Hog's Head and Aberforth

The clash at Godric's Hollow shook the entire British Wizarding World.

Grindelwald, who had never acted in the United Kingdom before, had now openly appeared on British soil and even launched a riot! The Ministry of Magic had gone to great lengths to make the Muggles living in Godric's Hollow forget what had happened the night before...

Early the next morning, Li Weide saw a huge headline in a copy of The Daily Prophet Dumbledore had brought over.

Riot at Godric's Hollow! Has Grindelwald Officially Declared War on the British Wizarding World?

The accompanying photograph showed a group of Wizarding Supremacists surrounding a house and relentlessly attacking it...

Who knew where the photographer had been hiding, but the moving photograph was quite effective. The oppressive presence of the Wizarding Supremacists came through in full force.

By then, Li Weide and the others were no longer in Godric's Hollow.

Since Grindelwald had set his sights on them, Dumbledore had taken them away overnight.

Still, Li Weide felt that, given Grindelwald's personality, since he had let them go this time, he probably would not come again.

After all, if he had truly wanted to take them away by force, Grindelwald could have taken them all before Dumbledore arrived last night.

Why would he need to come a second time? When they stepped down from the Thestral carriage again, they had arrived somewhere new.

The place looked like a small town, but every building in it was steeped in the style of the magical world.

Since magical things were displayed so openly, this was clearly a settlement inhabited entirely by wizards.

"This is Hogsmeade," Dumbledore said as he jumped down from the carriage. "The wizarding village closest to Hogwarts."

Tom stepped down as well, curiously taking in everything around him.

Seeing the unrestrained magical-world atmosphere around him, Tom's eyes brimmed with excitement.

Since this was a wizarding village, he would not need to carefully hide everything related to the magical world as he had at the Orphanage or in Godric's Hollow.

In other words, he could cast spells whenever he wanted.

Professor Hicks had suffered serious injuries during the battle with the Wizarding Supremacists and needed to remain under observation at St. Mungo's for a while.

So this time, Dumbledore personally brought them to their new residence.

Li Weide suddenly asked, "Professor... the house in Godric's Hollow was attacked. Are Mr. Kowalski and the others all right? I heard they were supposed to arrive today."

Hearing Li Weide express concern for Jacob's family, Dumbledore's weary face showed a faint, gratified smile. "I had them go back... This was my fault, Weide. I truly never expected Grindelwald to attack you... and nearly drag good friends into a life-or-death crisis..."

Dumbledore still seemed shaken. Grindelwald might not kill Li Weide and the others, but when it came to Jacob... he would never show mercy!

If Jacob and the others had arrived early and been caught by Grindelwald, the fate awaiting them would surely have been tragic.

They weren't coming? Li Weide was a little speechless. So he had spent an entire day painstakingly learning Occlumency for nothing?

Still, he could not say Occlumency was useless. At the very least, it could improve his acting skills and let him tell Dumbledore a little lie now and then.

All in all, gaining another useful skill was not a loss...

"This isn't your fault, Professor... Who could have expected Grindelwald to launch an attack because of us? We didn't even know who he was before this..."

"I'm glad you can forgive me, Weide. In truth, you were caught up in this because of me as well... He was in London at the time, so some of my actions could not possibly have escaped his notice. This was my oversight..."

"No, no, the cause of all this should have been me. If I hadn't acted on impulse, you wouldn't have needed to arrange so much for us, and none of this would have happened..."

"How could saving someone be wrong?" Dumbledore shook his head repeatedly. "I was the one at fault. I failed to make proper arrangements and failed to keep things confidential..."

Watching the two endlessly compete to take responsibility, Tom could not help rolling his eyes. In a sarcastic tone, he said, "By your logic, the root of the problem was me, then. I should have stopped Weide at the time, right?"

Only then did Li Weide and Dumbledore stop.

Just when Tom thought things could finally quiet down so they could head to their new place and rest—

Li Weide suddenly stared at him and asked, "Yeah! Why didn't you stop me?"

Tom's eyes widened as he looked at Li Weide in shock. "Didn't I stop you?"

"Did you?"

"I did!"

"Then why did I still go?"

"You fucking... Since when did I ever have the ability to stop you?"

"If you couldn't stop me, then that's your fault! This is all your fault, Tom!"

Tom: "Huh?"

So you just enjoy picking on an honest guy like me, huh? I've never seen anyone so shameless! Just wait until I can beat you... I'll settle both old and new scores together!

"You two really are close..." Dumbledore remarked wistfully. Back then, he had had a friendship like this too. They had bickered and squabbled just like this, but unfortunately now...

Tom's face darkened as he snapped, "Close my ass! I've known him for less than half a month!"

"True friendship is forged through hardship, Tom... What does it matter if you've known each other only a short time? Haven't we gone through hardship together?"

"Ah! I've had enough! Professor... can't you arrange for me to go somewhere else? If nothing else, just throw me into another Orphanage!"

Naturally, Dumbledore could not possibly throw Tom into another Orphanage.

With Tom's personality, only Li Weide could keep him in check. Put him somewhere else, and he would absolutely revert to his old ways...

Dumbledore would never stand by and watch that happen. He did not want another person even harder to deal with than Grindelwald to emerge in the future!

A little later, the group stopped in front of a bar. Toby followed behind them, using the Levitation Charm to carry all their luggage.

In a wizarding settlement, Toby naturally no longer needed to hide.

Li Weide had also told Dumbledore about Toby's origins.

Dumbledore said that Li Weide's kindness had been repaid in kind. After reminding him to treat Toby well, he said nothing further.

In his view, having another House-elf to look after them was a good thing.

"Hog's Head?" Tom struggled to make out the bar's name on the filthy sign, where the lettering was nearly illegible.

"Yes. The owner is my younger brother. You'll be safer with him than you were in Godric's Hollow," Dumbledore said.

Yet he looked somewhat uneasy.

"Professor, what's wrong?"

"Well... actually, my relationship with my brother is a little... complicated... All right, let's go in." Dumbledore took a deep breath and pushed open the bar's door.

It was a bar whose environment was on par with the Leaky Cauldron. In Li Weide's view, even its patrons were about the same sort...

"Welcome. What would you like to dri—"

A tall, thin man stood behind the bar, his head lowered as he wiped a wineglass.

Li Weide noticed that he had the same azure eyes as Dumbledore, along with a small mustache above his lips.

This had to be Dumbledore's younger brother, Aberforth.

Aberforth looked up at that moment. When he saw Dumbledore, his already stern face immediately fell.

"So... that bastard got away from you again last night?"

I wonder if this can make it onto the trial promotion. Nervous, anxious...