However, unlike the extremely emotional Aberforth, Dumbledore still retained a shred of rationality.
Although his sister Ariana had always been his deepest regret, he had recently suffered a massive setback because of it.
Therefore, even though his heart was in turmoil, he did his best to maintain his composure.
First, Victor Wick and Ariana had appeared simultaneously... Was this Victor real? Was this Ariana real? Had he unknowingly stumbled into an illusion created by someone? Was even Aberforth, who came with him, part of the hallucination?
Second, if Victor was real, was it possible he had been deceived by a fake Ariana?
Finally, the most critical point—the one Dumbledore cared about most...
Even if everything he saw now was real... Ariana had been dead for so many years. Her reappearing before him now—did that mean Victor had used some taboo resurrection ritual?
Such a ritual would likely demand an unimaginable price, perhaps even involving very dark methods.
Resurrecting a loved one through evil means... this was not something Dumbledore wanted to see.
Certain lines could not be crossed, even if it meant his sister could be brought back to life.
Thinking of how Victor and Snape had been acting suspiciously lately, Dumbledore's doubts grew deeper.
If Victor's method of resurrection didn't require dark arts, why would they need to keep it from him?
After all, Dumbledore was not like Aberforth. The burden on his shoulders was far too heavy. He had to repeatedly consider things that Aberforth didn't need to think about...
Dumbledore silently scanned his surroundings, confirming this was no illusion. The Victor and Ariana before him were not phantom figures. In other words... it was all real! Ariana had been resurrected!
Ariana hugged her brother Aberforth and cried for quite a while before realizing her brother Albus hadn't come over.
Along with her disappointment, she felt a sense of unease, for Dumbledore's expression had become increasingly grim.
Victor had actually anticipated Dumbledore's reaction. Any method to bring back the dead was usually associated with unscrupulous, extremely evil Dark Arts.
Victor took a small sip of hot tea. "Professor Dumbledore, do you trust me?"
"I have always trusted you, Victor. I only hope you won't disappoint me," Dumbledore said with a complicated expression.
"Whether I have disappointed you or not, shall we discuss that later? Right now, I only hope you won't disappoint Ariana..." Victor looked at Ariana, his gaze softening.
His meaning was simple: 'I'll explain your doubts later. For now, focus on reuniting with your sister...'
By now, the young girl was on the verge of tears.
Clever as she was, how could she not guess what Albus was thinking? Victor had told her about this possibility long ago.
"Brother... Professor Wick helped me complete the resurrection. No one was hurt because of it!" Ariana said aggrievedly.
Victor's eyebrows rose slightly. That was true enough.
When he resurrected Lily, he had killed a Dark Wizard. But when resurrecting Ariana, he had only substituted a portion of soul power. Indeed, no one had been killed. Thus, the claim that 'no one was hurt' during Ariana's resurrection wasn't a lie.
Even the potion ingredients he gathered were purchased through official legal channels. He hadn't violated a single law of the wizarding world.
Victor had indeed used some less-than-legal means when resurrecting Lily, but for Ariana, he had strived for every step to be perfectly reasonable and lawful.
As the saying goes, 'special cases require special handling.' Snape and Dumbledore had entirely different moral baselines. He didn't want a momentary lapse in judgment to result in a counterproductive outcome.
"Albus Dumbledore!" Aberforth roared. "What are you doing? Are you actually doubting Ariana? How dare you! Have you forgotten how she... back then..."
"Brother Aberforth..." Ariana grabbed Aberforth's sleeve tightly. Otherwise, Aberforth would have surely charged forward to punch Albus's nose out of alignment again!
"Brother, you can check my body. There is absolutely no Dark Magic on me." Ariana reached out her hand toward Dumbledore, wanting him to inspect her himself.
Seeing his sister like this, Dumbledore's heart broke. He could no longer maintain his stern expression.
This was the sister he had missed every single day for all these years... What on earth was he doing?
Dumbledore slowly walked over and knelt down in front of Ariana.
He didn't use magic to check her body; he simply held her hand tightly.
"Regardless of everything... welcome home, Ariana."
"Brother!" Ariana threw herself into Dumbledore's arms, weeping loudly. Her cries were filled with grievance and insecurity.
