Hogwarts: Voldemort, don't stop me from studying

"—Wead Grey?" Dumbledore asked tentatively.

"Yeah, who else could it be?" Professor Flitwick walked away with a brisk step, humming a song.

Dumbledore looked down and saw that there was still nothing on the parchment Flitwick had given him except Flitwick's name.

Then came Pomona Sprout.

"I thought about it, who else can I give this to except you?" The witch smiled gently and said, "I'm looking forward to your contact at any time."

Minerva McGonagall was next. She saw that Dumbledore already had a small stack in his hand and handed him one with some displeasure: "Oh, I thought I was the first one. I didn't expect Pomona to be so fast!"

In fact, she opened the other gifts first, and by the time she found this one, it was already a little late.

Finally, it was Snape's turn. He handed over a notebook.

"Hmph." The Potions professor said coldly, "I kept my own one. I don't need the others. Useless contacts will only waste my time."

Dumbledore: ...

So everyone has it and he's the only one who doesn't know what it is?

Chapter 49 Love is the greatest magic

"Wait, Severus."

Just as Snape was about to turn around and leave, Dumbledore stopped him and asked calmly, "What is this?"

He raised the parchment in his hand.

Snape was stunned for a moment, and then his eyes became a little strange.

"You do not know?"

"It's obvious - I don't know everything people like to say I do. In fact, I often feel like I know very little."

Snape looked Dumbledore up and down, as if he was looking at a giant monster dancing ballet on tiptoe. The corners of his mouth curled up, as if mocking or gloating:

"How bizarre - someone gave me a Christmas present but not the great Dumbledore?"

Snape's harsh tone did not change Dumbledore's expression. The old headmaster simply drew out his wand and waved it at the gift boxes all over the room. The Potions Professor could not help but look over.

The gift boxes swayed slightly, and then stopped.

Dumbledore sighed regretfully and said, "It seems that there really is not."

"Oh." Snape responded dryly.

He had just seen it - Dumbledore's room was piled high with gifts, almost to the ceiling. Thinking of the few gift boxes in his bedroom, Snape suddenly lost the mood to laugh.

In fact, he didn't care about the amount of the gift at all - he just didn't want to see others showing off unintentionally -

Snape flicked his finger and a piece of paper shot towards Dumbledore like a bullet.

“Here are the instructions.”

When Dumbledore took the note, Snape had already turned and walked away. The white-bearded headmaster pushed his glasses, then looked down and soon figured out how to use it.

"Oh - an invention that could replace the Muggle telephone? Interesting idea -"

He chanted the spell and examined the magic on the parchment - or the friend's book.

"Ingenious idea, genius combination... It seems that Mr. Gray's study of alchemy has achieved initial results - and he is very talented - no wonder Murray is so proud -"

Thinking that he was the only one who did not receive a gift, Dumbledore recalled the expressions of the children that day and vaguely understood something.

"So that's how it is... a smart and sensitive child... is that so? Unlike Harry, this child probably doesn't like being led -"

He seemed to be talking to himself, but soon, an old, small voice was heard in the room.

"Ralph has rarely seen an eleven-year-old like this," the voice said. "A bit like Albus Dumbledore in his time; a bit like Tom Riddle in his time - clever, insightful, and different."

Dumbledore looked down and said modestly, "Oh, you think too highly of me. At the age of eleven, I knew as much about alchemy as any ordinary child."

Standing in front of the fireplace, where his eyes were focused, was a very old house elf. His skin was wrinkled, and he was wrapped in a tea towel with the Hogwarts emblem on it. His ears were covered with fluffy white hair. He was so thin that it seemed like his body could be easily broken, but his big green eyes were very clear.

In that whisper, he said, "Albus Dumbledore is so arrogant. By saying this, he is acknowledging that he is different and that he should know everything."

"Don't be so blunt, my dear Ralph." Dumbledore said helplessly, "You see me too clearly, and often make me feel ashamed."

He wiped his glasses, sat down at the table, and asked softly, "Can you help me sort these gifts? I need to write something."

