"Oh! Good God, good God!" he exclaimed.

Kyle and Harry followed his gaze.

The first thing they saw was a well-kept path with neatly manicured gardens on both sides, but what stood out from the crowd was the house that looked like it had been blown up by a blasting curse.

The front door was reduced to a pile of broken wood, with only a small piece the size of a table left hanging crookedly on the door frame.

Dumbledore looked around and whispered, "Kyle, Harry, draw your wands and follow me."

He walked carefully up the garden path, followed by Kyle and Harry.

Then Dumbledore pushed open the front door, wand raised in his hand.

"Lumos."

The situation in the room was even worse than outside. It was a mess, as if everything had been turned out. A piano was overturned on the ground, with keys scattered everywhere.

There were also broken vases, glass fragments, and various cushions scattered all over the floor.

In addition, there was a large bloodstain on the wall that was blindingly red.

"Something terrible must have happened here," Dumbledore whispered.

But the nervousness in his tone had disappeared, replaced by a bit of... well, affectation.

"Yeah." Kyle nodded and said, "Harry, can you help move the piano onto the armchair? I feel like there should be something underneath it."

"Huh? Oh, okay."

Although Harry didn't understand why the piano was placed on the sofa, since Kyle said so, there must be a reason for it.

So Harry obediently pointed his wand at the piano.

The piano slowly floated up, and then, at Harry's command, landed on the upside-down armchair.

The next second, the armchair screamed, "Ouch, take it away!"

Harry was startled, his hands shook, the spell was interrupted, and the piano fell heavily to the ground.

The screams got louder, sounding like a mandrake that had just been plucked out.

Dumbledore waved his hand just in time and moved the piano aside.

"Good evening, Horace," said Dumbledore, smiling. "I hope you are all right."

Harry stared in amazement. In the blink of an eye, the armchair just now turned into a bald, fat old man squatting there.

He held his waist, squinted one eye, and looked at Dumbledore with tears in his eyes.

"That was a piano, why didn't you stop them..." He struggled to get up, "Do you know how painful that was?"

"I'm sorry, Horace," said Dumbledore, "but it's not my fault. Your Transfiguration was flawless and I didn't notice it."

"Even though you said that..." The fat old man looked at Dumbledore angrily, but he didn't seem to be that angry anymore.

"Well, there's really no way around it. I should have taken some Felicis beforehand."

He sighed heavily, and the tips of his beard on both sides were blown up.

"Shall we help you clean up?" asked Dumbledore.

"Please, I really need to rest for a while."

Dumbledore smiled and nodded, "How about leaving it to you, Kyle, Harry? Oh, I forgot to introduce you, this is my old colleague, Horace Slughorn."

"No problem, Professor," Kyle said, waving his wand.

The furniture jumped back to their original positions one by one, the broken vases and glass returned to their original shapes in mid-air, and the piano keys on the ground returned to the piano...

On the other side, after hearing what Dumbledore said, Slughorn suddenly stopped rubbing his waist and immediately looked at the two of them with his round eyes.

His eyes immediately fell on Harry's forehead and the lightning-shaped scar.

"Oh, he couldn't be..."

"Yes, Harry Potter." Dumbledore said with a smile, "There is another one you should have heard of, Kyle Chopper, the youngest recipient of the Order of Merlin, formerly a second-class..."

"Wait, what does this mean? I haven't heard of a new first-class medal in the wizarding world recently."

"Oh, this is inside information. Cornelius seems to be interested in boosting the morale of the wizarding world." Dumbledore said calmly, "The youngest recipient of the first-class medal is a good topic."

As they talked, the whole room had become brand new, and even the bloodstains on the wall had all fallen into a small glass bottle.

Kyle studied the bottle.

Well, the dragon's blood has been stained with dust and is no longer suitable for brewing potions... What a pity.

Kyle put the bottle in his pocket.

"Oh, that's my last bottle." A trace of heartache flashed in Slughorn's eyes, but he didn't care about it at the moment.

"Don't think you can convince me with this, Albus. I've said it many times before. The answer is no."

As he said this, his eyes kept glancing at Kyle and Harry.

"Will he really get the first-class medal?"

