Hermione, let's start a revolution from Hogwarts!

"Iced lemonade."

The hideously ugly gargoyle stone beast in the corridor didn't move, so it seemed the password wasn't this one. Nietzsche pondered over Headmaster Dumbledore and the scarce drinks in the wizarding world.

"Sour soda".

With the correct password, the wall behind the stone beast split in two, revealing an automatically ascending spiral staircase. Nietzsche stepped onto one of the steps and began to spin, eventually arriving at a large oak door with gilded edges.

Nietzsche picked up the brass handle and knocked on the door.

"Please come in, the door is unlocked." The oak door opened automatically.

Dumbledore was feeding the extraordinary phoenix Fawkes, and it seemed he had been waiting there for a long time. On the wall, some of the male and female headmasters were dozing off, while others had disappeared somewhere.

Upon hearing footsteps, the principal and Phoenix simultaneously looked up, scrutinizing Nietzsche with great interest.

"Could you remove your beard?" he asked, his tone seemingly casual but actually quite serious.

“I thought you would need more time, but I didn’t expect it to be so quick.” Nietzsche removed his beard and tidied his hair back to its previous disheveled state.

"After I realized what had happened, I went to the auditorium to double-check the number of people. I must say, Miss Granger's imitation was excellent. If it weren't for the flaws you deliberately left, I might have been kept in the dark all along."

By piecing together the fragmented information, Nietzsche understood the general course of events:

With Slughorn's tacit approval, the Polyjuice Potion was tampered with, causing occasional slight deviations in the transformation. Dumbledore could roughly determine that it was Hermione by checking the deviations in the transformation time and 'Veda's' whereabouts.

Of course, what followed was either speculation or they arrested Mavolo and interrogated him for a few questions...

Poor Marvolo Sisyphus.

Dumbledore said in a serious tone, "You could have just told me directly, it would have been a simple matter of a sentence."

He stood up, walked around the table, and sat down at the principal's desk, feigning concern for the students' safety. However, Nietzsche noticed a smile playing on his lips behind his beard.

This is a complete blatant case of false advertising!

So Nietzsche looked at Dumbledore and slowly told a story:

"A young witch, living in a world where two worlds are isolated from each other, was bullied by Muggles. One of her brothers then joined forces with the Sorcerer Party, which was despised by the European Ministry of Magic, and vowed to break the Statute of Secrets."

"But later, due to an accident...like a magical incident, the girl died, and her brother parted ways with the shamans. The sudden tragedy made his thinking extremely conservative overnight."

"This also created a rift between the girl's two brothers, who rarely interacted with each other..."

"Tell me, Headmaster, how can I get a conservative old wizard who has suffered a great loss to lower his guard?"

He watched as the venerable Hogwarts Headmaster, who rarely showed emotion in the face of anything, could no longer remain calm in the context of this story. His long, gray beard trembled with heavy breathing.

But while speaking, Nietzsche also relaxed his brain-blocking technique without any concealment.

They sat across the desk, like soldiers from two different countries separated by a river, warning each other to restrain their magic and not let the unstamped parchment fly around.

Nietzsche hardened his heart and slowly darkened his face.

“Miss Granger? No, I can use anyone to achieve what I want.” He calmly gave the instruction.

If he wanted to... but he wouldn't, because he would always be Sherlock Holmes, not Moriarty who disregarded social morality and had no empathy.

Two pairs of bright blue eyes met, and two different thoughts collided in another realm.

“You’re very tired…” Dumbledore suddenly said.

“Nonsense.” Nietzsche reached into the snack bowl, grabbed a chocolate cockroach that was about to fall out from the edge, and said while savoring the sweetness of the chocolate sauce, “Please, ruling the world and all that... is too cliché.”

He was initially drawn into Moriarty's case, then thwarted the conspiracy, and finally the purge of Downing Street was merely an act of revenge.

In Bane's words: He could be protected by Smaug and Hermione and live a peaceful life. At worst, he could just look for other excitement later.

