Once again shocked by the sheer shamelessness of the Weasley twins, Link and Emily decisively chose to retreat.
But before leaving, Link glanced at the "Nearly Headless Nick" cowering behind the brothers and frowned, saying, "George, I think you might need to replace your head of security."
"Huh? Why?" George asked, confused. "I think Sir Nicholas is doing an excellent job."
"That's exactly the problem, he's too dedicated," Link said, shaking his head.
"Don't forget what your current mission is. I think, for this job, Peeves would actually be the best choice."
Then Link pointed toward the group of students still being scrubbed clean nearby and said, "You can handle the mess with them yourselves."
With that, Link and Emily turned and left.
According to their agreement with the Weasley brothers, George and Fred had to stir up one or two moderate-scale "incidents" within a week in their black workshops. Afterward, Link would take over to manipulate public opinion and redirect attention.
That meant Link's new student work platform had to at least have a framework ready within the same week, so it could be launched immediately after the incident and start drawing in students fast.
But building such a platform involved many resources, sales, materials, management systems, and more. Time was already running short if Link wanted to gather everything in place.
So, after briefly dismissing Hermione and the others still waiting at the staircase, Link and Emily skipped dinner altogether and went straight to the Owlery.
They handed over three letters to three owls, addressed respectively to Mrs. Frie, Old Kret, and Beckman.
Watching those three owls take off into the night and disappear into the darkness, Link finally allowed himself a small smile.
What he didn't know was that, at the same moment, in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was also standing alone before the tall window, quietly watching those same three owls fly away.
Only after they vanished into the night did the tightly shut door of his office finally open.
It was Snape.
Expressionless, he stepped into the pitch-black office, ignoring the portraits of former headmasters who had stirred at the sound of the door. With a snap of his fingers, the oil lamps flared to life.
Warm light instantly filled the room. Only then did Dumbledore seem to return to himself. He turned to Snape and asked, "Severus, is there any new information from Tom's side?"
Snape's cheek twitched at the question. Almost instinctively, his hand went to the Dark Mark on his arm. His voice was low and cold, "You think I'd know? Right now, little Barty Crouch is his most trusted follower."
"As for me, he probably sees me as a traitor, just like Karkaroff. And since you people don't trust me either, I'm basically blind and deaf. So under those conditions, what information do you expect me to get?"
Dumbledore looked at him deeply and said softly, "You know I trust you."
"Then tell me," Snape stepped closer, his tone ice-cold, "what exactly is going on!?"
Dumbledore nodded.
"It's quite simple. Tom and his followers have been very active lately. That in itself isn't surprising, after all, Tom has regained his full power, gathered a group of loyal Death Eaters like young Barty Crouch, and even has a mysterious force behind him providing support."
"What's strange, though, is that with all this power, they haven't attacked the Ministry directly like before, nor have they concentrated on killing Harry."
"Instead, they've been leading Death Eaters all over Britain, rampaging everywhere, raiding ancient ruins, massacring Muggle villages."
"Their actions don't look like preparations for overthrowing the Ministry or taking over the wizarding world. It's more like… they're searching for something."
"Horcruxes," Snape said firmly.
"What else could it be? Don't forget, you and your people were attacked by Death Eaters and that mysterious group when you were hunting Horcruxes before. That proves Voldemort already knows you're after them."
"And what you just said about Harry reminds me of something. When Harry was attacked by Voldemort during the holidays, that was probably part of the plan too. Because of the prophecy, Voldemort might not want to kill him directly. He just wanted to use that attack to distract us all."
Dumbledore took a deep breath, eyes narrowing, his expression complex.
"You make a good point. But what they're looking for might not be Horcruxes, it could be something even more dangerous."
"What they're after doesn't matter," Snape said coldly.
"What matters is that we stop them."
"I'm already working on that. The entire Order of the Phoenix mobilized as soon as Harry Potter boarded the Hogwarts Express. Even Hagrid went."
As Dumbledore spoke, he turned back toward the dark window.
The flicker of the oil lamp reflected in his eyes like blazing flames, like the flashes of wandlight from Hagrid, Sirius, and the others as they fought Death Eaters at that very moment.
Snape couldn't hide a sneer.
In his mind, ninety percent of the Order's strength came from Dumbledore alone. The rest, aside from Mad-Eye Moody, were basically useless.
Now Dumbledore expected that group to stop the Death Eaters? Ridiculous.
But seeing Dumbledore's shadowed back, Snape ultimately bit back the urge to mock him.
The office fell silent.
Only after a long time did Dumbledore finally awaken from his vision of war.
He sighed deeply and sank into his claw-footed chair.
"What about Link? What's he up to?"
"What else could he be doing? Classes, studying, the things any student should be doing." Snape's voice rose slightly, tinged with anger.
"Dumbledore, are you out of your mind? You're suspecting Link now? That Ministry hag, Umbridge, is what you should be worrying about!"
"You're too sensitive, Severus," Dumbledore said gently.
"I was only trying to change the subject, this atmosphere was getting too serious. I never meant to suspect Link. He's a good boy; I've always known that. As for Professor Umbridge, she's nothing troublesome. Even with Fudge's backing, she's hardly a problem."
