When Brandi was returned by Scrimgeur, the office was empty. Brandi had been in the torture chamber for far more than the time limit for the Ministry of Magic to connect to the common room stoves of the Hogwarts houses, and the worried girls had to leave him behind and return to the castle first.

"When Dumbledore came over just now, we opened the Floo network with the Headmaster's Office, so you can go straight over." Scrimgeour lifted Brandy's box and reached out to gesture to Brandy.

His expression looked a little strange, and there was always a sense of wanting to say something.

"Okay, thanks." Brandi reached for his luggage, but he didn't succeed - Scrimgeour didn't let go, eagle-like eyes staring straight at him.

"Sir?" Brandi was a little distraught by such an undisguised gaze, and he awkwardly avoided making eye contact with Scrimgeur.

After a brief pause, Scrimgeour spoke.

"You teamed up with Dumbledore to deceive Fudge, didn't you?"

！！

His words made Brandi confused all at once.

"I—I don't quite understand what you mean, sir." Brandi stammered, trying to pretend to be composed. "You know, I've just returned from Beauxbatons, so how could I have colluded with Professor Dumbledore to deceive the Ministry of Magic? I'm indeed studying alchemy with Professor Lemay, and I-"

"Alright." Scrimgeour calmly stopped Brandy's words, his gaze unfathomable. "Fudge and their lack of experience may be deceived by such half-truths, but the Aurors will not. And ......," he shook the suitcase in his hand, "I have proof." ”

"Can you explain what's in that kettle in your suitcase?"

"Hmm!" Brandi's face changed dramatically, he didn't expect that he had made a mistake in this place. Because he had spent far less time in Beauxbatons than expected, and more than half of the potions in the kettle had not been used—in the good habit of wasting shame, Brandi still didn't throw it out in the end, and it would have been nice to run a little to tease Hermione or something?

Who knew that Scrimgeour could keenly find that there was a problem with the kettle, and he obviously didn't open his luggage to check it!

Looking at Brandi's disgraced face, the corners of Scrimgeur's mouth rose a slight arc.

"By the time you're in seventh grade, you'll know that the Aurors have a spell for quickly retrieving magical items. Although compared to the obscurity of the analysis spell, it is impossible to tell whether the object is evil or dangerous. But it's convenient, and, discreet, enough—your kettle has some kind of potion in it, Miss Spears, let me guess, a polyjuice potion? ”

There was an inquiring light in his eyes.

Well, at least at this point, his eyes are not really as sharp as an eagle, at least not yet he has realized the cruel reality that he is facing a straight man of steel.

Brandi opened her mouth, not thinking about how she should answer. So Scrimgeour went on with himself.

"Anyway—anyway, now that Dumbledore has come forward to protect you, I'm not going to dig any deeper. I'm sure Dumbledore wouldn't do anything harmful to Hogwarts. Scrimgeour said, shoving the suitcase into Brandy's hand. As for what the hell you and Dumbledore are up to Beauxbatons, that's not something we Aurors should be asking about—that's why I didn't expose you in public. ”

"We're always only responsible for the bad guys who harm the wizarding world in Britain, and you have to keep that in mind." "So I apologize to you for our rude and rude behavior at the beginning," he said. I beg your pardon, but it's because the fugitive Sirius Black is too dangerous, and we need to do whatever it takes to get the intel and get him apprehended as soon as possible. ”

As he spoke, Scrimgeour owed slightly, which could be regarded as an apology.

This somewhat made Brandi feel a little better about him. Although the lion-like guy in front of him seemed tough and cold, and he spoke hard, judging from what he had just said, he was at least genuinely thinking about the stability of the wizarding world, and he could be called a qualified Auror leader.

"I'm curious to see which house you attended at Hogwarts before, sir."

"Slytherin without a doubt, Miss Spears." Scrimgeour said, adding abruptly. "But the Sorting Hat said it would be a good idea for me to go to Gryffindor."

The two chatted casually about the British weather, and Brandi was about to leave.

Before leaving, he asked Scrimgeour about Sirius Black, which was at stake in Harry's safety, and he felt that he had the right and obligation to get to know the murderous thug in depth.

