"You totally did that on purpose!" Azazel grabbed Nios by his collar and shook him vigorously.
"This room only turns into what you want it to be! Admit it! You just wanted to play that 'Golden Throne' trick!"
"Hehe~" Nios seized the opportunity to act cute, attempting to muddle through.
"Hehe your head!" Azazel grew even angrier, his tail standing up like an exclamation mark.
Ignoring the frantic Azazel, Nios assessed his physical condition and felt that he had recovered sufficiently.
He casually grabbed Azazel's leg and tossed him onto the ground like a ragdoll.
"Stop messing around, serious matters first." He walked to the wall and walked back and forth three times again.
The large door inlaid with black magic patterns reappeared.
"This time it should be fine." Nios said to Azazel, who was still lying on the ground, "First, release Pip from his hypnosis."
Azazel reluctantly got up and gently blew a white glowing mist towards the dazed Pip.
Pip shivered, his eyes regained clarity, and he scratched his head in confusion: "What… what happened to me… I feel like I've forgotten something?"
Azazel flew over and patted his shoulder: "It's nothing, old brother. It's rare to be confused in life, don't take troubles to heart."
Pip nodded, still somewhat bewildered.
"Pip," Nios instructed, "We'll be inside for a while. You wait outside and send us back to the Gryffindor common room later."
"Yes, Mr. Chaos." Pip responded respectfully, his figure rapidly fading and merging into the shadows of the corridor.
Nios pushed open the heavy door.
Behind the door was no longer the dazzling golden throne, but a square room of about fifty square meters.
In the center of the room was a huge black round table, its surface smooth as a mirror, with a deep inverted seven-pointed star etched in its center.
Surrounding the round table, each point of the seven-pointed star pointed to a small, floating egg-shaped suspended seat.
Between two points of the seven-pointed star, there was also a high-backed chair with a simple design and stark lines.
Azazel floated over, counting: "Six high-backed chairs, seven egg-shaped chairs? You plan to have six people control seven demons?"
Nios walked to the table, his fingers tracing the cool surface, his tone matter-of-fact: "There are only six people in the Seven Deadly Sins, isn't that normal?"
Azazel plopped into a floating egg-shaped chair, crossed his legs, folded his arms across his chest, and delivered a classic retort: "Heh! Other people have 'five of the Four Heavenly Kings,' but with you, it's directly 'one less of the Seven Deadly Sins'! You're something else!"
Nios ignored him, walked over, grabbed Azazel's head like a basketball, lifted him up, and walked to the innermost part of the round table, next to the main seat directly facing the door.
"This is your spot." He dropped Azazel onto the floating egg chair to the left of the main seat.
Azazel wiggled in the egg chair and found that it could rotate 360 degrees and was quite comfortable.
He looked at the empty seat to Nios's right: "Then this seat… whose is it?"
Nios sat down in the high-backed chair at the main seat, lazily propping his feet on the smooth tabletop, his hands clasped behind his head.
"That's reserved for Bell. Bell of Gluttony and Temperance."
Azazel's eyebrows shot up: "Bell? Bell, as in Bear Grylls' Bell?"
Nios chuckled, the cartoon eyes on his eye patch curving: "Hmm… there's certainly some truth to that."
Azazel muttered: "I hope you don't make him too handsome and steal my thunder."
Nios tilted his head to look at him: "What? Aren't you handsome enough?"
Azazel looked down at his doll-like body, then up at Nios's eyes, sealed by the eye patch, and sincerely suggested: "Next time you reshape your body, remember to give yourself a few more pairs of eyes, the kind that cover all angles."
Nios didn't respond, only giving an OK gesture.
"Then what's next?" Azazel swayed in the egg chair. "After creating Bell… who do you plan to have sit in that chair?" He pointed to the remaining seats.
Nios sat up straight, his fingertips touching the egg-shaped chairs one by one, his voice clear and cold:
"Gluttony and Temperance, Envy and Tolerance, Wrath and Gentleness, Pride and Humility, Sloth and Diligence, Greed and Generosity…" Finally, his fingertip pointed steadily at Azazel, "And you, Lust and Chastity."
Azazel also imitated Nios, flattening into a demon pancake in the egg chair, the tip of his tail tapping the seat surface intermittently: "If I'm not mistaken… you never intended to fully hand over the demons to them, did you? You want to be the 'ultimate authority'?" His voice carried a hint of understanding and sarcasm.
Nios's lips curled into a grin, revealing his stark white fangs: "Oh? Finally figured it out? You didn't really think I'd be foolish enough to hand over the chains to someone else, did you?"
Azazel suddenly sat up straight, his sharp gaze fixed on Nios: "You greedy bastard to the core!"
Seeing Nios unresponsive, he pressed on: "Who's the first 'lucky one'?"
"Of course, we start with the 'easiest to deal with'." Nios's tone was relaxed.