"It's just that Cornelius has this idea." Dumbledore said, "Well, let's not talk about this anymore. Why don't you buy me a drink? Just think of it as a way to reminisce about the past."

"Just one drink, then," said Slughorn, and he stood up, took a few glasses from the shelf, and poured a little more mead into them.

There was really only a little, probably just enough to cover the bottom of the glass. It was obvious that he really wanted Dumbledore to finish the drink quickly and leave.

Kyle and Harry also got a cup, of course, it wasn't much, maybe just enough for a mouthful.

"Thank you." Dumbledore took the cup and didn't seem to mind at all. Instead, he took a sip with great joy. "It tastes really good. It doesn't seem like the product of the Leaky Cauldron."

"Of course, this is the collection of the Oak Barrel Bar, which uses honey from three-tailed bees." Slughorn said proudly, "I stopped by when I went to Romania before, and bought it from the boss at a high price."

Oak Barrel Bar? Kyle always felt that the name sounded familiar, and then when he heard Romania, he suddenly remembered it.

The bar in the gathering place next to the Fire Dragon Sanctuary seems to be called this name... Strange, didn't Charlie say that their signature drink is brandy? Kyle picked up the glass and took a sip, then put it back.

Very good, now it is certain that Slughorn has been taken advantage of.

He had drunk three-tailed bee honey at Newt's place, and there was none of that unique sweetness in this wine.

It's not surprising, it's the normal operation of the Oak Barrel Bar... Chris was also cheated before and bought two bottles of fake brandy, but later Charlie took it to exchange for two real bottles.

Kyle put the cup down silently without cracking it.

Maybe it was because he had been so tense these past few days, but after taking a sip of wine, Kyle suddenly felt a little sleepy and sat there in a daze.

Not sure how much time had passed before he suddenly heard someone calling his name.

"Kyle... Kyle..."

"Ah, what's wrong?" Kyle suddenly woke up and turned to look at Harry who was pushing him.

Dumbledore had gone somewhere and there was only one person left beside him.

"Nothing," said Harry. "Mr Slughorn just asked you which house you were in."

"Oh, she's in the same house as your father." Slughorn didn't care. "But I like your mother more. She's smart, rational, and confident... She was the pride of the entire Slytherin family."

He took a sip of mead, as if lost in some memories, "Of course, as a teacher, I shouldn't favor students, but I do favor her.

"I still remember that in order to seek justice for your father, she beat a fifth-year student into the school hospital for a week, and then blocked him in the common room, scaring him so much that he didn't even dare to leave the dormitory.

"This kind of bad behavior should have been punishable by solitary confinement, but I didn't do that. I just deducted ten points from her score."

"Ah, please don't misunderstand me."

Slughorn quickly added: "I am not encouraging you to break the school rules. It was because of a reason. The student said a very vicious swear word to her friend in front of her, and that word is absolutely not allowed to appear in the school.

"Your father wanted to go up and reason with him, but he was also ridiculed without any reason. To be honest, I still insist that his subsequent consequences were his own fault."

"Of course, I still say that I don't encourage you to break school rules."

Harry discovered that Slughorn had been looking at him intentionally or unintentionally while he was speaking, as if this matter had something to do with him as well.

But just when he was about to ask, the other party directly changed the subject.

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Perhaps he felt it was inappropriate to discuss this topic with students, so Slughorn stood up and said, "Come on, I'll show you my students."

He led the two to a cabinet, pointed to some photo frames on it and said, "These are all. You will see Barnabas Guffey, the editor of the Daily Prophet. He is always interested in listening to my opinions on current affairs... and your father, Kyle. He was also one of my favorite students at the time. I always felt that he possessed all the qualities that a Hufflepuff should have... Oh, here he is."

Slughorn pointed to a photo frame. "Originally your mother was in the photo, but then for some reason she disappeared from the photo... I'm sure you can understand why, right?"

Kyle nodded.

It should be because Diana entered the Department of Mysteries, but he didn't know the more specific reason.

Slughorn introduced a few more names, basically all of whom were very famous people in the wizarding world.

Kyle was looking at the picture while Harry was talking to Slughorn.

"I think that as long as Dumbledore is the headmaster, the school staff will be safer than most people. It is said that Voldemort is only afraid of him..."

Harry suddenly shouted, startling Kyle.

