The next morning, at dawn.
Isaac had gone to bed early the night before and slept remarkably well, so he woke up quite early today.
His breakfast, just like his dinner, was delivered straight to his door by Kreacher.
Once he had finished eating, Kreacher brought a message from Dumbledore.
Following the house-elf’s directions, Isaac headed toward the Headmaster’s office.
When he reached a huge, hideous stone gargoyle, he came to a halt.
He spoke the password Kreacher had provided, and the gargoyle suddenly sprang to life, hopping aside as the wall behind it split into two clean halves.
Behind the wall was a spiral stone staircase, moving slowly upward like an escalator.
Isaac stepped onto the stairs, and the hidden door closed immediately behind him, carrying him upward in a circular motion.
Upon reaching the top, Isaac stepped off the moving steps and knocked on a pair of massive oak double doors.
They swung open silently, and he walked inside.
Dumbledore’s office was a spacious, beautiful circular room filled with all sorts of peculiar little noises.
On slender-legged tables sat numerous strange, curious silver instruments, spinning lazily and puffing out little clouds of smoke.
The walls were covered with portraits of past headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoring softly within their respective frames.
There was also a huge desk in the center of the room with claw-shaped legs.
On a shelf behind the desk sat the Sorting Hat.
Isaac quickly shifted his gaze from the Sorting Hat to the phoenix perched upon the golden stand behind the door.
This was the companion pet of the Dumbledore line; whenever a member of the Dumbledore family encountered dire peril, they would receive aid from the phoenix.
How should he put it?
Fawkes’ actual appearance was somewhat different from what Isaac had envisioned.
Then again, strictly speaking, this creature was a Western phoenix, which was a completely different species from the mythical bird in Isaac’s mind.
Finally, Isaac looked at the two people waiting in the office.
One was Dumbledore, and the other was the Auror from the Ministry of Magic he had encountered yesterday, Gawain Robards.
“Good morning, Professor Dumbledore, Mr.
Robards.”
Gawain smiled and nodded at Isaac, after which Dumbledore spoke up: “Isaac, Gawain has brought the results of the Ministry of Magic’s interrogation and sentencing regarding that Death Eater.”
“Mr.
Robards?
So the person who attacked me last night really was…
a Death Eater?” Isaac inquired with an appropriately “curious” expression.
“Yes, Isaac.” Gawain nodded, but his expression grew entirely serious.
“But don’t worry, the Ministry of Magic has been thoroughly clearing out Death Eaters, and there haven’t been any left on the streets in recent years.
The one you subdued might just be the very last Death Eater left at large, who knows?”
The last Death Eater?
Isaac silently felt that this Gawain Robards certainly knew how to crack a joke.
The man was genuinely trying to fool him like a naive child—even though he was indeed just a child right now.
The Death Eaters who had followed Lord Voldemort back then, at least the most fanatical ones, were currently rotting in Azkaban.
The next tier down, who formed the true core of the Death Eaters, were the heads of various powerful pure-blood families.
And as for being the last Death Eater…
damn it, the moment Lord Voldemort issued the call, all those pure-bloods would be coerced right back into serving Tom as slavish servants.
“So why would that Death Eater target me?” Isaac asked, feigning innocence.
Speaking of this, Gawain’s expression turned somewhat peculiar.
“Actually, it also has to do with Professor Dumbledore.”
As Gawain spoke, he glanced at Dumbledore, then turned to look at Isaac.
He looked back at Dumbledore, then stared at Isaac again.
After looking back and forth between them, a look of profound confusion manifested in his eyes.
This young wizard didn’t look like Dumbledore in the slightest, so why was Dumbledore showing such extraordinary attentiveness toward him?
It turned out that the specific Death Eater from last night was actually quite pathetic.
Because his magical prowess wasn’t exceptional, he hadn’t managed to wedge his way into the core ranks of the Death Eaters back then.
But at the very least, by relying on his sheer ruthlessness and total lack of scruples, he had been taught the incantations for the Unforgivable Curses.
