Conversation

Cyberlina stood with her hands folded before her abdomen and her back straight. Though she wore a faint smile, she seemed inexplicably far more serious than usual. Dumbledore leaned against the edge of his desk, arms crossed, his mouth hidden beneath his beard pressed tightly shut as his eyes behind the lenses stared somewhat blankly at Cyberlina.

The standoff between them was obvious, and the headmaster's office sank into an intensely oppressive atmosphere.

The portraits all pretended to be asleep, not daring to make even the slightest snoring sound. The Sorting Hat's pointed tip pressed down frantically, its tightly shut eye-folds seeming to say—Merlin, save it. Why had that little phoenix Fawkes flown away without taking it along?

"Very well, Albus. We should have a proper talk." Cyberlina summoned a teacup with a wave of her hand, then unceremoniously took over the sofa, brewed two cups of hot tea, and floated one over to Dumbledore. "It'll be morning soon. Have some tea to wake yourself up."

Dumbledore's lips moved, but in the end he said nothing. He silently raised a hand and accepted the cup. Rather than returning to his office chair, he sat on the sofa beside Cyberlina and casually floated two sugar cubes from his desk into his tea.

"Does my arrival really make you this uneasy?" Cyberlina's lips held the curve of a smile as she lowered her gaze to the tea stems floating in her cup.

Dumbledore took a sip of tea, then added another two sugar cubes to his cup.

"Not at all, Cyber. Why would you think that?" Dumbledore smiled, looking at Cyberlina with the same kindly expression he showed all his students.

But Cyberlina clearly did not buy it. "Because everything about you is telling me that my arrival has made you uneasy."

Dumbledore drank his tea in silence.

At that, Cyberlina sighed. The smile that had remained on her face vanished. She raised her eyes and looked at Dumbledore with some frustration. "Is it because I'm not worthy of your trust?"

"Cyber, you say I do not trust you, but I see no trust from you either." Dumbledore lowered his head, the steam from his tea fogging his lenses. "Just like now—you seem as though you wish to speak openly with me, yet you are still wearing a mask. Cyber... Cyberlina—"

Dumbledore lifted his head and looked through the mist on his glasses at the girl an arm's length away; through that hazy blur, at the person he had once revered most.

"—Professor Sekri, do you truly think my trust is worth having now?"

This time, Cyberlina silently drank her tea.

Dumbledore set down his cup and slightly raised his wand. The fog on his lenses vanished, leaving his clear blue eyes unobstructed as they stared directly at Cyberlina, who drank her tea expressionlessly.

"I admit that I have not trusted you completely. But do you not think that is only natural?" Dumbledore felt that it had been a long time since he had spoken with such sharpness and frankness. "Everything you once showed me told me that you were dangerous, did it not?"

Cyberlina held her teacup in both hands on her lap and tilted her head slightly. Her pale golden eyes were utterly calm, devoid of emotion or warmth, enough to make one's skin crawl.

"Is that really why?" Without her smile, even Cyberlina's voice seemed much colder. "Are you truly rejecting me because of those things I told you only because I trusted you, Al?"

It was a forceful—questioning—filled with coldness and an intimate form of address.

It felt unfamiliar to Dumbledore, yet familiar all the same.

More than ninety years ago, when he had been in his teens, he would occasionally hear words like these after making a mistake. He would answer casually and put on an apologetic appearance, though whether he actually changed depended on the circumstances.

More than seventy years ago, when he was already in his thirties or forties, he still occasionally heard words like these. Back then, he would remain silent, then turn around and continue doing whatever he wished. After all, their disagreements had not arisen only once or twice.

Moreover, their many years together as teacher and friend had taught him that though the professor's cold expression looked stern and frightening, she usually would not do much. What was truly terrifying was when her insincere smile became sincere—except when she was facing Mr. Ominis, of course.

Sixty-eight years ago, he had discovered those dangerous, unsettling experiments. The question he had voiced to the professor had been forced back by an even more commanding interrogation. When he tried to avoid her questioning and persist with his own, he was met by a powerful spell without sound or trace—and after being blasted backward, he saw those emotionless pale golden eyes. Just like now.

Dumbledore did not know how to answer Cyberlina's question, nor did he know whether silence was a good answer. He only knew that he had to exert every effort to use Occlumency. He did not want the memories stirred by thoughts of the past to affect his present self and expose a weakness to the person before him, who was already exceptionally skilled at controlling people's hearts.