"You were probably just over a year old when he went to prison, Miss Spears." Scrimgeour sipped his tea and chatted a little stiffly, he really didn't have much talent for conversing pleasantly. "Blake is the most ruthless villain I've ever met, he's bold, he's actionable, he's unscrupulous—can you imagine him standing in the middle of a bloody street and laughing? The whole street was dead, and not even a single body could be found, and when reinforcements and I arrived there, almost everyone was dumbfounded, all eyes could see blood and human fragments, and the bones of the wizard who had come to stop him alone were gone, and the only recognizable remains was a finger...... Now that I think about it, it's really a blessing that he didn't sneak up while we were scared silly. ”

Brandi gets goosebumps as a result of the depiction. But another question immediately came to his mind.

"In that case, why does Blake hate Harry so much? When he was in prison, Harry was only a young man......"

"Probably because Blake is a big fan of the mystery man - people say so. In order to be able to avenge his master, perhaps he was willing to sacrifice everything he had. A month before he escaped from prison, Azkaban's guards told Fudge that Black would often say the same thing in his dreams: 'He's at Hogwarts...... He ...... at Hogwarts, 'Do you think anyone else in Hogwarts would care so much about him besides Harry Potter?' ”

Brandi was silent, and he saw Scrimgeour waving at him, signaling to get out of here, and he got into the fire. As the green flames swirled around him and his destination blurted out, he vaguely heard Scrimgeour talking to himself.

"So no matter what means, we can't afford to lose our 'hope' anymore, can we?"

The world twisted into a giant vortex that swallowed Brandi inside.

Brandi is back 'home'.

————————————

Dumbledore's Headmaster's room was the same as ever, nothing seemed to have changed, the large desk like the claws of the monster, the strange silverware spraying swirling smoke, and the Sorting Hat lying limply on its coat rack, looking no different from a normal tattered hat. And the lazy phoenix never seemed to be active, and this time it was as always asleep on the shelf.

As Brandi slammed out of the stove covered in soot and grunted sadly on the cold floor. Fawkes slowly pulled his head out of the feather and craned his neck to stare at the side.

"Gollum ???" It looked Brandi up and down, a human glimmer in its ruby eyes. Then, as if recognizing the guy in front of it, it spread its wings, flew off the shelf, and landed beside Brandy.

"Whoa, I've never seen a faint stove......" Brandi gave him an angry look, and he sat down on the ground, looking sadly at his soot-covered robe. With all the other clothes in the box all women's, he probably didn't even have to change his spare clothes—but what a joke he might have to make if he made the way back to Gryffindor.

But it's nice to be home!

Sitting quietly on the floor, looking at everything familiar to him, Brandy's heart, which had been hanging high since leaving Hogwarts, finally fell back to its place. After all the twists and turns he had been through, he was now missing his friends, Selph, Professor McGonagall, and he was so stunned that he even remembered Snape's mouth full of venom.

And the most important thing is that he can finally stop tying the unlucky earthy braid and stuff the air cushion into his chest!

"Hooray!! Banzai!!! Soon, the principal's office reverberated with the excited cheers of the girls. The headmasters of the past who hung on the walls were awakened from their slumber, and they hurried past the portraits and gathered on the paintings closest to Brandy, casting sympathetic and sympathetic glances at Brandy.

Then, the sympathy and pity gradually turned into expressions of surprise.

Because the crazy girl in front of her didn't know which tendon she had made the wrong one, and she actually started the idea of Dumbledore's phoenix.

"Fox~"

Brandy's crisp female voice made Fawkes's feathers blow up, and it turned back in some panic to meet Brandy's malicious eyes. "Has anyone told you that your voice sounds problematic?"

"Goh?" Fox, who didn't know that his catastrophe was coming, tilted his head suspiciously.

"Yes, yes, that's the voice! Don't you feel ashamed! You're a proud phoenix! Brandi said earnestly, "Is the cooing sound that your noble phoenix should have made?" Only the pigeons who are caught in the soup will coo, understand! ”

………………

So half an hour later, when Dumbledore stepped out of the furnace with a heavy face, he keenly noticed that the atmosphere around him was not normal—Fawkes, who had just been very sleepy, was now actually squatting on the shelf thinking about birds, and from time to time he would clear his throat and make some strange sounds.

It's just so weird.

He turned his head, and the headmasters of Hogwarts over the years were gathering in jaw at the portrait of Phoenix, looking like their jaws were dropping.

And Brandi, who was the initiator no matter how you look at it, is standing there with his chest and stomach tucked at the moment, and Dumbledore doesn't know how to talk to him for a while.

"What's going on here, Britney?" He asked, curiously.

"Nothing, Professor." Brandi was expressionless, completely a well-educated lady.

It's really nothing, it's just that his baby phoenix has successfully given up cooing under his own persuasion and started to practice 'boo'.