Dumbledore's Life and Lies (May Everything Go Smoothly in December, and May All Your Wishes Come True)

When Jon had read the Original Work, he had often pondered a question.

Dumbledore was undeniably a powerful wizard, but aside from this great White Wizard, the wizards of the good side had scarcely any ability to protect themselves under the pursuit of dark wizards. They were always hiding and fleeing, entrusting their safety to someone else—a Secret-Keeper. When danger came, they would protect their children with their lives, yet not one of them had stepped forward, raised a wand, and declared that they would fight back.

This was absolutely a mistake, and the seeds of that mistake had been planted as early as 1945, when Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald.

Jon took out his Steel Pen and began writing in his notes.

He had always kept records like this when conducting research.

First, as the greatest White Wizard of the century, Dumbledore had gained a reputation unmatched in the Wizarding world by defeating Grindelwald. Even Jon had to acknowledge that.

But Dumbledore had gone too far in correcting certain things. At the very least, Dumbledore had played an important role in the Wizarding World's implementation of the ban on the Unforgivable Curses.

That could not be called a mistake. Banning the Unforgivable Curses was indeed a good thing.

The problem was that while the ban on the Unforgivable Curses had been implemented, the means by which wizards could obtain them had not been prohibited.

Even if those channels could not be completely sealed off, neither the Ministry of Magic nor Dumbledore himself had made any effort in that regard.

The books in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library alone were proof of that.

Did Hogwarts professors truly need to use those books when teaching a student?

Was their own magical ability really insufficient to deal with a student?

Jon did not think so. He could only explain it as the Restricted Section being a Hogwarts tradition, or Dumbledore having too many matters to handle and simply forgetting about it.

Second, when Jon had once been arranging the chronology of Harry Potter, he had noticed something questionable about the powerful spell used by Harry's mother, Lily Potter.

That spell, in which a mother sacrificed herself to protect her child, should have come from Dumbledore.

Harry's father, James Potter, and his three companions were not especially diligent students. Though they had considerable talent in certain kinds of magic—such as becoming Animagi—and were willing to work hard at studying them, as Gryffindors, they were not particularly proficient in Charms.

Gryffindor had produced many outstanding wizards, but given the average standard of the Wizarding World at the time, Jon still held a trace of skepticism toward the very notion of "outstanding." Gryffindor had many graduates every year, yet over all these years, only a few had reached even half of Dumbledore's level.

Perhaps Lily Potter had been a diligent and studious witch, but a spell capable of severely injuring Voldemort—the second-generation Dark Lord—was not something one could discover through diligence and study alone. Like the power of love Dumbledore had spoken of to Harry, such a spell was extremely intangible.

So Jon guessed that even if the spell had not come directly from Dumbledore, it must have been connected to him.

Then, had Dumbledore known about the prophecy concerning The Savior long ago?

That was another question.

Third, there was the question of Dumbledore's strength.

Gellert Grindelwald had been one of the most powerful dark wizards in history. Jon personally believed that this dark wizard had been somewhat stronger than Voldemort, after all, Voldemort had split his soul too many times. If Grindelwald could be defeated by Dumbledore while at the height of his power, then Dumbledore should have had no trouble defeating Voldemort as well.

Unless Dumbledore's victory had not been a victory of strength, as the legends claimed.

If it had been because of love... that seemed plausible too. It would also explain why Dumbledore was so insistent on this so-called magic of love.

After all, he himself was already a successful example.

"All right, that's about all for now."

Jon closed his notebook. After checking that no one around him was paying attention, he stuffed it directly into his ring, then returned the books he had taken from the shelves.

After greeting Madam Pince, Jon left the library and began wandering around the castle.

After sitting in the library for so long, he did not feel hungry at all.

Hogwarts Castle was as complex as a maze. After going around for a while, Jon unexpectedly reached an unfamiliar area on the Eighth Floor. He simply found a window, leaned against the wall, and began spacing out.

He did want to get his hands on the Marauder's Map. It would not actually be difficult; he just did not know whether the Weasley twins had stolen the Marauder's Map by this point in time.

Harry would not enroll until next year, and he would not get the Marauder's Map until his third year. The twins were one year above Jon and were currently in their second year, so they probably had not gotten the Marauder's Map yet.

If they had gotten it... then he would have to see whether the Copying Charm could work and duplicate the map's effects along with it.

The scenery at Hogwarts was beautiful, even more magnificent than in the films. Most importantly, it was real.

When the cold wind from above slapped against Jon's face, he gained a more direct understanding of that reality.

The Harry Potter series was a work of literature, but the world Jon inhabited was real. That was the contradiction Jon now faced.

Works of literature often had the problem of being overly idealized. Even though J.K. Rowling had created a fictional world in that world, that idealization still existed.

The overall course of the world had not changed. Voldemort would still be defeated by Harry Potter, and Harry Potter would still enroll next year. But clearly, the real world was far crueler than the one in the books.

The magical world was not, after all, a storybook written for children.

Aside from the main storyline of the grievances and grudges between Harry Potter and Tom Riddle, the side stories that had not appeared in the books were actually even more worthy of attention.

Grindelwald was imprisoned in the tower of Nurmengard. Though Dumbledore had taken his wand, could a man who had once possessed more followers than Voldemort truly be locked away so easily?

Nurmengard was a prison Grindelwald had built himself. If he wanted to stage a prison break, he would not even need to dig a tunnel.

He did not come out—was it because he could not, or because he did not want to?

That question would probably have to be asked of Dumbledore.

Besides, it was not something Jon should be considering right now.

Jon withdrew his gaze from the scenery and looked toward Dumbledore's office.

Snape was passing the guardian stone statue and entering that room.