Feeling much better after teasing the statue at the entrance, Wayne happily walked into the corridor.
Inside, an automatic spiral staircase transported Wayne to the door.
The heavy door was closed, featuring a brass knocker shaped like a griffin.
From this knocker, Wayne sensed a powerful magical aura; it was quite an impressive magical item. If a wizard attempted to forcibly breach the wooden door of the headmaster's office, it would transform into the griffin statue and launch an attack.
This magical beast was incredibly strong, classified at level 5X, rivaling fire dragons.
Hogwarts truly had deep roots, Wayne thought to himself, feeling an impulse to pry the knocker off and install it in his home.
He certainly couldn't create such a high-level alchemical item himself right now.
But Wayne merely entertained the thought. After all, he couldn't take on old Dumbledore.
Like Cedric had with his Nimbus 2000, Wayne playfully examined the knocker before finally pushing the door open.
The headmaster's office was a lavish circular room, with a high ceiling and excellent lighting.
It was now four in the afternoon, and warm sunlight streamed in, illuminating the gemstones strewn around the room, causing them to emit a faint glow.
"What an extravagance... I've never been this wasteful," Wayne murmured.
In other parts of Hogwarts, oil lamps and candles were the norm for lighting, but here in the headmaster's office, it was all about gemstones.
Dumbledore was not in the room, so Wayne casually found a soft chair and sat down, surveying the layout of the office.
Without a doubt, the most prominent feature was the books; almost a whole wall was covered with bookshelves reaching up to the ceiling, accompanied by a spiral staircase for easy access.
Next, covering the other half of the wall, were the portraits.
Although the room was empty, Wayne constantly felt many eyes watching him.
But whenever he turned around, the portraits showed no reaction, remaining motionless like those in the Muggle world.
Near the edge of the large desk, a stone basin sat atop a high stool. Wayne recognized it as the Pensieve, a very precious device for storing and recalling memories.
He wanted to steal it.
As soon as he entered the room, Wayne felt an overwhelming urge to take everything back home with him.
On the other side of the desk, a large floor-length mirror stood at an angle. It was quite tall, with most of its surface obscured by velvet cloth, only showing its frame and a small portion of the mirror itself.
"Hey, you there!"
A sharp voice suddenly rang out, prompting Wayne to turn around.
One of the portraits had 'come to life.'
"You've been staring at it for so long; do you know what that is?"
Wayne walked closer, noticing it was an old man with a goatee, dressed in a silver-green robe.
The plaque beneath the portrait introduced him: "Phineas Nigellus Black (1847-1925)."
Wayne shook his head, "It's covered, how could I know what it is?"
"Hmph, uncultured," Phineas said, stroking his goatee with an expression of disdain.
"That's the Mirror of Erised. Do you know what it is?"
Wayne made a show of listening intently.
"It can show you your innermost desires, your most intense longing. Do you want to know what you most desire right now?"
Phineas tempted, "Go give it a try; Dumbledore has been staring into the mirror until dawn almost every day lately, he's almost obsessed with it."
"I'm not interested," Wayne waved his hand, returning to his seat in boredom.
"I want everything and nothing at all; it's pointless to even look."
This statement wasn't meant to dismiss Phineas but rather reflected Wayne's true feelings.
He was interested in everything, but that interest was not particularly strong.
Wayne knew that what he wanted, he would eventually get.
That was a quiet confidence he carried.
Phineas was caught off guard by Wayne's reaction.
"Wait, you haven't even looked, and you dare to talk big here?"
Wayne shot him a glance: "No wonder you're the most unpopular headmaster in the school's history. You manage the heavens and the earth, but you can't control whether I look into a mirror or not?"
"You're still going on after death; no wonder you deserve to be scolded."
There was a moment of silence in the room before it erupted in uproarious laughter.
The other headmasters, who had been pretending to be lifeless, finally couldn't resist, practically rolling with laughter.
One headmaster with a large nose pointed at Phineas, chuckling, "Black, look at you now, getting scolded by a student!"
A plump-looking woman clapped in delight: "Our little Hufflepuff wizard really knows how to call it!"
"Stop laughing! You're not allowed to laugh!" Phineas jumped up in anger, "Damn little wizard, if I were still alive, I'd expel you right away!"
"Well, come back to life then," Wayne shrugged, as hints of points gained echoed in his mind.
Wow, even insulting a former headmaster grants points?
What a pleasant surprise.
Phineas was furious at his attitude.
"Little brat! You Hufflepuff fools are only fit to be cooks and salespeople for life!"
And that was the end of it.
Phineas's outburst offended every headmaster who hailed from Hufflepuff.
A hot-headed headmaster couldn't hold himself back, disappearing from his frame in an instant, reappearing in Phineas's frame to punch him squarely on the nose.
Other Hufflepuff headmasters wasted no time rushing in to join the righteous brawl.
Phineas's cries of distress filled the room, while headmasters from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw encouraged the chaos, and even the Slytherin headmaster refused to intervene.
Though they were all from the Slytherin house, Phineas's foul mouth had insulted practically everyone in less than a century of existence.
Wayne sat back, enjoying the hilarious brawl among the headmasters, nodding in appreciation occasionally.
Look at that sidekick, what power! And that heart-ripping move—absolutely authentic!
Indeed, the path of a wizard leads to close combat, where they don't even need their wands.
Just as Wayne was deeply engrossed in the spectacle, the door to the headmaster's office swung open.
Dumbledore entered, paused at the chaotic scene, and then noticed the untouched velvet curtain, giving Wayne a knowing look with a smile.
"Seems I've arrived at the wrong time?"
"No, Headmaster," Wayne shook his head, "You've come at just the right time."
"If you were any later, Phineas would be beaten to death!"
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