"Ralph is at your service, Master."

The house-elf bowed, stepped back, and held out his long, thin fingers.

The gift boxes that filled the room unpacked themselves, books quickly entered the bookshelves and were arranged neatly, and clean food jumped into the cabinets, and the cabinet doors closed with a "snap". Various greeting cards and letters fell into several boxes and were neatly stacked on the table, waiting for Dumbledore to have time to check them. Other items were placed in various corners of the room.

As for the gifts with problems, they gathered into a ball and were ruthlessly squeezed and crushed by magic.

Not long after, Ralph disappeared from the room along with the "garbage" and other things like wrapping paper.

There were only two or three gift boxes left on the table that had not been opened - those were the ones that only Dumbledore could open personally.

While the elf was busy, Dumbledore wrote his name on each friend's book - [Albus Dumbledore].

All the professors who stayed in the school during the Christmas holidays had no family, and perhaps even no relatives. They all chose to give Dumbledore one of the pages of their friend's book, which was limited to one-on-one contact.

So Dumbledore, who did not receive a Book of Friends as a gift on Christmas, still had a Book of Friends that was thicker than anyone else's this morning.

After closing the Book of Friends, Dumbledore sat at the table and thought for a long time. The light and shadow of the years passed before his eyes, creating ripples in the depths of his blue eyes.

Are they similar? Of course they are.

Thinking back carefully, the look in Wade Grey's eyes that day in the crowd was so similar to that of my younger self.

But Dumbledore would never forget how he had messed up his life.

After pondering for a long time, he carefully picked up the pen and wrote a letter -

Dear Murray,

I have received the gift brought by your owl. I have to say that it is very clever - even great. It is hard to imagine that this is the work of an eleven-year-old child... Of course, to some extent, its composition is actually simple and easy to understand. But it is precisely because of its simplicity that it is more amazing. I think you can understand what I mean... I can almost see that it will bring earth-shaking changes to the wizarding world in the future...

To be honest, this makes me both happy and scared - what kind of education should we give to such a talented child?

The last time I met such a smart and trembling student was fifty years ago... You should also remember that student - Tom Riddle... I am not so arrogant as to think that my personal attitude determines Voldemort's life. But I also have to admit that my education of him is undoubtedly a failure...

A talented and precocious person, whose emotions are restrained by his thoughts and isolated by his own wisdom... Even if he stands among countless people, he is lonely, because his mind and sharpness make it easier for him to see the selfishness, greed, ugly desires, and paranoid arrogance in human nature... He will keep a certain distance from others, and use humor, kindness, or politeness to disguise his inner disappointment and indifference to human nature... He will lose his way more easily than those clumsy children...

You know, I'm not just talking about Tom Riddle, and I'm not just talking about Vader Grey.

So, here are some perhaps unsophisticated suggestions for your student Vader...

Dear friends, when we adults face children who are much younger than us, we often become conceited because we have more knowledge and experience. We look down on those children with a sense of superiority, holding absolute power like a monarch, instilling the information we want them to know, keeping the information we think they should not know, and using words to manipulate them and guide them in the direction we want to see.

What arrogance this is!

What’s even more dangerous is that we are often unaware of this arrogance.

Because we think we are all making the right decisions to make them “better people”…

I can't say that this is absolutely wrong, because children's thoughts are often immature, and they don't know how to restrain their words and actions. If they are not properly guided, they can easily go astray and cause harm to themselves and others... But for students like Wade Grey, ordinary education may only have the opposite effect...

If there is any revelation I have gained from my many years of failed education, it is that love is the most difficult and most powerful magic in the world. It is mysterious and hard to guess, but it can change everything and determine everything...】

Chapter 50 Dress Robe

On Christmas Day, the Gray family had a big dinner, watched a musical, and took a lot of photos. The old camera they used was a Christmas gift from Ferdinand to Wade, and Fiona's gift was developing solution.

"This is a camera I bought in Diagon Alley. They said it can be used in Hogwarts." Ferdinand smiled and said, "This way you can take pictures of your life at school."

