Tsk!
Dumbledore really is an extremely cunning old fox!
Adelaide sat upright with an expressionless face, but her deep blue eyes were fixed deathly on Dumbledore in front of her, and she even unconsciously began to grind her teeth.
At this moment, her heart was a mix of complex emotions, containing both a burning rage and a hint of indescribable relief.
What infuriated her was that Dumbledore had actually played this trick of acting first and reporting later on her!
He had started laying the trap from the moment she stepped through the door; Haskui and Fawkes had greeted her joyfully together, causing her to lower her guard to the maximum extent. Immediately after, Dumbledore had warmly brought out Lemon Tarts as dessert to entertain her, and was not stingy at all in giving high praise and generous rewards for her outstanding contributions.
Just as she was full of joy and exceptionally excited, she saw Dumbledore himself take the lead in tasting a Lemon Tart—seeing this scene, Adelaide's subconscious told her: since Dumbledore dared to taste this tart so confidently, it must be safe, harmless, and a delicious treat.
Thus, without almost any thought, she subconsciously followed suit and took a large bite of the Lemon Tart in her hand.
The excessive sugar prevented her from tasting any potion in it. Out of politeness, she didn't choose to spit out the food in her mouth, but instead used water to swallow the potion-laced Lemon Tart—and then she fell for it.
It had to be said, Dumbledore's methods were truly too brilliant, making it completely impossible to guard against!
However, this incident also showed that Dumbledore had now truly begun to take Adelaide seriously.
Adelaide also understood why Dumbledore chose to act first and report later. After all, she was currently just a first-year little Wizard, yet she had mastered spells of a level that could destroy a Horcrux and remove a Blood Curse. There was a high probability that someone was behind her—Dumbledore could rack his brain and likely never guess that the backer behind Adelaide was that god-like Merlin; he would only consider that Gellert Grindelwald or some unknown Dark Wizard was the pusher behind the scenes.
By resolving the matter while Adelaide's guard was down, if Adelaide herself had problems, he could take her down immediately; if there were no problems, then a fair trade could also minimize the anger in Adelaide's heart to the greatest extent.
Adelaide sighed, recalling that half a year ago, Dumbledore had thrown her out directly to serve as bait without a second word—but now, facing this mysterious potion that functioned as an equivalent exchange, no matter how annoyed or resentful she felt, Adelaide truly felt embarrassed to have a falling out and throw a tantrum at Dumbledore on the spot.
The only thing she could do was calm her mind and think carefully about what vital questions she needed to ask Dumbledore, so that she could use these three precious opportunities to their extreme and realize their maximum value.
After a moment of contemplation, Adelaide asked her first question: "That night, the situation was already so critical, but why did you remain as steady as Mount Tai in the Great Hall instead of coming out to fight?"
She stared closely into Dumbledore's wise and deep eyes, as if wanting to pry a hint of an answer from them. Facing Adelaide's sharp questioning, Dumbledore appeared exceptionally calm, not even knitting his brows once.
He opened his mouth and answered: "This all began because of a prophecy from Gellert. Just on the eve of the incident, he informed me privately, claiming he saw that your carefully planned actions would succeed; but at the same time, we would very likely be schemed against by Lord Voldemort."
"According to him, Lord Voldemort had not simply placed a single Dark Arts item within Hogwarts; there were even more insidious and cunning methods hidden behind it—a massive and ferocious serpent was lurking within the Slytherin Common Room."
"This snake was intended to take advantage of the moment we were engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the Diadem imbued with Dark Arts to secretly slip into the Great Hall, ruthlessly murder all the students and guards present, and steal their blood to use as a medium for casting evil Dark Arts. It was precisely because of such a terrifying prophecy that I had to remain stationary and stay in the Great Hall to ensure everyone's safety."
Adelaide raised her eyebrows slightly, thinking to herself: A giant snake, does this refer to the fearsome Basilisk, or that mysterious Nagini by Lord Voldemort's side?
With a heart full of doubt, Adelaide threw out her second question: "Did that giant snake really appear? Have you already successfully dealt with it?"
Dumbledore slowly stood up and walked toward a corner of the room with steady steps.
In that corner sat a cubic object tightly covered by a bright red cloth. Dumbledore walked up and reached out to uncover the heavy red cloth, and in an instant, Phoenix Fawkes and the parrot Haskui both bristled their feathers!
A huge cage was revealed before Adelaide's eyes. Inside this cage was imprisoned a Reticulated Python of unimaginable size, its length exceeding ten meters, and its thick body was even thicker than Adelaide's thigh.
This once majestic giant python now appeared listless, as if it had suffered a heavy blow or had been injected with a powerful sedative, slumped lifelessly inside the cage.
Dumbledore gazed at the python in the cage and said with a solemn expression: "Yes, this giant snake did indeed show up. To deal with her, I also spent quite some effort... It's just that I never expected this giant snake to actually be an old acquaintance of mine. I truly don't know what she has experienced all these years to eventually choose to join Lord Voldemort's side."
Speaking to this point, Dumbledore couldn't help but sigh softly, a hint of pity and helplessness showing in his eyes.
Adelaide's brain began to work at high speed. Since Dumbledore called this giant snake an old acquaintance, she could be certain that this giant python was the Blood-Cursed Beastman Nagini!
She still remembered some key information about Nagini—in that hot summer of 1994, Lord Voldemort brutally murdered Bertha Jorkins and used it to split his soul, injecting it into Nagini's body, thereby turning her into a living Horcrux.
The current point in time was earlier than 1994, which meant that today's Nagini had not yet become Lord Voldemort's Horcrux.
With Lord Voldemort's cold-blooded and selfish nature, he naturally wouldn't cherish the current Nagini too much; so it wasn't surprising that he would release Nagini to execute some dangerous tasks.
Just now, Dumbledore had asked her if she could perform the Star Charm again. Could it be that he actually hoped she could help Nagini break the Blood Curse on her body?
Why didn't Dumbledore use this spell himself... Could it be that he didn't know it?
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