Albus Dumbledore Sat Behind His Desk, Smiling as Though Everything Were Under Control

"Gioconda, you really know House-elves."

Nelson carried the wooden tea box in his arms as he and Gioconda climbed the stairs, passing through Hogwarts' towers, corridors, and halls. Though Christmas had already passed, the festive atmosphere still lingered in decorations that had not yet been fully cleared away. "Without you, they would have had to make breakfast all over again."

"It's nothing, really. The Hufflepuff Common Room is right next to the kitchens." Gioconda yawned, tore the bandage from her forehead, and stuffed it beneath the saddle of a bronze knight statue by the roadside. "Besides, they're actually quite common. They're responsible for the cleanliness of the entire castle. You just normally don't pay attention to them."

Soon, the two arrived outside Dumbledore's office. Seeing that Nelson had not come up alone, The Armor gave a slight shudder, then went still again.

"Dumbledore, you can't decide she's a spy just because she went to the United States. She's still a Hogwarts student!" Even through the thick solid wooden door, Professor Sakes' voice rang clearly through the corridor. "You can have opinions about me, I know. You've never liked me. You are Albus Dumbledore, after all! But why did you—"

Professor Sakes' voice dropped. She seemed to have changed the subject and begun pressing Aberforth over something else. Driven by instinctive curiosity, Nelson's ear crept closer and closer to the door.

"No need to listen. She's talking about me." Gioconda pulled out the wrapper from that purple-cabbage-flavored Drooble's Best Blowing Gum from her pocket, spat the chewed gum into it, and sealed it up. After looking around, she spotted The Armor standing straight outside the office door. She lifted its Faceplate and casually tossed the wrapped gum inside. Nelson saw The Armor shudder again.

"Strange, why is this suit of armor moving?" Gioconda asked, knocking on its breastplate. A hollow clang, clang echoed out.

"Maybe it's been sitting around too long." Nelson stepped forward and knocked on his good brother too.

"When you pour the tea later, do it slowly, please!" Nelson heard The Armor whisper. "Aberforth said so. Oh, and when you're done, could you throw out that garbage inside me while you're at it?"

"What was that, Nelson? Did you hear someone talking?" Gioconda cupped a hand to her ear and listened in confusion.

"No. Maybe you heard wrong." Nelson shrugged. "Or perhaps you're a Parselmouth, able to hear the whispers of the Basilisk Slytherin kept in the Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets."

"No problem," Nelson whispered in reply to The Armor's ear.

"That's a good idea. I'll write it down later." Gioconda nodded, apparently quite taken with the joke.

"By the way, did you go to the United States to study abroad?"

"No." Gioconda shook her head. "I smuggled myself over there."

"?"

"By riding a Broomstick across the Atlantic Ocean."

Before Nelson could process news shocking enough to last him the entire year, the office door slowly opened from within. Aberforth seemed unable to hold off Professor Sakes any longer. His voice drifted out from the office, carrying a trace of relief. "It seems our tea has arrived. Melissa, sit down and rest. I'm sure you must be tired from all that talking."

Nelson had no idea what had happened during the time he had gone to the kitchens. He only felt that the air in the room was heavier than the thickest cream soup. That nearly tangible awkwardness spilled out through the doorway, stretching its claws around him.

Nelson forced himself onward, hunching his neck as he walked into the office. Gioconda slyly followed behind him.

"Oh? Gioconda?" Aberforth asked uncertainly. It seemed he had only just heard about this student from Professor Sakes.

"Do you take everyone else for fools, Albus?!" Professor Sakes was about to lose control again. She slammed the armrest of her chair and said heavily, "Pretending not to know her now?!"

"Ah, Melissa, calm down. As you said, I hadn't met her in person before." Aberforth frantically signaled at Nelson with his eyes, trying his best to look like Albus Dumbledore sat behind his desk, smiling as though everything were under control. "Nelson, could I trouble you to pour four cups of tea for us? I've been looking forward to it for quite a while."

Nelson tensed up, making his already stiff scalp feel even tighter. Before the three of them, in utter silence, he gently placed the wooden box on the desk. Then he took out the tray, teacups, spoons, and the wooden compartments containing candied sugar cubes and other little things one by one, arranging them in their matching case. He moved painfully slowly, as if savoring the art of pouring tea in such a simple task.

He set four small porcelain plates painted with blue-and-white patterns at the middle of each side of the desk, then placed four teacups of the same material and pattern in the center of the plates, with every handle facing the same direction... After a series of baffling maneuvers he could no longer drag out, his imagination finally ran dry, and he poured just the right amount of tea into all four cups.

"Ahem." Professor Sakes, seated across from Aberforth and silent for a long while, broke the quiet.

