Moonlight filtered through the windows, casting patches of pale white light across the corridors of Hogwarts.
It was already past nine o'clock in the evening, and the students had all returned to their respective common rooms.
All of Hogwarts was enveloped in a tranquil silence.
However, the heavy sound of approaching footsteps soon shattered the stillness.
A figure hurried along, his wizard's robes billowing and snapping behind him as he moved.
Had his robes not been a different color than black, the portraits awakened by his passage might have mistaken him for Severus Snape...
Of course, the dark aura Victor Wick carried at the moment was every bit as intense as Snape's.
"Password!"
On the eighth floor, the stone gargoyle spoke up.
"Open up." Victor Wick didn't give the password; he simply issued a cold command.
The gargoyle had intended to refuse him, stating that entry was impossible without the password.
However, before it could even utter a word, it found its body leaping aside of its own accord...
*Click!*
Victor shoved the oak door open with force.
"Ah... Victor, what brings you—" Dumbledore was currently dressed in a pair of purple pajamas, sitting in his chair and happily enjoying a new dessert from Honeydukes.
But as he looked up and saw Victor's dark expression, the sweets in his hand suddenly lost their flavor.
"I'm done. I can't do this job anymore..." Victor turned and sat directly on the stone steps before the Headmaster's desk.
Dumbledore set aside his candy and took out a clean handkerchief to wipe his hands before walking over to sit beside Victor.
"I heard that Miss Meadowes was waiting for you in Hogsmeade... was your reunion after all this time not a pleasant one?" Dumbledore chose his words carefully, attempting to initiate what seemed like it would be a difficult conversation.
"It has nothing to do with her..." Victor glanced up at Dumbledore. Something that only happened this afternoon, and the old man already knew?
'For an old man this sharp, how did he fail to notice that so-called Nurmengard Institute of Magic?'
"Then..."
"Stop guessing. Here's a memory; take it to the Pensieve and see for yourself. I... I just need a moment of peace..." Victor handed over a small vial.
Inside the vial was a swirl of silvery-white mist—the memory of the conversation that had just taken place.
Dumbledore frowned, seemingly sensing the gravity of the situation.
Given Victor's temperament and abilities, he wouldn't be this out of sorts unless something truly unexpected had happened.
Dumbledore said nothing more. He silently took the vial and walked over to a nearby cabinet.
He opened the cabinet door and pulled out an ancient Pensieve as if opening a drawer.
While Dumbledore was occupied with the copied memory, Victor began to review the mess he had encountered today...
As he reminisced, the image of Dorcas Meadowes' heartbroken figure as she turned to leave flashed through his mind.
Victor shook his head, pushing that memory aside.
First, there was the matter of resurrecting the dead...
On this issue, Victor felt he couldn't entirely trust Crowley, as Crowley was a demon after all.
Demons were prone to speaking in half-truths; taking his word at face value was unwise.
Aziraphale was a different story. An angel would likely be sensitive to such matters. Victor hoped to pry the truth about the feasibility of resurrection from him—and whether it truly required the methods Crowley described.
After that, there was... the mess Grindelwald had stirred up.
Those two hundred-plus young people were ostensibly sent by Grindelwald to assist him, and it seemed Grindelwald wouldn't object to whatever orders Victor gave them.
But they were graduates of the Nurmengard Institute of Magic! The professors and instructors there were almost certainly Acolytes!
In other words, these youths were fundamentally intertwined with the Acolytes...
If Grindelwald wished, he had the means to pull these young people, whom he had groomed since childhood, back into his camp at any moment.
For Victor to pull them completely out of that mire seemed like an impossible task.
'Forget it, let Dumbledore deal with it...'
Next was an issue that didn't stem from today: the matter of Voldemort.
He hadn't made any moves during the first week of school, which he could justify to Voldemort as a way to consolidate his position and avoid suspicion.
But he couldn't stall forever. Now that a week had passed, he needed to take some action...
While Victor was lost in thought, Dumbledore emerged from the Pensieve.
Dumbledore, who had been cheerful just moments ago, now looked as grim as Victor.
"Finished?"
"I've seen it..." Dumbledore removed his half-moon spectacles, his brow deeply furrowed.
"I really can't do this job anymore," Victor sighed. "I haven't even dealt with the madman here, and now the old lunatic over there is starting trouble again..."
Dumbledore turned to look at Victor, his blue eyes radiating a soft light. "Solving the issue with those young people is actually quite simple. However... I can see that you wish to save them from the mire rather than treat them as threats to be eliminated... otherwise, you wouldn't be so conflicted."
"I won't deny that I have such thoughts, but... this isn't what I expected at the start. I thought this team would only have a dozen or so people, and they'd just be young and misguided. But now... there are over two hundred of them, groomed since they were in diapers! That level of brainwashing... I don't think I have the ability to undo it..." Victor slipped the ring off his finger and pressed it into Dumbledore's hand. "So, I'll handle Voldemort, and you deal with Grindelwald and the mess he's made. It's settled!" "We mustn't give up hope, Victor... those children don't even know of their connection to Grindelwald yet, do they?" Dumbledore said softly.
Victor let out a sigh. "Then that's a problem for the Greatest Wizard of the Century to ponder..."
"No... Victor, it seems those children have quite a good first impression of you... do you understand what I'm getting at?" Dumbledore continued. "They may be brainwashed, but they don't know their link to Grindelwald. They only know they must follow the master of the ring—and that master happens to be a powerful wizard they trust..."
"I don't follow. Why don't you just say it plainly?" Victor frowned.
"If I'm not mistaken, Miss Delacour will return and share her positive impressions of you with her peers. You will soon become the sole spiritual leader for those brainwashed children. Therefore... as of now, only you can reach them before Grindelwald exerts his influence over them."
As he spoke, Dumbledore quietly pressed the ring back into Victor's palm.
"Those children are still blank slates... I believe only you can guide them back to the right path. Now is the perfect opportunity, is it not?"
Victor shot a side-long glance at Dumbledore...
If he weren't so unsure of the outcome... he really wanted to pick a fight right now with this old man who loved to manipulate people!
'Newt was right; Dumbledore loves to work the people he finds useful to the bone!'
"I refuse! I can't do this!"
"You will agree, Victor... I know you; you won't let those children sink into the mire. You're not that kind of person, are you?"