"Or perhaps, Al." Cyberlina smiled again, her tone returning to gentleness. "You are dissatisfied with me because of the things I have not told you, is that it?"

Dumbledore pulled his rational mind out from Occlumency and realized clearly—his Occlumency had still been too slow.

He had fallen into the trap the moment she prepared to put on that solemn expression.

"Professor Sekri..." Dumbledore sighed softly, his voice carrying unavoidable anger.

"Good boy, don't be angry. Have something sweet."

Cyberlina refilled Dumbledore's teacup, thoughtfully adding two sugar cubes and a spoonful of honey. Dumbledore watched her do all this without expression, suddenly finding it strangely familiar. It was just like... just like... how he usually soothed the children after assigning them tasks or telling them something unpleasant...

Dumbledore fell into thought.

Seeing that the atmosphere between the two seemed to have eased, the portraits let out long sighs of relief. Only Headmaster Black gave a disdainful snort, whereupon a nearby headmaster portrait clapped a hand over his mouth. As he struggled uselessly, that portrait and another dragged him out of the frame of the headmaster's office.

"Albus, you should know that you are my favorite student," Cyberlina suddenly said with feeling.

"No, I am not." Dumbledore rejected Cyberlina's goodwill.

"If you aren't, then who is?" Cyberlina found Dumbledore's sudden childishness amusing.

Dumbledore opened his mouth, but could not bring himself to say that name. He merely said, "You only ever had two students whom you taught privately."

"Oh... I heard the two of you had quite a major falling-out." Cyberlina raised an eyebrow. "So you still have not made up, even now."

"..." Dumbledore drank his tea gloomily. "Did you contact him after you returned?"

"No."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Not before that, either?"

"If you mean eighty years ago, then yes."

"What about sixty years ago?"

"...Stop probing." Cyberlina smiled and sighed, leaning back against the sofa. "Albus, I know I am not trustworthy, but you should at least trust the Book of Admittance. I am only fifteen now—and there is no need for you to overthink that. I really did die before.

"Just as I told you before, I do not know why I came back. I do not know why, when I opened my eyes, I appeared in that house again, in that... room..." Back then, she had beaten up Dumbledore, who had been nearly fifty, for no reason at all. And she had just read fragments of it from Albus's memories, so she could not help feeling a little guilty. "I was lost at the time, Albus. Truly lost. It was not until that child dressed all in black appeared that I realized my body was very young now. It seemed that, just like a century ago, I was about to enter Hogwarts in confusion."

Dumbledore knew that Cyberlina was truly opening her heart now, so he listened closely.

"When I first saw you that day, you actually felt a little unfamiliar to me—not because of your appearance, but because of your bearing. You seemed to have... grown up. But fortunately, I could still see what you had been like when you attended Hogwarts in your eyes. In that moment, I realized you had merely grown your beard and hair longer."

Cyberlina watched the sun rise beyond the window, a little light reflected in her eyes.

"You pulled me out of my confusion, Albus.

I know my appearance disrupted your plans, so you deliberately used that tone when you said he came from the Gaunt Family in order to draw me into your plan to eliminate Voldemort. You had your purpose, but I still have to thank you for it.

At the very least, your information gave this inexplicable new life of mine a goal—though that goal might be somewhat short-lived."

"So, you will not stand in my way?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, I won't stand in your way." Cyberlina tilted her head and smiled at Dumbledore. "I'll even offer my help, if necessary—you knew that from the beginning, didn't you?"

Yes, Dumbledore knew just how much Cyberlina despised the Gaunt Family, so Tom's bloodline had doomed him to become a target of the returned Cyberlina.

It was just—

"It's all right, Albus. Feel free to remain wary of me. I deserve your wariness." Cyberlina sat upright again. The gentle light spilling through the window fell across her face, deepening the gold in her pupils until they shone brilliantly. "Just don't forget to count me as being on your side when you make your plans."

Dumbledore paused, then changed the subject. "You don't seem to approve of my training Harry."

"I only think he has the right to know that he is being trained." Cyberlina suddenly flashed a dazzling smile. "Perhaps the result would be better if you told him plainly about the dangers he would face, then openly arranged challenge after challenge for him?"

Dumbledore was about to answer that he could give it a try when Cyberlina continued—

"Oh, I forgot. He's a Gryffindor. Perhaps Gryffindors need those rule-breaking impulses of courage in order to improve?"

