‘Right… so you ran away from a circus?’
Black listened.
‘They kept whipping you?
And they didn’t feed you properly?’
His indignation grew.
‘That’s appalling.
How could they treat you like that?’
The bear made another noise.
‘You eat half a cow at every meal?’
Black turned.
‘Goodbye.’
He broke into a run.
Half a cow per meal?
That much meat would last the entire orphanage a month.
The money it cost could buy three months’ worth of food.
He had rather liked the idea of keeping a bear.
He did not like the idea of being eaten out of house and home.
Something caught his leg.
The bear had wrapped both enormous paws around it and was gazing up at him with watery eyes.
‘Let go.
This was never going to work.’
It whined.
‘What do you mean, I’ve misunderstood?’
Another plaintive noise.
‘Not half a cow.
Half a cow’s ration?’
Black stared.
‘They fed you cattle feed because it was easier?’
The bear grumbled.
‘They said you were an omnivore, so it didn’t matter?
That’s disgraceful.
Look at you.
You’ve lost weight.’
He stopped trying to run.
If it wasn’t eating half a cow at a sitting, he could probably afford to keep it.
Besides, it was a bear.
Shouldn’t it be hunting for itself?
Why did he have to provide the food?
Unfortunately, the creature had grown up in the circus.
Hunting had never been much of a requirement.
Still, he was a druid.
A decent, upstanding druid.
He could hardly ignore an animal in need.
Black took it by the scruff of the neck and began a thorough lesson.
How to hunt.
How to catch fish.
How to raid a wasps’ nest. The source of this chapter is g.com.
How to gather berries.
Really, what sort of druid had to provide every meal for his animals?
At last, the bear departed for the woods, tearful and reluctant to leave its new friend.
Only then did it realise something had gone wrong.
Hadn’t it come to ask him for food?
How had that turned into having to find its own?
Los Angeles, United States.
Dumbledore appeared in front of a derelict factory.
He had been in a hurry.
As on a previous occasion, he had entered the country quietly, without first submitting an application to the Magical Congress of the United States of America.
The journey was long, but that presented little difficulty for him.
There was no one nearby.
The place was said to be haunted.
Over the years, people living on the streets had occasionally tried to shelter inside.
Some had disappeared.
Others had emerged with their minds broken.
Eventually, everyone had learnt to keep away.
By all accounts, the factory had stood abandoned for decades.
Dumbledore checked the address on the tag.
This was the place.
He looked up at the building, a forbidding shape in the darkness, then raised a finger and gently touched the air before him.
The factory vanished from his sight.
In its place stood a neat little building.
A large sign on the roof read:
G.
G.
Institute of Biological Research.
Dumbledore took a deep breath and walked towards it.
The air rippled behind him as he approached.
He disappeared from view.
The building became a derelict factory once more.
Inside, everything was spotless despite the passing years.
Some lingering enchantment appeared to be responsible.
Dumbledore searched the building carefully.
It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for.
The room was the only disordered part of the place.
A single enormous incubation vessel stood inside.
A large hole had been broken through its side.
It was empty.
Dried nutrient fluid still marked the floor.
Dumbledore surveyed the room and soon found the records.
No one had bothered to conceal them.
Apparently, no one had thought it necessary.
He opened the experimental log.
It was thick, but as he worked through it, page by page, he soon found everything he had come to learn.
A strained smile crossed his face.
Grindelwald had left him with quite a problem.
But he remembered the promise he had made.
He would not harm the boy.
‘Black, why have you bought so much salmon?
The children can’t possibly eat all this.’
Mrs Marian surveyed the kitchen with mild disapproval.
‘Don’t worry.
I’m cooking again.
Go and sit with everyone.
I’ll take care of it.’
He gently ushered her out.
‘That boy,’ she murmured.
For all her complaint, she was pleased.
She couldn’t explain his sudden improvement in the kitchen.
Somehow, the child she had once chased out of it was now such a good cook that he had chased her out instead.
She joined the other children to wait for supper.
Black had a use for the extra salmon.
He might have told the bear to hunt for itself, but he wasn’t entirely confident that the great, foolish creature would manage to find anything.
It had grown up in a circus, after all.
As he prepared dinner, he quietly put a substantial amount of fish into his inventory.
A few extra meals wouldn’t hurt.
‘Black?’
He turned to find Mrs Marian back at the door.
‘It’s all right.
I’ve got everything under control.’
‘It isn’t that.
There’s an elderly gentleman outside asking to see you.’
His hands stilled.
He knew who it was.
And if Dumbledore had returned, he had found the answer.
Dumbledore sat on the only chair in Black’s little room.
It was old and slightly unsteady.
Black closed the door and sat on the bed, then opened a box of chocolates and offered it to him.
‘Sorry, Professor.
I haven’t got any tea.’
‘Not to worry, my boy.
I have.’
Dumbledore smiled and held out his right hand.
A tray appeared above it, bearing an elegant tea service.
The pot poured a cup, which floated across to Black.
‘Thank you.’
Black accepted it.
‘So… you’ve found the answer?’
‘Yes.
I’ve learnt what happened.’
Dumbledore paused.