Chapter 245: Leaving the Mountain

It was another summer vacation without Daphne. For Lu Yunkai, this feeling was even getting used to.

Ever since Voldemort became active, Baron seemed to be worried about Daphne and Astoria staying with Lu Yunkai outside of school. After a while, Lu Yunkai even began to get used to the feeling of spending his vacation alone...

It was quite pitiful to say.

But this was not something that was completely unacceptable. As long as he thought about Blaise, Lu Yunkai felt that he could at least chat with Daphne through the communication mirror every day, which was already very good.

And Daphne was not at home, and Lu Yunkai secretly summoned the demon god, she didn't know...

Well, although Irene agreed to Daphne's request on the surface and helped her keep an eye on Lu Yunkai when Daphne was not at home, in fact, Irene still supported Lu Yunkai's attempt to help Daphne lift the curse.

"Like a man, not bad."

This was Irene's evaluation.

So Lu Yunkai started to summon the demon god unscrupulously at home.

But perhaps his luck was all spent on finding a good girlfriend. His luck in summoning demons can be said to be surprising... but it can't be said to be bad.

This is what happened. After Lu Yunkai's last "test", he needed about three days to rest after summoning a demon that lasted about ten minutes, so he summoned the demon twice in the first week, and both were successful.

However, the demon summoned these two times was actually the same...

A big crow.

And what this demon is good at is not very useful to Lu Yunkai: it is good at identifying herbs and gems.

But the problem is... Lu Yunkai has no interest in gems at all. As for herbs, Irene helps manage the herb fields, and the system helps identify them, so there is no need for him to learn!

So, these two summons, and a week of time, were basically wasted.

And after the two summons, Lu Yunkai also stopped. He began to suspect that perhaps summoning demons or something like that also has the so-called "rotation", that is, the one summoned after a period of time is the same...

But there is no evidence to prove this speculation.

Besides this guess, there are other reasons why Lu Yunkai stopped trying to summon: Dumbledore contacted Lu Yunkai and he had found Slughorn's trace.

It is estimated that soon, he will ask Lu Yunkai to go with him to persuade his adoptive father to teach at Hogwarts. In order to avoid going there when his summoning is weak, Lu Yunkai also plans to wait for a week or two before trying again.

However, Dumbledore fully demonstrated his action ability as the greatest wizard of the contemporary era at this time.

Only the second night after he notified Lu Yunkai...

"Harry? Why are you here?"

"... Lu Yunkai? Can you Apparate?"

When Lu Yunkai came to a Muggle house according to Dumbledore's instructions, Harry Potter, who was following Dumbledore, made him obviously stunned.

"For safety, I learned this." Lu Yunkai shook his head and didn't elaborate, "Are you... coming together to persuade my adoptive father?"

"The professor said he hopes I can come." Harry glanced at Dumbledore.

"Double insurance." Dumbledore nodded, "Some things can't be delayed for too long, right?"

"...Yeah." Lu Yunkai nodded, but gave Dumbledore a look.

Dumbledore was slightly stunned and smiled.

"Is there anything you can't say in front of Harry?"

"...I don't want to involve Harry." Lu Yunkai was a little annoyed when he heard Dumbledore directly expose his look.

"Since I was left with this scar, it has been impossible for me to stay out of it." Harry, who was standing aside, didn't seem to be very grateful for Lu Yunkai's "kindness".

"...Here." Lu Yunkai gritted his teeth and took out the Ravenclaw crown from the ordinary bag he carried with him.

"What is this?" Harry was shocked when he saw Lu Yunkai take out a crown inlaid with gems.

Although his parents left him a lot of inheritance, it was still far behind the wealthy family. This was the first time he had seen such a gorgeous gem crown.

"How did this... end up in your hands?" Dumbledore was obviously stunned when he saw what Lu Yunkai took out.

"I found it by chance in school." Lu Yunkai glanced at Harry, "You know that place, Harry."

"Room of Requirement?" Harry was very surprised, "When did it happen?"

