At this time, music sounded in the clearing on the shore of the lake.

The sound is ethereal, like fairy music floating from another world.

Suddenly I heard a voice, and many heads were spinning and searching, with a little surprise.

Evan was also a little distracted, but soon realized that it was the voice of a merfolk.

He noticed that Hermione had been found, and Elaine and Gabrielle were still looking, looking blank.

Evan touched the two of them and motioned for them to look to the left.

In the clear green waters of the lake, in the sun, just a few inches below the surface of the lake, a chorus of merfolk sang in a strange, human-incomprehensible language, their pale faces rippling and purple hair floating around them.

The music makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand on end, but it is not harsh.

It speaks of grief and despair in plain art, and the emotional, sad faces of the merfolk are reflected in the water.

To the accompaniment of sad music, Hagrid also stood up.

Reassured by Madame Maxim, Hagrid nodded, raised his hand and wiped his eyes that were already red and swollen from crying, picked up the portrait of Dumbledore wrapped in purple velvet with Venus on his knees, and walked slowly down the aisle in the middle of the seat.

Because there was no body of Dumbledore, the funeral rites were conducted in this way.

Dumbledore is shown in the photograph as usual, kind and wise, smiling, just as Evan had seen him for the first time at Hogwarts when he was enrolled.

People started crying, tears falling down their faces, and Hermione, Ginny, and Gabrielle were all wiping their tears.

Only Elaine blinked, tilted her head and looked at Evan for a moment, not crying.

She has seen too many deaths in her past experiences.

Her parents, her people, her enemies killed by vampires, and the weak lives that have died one after another in the frozen Norwegian soil and in the dark underworld......

Even if Keresis protected her well, Elaine still witnessed the loss of these lives, death itself is a part of the vampire, she is probably used to it, and she doesn't think it's a thing worth crying, not to mention, she knows from Evan that Dumbledore is not actually dead! He just left this world because of the magic left by Salazar Slytherin, just as their clan was destined for another Slytherin magic......

However, after knowing the ins and outs of the matter, Elaine confirmed with Evan alone that it was possible that her parents, like Professor Dumbledore, were not dead, but had gone to another world and would return someday, when the magic ended......

Facing Elaine, Evan didn't know how to answer this heavy question.

Finally, he repeated what Dumbledore had said.

Death is not the end, but the beginning of another great journey, which only the most courageous can go on.

If one day they embark on this journey, they will eventually meet them.

..................

Hagrid carefully placed the portrait on the table in the middle, then turned and walked back down the aisle, blowing his nose vigorously and making a trumpet sound, and some of them cast disapprehensive glances at him, including Dolores Umbridge......

But she immediately couldn't care about Hagrid, and Umbridge suddenly screamed loudly, and although it stopped abruptly, it was still particularly harsh at the solemn funeral, and everyone turned their heads to look at her, and her face was unusually pale, as if all her strength had been exhausted in an instant.

Following Umbridge's gaze, Evan turned his head to understand what was going on.

The giant Glop staggered out of the Forbidden Forest, waving at Hagrid.

He didn't see Umbridge, because after she screamed, she quickly turned her head back, and smiled awkwardly under the probing gaze of everyone, trying to hide it, but the smile was extremely reluctant, and it looked very ugly, and her face flashed a complex expression mixed with disgust, fear, shock, embarrassment, and other emotions.

As the funeral continued, no one looked into Umbridge's gaffe, except for a few Ministry of Magic officials who had been very abnormal since returning from Hogwarts last summer, and who knew what was wrong.

Hagrid, however, did not return to his seat, but walked to the back and sat down against Glopp, who was wearing a jacket and trousers the size of a small tent, and whose huge, ugly head as big as a giant pebble hung down, and seemed docile, even understanding, and seemed to understand the meaning of the occasion at hand.

I have to say that after a long time, Glopp has indeed improved a lot.

..................

Behind Hagrid, Professor McGonagall stepped forward and placed Dumbledore's Elder Wand in front of her portrait, just as the music stopped.

A small, thick-haired man dressed in plain black robes rose from his seat, stood in front of Dumbledore's statue, and began to speak. He didn't use magic to raise his voice, and only occasionally a few words floated over hundreds of heads and floated behind, "noble spirit", "academic maturity", "great mind", and so on......

This is Dumbledore's image in front of other wizards, he is the greatest wizard in the world, the strongest white wizard, with academic excellence, and it is because of his existence that he has supported good wizards in their fight against evil in countless dark moments in the wizarding world in the past.

Dumbledore had become a symbol, synonymous with great wizards.

But at Hogwarts, in the hearts of the students, Dumbledore was always their approachable headmaster, a role model for them to be proud of and learn from, the white-bearded professor who invented "stupid!", "crying nose!", "dregs" and "twisting......

On the left, there was a splashing sound, and more and more mermaids surfaced.

The merfolk in the nearby waters all came to the funeral, and they were all listening carefully.

Then, suddenly, there was movement in the Forbidden Forest.

The centaurs also came to express their condolences, and instead of coming out of the clearing, they stood half-hidden in the shadows, looking motionless at the wizards on this side.

They watched in silence, their bows and arrows at their sides.

Under the scorching sunlight, Evan sighed, it didn't matter if Dumbledore was really dead or temporarily left because of magic, they had lost one of their greatest guardians, and the rest of the battle was up to them.

Finally, the little man finished his monotonous speech and returned to his seat.

No one stood up to speak, and no one moved, including the Minister and Professor McGonagall.

Time seemed to stand still at this moment, and everyone waited silently.

Suddenly, several people screamed.

Dazzling white flames emerged from the end of the Elder Wand, bursting around Dumbledore's portrait and around the table: flames leaping higher and higher, obscuring everything. White smoke curls into the air, taking on all sorts of strange shapes. At that moment, it was as if one saw a phoenix happily flying out of the flames into the blue sky, accompanied by the characteristic chirping of the phoenix, but then the flames disappeared, and a white marble tomb appeared there, and everything was inside......