Chapter 187
What do you want to ask me
Chapter 187 What do you want to ask me
"Oh, sorry." Dumbledore wiped his eyes and said calmly, "It's hard to remember the past... It was a difficult time for us."
Wade nodded silently without looking at the other person's expression.
The somewhat illusory figure disappeared. When he gathered again, Ariana had fallen to the ground with a pale face and her eyes had lost their spirit.
Aberforth immediately rushed towards his sister, and the young Dumbledore was completely stunned, his expression blank.
Grindelwald took two steps back, looking panicked. He looked at Dumbledore, as if he wanted to say something. But before Dumbledore looked at him, he turned around and ran away in panic.
A diamond-shaped pendant flashed across the screen, and the gem-like object in the middle was shining with a bright red light.
The scene changed quickly, and the scene of the funeral flashed by. Wade saw Aberforth angrily broke Dumbledore's nose. Dumbledore stood up, covering his bloody nose, without resisting.
Then, the once high-spirited young man became silent and painful, all his dreams came to an abrupt end, and his ambitions turned into nothing.
Dumbledore returned to school and began teaching. Students came and went beside him like a stream, like a long and unreal dream.
Then, it was Grindelwald again.
He became tall and strong, and the wand in his hand was changed to an old wand known as the invincible one.
He traveled to different countries and gave speeches on high platforms.
The previous fear and panic had completely disappeared from his face. His expression was sometimes stern but calm, and sometimes fanatical but sincere. There was a powerful force in his eyes that attracted people to follow him.
There are more and more followers behind him, with sharp, fanatical and loyal expressions.
Very different from those Death Eaters who knelt on the ground and kissed Voldemort's shoes.
Grindelwald and his witch party constantly launch terrorist attacks - the elderly, pregnant women, babies... anyone who gets in his way will be eliminated without hesitation.
When they blew up streets and burned buildings, they never considered whether innocent people would be implicated.
There were also some people in the Witch Party who still had a conscience and felt pain and intolerance, but Grindelwald held the shoulders of those young people and told them earnestly -
"The small number of sacrifices now is for the future of the entire wizarding world. It is an inevitable tragedy on the road ahead. Believe me, child, I feel very sad about this as well."
"But if victory could be achieved by persuading others with words, then we wouldn't need war!"
"The people are blind and stupid, and the Ministry of Magic is bloated and incompetent. They are unwilling to admit that this world is a world where the strong prey on the weak! If wizards want to survive with dignity, they must speak with blood and fire!"
"My child, even though those people lost their lives, we must carry the will of the dead and continue to move forward and continue to fight. This is more difficult than just dying."
"For those... parents and children who are watching us from behind, and for those whose lives we have to take away, we must bear the stigma and misunderstanding, burn everything we have, and open up a new future for the wizarding world."
"I firmly believe that we can make wizards rise, we can break the Statute of Secrecy, and force Muggles to admit that we are the superior race. I will devote my life to this cause until our companions can live without fear!"
"Stand up straight, kids. You haven't committed any crime. You've simply traded the 'minority' for the 'majority' and the 'present' for the 'future'!"
“Even if no one understands our pain and no one knows our sacrifice, we will bring hope to more people to live peacefully! History will prove that we are right!”
"If you don't understand, then you don't need to think about it. I will think for you, and I will also bear the sins for you. You only need to do one thing-"
“Follow me!”
The black tide set country after country on fire with the flames of war.
The wizards with unique emblems on their clothes have resolute looks and strong wills. They have a lofty sense of mission and leave corpses all over the ground behind them.
They turned a blind eye to people's fear and wailing, but Dumbledore could not ignore it.
Finally, he decided to stand up. But because he and Grindelwald had made a blood pact to "never hurt each other", Dumbledore could only entrust the important task to Newt Scamander.
The following story was something that Vader had seen in history books and in movies.
He traveled with Dumbledore and saw Grindelwald trying again and again to seize greater power and gain unmatched strength, but was stopped time and time again by Dumbledore and Scamander.
Finally, when the Muggle World War was about to end, Grindelwald's wizard party also came to an end. He made an appointment with Dumbledore to fight, and was ultimately defeated.
Dumbledore was given the Elder Wand, and Grindelwald was imprisoned in the highest cell in Nurmengard.
Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the illusory Dumbledore turned into the familiar appearance of Wade.
With long white hair and a white beard, he sat in an armchair, his eyes revealing the wisdom and composure accumulated over the years.
A man in a dark blue uniform stood in front of him, with a thin face and neatly combed short hair.
“…He regrets what he did in the past.” The man said, “He wants to meet you and apologize to you in person.”
After a long moment, Dumbledore said, "No need."
"If he truly feels shame and remorse for the horror he has brought upon the world... then he should repent to those he has harmed."
Everything in the illusion dissipated like mist. Wade's eyes blurred, and when he came to his senses, he saw himself and Dumbledore still in the headmaster's office.
It's like they never left.
Fawkes the Phoenix and the Sorting Hat were still playing with the little magical pets, and the portraits of the headmasters on the walls were all dozing off.
Or maybe he was pretending to take a nap.
Dumbledore sat down in the armchair, looking extremely old and tired, as if he would collapse at any time.
But his back still didn't bend.
Wade sat nearby and looked away slightly, not looking at Dumbledore at this moment.
After a long time, Dumbledore finally said, "If you want to ask me anything, you can ask it now."
What, Wade wondered, did Dumbledore think he would ask?
Was it his relationship with Grindelwald? Was it his brief misstep?
Or was it the bony old wand in his hand, or his pursuit of the Deathly Hallows?
Wade shook his head slightly: "I don't have anything to ask."
After a pause of a few seconds, he continued, "What do you want to ask me?"
Dumbledore looked down at Wade, his eyes slightly moist, which made his eyes look very similar to Ariana in the vision.
Of course he knew that when Wade asked this, the subtext was the same as what he had just said -
If you ask, I will answer. I will tell you honestly and sincerely.
Vader doesn't trust others that easily, but...
When an old man opens up his most unbearable and painful wound, bloody and all, just to tell you what is right and wrong, then what reason is there to hide it?
For Dumbledore, just this one sentence was enough.
He saw Vader's honesty and trust, just as he had once seen the cruelty and coldness in Grindelwald's heart.
A hundred years ago, he ignored the warnings from his subconscious mind.
This time, he decided to listen to his inner voice.
"I don't have anything to ask either." He said, "I want to wait until you are willing to tell me...any time, anything."
The conversation ended here, and Wade knew it was time to leave. He stood up and said goodbye, but as he was about to leave, he struggled again.
"Professor." He turned and asked, "Excuse me...what plans do you have for next weekend?"
"There is nothing more important than thinking of going to the Three Broomsticks for a drink," said Dumbledore. "I do have a place... I would like to invite you to go with me," said Wade, considering.
Dumbledore smiled. "With pleasure."
……
December 12th, another full moon night.
The night sky is very beautiful tonight. A huge full moon hangs in the sky, and the deep and light shadows outline a pattern that makes people think a lot.
Wade took out the leaves and Sirius examined them carefully. Lupin, who was lying on the ground beside him and had turned into a werewolf, also leaned over to look at the Mandrake leaves.
He had taken the wolfsbane potion, and although he had transformed, he was still conscious. Sirius leaned against the werewolf without a care in the world.
"Very good, very complete." Sirius showed a satisfied smile, and then said: "Just in case, let me confirm again... In this month, you have not let it leave your mouth once, right?"
"No." Wade shook his head and carefully placed the leaf into a transparent crystal bottle, leaving it to be exposed to the moonlight.
Lupin breathed a sigh of relief.
"I saw you talking as usual a few times, as if you were not disturbed, and I thought you had failed."
Wade didn't mention it, and Lupin didn't ask any more questions out of consideration for the teenager's self-esteem. He just thought about thinking of some little tricks that could help him when he started over again next month.
He had no doubt that Wade would give up, he was just worried that he would be in a bad mood after being frustrated.
Sirius couldn't help but say, "How did you do it? When I was practicing, I always accidentally swallowed the damn leaf. I failed several times and finally had to glue my teeth together to finally survive a month."
Wade smiled and said, "I also used the sticking spell. Usually, I just practice to get used to its existence."
Sirius shook his head, still in disbelief.
Lupin said, "Go on to the next step."
Vader nodded, plucked a strand of his own hair and put it in the bottle, followed by a silver teaspoon of dew and the chrysalis of a hawk moth.
