16 Chapter 016 - Situated At the Top of the Food Chain

"So that's how it is. I can roughly understand what happened."

Fawkes's plaintive cries, the condemnations of the Sorting Hat, and the various comments from the portraits allowed Dumbledore to quickly understand what had happened in the Headmaster's office in the short span of ten-some minutes.

As he glanced at the silver-haired girl quietly sitting on the rattan chair, obediently sipping on iced pumpkin juice with an ashamed look on her face, Dumbledore massaged his forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

As a professor of Hogwarts for many years, he had run into his fair share of eccentric students.

But this was truly the first time he had run into someone like Alina, who could be a model student in one moment and even naughtier and more uncontrollable than Peeves in the next.

At the very least, she was probably the first in the long history of Hogwarts, who dared to stew the owls the school used to send letters.

"Miss Kaslana, it seems like you have a somewhat different understanding of the concept of food."

Placing this incident together with the missing owls that Professor McGonagall had spoken of, Dumbledore had developed a strange conjecture.

This seemingly obedient little girl might have divided the world into two simple categories: edible and nonedible.

"But this sort of conduct is truly..."

After some thought, Dumbledore decided to take a cautious tone. He spoke slowly as he pondered how to make this girl understand what she had done wrong.

"I was wrong."

Before Dumbledore could finish, Alina blinked her eyes, put down her pumpkin juice, and solemnly declared.

"I'm not criticizing you, but..."

Dumbledore froze, then he shook his head, slightly adjusted his tone, and continued in a warm and gentle tone.

Based on his many years of teaching experience, he knew that emphasizing and reproaching a student's errors did nothing more than vent one's anger. It did not help the children find the correct path.

The exploratory questions of an older friend were far more effective than the monotone power and authority of a professor.

This was something that Dumbledore was most proud of. He was always able to befriend his students.

Well, at least before today.

"I know where I was wrong!" Alina interrupted once more.

"Ah, it's not..."

Dumbledore's smile was somewhat stiff as he raised his hand to say something.

"Phoenixes are humans' friends!

"What I did was extremely wrong!

"I feel deep remorse and regret all that I have done!

"I promise that I will never do such a thing again!"

"..."

The silver-haired girl placed her hands on her knees, taking on an upright attitude as she engaged in a barrage of self-criticism.

Her delicate face shone with determination as she declared in an orderly fashion what her mistakes were and how she planned to change herself.

For a moment, Dumbledore didn't know what to say, and he could only awkwardly close his mouth.

After shooting off a long string of words like she was reading a rap, Alina finally stopped and exhaled. She took up the iced pumpkin juice that she had put aside and began to sip on it once more.

An extremely strange silence settled over the room.

Other than the whispered conversation between the Headmaster portraits, the only other sound was Fawkes's weak and aggrieved cries.

Dumbledore gently stroked the beautiful golden-red bird at his side. He sensed Fawkes tremble the moment his hand touched it. The mental shadow cast upon Fawkes by Alina was worse than he had imagined.

But just how had she managed to do it...

Dumbledore's left index finger rubbed back and forth on his wand, a look of confusion in his azure eyes.

Logically speaking, an adult Phoenix-like Fawkes was not easily captured by a girl who didn't even know how to use magic, much less be made into such a mess.

Even after listening to what everyone else had to say about what had happened in this office, he still could not explain this point.

If Phoenixes could be so easily captured, the Magic World wouldn't have classified this special magical creature as XXXX (dangerous/requires specialist knowledge/skilled wizard may handle).

"Dumbledore, don't you think that your Phoenix's mental state is rather strange?"

At this moment, Phyllida Spore, who had indirectly taken part in the incident, broke the silence.

Mental state? Dumbledore frowned and began to observe Fawkes. For the first time, fear and unease had appeared in those beautiful eyes, the reaction of a creature that had encountered its natural enemy.

Wait...natural enemy?

Dumbledore suddenly thought of how Newt Scamander had returned to the school several years ago and shared with him his experiences in observing magical creatures. During his recounts, he would occasionally bring up the special traits of various magical creatures.

These were magical traits that would only appear in these fantastic creatures.

In his research of magical creatures, Newt Scamander had discovered that certain magically powerful creatures would give birth to special individuals.

Although the difference in species meant that there was a clear distinction between the weak and strong, they all shared an extremely obvious trait.

When these unique individuals were facing their prey, they would exert an incredible intimidating power. It was like the aura exerted by the carnivores of the Non-Magic World that made their prey so frightened that their muscles locked up.

But when this sort of situation occurred between magical creatures, it wasn't just their muscles that locked up. Through some mysterious entanglement, it would even influence the magical ability of the prey.

Newt Scamander called these unique individuals Predators. The range of their diet was, on average, twice that of other members of their species.

If he had ever been lucky enough to meet with the British ecologist Charles Elton, he might have produced an even more accurate explanation. In essence, they were existences that resided at the top of the food chain.

Dumbledore suddenly looked at the seemingly harmless Alina, his mind developing an absurd idea.

Was there a need to associate this little girl with the term 'Predator'? Even if she was a half-Veela, Veelas were not fierce by nature.

Moreover, based on Newt Scamander's research, there was one other important point. A Predator's intimidation required that the prey feel threatened by death, but Phoenixes were transcendent existences that had never feared death.

"Unless..."

Dumbledore raised his eyes, a faint silver light flitting across his eyes. He suddenly asked, "Alina, if I said that I was gifting you a Phoenix, what would you do?"

Gift her? Alina stared in confusion at the golden-red bird curled up next to Dumbledore.

"Of course, I would cut off a wing every way and then wait for it to revi..."

The silver-haired girl instinctively answered, but she only got halfway before she bit down on her tongue.

"Pah! I was saying that I would cut a slice of fish every day and feed it until it was nice and fat."

As expected!

Dumbledore suddenly turned grim. He had sensed that when Alina turned her attention to Fawkes, the Phoenix's magic had grown slightly chaotic.

More importantly, was this the Predator trait arising from the Veela blood, or was it...

Dumbledore couldn't help but shiver. This child might be even more dangerous than he had imagined.