The badger's head on his shoulders was shaking, and his few remaining teeth were chattering and shivering. I don't know if it's because I'm afraid of a strong man who has seen through my invisibility, or if it's because of fear that the effect of the ability has been weakened, but in any case, there's no point in continuing to dress yourself up as a Pict in animal skins. Neil silently took off his shawl, folded it in half (with the badger's head facing inwards), and placed his hand on the stone railing next to it.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Headmaster—or should I say good evening?" Sorry, spending half a day underground has made me feel a little ...... about time Chaos."

"It's just half past four." Dumbledore smiled and replied, "Apparition can't be used on campus, so if you want to make it to the Christmas dinner, you'll have to trot all the way back - I especially recommend you try the deer belly pudding."

"If one day I'm tired of life, I will. Thank you, Mr. Chancellor." Neil nodded and replied bluntly, "Speaking of which, I didn't know you were back at school."

Dumbledore shrugged, "There's always all sorts of things to attend to, but I can't afford to miss the joy of unwrapping presents under the Christmas tree in the Headmaster's office once a year - I was expecting to receive a few pairs of wool socks this year, but alas, they let me down again."

"Alright, I guess that's all for the greetings." Seeing Neil's expression, he smiled and grimaced, "You must have a lot to say, don't you?" Severus relayed to me some of what you had to say about me. I'll admit that some of it did hurt me a bit, but I guess it's no one else's fault, isn't it?"

"I always put the convenience of my employer first." Neil said with no change in his face, "But it would be very grateful if you would share information with me—though I don't know why Professor Snape would make up those rumors to drive a wedge between us."

"It's amazing, I'm worried that he might not make friends with that attitude." Dumbledore whispered to himself.

"What are you talking about, Headmaster?"

"It's nothing, Mr. Ding—you must have received my Christmas present, which means we can omit some of the extra instructions." Dumbledore pointed to the empty platform on the stone steps, "I've known Nicol and Perenarse for many years, and when they contacted me to say that the keeping of the Philosopher's Stone was no longer safe, I could hardly refuse their pleas. And just as you accused—or Professor Severus Snape falsely claimed to be you—it was my purpose, and I agreed to let Hagrid take the stone from the Gringotts vault and store it at Hogwarts."

"So what is your purpose?" Neil asked, not without sarcasm.

For the first time, Dumbledore retracted his smile, "I wish Mr. Potter could use his own eyes to identify the enemies he will have to face in the future."

The answer was a little unexpected, and he raised an eyebrow - but failed, and became a very funny expression. But Dumbledore still didn't laugh.

"I thought Quirrell was just a scheming pawn, like a live chicken and duck thrown into a lion's cage in a zoo......," he said slowly.

Dumbledore nodded solemnly, "He is—though I don't quite agree with this contemptuous trope. I wonder what you would think if I told you that Quirrell had lost his free will and had become a vassal of some greater darkness."

"Wait, I do feel like he's possessed by something, but you certainly don't mean that—" Neil's voice was hoarse.

"That's what I meant." Dumbledore interrupted him, "And I have reason to doubt it. Nick has told me more than once what it's like to have endless life. The elixir of life is considered to have relatively mild side effects among the known means of immortality, but the pain of taking it for a long time, especially the mental pain, is still unbearable. Mr. Ding, does Quirrell seem to you to be someone who can do that? Does he seem so determined to trade his life for eternal pain?"

Neil shrugged disapprehantly

Shrug. Several elders in the sect are all old monsters of unknown age, and one of them is still living freely at the age of hundreds of years, and he does not share the sky with poison every day. Whether immortality makes people feel empty or not depends entirely on personal thoughts.

But he was not unable to understand Dumbledore's point, and Vergail's report detailed the consequences of sucking unicorn blood to prolong life, a price that normal people could not pay for immortality. At least in Quirrell, Neil didn't feel such a strong attachment to eternal life.

"Not bad." He whispered, "Only a dead man would have such a desperate desire for life."

"Dead people." Dumbledore corrected, "A dead man powerful enough to control the living, a dead man who was fascinated by eternal life before he died—a dead man who was not completely dead."

Neil clenched his fist and slammed his head, "And you chose to put him in school even though you were suspicious...... Well, in a sense, it's really safer to keep him under your nose than to let him run around outside, but I don't understand, why not take this opportunity to just eliminate him? He's just a weak soul now, not even a physical body of his own, and even if the final blow has to be dealt by Mr. Potter, we can do the work of laying the groundwork for him—it's not that difficult, right?"

"It's not that simple."

Dumbledore shook his head.

"That's another speculation of mine, but it's not time to make it public. You can understand that we don't have the means to kill him completely."

"What do you mean? Did he steal a few life crates for himself somewhere?"

Dumbledore was actually amused by this sentence, "No, I don't think he should have fallen to that point! But as far as I can guess, it's pretty much the same - I'm surprised you know such biased knowledge compared to that."

"You have to find time to learn something...... Neil sighed, "Well, whatever, I can see that you're not going to tell me any more things, and you're starting to get away with clichés." It seems that you have kept our last promise, Mr. Headmaster, and in order to avoid lying, you simply do not say anything. It's witty, I've never dealt with such an employer in my life, and I thought that taking shares for remuneration was already the bottom line that a creature like a human being could achieve......

Dumbledore blinked innocently, as if he didn't understand what he meant.

"Alright, Mr. Headmaster, I don't want to be so rude, but please consider your age before you do that next time. In a word, our plan remains the same, to bring both groups here, and then let Mr. Potter kill the wrongdoer—it's none of my business what he's done along the way—and everyone is happy, right? But speaking of which, where is the Philosopher's Stone?"

"I took it with me when I was out of school—after all, we can't really risk it being stolen, can we?" Dumbledore replied, "I'll bring it back in next week with the new security measures, and then find an excuse to travel far away to leave Quirrell with plenty of convenience......

"And I'm going to be ready to get the word out and make sure Mr. Potter doesn't get delayed by the asymmetry of information—it's great, pushing a couple of eleven or twelve-year-old kids into a fire pit sounds so unethical, no wonder rich people don't want to do it themselves."

Neil picked up the badger skin from the railing and shook it, put it on his shoulder, bowed and turned to take his leave, but Dumbledore stopped him.

"Wait, Mr. Ding, there's one more thing I want you to do."

"Yes, Mr. Headmaster?"

"In the *** section of the library, there is a magical item in storage, and I hope you can help Mr. Potter get a proper understanding of it."

「…… What do you mean?"

"You'll see it, Mr. Ding." Dumbledore smiled like a prank, "I can't explain in detail, I can't lie to you, can I?"

------Off topic------

This is paid off, and it is easy!

…

… It was supposed to be like this, but yesterday I owed another more.