"Hermione Granger?" Azazel confirmed.
"Uh-huh." Nios's voice took on an almost cruel analytical tone. "A brilliant little girl with few friends; her assertiveness is merely a fragile armor. Why does she always bury herself in books? Because of fear. Fear of the unknown Wizarding World, fear of her 'lowly' Muggle birth, fear of not making friends and being isolated… She desperately memorizes books, only wanting to arm herself with knowledge to prove 'I am worthy of acceptance'."
"Just a little bit of well-timed 'understanding' and 'gentleness,' and she will flutter into my carefully woven net like a moth. The most ironic thing is," Nios chuckled, "in this insecurity, she even has the capacity to 'pity' aberrations like House-elves… What a 'perfect' master. Envy and Tolerance will 'like' her."
Azazel glared at him with the look one reserves for the ultimate scumbag: "As expected of someone with the same name as a weasel."
Nios waved his hand dismissively: "Then why are you still helping me? Without the blessing of your 'succubus aura,' how could I weave this 'net' so strong?"
Azazel twisted his head, pouting: "Then I despise myself too! From the bottom of my heart!"
"Alright, stop being a tsundere." Nios's fingers continued to tap the remaining empty seats, "Neville, Draco, Ron… and our dear 'Savior,' Harry Potter."
Hearing Harry's name, Azazel immediately jumped off the egg chair and rushed to Nios: "Wait! Nios! Did you hit your head?! Neville is one thing! Harry Potter?! How could he correspond to 'Greed and Generosity'?! That's completely unrelated!"
Nios leaned down, closer to Azazel, his gaze from beneath the eye patch seemingly piercing him: "Azazel, it's not that I want him to use Greed and Generosity, it's that he can only choose Greed and Generosity."
"Think about it," Nios's voice was cold, as if it saw through everything, "the previous 'protagonist' hasn't left the stage yet. How do you think that great White Wizard will 'cultivate' our little Harry?"
Watching Azazel fall into thought, Nios reached out and placed his hand on his small head:
"No matter what Dumbledore has been through, one thing he can never change."
"He, and the 'righteous people' he cultivates, are idealists to the core! They will never be satisfied! No matter how well they do, they will only criticize themselves for 'not being good enough'!"
"Look at Harry. He grew up in such a repressive environment, yet he has sympathy for all misfortunes, even for you!"
"His 'gentleness' dooms him to eternal dissatisfaction! He is even willing to pay a huge price for it! And Dumbledore will spare no effort to strengthen this trait in him! To mold him into a 'perfect savior'!"
At this point, Nios grabbed Azazel's head, lifted him up, and brought him to his "eye level."
Looking at the comical cartoon eyes on the eye patch, Azazel complained: "Next time you want to have a soulful gaze with me, please take off that awful eye patch first! I'd rather stare into two black holes than look at these things!"
The strength in Nios's hand suddenly increased, and Azazel could even hear the faint groan of his own skull.
"Do you see? It's not that I want Harry to be 'greedy'," Nios's voice was low, "it's his 'predecessor' who has already paved this path of 'generous sacrifice' to save the majority!"
"The end of this path is the infinite desire of greed, the desire for power, the desire for victory, the desire to end all sacrifices! His giving also perfectly corresponds to 'generosity'!"
"And… Dumbledore's script isn't finished yet… who knows… there might even be a place for you and me!"
Nios loosened his grip, and Azazel fell back onto the tabletop, leaving a clear palm print on his head.
"Tsk, that's annoying." Nios rubbed his wrist, a hint of irritation in his tone.
"I really want to tailor a 'special' demon for that old Principal… but what kind should it be?" He seemed to be talking to himself, and also asking Azazel, "Do you have any ideas?"
Seeing Azazel feigning death on the table with his head in his hands, Nios's fingertip flashed with white light, and the fake wand turned into a small dagger, gently poking Azazel's butt.
"Ow!" Azazel jumped up, clutching his butt, then glared resentfully at Nios after landing. "He's practically a spirit already! He's the old fox among old foxes! You still expect to scheme against him with demons? Save it!"
Nios stroked his chin, pondering the question, then got up and walked towards the door. Seeing this, Azazel quickly flew up to follow him.
"Pip!"
"Pip is here, Mr. Chaos." From the shadows, Pip's figure quickly emerged.
"Good, take us back to the common room."
"Alright."
Pop! With a crisp popping sound, Nios and Azazel instantly vanished from their spot, reappearing in front of the Fat Lady's portrait in Gryffindor Tower.
"You can go back now. I'll call you if I need anything." Nios said to Pip.
Pip bowed to the two: "At your service, anytime."
Azazel also waved his short little hands at Pip: "Bye-bye, old brother Pip!"
Pip smiled and nodded at Azazel, then vanished with a "pop."