"Remember, think carefully before answering!" Filius Flitwick ultimately couldn't bear to lose such a talented student, and he reminded Ian with a hint of suggestion in his deep voice.
Fire in the Forbidden Forest.
This matter is neither trivial nor insignificant. The key issue is that this fire is the terrifying Fiendfyre! If pursued thoroughly, a first-year student may face expulsion even if not taken to Azkaban.
Looking at the seemingly harmless little wizard, Filius Flitwick truly didn't want the little wizard to go to Azkaban, where there were no Dementor headmasters who understood talent. Ravenclaw had finally produced such an exceptional talent, how could they let his future be lost to youthful recklessness?
"I hope you're not telling me you were just trying to play a joke on us."
Deeply examining the Forbidden Forest, Professor McGonagall's lips had pressed firmly together, her eyes filled with annoyance and genuine concern for Ian's actions.
Anyone encountering this would feel terrified.
Causing a scene in the first year by unleashing Fiendfyre to burn the Forbidden Forest.
Where would he burn when he grows up?
London?
Or the yet-unburned Paris?
Or perhaps, from London all the way to Paris, surpassing the predecessors!
"Of course I wasn't trying to joke; I was forced..." Ian sighed, and before he could continue explaining, Filius Flitwick quickly interjected.
"You accidentally released magic, right?" Filius Flitwick thought the little wizard deserved a chance to reform. Maybe this little guy had just learned this spell by chance and accidentally wielded it in the Forbidden Forest as if he'd practiced for decades?
Such was his thought process.
Clearly, he had a genuine appreciation for talent.
"I did indeed actively release the Fiendfyre Spell, but there was a reason."
Ian's shaking head made Filius Flitwick stamp his feet in frustration, looking exasperated. However, Ian's next words made his hands suddenly stop in midair.
"Indeed, there was a Dark Wizard... I encountered him in the school." Ian thought the school's underground passages should also count as the school, and in this matter, he was not quite lying.
"Dark Wizard?"
Professor McGonagall frowned.
"Impossible, Hogwarts has always been very safe; there's never been a Dark Wizard infiltration in all these years." Pomona Sprout looked utterly astounded.
"You were chased to the Forbidden Forest by a Dark Wizard and had no choice but to use Fiendfyre to fight back?" Filius Flitwick was concerned about the talk of Dark Wizards appearing at Hogwarts, but he was more focused on how to extricate the future prefect of his college from potentially being branded as a criminal for forest arson.
"Uh..."
Ian hesitated for a moment. He wanted to use the strength of several headmasters to quickly find the noseless Tom, so he chose not to continue concealing the truth and thoughtfully began to speak.
"Considering the potential danger of the Dark Wizard to the school, I chased the Dark Wizard all the way to the Forbidden Forest. He wanted to kill me, so I used Fiendfyre to counter and break through his evil Dark Arts."
"Unfortunately... I still let him escape..." Ian's frustration wasn't acting; it was a true reflection of his feelings. He genuinely regretted not burning Voldemort's remnant soul in time.
"Oh, I see what you mean, I knew you wouldn't... Wait, what do you mean you chased the Dark Wizard all the way to the Forbidden Forest, forcing him into a retreat?"
Filius Flitwick seemed to process everything a beat too late.
His eyes widened.
His expression was filled with indescribable shock.
"Shouldn't Dark Wizards be the ones doing the chasing?"
Ian's response left the headmasters speechless.
"..."
"..."
The two female headmasters, who already had peculiar expressions due to Ian's words, exchanged glances. They were momentarily choked up by this interaction with Ravenclaw College.
After a brief silence.
"Even if there's really a Dark Wizard, you should notify the professors instead of single-handedly pursuing them. It's a highly risky gamble; a slight mistake and you might be..."
Professor McGonagall wanted to admonish Ian not to be more reckless than Gryffindor members, but when she glanced at Ian who didn't have a speck of mud on him, she found it hard to finish her reprimand.
"In any case, you should notify us."
Professor McGonagall coughed twice, her expression still utterly stern.
"The situation happened too suddenly, Professor McGonagall, if I hadn't pursued him, he would have killed me. You don't know how truly evil that Dark Wizard is."
Ian pulled out his wand from mid-air, and under the somewhat bewildered gaze of the three professors, he directly placed the wand against his temple, extracting a strand of silver light.
"I need to show you firsthand." Ian didn't want to waste too much time allowing Voldemort to escape, so he cast the spell while spreading the silver light into the air.
"Retrospect!"
This magic isn't recorded in the textbooks, but it's mentioned in Hogwarts' library. It allows memories to be projected into a visual form. Though not as powerful as the Memory Magic Dumbledore once used, it can at least recreate the caster's experience in 3D.
And thus.
Distorted malformed creatures, the faces on those creatures, and Voldemort's remnant soul were vividly recreated—but Ian certainly wouldn't show the casting of Unforgivable Curses.
He believed just showing the professors Voldemort's ugly state should suffice.
Professor McGonagall's expression changed at the sight of the malformed creature, and when Voldemort's eerie and frightening remnant soul was revealed, the expressions of the other two professors also immediately transformed.
"This is... No! It can't be!" Pomona Sprout cried out in disbelief, covering her mouth. She clearly recognized whose remnant soul it was.
"Heavens above! Merlin's beard! The Dark Wizard you were pursuing, how could it... be him?"
Filius Flitwick also exclaimed, but his shock wasn't solely from seeing Voldemort; he realized an incredibly startling issue.
A first-year little wizard pursuing the Mysterious Man who can't be named, yet not being killed by him — this was a ludicrous situation he wouldn't even dream of!
"We need to inform Dumbledore! This is beyond our capacity to handle... Mr. Prince, can you guarantee that the memory you've presented hasn't been falsified?" Professor McGonagall's lips were tightly pressed, turning white. She suddenly looked at Ian, her stern voice trembling slightly.
Just as Ian was about to swear on the lives of his two good roommates.
"I believe I'm already here, Minerva..." Dumbledore's voice echoed from the other side of the Forbidden Forest, as a white-haired, white-bearded old man walked out slowly.
He wore his signature purple robe sprinkled with silver stars, though the hem of the robe slightly dragged along the ground, getting muddy. Yet this didn't affect the sense of security Dumbledore brought to the headmasters.
"You're finally back."
The three headmasters visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
At the same time.
Ian's heart leapt into his throat—not from fear of Dumbledore's reproach, simply because he saw Hagrid, the over three-meter tall Half-blood Giant, and… Snape, whose expression seemed intent on boiling the little wizard into a magic potion.