Nietzsche looked around and noticed a number of exquisitely shaped wine bottles on a long, narrow table.

"Pop---"

He uncorked the bottle and poured the contents into the cup that had appeared out of nowhere.

“You won’t be an adult until next year.” Dumbledore raised his wand, causing some of the slowly falling liquor to drip into his glass after he finished his sour soda. “Also, there’s a small error in the story you told.”

"What... hiccup!" Nietzsche frowned, his mind going over the details again.

As he spoke, a stream of hot gas rose from his stomach, and he exhaled a slender flame like a fire dragon, which made Phoenix Fox chirp happily twice.

“I did not join forces with UMNO. The reason I did not stop UMNO immediately back then was because I was running away – I offered some of their ideas.”

"Before the rise of the Burmese?" Nietzsche pondered the meaning of that sentence, a storm raging in his mind's palace. After taking a large gulp of Dragon whiskey, he said, "You mean Grindelwald... that guy in the school infirmary?!"

With each word he uttered, sparks would drift from his nostrils and mouth with his breath; Smaug would surely have loved to see that.

Dumbledore nodded silently.

"Who killed that girl? I've seen countless people, including myself—blinded by power. For years I've worried that this might repeat itself, until a few days ago I discovered Miss Granger's negligence," the headmaster said.

According to Dumbledore's current thinking, his sister's death is probably not only Grindelwald's fault, but also his own.

That accident was the inevitable result of countless coincidences, and from then on, Dumbledore made himself, and also earnestly hoped, that those with ambitions would stay away from power.

His concern was: if I had never had the idea of ​​breaking the Secret Service Act, would none of this have happened?

The great wizard who single-handedly overwhelmed two generations of dark wizards was now just an old man regretting the past in Nietzsche's eyes, because he saw a tear slide down the corner of the headmaster's eye.

Although the tear hadn't fallen before it was evaporated on Fox's wing.

“Therefore, I respect your choice.” Dumbledore took a deep breath, and a smile returned to his face. “And given the current situation, even if you and Miss Granger were to do something, no one could stop you two.”

Nietzsche pursed his lips and stretched leisurely.

Who knows what relationship Grindelwald, the 'Grendel' professor, has with Dumbledore? It doesn't matter to him. Even if these two people have some great secrets that could shock the wizarding world, he doesn't care.

One question about identity has been raised, and that's all.

“You want to save him, don’t you? To escape death using the legend of the Deathly Hallows,” Nietzsche said softly.

“While searching for the Horcruxes, Gellert paid a heavy price for me as atonement,” Dumbledore explained. “But I can’t find the Resurrection Stone…it should be with the Gaunt family…”

He looked at Nietzsche, as if asking if the matter had anything to do with him.

"Perhaps Voldemort took them; he's very interested in the remaining Horcruxes now."

Dumbledore showed no extra emotion upon hearing the bad news, because he firmly believed that since this matter was related to Nietzsche, there must be a corresponding plan.

So the principal quietly added an ice ball to the fire dragon whiskey, signaling him to continue.

“I had Peter Pettigrew convey a series of misleading messages about your curse, which Voldemort would use to make Hogwarts seem empty and thus launch an attack from the Forbidden Forest in an attempt to gain a foothold…” Nietzsche said.

The Horcruxes may have been taken by Voldemort. Given his strong-willed and mad nature, he will most likely use the Resurrection Stone to blackmail him.

“No, he saw the alliance between Muggles and wizards during the Ministry of Magic War and didn’t intend to take over Hogwarts. His repeated inquiries about the school were to obtain the last Horcrux,” Dumbledore added.

"The last Horcrux is at the school?"

"It's possible. I suspect that while I was getting Armando to refuse his offer to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, he hid Horcruxes somewhere during that time."

Even Dumbledore wouldn't dare boast about the Chamber of Secrets in the school; otherwise, in the second year, it would have been Nietzsche riding a dragon to fight inside, and the headmaster would have been the first to fly in and burn it to ashes with the Ancient Flame.

It's good news, but also troublesome.

