The Second Package

The quiet Headmaster's office suddenly became noisy, and many portraits of the Headmaster discussed the current Headmaster's long absences from school.

"How many times have you been back?" Ivan muttered, rubbing his chin.

These days, he often stares at the Marauder's Map without seeing Dumbledore's name.

Probably just happened to miss it…

With this in mind, Ivan looked at the headmasters on the wall and asked, "Did Professor Dumbledore make any arrangements before he left?"

The portraits shook their heads in unison, indicating their ignorance.

Ivan, however, refused to give up, his eyes fixed on the painting hanging on the right-hand wall, in which Dumbledore was leisurely sipping a cup of tea and not participating in the discussion.

Perhaps noticing Ivan's gaze on him, the portrait of Dumbledore slowly put down his teacup and waved his hand at Ivan, indicating that he was just a portrait and did not know anything…

Yvonne narrowed her eyes dubiously.

The moving, thinking portraits in the wizarding world were very special and even related to the wizard himself.

It is common for a painter to perform a magical spell on a painting and store it in an area where the painting is often used by wizards, absorbing the magic of the other person (aura) and adapting the painting to mimic the wizard's actions.

This is why some of the portraits are so similar to the wizards themselves.

For example, this portrait of Dumbledore, which was said to have guided Snape's movements in the past, contains the legendary Sword of Gryffindor.

Despite her thoughts, Ivan could do nothing about the portrait.

Even if a powerful spell was placed on it, it would only be a painting, and Legilimency would not work. If the other party did not want to admit it, he could not possibly throw it into the fireplace and burn it, right?

Ivan was somewhat depressed, but since he had come to the Headmaster's office, he had no intention of returning empty-handed. He immediately took out the Pensieve from the cabinet and spoke to the portraits.

"When Professor Dumbledore returns, please inform him that I will be borrowing the Pensieve for a few days!"

"Oh, yes, I almost forgot the diadem! Ravenclaw's daughter asked for it, so I'll borrow it first!" Ivan slapped his head, suddenly remembering his promise to Helena, and lifted his hand to remove the Ravenclaw crown from the branch.

The portraits of the headmasters on the walls were furious, unhappy with Ivan's actions of taking the two items without permission, and even Dumbledore's face in the portrait looked helpless…

… .

After leaving the Headmaster's office, Ivan immediately went to the Room of Requirement to temporarily store the Pensieve there.

After he drained the castle of its excess magic, the famed Room of Requirement was no longer able to fulfil his wishes.

Fortunately, the previously generated spaces were not destroyed, so it was easy to find a place to store items.

The purpose of "borrowing" the Pensieve from the Headmaster's office was, of course, to expose the Ministry's carefully crafted lies.

After all, he had promised to reveal the truth to the students at the next gathering—what could be more effective than witnessing Voldemort's return?

Of course, he would deal with these memories slightly, as some things could not be exposed.

"Where exactly did Professor Dumbledore go?"

On the way back to the drawing room, Ivan ruminated on this question, unable to confirm whether Dumbledore was still alive, as it had been over a month since the portraits last saw him.

In any case, without Dumbledore's interference, the plan would have had less to worry about.

As he pondered this, Ivan pushed open the door and entered the room, where he was greeted with the sight of Harry, Ron, and the others gathered around a table by the window, staring at an open black package.

"Another package? Is it the same as last time?" Yvonne asked, hurrying forward.

"Yes, it's from the same owl," Ron replied with a nod.

Looking at the sweets and small objects in the package, Ivan frowned and said with some dissatisfaction, "I should have warned you before that you must be careful with these three non-existent packages and not open them carelessly."

"But… I don't think the person who sent us the package meant us any harm," Harry said hesitantly, handing Ivan a slip of paper. "It says here that Umbridge knows about the Defence Against the Dark Arts and wants us to be careful."

Yvonne looked at the note in surprise. As Harry had said, they were to beware of Umbridge, but unlike the last time, it was addressed to her.

While Ivan was deep in thought, Harry, Ron, and Seamus huddled together, trying to guess who had leaked the information.

Umbridge would not have let them off the hook so easily if she had known that they organised private magical practices.

'It must have been Pansy and the Slytherins, Hermione never invited them that day … they must have told Umbridge about the meeting in secret,' Ron said confidently.

Harry and Seamus agreed that it was possible.

However, to their surprise, Ivan shook his head and denied their suspicions.

"No, I don't think Pansy had anything to do with it."

Ivan knew very well that Pansy Parkinson did not have the guts to betray him, so the information must not have come from her.

It was hard to say who it was.

After all, there were too many people at that meeting, and there were no mandatory magical contracts or anything like that, so it was possible to accidentally spill the beans while chatting.

The truth is, Ivan didn't care about the leak either … he cared more about who sent the package.

Ivan turned to look out of the window and saw a grey-white owl hurtling towards him, passing through the open window and landing on his shoulder.

"Did you track the owl, Majka?" Ivan asked expectantly, reaching out to scratch her neck.

The last time he was mysteriously sent a package, he instructed the Maca to wander around in her spare time and try to follow any owls that came in with strange packages.

"Coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-

Ivan, who was already at the height of his eagle-speak, soon got the message. "Is that right? The owl was in the school's owl shed, and you saw a student there wearing Slytherin robes? Well…good for you…"