Headmaster
Like the sand after a thunderstorm with huge waves, Ginny was stunned in the lounge, wondering how to leave, since it was extremely embarrassing to meet the headmaster now. But Astoria, however, took Ginny by the arm and drew her into the office.
Oh gosh, don't flare up, don't preach at me, please…Ginny knew something like that has happened before.
But it was nothing like what she thought, Dumbledore greeted her with a big smile as soon as she stepped into the office, the weakness and recreate vanished immediately. Ginny felt a sense of relief, but looking at the other two professors, she still went to a corner and sat down.
Dumbledore looked around, white light flashed on his glasses,
"A bit of a summary. First of all, Astoria, why did you steal her thunder again? This is authentic disturbing, luckily there's no mess, what if the situation went out of control? Don't add unauthorized action next time. And Remus, you've been losing concentration, which causes the strange pauses in the scene. I guess you must have forgotten the lines again, have you? Why did you get so poor memory at such young age? Pay attention next time. Severus, you did well today, but the key is that you are not in your character, you're acting too casually. If you don't understand the heart of your role, how can you be realistic?" Dumbledore preached each of them earnestly, and stroked his quite-a-few-feet-long white beard with deep feelings, "we really need to study 'Self-Cultivation of Actors' further."
Everyone stared at a corner of the ceiling, paying no attention to Dumbledore.
"But anyway, today's overall effect was not bad. Sincere appreciation and apology to all of you, I wish I could give the wonderful morning back to you, I really wish," Dumbledore checked the clock on the wall again, "Okay, the game's over for today, I'll send notices if we need to play next time. Thank you."
Two professors left. But Astoria stayed, she frowned in a fret, as if wanted to say something, her sight lingered between Ginny and Dumbledore.
"It doesn't matter, don't mind Miss Weasley, I'll talk to her later," Dumbledore smiled considerately, "you can ask any questions now."
"It's nothing important, but I can't stand this anymore!" Astoria kept her voice as low as she could, her hands pushing against the edge of the desk, "You might be able to get some fun from playing silly, but I can't. You know it, our kind of people only stimulate the others in our kind, it's our nature, the thing we can't stand the most is seeing another person cut a smart figure, and especially this unreasonable provocation, constraining me is simply not allow me to breathe, you were not taking me back here to exercise restraint!"
Dumbledore gave Astoria a glass of water calmly.
"I told you before, restraint is not the destination, but the method."
"But we already broke the limit of patience. Take today's case, for example, I don't think I did anything wrong, this also relates to your dignity, you can't be disgraced like this, even if you can afford the money."
"Astoria, it's my luck that she looks down on me, I hope you feel the same. I worry that if you're too hurry, she will pay all her attention to you soon, nobody knows the price of enraging her, and maybe I'll have to look for another person before the moment. Who, in your mind, will be more suitable than you? Can it be-"
"Stop!" Astoria's voice suddenly went low, "with me here, it will never be his turn."
"I'm sorry, Astoria, but we both know clearly, it is way not enough to sacrifice dignity, if we want to win in this cruel game, there's much more to lose. For example, the time to take a nap, the time to apply a face mask… my time has been taken so much, my skin is getting rough," Dumbledore blinked brightly, "and you have seen the result of impulsion today, I could have got the chance to give a few hundreds of points to Slytherin every month, but almost nothing left because of you."
"Slytherin never cares about superficial glory," Astoria snorted, smiled limply, glimpsed at Ginny, waved her hand and left.
There were only Ginny and Dumbledore in the room. She felt a pair of cunning eyes behind the headmaster's glasses staring at her, felt very uneasy, her sight floating around. She suddenly saw the Sorting Hat was still inverted on the sycamore wood of Fawkes and remembered the story of the Student and Voldemort he told.
I know too much! She worried about what was going to happen to her.
"I have to appreciate our Head Chief for all the furniture here, you cleaned so well."
After a while, Ginny shivered, realizing that the headmaster was talking to her.
"Y-You're welcome…"
Noticing Ginny was staring at the Sorting Hat, Dumbledore walked towards the branch with a grin, picked up the hat to show her.
"Fawkes doesn't want to come out, he likes the nest you gave him."
Looking at the hat's face, Ginny could do nothing but laughed dryly, she knew that the hat must have told Dumbledore everything that happened that day.
"All right, you said that you have to tell me really important things, can you say it now?"
Okay, you can obliviate me, even murder me, but I should pick my side first, if the headmaster knows that I'm on their side, I may survive! Ginny thought, her ideas came to her mouth, rushing out one after another.
"Thank Merlin you didn't use my sister's werewolf potion because that was her nonsense I know a lot of weird things from her for example last year I got a booklet that's the diary she said she destroyed actually she didn't destroy it I have the remain two pages maybe he can tell us something he said he wants to see you I'm ON YOUR SIDE I PROMISE!"
Ginny wanted to continue her incoherent speech, but Dumbledore stopped her.
"Relax, relax, I have plenty of time now, and your next lesson starts one hour later, you can use the clearest way to tell all you want to say. Isn't that the reason that we retard the time for our conversation?" the old headmaster let Ginny sit beside a table in the office, clicked the table with his wand, a bottle of juice appeared, "you can think until you know how to tell."
Ginny thought for a while, her eyes caught Dumbledore's eyes, they were encouraging. She decided not to hesitate, stammering to tell, starting with the things in her childhood. From the silver wand to the recipe of werewolf potion destroyed in the fire, from the weird clutch to Hermione's antibody theory, she became more and more fluently as she spoke, soon she forgot her situation, and who she was talking to, putting the past on the desk one by one, as if telling a story, which is now absolutely clear.
