A Hardworking but Balding Ministry Official

"As you can see, a battle took place here." The fat man shiveringly put on the wizard's robe he had just taken off one of his subordinates and dismissed him. "Whew... Muggle clothes are really cold."

"You've worked hard. Dedicated officials like you are truly rare these days." Tom bowed slightly and flattered him with a smile.

"Haha, I just happened to be free today and was worried about them." Tom's praise seemed to please him. The fat man smiled as he asked the two of them, "Were you the only two wizards around here?"

"As far as I know, yes." Tom nodded solemnly, as though the man had asked an immensely important question. "There's a ten-year-old girl at West City Orphanage who's a young witch, but she probably won't start school until next year... Other than that, there shouldn't be any adult wizards."

"Hmm... That makes this difficult." The fat man frowned deeply. He glanced at the construction site in the middle of the road, waved over the subordinate he had just sent away, whispered a few words to the shivering man, then turned back toward Tom and Nelson, who was looking around curiously at the center of the road. "You'd better not get too close. We still don't know whether it's dangerous over there."

"Dangerous?" Tom knew perfectly well whether it was dangerous. Apart from dealing a devastating blow to one's sense of smell, there was practically no danger there. Even the snakes that had gathered earlier had all dispersed. "Excuse me, sir, could you tell us about it? The relatives adopting us don't know magic, after all..."

"Oh... You're being adopted? What a good boy you are." The fat man reached out as if to pat the handsome, likable young man on the head, but after looking at the tall Tom, he withdrew his hand and coughed into it. "You need to watch your safety too. First-years aren't much better than Muggles."

"Come on, let's get a closer look. As long as you're with me, there's nothing to worry about." He held Tom's arm with one hand and hooked Nelson over with the other, hauling over the boy who seemed completely absorbed in observing the construction site. With an arm around each of them, he led them closer to the bustling wizards. "Look over there. Under that rolled-up patch of ground is a huge pool of blood. See it?"

"I see it." Nelson glanced sideways at it, then went back to watching the construction site, while Tom stared unblinkingly at the dark, congealed blood on the ground.

"Hahaha, don't be afraid. You'll see plenty of scenes like this in the future." Seeing Nelson turn away after only one glance, he assumed Nelson was frightened. "Look, there's a lot of blood on the ground, which means there was a lot of blood loss... Far more than a normal adult wizard could lose. What does that tell us?"

He paused dramatically and looked at Tom encouragingly. Wearing a timid expression, Tom obediently answered in a soft voice, "It means the injured creature was very large?"

"That's right, very large, and not just ordinarily large." The fat man patted Tom's shoulder approvingly, then lowered his arm and pointed at the ground by his feet. "Look here. There's an indentation a meter wide in the ground, and even the soil is a different color from the rest. So we believe all this was caused by an enormous magical creature, perhaps a Dragon or something else... The traces here are too chaotic and damaged. All we can tell is that it was big."

"You're so knowledgeable!" Ignoring Nelson, who was rolling his eyes behind the fat man's back, Tom spoke in a reverent tone. His voice was utterly sincere. In truth, though Tom could be sincerely cutting when facing Nelson, everyone at school praised him as an outstanding student—graceful, humble, and dependable. Even many teachers thought so, and were happy to answer questions for the positive young man or even teach him things that could not be learned from textbooks. At least, most teachers were like that. Tom continued, "I understand. A massive magical creature caused all this."

"Correct. That's exactly it." The fat man nodded comfortably. "Most magical disasters are caused by magical creatures, and this one appears to be no exception. But this situation is much more complicated than what we usually see."

The two followed him toward the rolled-up patch of ground. Blood was dripping down from the gaps at both ends with a steady patter, making for an extremely brutal sight.

"Look here. This section of ground was created by magic. Look at those spikes inside—oh, heavens..." The fat man stopped the two boys as they moved closer, extending his wand toward a broken spike lying nearby. "Young wizards like you mustn't get any closer. Accio broken spike!"

"Don't touch it with your hands." He held the spike aloft with his wand. Night had deepened, and the sharp Earth Spike floated and slowly spun at the tip of his wand, gleaming coldly beneath the moonlight. After showing it to them from all angles, he flicked his wand. It spun away and embedded itself deeply in the earth. "See that? The cross-section is ordinary brick and stone, but the exterior is incredibly tough and sharp metal. I don't know what magic this is. I suspect it might be Transfiguration, and that requires an incredibly deep mastery of the subject... Oh, don't be discouraged. You're only first-years. You'll be able to do it someday."

