"Good afternoon, Professor."
Albert knocked on the door of the headmaster's office and greeted the old man behind the desk with a smile. He was actually a little surprised that Dumbledore knew he was at Hogwarts.
However, if you think about it carefully, it is not surprising. After all, this is the other party's nest that has been operating for many years. There was also the invasion of Sirius before, so it is normal to arrange some defensive and alert measures.
If it were him, he would definitely have similar defensive measures to prevent someone from sneaking into Hogwarts School without his knowledge.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Anderson. How is Mr. Diggory?"
Dumbledore put down the Daily Prophet in his hand, looked up at Albert who knocked on the door and walked into the office, and gave him a gentle smile as if he had met an old friend.
"He's awake. Madam Pomfrey said that Cedric will be fine after a few days of rest." Albert walked to the chair next to the desk and sat down. "I hope you can allow him to recuperate here for a few days. St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries is not safe right now."
"Of course." Dumbledore glanced at the newspaper headlines beside him and asked with a smile, "What would you like to order?"
"milk tea."
"I just heard about that from Scrimgeour. You did the right thing. Now is not the time to confront You-Know-Who."
A cup of steaming milk tea appeared out of thin air in front of Albert with a wave of the magic wand. The principal then handed Albert the newspaper he had just finished reading. The latest headline in the newspaper was:
Cassandra Wabraski, the author of "The Future Is Not Enough" and master of prophecy, disappeared inexplicably at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
"I suspect Ms. Wabratsky has been captured by Voldemort." Dumbledore put a large spoonful of honey into his cup of milk tea, stirred it gently with a spoon, took a sip and said softly.
"No doubt about it, Ms. Wabraski was captured by the You-Know-Who." Albert also drank a sip of milk tea. After meeting Dumbledore's inquiring gaze, he calmly explained: "He tried to divine my location through Cassandra Wabras. I have to say that the You-Know-Who has become smarter than before. This is not good news."
"This is indeed bad news." Dumbledore stared at the man in front of him. He did not feel worried about him. He knew that Voldemort could not do anything to Albert, but he still reminded him, "You'd better be careful recently."
"As long as I stay within the protection range of the Fidelius Charm, he can't do anything to me." After thanking Dumbledore for his reminder, Albert directly brought the topic back to the point: "Okay, Professor, I don't think you came to me for this matter!"
Dumbledore seemed happy to finally get to the point. He raised his charred palm and said softly, "I have a very important plan."
Albert had already guessed what Dumbledore's plan was, but he didn't respond and let Dumbledore continue.
"Snape is one of ours."
He suddenly said this without any context.
Albert still didn't say anything, as if to say, "I'm listening, please continue."
"I think you may have predicted that I will be killed by Snape in the near future." Dumbledore's eyes flashed with a strange light. Looking at Albert with a blank expression, he continued, "That was part of the plan. I let him kill me on purpose. I'm dying soon anyway, so I might as well make good use of my last remaining energy."
"It's really surprising." Albert asked in a puzzled tone, "But why are you telling me these things?"
"Because this plan is important and will revolve around my death."
Dumbledore spoke of his own death in such a nonchalant manner that those who didn't know would have thought he was talking about what he was going to eat later!
"This plan is very important. I know you don't trust Severus, but he is trustworthy, at least..."
"To be honest, I don't think Snape is that trustworthy, but I think you came to me because you don't want me to disrupt your plan." Albert said he could understand, "If possible, tell me about your plan."
"I don't have much time left to live, and Voldemort just happens to send someone to assassinate me?" Dumbledore's expression was quite interesting when he talked about this.
"Mr. Malfoy?" Albert said suddenly.
"It seems that you know something."