Sirius picked up the bottle and shook it slightly, observing the mixing of the several drugs.
"That's about it," he said, putting the bottle down.
He and Wade took the crystal bottle and walked into the cellar in the yard. The cellar itself was very deep, and Lupin had dug a narrow and deep hole here in advance, just enough to put the crystal bottle in.
Then Wade stuffed it with straw, covered it with stone slabs and felt, and the two of them left the cellar, and Sirius locked the trapdoor again.
"It won't be opened until the next thunderstorm," Lupin said. "Sirius and I have also set up magic around it to prevent rats from getting in and causing damage."
The crystal bottle used to practice Animagus needs to be placed in a quiet and dark place, ensuring that it is not peeped or disturbed.
This means that it cannot be placed where people or animals often move around, nor can it be checked from time to time.
So some people will bury it deep in the forest where few people go.
For a wizard, the most frustrating thing might be that after a year or two of preparation, when everything is finally ready, he goes to look for his crystal bottle on a rainy day, only to find that it has already been dug out by curious animals.
Sirius and his friends had fallen into many traps before, and later collected a lot of information, so they had already made various preparations for Wade.
"Remember the spell." Sirius warned: "Every day at sunrise and sunset, point the wand to your heart and recite the spell 'Amado, Animaud, Animagus.' Don't miss it once. If you forget one day, you have to start over."
"Yes." Wade nodded: "I prepared an alarm clock, it will remind me every morning and evening."
"One is not enough." Sirius looked as if he was looking back at the past. He said, "Let's prepare a few more... What if I oversleep one day?"
Vader and Lupin couldn't help laughing.
After laughing, Lupin couldn't help feeling a little emotional and melancholy.
“The next stormy weather can come at any time, but you’re not ready until you feel the second heartbeat.”
Sirius added: "Even if you feel that heartbeat, you can't change the habit of reciting the spell morning and night. You can't miss any time until the time comes."
Vader remembered his previous worries and asked, "Do you know... any way to affect the transformed image?"
"What do you want to be?" asked Sirius.
"Hmm..." Vader hesitated and said, "You can't turn into a slug or an ant. What's the point of transforming then?"
Sirius laughed.
"There's no way around it, Wade!" he said. "You know, James and I both wanted to be lions, but in the end, he was a stag and I was a black dog."
Lupin also said: "If you want to know in advance what animal you will be transformed into, you can learn the Patronus Charm first. Generally speaking, even if the image of the Patronus Charm and the transformed animal are different, they are not too far apart."
"But I think you don't need to worry about turning into a slug or an ant." Sirius also said: "The image after transformation has a lot to do with the wizard himself. It is a reflection of your inner self."
After a discussion, Sirius told Vader some interesting stories about their Animagus practice. It was not until late at night that Vader planned to return to school.
After all, it was still Tuesday and they had classes tomorrow.
When saying goodbye, Wade said, "Remus, let's go out for a while this weekend."
Lupin was stunned, and then the wolf's face became a little serious: "This time too..."
Vader nodded.
"Okay." Lupin agreed, and then asked, "Are we going to do it again this time?"
Vader was silent for a moment.
He looked at Sirius - the man looked at the two of them curiously, but had the tact to not ask any questions.
"Does Mr. Black have a minute?" Wade asked.
"Of course, I'd love to participate!" Sirius said immediately with great interest: "Remus was always very secretive before, and he wouldn't tell me when I asked him."
Wade smiled, then said, "Michael and the others will not be involved this time, but Dumbledore will be here."
Lupin opened his eyes slightly in surprise, and then a smile spread to the corners of his eyebrows and eyes.
"If Dumbledore were here, everything would go much more smoothly," he said happily.
Lupin had always been vaguely worried that Vader did not trust Dumbledore.
Both of them were people who had changed his life and done him great favors, and he did not want to see any conflict between them.
Now it seems that enough trust has been established between Wade and Dumbledore where he can't see.
Lupin felt relieved and happy about this.
After Wade left, Sirius immediately grabbed Lupin's neck.
"You should tell me this time, right? What secrets do you have?"
Lupin thought for a moment before saying, "Actually, there are many things I haven't figured out yet. I can only tell you what happened before, and you can judge for yourself..."
Personal setting: If you are conscious after becoming a werewolf, you can speak.
(End of this chapter)