Eventually, she even mentioned the case of eavesdropping outside the headmaster's office and the problem about "obliviate".
"The spell did hit me, but I still remembered everything. Hermione said Snape meant it, but why did he do that? Did you allow Astoria to absorb Fawkes? Does it have anything to do with my sister is Mary Sue? What exactly is Mary Sue? I've been hearing about the word since last year, but I... what I saw inside today... why are you... I mean why did you allow her to treat you like that!"
Dumbledore smiled peacefully.
"It is a pity that your first impression about me is my most embarrassed appearance, but after that, you still trust me so much and tell me what you know without reservation, that's so kind of you, Miss Weasley, to repay, I must give you explanations for your questions, let me think, where to start..." Dumbledore stood up, walked to the window, thought for a moment and said,
"Let's start from the part we both know about. We are both the witnesses of the miracles your sister made since she was born, in your memory, is there anything Aquamarine wanted for but failed to get?"
Ginny recalled hardly, "No, not ever."
"Correct. Think about a child who never failed to get a wanted toy, and eventually never wants, what will happen to this child? That's what Aquamarine was like, toys or snacks wouldn't satisfy her anymore, power and glory became more attractive, and she was not able to stand failure or mediocrity anymore, so to reach her purpose, she could do some dangerous things. You asked about what is Mary Sue, and I can only tell that they are people with great power and the ability to control others. With this power, they can make many wishes come true, and they like to make disasters to get people's attraction, normal people can hardly sense that."
"But she is… conspicuous enough to live normally, what's the point of making such fuss?"
"We have to say that, there is a certain kind of people in this world, who do unnecessary things without any meaning, even without logic, but they do, because they are higher people, this reason makes them do whatever they want, and let many other people pay a lot. As you saw, today, I and the other two professors have to stop all the work and play a game called 'making Miss Aquamarine happy' if she asks us. Fortunately, she likes to tell Professor Snape the things she's going to do, otherwise, we won't be prepared. Do you know why we all obey her? Because we don't want to let her realize that she can't control us, and do more terrible things."
"You are antibodies too, headmaster!"
"Yes, you call it like that," Dumbledore nodded slightly, "this is also what I want to tell you, don't let her know your situation, don't conflict with her directly, we will handle everything."
"Handle… may I ask what are you planning to do with my sister? I don't care, but my mum…"
"You're taking it too seriously, Ginny," the old headmaster smiled honestly, helped himself to some juice, "it's not that bad. Perhaps you figured out that Astoria is also a Mary Sue, they absorb magic or magical creatures to strengthen their power, that's what the silver coins you saw mean. Astoria does nothing more than remove the abnormal power of your sister along with hers. Forgive me about talking about your family member like this, my apology."
"It's alright, they're all true. But you just said that there will be sacrifices bigger than dignity."
"Power worth more than dignity in Mary Sue's mind, doesn't it?" Dumbledore leaned cosily into the chair, "Anything else?"
"I… I won't get obliviated again, will I?"
"Of course not, why will I do that if I chose to tell you?" Dumbledore laughed brightly, "And that doesn't mean anything, do you know why I chose to tell you but others? Not your parents or your brothers? Professor Snape didn't play fake that day, you were fine, because mind-controlling magic doesn't work to antibodies, want to give it a try?"
"No please, I believe it…"
Their conversation went on, when it came to an end, Ginny handed the notebook she mentioned to the headmaster.
"This is the Tom I told you about, I think he was innocent, maybe also controlled. Ah, this morning, he especially asked to see you, so…" Ginny gave the diary to Dumbledore, "may you not let him feel too… awkward."
"As you have said, he is just a memory, a diary, do things at others' command, and he has enough things to stand, It is unnecessary for me to make him feel worse," Dumbledore took the notebook and put it on the desk, "thank you, Miss Weasley, for all you said and did. I suggest you not to pay too much effort to the work of cleaning the office, but, if you want to say something with me, you are always welcomed."
Ginny was deeply moved by the warmth and attitude of the headmaster's appreciation, which strengthened her loyalty to the headmaster.
"Professor Dumbledore," Ginny announced confidently, "I promise to keep my mouth shut about what has happened today, um… can I tell a few trusted friends of mine?"
"How do you recognize a trusted friend?" Dumbledore seemed to be very interested.
"The ones I dare to put my life in their hands."
"Okay."
Ginny said goodbye to the headmaster respectfully, not until a quite long time had passed after she left did Dumbledore sit back to his desk.
"You're still the same, lies come to your mouth," the hat as a nest said sarcastically.
"Basically, I didn't tell lies."
"That's because children are easy to deal with."
"Because they are kind, they expect everything has a happy ending, so they are more willing to believe."
"Will you involve her in this? Is it necessary?"
"If not…" Dumbledore opened the notebook, "that will be so nice."
"You are a curse," continued the hat, "only misfortune comes to anyone who comes to you. See Tom, he's such a handsome boy before you got him to the Aquamarine, but according to Ginny, he was... But he's really tough, not until now is he willing to talk to you."
"Tough? I thought he could have lasted another month. He is a stubborn person, won't bend to anyone easily."
The old headmaster ignored the noisy hat, picked up a quill, dipped it into the ink, and wrote on the pieces of paper:
Tom Riddle, I am Dumbledore, I heard about you from Ginny, don't go around the bush, before Aquamarine Weasley gets a new name, let's work together.
After a long time, another line slowly emerged on the paper.
More than willing to!
Sorry for the wait! Here's the update!
-Yoyo