Dumbledore: "...I recall that you did not seem to hold such prejudices before, my lady from Slytherin."

"Then you do remember that the two Houses were still reasonably friendly with each other back then." Cyberlina took a sip of tea. "In that case, Mr. Headmaster, do you prefer the current state of hostility between the two Houses?"

"Of course not. What I most wish to see is the children of the two Houses getting along amicably." Dumbledore smiled and took a sip of his own sweet tea.

"Then I hope the headmaster can guide and improve student relations, rather than leaving them unchecked or showing blind favoritism." Cyberlina set down her teacup. "As I said before, you are now the headmaster of the entire school, Albus."

"...I haven't favored Gryffindor that much."

"I wasn't speaking only of Houses, Albus." Cyberlina rose to her feet and smiled down at Dumbledore. "I imagine that cat lady hasn't gone to rest yet. She's probably returned to Gryffindor Tower—after all, she needs to protect some poor Miss Weasley whom a certain headmaster has not paid much attention to."

"..." Dumbledore fell silent. He hesitated, but finally spoke in his own defense as Cyberlina prepared to leave the headmaster's office. "Most of the current Slytherin children come from families too deeply entangled with Voldemort and the Death Eaters, while Gryffindor is precisely the opposite. Many of their family members were killed or wounded by Death Eaters... Some things are not because I have let them run unchecked. They truly cannot be reconciled."

"And you don't know when you will have to fight Voldemort again, so you fear that if these friendly students join the fight after graduating, they might be unable to strike at classmates they once got along with. Then those students, already corrupted by dark magic, would kill them without regard for their former ties. Is that it?"

Dumbledore nodded slowly.

"Then what you should do is make sure they never have the chance to point their wands at their own classmates, rather than turning Hogwarts into a place where students fight over something that has barely even shown itself."

How could Cyberlina fail to see through Dumbledore's thoughts? She also believed that Dumbledore cared for every student at Hogwarts—otherwise, he could not possibly still be sitting in the headmaster's office. She simply could not stand the way he thought himself in circles for the sake of the best possible outcome, only to discard far too many things in the end—after all, she was a Slytherin who would never allow anything she wanted to escape her grasp.

"...I understand, Professor."

As Cyberlina was about to open the door to the headmaster's office, Dumbledore seemed unable to hold himself back any longer and asked, "In 1924, you did not contact him? You did not contact the Wiccan Party?"

Cyberlina stopped in her tracks.

"Albus, you've asked so directly..." Cyberlina gave a very soft laugh. "That's why I said you have every reason to remain wary of me at all times."

As the office door closed, Dumbledore slowly shut his eyes.

Fortunately, he had reacted quickly enough just now and had not thought of anything from long ago while Cyberlina was using Legilimency on him. Otherwise, Cyberlina... he did not know what Cyberlina would have done, but she certainly would not have let him off lightly.

Now that he had deliberately brought up that three-day trip to Europe that had flashed through his memories, Cyberlina would likely use three things to infer his state of mind and gauge the extent of his wariness toward her—the forbidden research he had opposed, their very unpleasant final meeting, and what she had done in Europe in 1924.

But in truth, only Dumbledore himself knew that his vigilance and apprehension toward this professor of his had begun as early as 1908—on the night the Gaunt Family had completely fallen.

Cyberlina probably never imagined that she had not been the only one to leave Hogwarts that night. There had also been a newly appointed, curiosity-filled Gryffindor professor.

"Oh, poor Albus. He got scolded for nothing." A sigh came from one of the portraits.

"It wasn't entirely without gain." Dumbledore opened his eyes and mischievously winked at the portraits gathered in several frames.

"Oh? What gain?" The Sorting Hat pursed its lips. "That thing you had already guessed—that only Slytherin's descendants could open the Chamber of Secrets?"

"No. At least I verified that Phineas's guess was correct." Dumbledore cheerfully directed his teacup to wash itself.

The Sorting Hat was puzzled. "What guess of his?"

"Cyber did indeed tell me about what was wrong with Weasley in that manner just to make me worry myself sick." Dumbledore declared with absolute certainty. After all, Cyberlina had that bad habit of teasing people!

The Sorting Hat: "..."

The Sorting Hat closed its eyes. "Albus, old friend, go get some sleep. All right?"