Chapter 270 Mild and Excessive
What do you have to go through to go back to school?
The comfort from friends? The care from professors? The baptism of schoolwork?
What must have been foreseeable to Della was Dumbledore's interview with her.
When Della was looking for Cynthia's silver figure during dinner, Professor McGonagall came over and conveyed Dumbledore's invitation. Della calmly accepted it, and before leaving, she once again looked at the Ravenclaw table from beginning to end.
But unfortunately, there was no conspicuous silver hair anywhere on the long table of Ravenclaw. Della only saw Luna holding a book upside down and smiling at her with her head tilted.
As soon as she entered the headmaster's office, Della knew where her target was. Cynthia was sitting opposite Dumbledore, with a cup of steaming hot tea in front of her and beside her. Della walked over and sat in front of another cup of tea.
"Hello, Miss White," Della looked at Cynthia and greeted her politely, then looked at Dumbledore with a smile, "Long time no see, Professor Dumbledore."
"Long time no see, Della." A regretful light shone through Dumbledore's half-moon glasses. "I haven't heard from you for a long time. How is your life abroad?"
No news for a long time? As far as Della knew, letters in Nella's name were still sent every month. It seemed that Dumbledore had seen through her deception.
"Children always need to grow up independently," Della said with a smile. Her face looked even paler under the dim warm light of the principal's office. "I am doing very well, Principal Dumbledore."
"That's good," Dumbledore nodded, without any strange expression on his face. He stretched out his hand and motioned Della to look at Cynthia. "I would also like to introduce Miss White to you, but it seems you already know her."
"..." Della turned her gaze to Cynthia again, and received a polite but somewhat provocative smile. She turned to Dumbledore and said, "Did you ask me to come here just to introduce me to new friends?"
"That's one thing," Dumbledore took out the twelve transcripts submitted by Della's subordinates, "I also want to talk to you about the purpose of returning to school. You have achieved the best results in all the courses that the school can teach you."
"School is far more than just grades, right?" Della glanced at Cynthia, who was sitting elegantly beside her. "School is about youth, and there are all kinds of emotions. I won't let go of the opportunity to experience these."
Dumbledore's blue eyes stared into Della's calm black eyes. He exhaled gently through his nose, feeling sad that the last bit of childishness in Della had disappeared.
He originally wanted to ask more questions, such as the turbulent business war, the chaos in the World Cup and the sudden appearance of Riddle, but saying these words would make Della in front of him look less youthful.
So Dumbledore decided to end the conversation. Since Della decided to return to school, he would have a better opportunity to ask these questions in the future. "Very good explanation, enjoy it, Della."
"Also, help me introduce Miss White to Hogwarts. I just brought her back from Professor Snape's detention." Dumbledore regained the refreshing and mysterious tone of the old naughty boy. "I think she is too nervous in the face of the new environment. Help her adapt, Della."
Della agreed and left the principal's office with Cynthia.
"Why were you put in solitary confinement today?" Della met Cynthia's eyes that had been wandering around her and asked in a friendly manner.
"Because I slapped my Slytherin partner in Potions class," Cynthia did not avoid Della's gaze and still looked at her openly, "Professor Snape punished us to collect toad slime after class for disrespecting the class, and that boy is doing it now."
"Why did you slap him?"
Is it because Lily has a bad temper?
Della guessed as she asked, but once she started to get along with Cynthia, she completely separated the Lily in front of her from the Lily in the record.
"He tried to grab my hand," Cynthia said, with no disgust on her face, only confusion. "The first time, I told him 'stop it' with my mouth, but he didn't change. The second time, I used a spell to glue his hand for a whole night to tell him 'stop it', but he still didn't change."
"The third time, I slapped him. Now I don't know if he will change." Cynthia's green eyes were always raised when she spoke. Besides confusion, there was also some thinking and curiosity. "I just want him to stop touching me, but he never seems to understand what I mean."
Cynthia didn't understand the boy, but Della understood her.
