Harry sat on the chair across the desk, looking slightly tense.
Dumbledore smiled kindly at Harry, assuming he was nervous because it was his first time being summoned by the headmaster.
"Oh, Harry, relax a bit," Dumbledore said, "Actually, I was once a Gryffindor student too, believe it or not, I'm your senior."
Harry glanced up at Dumbledore, then quickly lowered his head.
He didn't intend to argue because he wasn't sure what the consequences would be.
Regarding the headmaster's reputation, he had only heard bits from Hagrid, but never met the headmaster; Harry couldn't judge how the headmaster felt about him.
"Lemonade?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, with ice, please." Harry nodded obediently, not the least bit hesitant.
Soon, a glass of iced lemonade appeared in front of him.
Harry reached for the glass of lemonade and took a sip—
"Ew!" Harry grimaced in disgust, "It's so sweet..."
He seriously doubted if sugar was free at Hogwarts; otherwise, they wouldn't add it to the lemonade as if it cost nothing.
Is this really lemonade, or lemon-flavored syrup?
"Seems like you don't like it, what a pity." Dumbledore shrugged, grabbing a cockroach from a jar on the table and popping it into his mouth.
If Harry hadn't known it was a magic candy, he might have vomited right there.
"You two, some people are trying to sleep here!" A familiar voice echoed from the wall, "Oh my gosh, Albus, you should know even when I was headmaster, I never summoned students this late! Any student!"
It was Phineas Black, that voice Harry could always recognize, no matter how long it had been.
Don't notice me, don't notice me...
Harry whispered in his heart, trying hard not to attract Black's attention.
Yet Murphy's Law tells us, the less you want something to happen, the more likely it will.
After mocking Dumbledore, Phineas Black noticed Harry sitting opposite him.
"And you are...?" He seemed to find the figure familiar, yet couldn't quite recall for the moment.
Moments later, his face lit up with realization.
"Ha! I knew it! Let me think, from Gryffindor..."
Dumbledore assumed he was about to advocate his theories on school houses and bloodlines, so he immediately spoke up, "Daisi, could you lend a hand?"
"Always happy to assist, Albus."
Daisi Deviant lifted her skirt and curtsied gracefully to Dumbledore, then eagerly led a group of headmasters out of the frame, charging into Phineas' portrait.
"What are you... what are you going to do?" Phineas asked fearfully.
The headmasters didn't reply, in unison they stepped forward, pinned him to the ground, tied him tightly to a chair, and gagged him.
After struggling for a while, Phineas suddenly relaxed, no longer resisting.
He never expected this Gryffindor boy to survive the encounter with Lanlock and live a hundred years later...
Judging by his appearance, after traveling through time, his age seemed to have decreased?
Ha, so what?
Even if he turned to ash, I would still remember him!
However!
Phineas glared viciously at Dumbledore outside the frame, thinking even if I recognize him, so what? Who told you to have me bound? Even if you beg me, I won't tell you the truth! Never!
"Phineas is just like that," Dumbledore smiled at Harry, "Actually, he's not a bad person, a good..."
Here he paused.
"Good headmaster?"
Harry followed up, helping Dumbledore finish, though saying it made goosebumps dance wildly on his arms.
Good headmaster?
Him?
Phineas Black?
Merlin's longest bunny ears...
Dumbledore showed a complex expression, opening his mouth but not uttering a word.
He had been genuinely tormented for seven years by Phineas' many rules during his tenure as headmaster at Hogwarts.
The portraits of other headmasters in the room fell into silence, and then suddenly, led by someone unknown, burst into earth-shaking laughter.
"Oh my, kids." Principal Daisi wiped away tears of laughter, gasping for breath as she spoke, "If you had studied at Hogwarts during Phineas' headmastership, you'd realize how amusing what you just said was..."
Harry shrugged; he had been to the Headmaster's Office, but with Polyjuice Potion, transformed into Phineas on those occasions.
Besides, the other headmasters never interacted directly with him, so it's normal for them not to recognize him.
"But to admit at least, in promoting unity among the school houses, Phineas achieved a feat any other headmaster could hardly rival." Principal Uprasia Moore said, "I'm sure, even if the four founders were resurrected, they couldn't accomplish that."
Phineas kicked vigorously in protest, the chair making a clattering noise.
"Portraits are truly amazing, aren't they?" Dumbledore raised his glass of lemonade in a toast to the headmasters in the portraits.
Harry felt it shouldn't be dragged out any longer; being young, sleep was crucial for him.
"Well then, Mr. Headmaster." He said, "I think we should discuss what happened today on the Quidditch Pitch."
"Go ahead." Dumbledore pulled out another cockroach, dunking it in his glass.
The cockroach's antennae poked out of the glass, waving back and forth, even humorously simulating a dance.
"I think someone must have cursed my broom when it suddenly lost control," Harry stated confidently, "My classmate alerted me to this."
"Was it Hermione?" Dumbledore chuckled, "At her age, few witches can rival her intelligence—"
"So what I want to ask is, why would the person who cursed my broom dare do so right in front of you?" Harry tried to avoid eye contact with Dumbledore, focusing on his glass instead, "Or rather, why were you indifferent to it?"
"Someone was already trying their best to save you, wasn't it?" Dumbledore stroked his white beard, pulling out the cockroach candy tangled in it.
With some effort, Dumbledore managed to extract the cockroach from the threads of his beard, looking up to see Harry still "tensely" staring at his glass in deep thought.
"You're... afraid of me?" Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, but it didn't surprise him.
Having a conversation between student and headmaster in the office—it's rare not to feel apprehensive.
"No, Mr. Headmaster, I read in a book about a type of magic," Harry said, "The book mentioned that certain magic allows one to gain insight into someone's thoughts by looking directly into their eyes."