Slughorn was absent-minded, as if considering his words.

"Speaking of safety..." Kyle walked over and asked in a low voice: "Harry, do you know how Umbridge is doing?"

"I don't care what happens to her..." Harry said with his neck stiff, and sighed after a moment, "Well, I didn't expect someone like her to insist on opposing the Death Eaters, but the newspaper only said that she was attacked, but what happened afterwards, I don't know.

"But I heard from Ron that St. Mungo's has been surrounded by Aurors, especially the ward where she is."

Slughorn fell silent again.

He had to admit that this incident also touched him a lot. Umbridge was attacked by Death Eaters in St. Mungo's, under the eyes of so many wizards. What about him? Since he didn't join the Death Eaters, it was impossible for the Death Eaters to regard him as a friend. In this case, maybe it would be safer to be with Dumbledore...

Just as he was thinking about it, Dumbledore walked into the room at this moment.

"You're back, Albus." Slughorn came back to his senses and said, "Why did you take so long? Did you have a stomachache?"

"No, I was flipping through some Muggle magazines," said Dumbledore. "Well, Harry, Kyle, we've been bothering Horace for a long time, it's time to leave."

"You guys are leaving?"

"Yes." Dumbledore said, "It's already very late. Kyle has to go to work at the Ministry of Magic early tomorrow morning. If it's any later, it might affect his rest."

"Wait, to work at the Ministry of Magic?" Slughorn couldn't help but say, "So that's true, he was hired on special grounds?"

"Of course." Dumbledore nodded. "Didn't you read the newspaper? He has been in the position of Senior Minister's Assistant for nearly half a year."

"A senior assistant to the Minister who hasn't even graduated yet..." Slughorn muttered to himself, his eyes flickering.

"Goodbye then." Dumbledore walked to the door. "Although I am sorry that I cannot work with you again, you can always come back to Hogwarts if you wish."

"Goodbye," Harry said, waving.

As the three of them walked out of the room, they heard a shout behind them.

"Okay, okay, I'll do it!"

Slughorn ran out breathlessly, "I must be crazy, but yes, I am willing to go back to Hogwarts."

"That's great." Dumbledore said with a smile. "Then, Horace, I'll see you on September 1st."

"All right, no problem," Slughorn muttered. "I'll ask for a raise..."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't have the final say on this." Dumbledore turned his head and glanced at Kyle. "In fact, someone can make me pay 50 Galleons less every month with just one word."

"Really?" Slughorn's eyes brightened.

Although he didn't know what happened, the fact that the principal's salary was deducted at will showed that Kyle had real power, not just a position.

"It doesn't matter." He said with a smile, "Salary and the like don't really matter. I just... miss my old colleagues a little bit. How are Minerva and Filius?"

"All is well," said Dumbledore, smiling.

"See you on September 1st, then," said Slughorn, waving his hand.

The three of them set out onto the path outside again.

"Professor Dumbledore..." Harry asked in a low voice, "Why did Slughorn suddenly agree?"

"You should call him Professor Slughorn now," Dumbledore corrected him. "I think he has seen the benefits of returning to Hogwarts."

"benefit?"

"Yes, like you and Kyle."

Dumbledore went on to say: "Slughorn likes material enjoyment and likes to make friends with famous, successful and powerful people. But he is special. The people he makes friends with have all climbed up the ladder since their student days.

"And he has a very unusual knack for selecting people who will go on to become successful in all walks of life."

"I see." Harry nodded. "No wonder he agreed immediately after knowing that Kyle was a senior ministerial assistant."

"You have a part to play in this," said Dumbledore. "The Boy Who Lived, or as the newspapers now say, the Saviour..."

Harry couldn't help but shudder when he heard the name. He didn't like this title, and he didn't think he had done anything.

It was nothing more than someone digging up what he had said before about the mysterious man's comeback.

They walked a little further.

"Okay." Dumbledore stopped and turned around and said, "I may be very busy later. If you have any urgent matters, Newt can find me."

Kyle nodded, "I see."

"So, do you need me to take you back?"

Kyle could see that Dumbledore seemed to want to say something to Harry alone, so he shook his head.

"No, Professor. I can go back by myself."

After saying that, he waved to the two of them and disappeared on the spot.

(End of this chapter)