"But if we can capture one of Voldemort's false bodies alive, we might be able to use curse magic to locate the Horcrux controlling it," Kasenhis continued after brushing Lupin off.
"Where do you think he might be hiding?" Dumbledore asked, looking around at everyone seated at the table.
"Somewhere within England," Kingsley said.
"You're sure?" Sirius asked in surprise.
Kingsley nodded. "Because previously, a certain principal offender, together with two unidentified accomplices and one Harry... no... one young wizard, repeatedly entered and left the country through various means without Ministry approval, causing a series of horrifying diplomatic incidents throughout magical Europe and even Africa."
"After Minister Crouch took office, he worked with the Department of Mysteries to establish a large-scale spell over England, something similar to magical surveillance. If a wizard leaves England without Ministry verification, the spell will no longer detect that wizard's magical signature and will issue an alert. Likewise, if an unverified wizard suddenly enters England, it will also sound an alarm. The same applies when they leave. We simply can't pinpoint their exact location," Kingsley explained.
"In that case, why didn't the Ministry come knocking on my door when I left before?" Kasenhis asked in confusion.
"The Ministry doesn't dare ask Voldemort to come in and register his magical signature either. After all, you sent off the previous Minister and Deputy Minister. That incident is still considered rather terrifying inside the Ministry," Kingsley explained somewhat helplessly.
"Then can the Ministry directly locate Voldemort's magical signature?" Sirius asked.
"No. We can only tell that those magical signatures haven't left England. And today, that spell did issue three alerts. Three powerful magical signatures suddenly appeared within England. If your guess is correct, those should be the Dark Lord's three clones," Kingsley explained.
"Did Tom or any of the Death Eaters leave behind even the slightest clue?" Dumbledore asked.
"If I knew even one location, it would mean the Dark Lord was testing me and no longer trusted me," Snape said concisely.
"That's probably for the best. At least you're safer where you are," Kasenhis said with a shrug.
"Forget it. We still have two months of holiday. There's no need to finish everything today."
Grindelwald shrugged, stood up, and walked toward the entrance of Black's old house.
Before long, he returned pushing a massive seven-tier cake.
"Wow. Who's that huge thing for?" Sirius asked in shock.
"Dumbledore. Today's his one hundred and seventeenth birthday."
With a glance from Grindelwald, the cake floated onto the table.
"In that case, bring the young wizards back down. Let's share it!" Dumbledore said with a ridiculous grin.
Percy went upstairs and dragged down the few young wizards who had just been chased away.
Harry had originally been feeling a little annoyed.
They were chased upstairs when told, and now they were being dragged back down when told.
What did these adults take them for?
But the moment he saw the enormous cake on the table, his irritation vanished.
On such a joyous occasion...
Especially after learning that the occasion was for Dumbledore.
Come to think of it, why had they never seen Dumbledore celebrate his birthday before?
Why were they suddenly doing it today?
Harry wasn't the type to keep questions to himself, so he asked Dumbledore directly.
Dumbledore didn't know either and could only shrug helplessly.
"The love and respect of the Hogwarts staff, I suppose."
"Then why have I never seen you celebrate your birthday before?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore shrugged. "To be honest, I don't know either. This birthday celebration was Grindelwald's idea. You can ask him about the details."
Harry glanced over at Grindelwald, who was sitting there with a smile as he watched everyone in the room.
Come to think of it, he didn't look quite so terrifying right now...
Maybe he should ask?
Was Harry the timid type?
Of course not.
So naturally, he chose... not to ask.
Kasenhis held his wineglass and looked at Dumbledore beside him, who kept making sounds like, "Mm! Mmm~ Oh! Mm!" as he ate.
He raised an eyebrow. "Do you really love sweets that much?"
Dumbledore nodded. "When you get old enough, only sufficiently intense flavours can remind you that you're still alive, don't you think? Sweetness, bitterness, spiciness... though I wouldn't recommend anything too salty. High blood pressure."
"Alright."
Kasenhis took another gulp of wine.
"Speaking of which, if you ever reach my age, I can already guess which sensation you'll favour most for waking up your taste buds. Though perhaps it can't really be called a flavour... I've drunk plenty of alcohol, and even now I still can't tell whether that sensation is actually a taste or simply the alcohol irritating the inside of the mouth."
"In any case, I'd still advise you to drink less. Otherwise, the day when you need increasingly intense flavours will arrive much earlier than it does for most people. Trust me."
As Dumbledore spoke, he took the wineglass from Kasenhis's hand and handed him a plate of cake instead.
"Oh, I really should thank you."
Kasenhis accepted the cake, scraped off the cream on top, casually dumped it onto Dumbledore's plate, then started eating the sponge cake underneath.
"Hmm..."
Dumbledore stared at the huge lump of cream on his plate in confusion before looking at Kasenhis.
Kasenhis shrugged.
"Too rich."
"Alright."
Dumbledore scooped up the entire lump of cream, put it into his mouth, then swallowed it without any visible chewing.
"Oh... that's a little terrifying. Lethal dose," Kasenhis said bitterly.
"That's the sorrow of old age," Dumbledore joked with a smile.
"Dumbledore," Kasenhis said.
"Hmm?"
"Why have I never seen you celebrate your birthday before?"
Kasenhis asked the same question Harry had.
"Because a birthday only really feels like a birthday when you celebrate it with family. Celebrating one alone... unless you don't mind eating cake with tears, it's better to simply forget your birthday altogether," Dumbledore explained.
"Then why celebrate it today? And you look pretty happy too," Kasenhis asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't know either."
Meanwhile, on a bench in Grimmauld Place, an old man with a goatee dressed in a brown delivery uniform was sitting there, staring intently at the newspaper Grindelwald had casually left behind earlier that day.
He seemed thoroughly absorbed in it.
Even though he was holding the newspaper upside down.
...
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