"The owner of the ice cream shop in Diagon Alley told me that as long as the correct developing solution is used, the people in the photo will move!" Fiona said excitedly, "So what are we waiting for? Let's take a photo today!"

But after taking the photos, they realized that even a small task like developing photos required a wand, but Wade was not allowed to use magic at home.

Looking at the disappointed Fiona, Wade suggested, "In fact, we can go to the Leaky Cauldron and stay overnight - there are many adult wizards there, and even if magic is used, the Ministry of Magic will not be sure who did it, and they will not receive a warning letter."

Fiona was a little tempted, but still shook her head: "Forget it, if you are discovered, it will have a very bad impact on you! Anyway, you will be back to school in a few days..."

As she spoke, she became sad. Even before Wade left, she already began to miss him.

Ferdinand frowned and said, "Weid, is the accuracy of the Ministry of Magic's law enforcement very low?"

"We can only monitor a rough range of underage wizards' use of magic. As for other things—" Wade thought about the Ministry of Magic's increasingly poor performance year by year in the plot, "—it seems that other things are not very good either."

"Don't underestimate the Ministry of Magic, Wade." Ferdinand warned: "There is no law enforcement agency that is not a violent agency. If you can't face it, it is easy to make wrong judgments."

Wade said seriously, "I know, Dad."

Indeed, the Ministry of Magic, which he now despised, could put professors under Dumbledore in Azkaban and had the power to expel students from Hogwarts. This power had not been weakened much by the bloatedness, corruption and incompetence of the Ministry of Magic - on the contrary, incompetent and corrupt people were more likely to abuse power.

The next day, the Gray family got up early because they were going to Diagon Alley for shopping, which was bound to take a long time.

Still going to Gringotts to exchange money first, Ferdinand had already prepared a heavy bag.

"The goblins don't like paper money," he explained to Wade. "If it's paper money, the maximum you can exchange is 20 galleons. The limit for coins is higher, but if you use gold, there is no limit. Goblins like gold very much."

"I don't need that much money, Dad." Wade persuaded: "Hogwarts provides food and accommodation, and some students only need 10 Galleons a year."

"That's because they can only buy second-hand goods for everything. They can't buy snacks, and they even have to save ink." Ferdinand touched his head: "Your shortcoming is that you are too sensible, Wade. Sometimes you can be a little willful."

"And aren't you learning alchemy?" Fiona shook her finger. "Don't try to lie to me! Even if I don't know magic, I know that learning alchemy must cost a lot of money. Hogwarts can't provide you with unlimited materials for practice, right?"

Wade pursed his lips and said softly, "Thank you, Dad and Mom - I love you."

He has been introverted since he was young, and it is difficult for him to say "I love you", which is an expression that ordinary children are accustomed to. When Mr. and Mrs. Gray heard it for the first time, they were very surprised. They looked at each other and couldn't help smiling.

"I love you too, baby." Fiona said gently.

On the way thereafter, Fiona held Wade's hand tightly.

When it was Garlon's turn, Ferdinand left for a while, and Fiona accompanied Wade to Madam Malkin's robe shop.

Hogwarts uniforms are loose robes, even if Wade grows three centimeters taller, it still fits. But considering that he will definitely continue to grow taller next semester, Fiona decided to order two more uniforms for him.

"We also need a dress robe." Fiona said as she discussed the lining style with Madam Malkin, "A simple one is fine, and the color shouldn't be too flashy, as Wade doesn't like it. We need it by this afternoon at the latest. If we can't make it in time, ready-made clothes will also do."

"Dress robes?" said Wade, who was standing nearby as a clothing display stand.

"Silly question, Wade." Fiona said softly, as if she was talking to a child, "Are you going to wear your school uniform when you go to Professor Murray's party tomorrow? Oh, you should have told me earlier so that I could have a suitable one tailored for you."

Wade actually thought there was nothing wrong with the Hogwarts robes, and the dresses displayed in Madam Malkin's robe shop were very similar to his school robes.