"I want to go back."
Alina's eyelids dropped to avoid Dumbledore's gaze, and she stared at his silver beard as she softly spoke.
If there was one person in the Magic World that Alina didn't want to meet, that person was the illustrious Headmaster of the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore.
This was not merely because of his outstanding magic power. More importantly, Dumbledore was a master of Legilimency. In other words, he was a mind-reader like Professor Charles from 'X-Men.'
Unlike other wizards who needed to use words or their wand, Legilimency masters like Voldemort and Dumbledore could read the mind simply by meeting the eyes of the person they wanted to mind read. Thus, when someone lied to them, they would be able to tell immediately.
In the novel, there seemed to be no legal restrictions on Legilimency, as Snape had used it when he was teaching Harry, and Dumbledore had used it without hesitation to question others in an emergency. Alina did not believe that Dumbledore was such a man of character that he would not try to pry into her mind.
One had to understand that Alina, as someone who had crossed over from another world, and far too many secrets that needed to be kept hidden. Ever since she had awakened in the Gryffindor Common Room, she had been thinking about how to deal with this problem.
"You seem to be afraid of me?"
Dumbledore's eyes glanced at the girl's trembling shoulders as he helplessly shrugged. He gently asked, "Do I look that ugly? You know, I thought that children always rather liked me."
He was even more curious about the silver-haired girl in front of him. Whether it was that seemingly magical piano tune she had played earlier or her understanding of the Magic World, she stood apart from the rest.
"It's not that I'm afraid. I just hate those people who rudely use Legilimency."
Alina took in a deep breath, trying hard to remain calm. Raising her head, she fearlessly met Dumbledore's gaze with her lake-blue eyes. Since she was already here, running was simply pointless. It was better to try and take this challenge head-on.
"I don't think there's a reason to talk with a thief who would just barge into someone's mind."
For witches and wizards, there were normally two methods of resisting Legilimency.
The first was to avoid meeting eyes as much as possible and keep one's distance. This would lower the success rate of the Legilimency.
But Alina felt that the chances of this working against a profoundly powerful Legilimens like Dumbledore were very low.
The other method was to be like Severus Snape and learn Occlumency. Occlumency allowed one to resist the effects of Legilimency, even permitting one's mind to lie without being exposed.
It was essentially a defensive charm targeted against Legilimency, but it was impossible for Alina.
However, Alina didn't think that concealing her thoughts meant that she needed to drive the other party out of her mind. There was a third method of resistance.
This was to use the rigorous knowledge of science to resist the mysterious power of magic.
Alina did her best to empty her mind and recall an extremely complicated manifold analysis map she had learned in college: Lie Group E8. This was one of the world's most complicated mathematical structures and had required four years of diligent effort from eighteen of the world's best mathematicians to derive finally.
This was the only method she had been able to think during her tour of Hogwarts to resist Dumbledore's Legilimency: let her mind be searched, but let it be incomprehensible.
Lie Groups were developed by the 19th-century mathematician Sophus Lie while he was researching multidimensional symmetry. E8 was proposed in 1887, but even now, not many people understood its structure.
It was used to explain the phenomenon of symmetrical objects being able to move while still maintaining their form constantly. E8 explained the symmetry of 57-dimensional objects, and one reason for this was something that only high-level mathematicians knew: E8 itself had a dimension of 248.
The reason she had chosen Lie Group E8 was that, unlike other scientific items that required dealing with large amounts of data, the E8's calculations required only a small amount of data but produced an immense and extremely dense answer.
In other words, Alina only needed to think about simple mathematical derivation formulas, while if Dumbledore wanted to read her mind, he needed to complete the formulas.
As a simple example, it was as if one was listening to Einstein to explain the theory of relativity. Everyone could understand the words coming out of his mouth, but nobody could understand their meaning.
But Alina had gone a step further, hiding a small trap. If one attempted to calculate and understand Lie Group E8, they would be immersed in a workload several dozen times greater than that of the human genome project. If all the calculations and data were put to paper, the paper could be used to cover the entire island of Manhattan.
One had to realize that the human genome project required one billion bytes of storage space, while E8 required 60 billion bytes.
Even if the four founders of Hogwarts were reborn, they wouldn't be able to start from the point of zero mathematics and completely understand what was going on.
"What an exquisite and genius concept. Is this the power of the Non-Magic World?"
The old man's dark blue eyes quietly met Alina's gaze for one or two seconds before moving away. He tiredly rubbed his forehead as he sighed in wonder.
The mental world of a half-Veela was already much more sensitive than an ordinary wizard's, and then there was that mathematical model, so compact and exquisite that it was like a work of art. Dumbledore had only tried to read her mind for one or two seconds before feeling his brain beginning to ache.
More importantly, with this simple glance, Dumbledore had finally had a direct look at the terrifying growth of the Non-Magic World that Alina had spoken of. Researching and exploring the origins of the world was no longer solely the domain of witches and wizards
Dumbledore focused his mind, and solemnly began to re-inspect the girl standing next to the piano.
Her small and tender face seemed to be very nervous, and her faintly most and lake-blue eyes were brimming with hostility. Her petite body was unconsciously shaking, and it was clear that in this strange environment, the girl was not as tough as her tone conveyed.
This child...just how much did she fear the Magic World?
Dumbledore shook his head as Alina stared at him like he was her mortal foe, he slowly walked over and squatted down so that their eyes were level with each other. Cautiously, he extended a hand and stroked her silver hair, speaking in a sincere tone.
"My apologies. Please forgive this old man's senility."
Dumbledore's eyes were gentle and earnest, no longer so piercing and sharp. It was like an old grandfather who was filled with remorse and pity after accidentally provoking his granddaughter.
"I promise to you, as Headmaster of Hogwarts, that I will never again use Legilimency on you."
"..."
Alina bit her lip, her expression slightly relaxing, but she said nothing.
It was hard for anyone to feel repulsion for this great wizard who had been a constant presence throughout the Harry Potter movies Since Dumbledore had sworn on the name of Hogwarts, he naturally wouldn't break his promise.
Seeing that the girl had slightly relaxed, Dumbledore smiled. He took out his wand and gave it a light shake, seemingly conjuring up a cup of ice cream that was still exuding a cold air.
"As an apology, why don't you try this lemon ice cream from the Hogwarts kitchens? As far as I know, this is well-liked sweet in your world. I also rather like it."
Dumbledore blinked as he offered the cup and a spoon to the silver-haired girl.
"Hmph, I'm not a three-year-old kid!"
Alina saw Dumbledore's expression as someone who was trying to soothe a small child, and when she saw the ice cream, her face turned red in anger as she shouted.
Trying to get back in her good graces with a little treat after casually prying into her mind? Absurd!
Noticing the look in the girl's eyes, Dumbledore smiled even more warmly. He pulled on Alina's hand and placed the porcelain cup of lemon ice cream on it.
"So, can you spend a little time listening to an old man's chattering?"
Alina hesitated for a few seconds and then extended her tongue to lick the ice cream. She immediately felt a refreshing sweet and sour taste blossom on the tip of her tongue.
"...Mmm, fine, you can talk." The silver-haired girl squinted as she spoke, a small spoon in her mouth.