From the moment the doll's transitional personality appeared, no matter how many people and life and death moments she experienced, she had a very obvious characteristic - she couldn't grasp the scale well.
In the beginning, she challenged her irreplaceability too much and was sentenced to death; after she was smart enough to take it step by step, she allowed others to pour too much emotion into her and she lost herself in the process.
Now that she had truly grown up, she had vague ideas of what she wanted to do. Perhaps it was Cynthia's obsession with adulthood that gave her a natural desire to explore the world, which led to her being selected into Ravenclaw, but she still could not effectively achieve her goal.
Either you don't do enough, or you do too much.
But this makes her seem more like a "human", because the things people face are always complicated and there is no single standard answer, and people also grow up slowly through trial and error.
"Next time, just don't slap people in class. There are plenty of opportunities to teach those who don't understand what people say a lesson in private," Della did not express any disapproval of Cynthia's actions. "It's good enough that you endure everything without feeling wronged."
"I think if I did this in Professor McGonagall's class, I wouldn't be punished," Cynthia said thoughtfully, "It's Professor Snape who is too cold-blooded and can't face me."
"You don't seem to want to hide the fact that you are the doll from me," Della stopped and lifted Cynthia's hair to reveal the black snake mark. "And this can also reflect another problem. Do you remember the part of my memory that you read at that time?"
"Yes, like everything that happened in the Shrieking Shack," Cynthia answered the second question first, and seemed to have made the mistake of not knowing the scale, picking out Quirrell, the thorn in Della's heart, and then answered the first question, "I won't hide it from you, because you are different from Maggie."
What she said actually answered Della's third question - why was she not afraid of Della, who could kill her, when Maggie almost killed her?
"Different? How different can it be?" Della asked curiously.
"Because you are here to be responsible for me." Not only does she have the Eastern prophecy as a basis, but Cynthia can also read Della's sense of responsibility from her past memories, so she is quite sure about this. "I am also responsible for the people who are influenced by me now, such as Harry Potter and Severus Snape."
"You're smarter than I thought," Della smiled and looked at the transitional personality that had somehow stayed with her with appreciation. "Whose blood made you like this, and how did you manage to keep yourself?"
"Snape's blood gave me this look," Cynthia held up her silky silver hair, "and the unicorn's blood tried its best to give me the look I wanted."
"Unicorn blood?" Della remembered the small amount of stock left in the Shrieking Shack and planned to study it when she had the chance.
"Do you want me to return your wand?" Cynthia pulled out the old wand with a snake coiled around it that she was using now.
"No, if you find it useful, keep it." Della shook her head and focused on Cynthia's and Harry's green eyes.
"That was quite handy. The Sorting Hat was still hesitating between Slytherin and Ravenclaw about which one to put me into," Cynthia didn't refuse and put the wand back into the wand bag. "So, what are you going to do with me?"
"I won't kill you or lock you up, because that would mean killing the person they care about again in front of the people who care about you." The more Della got along with Cynthia, the more she discovered her strong personal characteristics, and the calmer she became. "As long as you be yourself, they will eventually come around."
"I don't want to be someone else right now," Cynthia pouted and snorted. She turned to Della and smiled, again that polite yet provocative smile. But this time Della knew that she probably wanted to smile normally, but she just hadn't found the right balance yet. "Are we done then? Will you take good care of your snake?"
"He won't do anything to you," Della nodded, and then said caringly, "Is your guardian Remus Lupin in financial difficulty? Does he need money? Don't be polite to me."
"Polite?" Cynthia's tone rose slightly. "What does politeness mean? I reject you first, and then tell you that I want your money?"
"..." Della laughed dumbly, "Don't do this to other people. If you need money or if you need any help, just tell me directly."
"Then I'd like 30 Galleons first," Cynthia said in a very normal tone, "I want to exchange some second-hand items for new ones."
"I will give you the money and the Gringotts key tomorrow," Della said. "I will give you a living allowance every month until you settle down."