"The headmistress wants to see me?"
Avada glanced at the clock in confusion—it was already past eight in the evening.
Calling for me so suddenly at this hour... could something urgent have happened?
"Thank you, I'll head over right away."
He nodded to the student and hurried off before he even had time to promote his cookies like usual. Breaking into a jog, he made his way to the headmistress's office, knocked on the door, and only relaxed slightly after it opened and he saw that Headmistress Miranda Goshawk did not look particularly stern.
"Headmistress, you wanted to see me?"
"Yes."
Miranda Goshawk nodded. "Grindelwald asked me to pass a message on to you."
"A message from Grindelwald?"
Avada closed the door behind him and repeated the words with some confusion before asking, "Why didn't he just call for me directly or leave a letter... is he still not allowing me to go see him?"
"He isn't allowing anyone to go see him."
Goshawk waved a hand, moving a cup of hot tea over to the seat across from her. "He's probably dealing with someone or something that requires extreme caution. Even this message he asked me to pass along was sent back through an exceptionally covert channel. If not for the fact that several professors and board members know something about what he's currently doing, and that Grindelwald's personal strength truly isn't something one needs to worry about... I might have suspected he'd run into some kind of trouble."
"...Several professors and board members know what he's doing?"
Avada immediately thought of old Shafik and Professor Baker. Among the upper ranks of Leach University whom he knew, these two might not have had the highest authority, but they were definitely among the people most closely connected to Grindelwald...
"You'd better not ask. Even if you did, they wouldn't tell you."
Goshawk saw straight through Avada's thoughts at a glance and said helplessly, "They're all doing their best to conceal exactly what Grindelwald is working on right now. They won't even tell me, the headmistress. According to them, if it weren't for the need to reassure the university, Grindelwald wouldn't even have told a single person... Just listen to the message first."
"Please."
As Avada listened to Goshawk speak, he kept wondering what exactly Grindelwald could be busy with at a time like this that it had to be hidden even from Leach University itself...
"I heard that you know Mr. Ken, the one who performed so brilliantly in this Triwizard Tournament?"
"..."
Goshawk's very first sentence made Avada's breathing stop for an instant.
"...You could say I know him."
Only after repeatedly confirming Goshawk's spiritual state several times over, making sure there was not the slightest trace of suspicion, probing, or anything else in her words, did he keep his outward calm and nod in reply. "One of the Shafiq children introduced him to me..."
"That's good, then."
Goshawk showed no suspicion and simply continued, "Grindelwald hopes that you will invite him to join Leach University."
"...Huh?"
Avada was dumbfounded.
Didn't Grindelwald know that "Nathan Clarke" and "Ken" were the same person? What was this supposed to mean? I'm supposed to invite myself?
For a moment, he didn't react. "Invite who? Ken from Hogwarts?"
"Isn't he only in fifth year? Wouldn't it be a bit..."
"...Why would you think of a professor?"
Goshawk looked at Avada strangely. "I mean invite him to come study at Leach University! This is recruitment, not hiring!"
"...Oh."
Avada still had not quite recovered. Suppressing his shock and embarrassment as best he could, he asked, "But... why?"
"Even if he's a promising talent, he's still two full years away from graduating... why invite him now?"
"I'm not saying he should come to Leach University right now."
Goshawk shook her head. "I didn't explain it clearly just now. What you're supposed to do is invite him to enroll at Leach University after he graduates from Hogwarts. In other words, early admission... I think on the Muggle university side they call it 'guaranteed admission'? And then, if he agrees—and according to Grindelwald, he definitely will—if he agrees, have him sign the enrollment contract immediately."
"Guaranteed admission to Leach University, and he has to sign a contract on the spot?"
After thinking for a while, Avada had already vaguely begun to understand Grindelwald's intentions. "Grindelwald once told me that this year would be the opportunity for Leach University to go public to the entire magical world... He isn't planning to use that Ken, is he?!"
"I don't know."
Goshawk rubbed her temples with some frustration. From the very beginning it had been agreed that, as headmistress, she would only be responsible for educational matters. But watching the professors under her cause more trouble one after another while she herself remained completely in the dark truly did not feel very good. "But knowing Grindelwald's personality, it is certainly possible..."
"Then what about Dumbledore?"
Avada no longer bothered to hide his frown. "If he had already graduated, that would be one thing. But he's still Dumbledore's student. Isn't this just poaching from under his nose? And if I remember correctly, Dumbledore doesn't seem to know we even exist. If this makes him suspicious..."
"Grindelwald said that you only need to keep Dumbledore in the dark when making the invitation. He'll handle the rest."
"..."
Avada had a fair idea now of what Grindelwald had probably been busy doing in the tower lately.
"Did he say when exactly I'm supposed to invite Mr. Ken?"
"Before the third Triwizard Tournament task begins—so probably around April or May next year..."
"During the Triwizard Tournament? Then I'd have to sneak into Durmstrang again without alerting anyone. Can Grindelwald himself even do that??"
"He said you have a way."
"..."
Avada had just been about to grind his teeth and curse Grindelwald's shameless habit of dumping work on others, but then after a moment of stunned silence, he realized that he really did seem to have a way.
Wasn't his original body already planning to return to Hogwarts during Christmas to strip the soul fragment from Harry?
Silently infiltrating Durmstrang and then, right under the noses of Karkaroff and Dumbledore, delivering a magical contract into his own hands would indeed be extremely difficult... but infiltrating Hogwarts?
That would be no different from strolling through his own backyard.
No, actually, Nathan Clarke would not even need to sneak in personally. He could simply put the admission contract in an envelope and send it straight to Hogwarts by owl, and the matter would be settled!
"...Fine."
In the end, Avada nodded somewhat gloomily and accepted the task. What troubled him was not the difficulty of delivering the contract, but the fact that his original body would now have to attend four more years of school, and in the same place as his own clone at that.
Wasn't that just a complete waste?
Forget it. He would think of another solution when the time came.
"Anything else, Headmistress?"
"No... I know that a sudden request like this from Grindelwald may sound a little unreasonable, but that's simply his style. And past experience has shown that when he acts all mysterious like this, the results are often unexpectedly good..."
"You don't need to comfort me like that, Headmistress. I'm not blaming Grindelwald..."
"Hm? No, I was talking about the extra compensation for this mission... how does fifty Galleons sound?"
"..."
(End of Chapter)