"What other masters are there?" Hermione was just happy to receive such unusual information.
"Several masters of various disciplines are sitting in Azkaban for life - the Death Eaters. About a dozen in terms of strength will pass in many disciplines, the same Alastor Moody. There are quite a few Charms Masters in England. The discipline is just that... Not demanding in terms of strength, and any little thing is good for scientific work. There are two really strong Charms Masters - Flitwick, and Marchbanks. Griselda Marchbanks, by the way, is also powerful at Transfiguration, but without a title, though she can get a master easily and naturally. She took Dumbledore's exams about a hundred years ago."
"Wow ..." Hermione couldn't hold back a surprised sigh.
"Why are you surprised?" smiled Delphine. "Wizards live long lives even without Flamel's accomplishments. The last Headmaster, Armando Dippet, was well over three hundred before he died a couple of years ago. It all depends on the wizard himself - having achieved a lot while young, you get tired of waiting until you're old."
"Then why is the Headmaster so old?"
"Rumor has it that it's because of some mistake while working with Flamel in the field of alchemy. By the way, yes, Headmaster Dumbledore is also a very good alchemist, which is also one of the sources of his power. Nothing is clear there."
"Lady Greengrass," it was Hermione herself who decided to ask the question. "How is a wizard's power even determined? I mean, there are masters and apprentices and so on. Is it possible to determine strength by these ranks?"
"Definitely not. It's impossible. Certainly, there is a minimum level of strength necessary to defend a rank in front of a commission, but it's not an indicator. For example, the Headmaster has only one title of master. Still, he is recognized by the International Confederation as the strongest wizard, and that is far from just for his duel with Grindelwald, as jealous people think. Grindelwald and Voldemort have no rank at all, but in skill, knowledge, and in combat, they are head and shoulders above almost any wizard. There are now six wizards like them on earth, and only Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort have shown any kind of social activity. The others don't care about anything around their own quiet little world."
"But how so?" wondered Hermione. "There're wars, deaths, violence. It can be stopped, can't it?"
"It's possible. But what for? You see, Hermione, there are very few wizards. For this or any other reason, but it's the way it's been since the dawn of time that in our society, it's everyone for himself, and at most for his family. And you can't call Voldemort's terror - a war, either. In the villages, street to street conflicts are larger in scale. When Grindelwald started a war, that was WAR. Back then, the whole world, ordinary and magical, was fighting on one side or the other. And think about it - where's the World and where's England? If something's boiling in England, let it boil, it's better not to touch it, or it might scald or splash. But all sorts of eager for profit, maniacs, murderers, and other rabble were happy to come here at that time and were, mind you, on both sides - whichever was more to their liking. So, let's stop this excursion into history and the world situation and move on to the important stuff. Now that we've decided on a place, we should move our equipment here, and we should set up a tent so we can study the theory there and practice outside."
"There's one more place," I decided to tell them about the Room of Requirement.
"I can assume it's the room on the eighth floor, across from the painting?"
"Yes."
"Doesn't fit. Contrary to what some people think, it is included in the castle's surveillance system, and it's not that secure. The capabilities are unique, of course, but not unrepeatable. We are quite capable of organizing everything we need, and at the same time, there will be practice in Transfiguration. We'll just have to think of a more convenient way to get here since not everyone can speak Parseltongue."
"Maybe there's another way in?"
We ended up spending three hours looking for that "other way." And we found it, or rather, Delphine found it, using some elaborate search spell. It turned out to be a secret passage with a spiral staircase to the top, ending in a small empty room. If there was anything in here, it was long gone. Tom Riddle, no less. Although, why wouldn't someone have discovered this place earlier. When we tried to summon the house-elf here, we were successful, and when the house-elf realized that he couldn't get into this place of his own free will and without the order of whoever summoned him here, we experienced a phenomenal joy. There was another passageway in the office, leading to a niche in the fifth-floor corridor, and it opened only with a parseltongue. But it didn't matter, because Delphine could get in there with the castle house-elf, she had clearance, so she could take the two of us with her.
Since it was late, we ended up going to our rooms, and Hermione was clearly deep in thought.