Rolling thunder clouds piled up massively across the entire sky, hanging so oppressively low it seemed one could reach up and touch their underbellies from top of Hogwarts's tallest tower.
Dazzling fork of lightning struck at the black lake far below revealing the churning, foaming waters for split seconds of blinding brightness before darkness crashed back in. The electrical assault disturbed the docile giant squid dwelling peacefully in the murky depths, which thrashed its eight massive tentacles in agitation and fear.
The enormous creature's violent, panicked movements raised tremendous floods and waves that surged with force toward the castle, momentarily submerging the entrance hall steps in several feet of cold water before receding with a sucking sound, leaving debris scattered everywhere.
The first day of June had brought absolutely terrible weather to the Scottish Highlands that seemed to ominously foreshadow that the final month of the school year would be anything but peaceful and ordinary.
An owl arrived through the howling storm, fighting against the brutal wind, bringing Bryan a letter from Remus in London. Reading it carefully by the crackling fire in his private office, a faint smile appeared gradually on Bryan's lips.
Mr. Weasley had already written to Bryan earlier inquiring whether Percy's completely shocking decision to resign abruptly from the Ministry of Magic and join the learning workshop had been Bryan's suggestion.
Bryan had replied that it wasn't his suggestion at all, that Percy had made this choice entirely on his own. But he'd thoughtfully added that if Percy had indeed made his decision after genuine soul-searching, he sincerely hoped the Weasley family would respect it fully and support their son emotionally through this transition.
Remus's letter now informed him that Percy had come for a formal interview at the workshop yesterday afternoon and had passed successfully. Remus was seeking Bryan's opinion on whether to actually recruit Percy. Bryan believed and suspected that Remus had likely sent a very similar letter to Mr. Weasley as well.
After writing down his opinion, Bryan glanced at the heavy rain still pouring down outside his office window. Then he spoke kindly and gently to the disheveled owl perched before his fireplace, attempting to dry its damp feathers with shaking wings,
"I need to go out now. Please deliver this letter back to your master when you're ready and properly recovered—no rush, take all the time you need. You can wait here in comfort until the rain stops."
Remus's owl hooted weakly in grateful acknowledgment.
It was class time throughout the castle, with lessons in full swing, and consequently the corridors were empty of wandering students. Bryan stood contemplatively in a tall stone archway for several minutes, watching the hissing curtain of rain outside with narrowed eyes.
After a moment's hesitation, he chose not to continue down the main stairs and leave the castle through the normal, obvious means where he might be observed. Instead, he turned decisively and followed the corridor in a completely different direction, heading toward a more secluded, rarely-visited area of the castle.
"Dissendium—"
Reaching the end of the corridor, Bryan drew his wand smoothly from his robes and tapped the famous hunchbacked witch statue. With a harsh, grinding scraping sound of stone grinding on stone, the witch's hump opened obligingly, revealing a dark, steeply descending passage.
Before emerging from Honeydukes' dusty, cluttered cellar into the shop above, Bryan casted a Disillusionment Charm on himself. After all, he was now a respected professor at Hogwarts with a reputation to maintain, and couldn't act with the same recklessness and disregard for rules as certain young wizards who used this passage regularly for their trips to the village.
In such heavy, punishing rain, there were very few people on Hogsmeade's usually bustling main streets. Only a handful of villagers in heavy rain cloaks were braving the downpour, working to clear clogged drains before the flooding became serious and damaged properties.
After casting an additional, powerful water-repelling charm on himself, Bryan left Honeydukes, and stepped into the world being bombarded by pouring rain.
Following the main street for several minutes, Bryan eventually turned sharply into a small, narrow lane beside the village post office. Within minutes of navigating the twisting, muddy path, he appeared before the familiar, somewhat notorious shop known throughout the region as the Hog's Head.
The fierce thunder and roaring rain made the conversation inside the pub somewhat muffled, but Bryan could still hear it.
"You don't seem very welcoming, Aberforth. Not particularly pleased to see me, are you?"
An accented classy voice tinged with amusement.
"You dare expect me to welcome you warmly? You've got nerve!"
The other voice sounded rather crude and rough, full of anger and aggression.
"If you're looking to pimp and recruit your usual sort, Fawley, then get yourself back to your underworld haunts where you belong! Hogsmeade is my territory, has been for decades, and I won't have your kind of business conducted here!"
"Oh, don't say that, Aberforth. Please be reasonable."
Fawley's voice remained elegant and controlled despite the open hostility being thrown at him.
"I'm not here to steal your business or interfere with your various operations. A certain important personage arranged to meet me here specifically. I had to come; it wasn't my choice of venue at all—"
"Oh, let your precious 'personage' go straight to hell and take you with him!"
Aberforth's voice dripped with contempt.
"Why don't you discuss your little secrets in the Shrieking Shack instead? Plenty of privacy there among the ghosts and the dust!"
Bryan's mouth twitched with suppressed amusement at the colorful exchange as he reached out with one hand and pushed open the door to the Hog's Head.
During daytime hours, and especially not on a usual or designated Hogsmeade weekend when students flooded the village with their pocket money, the Hog's Head had precious little business and few paying customers.
Apart from Aberforth Dumbledore standing behind the bar with his distinctive deep scowl and crossed arms, only Kakus Fawley was currently in the pub.
Bryan's sudden entrance silenced both men instantly.
