Chapter 547: Mark

Harry fell asleep.

Jia Siting was patiently waiting for something.

Soon, two tennis-ball-sized eyes appeared. It peered at Harry in the darkness, and a teardrop rolled down its long, pointed nose.

"Harry Potter has returned to school,"

it whispered sadly,

"Dobby warned Harry Potter time and time again. Ah, sir, why didn't you listen to Dobby's warning? Harry Potter didn't catch the train, why didn't you go home?"

Harry was startled awake.

"Get out!"

He shouted,

"Wait a minute, you said catch the train? Was that you? Did you seal the barrier so we couldn't get through?"

Jia Siting examined Dobby, who wore a ragged pillowcase and had bulging eyes, and was currently hitting its own head with a water jug.

It had just finished explaining the method for house-elves to break their enslavement, and now it was stuttering and crying as it tried to persuade Harry:

"Go home, Harry Potter, go home..."

This made Jia Siting inexplicably think of something.

"You said you stopped me from coming to school because the Chamber of Secrets was going to open?"

Harry laughed in anger.

"Ah, sir, don't ask anymore, don't keep questioning poor Dobby... it's dangerous, it's very dangerous there..."

Dobby groaned, more tears rolling onto its ragged pillowcase.

"Dobby, you really are—you have to know, if you keep trying to save me, you'll be the death of me,"

Harry didn't know what to say, but suddenly, his eyes sharpened,

"How did you know Voldemort wanted to harm me..."

Dobby erupted into the shrillest scream yet.

"Dobby! The Basilisk has been dealt with!"

Harry had no choice but to quickly change the subject.

Dobby cooled down like a teapot:

"Harry Potter has gone mad, such a great Harry Potter, so noble, so brave—now he has gone mad."

Harry sometimes felt that he and the house-elf didn't speak the same language.

He turned over helplessly and carefully took something out of a box in his schoolbag on the table.

It was a basilisk fang, from a certain young wizard who had defeated the Basilisk with a single sword.

Harry still couldn't forget his words:

"It's okay, Harry, I have more."

At that time, he felt that he and Jia Siting didn't speak the same language either.

The hospital wing was pitch black, and Dobby boiled over like a kettle again.

It took Harry a great deal of effort to convince it that there was a reinforced version of young Dumbledore at Hogwarts.

And the reinforced version of young Dumbledore had already left silently.

Harry had completely convinced Dobby, so it shouldn't cause any more big commotions.

Now, the one likely to cause a commotion was the sleeping Basilisk.

Jia Siting thought about the Basilisk problem while pondering what those great wizards had done to leave behind peculiar magical bloodlines, and walked to the door of the Headmaster's office.

He had been learning magic for a short time, but that didn't matter; magic is vast, and many wizards have traveled very far.

"Headmaster Dumbledore."

Jia Siting knocked on the door.

The door opened automatically again.

Several headmaster portraits were already used to it; they glanced at Jia Siting and went back to snoring.

It wasn't curfew yet, but the silverware still shone with a metallic luster under the crescent moon, and the pitter-patter of the rainy night fell on the castle towers without waking the resting Fawkes.

Jia Siting walked toward the Sorting Hat's place; the Sword of Gryffindor had originally been displayed in the Headmaster's office, but now it seemed to have been "eaten" back by Mr. Sorting Hat.

"Ah, ah, come quickly..."

Jia Siting heard that faint voice.

"Try again..."

Mr. Sorting Hat was speaking again.

Jia Siting felt puzzled; he subconsciously touched the brim of the wrinkled hat, not expecting to grasp a sword hilt that slid out.

"A wizard's faith is the kind of thing that leaves a mark; you have shown astonishing bravery, and that will not disappear..."

The Sorting Hat twisted its body.

Jia Siting held the Sword of Gryffindor, lost in thought for a moment.

He couldn't help but recall what Headmaster Dumbledore had said to Harry:

"Harry, such deep love as your mother had for you, it will leave its own mark on you. Not a scar, not a visible trace...

To have been loved so deeply by someone, even though the person who loved us is gone, will leave us with an eternal protective charm."

And right at the door of the Headmaster's office, two figures stood there.

"How strange, the Sword of Gryffindor, in the hands of a Ravenclaw."

Dumbledore spoke with a smile.

Professor McGonagall said nothing, watching the young wizard holding the Sword of Gryffindor, his black hair shimmering slightly, words stuck in her throat. ===== CHAPTER 548 =====