By the time the carriages arrived one after another, night had already fallen.
When Wade stepped down, he could still see numerous traces of battle around the school gates.
Many people were gathered outside Hogwarts, most of them Ministry Aurors.
Hogwarts itself had just been attacked. Of course the Ministry would station Aurors there.
After leaving the carriage, Wade spotted Yelena in the distance, standing beside Professor McGonagall.
Yelena had arrived long ago.
The original plan had been for her to travel by carriage and deliberately arrive slightly later than the train.
Since she was a transfer student and felt somewhat self-conscious, she had wanted to wait until the Sorting Ceremony began before being sent forward to be Sorted. That way, the experience would be less awkward for her.
But this year, something unexpected had happened.
The Hogwarts Express had been attacked.
The investigation and treatment took a long time before the students were finally brought back to school in the Thestral-drawn carriages that had been sent in haste.
The professors spread out to welcome the students through the school gates.
"You're finally here! What happened?" Yelena hurried over and asked anxiously.
"It's a long story, Yelena. You've managed to encounter the sort of major event that happens once in a thousand years," Wade said wearily.
Yelena was about to ask more, but Tom interrupted her.
"Don't ask. The evening edition of the Daily Prophet will definitely report it. Right now, we're hungry enough to eat an entire bison, and we don't feel like talking at all."
Yelena could only let the matter drop.
Since no one was seriously injured, or rather, since everyone who had been seriously injured had been healed, the start-of-term feast was not cancelled.
The Sorting Ceremony also proceeded as usual, though it was far simpler than in previous years.
The Sorting Hat had originally intended to sing its annual song, but in the end, it never got the chance.
Headmaster Dippet felt that the students had suffered a terrible fright that day, so singing would be inappropriate. It would be better to finish the Sorting quickly, let everyone eat their fill, and send them back to rest.
The Sorting Hat was rather displeased. After all, it had spent an entire year preparing its new song.
Dumbledore returned to the Great Hall halfway through the Sorting Ceremony. Grindelwald was not with him.
Wade noticed Dumbledore's expression.
Most likely, they had found nothing.
Dumbledore beckoned to Wade, then walked into a small room beside the Great Hall.
Wade stood and quickly followed.
The students immediately began murmuring again, almost drowning out the Sorting Hat's voice.
The room beside the Great Hall was not large. Apart from a few chairs, it was completely empty. Even the walls were bare, without so much as a portrait.
Wade guessed that this might be the same room where the champions would gather during the Triwizard Tournament in later years.
Dumbledore drew his wand and lit the fireplace.
The chilly room finally began to warm up.
"Wade, I need you to tell me as many details as possible," Dumbledore said. "After all, out of all those students, you were the only one who actually fought those people."
Wade sighed.
Given the choice, all he wanted was a proper meal followed by a good night's sleep.
Nightmare magic consumed far more physical and mental energy than ordinary spells, and he had pushed himself almost to the limit that evening.
"This is extremely important. The sooner we find a clue, the better. Actually, let's have dinner here. We can talk while we eat."
As Dumbledore spoke, he Transfigured an overturned stool into a table.
With a tap of his wand, the table was suddenly covered with food.
Wade did not stand on ceremony. He picked up a chicken leg and began eating.
"Professor, about Captain Bulstrode..."
Dumbledore sighed. "He was attacked. We found him unconscious by the roadside, and the carriage was empty. After he was revived, he insisted that he had been under the Imperius Curse and had been unable to control his actions. Grindelwald clearly does not believe him."
Wade nodded.
The danger of the Imperius Curse lay in how little evidence it left behind. Even afterward, it was extremely difficult to prove that someone had been under its influence.
So Bulstrode's claim might genuinely be enough to clear him.
In the original history, after Voldemort was crippled when Harry reflected the Killing Curse back at him, captured Death Eaters such as Lucius Malfoy used the same excuse.
The Imperius Curse, combined with a large sum of Galleons, had been enough to secure his release.
However, Mr Bulstrode was clearly still going to suffer.
Grindelwald was not the sort of man who needed firm evidence before taking action, even if he had supposedly begun walking the proper path.
"Professor, unless I'm mistaken, they came for me," Wade said calmly.
Though his tone was calm, the words instantly led Dumbledore to several conclusions.
"Why do you think that?" Dumbledore asked.
"If they had genuinely wanted to attack the students, even I couldn't have stopped them all. Before that mysterious witch cast her protective spell, they had plenty of time to break through and start killing people," Wade explained.
"So their objective wasn't the students," Dumbledore said. "But they must have had some reason for attacking the Hogwarts Express."
"This may sound rather conceited, but when you think about it, the most valuable target on the entire train was me. The first thing they did after seeing me was ask whether I was Wade Reynolds. And at first, they only used non-lethal spells. The strongest twenty or so didn't even attack immediately. They seemed to be watching me, testing me."
Dumbledore understood what Wade meant.
