The scene changed.
But it did not return to the Headmaster's Office as Ian had expected. The entire world seemed filled with countless overlapping lights and shadows, scenes continuously emerging like a film.
Fragmented.
Yet not chaotic.
They had nothing to do with the memories Albus Dumbledore had concealed and altered by some means. These were the events following Ariana Dumbledore's death in that accident.
Gellert Grindelwald left on the very night it happened. His retreating figure was neither hurried nor disheveled, yet his expression and stumbling steps looked worse than those of someone fleeing in haste and panic.
Just as Ian had sensed.
Perhaps Aberforth Dumbledore was the one who had failed and could not face reality, but Albus Dumbledore chose to take both the pain and responsibility upon himself.
The rapidly shifting scenes showed Aberforth Dumbledore throwing a punch at Albus Dumbledore after the funeral. Albus Dumbledore, his face swollen and bloody, merely knelt before the grave without saying a word.
Blood trickled down his face and dripped into the soil.
The spirited youth he had once been seemed to have vanished. His dreams and ambitions were buried along with the final shovelful of dirt upon the grave, and in his muddled days, despondency became the main theme of his life.
In the end, he returned to Hogwarts, to this school known as a place of hope. Students came and went in an endless stream, but teaching them was not the reason Albus Dumbledore had returned.
The library, the Restricted Section—aside from his necessary teaching duties, Albus Dumbledore spent nearly all his time constantly leafing through one book after another.
From renowned Legendary Wizards throughout history to exceptionally gifted modern magical scholars, Albus Dumbledore studied the life's work of countless geniuses.
He learned a great deal.
Yet without