"Am I in trouble?" Wendy asked, a little nervously.
"Not at all, my dear child," Dumbledore shook his head. "Not at the moment at least. But, I am rather concerned about this. From what I gleaned from your mind, your comrades are not exactly the most… indoor-friendly bunch, are they?"
"That's putting it mildly," Wendy rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "But… they really are all good people."
"Of that I have no doubt. But I'm sorry to say that if they pop up at random times around this Wizarding World as your Master Mavis believes they will, without any clue as to where they are or how they got there, I fear of what might happen. Not just to our world but to them. Destroying the house of someone important would be a very good way of getting on the bad side of the Ministry of Magic."
"Ministry of Magic? What's that?"
Dumbledore drummed his fingers, searching for the right words to describe this situation before saying, "I suppose you could say it is our version of the Magic Council in your world. Though perhaps a little more complex. We used to have a Wizard's Council of our own before the Ministry was created. But essentially the role of the Ministry is to preserve magical law throughout the country, to make sure everyone follows the rules and ensure that our existence remains secret to the Muggle populace."
"Remain secret?" Wendy blinked, once she remembered what the word Muggle actually meant. "You mean… non-magic people don't know about magic people in this world?"
"Indeed not. Back in olden times, when Muggles and sorcerers did live together without secrecy, there were many phases of history where they did live side by side peacefully - the most prominent example being the time of King Arthur and the most powerful wizard that ever lived - Merlin. But there have been just as many times where the Muggles lived in fear of magic, for magic users generally held far more individual power than any one of them did and there were many that used their magic for selfish and destructive purposes. Magic can be a dangerous weapon in the hands of the wrong people and unfortunately you get the wrong people everywhere, in both the magic and non-magic circles. There was a lot of death on both sides whenever these conflicts arose so the Statute of Secrecy was put in place to keep that kind of bloodshed from happening again."
There was a beat of silence before Wendy frowned and said, "But that's such a horrible division in the world," she murmured. "That's so sad."
"I take it that's not the way things are run in your world," Dumbledore noted.
"Didn't you see it in my mind?"
"I looked at your memories certainly but I didn't learn everything. The mind isn't just a book that I can read - I saw mostly the things you were thinking that I should see. I explored no further than that."
"Well, in our world… we're governed by the Magic Council sure but the Mugg… I mean, the ordinary people send special requests to mage guilds like Fairy Tail, asking for the help of a mage to do a certain temporary job like help get rid of a monster or translate some ancient language or something like that and then we at the guild pick and choose which job we'd like based on the reward size and whether we think we can carry it out and then we go do the job, take the money, go home and then look for the next one.
It's a system that's worked really well for I think around two-hundred years now. We make our living helping the non-magical people whenever they ask for it."
Dumbledore stared at her critically for several moments before a slow smile spread across his face. "You know, that does sound rather ideal. It's unfortunate that our own world did not work out in the same way as yours did."
"We're definitely happy with it," Wendy smiled.
"Unfortunately I fear that our own world may have already separated the Muggle and Wizard communities too far for that kind of reality to ever really join them back together again to such a degree. But we digress really. The point I was attempting to make is that I fear what may happen when certain people learn of the existence of you and your friends in this world. Even magical people in this world might find your branch of magic… rather dangerous."
Wendy opened her mouth to protest some more about how her friends were not dangerous unless you were an enemy, but she stopped and closed her lips again. She could remember all to well how the Magic Council of her own world was always angry at Fairy Tail because of its members destructive tendencies and how they'd even sent one of their agents, Doranbolt, onto their sacred island in an attempt to find secrets to force them to disband.
If the Magic Council from a world that accepted magic like theirs was trying to get rid of Fairy Tail, what hope did they have of getting friendly with a similar version from another world?
"What's going to happen to me now?" the Sky Dragon Slayer asked tentatively.
"I am… not sure," Dumbledore replied. "Ordinarily I would invite you to stay in the castle, give you as much chance to recuperate as you like within the safety of our walls. But there is… a certain woman… dwelling on our campus this year that I would quite like to keep you from meeting."
It was probably a wise precaution. God forbid what might happen if Dolores Umbridge got her hands on Wendy.
"But you'll help me search for my friends, right?" Wendy asked. "Murcus-san said that you would be able to."
"I will certainly do my best to ascertain the whereabouts of your companions but I am, unfortunately rather a busy man. Nevertheless, I will do what I can, and in the meantime I need to think of a place for you to stay, where you will be safe… I have… one idea. A place not too far away where it will be easy for me to contact you if I hear any word of your friends."
"Does that mean that I can't take part in searching for them?" Wendy frowned. "I… feel like I should be out there, doing something… you know what I mean?"
Dumbledore drummed his fingers on the tabletop. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he was facing a situation where he had little to no idea what he was supposed to do about it. This was, after all, unprecedented.
"Well… you are of course free to do as you wish, Wendy," he replied. "You're not one of my students after all so you don't have to do a thing that I say. But if I may be so bold, I think you need rest for now. You have obviously had quite the taxing experience since arriving in this universe."
Wendy blinked and then realised pretty much on the spot how tired she really was. Apart from her spell of unconsciousness before waking up in the cave she'd had pretty much no chance to just relax and get a good sleep.
"I… I suppose you're right," she murmured. "But… I'm just so worried about them."
"I understand that, but you won't be of much use to them when you are exhausted. I honestly do not know what to do next about all this and I think I'll need to talk to some of my staff before I come up with a plan of action but for now, your safety is among my highest priorities. And I know somewhere where you should, hopefully, be just that while you recuperate."
"O…okay."
"Then you'll come?"
"Yes, yes I will."
"Excellent. Armando," he turned to speak to one of the moving portraits lining the walls. "Please inform anyone who comes to visit whilst I am out that I will be back shortly."
"Right you are, Professor," the elderly looking portrait replied, startling Wendy briefly but before she could comment, Fawkes suddenly trilled and turned around on his perch, fanning his tail feathers and spreading them like like those of a peacock.
Dumbledore laid his hand gently on one of them and nodded to Wendy to do the same. And the moment Wendy did, there was a flash of fire and once again they were gone.