup, revealing genuine interest.

Charles's gaze passed over Dumbledore and landed on a tall shelf behind him.

There, a worn-out, patched, dirty pointed wizard's hat lay quietly, as if it were just an inconspicuous old ornament.

“I think,” Charles said solemnly, “I’d like to borrow your Sorting Hat.”

A brief silence fell over the office, broken only by the soft hissing of the silver instruments.

"Lend it to me?" A voice, aged, slightly hoarse, yet surprisingly energetic, suddenly rang out from the shelf.

The Sorting Hat twitched its brim, as if it had just awakened from a long slumber, its wrinkled "hat face" turning toward Charles.

"Young Charles Smith, you want to lend me your services?"

"Haha, are you finally tired of the dullness of this old castle and want to take me out to see the world and have a spontaneous trip?"

It seemed to be talking about something long-awaited, reminding Charles of how Harry used to talk about how the old man wanted to take him to the park.

Charles's lips curled up slightly as he said earnestly, "Not so, Your Excellency the Sorting Hat."

“I just want to ask you a question, a question about the history of Hogwarts.” He paused, lowering his voice slightly, “a question related to the secret hidden beneath the covered bridge behind the castle.”

Dumbledore frowned slightly. In all his years at Hogwarts, he had never actually been to the area under the covered bridge.

"What?!" The Sorting Hat's reaction was more intense than anyone could have imagined.

It suddenly sprang up from the shelf, as if the shelf had turned into a furnace, and the wrinkled hat body trembled violently.

At this moment, it no longer emitted its usual teasing or singing, but a sharp, high-pitched screech filled with extreme terror and resistance. The sound was so piercing that it even startled the sleeping portraits of the principals on the wall, who stared in astonishment.

"No! No! We can't ask! That place! That name! It's taboo! It's calamity!"

The Sorting Hat pointed loudly, its tip waving wildly.

Charles seemed unsurprised by the Sorting Hat's strong reaction. He had come to the Sorting Hat today simply to inquire about what had happened back then, just to be on the safe side, but now it seemed the situation had exceeded his expectations.

Once the Sorting Hat's piercing scream subsided, Charles continued in a clear and serious voice, "I have received hair voluntarily donated by my friends from five races: elves, fairies, vampires, centaurs, and Veela."

The Sorting Hat seemed to have been flipped, and the screams stopped abruptly.

It lay stiffly on the shelf, the trembling of the brim of its hat ceasing.

An almost frozen silence fell over the office as Dumbledore looked at Charles thoughtfully.

From this perspective, it's likely that Charles left school to retrieve his hair.

Dumbledore couldn't help but wonder if that secret was really that important, worth the risk.

The Sorting Hat allowed Dumbledore to place himself before Charles.

Its tone was no longer a terrified scream, nor was it as joyful as before; instead, it was solemn like that of a professor giving a lecture.

“You…” it began hoarsely, its voice low and resonant like an echo from the depths of the earth, “You’ve decided to open that door?”

"What lies behind that door is cursed, forgotten, and fantastical, attracting the wands and swords of wizards and fairies, and in the end, only death remains."

Have you made up your mind?

Charles met the invisible gaze that seemed to penetrate his soul, his expression unwavering.

“I have always believed,” his voice was particularly clear and powerful in the silence, “that knowledge itself is neither good nor evil, like a magic wand; the difference lies only in the will that holds the wand.”

Charles looked at Dumbledore's Elder Wand as he said this, and he was speaking to him as well.

The Sorting Hat fell silent, as if it were examining, weighing, and recalling the dust and bloodshed that had been almost forgotten in the long river of time.

After a long while, it slowly spoke in a tone mixed with complex emotions, and even a hint of barely perceptible fear: "Charles Smith, in my long life, I have seen countless souls and witnessed countless ambitions and desires."

“And you…” it paused, the wrinkles on the brim of its hat seeming to coalesce into a heavy expression, “you are the second most evil wizard I have ever seen in this world.”

This assessment was earth-shattering; the portraits on the wall gasped in unison, and even Fox slightly raised his head.

A sharp glint flashed in Dumbledore's eyes, but he remained silent.

Charles merely raised an eyebrow slightly at this terrifying comment.

He neither refuted nor asked who the "First Evil" was, as if he had only heard an insignificant chatter, and slowly reached for the Sorting Hat.

Charles calmly, with unwavering resolve, picked up the silent Sorting Hat from the table and held it in his hand.

The ancient magic hat, which had witnessed a thousand years of history, lay quietly in his palm, as if tacitly approving of his actions.

Dumbledore never said a word to stop him; he simply watched quietly as Charles did all of this.

Just as Charles held the Sorting Hat in his hand, preparing to turn and leave, the headmaster spoke again, his voice as calm as ever: "So, Charles, what are your plans for this period of suspension?"

Charles replied casually, “Perfect, I can focus on my own business.”

After saying that, he held the Sorting Hat, which held an ancient secret, and disappeared behind the slowly closing headmaster's office door.

Dumbledore finished his tea, put the empty cup away, and then Apparated to the covered bridge behind the castle.

He was simply curious about what the secret was below.

It's just that this place is easy to spot. Charles and Harry's trio went down in another place, and Dumbledore was exposed to the cold wind for a long time before he realized what was happening.

From the castle, you can see the covered bridge from the corridor window, and a cat is perched on the windowsill.

She was curious why her best friend was standing on the bridge in the cold wind so late at night.

Was it that Umbridge went too far today, or was he in a bad mood lately because of the strict diet?

Before Miaoge could figure it out, the scene before her made her freeze and almost fall off the castle.

Dumbledore jumped off the bridge!

(End of this chapter)