"Freshman year." Lu Yunkai answered casually, and then looked at Dumbledore, "I found this, I can't destroy it, so you should do it."

"...Are you sure?" Dumbledore raised his eyelids.

"A crown that doesn't take explosive corrosive potions, I don't believe there is no weird black magic on it."

"If Professor Flitwick knew that you actually threw explosive corrosive potions on it, I'm afraid he would challenge you to a duel." Dumbledore was happy.

"Professor Flitwick?" Harry became more and more curious, "Professor, what is the origin of this...?"

"This crown is in a painting in my headmaster's office." Dumbledore said to Harry patiently, "It once belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw."

"..." Harry opened his mouth and didn't know what to say for a moment.

"But I'm curious, you found it in the first grade, why did you take it out now?" Dumbledore looked at Lu Yunkai again and asked.

"At that time, I found that the whole crown was a bit strange, for example, it couldn't be thrown into the space bag." Lu Yunkai said seriously: "It wasn't until Chris saw Bellatrix mysteriously walking into Gringotts some time ago that she reminded me that the best place in the world to hide things..."

"Gringotts and Hogwarts." Dumbledore nodded, "Well, you are indeed a smart student. I think your adoptive father will be proud of you."

"...This crown is handed over to you, professor?" Lu Yunkai wanted to hand the crown to Dumbledore.

However

"You take it first." Dumbledore did not reach out to take it. "I need to think about how to remove the dark magic on it without damaging the crown. When I think of a solution, you can give it to me."

"...It will be safer to keep it with you, right?"

"As far as I know, there is no place in the whole of England that is safer than the ancestral home of the Shafiq family." Dumbledore shook his head, "Not even Hogwarts."

"...Okay." Hearing Dumbledore say this, Lu Yunkai's heart jumped twice.

This sounded a little wrong.

Dumbledore... Why does he feel afraid to touch this crown?

However, this guess flashed through Lu Yunkai's mind.

Because Dumbledore had already stretched out his hand to push open the gate of the Muggle house.

Walking across a small lawn in front of the door, Dumbledore directly waved his wand and unlocked the door.

Pushing the door open.

The room was dark.

The three wizards used their wands at the same time to cast the Luminescent Spell.

The room lit up.

But it became even more terrifying.

The whole room was in a mess. Broken walls, leaky roofs, glass shards all over the floor, and faint drops of blood dripping from the upper floors.

It looked as if a battle or massacre had just taken place here.

A familiar feeling came to Lu Yunkai's mind.

It felt exactly the same as the house in Liverpool.

And.

Lu Yunkai frowned.

Sniffed with his nose.

"Why, did you find anything?" Dumbledore glanced at Harry, who looked a little terrified, and asked Lu Yunkai.

"... Dragon blood." Lu Yunkai reached out to catch a drop of blood dripping from the roof, put it in front of his nose and smelled it, and said with certainty, "This is too fake."

"Yeah." Dumbledore smiled with relief and nodded.

Then he waved the wand in his hand.

A spell to break the spell flew towards a sofa in the room.

The spell hit the sofa, and the sofa quickly shrank and changed.

Soon he turned into a fat old man.

His golden hair was a little messy, and some of it was even gray. There were many wrinkles on his face, and he looked very old. He was wearing a plaid pajamas, and it was obvious that he was sleeping before Dumbledore came in.

"Albus! How can you greet an old friend like this?" The old man's tone was full of complaints.

"No one greets his own children like you, right?" Dumbledore smiled and glanced at Lu Yunkai.

The old man looked at Lu Yunkai.

The two looked at each other, and Lu Yunkai saw an indescribable feeling in the old man's eyes...

Was it appreciation? Was it relief? Or... happy?

I don't know.

But Lu Yunkai's expression did not have these things.

"Severus told me that you have broken the magic I cast on you?" The old man, that is, Slughorn, asked Lu Yunkai.

"Well, but I didn't remember too many things, except that I was slightly relieved that the guy in the beer hall had nothing to do with me." Lu Yunkai's words were not very polite.

