Both the Room of Requirement, which the Father-Grievers had accidentally discovered, and Dumbledore's Headmaster's office were located on the eighth floor of the castle.
After taking just a few steps, the four of them arrived at the entrance to Dumbledore's office.
"Step aside," Kyle said to the stone gargoyle guarding the door, not even bothering to utter the password.
It seemed that in an effort to minimize disturbances from his "unfilial son," Dumbledore changed his office password with grueling frequency.
The peak of this frequency occurred during the previous school year, when Kyle had fled to Dumbledore's office every single night to dodge Snape, effectively hijacking the Headmaster's bedroom.
Back then, the password to the Headmaster's office changed almost daily.
Granted, Dumbledore's passwords were never terribly original, almost always consisting of various sweets sold at Honeydukes in Hogsmeade.
But trying to guess the right one by listing dozens or hundreds of different candies one by one was a massive hassle.
To save himself the trouble, the next time Kyle successfully guessed the password and opened the door, he simply dismantled both door panels of the Headmaster's office, along with the guarding gargoyle, and hauled them back to his dormitory.
That night, Dumbledore had stood before his completely empty doorway, utterly dumbfounded.
Fortunately, Kyle returned the door panels and the statue the very next morning.
After a night of extreme modifications, Kyle had successfully integrated a facial recognition feature into the gargoyle and a fingerprint scanner onto the door panels.
To prevent anyone from using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate him and trick their way into the office, Kyle even threw in a voiceprint recognition system.
Polyjuice Potion cannot replicate the target's voice—that was a key piece of trivia bound to show up on the exams.
Now, all Kyle had to do was say a few words in front of the door to pass the voiceprint scan, let the gargoyle scan his face, and press his thumb against the door to unlock it.
Alchemy truly was that convenient.
Grindelwald: Mastering Core Technology.
As Kyle slapped his hand onto the door panel, the doors to Dumbledore's office automatically slid open to both sides.
Much to the Father-Grievers' surprise, however, Dumbledore was not alone. Inside the office stood a short, stout man wearing a pinstriped suit.
The Father-Grievers were all too familiar with this man; they had recently seen him at the Ministry of Magic during the Order of Merlin award ceremony—
Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic.
Both Dumbledore and Cornelius looked rather grim. Fudge, in particular, looked as though he had suddenly found out he was the sole survivor on his family registry.
Judging by the tense atmosphere suffocating the room, they had clearly just been in a heated argument.
"Since you have guests, I won't overstay my welcome," Cornelius said stiffly.
Glancing at the Father-Grievers, he spat out those words before turning on his heel and walking toward the exit.
As he passed by the Father-Grievers on his way out, Cornelius Fudge shot a deep, icy glare at Kyle.
Once Fudge's silhouette vanished down the corridor, Fred muttered under his breath, "He still has the nerve to show his face at Hogwarts?"
Thanks to the behind-the-scenes machinations of a certain "butler-knight" who silently served the Little Dark Lord, the entire wizarding world now knew that the Dementors Fudge stationed at Hogwarts had nearly cost two students their lives.
Cornelius Fudge really should have made a trip to Hogwarts right after the attack last week.
However, he had been bogged down by a myriad of problems.
For instance, the absolute deluge of Howlers from outraged parents.
And then, of course, there was next year's Quidditch World Cup.
The British Ministry of Magic had only recently secured the hosting rights for the upcoming Quidditch World Cup, and just constructing the stadium was draining every spare hand the Ministry had.
In light of recent events, the Ministry was forced to ramp up the manhunt for Sirius Black.
After all, as long as Sirius remained at large, the wizarding world would know no peace.
This required deploying even more personnel, who could only be reallocated from the labor force building the World Cup stadium—another massive headache for Fudge.
More importantly, there was the matter of placating the Dementors.
After having two of their cohorts completely wiped out, the Dementor population was highly agitated.
They were desperate to restore their numbers to their original size, which was an ultimate nightmare to manage.
Propagating their species required a vast amount of resources; for Dementors, that meant sustenance they could feed upon—namely, humans.
The meager number of inmates in Azkaban was barely enough to keep them fed, let alone allow them to multiply.
With the prisoners failing to provide enough "food," the only solution was to allow the Dementors to slip away from Azkaban and hunt in the wild within the human world.
But what was the original purpose of establishing Azkaban in the first place?
Wasn't it precisely to prevent the Dementors from ever leaving the North Sea?
If they allowed this, Azkaban would lose its entire reason for existing.
Fudge was currently in a state of utter distress, and his visit to Hogwarts today was something he had scarcely scraped together the time for amid his chaotic schedule.
But Dumbledore had absolutely no intention of coddling him.
As the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore had long been deeply displeased with the Dementors' presence at the school. How could a sacred sanctuary of education be defiled by such foul, dark creatures?
Unsurprisingly, the two had torn into each other the moment they met.
Dumbledore enjoyed immense prestige in the wizarding world, and he was the very person who had supported Fudge's rise to the position of Minister for Magic, making him Fudge's benefactor.
Indebted to Dumbledore as he was, how could Fudge ever dare to openly oppose him?
That was precisely why Fudge's complexion had been so awful.
Yet, Fudge's stubbornness exceeded even Dumbledore's expectations. As if stationing Dementors at Hogwarts wasn't enough, this "brilliant" Minister actually wanted to lift the ban on Dementors hunting in the wild?
He had to be out of his mind!
If it weren't for the fact that Dumbledore was up in years and had learned to cultivate patience, he probably would have spat a thick wad of phlegm right into Fudge's face.
After Fudge left, Dumbledore's gaze fell upon the four members of the Father-Grievers, a boundless wave of exhaustion flashing across his eyes.
Generally speaking, whenever the four Father-Grievers showed up together, it was never good news—and the matter was bound to be exceptionally severe.
Kyle extended his left hand, which he had kept hidden behind his back since entering the room, and revealed the diadem in his grasp. Dumbledore's eye twitched at the sight.
If he wasn't mistaken, this thing had to be...
Ravenclaw's Diadem?!
Kyle placed the jewel-encrusted diadem onto Dumbledore's desk.
The motto engraved upon the underside of the crown confirmed the suspicion in Dumbledore's heart.
More importantly, the cold, malevolent aura clinging to the diadem felt intensely familiar to Dumbledore.
A Horcrux!
"Where did you find this?" Dumbledore asked, his voice laced with curiosity.
"The Room of Requirement. To be precise, Cedric found it."
Upon hearing Kyle's response, realization dawned on Dumbledore.
The Room of Requirement was a highly mystical chamber within Hogwarts Castle, and legends surrounding it had always circulated through the school.
It was said that one could only enter when they truly needed it. Consequently, very few students at Hogwarts ever mastered the method of accessing it; most simply stumbled into it by accident.
If the diadem had been hidden inside the Room of Requirement all this time, then it was entirely understandable why no student had managed to find it over the years.
After all, over the course of centuries, the Room of Requirement had accumulated an immense amount of junk and clutter, piling up into dozens of literal mountains.
Given how small the diadem was, it would have been a miracle for anyone to just find it.
Suddenly, Dumbledore grew even more curious as to how this band of Father-Grievers had actually managed to track the thing down.
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