To the side, Aberforth glared at Dumbledore, his face full of anger. His sister had miraculously appeared before him again. Regardless of how she was resurrected, wasn't this a good thing?
As for how she was resurrected—was that really so important?
Even if her resurrection required paying a price that crossed certain lines, so what! Would you kill the resurrected Ariana all over again?! Just like you did back then?!
If the means to resurrect his sister meant going to Azkaban, he would rather be thrown in there for the rest of his life!
"Brother, don't misunderstand Professor Wick, okay? To resurrect me, he prepared day and night. He was working even during his breaks. I saw it all... Also, before that, he worked for three days and three nights without food or sleep just to help you dispel the curse... He... he's a good man! He has definitely never done anything bad!" Ariana pleaded from Dumbledore's arms.
Simple-minded Ariana only knew that her brother suspected Victor of doing something bad and seemed to want to move against him.
But Professor Wick was clearly such a good person!
Dumbledore listened in shock to Ariana's pleas.
It turned out... Ariana had been watching while Victor did all those things?
If Victor's methods weren't clean, how could he have let Ariana watch? How could Ariana have such a good impression of him?
Dumbledore couldn't help but recall all the things Victor had done for others...
Case after case, instance after instance... countless people had been saved because of him. Even Dumbledore himself had been brought back from the brink by him...
Dumbledore suddenly came to his senses. Only then did he realize that his earlier caution and rationality were chillingly cold!
How could someone like Victor ever do anything that crossed the line? He had even vowed earlier that he would always trust Victor's moral compass!
Dumbledore looked at Victor with guilt, wanting to apologize, but Victor had already stood up. "I'll open another private room next door. Come over when you're finished here. I know you have many questions for me."
Victor walked out of the room calmly, pulling the door shut behind him...
Outside the room, a slight smile tugged at the corners of Victor's mouth.
He wasn't disappointed by Dumbledore's suspicion at all.
On the contrary, it would be strange if a righteous man like Dumbledore didn't have any doubts.
In the history of the wizarding world, it wasn't as if no one had tried to resurrect the dead, and the methods used by those wizards were invariably evil!
It was only natural for Dumbledore to suspect that he had used such dark methods.
Thus, Dumbledore's reaction was entirely within his expectations. For this, Victor even felt quite pleased.
Because the greater Dumbledore's misunderstanding now, the greater his guilt and gratitude would be once the misunderstanding was cleared. The effect would be far better.
Moreover, having Ariana tell the story for him was much more effective than telling Dumbledore himself!
Inside the private room.
Between sobs, Ariana recounted how she had met Victor in the world of the dead and how Victor had persuaded her to return to the living world.
Then, she told them how she had been brought into Hogwarts by Victor, how he had looked after her with such care... and how Victor had helped her reconstruct her physical body...
As Ariana spoke, Dumbledore felt increasingly ashamed.
He knew he had truly misunderstood Victor.
When Ariana met Victor, it seemed he even had the ghost of the legendary Archmage Merlin by his side!
Victor must have had another encounter he didn't know about...
With Victor's unconventional magical theories, it wasn't surprising at all that he could do things traditional wizards could not!
"Brother, Professor Wick has done us a great kindness. Please don't make things difficult for him, okay?" Ariana pleaded.
"Albus, I am certainly going to give Professor Wick my proper thanks. If you try to do anything to him, you'll have to go through me first!" Aberforth said fiercely.
After hearing Ariana's story, before Dumbledore could even say a word, Aberforth already considered Victor a true brother—closer even than Albus!
"I have always trusted Victor... How could I do anything to him? I truly misunderstood him... I'm sorry, Ariana. Forgive your brother. I have been under too much pressure these years, making me overly sensitive about certain things," Dumbledore explained with a wry smile.
"Hmph!" Aberforth snorted coldly. "Back then, you'd only spent a few months with that bastard, yet you were eager to listen to his every word! Now, Professor Wick has done so much for you, yet you're questioning him! If I were Professor Wick, I don't know how heart-stricken I would be right now!"
"Aberforth... I..."
"Stop talking! I'll stay here with Ariana. If you have a shred of conscience left, you should go and apologize to Professor Wick right now!"