Just as his consciousness was clouded by alcohol, Dumbledore pulled a stack of exam papers from under the table.

“These are the exams and OWLs papers you missed before,” the headmaster said. “I don’t want the chocolate card to have a few more paragraphs about how I had a student who didn’t graduate while I was the headmaster of Hogwarts.”

Chapter 381 Daily Life Before the Decisive Battle

Good news: Nietzsche can continue to take a long vacation under the banner of 'Darth Vader'.

Bad news: He has to retake the exam.

After Nietzsche returned to school, Hermione, who had resumed her daily routine, had two more sources of amusement: first, she could go to the Forbidden Forest to tease the dragons; second, she could go to the Slug Club to supervise Nietzsche's make-up exams.

"Is Headmaster Dumbledore planning to retire?" Hermione loved to rest her head on Nietzsche's lap during lunch break after class.

She was very concerned about the principal's retirement plans... no, strictly speaking, she was more concerned about the next principal.

“Yes, he plans to spend his peaceful old age with his old friend in his old house in Neumunga,” Nietzsche said. “That’s how people are when they get old; they feel they’re about to retire, so they look for a place where they can live a peaceful life.”

"Like you?" Hermione took a big bite.

Feeling the stinging pain in his thigh, Nietzsche grimaced, wondering who he had learned this trick from.

Smaug?

"No, no, no, the Holmes family doesn't call this 'retirement.' People like me are just 'on vacation.' For example, my father Sherlock would rather be in the house shooting at the wall than work on an interesting case."

Hermione, however, had long since figured out Nietzsche's sophistry and ignored it.

However, she was puzzled by another detail—Numontard, who had read most of the library and knew wizarding history by heart, clearly remembered that it was a wizarding prison from the First Wizarding World War.

"Isn't Gellert Grindelwald imprisoned there? Why would they choose to go there..."

"Who do you think Dumbledore's old friend is?" Nietzsche prompted.

"Ah...ah?!" Hermione's eyes widened instantly. "Grundal, Grindelwald...it's a variant of that name? So Dumbledore is Beowulf!"

The name references Grendel, a giant from English Saxon mythology. Grendel was a cruel giant with hard, scale-like skin that made him impervious to weapons, a fitting counterpart to Gellert Grindelwald's power.

The giant Glendale was powerful enough to destroy all of Denmark, and even Beowulf could not stop him.

However, he was not without weaknesses. In the story, when Beowulf was captured, his tears of pain fell on Glendale's arm and actually caused a fatal injury to this invincible giant.

“Perhaps Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald with tears back then,” Nietzsche quipped, echoing her words.

It's not impossible, after all, Grindelwald is an old friend of Headmaster Dumbledore, and perhaps there's some magic of 'love' involved.

Nietzsche was writing on his exam paper when Hermione suddenly stood up from between his arms. Because her gaze was downward, he subconsciously glanced at her slightly heaving, beautiful chest, like a mountain.

The way her black school uniform billowed out made her look even more like a proud fire dragon, it was just a pity she didn't have a tail...

To be honest, Nietzsche really enjoyed the feeling of being enveloped by a dragon's tail.

“Speaking of dragons, something comes to mind.” He didn’t realize he’d blurted out, “It’s already November, and I want to have a Christmas this year that’s just for the two of us.”

Hermione raised her foreleg and pressed her claw against his lips.

“First of all, don’t you think you’re being incredibly rude?” Hermione retorted, finding fault with everything she said. “Secondly, did you just mention dragons?”

“I was actually praising you in my heart, look! I just blurted it out, which is enough to prove your charm!” Nietzsche cleared his throat and said softly in a childlike tone of apology, “And of course I wouldn’t forget the formal invitation.”

Praising someone as a fire-breathing dragon... well, that's definitely Nicholas's style of describing others, just like his two Sherlock Holmes like to mock others as goldfish. Hermione was speechless.

She looked down at her body and thought: Judging from her figure and clothes, could she be Smaug's silly Norwegian spineback?