He chuckled softly, reaching into his drawer to pull out a handful of Fizzing Whizzbees. Tossing one into his mouth, he closed his eyes in delight.
"I hope you're right."
Snape's face stayed expressionless as he said that, then he turned and slammed the door behind him as he left.
Dumbledore wasn't angry. Snape's awkward protectiveness toward Link amused him. That clumsy sort of care was… beautiful, in its way.
Smiling, Dumbledore shook his head.
He wasn't blind to the changes in Link's character.
After all, he had been one of the people who helped create those changes.
And with a shifting personality combined with great power, there was only one natural outcome, ambition.
Dumbledore already suspected some of Link's thoughts and plans.
He even believed he might be one of Link's potential targets, someone to be eliminated when the time came.
But Dumbledore didn't seem to mind. In fact, he almost seemed… pleased by the idea.
"Haaah…"
He exhaled slowly and deeply, then reached into his pocket and took out a dark, multi-faceted gemstone, holding it delicately in his hand.
The moment it appeared, the light in the room dimmed sharply.
It wasn't that the gem's glow overpowered the lamps, it was as if all the light in the office was being absorbed, devoured by the stone itself.
And Dumbledore's gaze was being devoured along with it.
His eyes went glassy, his expression blank. His aura sank, turning frail, heavy, sorrowful.
If Link had seen this, he would have been utterly horrified.
Because that dark, multi-faceted gemstone was none other than the Deathly Hallow pried from the Gaunt family ring, the Resurrection Stone.
When Dumbledore had first retrieved it from the Gaunt family cemetery, he had claimed it for himself, and strictly warned Link never to use or even approach it.
He'd explained that while the Resurrection Stone could summon the souls of the dead and allow one to "see" their lost loved ones, it wasn't true resurrection. It was desecration.
The spirits it summoned were in constant torment, suffering immense pain.
And in their pain, they could beguile the user, dragging them into self-doubt and self-destruction.
Link had believed him.
After all, the original Dumbledore's death, as recorded in the stories of his past life, strongly supported that explanation.
Think about it carefully, even if Dumbledore had been weakened by Voldemort's curse, even if his power was fading and death was near, why choose that exact moment to have Snape kill him in what was practically assisted suicide?
Yes, in the end, Dumbledore's death became part of a grand plan to manipulate Voldemort's actions, leading to his downfall.
But after knowing Dumbledore personally for so long, Link didn't buy that.
Because while things looked hopeless for the British wizarding world at that time, from a broader view, across Europe, even globally, defeating Voldemort wasn't impossible.
And behind Dumbledore stood the entire International Confederation of Wizards.
With his ruthless sense of justice, Dumbledore would never have chosen self-sacrifice while other options remained.
He must have known that his death would plunge the wizarding world into panic.
So Link had a different theory, Dumbledore hadn't wanted to live anymore.
He hadn't died by Snape's hand, nor by Voldemort's curse, but by the curse of the Resurrection Stone.
And now...
Even though Link had helped him escape Voldemort's curse, Dumbledore had once again fallen under the Stone's influence.
Would the result be the same this time, self-destruction?
There was no answer.
Because even Dumbledore himself didn't know.
Or perhaps, deep down, he did know, but accepted it willingly.
The lamps in the office flickered and dimmed. Darkness swallowed the room.
Only the faint, eerie gleam of the Resurrection Stone remained, and the reflection of Dumbledore's burning eyes.
———
Riiiing!
At dawn, in a Hufflepuff dormitory, a sharp ringing shattered the silence.
Startled awake, John shot up from bed, clutching his chest and gasping for air. After a few seconds, he reached out and shut off the panda-shaped alarm clock on his nightstand.
Not that it really mattered, because none of his roommates, including Link, had stirred in the slightest.
That was normal. The magic alarm had been enchanted so only John could hear it.
Grinning, John felt pleased with his purchase.
As long as it didn't disturb Link and the others' rest, the one Galleon he'd spent buying this second-hand magical alarm clock was worth every Knut.
The hands showed just past 5 o'clock, and outside the small round window, the sky was still pitch-dark.
But John didn't linger in bed.
He quietly made his bed, got dressed, washed up, and tiptoed through the silent dormitory hall and corridors until he reached Professor Sprout's greenhouse.
Though it was only early September, barely five days into the term, Hogwarts already carried a chill in the air.
John breathed warmth into his hands, then pulled on his dragon-hide gloves and grabbed the tools that had already been prepared in the greenhouse.
He began cleaning, watering, and feeding the plants.
The tasks weren't hard, but they were endless, and the workload was enormous.
By the time the sky brightened fully, John was drenched in sweat. He finally returned the tools to their places and finished the cleaning.
By then, breakfast time had already passed.
Hogwarts students in robes were walking out of the castle in small groups, heading to class.
Quite a few were coming toward the greenhouse, it was time for Herbology.
Normally, John would skip breakfast, hurry straight to class, and later sneak to the kitchens to beg the kind house-elves for leftovers to fill his stomach.
But today was different.
The first class of the day was their N.E.W.T.-level Herbology.
And John was certain his brother wouldn't let him go hungry to that class.
Sure enough, after waiting a short while, he saw Link approaching, still half-asleep, flanked by a few Hufflepuff students and holding a grease-stained paper bag.