"No, there is no need to know. It is not difficult to guess. Lucius Malfoy caused the deaths of so many Death Eaters. The You-Know-Who must want to kill him, and he chose to kill his son to punish Lucius for his failure. Of course, I never doubt that the You-Know-Who will kill Malfoy in the near future." After drinking the milk tea in the cup, Albert looked at Dumbledore and asked, "So, you want to save that Malfoy by the way, and use the other party's assassination to complete your important plan?"
"Yes." Dumbledore smiled and said, "Mr. Malfoy's assassination plan is completely under my control. Severus will be responsible for guiding him."
"Most people would want to try and prove themselves," Albert reminded, "especially children. They won't give up easily."
"Honestly, I don't think Snape can convince Mr. Malfoy. Perhaps Mr. Malfoy would be more willing to try his new idea, which may cause a Hogwarts student to be hurt or even lose his life."
"Thank you for your reminder. I will remind Severus to pay attention to this." Dumbledore narrowed his eyes and thought of the possibility that Albert mentioned. He felt it was necessary to talk to Severus about this matter again.
"According to the original plan, Mr. Malfoy would have a group of people come to Hogwarts to kill me."
"This plan is quite stupid. If you hadn't said it, I would have suspected that his brain was hit by a door." Albert sneered unceremoniously, "Going to someone else's base camp to assassinate their leader is simply the same as committing suicide, not to mention a place like Hogwarts where you can't even Apparate. It's definitely a group of people committing suicide."
"Isn't this great?" Dumbledore said calmly, "We can use this opportunity to strike a blow against the Death Eaters."
"Are you sure they will be fooled?" Albert asked suspiciously.
"They will," said Dumbledore firmly.
"It seems that you have also discovered the Death Eaters' weakness." Albert said suddenly.
"Weakness?" Dumbledore seemed very interested in this.
"Stupid and arrogant, they have all the drawbacks of inbreeding." Albert expressed his disgust and malice towards the Death Eaters without reservation. "How do you plan to die? Are you going to be besieged and killed by a group of Death Eaters? Or do you plan to let Snape stage a stabbing for you, and let him sneak attack you from behind when you are dueling with the Death Eaters?"
"Honestly, I don't believe that You-Know-Who would believe such nonsense. The one who knows you best is always your enemy. This saying makes a lot of sense. I believe that You-Know-Who would not be so foolish as to think that you are only this level, and he would not believe that you would be killed by a group of inferior Death Eaters."
"No, you think too highly of Voldemort. He doesn't really care about these things. All he wants is to kill me, no matter what means he uses. I think compared to killing me, everything else is not worth mentioning, because that means his obstacles are gone, and he is far less vigilant against you than I am."
"He doesn't dare to confront you head-on, but he dares to come after me." Albert did not deny this, and he didn't think there was anything about him that would alert Voldemort.
He believed that Voldemort would think the same way, which was good news for Albert. It meant contempt, and nothing was more deadly than contempt for the enemy.
"I found a cave, well, it's probably the cave where Voldemort hid his Horcruxes." Dumbledore talked about the script he had arranged for himself.
"Have you found the last Horcrux?" Albert asked with his eyes slightly narrowed.
"I don't know. Anyway, I will take Harry there. When we try to crack the cave, we will run into some trouble and become very weak. Then Snape can kill me when I am weak, and thus gain Voldemort's trust."
"Are you sure it wasn't Mr. Malfoy who killed you?" Albert asked back, "That person wanted to kill you in order to gain the forgiveness of the mysterious man."
"I believe he is not that depraved," said Dumbledore calmly.
"I'm really curious about what your criteria are for judging corruption? Taking someone's life?" Albert asked curiously. "To be honest, I don't think death is terrible. The most terrible thing is to live a life worse than death, such as the former Azkaban prison."
Dumbledore remained silent and did not intend to discuss this issue any further.
"I think you should know the secret of my wand!" He changed the subject.
"The Elder Wand of the eldest of the three brothers?"
"Yes, that's it. This wand has extraordinary power. It is because of it that I, whose magic power is weakened, have the power to compete with Voldemort." Dumbledore said firmly: "Voldemort, who is pursuing immortality and power, will definitely start looking for this wand."
