Hogsmeade Village, the Hogs Head Pub.
Li Chuan and Newt walked out of the fireplace, vigorously patting the dust off their clothes.
"Today is Saturday, Dumbledore is usually here."
Newt said this while turning his head to look for something in the bar, and soon a smile appeared on his face.
"Look, he's over there!"
Following the direction Newt's finger pointed, Li Chuan saw a middle-aged bearded wizard wearing a knitted sweater over a shirt on his upper body and suit pants on his lower body.
It was Albus Dumbledore in his middle age, when his magic abilities were at their peak.
Albus obviously also noticed their presence, put down the honey beer in his hand, and waved to the two with some surprise.
"Dumbledore!"
"Professor Dumbledore!"
Newt and Li Chuan quickly stepped forward and greeted Dumbledore.
At this time, the relationship between the two and Dumbledore could be seen just from the way they addressed him.
Although Newt and Tom Foley, the predecessor of Li Chuan's current body, had both attended Hogwarts and had been taught Defence Against the Dark Arts by Dumbledore.
But it was clear that the relationship between Newt and Dumbledore was more like friends than teacher and student, so when he saw Dumbledore, he called him by his first name.
Newt was a Hufflepuff, and Dumbledore was a Gryffindor; originally, apart from the normal teacher-student relationship, the two should not have had any extra friendship, as they were not in the same House and he only taught one subject.
Moreover, Newt was expelled from school halfway through his studies for taking the blame for the sister-in-law he had a crush on.
However, Dumbledore particularly admired Newt's character, so he especially liked this student.
When Newt was expelled, he also tried his best to help, and although he ultimately could not prevent Newt's expulsion, he did help Newt retain the right to cast spells using his wand.
Based on Tom's memory, Li Chuan knew that the original Tom, a Slytherin student, was just one of the very unremarkable students in Dumbledore's teaching career of over twenty years.
So when he saw Dumbledore, he addressed him in a more polite manner.
"Newt, you came to see me on your own? This is quite a rare occurrence."
Dumbledore first greeted Newt happily, then looked at Li Chuan beside him, sized him up, and smiled:
"You must be Tom. I remember you. I still recall that in the class where we learned how to fight Boggarts, what you were most afraid of was a three-headed Runespoor because you were frightened by one when you accidentally wandered into Knockturn Alley as a child."
"Professor, your memory is truly excellent. You still remember it so clearly after so many years."
Li Chuan smiled, looking very surprised.
What Dumbledore said was correct and basically consistent with the original Tom's memory, but that didn't mean Dumbledore really cared that much about his original body.
It was just that Dumbledore had an almost photographic memory.
It would be impossible for Dumbledore to become one of the World's top masters, proficient in various magic, Alchemy, and the languages of almost all humans and magical creatures in the World, without a good memory.
Approaching him like this now was nothing more than valuing the strength he had shown in New York, which is why he deliberately said that.
Although he is the White Dark Lord, Dumbledore is different from the simple Newt; in addition to his extraordinary wisdom, he also possesses extremely high emotional intelligence. Dumbledore is actually very clear about what kind of words to say and when.
"Your talent in Herbology has always been good, and I didn't expect your magic strength to improve so much after graduation. Aberforth, bring us three butterbeers and some toffee fingers."
Dumbledore patted Li Chuan's shoulder to show closeness, then called out to his brother at the bar.
He is currently in a rather awkward position. He has to stop Grindelwald, but because of the blood pact, he cannot act personally, so he is not trusted by the Ministry of Magic. He can only find ways to unite all the forces around him that can be united.
Newt's trip to New York to send the Thunderbird home was secretly arranged by him. The purpose was also to prevent Grindelwald from finding the Obscurus, who might be his nephew.
He just didn't expect that Grindelwald would actually be sent to prison by the combined efforts of Newt, an auror from the New York Ministry of Magic, and Tom Foley, a wizard who had never been in his sight.
Crucially, Credence, who might be his nephew and possesses the Dumbledore family bloodline, was even adopted by Tom Foley in the end.
That's why he mentioned in his letters to Newt several times that he wanted to meet Tom Foley. If Tom Foley could be won over to his side, then dealing with Grindelwald would have one more chance of winning.
Incidentally, he could also further verify whether Credence was indeed the son of his brother Aberforth.
Just like that, the three of them sat in the Hogs Head Pub, drinking beer and eating toffee fingers while chatting animatedly.
It was mainly Li Chuan and Dumbledore chatting, while Newt mostly listened, as he was not good at conversation.
"Professor, I know you are currently the only wizard in the entire magic World who can contend with Grindelwald. Why are you unwilling to act personally?"
After chatting for a while and feeling much closer, Li Chuan asked, pretending to be puzzled.
Newt, who was usually just listening to the two chat, couldn't help but perk up his ears.
Dumbledore looked at Li Chuan, knowing that if he wanted to recruit this very capable student to help, he would definitely have to be honest about some things.
So he began to talk about the love-hate relationship between him and Grindelwald, as well as some of his life experiences.
In fact, the story had to start with his sister Ariana. When she was six years old, she was attacked by three Muggle boys, leaving her with psychological trauma and unwilling to learn magic, thus turning into an Obscurus.
Their Father, in order to avenge his sister, punished the three Muggle boys and was sent to Azkaban for violating the Statute of Secrecy, eventually dying there from illness.
So at first, he didn't have any good feelings towards Muggles either, and was even a supporter of anti-Muggle wizards.
After graduating with extraordinary talent, he originally planned to make a big splash in the magic World, but because his Mother was accidentally killed by his sister's exploding Obscurus, he had to return to Godric's Hollow to take care of his sister.
And at that time, he met Grindelwald, who had come to the valley looking for the Deathly Hallows. The two hit it off immediately, made a blood pact that prevented them from harming each other, and decided to leave the valley together to carry out a great magic reform.
At this time, his brother Aberforth, who had returned from school, discovered all this. He objected to his brother's neglect of their sister and his plan to carry out magic reform with Grindelwald.
Grindelwald directly cast the Cruciatus Curse on Aberforth, and Dumbledore tried to stop him, which turned into a three-way melee.
His sister Ariana wanted to help and was hit by a spell in the chaos, dying. This made Dumbledore regret it for the rest of his life and also began to examine everything about himself.
After traveling in wizard and Muggle society for several years, he completely abandoned those initial extreme ideas and returned to Hogwarts to become an ordinary Teacher.
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