It was late at night, and there was a snowstorm outside, but the lights were still on in the windows of the headmaster's office. Dumbledore, wearing snow-white pajamas and a purple robe with gold trim, sat in a high-back chair behind the desk, flipping through the latest issue of the "Defense Guide" by candlelight.
"It's really surprising. I didn't expect that my useless great-grandson would actually start a magazine, and it seems to have a good reputation." Phineas's lazy voice came from the portrait.
"Sirius has become much more mature than before and knows how to take care of his friends better." Dumbledore said gently.
"It's not that I look down on him, but given his personality, he can't do this. He probably has someone helping him." Phineas narrowed his eyes and asked Dumbledore, "What do you think Anderson wants to do?"
“I don’t know.”
Dumbledore's gaze lingered for a long time on the page that mentioned Karkaroff was a Death Eater, and no one knew what he was thinking.
"You seem to trust him very much." Phineas didn't wait for Dumbledore to answer, and continued: "To be honest, I always thought that he should be in Slytherin because of his personality. He is not as simple as you think. I always feel that Anderson is planning something."
"I never ignored him."
Dumbledore continued to flip through the magazine in his hand and chatted with Phineas casually, "It is too hasty to characterize a person by his or her house classification. People are always complicated and everyone has his or her own thoughts."
"You are trying to sow discord between us, Phineas. You are just upset about the Galleons you paid last time. Don't forget that the other party saved your great-grandson." A fat wizard with a red nose roared loudly.
"I'm telling the truth. That guy is greedy, money-hungry, and insidious. My poor great-grandson is just a tool he can use, but he doesn't realize it at all." Phineas wanted to find out what Albert Anderson was trying to do, so that Sirius wouldn't fall into the trap one day.
Phineas knew a lot of people, and guys like Albert Anderson were definitely the most difficult and dangerous.
Ever since Sirius Black met Anderson, the wealth in the Black family vault has been disappearing at an alarming rate.
This made it difficult for Phineas not to suspect that Albert wanted to seize the Black family's property.
"Excuse me, Mr. Anderson is not greedy. He is even more generous than most wizards." Dumbledore looked up and corrected, "Phineas, you probably don't know that Mr. Anderson is actually richer than the Black family."
"That's impossible." Phineas immediately denied it.
"Nothing is impossible, you just don't know it." Dumbledore closed the Defense Guide and said gently. "In Mr. Anderson's heart, there is a scale to weigh everything. Everything he does has his own considerations."
"Just like he borrowed the magazine in your hand and easily uncovered the secret of Karkaroff, making him look like a lost dog, and used it to retaliate against Karkaroff for giving him a score of 1?" Phineas couldn't help but sneered, "That guy is more like a Slytherin student than a Slytherin student."
This is also what Phineas is most worried about. Mr. Anderson is even more insidious and cunning than expected.
"We are already dead, Phineas," the fat, red-nosed wizard reminded him, "and you are now worrying about the living?"
Before Dumbledore could answer, there was a knock on the door of the headmaster's office.
The portraits also stopped communicating and started pretending to sleep.
"Come in," said Dumbledore.
The wooden door of the headmaster's office was pushed open, and Snape walked in and said straight to the point: "Karkaroff has left!"
"I know about this." Dumbledore had expected that Karkaroff was now being boycotted by the entire British wizarding community. Originally, not many people knew about this, but after this matter was made public in the "Defence Guide", coupled with the appearance of the Dark Mark at the Quidditch World Cup, Karkaroff really had a hard time recently and was bombarded with many Howler letters.
Snape moved his lips as if he wanted to say something, but seemed to be hesitating. After a struggle, he finally said, "Karkaroff's mark has begun to turn darker. In recent months, it has become more and more obvious."
As he spoke, Snape pulled open his sleeves to show Dumbledore the Dark Mark on his arm. Originally, when Voldemort lost his power, the Dark Mark looked like a scar, but after Voldemort gradually regained his strength, the Dark Mark began to recover.
"The Dark Lord is still alive and gathering strength."
Snape looked at the shadow on Dumbledore's face and continued, "Karkaroff knew this very well, so he was very nervous and worried that he would be punished. You know that after the fall of the Dark Lord, he helped the Ministry of Magic a lot. The Dark Lord obviously would not let the betrayer go easily, so he took advantage of this incident to escape and prepared to find a place to hide."
"Really?" Dumbledore whispered. "You'd like to go hide with him, too?"
"I'm not such a coward." Snape said self-deprecatingly, "Besides, I don't think Karkaroff can escape. Given the Dark Lord's character, he will never let a traitor go easily."
"You are much braver than Igor Karkaroff." Dumbledore comforted him, "Don't worry, the situation is not as bad as you think. It is still within our expectations."
"Expected?" Snape was skeptical. "You knew he would come back?"
"Knew it a long time ago? No, no one knew." Dumbledore said calmly, "But I know that Voldemort is not dead yet. It is only a matter of time before he returns. Many things foreshadow this."
"And you just watched this happen." Snape stared at Dumbledore with wide eyes in disbelief.
"Some things, even if you know about them, you can't stop them. There's a saying: Instead of trying to stop them, you might as well think about how to solve them after they happen." Dumbledore intertwined his hands, looked up at Snape and said, "Besides, the biggest problem is that we don't know how he did it."
"Even you don't know?"
"I am just an ordinary person, Severus." Dumbledore said helplessly. "By the way, I hope you can help me keep an eye on Moody."
"I thought you trusted him." Snape's tone was filled with undisguised sarcasm. He hated Moody.
"Yes, I trust him, but someone reminded me that I should be wary of him." Dumbledore didn't care about Snape's stunned expression.
"You actually believed it." Snape felt incredible. He was well aware of the friendship between Dumbledore and Mad-Eye Moody. "Did you find something wrong?"
"Not yet, but I think it's always better to be cautious." Dumbledore lowered his eyes and said, "I hope you can help me prepare a truth serum. I want the strongest truth serum."
"He searched my office," Snape said grimly. "On your behalf."
"I suspect someone has sneaked into Hogwarts." Dumbledore whispered, "I asked Moody to check all the professors' offices."
"He searched everyone, but he was an exception?" Snape felt that he had followed Dumbledore's train of thought, but he was actually more curious about who had reminded Dumbledore that there was something wrong with Mad-Eye Moody, and why Dumbledore actually began to doubt his old friend.
"No, that's not the reason. Anyway, please keep an eye on him for me."