Nelson and Tom lowered their heads, looking as if they had been dealt a blow. The fat man had no idea what they were thinking and could only try to comfort them.

"Look at that cabbage-like... patch of ground. It's full of spikes like these. It seems that bleeding magical creature was injured there before it finally escaped. I don't think magical creatures would normally create such a torture device to trap themselves, and there are plenty of traces of battle and spells around here." He lowered his voice, bent down beside the boys' ears, and spoke in the tone of someone telling a ghost story. "So it's possible that a brutal dark wizard fought an enormous magical creature, and the creature later escaped. You must be careful..."

At that moment, his subordinate, whose face had turned blue from the cold, came over and whispered a few words to him. Every word trembled. When the man was done, the fat official straightened up, shrugged at Tom and Nelson, and spread his hands with an expression that said, What can I do? Those are the regulations. "Sorry, gentlemen, but according to procedure, I may have to inspect your wands."

"Don't worry, it's only an ordinary Priori Incantatem. It won't embarrass or inconvenience you." Seeing Nelson's troubled expression, he spoke lightly. "Everyone has a few embarrassing little secrets, right?"

"All right, check mine first!" Seeing that Tom still looked a little strange, Nelson readily handed over his black walnut wood wand.

"Whoa! That's long!" The fat man took out a handkerchief and wiped his hands clean. He accepted Nelson's wand and held it in his left hand, comparing it with his own wand. Then, somewhat resentfully, he aligned his wand, which looked barely half as long, with Nelson's and shouted, "Priori Incantatem!"

A flash of white light burst forth, and the fat man's wand flew away.

"Ah, well..." He scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.

"Sorry, sir, it was an Accio Charm." Tom apologized with a sincere expression. "I forgot to bring my wand when I left. I was in a hurry to get here and worried there might be danger, so I had Nal use Accio to summon my wand."

"Cough, cough!" The fat man tried to hide his embarrassment with a cough, but his subordinate, who came running over holding the wand and was already purple from the cold, only made the atmosphere more awkward. He snatched the wand away and berated him furiously. "Do you have nothing better to do than wander around here? Get back to fixing the road! You're a wizard—can't you stop yourself from freezing to death?"

He impatiently waved his wand, and a streak of orange light flew from its tip to land on his subordinate's chest before quickly spreading across his entire body. His complexion immediately improved. Having stunned Tom and Nelson with that silent casting, the fat man coughed again, puffed out his stomach, and said with feigned authority, "A wizard must never be separated from his wand! Understand?"

"Let's continue." Satisfied by the stunned expressions on their faces, he held out his hand again. This time, he cast the spell much more cautiously. "Priori Incantatem!"

A stream of white mist slowly emerged from the tip of Nelson's wand, then condensed in midair into a brand-new Newsboy Cap. The cap then burst apart with a pop, becoming a cloud of mist that hung in the air.

"Sir, that was Transfiguration. We damaged a little girl's hat, so Tom made her a new one. I helped reinforce it. She's a wizard too. We'll write a report to the Ministry of Magic tonight regarding the holiday spellcasting." Nelson explained from the side.

"It's nothing, it's nothing." The fat man seemed to cast a disdainful glance in the direction of central London. "No one has the time to stare at the Trace all day long."

When the spell replayed the magic from the previous day, he stopped it. He gently returned the wand to Nelson and sincerely praised him. "Good Transfiguration. You might even reach the level of the wizard who fought here tonight... But don't learn from him. That was far too brutal."

He then took Tom's wand and began casting Priori Incantatem. Only then did Nelson learn what magic Tom had been casting while hiding in his room all day. Contrary to the powerful magic he had imagined, strange characters and patterns flickered through the mist emitted by Tom's wand, but Nelson did not recognize any of them. The fat man was also curious when he saw these strange spells, but they seemed unrelated to tonight's incident, so he returned the wand to Tom.

"All right, you should go home and sleep now." He stretched and yawned. "What are your names? If we find anything later, we may need to ask you about the situation again."

"My name is Tom Riddle."

"My name is Nelson Williams. We don't know your name yet, sir. If we find anything later, we'll know how to contact you."

"Oh, I'm Dorian Weasley, head of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. If you write to me, you can toss it into my office with Floo Powder." He winked at them. Only then did Nelson clearly see the few stubborn strands of hair he had left glowing red in the night.

If you entered the magical world, what kind of wizard would you want to become, and what kind of adventures would you experience?

(Just borrowing a little inspiration.)