Before long, the two of them made their way through several twists and turns and arrived at Dumbledore's office.
By now, Dumbledore had already used Transfiguration to completely remodel the place into a magical duelling arena.
Dumbledore himself stood smiling in the very centre, holding the Elder Wand in front of his stomach as he looked at Harry.
"Headmaster Dumbledore," Harry greeted him with a slightly blank expression.
"Hello, Harry."
Kasenhis looked around.
There were obviously no spare chairs anywhere in the duelling arena. Even Dumbledore's Headmaster's chair had vanished to who knew where.
So Kasenhis simply placed a staircase in one corner and sat down on it somewhat awkwardly.
But then he quickly discovered that his precious money-making hands had nowhere to rest, so he made two armrests out of signs.
Only then did he settle comfortably and watch the old man and the young wizard preparing to duel not far away.
Kasenhis wasn't the only one who had realised this was a duelling arena.
Harry had noticed too.
At this moment, in the eyes of Harry Potter, a natural-born fighter, something strange seemed to appear above the smiling Dumbledore standing in front of him.
Oh.
Harry understood.
It was a health bar.
A health bar so long it looked like it could touch the sun.
"Headmaster Dumbledore, what exactly is going on?" Harry asked in confusion.
His instincts were telling him that Dumbledore probably wanted to fight him.
But surely he should at least know why they were fighting first.
A man ought to know what he was fighting for.
Dumbledore smiled.
"There isn't really any special reason. I simply feel that it has been far too long since I properly understood you. For example, how much your magic has improved."
"And now, perhaps we can test that."
Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Test it?"
Dumbledore nodded.
"Of course. With our wands!"
As he spoke, he held his wand before his chest and gave Harry a slight bow.
Harry hurriedly pulled out his own wand, held it to his chest, and bowed in one smooth motion.
And Harry's bow was far more proper than Dumbledore's.
It was also much deeper.
After all, everyone knew that the one who taught him how to bow properly in a duel was Sanpe, Kasenhis, and Lockhart.
Harry naturally didn't give a damn about Snape and Lockhart's teaching but he had always somewhat respected Professor Kasen's teachings of - When facing an enemy you absolutely could not defeat, you had to be polite to the point of death!
Maybe that politeness would be the very reason you didn't actually die in the end.
Voldemort, of course, did not count.
"How about this, Harry? If you can knock this wand out of my hand, then you win. What do you think?" Dumbledore said, displaying the Elder Wand in his hand with its distinctive knotted segments.
"Expelliarmus!"
Harry faithfully carried on the old generation of duelling wizards' tradition of loudly shouting the name of his spell.
It might not have looked especially cool, but he had also perfectly incorporated the new generation's unique technique of a zero-frame startup.
The wand in Dumbledore's hand immediately spun through the air and landed in Harry's hand.
"Clearly, Harry, you've won," Dumbledore said with a smile as he looked at him.
"You can leave now. I'm very satisfied with your performance," Dumbledore said with a smile.
Harry nodded somewhat blankly, as if he still couldn't believe Dumbledore's wand had been knocked out of his hand so easily.
Then Dumbledore's voice came from behind him.
"I knew it! I knew it wasn't over yet! Are you going to deduct points from me? Make things difficult for me? Or something else..."
"Harry. My wand," Dumbledore said faintly.
"Huh?"
Harry suddenly turned around.
Only then did he remember that Dumbledore's distinctly knotted wand was still in his hand.
He hurriedly came back, gave an awkward smile, returned the wand to Dumbledore with both hands, then bolted out of the office.
Dumbledore waved his wand, and the familiar Headmaster's office returned.
Kasenhis, however, awkwardly discovered that the location of his staircase-chair was now inside the fireplace.
"Fucking fuckity fuck!"
Kasenhis hurriedly jumped out of the fireplace.
Fortunately, wizarding fireplaces were all oversized. You could probably fit Hagrid inside one without much trouble, let alone Kasenhis.
If it had been one of those smaller fireplaces, he might have ended up stuck inside the wall and started losing health with a steady tick, tick, tick.
It would have been miserable beyond words.
"Quick, quick, cast a Cleaning Charm on me. I'm covered in ash."
After stepping out of the fireplace and coughing twice, Kasenhis spoke to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore gave him a disgusted look, cleaned him off, then sat back down in his chair.
Now that he was clean again, Kasenhis finally had time to ask,
"What was the point of calling Harry here? You said it was a duel, but you held back to an absurd degree."
Dumbledore pulled out the Elder Wand and gave it a little shake.
"For this."
"The Elder Wand?" Kasenhis raised an eyebrow.
"Exactly. The Elder Wand is loyal, yet disloyal."
"Its disloyalty lies in the fact that once someone defeats you in a duel, even if they merely manage to disarm you, it will change its allegiance."
"But its loyalty means that even if a wizard far, far, far stronger than its owner holds the wand and tries to use it to kill that owner, they are destined to fail. It will not harm its true master. Even the Killing Curse is no exception."
After explaining that much, Dumbledore took a sip of water, intending to wet his throat before continuing.
After all, he didn't expect Kasenhis to immediately understand the deeper meaning of what he was saying.
In the end, he would probably still have to explain it himself.
So rather than wait for Kasenhis to ask, he might as well continue after drinking.
Unfortunately for Dumbledore, Kasenhis disappointed him this time.
"You mean that no matter what happens now, this wand won't harm Harry. But if someone casts the Killing Curse, then someone absolutely has to die. So if that person can't be Harry, then it can only be someone else, or the fragment of Voldemort's soul inside Harry. Right?" Kasenhis said with a raised eyebrow.
Hearing Kasenhis's deduction, Dumbledore hurriedly increased the speed at which he was drinking.
If he didn't hurry up and finish, Kasenhis was going to explain the whole thing before he got the chance to sound cool!
Kasenhis continued.
"But there's still a risk. It could also end up harming whoever uses the Elder Wand to attack Harry... so..."
At that moment, Dumbledore finally finished his water.
"So I plan to have Voldemort be the villain who uses the Elder Wand. What do you think?"
Kasenhis raised an eyebrow.
"That's a pretty good idea. But how exactly are you planning to do that?"
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