"Mr. Dumbledore?"
Hector Fawley stopped and turned to ask.
Everyone else turned their attention to Dumbledore as well.
Dumbledore did not answer the Minister for Magic.
He hurriedly pulled a necklace from his robes, with an old photograph attached to it.
"Ariana! Anna! Are you there?..."
Dumbledore called out for a long time, but the photograph remained empty.
"Anna is..."
Before Hector Fawley could finish speaking,
Fawkes appeared in the office with Luna and Cypher.
The two tumbled to the floor in a heap.
Everyone looked over.
Cypher was drenched in sweat, pale-faced, his clothes torn to shreds, with blood still flowing from his wounds.
Luna looked to be in better condition, but she was unconscious.
Dumbledore gave them a hurried glance and recognized the signs of magical exhaustion.
He immediately went to Cypher's side.
"Professor, there's Essence of Dittany in my pouch." Essence of Dittany was a highly effective medicine that quickly stopped bleeding and healed external injuries.
Dumbledore hurriedly found the Essence of Dittany in Cypher's pouch and poured it all over his wounds.
The intense pain made Cypher struggle involuntarily.
But unconscious Luna was still lying on top of him, so his struggles looked more like convulsions from an electric shock.
After struggling for a while and enduring the searing pain, he finally resigned himself to lying flat on the floor and gasping for breath. He was truly exhausted and stifled.
"Oh! Good heavens!"
Bernice Leslie, the kind-hearted Head of Hufflepuff, was the first to break the silence. She hurriedly cried,
"What are you all waiting for? Can't you see the students are injured? Expecto Patronum!"
A small badger burst from her wand and swiftly vanished through the door, naturally headed for the School Hospital.
"Calm down! Calm down..."
Dumbledore looked at Bernice Leslie with steady eyes, instantly soothing the agitated Head of House.
"Bernice, it isn't that we won't help. It's that we don't know what curse Cypher has suffered. Casting spells recklessly could lead to unforeseen consequences. Unless it is necessary, don't create further complications."
"Oh, right! Sorry, Albus, I..."
The Head of House said helplessly, but Dumbledore waved a hand to tell her not to blame herself.
"Cypher, can you still hear me?"
Dumbledore bent down, bringing himself as close to Cypher as possible, and asked loudly.
"Of course, Professor... If you don't move Luna off my back first, though, I won't be able to hear you anymore..."
For the first time, Cypher thought Luna ought to be a little lighter.
Seeing that Cypher was still in the mood to joke, Dumbledore knew that things in Hogsmeade had not become any worse.
Worried for his younger brother, Dumbledore quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Will it be all right if I cast a spell on you?"
"I was injured because of Splinching..."
At once, Dumbledore understood. Something must have forced Cypher to cast teleportation spells repeatedly until he reached the brink of Splinching. He had undoubtedly been attacked by Dark wizards.
He hurriedly flicked his wand, making Luna float up from Cypher's body.
Cypher seized the chance to flop over like a salted fish.
"I was suffocating, ow..."
Cypher had barely finished complaining.
"Rennervate!"
Without hesitation, Dumbledore raised his wand and tapped Cypher with it.
The exhaustion in Cypher's body was temporarily swept away.
"The attacker in Hogsmeade seemed to be a foreign wizard. He called himself an officer of the Shadow Empire, Austin Charles. He kept many dark creatures in the pockets on his body. Oh! Right, he also had a Nundu cub. It released poisonous mist that filled the entire village. The barrier was a type of war magic that cut off magical connections between the inside and outside. Then... we did everything we could to cast spells and hold back those dark creatures until Fawkes appeared before us and took us away."
Noticing Dumbledore subtly signaling him with his eyes, Cypher saw that there were outsiders from the Ministry of Magic present. He hurriedly changed his account and concealed part of the truth.
"Minister, only Transfiguration and the Water-Making Spell were indeed used."
Meanwhile, an Auror silently picked up Cypher and Luna's wands and cast Prior Incantato to examine their spellcasting.
Upon hearing that they had indeed only cast the spells of first-year wizards, every wizard present apart from Dumbledore secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Everyone could tell that Cypher had abruptly changed his story at Dumbledore's prompting.
Even with Dumbledore vouching for him, it made a difference in this incident whether the young wizard had used Dark Arts.
If he had, they would suspect him of being an insider, and suspect Dumbledore of concealing something.
But if there had only been young wizards' spells, then it simply meant that Dumbledore's favored students had been attacked by a Dark wizard.
What Dumbledore was concealing might be an alchemical weapon he did not want the outside world to know about. They all filled in the blanks themselves...
"All right. In that case, please go deal with the matter at once. I don't think you need to retake Magical Creatures."
At that point, Headmaster Armando Dippet spoke and settled the matter.
Why the two of them had appeared in Hogsmeade was no longer the Ministry of Magic's concern.
Any subsequent punishment was the school's business.
He had already tacitly allowed the Aurors to search the students' wands to prove that the matter had nothing to do with them. That was already an enormous concession from the school to the Ministry of Magic.
Originally, the Ministry of Magic only had the right to propose educational regulations. They had no authority to interfere in matters involving young wizards.
The Ministry employees understood this, and a burst of noisy footsteps filled the room.
The Headmaster's office instantly became much emptier.
Armando Dippet seemed rather troubled as he scratched his head.
"Cypher, although you brought the Aurors valuable information and spared them needless casualties, I must still punish you for going to Hogsmeade. I do not want young wizards to think that doing something wrong can go unpunished merely because they happened to perform a service."
"Yes, Headmaster. I truly was in the wrong."
What else could he say? Hogwarts' greatest school rule was: don't get caught. So long as you weren't caught, you could do whatever you wanted. Once you were caught and the Headmaster reprimanded you, you had no grounds to claim you had done nothing wrong.
"Let me think. I have it!"
"Recently, Mr. Ogg, the Keeper of Keys and Grounds, has complained to me that he has too much work. He has to patrol the Forbidden Forest and take care of..." He paused.
"Times have been eventful lately, and the professors have had no time to help him. The older students have all gone to the front lines during their free time. So, for the next two weekends, you and Luna will go help him with whatever you can."
Dumbledore felt that something was off when he heard this, but after thinking it over carefully, he found nothing strange.
He knew what Ogg was taking care of.
If they went to help now, it was most likely...
Oh, right! The weather was getting cold. It was time to build a shelter for the Diricawls.
As someone who kept an eye on Cypher and Luna, it was understandable for Headmaster Armando to arrange for them to help in secret.
The older students were a mixed bag. There was no telling whether any spies loyal to the enemy were among them, so it would not be appropriate for them to help.
Making Ogg handle everything alone would be too exhausting, and it would be good experience for the two of them as well.
Cypher opened his mouth, wanting to ask whether they could change the punishment, but Dumbledore agreed for him immediately.
Cypher silently swallowed his objection.
He believed Dumbledore would not harm him.
They only needed to find the four young wizards in Hogsmeade, and the rest would have nothing to do with Hogwarts. At that point, the Headmaster told Dumbledore that he could take Cypher and Luna to the School Hospital for examination.
Dumbledore nodded to show that he understood. He used magic to levitate the two of them and strode toward the School Hospital.
"You may find unexpected gains from helping Ogg."
Cypher rolled his eyes inwardly. He did not believe detention could possibly hold any surprises!
Before you continue