Slughorn was obviously stunned when he heard Lu Yunkai's tone.

"You can't expect a child who was thrown into such a place by you at such a young age to suffer to smile when he sees you again after many years, right?" Dumbledore interrupted at the right time.

Slughorn's expression changed slightly again.

With a little shame.

"I can't help it. You also saw... I have lived like this most of the time in these years." Slughorn pointed to the room where the violence seemed to have occurred, and said to Lu Yunkai, "It's more dangerous for you to follow me."

"I understand." Lu Yunkai nodded, "So today we are here to give you another choice."

Lu Yunkai's words made Dumbledore slightly stunned.

He didn't expect Lu Yunkai to say the purpose of this trip so directly.

"... Go back to Hogwarts to teach?" Slughorn smiled and shook his head, "It's better to be like this now."

"Hogwarts is better than this, right?" Lu Yunkai disagreed, "And... just do me a favor."

"Do you a favor?"

"Professor Dumbledore promised to hire me as the Potions Professor at Hogwarts after I graduate. I still have two years to graduate." Lu Yunkai said seriously, "I'm quite interested in this job."

"... I heard you're very rich now, is it necessary for you to teach at Hogwarts?"

"Did you teach at Hogwarts for money?" Lu Yunkai asked back.

Silence.

"Horace, I have to say that everyone who knows you will feel from the bottom of their hearts that he is really like you." Dumbledore sighed softly, breaking the silence in the room.

"...I heard that you won the Triwizard Cup?" Slughorn did not respond to Dumbledore's words, but continued to ask Lu Yunkai.

"Yeah." Lu Yunkai glanced at Harry beside him and nodded.

"This is Harry Potter, right?" Slughorn looked at Harry who had been silent beside Lu Yunkai.

"Hello, sir." Harry greeted Slughorn politely.

He was a little reserved because he found that Slughorn was staring at the scar on Harry's forehead.

After a while.

"You really look like your father. Except for your eyes..."

"Like my mother's eyes." Harry nodded.

Even Lu Yunkai has heard this countless times, not to mention Harry himself.

"... Well. I still remember your mother back then... a smart and beautiful girl... really smart, although she was born a Muggle, she was no worse than any student from a pure-blood wizard family..."

"I also know a girl who was born a Muggle, she is also the smartest student in our grade... well, about the same as Lu Yunkai." Harry glanced at Lu Yunkai and added half a sentence.

"Hermione is smarter than me." Lu Yunkai shook his head, "I can't learn courses like Arithmancy, it gives me a headache just looking at it."

Harry laughed after hearing Lu Yunkai's humility.

Lu Yunkai also laughed.

The atmosphere in the room was at least a little more relaxed.

"What else can I say?" Slughorn sighed softly and glanced at Dumbledore, who was smiling but silent beside him. "I can go back, but my office needs to be made better for me, and I also want a salary increase of... 40%."

"No problem." Dumbledore agreed very straightforwardly, "In that case, Harry and I will leave first."

"...Okay." Slughorn glanced at Harry and nodded.

Harry and Lu Yunkai looked at each other, nodded slightly, and left with Dumbledore.

Slughorn took out his wand and waved it, and the messy room returned to its original state at the fastest speed.

"Sit down." Slughorn pointed to the well-repaired sofa next to him, and he sat down himself.

"...If there is anything to talk about, it may not be safe here." Lu Yunkai looked around and stretched out his hand to use his wand to add a few protective spells.

Slughorn was stunned.

"...You are very familiar with these confidentiality spells!"

"I use them all the time, of course I am familiar with them." Lu Yunkai sat down with a smile, "Why don't we go to my house to talk. It's safer there."

"...You have a home?"

"You know I'm quite rich now!" Lu Yunkai said with a natural smile.

"...Are you sure it's safe? But there are a few ghosts who are looking for me. After taking them to your house..."

"Don't worry, even Tom Riddle can't find my house."

"...Let's go."

Hearing the name of Voldemort, Slughorn's expression was obviously embarrassed.

Then he stood up decisively.

...