I hope Aberforth doesn't shortchange me after this. Nelson closed his eyes, preparing himself for Professor Sakes' storm.

"Ahem." Professor Sakes cleared her throat, lifted her teacup, and took a sip. "Nelson, I wrongly blamed you earlier."

"I'm sorry, Professor Sakes." Nelson's mind had yet to catch up.

"I mean, I never expected you to be someone with such appreciation for the finer things in life." Professor Sakes nodded. "Though I teach Charms, I don't actually want these activities full of life to be done by Wands or servants. I believe Wizards' hands ought to touch their own lives."

Clap clap clap!

Aberforth clapped hard and flattered her. "Melissa, that attitude toward life alone is enough for me to learn from for a lifetime. I think—"

"Albus." Professor Sakes cut off his praise, which might have made the atmosphere even more awkward. Frowning, she said, "Honestly, I think you've been very strange tonight."

"What is it?" Aberforth crossed his arms on the table, propped his chin on them, and once again wore that expression of Albus Dumbledore sat behind his desk, smiling as though everything were under control.

"Don't you think you've been talking nonsense to me all night?" Professor Sakes' brows looked ready to knot together. Her expression was like that of a Muggle school disciplinarian staring at the class's most incorrigible old troublemaker. "I even suspect you cast Obliviate on yourself. If not for you—"

"All right, all right!" Aberforth hurriedly waved his hands in surrender. Turning toward Gioconda, who sat idly at the table and had already finished two cups of tea, he said solemnly, "Gioconda Sakes, the information Professor Sakes provided differs somewhat from what I know. I hope to hear your own perspective."

"All right." Gioconda set down her teacup, leaned back in her chair, and looked Dumbledore in the eye. "Seeing as you are a Wizengamot council member."

"In the summer of 1935, when you were in your fifth year, you rode a Broomstick across the Atlantic Ocean and smuggled yourself to the east coast of the United States, which was controlled by Grindelwald. Is that correct?"

"I did ride a Broomstick across the Atlantic Ocean, but I was only in my fourth year then. And the latter half of what you said isn't important at all, because the other side of the Atlantic Ocean is the United States, isn't it?"

"I have to say, that was quite a feat." Aberforth rested his slightly curled left hand on the desk and lightly tapped the back of it with his right. Wearing Dumbledore's face made the gesture seem deeply out of place, yet not strange at all. It was as though Dumbledore would indeed applaud at a time like this.

"Thank you." Gioconda nodded, a faint blush rising in her cheeks. "That was what I thought at the time. I really liked flying. I heard that a Wizard was planning to attempt the first Broomstick crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, but he had prepared for a long time and even brought a team that could rescue him at any moment."

"Yes, I heard about it. In fact, quite a few people on that team were genuine stowaways." Aberforth nodded, signaling for her to continue.

"I thought an adventure with that much preparation didn't count as an adventure at all, so I simply set off on my Broomstick." Gioconda's gaze grew distant, its focus having long drifted into the winds above the Atlantic Ocean on that summer night in 1935. "I only wanted to see whether it could be done. I didn't expect him to fall into the sea halfway through and lose some time. In the end, I arrived first."

"Albus," Professor Sakes said angrily, "so many newspapers reported on this. The Daily Prophet even ran a two-page feature. They know more about it than she does herself. Why can't you see it?"

"Professor Dumbledore." Gioconda's hands twisted together beneath the table. She glanced at Professor Sakes, who was arguing so forcefully on her behalf, her eyes filled with complicated emotions—guilt, trust, fear, and even a trace of disgust. She raised her head and asked expectantly, "Will I... be expelled, or even deported?"

"No." Aberforth shook his head. "Only the board has the authority to expel students. Besides, if you weren't expelled back then, how could we reopen an old case now?"

Nelson noticed the hope in Gioconda's eyes vanish. She seemed quite willing to be expelled, even deported.

"But you are reopening an old case now!" Professor Sakes said. "You're investigating a student who was only in her fourth year back then! Albus, I know you care deeply about the Wizarding world and dare not relax for even a moment, but she's only..."

"Nelson." Aberforth did not respond to Professor Sakes' questioning and pleading. He suddenly turned toward Nelson, who was sitting to one side and trying hard to hide himself, and asked, "Nelson, you know Gioconda, don't you? What kind of person do you think she is?"

"Me?" Nelson immediately felt that Aberforth was being unfair. He had been just about to successfully disappear, only to be dragged out and have all his efforts ruined. "I think she's a very kind, adventurous, and charming person."

Gioconda lowered her head and grinned.

"Mm." Aberforth lowered his head and thought for a moment, then looked up and asked, "Then why did you happen to land at the gathering place of Gellert Grindelwald and his followers?"