"You?"
Aberforth glanced sharply at Kakus with suspicion, then focused his gaze on Bryan's faintly smiling face. "You arranged to meet someone here?"
"Ah, good afternoon, Aberforth, always such a pleasure to see you—"
Bryan chuckled warmly as he walked toward the bar.
"Why do you seem so notably unenthusiastic about my patronage?"
Aberforth grunted twice in response.
"If you wanted to chat privately with someone for a secret meeting, Watson, why not meet in your office at the castle? Or do you have some little secret you don't want the greatest wizard of our age to know about?"
The heavy sarcasm when mentioning 'the greatest wizard of our age' was obvious.
"If I truly wanted to avoid Dumbledore's notice, Aberforth—"
Bryan said with a knowing, slightly mischievous smile.
"Then I certainly wouldn't have chosen here of all possible places, would I?
It's just that I suddenly had a strong urge for a proper drink and your Firewhisky is considerably more authentic than the Three Broomsticks'."
Aberforth said nothing more in response to this, but he continued to glare at Bryan with displeasure. His face made it clear he didn't believe a single word of this obvious nonsense.
"Come, Kakus. Let's sit properly and talk while Aberforth prepares drinks for us."
Bryan gently patted Kakus's arm and the two men walked with tacit understanding toward a small table in the farthest corner from the bar.
Bryan removed his traveling cloak, and hung it on a nearby hook, and Kakus took off his coat and draped it over his chair back. They sat on opposite sides of the small round table, neither speaking yet.
Two full minutes later, the disturbed Aberforth stomped over irritably and placed two glasses of Firewhisky before them. Bryan and Kakus simultaneously raised their glasses toward each other in a silent, meaningful toast and each took a sip, savoring the burn.
"Ah—that's good—"
Kakus let out a long, satisfied sigh that came from deep in his chest, clearly savoring the spicy and mellow sensation burning pleasantly in his throat, spreading warmth through his body.
Listening to the rain hammering outside, his entire demeanor and voice showed deep melancholy and pensiveness, as if the weather perfectly matched his troubled mood.
"Terrible weather we're having."
Bryan's earlier smile faded gradually, disappearing completely as he looked calmly at Kakus
"Indeed. Quite terrible. Symbolic, perhaps."
"Actually, I've been waiting for you to find me, Mr. Watson—"
Kakus said softly.
"It's been several months now since the second task ended. Ever since that day the second task of the Triwizard Tournament concluded and Hogwarts publicly announced the Dark Lord's return to the world, I knew you would eventually come for me."
"Oh, why is that? What made you so certain I'd seek you out?"
Bryan asked with interest, leaning forward slightly.
"I've cooperated deeply with you, Mr. Watson—"
Kakus took a deep breath and spoke with complete earnestness, meeting Bryan's eyes directly without flinching.
"I know your style. In Dumbledore's eyes, there's only the Dark Lord and the Ministry. But you're different from him in your approach. You see things that Dumbledore simply can't see or won't acknowledge because of his principles.
I know very clearly that once you decide to settle accounts with the Dark Lord, to actually make your decisive move—you absolutely won't allow anyone to stir up trouble opportunistically in the background, to take advantage of the chaos."
Bryan smiled slightly and took another sip of his drink.
"The Fawley family suffered extraordinarily heavy losses during the First Wizarding War."
Bryan's voice was straightforward, reciting history that both men knew well.
"Hector Fawley made a catastrophic major misstep in his policy toward Grindelwald decades earlier, showing poor judgment at a critical moment. That directly led to the purging of the Fawley family's influence within the Ministry of Magic.
To compensate for this political disaster, to try desperately to regain lost standing, your family threw its elite members into the war against Grindelwald, hoping to redeem yourselves through blood and sacrifice on the battlefield.
After the war finally ended with Grindelwald's defeat and imprisonment, the Fawley family had nearly vanished from the British wizarding world."
"Yes, my charming ancestor always had such remarkably keen insight when facing tense situations—"
Kakus smiled bitterly. "His foresight was supposedly unparalleled. We're still paying for his brilliant choices decades later."
He paused, swirling his drink, then asked directly with resignation.
"So... Mr. Watson, is it time again for the Fawley family to choose sides and take a stand?"
"It's not the Fawley family itself I particularly value, Kakus. Forgive my bluntness, but I must be completely honest with you—"
Bryan's tone was frank, holding nothing back.
"The power and resources the Fawley family has slowly accumulated over half a century of careful rebuilding is frankly insignificant in my eyes, in the Ministry's strategic calculations, and certainly in Voldemort's cold calculation.
You're not major players anymore on the board, despite your ancient name and history. What I value... is you specifically, Kakus Fawley. Your personal worth, your unique talents and connections, exceed that of the entire Fawley family combined."
"Oh, thank you for that high assessment, Mr. Watson, how wonderfully flattering—"
Despite being praised so highly and directly, Kakus didn't look particularly pleased or flattered by the words. Instead, he said gloomily, staring sullenly into his drink as if seeking answers there,
"Honestly, I'd rather have kept my head down quietly all these years. Just minded my own business, stayed invisible in the shadows. Then this kind of danger wouldn't have found me eventually. I could have lived peacefully, died old in my bed."
"If that were truly your style, Kakus—"
Bryan said with a laugh.
"Then you wouldn't have chosen this path in the first place."
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