Hogwarts: I Am an Exemplary Wizard

“No, I’m not planning to go back for now.” Kael sat back down on the chair. “I’m planning to stay and help you.”

“You’re not afraid?” Dumbledore hesitated for a moment. “Just now it was my selfishness acting up that made me want to ask for your help, but if you stay, there’s a good chance you’ll end up like me, rejected by time.”

“That possibility does exist.” Kael said. “To be honest, it’d be a lie to say I’m not afraid. But I’ve just gone through my memories carefully and found some very interesting things—problems I’d never paid attention to before—so I decided to stay.”

“What memories?” Dumbledore asked curiously.

“For example, this…” Kael picked up the Time Turner and held it up, examining it closely. “You clearly took this thing away, so why did it show up again, and end up in my hands?”

“Oh?” Dumbledore blinked. “You’ve thought of something.”

“Hard to say.” Kael shook his head. “Under normal circumstances, you should have gone back to the correct timeline and then sent it out. That was my initial assumption. But now it looks like I was the one who sent it back.”

Dumbledore’s eyes lit up for a moment, but he didn’t say anything. He only looked at Kael calmly and asked, “What do you think that means?”

“I can’t put it into words…” Kael frowned. “I’ve never really studied time. Maybe… this right now is the correct time, the version of the past that’s actually been preserved.”

Dumbledore’s eyes shone even brighter.

“Besides that, there’s one more thing that’s very interesting.” Kael went on.

“Let’s hear it.”

“It’s a person I met—but I can’t talk about that now.” Kael put away the Time Turner. “Anyway, it’s because of that discovery that I decided to gamble on this.”

“What time is it now?”

“Eight o’clock.” Dumbledore blurted out.

“How do you know?” Kael asked. “Is there a clock here?”

He looked up and glanced around. Apart from a few jutting beams, there was nothing on the barn walls.

“Kode’s roosters.” Dumbledore explained. “They crow right on time at eight every day. That’s also when Grindelwald and I meet up each day.”

Prompted by him, Kael really did hear a faint, distant crowing.

“Also, the younger me and Grindelwald will be back at ten twenty-three.”

“I noticed that just now. Is the time really that precise?” Kael asked.

“Because that’s exactly when Arianna’s accident happens.” Dumbledore’s voice was heavy.

“You mean, this time when you come back, she’ll…”

“Yes.” Dumbledore closed his eyes. “After we come back this time, Abeforth will fly into a rage because I left without telling him. The two of us will have the fiercest argument we’ve ever had.

“Grindelwald’s trip is to look for the Invisibility Cloak, but he comes back empty-handed. He’s already angry, and under Abeforth’s furious shouting he explodes too. The two of them start trading blows, hurling the most vicious Charms at each other without holding back.”

“Abeforth can fight Grindelwald?” Kael sounded skeptical. Rather than a brawl, he was more inclined to believe it was Grindelwald one-sidedly beating up Abeforth—cruelly.

“He’s still my brother, after all.” Dumbledore gave a bitter little smile. “My instinct was to help him, which only made Grindelwald even angrier. So the fight between two people turns into a three-way melee.

“Arianna sees everything from the attic. She runs out, trying to stop us…”

At this point Dumbledore suddenly choked up, his eyes filling with tears.

Kael could understand.

Abeforth and Grindelwald were already fighting in deadly earnest, the kind that doesn’t end unless one of them dies. Dumbledore, trying to stop them, would of course be fighting with all he had as well.

Arianna might be an Obscurus, but she’s also just an ordinary girl who can’t even cast a Lighting Spell. Charging recklessly into a duel between Wizards—the outcome is obvious.

Any stray Charm could kill her; even worse, under the stimulus of Magic, the Obscurus inside her could erupt.

Thinking of that little girl who longed to make friends and could stay happy for ages over a single piece of candy, Kael let out a sigh.

Now it was settled: even knowing staying here would be dangerous, he wanted to help even more.

He couldn’t help it—his heart was too soft.