After Lord Voldemort fell, he had gone into hiding to secretly master those dark arts.
And in doing so, he had managed to drive himself completely insane.
Later, Dumbledore had personally escorted Isaac to Diagon Alley and loudly declared that he would cover Isaac’s bills.
This had naturally provoked immense curiosity among the Diagon Alley merchants regarding Isaac’s true identity.
For a time, wild speculations ran rampant, giving rise to all sorts of colorful rumors.
That particular Death Eater had been utterly misled by the local gossip and intended to pull off a “grand achievement” to revive his standing as a Death Eater—specifically, kidnapping the supposed “son of Dumbledore.”
And then this Death Eater, whose brain had been thoroughly fried by the Dark Arts, was effortlessly subdued by Isaac.
Along the way, the Auror Office had also managed to solve quite a few cold cases involving illicit dark magic because of him.
This Death Eater was truly an absolute menace!
“Anyway, Isaac, be prepared; you are about to become incredibly famous!
By the way, in a short while, Minister Fudge will likely invite you to visit the Ministry of Magic.
The Ministry has prepared a special surprise for you~”
Gawain winked at Isaac as he finished his explanation, and Isaac likewise displayed an appropriately expectant expression.
Finally, after exchanging some polite pleasantries with Dumbledore, Gawain left the Headmaster’s office in a great hurry.
According to him, the charges against this Death Eater could be dug into much deeper; there were likely still undiscovered crimes waiting for the criminal to confess.
Once Gawain had departed via the Floo Network through the Headmaster’s fireplace, Isaac finally relaxed his tense facial muscles.
Rubbing his face, Isaac complained to Dumbledore: “Professor, you don’t actually believe that narrative the Ministry of Magic cooked up, do you?
Even if that Death Eater’s brain was completely scrambled, it couldn’t possibly have reached this level of stupidity, right?”
Dumbledore’s half-moon spectacles reflected two blank patches of white light.
“In fact, for Fudge, even if the Aurors truly interrogated something substantial out of him, he would just suppress the information anyway.”
Isaac was the second Seer Dumbledore had ever known intimately, and he understood the eccentricities of Seers all too well.
Therefore, he did not treat Isaac like an ordinary child at all.
And Isaac’s behavior, indeed, completely transcended that of a normal youth.
“So it really is Lord Voldemort?
He isn’t honestly playing dead, but actually possesses the audacity to jump out and cause trouble?” Isaac was genuinely puzzled; he truly didn’t comprehend the logic.
At this specific juncture, why wasn’t Lord Voldemort focusing entirely on using the Philosopher’s Stone to orchestrate his resurrection, instead of finding random lackeys to mess with an eleven-year-old wizard?
Just because Dumbledore was willing to pay his tab?
Damn it, Dumbledore was also perfectly willing to pay for Gellert Grindelwald’s livelihood—why didn’t Voldemort go march on Nurmengard instead?
Was it because Dumbledore wasn’t dead yet, so Tom didn’t dare to make a move there?
Damn it, wasn’t this just bullying an honest kid?
Since Senior Tom was being so incredibly impolite, Isaac naturally wouldn’t show him any courtesy either.
He immediately looked at Dumbledore and proposed, “Professor, how about we form a party and go invite Senior Tom over right now?
You can ask him yourself exactly why he wants to capture me.”
Dumbledore: ???
The sheer volume of hidden information packed into Isaac’s casual suggestion was simply explosive.
His saying this implied that detailed information regarding Lord Voldemort, who had been hiding from the world for eleven long years, was completely transparent to an eleven-year-old boy.
This young wizard was even boldly inviting the only man Lord Voldemort feared to go speedrun the “Dark Lord’s Remnant Soul” dungeon.
Isaac’s gift of Prophecy…
why did it feel infinitely more reliable and precise than Gellert’s?
At this exact moment, Dumbledore was even beginning to suspect whether Gellert Grindelwald had outright lied to him while they were sharing a bed all those decades ago.