"In fact, you can just destroy the wand, so that the You-Know-Who will never be able to obtain it, and there will be no risk." Albert reminded with a smile, "You don't need to spend so much time planning this wand, or do you plan to give it to Harry and let him use this wand to defeat the You-Know-Who."
"I intend to let the You-Know-Who obtain this wand." Dumbledore said shockingly, "but it will never be able to play the effect of this wand. I think you should know that wands also have owners. Once the owner of some wands is defeated, its ownership will be transferred, and the characteristics of the Elder Wand in this regard are very obvious."
"So, you plan to let Malfoy defeat you, and then let Snape kill you." Albert looked at Dumbledore with a strange expression: "Even if the You-Know-Who gets the wand and kills Snape after finding out that something is wrong with the wand, he can't get the ownership of the wand because he doesn't even know that Malfoy owns the wand?"
Dumbledore did not answer, but evidently consented to the matter.
"Snape would be very sad if he knew!"
"Some things are worth giving for, even your life," Dumbledore said calmly.
"You've lived for a century. It wouldn't be a loss if you died now, but don't expect me to pay for it." Albert shrugged and said, "I'm still young and want to live a few more years."
"I know that you don't trust anyone, whether it's Harry or me. You never trust anyone else." Dumbledore raised his hand and motioned Albert to listen to him. "I know you have your own backup plan. If Harry fails, I hope you can kill Voldemort."
"You have no confidence in your own successor?" Albert raised his eyebrows slightly, obviously a little surprised.
"I just left a backup plan to prevent any accidents, so that Voldemort wouldn't completely turn the entire wizarding world upside down." Dumbledore said softly, "Isn't this something you like to do?"
"Aren't you afraid that I will become another mysterious person?" Albert asked back, "You know, many dark wizards have lost their lives because of me."
"They got a fair trial. Although I think your approach is a bit radical, even I can't be perfect in everything. Some things always require trade-offs. If it weren't for you, the Ministry of Magic would probably be in chaos." Dumbledore was not actually worried that Albert would become the next Dark Lord, because Albert was not cruel, as could be seen from his style of doing things.
Albert looked at Dumbledore in surprise, but didn't say much. He just nodded and said, "I also think it's better for the You-Know-Who to disappear completely. It would be best to clean up the Death Eaters at the same time."
"Cleaned?" Dumbledore repeated.
"What's the problem?" Albert said to himself, "I think as long as they use truth serum to interrogate, most of the crimes of Death Eaters will not escape the fate of being repeatedly sentenced to death. After all, there will definitely be no Dementors in Azkaban prison by then. When this hell on earth no longer exists, the real hell will obviously be more suitable for Death Eaters."
Dumbledore no longer took this matter to heart. After his death, most things had nothing to do with him.
"I think I should go, so as not to worry Yin Zebel." Albert stood up and prepared to leave.
"Mr. Anderson, I believe you must know how to sneak into Hogwarts quietly." Dumbledore suddenly stopped Albert and asked about this.
He actually knew a few ways, but perhaps Albert knew more.
"You mean helping the Death Eaters enter Hogwarts?" Albert raised his eyebrows slightly.
"right."
"You can go through the secret passage. Hogwarts has several secret passages that can lead into the school." Albert turned his head to glance at the fireplace and continued, "Just use Floo Powder to get out of Snape's fireplace. House-elves can also ignore the rule of Hogwarts that prohibits Apparition. The portkey is actually no problem, but it's a bit noisy, but if it's a Death Eater, it doesn't seem strange. If you are not satisfied with these, you can try the Vanishing Cabinet. I remember that Hogwarts once had a Vanishing Cabinet that could connect to the Vanishing Cabinet in Borgin and Burke's shop. However, that thing seems to be broken. As long as it is repaired, it should be able to continue to be used."