Someone had taken an interest in Wade, wanted to test his abilities, and was extremely interested in the things he possessed.
That was not good news.
"You really have been attracting far too much attention lately," Dumbledore said with a frown.
From the moment the Dragon Pox potion appeared, Wade had been destined to lose any chance of a quiet life.
"There was nothing I could do. I couldn't simply watch Mr Malfoy die when I had the means to save him," Wade said heavily.
"This isn't your fault, Wade. I know what kind of person you are. It would be impossible for you to stand by when you knew you could save someone." Dumbledore frowned. "In the end, this was Horace's oversight. You had already given him the potion formula. If he had thought to conceal your name and avoid mentioning you to outsiders, you wouldn't have ended up at the centre of so much attention."
Wade quietly moved his fork around his plate.
In truth, he had asked Professor Slughorn to handle the matter precisely because he wanted Slughorn to spread his reputation.
Otherwise, how could he extract funding from those pure-blood families?
And his choice of Professor Slughorn had been deliberate.
Given Slughorn's personality, how could he possibly resist boasting when one of his students achieved something remarkable?
The more accomplished his student appeared, the more prestige Slughorn gained as their professor.
If Wade had wanted to remain hidden, he would have asked Dumbledore for help instead of Professor Slughorn.
Even so, he certainly could not say any of that to Dumbledore.
After carefully choosing his words, Wade said sincerely, "You can't blame Professor Slughorn. When he received the formula from me, he was genuinely happy for me. Although I didn't invent it, the formula could still make me famous at a young age, which would benefit my future. Professor, please don't blame him. He was only thinking about what would be best for me."
Dumbledore was indeed moved by Wade's words.
"Wade, you're simply too kind. No matter the situation, you're always willing to consider things from someone else's perspective."
"But it's true, Professor. Professor Slughorn..." Wade began anxiously.
"All right, all right, Wade. Don't worry. I won't go looking for trouble with your teacher," Dumbledore said helplessly.
After a moment of silence, Dumbledore asked, "Let's return to the enemies you faced. I'm not surprised that you defeated them. I know how powerful you are. But how did you capture them? I heard they all Apparated back to their original positions in the end."
Clearly, Dumbledore had already learned the details of the battle from the witnesses, which was why he was so curious.
Defeating multiple opponents alone was possible, but capturing all of them at once was much more difficult.
With so many enemies Apparating away simultaneously, even Dumbledore would only have been able to catch a few.
Wade had prepared an explanation for his nightmare magic long ago.
"It was the power of ancient magic," Wade said. "Do you remember how I managed to hold Grindelwald back when I fought him before? I can make my opponents experience brief hallucinations. I've become much more proficient at using that ability now."
Whenever in doubt, blame ancient magic.
Dumbledore had no talent for ancient magic, so there was no way he could fully understand its characteristics.
Sure enough, Dumbledore showed no suspicion and nodded. "I see."
Dumbledore truly knew little about ancient magic. Back in Wade's first year, he had already used its hallucinatory effects to hold an unprepared Grindelwald in place. Now that he was older, using a few tricks against wizards far weaker than Grindelwald should not have been difficult.
When those wizards successfully Apparated away, their vigilance must have dropped to its lowest point because they believed they had escaped.
So when they discovered themselves back on the battlefield, they would naturally have been unable to react in time. That was when Wade's technique of splitting a spell into multiple attacks became useful.
"That's an extraordinary ability. I hope you'll use it wisely," Dumbledore said sincerely.
"Yes... though even with my ability, I can only control them briefly when I activate it. However, the effect can be delayed as long as the trigger condition is met..."
Dumbledore raised a hand and interrupted him.
"Keep the details of your secret techniques to yourself. Don't tell anyone, not even me. This is one of your trump cards, something that may save your life."
"But I don't believe you would ever harm me, Professor," Wade said matter-of-factly.
"Of course I wouldn't. But what if someone defeated me and extracted that memory from my mind?" Dumbledore said seriously.
"Besides, you trust people far too easily. Remember what I'm about to tell you. I would not say this to any other student. From today onwards, trust no one. I mean no one. Not even me, and not any of your closest friends. What if someone impersonates us? You're powerful, but I still fear you may be caught off guard. A knife from behind is always the most dangerous."
Wade frowned helplessly.
Dumbledore continued, "You're no longer like the other students. In some people's eyes, you're a walking mountain of gold. There's a very high chance those attackers came for you. They were willing to attack the Hogwarts Express. What wouldn't they dare to do?"
"And the fact that they could launch simultaneous attacks on three locations, with powerful forces at each one, proves that whoever is behind this has influence reaching almost everywhere."
"Professor..." Wade said quietly, "can anyone in this world truly possess that much power? If such a person existed, they couldn't possibly remain unknown."
"It would be almost impossible for one person alone to command that kind of power. So the only explanation is that several people have joined forces," Dumbledore concluded.
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69