Chapter 706: Chapter 670: Dentor in the Headmaster’s Office (2)
"That’s good," Dumbledore said.
Then he left, and only Kael and the Dentor remained in the office.
The fire in the fireplace was roaring, but Kael couldn’t help wrapping his thick cloak tighter around himself. To be honest, with a Dentor present, no amount of heat worked.
These creatures didn’t even have to do anything—just floating there, they could drain the warmth from everything around them, especially in such a confined space.
It was bearable in the sumr, but in winter, it was quite miserable.
Luckily, at that mont Fawkes flew onto Kael’s shoulder, and the bone-chilling cold finally disappeared.
The Dentor abruptly backed off a step, seeming very afraid of the Phoenix’s presence.
Well, it seed that Phoenixes had another use now—driving away Dentors. Kael grew even more envious of Dumbledore.
He looked up, trying hard to distinguish the Dentor in front of him, wondering if this was one he’d encountered before.
But all Dentors looked about the sa, at least to Kael. He stared for quite a while but didn’t find anything particularly familiar.
Kael took a step closer out of habit, and the Dentor retreated further, pressing tightly against the wall.
"Don’t be afraid, I just want to ask you a few questions." Kael gently placed Fawkes in his hands, took out a Pod Fruit Professor Sprout had given him from his pocket to feed the bird, and asked, "Do you rember the day of the prison break?"
The Dentor didn’t answer, and Kael didn’t press; he just waited patiently.
Several minutes later, the Dentor finally made a dull, staticky sound, like an old radio having bad reception.
"Wh...ich... ti..."
"The one when ten people escaped," Kael said.
"Rember..."
"Good." Kael nodded. "Can you tell
what happened that day?"
The Dentor looked down at Fawkes in Kael’s arms.
"Don’t worry, just go ahead and speak. It’s not going to do anything to you."
The Dentor tried backing away again, but the wall was already right behind it. After a few attempts, it gave up helplessly, floating right there.
"That day... a lot of people... ca... it was them... who opened... the cell doors..."
"Did you not try to stop them?" Kael asked. "Isn’t guarding the prisoners a Dentor’s responsibility?"
"Couldn’t stop..."
"Why? Were you overpowered?"
"Couldn’t stop..." the Dentor repeated. "Not allowed... we... were held back..."
"Held back by whom?" Kael pressed. "The ones opening the doors, or other Dentors?"
The Dentor remained silent, but Kael had already guessed the answer, so he changed the question,
"Can you tell ? After that, how many Dentors left Azkaban in total?
Oh, don’t worry, nothing you say here will get to the Ministry of Magic. I swear on Dumbledore’s na."
This ti, the Dentor was silent for over ten minutes before answering in a hoarse voice, "Three groups..."
"Three groups of Dentors?" Kael frowned. "How many is that?"
"That would be sixty," ca a voice from the wall.
A witch with her hair in a bun appeared; she’d been dozing with her eyes closed when Kael entered, but now she was in the portrait closest to them.
The witch explained, "When Azkaban was first established, there were five sections, each housing prisoners of different severity. Each section was guarded by twenty Dentors; three days later, they’d swap with another twenty. For ease of accounting and managent by the Ministry of Magic, that number was fixed."
"I see," Kael realized.
Sixty Dentors chose to follow Voldemort... Not knowing how many Dentors there were in all, Kael couldn’t tell if that was a lot or not.
The only thing certain was that so Dentors had truly betrayed them.
No wonder that during the Death Eater breakout, the Ministry of Magic only ntioned sending Beaters and Aurors for the hunt, never once ntioning Dentors. That was so unlike their usual style.
After all, two years ago, just to hunt down one Sirius, nearly a hundred Dentors were transferred to Hogwarts, and all search missions were led by Dentors, with Beaters only playing a supporting role.
Clearly, the Ministry of Magic had already known that so Dentors had defected—they just never told Dumbledore.
"Hey, kid!"
As Kael was pondering, another voice ca from the portrait,
Sirius’s grandfather, Phineas Black, was leaning over the fra, eyeing him with great interest. "You can speak with Dentors, can’t you?"
Though he put it as a question, his tone was certain. "That’s quite a talent. Even if you land in Azkaban soday, you could escape alive with this skill... Maybe even take over the prison itself."
"If that’s the case, you might be more dangerous than that Voldemort guy."
"Phineas!" the previous witch glanced at him. "You ought to trust Albus—he’s the Headmaster now."
"Tch, trust Dumbledore," Phineas grumbled. "His students are much more dangerous than mine were when I was Headmaster. Hogwarts is practically becoming a cradle for the Dark Lord."
"Phineas, if you keep talking like that..." The witch rolled up her sleeves. "I wouldn’t mind teaching you a lesson."
"What are you planning?" Phineas imdiately shut up. "I’m just thinking for Hogwarts’s good. I warn you, don’t do anything rash. I hit very hard, you know!"
"Headmaster Black," Kael spoke up to interrupt them, "Could I ask you to keep this matter secret?"
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