"Is there something wrong with my question, Professor?" Hermione asked, looking puzzled.
In the afternoon, during their charms class, she and Andy had talked about the history of magic. In fact, they had talked about it on more than one occasion and had even looked up a lot of information.
It was just that there was no record of it in the library, which was why Hermione had been so half-hearted about it.
She thought Andy had a point.
But there was no record of it in the books.
The young witch still believed in written records.
"There's nothing wrong with that, Miss Granger... I'm just surprised that you thought of it."
Dumbledore said slowly. "But unfortunately, from a historical perspective, I'm not much younger than you, so I know about the same amount of history as you do."
Andy rolled his eyes at this.
Normally, with Dumbledore's experience and character, no matter what shocking thing he hears, he won't show any obvious facial expressions.
If he does, he must be faking it.
As for the answer Dumbledore gave... in theory, it is true. Because Dumbledore is only a little over a hundred years old, he can't possibly know the history going back a few hundred years.
The history of magic that Dumbledore has learned will not be much different from the history of magic that Andy has learned.
But he might have investigated it further himself!
Dumbledore's vague answers and his surprise at Hermione's question are clearly a sign that there is something wrong.
He is trying to bait Hermione!
And sure enough, Hermione is not satisfied. She felt that Dumbledore was just trying to brush her off.
"Professor, you know Nicolas Flamel, right?"
Hermione pursued, "I saw it on the Chocolate Frog card. You two studied alchemy together. Surely you must have talked about historical topics once or twice, no?"
Andy sat on the side, looking at Dumbledore with a peculiar expression.
Please start your performance!
"Yes, we did talk about some historical topics."
Dumbledore seemed reluctant to say more, as if he was worried about something.
"But we discussed relevant matters more, such as alchemy, in which Nicolas is an expert, and history is not his cup of tea."
Hermione was clearly unconvinced.
But since Dumbledore had said so, Hermione didn't want to be too intrusive.
Seeing this, Andy got up and said, "Professor, we won't disturb you any longer. To be honest, we haven't had dinner yet."
"Well... have a lovely evening," said Dumbledore, winking at Andy.
Andy: "..."
That was a bit ambiguous!
As soon as they left the Headmaster's office, Hermione couldn't wait to share her thoughts with Andy: "Andy, Professor Dumbledore definitely knows something, but he doesn't want to tell us."
"I can see that," Andy sighed.
"Maybe we're right!"
Hermione said with conviction. "Andy, the history of magic must have been altered. You can see it in Professor Dumbledore's expression; he obviously doesn't want to answer this question."
"He's hiding the truth!"
"Maybe the truth isn't meant for everyone to know."
Andy turned to look at Hermione.
She's still such a naive little girl!
Dumbledore was obviously leading you on. He wants you to continue investigating the truth of history, thereby achieving his goal.
In Andy's opinion, given the importance Dumbledore places on him, he must know exactly what books Andy has borrowed from the library.
Dumbledore should have long since known that Andy and Hermione were digging into history.
In that case, Dumbledore would never find Hermione's question a surprise.
So...what was his purpose?
Andy frowned slightly.
Postponing the duel for a few months and then guiding Hermione to continue investigating the truth surrounding history... Andy absolutely did not believe that Dumbledore had no purpose.
And that purpose had nothing to do with Voldemort.
Voldemort wasn't going to be around for much longer.
Once Dumbledore figures out the exact number of Horcruxes, he will immediately take action to eliminate Voldemort.
And this will likely happen within this year!
So what else is Dumbledore so concerned about?
"Andy, why are you so quiet?" Hermione suddenly asked.
"Huh?"
Andy came back to his senses and said, "I just realised that the ghosts in the castle may know the truth of history. They have lived for a long time and must know a lot of things."
"Yes! I completely overlooked that!"
Hermione responded excitedly, "We can ask Grey Lady. She is a Ravenclaw ghost and the daughter of the Lady Ravenclaw, so she must know a lot of hidden secrets."
After saying this, Hermione dragged Andy hurriedly towards the Ravenclaw dormitory.
"Don't rush! We still have dinner to eat!"
Andy grabbed Hermione by the arm and said with a laugh, "Ms Grey is right there; she's not going anywhere; it's not like we can't ask her later."
"…Okay, I was just being impatient."
Hermione sighed, "It's just that… It's hard to ignore questions that are weighing on your mind."
"I'm quite curious about this as well,"
Andy laughed, "But it's the same no matter when we ask… Let's go and eat first, and we can talk about it after dinner."
"Fine." Hermione nodded.
On the way to the Great Hall, Andy was still thinking about Dumbledore's intentions.
Putting off the duel aside, it was only a matter of a few months, and Andy had enough patience for that.
But guiding Hermione to look into history…
On the surface, it might seem that Dumbledore was just going with the flow... because Hermione had raised the question first, and Dumbledore had given that particular response.
But Andy and Hermione had been looking into the matter of history since last year and had borrowed many relevant books from the library.
Dumbledore could not have been unaware.
Not only that, Dumbledore had consistently advised against Andy investigating the Deathly Hallows and Death in general.
He was very sensitive about such topics.
However, when it came to history, Dumbledore seemed to be more supportive.
'What could possibly happen in the next few months?'
Andy soon realised that Dumbledore was probably just simply hoping that he could be 'quiet' for a few months.
He knew that he was curious about history.
So he guided Hermione to investigate the truth about history.
'It has nothing to do with Voldemort… He doesn't want me to get involved yet'…
'Could it be that something has happened at Grindelwald's end?'
Andy suddenly thought of this possibility.
Since making contact with Grindelwald, Andy had always treated him like a portable grandpa. Whenever Andy encountered a problem in magic that he didn't know the answer to, he would contact Grindelwald first.
Grindelwald was never shy about giving Andy helpful insights.
He even taught Andy his improved version of the Fiendfyre Curse.
In return, Grindelwald also benefited from Andy's many out-of-the-box thoughts and ideas.
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