"From another dimension? Are you absolutely sure of it, Albus?"
Dumbledore looked up at his Deputy Headmistress, taking in her pale face and wide eyes, the expression of unmasked shock quite alien on Minerva McGonagall's features. It took an awful lot to leave her looking so stunned, but then again Albus himself was sure he was wearing a similar face when he'd finished viewing Wendy's memories.
"Absolutely," he nodded. "She was not lying. Such an extraordinary story as that can only be one of two things - a ridiculous, bald-faced lie or the truth. And this was the latter. I saw her memories of her world and while there were some things it had in common with our own, in most aspects they were vastly different."
"But, this is incredible, isn't it?" Pomona Sprout breathed as she sat on the edge of one of the tables and shook her head, hardly daring herself to believe it but only doing so because it was Dumbledore talking. "Surely it must be unprecedented."
"Certainly it is since records of our history began," Dumbledore agreed. "If something like this had happened before I feel that it would have been a subject of great interest to me when I took History of Magic at this school."
"But what are we supposed to do with her now?" McGonagall asked. "Keep her hidden away at your brother's incongruous bar forever?"
"That would be little different to keeping her captive," Filius Flitwick squeaked in agreement.
"Even if we wanted to take that course of action, I believe that we would struggle to keep her contained. Especially based on the damage she inflicted to the Quidditch pitch. But no, she is a girl, lost and confused but really no different from some of our own students except for the type of magic that she uses. Poppy would be ludicrously jealous of her healing abilities from what I've seen. But the truth is, I do not know what sort of action we should take beyond simply doing our best to find her friends."
"Should we not inform the Ministry about them?" Flitwick asked. "You're already heavily loathed by the Minister at this stage as it is, Headmaster. If he finds out you've been keeping this from him…"
"I am aware of what would happen, but I must also think of the welfare of Wendy and her companions."
"Why?" the slow drawl of Severus Snape filled the room as the Potions Master and Head of Slytherin house stood in the corner. "Not to put too fine a point on it, Headmaster, but why should we make these people our concern? They are not from our universe and therefore have no place in it."
"What would you have me do, Severus? Just ignore their plight?"
"I am just wondering whether we should keep our efforts focused on the problems of our own universe before we attempt to deal with ones coming from another. Problems such as the impending rise of the Dark Lord once again."
"And therein lies one of my chiefest concerns," Dumbledore drew himself up. "The Ministry's reaction to the presence of these offworlders is but a trivial one. I am far more concerned with what exactly Lord Voldemort will try and do when he finds out they exist. From what I saw in Wendy's mind, her friends all have incredible talents and most of them have not only extremely powerful but also extremely destructive magic at their disposal."
"You think that You-Know-Who will try to kill them?" Sprout bit her lip.
"If he sees them as a threat then he may do. But there is something else he may try - recruiting them. Voldemort is a master of deception at the best of times but these people are confused, lost in a world that they don't understand, that they do not know. I fear how easy it might be to convince some of them to his cause by convincing them that magic users such as them would be slaughtered by Muggles if they were given half a chance. He could take truths such as how Muggles forced wizards into hiding, and twist them to suit his own needs. And that's not even factoring magical control like the Imperius Curse. And the kind of powers I saw in Wendy's mind being used against us, used against Muggles… it is truly a terrifying thought."
"Are they really that powerful?" Flitwick breathed in shock.
"Wendy was strong enough to rip several of the pitch stands apart with a tornado she expelled from her mouth. And from what I saw, she is actually rather far down the list of her friends in terms of power. If her two fellow Dragon Slayers that I saw in her head, Natsu and Gajeel, felt so inclined, I believe they could level Hogsmeade within a couple of minutes flat, and even they are outclassed by some of the others."
There was a long and excruciatingly heavy silence as each of the four Heads of Houses digested this news in stunned silence.
"Then that would explain your primary reluctance to inform the Ministry, I suppose," McGonagall was the first to speak. "If they became aware of what was going on, it would probably be only a matter of minutes before one of He Who Must Not Be Named's spies got word to him about it all."
"Indeed," Dumbledore nodded. All of them were well aware of the fact that Voldemort had a good many spies inside the official circles. It had been another reason why Dumbledore had Obliviated the likes of Draco Malfoy. If he had allowed the memory to remain, how long would it have been before his father Lucius heard about this?
"I assume you don't want me informing him of this myself," Snape muttered.
"If you would be so kind," Dumbledore agreed. "In all honesty though, this situation is mostly outside our control. With the whereabouts of most of the group unknown, it seems to me like the only thing we can do for the most part is keep our ears to the ground and investigate anything that sounds like it could be some of Wendy's companions. But I believe, despite our best efforts, it will most likely not be long before the Ministry and Voldemort learn of these people. Our best hope… is that we can beat them both to finding them. For both their sake… and our own."
"So you'll want to talk to the rest of the Order about this?" McGonagall asked.
"Yes," Dumbledore nodded. "We should organise an emergency meeting. Tomorrow night at the latest. Our purpose is to fight Voldemort and if we can act quickly enough… we may gain allies that will make him seriously consider just staying in hiding forever."
...
"So… is there a story between you and Dumbledore, Mister?" Wendy asked as she scraped congealed something-or-other off a plate and dunked it back in the sink for a proper rinsing, the small girl having to stand on a chair to get a good reach. "He seems like such a nice man and you didn't look very happy to see him."
Aberforth grunted lightly. "Let's just say it's been many, many decades since my brother and I have really gotten along."
"Your brother?" Wendy looked over her shoulder. "You're related?" She was not entirely surprised by this news - she had guessed that it might be something like that since there was quite a bit of family resemblance between them, particularly in the eyes and the beards.
"Indeed we are, though that's not something that I am particularly proud of. People used to believe that my brother was the greatest wizard in the world. Heck, a lot of people still do. But we don't get along. Oh, he still makes sure to keep in touch with me and I usually help him if he asks me to, but you could definitely say that we're not on friendly terms."
Wendy was desperately wanting to ask why, but she refrained from commenting any further. Clearly something had happened to upset the bond between the two of them and she knew it really was not her place to pry.
"You're doing a pretty good job there," Aberforth noted. "My plates haven't looked so clean in years."
"It's my pleasure. We all try and help each other out back home whenever we can. Even in just the smallest ways."
"That's admirable, I guess. Just remember though, kid. If you're still staying here by tomorrow then don't come into the main bar area. Stay here in the back. Get quite a lot of shady characters coming into this place, and while I can handle the place just fine, you should keep yourself out place."
"Don't worry about me, Aberforth-san. I can take care of myself."
"…I'm sure you can, kid. I'm sure you can."
"So, can you tell me some more things about this world? Your brother didn't really get a chance to tell me a whole lot. Oooh, can you start with this Quidditch thing? I'd really like to know more about that - that looked really cool."
"Insatiable curiosity," Aberforth murmured. "She really is like you… Ariana."