"Miss Hamilton, if you'd like, Bebe can escort you..."
"Ah, no... no need!" Lyla quickly shook her head, refusing Dumbledore's kind offer. She was more than a little afraid of a startled house-elf suddenly popping into existence.
"The fireplace... the Floo Network will be fine..." She strongly preferred a more traditional wizarding method of travel.
Dumbledore smiled softly at her frantic words. "As you wish." He then turned and led Lyla toward the Headmaster's Office.
Along the way, Lyla carefully observed the environment of Hogwarts. It looked much cozier than Durmstrang Institute, but also significantly livelier.
Portraits hung everywhere along the stone walls. Fortunately, most of the subjects in these paintings were busy doing their own things, rather than sitting primly and staring like the ones in the Headmaster's Office.
This lack of scrutiny made Lyla feel much more comfortable. Of course, there were also things about the castle she couldn't quite get used to—namely, the Grand Staircase.
The giant staircases that randomly changed positions on their own were entirely too dangerous. Lyla, who had a terrible fear of heights, felt dizzy just standing on the landing.
'Sometimes this thing even changes positions while you're on it... The entire purpose of its existence must be to prevent students from getting to lunch on time...' Lyla could only guess this, as she really couldn't think of any other logical meaning for such a chaotic architectural choice. Plus, it made it incredibly easy to get lost.
Fortunately, she could just blindly follow Dumbledore's back. The rest of the journey was quite smooth.
Soon, the two returned to the entrance of the Headmaster's Office. It was guarded by a large stone gargoyle, and Lyla, who had recently been brought here by Bebe the house-elf, still remembered the password.
"Sherbet Lemon," Dumbledore said softly.
With a mechanical click, the gargoyle sprang to life and stepped aside, revealing a spiral staircase that slowly moved upward.
It was worth noting that the heavy oak door to the Headmaster's Office also had a Magic Array carved into it. Lyla guessed it might be a combination of an Energy Storage Array and a Secret Lock Array, except that its unlocking sequence wasn't a traditional drawn shape. Instead, it relied on a daily spoken password.
If you understood Magic Array Studies, you could actually decipher today's password directly from the humming runes. Lyla even knew yesterday's password just by glancing at the fading residual magic.
'Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.'
'That house-elf named Bebe couldn't possibly be related to that strange candy, could it...? Do house-elves even have a taste?'
While Lyla was lost in her catastrophic overthinking, the two of them had already arrived inside the Headmaster's Office.
"Miss Hamilton, do you need to rest here for a moment?" Dumbledore asked casually. "Or would you like to leave now?"
"I... I can leave now..." Lyla wasn't accustomed to resting under the heavy gaze of dozens of painted Headmasters. Dumbledore might be used to it, but she certainly wasn't.
However, as she walked toward the large fireplace, preparing to leave via Floo powder, her eyes suddenly caught sight of a shallow stone basin placed on a pedestal.
After just two glances, Lyla realized what it was. "Is this a Magic Array artifact?" she asked, walking quickly toward the basin.
It was definitely a Magic Array artifact! There was actually a functioning artifact just sitting in the Hogwarts Headmaster's Office!
'Oh, what am I thinking? There were quite a few scattered around the Durmstrang Headmaster's Office, too... I wonder what this basin is for? Would touching it make my finger fall off?' Spooked by her own imagination, Lyla subconsciously pulled her right index finger back.
"Ah... this is a Pensieve," Dumbledore said, pausing slightly before walking over to join her.
"A Pensieve...?" Lyla had never heard of this item, nor had she ever seen one. It seemed to be a rather rare artifact.
Lyla had no intention of conversing with Dumbledore anymore; she had already drawn her wand and was completely absorbed in examining the Pensieve's surface.
She looked at the complex Magic Array carved into the stone, pondered in silence for a few seconds, and then felt a spark of surprise.
"The Pensieve is related to memories, isn't it?" She pursed her lips and looked up at Dumbledore. "It must be, right?"
"Miss Hamilton is truly very knowledgeable about Magic Arrays," Dumbledore nodded, a little surprised by how quickly she deciphered it. "The Pensieve is indeed related to the viewing of memories."
"Have you seen anything similar before?"
"N-no... no?" Lyla paused, then quickly shook her head.
She had indeed seen this exact Magic Array before, but it was hidden inside Tom Riddle's diary.
'That genius gentleman clearly didn't want anyone to know of his existence.'
'But thinking about it... as a former Hogwarts student, he must have known about or seen a Pensieve, and created his diary based on the Magic Array carved on it. Mr. Riddle is indeed a genius...'
"Would Miss Hamilton like to try it?" Dumbledore suddenly asked. "The Pensieve can be used to view the memories of others, or even revisit your own."
"I..." Lyla knew that firsthand experience was always the best way to understand a Magic Array.
But Lyla absolutely did not want Dumbledore to see her memories. Her memories of the past few days were fine, but if he accidentally saw memories related to Lord Grindelwald from fifty years ago, it would be a disaster.
"You can look at mine," Dumbledore offered. He seemed to have nothing to hide, speaking calmly. "There are some memories I've infused into the Pensieve in the past."
"They are all trivial matters regarding Hogwarts," he said with a slight twinkle in his eye. "As well as some leisure time of an old man..."
"Still... still no..." Looking at Dumbledore's smiling face, Lyla suspected he had some ulterior motives.
'This fellow is full of mischief. The Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans he eats must be mischief-flavored.'
Lyla observed the Magic Array on the Pensieve one last time, confirmed it was structurally identical to the one in Riddle's diary, and then nodded gently before speed-walking to the fireplace.
She didn't need to study the artifact here under the gaze of so many people.
'Wouldn't it be better to quietly study the diary's Magic Array alone back in the tavern? If I stay here and start mumbling to myself again, it would be too embarrassing...'
With this thought, Lyla grabbed a pinch of Floo powder, threw it into the flames, and said in a voice so low that only she and the fireplace could hear, "Diagon Alley."
Boom!
Green flames roared, and Miss Hamilton vanished before Dumbledore's eyes.
The Headmaster of Hogwarts was silent for a few seconds, then frowned slightly. He walked over to the Pensieve, examined it carefully, and shook his head.
"Albus," the portrait of the previous Headmaster, Armando Dippet, said slowly from the wall. "Didn't you say that Miss Hamilton couldn't resist a Magic Array?"
"I did say that..." Dumbledore murmured, looking genuinely surprised. "I thought she would linger for a while..."
"But she seemed to leave in a terrible hurry."
"Perhaps it's because of us old folks staring?" Dippet smiled and shook his head, settling back into his painted chair and looking at the other dozens of Hogwarts Headmasters.
"No..." Dumbledore shook his head slightly. He knew how deeply engrossed Miss Hamilton became when faced with a Magic Array.
Unless she had actually seen this specific array before, or... she possessed a similar artifact? But Miss Hamilton's reaction clearly indicated it was her first time seeing a Pensieve.
Dumbledore sighed softly, then walked back to his desk and sat in his high-backed chair.
Perhaps he was overthinking it?
Suddenly recalling Lyla's terrified, shrinking demeanor in front of Snape just a few minutes prior, Dumbledore's lips curled up, and he chuckled softly to himself in the quiet office.