Chapter 1103 - 804: Animagus
"Disguise as Dumbledore?"
"I’m not going!"
In the compartment, Kael quickly tossed the envelope to Professor McGonagall, inwardly grumbling about which smart person came up with this dumb idea.
Disguise as Dumbledore, what were they thinking, really—what if Death Eaters suddenly attacked Hogwarts? Although the probability is low, it’s not entirely impossible.
After all, Voldemort has already acquired the Elder Wand. What if his confidence skyrockets and he decides to initiate the final battle? Dumbledore would definitely be the first person he’d seek out; wouldn’t that spell disaster for me?
Besides, let’s say the Death Eaters don’t attack Hogwarts; being exposed while pretending to be Dumbledore would be really embarrassing.
Thinking about this, Kael even considered opening the window and jumping out to escape.
"Don’t rush to refuse." Professor McGonagall placed the letter back onto the table.
"This mission was directly assigned to you by Dumbledore, which means he believes you can accomplish it and that you’re the most suitable for it."
"No, no, no, I think you could do it too, Professor McGonagall." Kael refused once more.
"I can’t." Professor McGonagall shook her head. "I have classes to teach, and I also need to attend the opening banquet—there’s simply no time."
"Then how about Professor Flitwick..."
"None of them are suitable." Professor McGonagall interrupted Kael. "Including all the professors at Hogwarts, none of them are fit for this task."
"How about Sirius then?" Kael immediately thought of someone outside the school, "He seems pretty idle every day, teaching Harry to transform into an Animagus, yet there’s been no progress so far."
"Not possible." Professor McGonagall shook her head again, "Dumbledore doesn’t want too many people to know he’s not at the school, and this includes members of the Order of Phoenix."
"But..."
"Dumbledore said he would give you a satisfying reward."
"..."
"What kind of reward?"
"No idea." Professor McGonagall shook her head. "In fact, what I just said was exactly his words from the letter: if you can convince everyone he’s still at the school, he’ll offer you a reward that will definitely satisfy you... You can see for yourself."
Kael kept silent.
Truthfully, when Dumbledore promises something, he’s always reliable... a reward to make him satisfied...
Instinctively, Kael picked up the envelope from the table.
"Have you agreed?" Professor McGonagall chuckled lightly.
"Hold on, let me check first." Kael opened the envelope, "Just letting you know, even if I agree, it won’t be for the reward; mainly, I don’t want to see everyone anxious."
"No need to explain."
"I believe you."
"Yes, indeed."
All three principals nodded in agreement with a pursed smile.
Pursing their lips was necessary; the task wasn’t accomplished yet, and if they burst into laughter, it wouldn’t be good.
At the same time, Kael had already taken out the letter from Dumbledore. The content was pretty much what Professor McGonagall said—just act like him around school, don’t get exposed, and he would provide Kael with a satisfying reward afterward.
Below the envelope was a small bag containing a bottle of Magic Potion and a tuft of hair—not too much, but not too little either. Kael roughly estimated it to be around fifty strands.
To be honest, for someone Dumbledore’s age to manage extracting this many strands of hair was quite impressive.
Inside was also a small note.
"Use for transformation, remember to keep it in the box Nicolas gave you for backup.
"Also: Obtaining Polyjuice Potion shouldn’t be difficult for you, so I only prepared one bottle (do not go to Severus, he is not aware of what I’m doing.)"
"Good luck."
"Ha, you really have high expectations of me." Kael picked up the bottle and examined it.
This amount would probably only last about two hours, just enough to get through the night’s Welcome Feast.
How stingy—did he not think that brewing Polyjuice Potion requires a month’s time, and Boomslang Skin is hard to acquire? What if someone comes looking for him during this period?
Kael shook his head and casually placed the bag aside.
Additionally, he was somewhat concerned that Dumbledore seemingly had not informed Snape of this matter, including the fact that he was the only headmaster absent from escorting students today.
Was there a separate arrangement? Or was it a fear of him revealing secrets... shouldn’t be, considering Snape’s level of Occlumency; Voldemort shouldn’t be able to detect anything.
Kael furrowed his brows, unable to guess what Dumbledore was thinking.
Nevertheless, it became a bit tricky for him.
Kael had originally intended to ask Snape for the Polyjuice Potion, but since it needed to be kept secret, that plan wouldn’t work.
Perhaps he could check with Slughorn; Kael remembered last year during the start of term, he brewed a large cauldron of Polyjuice Potion to demonstrate his superb potion skills to the students.
Maybe this year follows the same routine.
Or he could also approach Fred and George—they previously stocked Polyjuice Potion in their shop, although it was destroyed once by Death Eaters, there should still be some inventory... After all, brewing such potion is troublesome and time-consuming, so usually, potion merchants use the largest cauldrons, brewing large batches to sell slowly.
And Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes is only so big, with various products, making it impossible to display everything.
If they truly don’t have it, he could even approach Professor Cecily... of course, this couldn’t be done in his own name.
Kael was entirely unaware that while he considered these options, he had already implicitly agreed to lend a hand.