After nearly five minutes of traveling between elevators, Dumbledore and Avada finally arrived in a lavishly decorated room. A thin man dressed in black wizarding robes stood in the middle. The moment he saw Dumbledore enter, he came forward at once, his face wreathed in smiles.
"Welcome, Professor Dumbledore! I'm an Unspeakable with the Department of Mysteries. You may call me Croaker."
"Hello, Mr. Croaker."
Dumbledore replied calmly. "I'm sorry to interrupt your work, but I have something important to confirm. In the course of some investigations, I've found clear traces of the Department of Mysteries."
He patted Avada on the back, signaling for him to step forward. "Do you know what this boy's name is?"
Croaker shook his head in confusion.
"His name is..." Dumbledore paused, then deliberately drew out the words as he said, "Avada Kedavra."
Croaker shuddered at the first three words, nearly drawing his wand in fright. Once he realized things weren't as he'd imagined, his expression turned strange.
"Avada Kedavra? Is he an abandoned orphan? And he has magical ability?"
"Merlin's beard, what are the odds of that? Or is it because of his name?"
"It seems you do know."
Dumbledore's expression remained perfectly calm, giving no hint of his feelings. "Then explain it to me—and to this child whose future is about to be full of trouble."
Croaker froze for a moment, about to ask something, then seemed to understand. His expression promptly became rather complicated.
"Th-the story goes like this."
Croaker spoke awkwardly, unable to meet Dumbledore's or Avada's eyes. "The name came from a research project eleven years ago."
"At the time, You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters were growing ever more active. As members of the Ministry of Magic, we in the Department of Mysteries had a role to play. We worked to provide Aurors and Hit Wizards with more powerful equipment, and to find ways to counter You-Know-Who's various tricks."
"After years of research, the team I was in charge of successfully cracked You-Know-Who's 'Name Curse'—the spell that let him know as soon as anyone spoke his name."
"Oh?" Dumbledore asked in surprise. "You actually cracked that curse? Did you find a way to counter it?"
"Unfortunately, no."
Croaker looked even more embarrassed. "That magic was extremely complicated and difficult to cast. After cracking the curse, we couldn't counter it—or even make the slightest alteration to it."
"But we had an idea at the time: could we use the magic's properties to detect the Unforgivable Curses and other Dark Magic?"
Avada's face twitched. He was beginning to guess what had happened.
"By the nature of the magic, its target had to be a 'name.' So we found a newborn Muggle baby who'd been abandoned, sent him to an orphanage to be registered, and named him after the Killing Curse, 'Avada Kedavra.'"
"Next, we cast the 'Name Curse' on the child. We thought that anyone who cast the Killing Curse would be located the moment they spoke the incantation, leaving them nowhere to hide!"
"Did it work?"
Dumbledore's eye twitched. He felt that the number of times he'd been left speechless in the past ten years didn't add up to as many as today.
"As you can see, it didn't." Croaker gave up on being embarrassed and simply pressed on. "The incantation seems to have some special property that prevents it from being used as an ordinary name. And if we'd succeeded, we would've done the same with every Dark Magic incantation. We'd have caught every Dark wizard in the United Kingdom by now!"
"Didn't you ever think about how someone with a name like that would manage to live?"
"We never expected that the random Muggle baby we chose would have magical ability..." Croaker replied miserably. "Who in the Muggle world knows what the incantation means? He could've lived a perfectly normal life there!"
Dumbledore sighed helplessly. He understood that the Department of Mysteries couldn't be entirely blamed. After all, fate was so mysterious and unpredictable...
"Then let's ask the person involved what he thinks."
Dumbledore turned to Avada. "As you've heard, your name is the incantation of an utterly evil spell in the Wizarding World. It may bring you endless trouble: being shunned by your classmates, being unable to find work, even being ostracized by the entire magical community... Changing your name won't help. A person's first name has a special magical significance and can't be cast off. The Book of Admittance will also show only your true name."
"The Department of Mysteries before you caused all this, though it wasn't their intention. And had they succeeded, they would have made an enormous contribution to the entire magical world."
"You can decide whether to forgive them, and you're entitled to ask for compensation."
"..."
Avada could only think that this was absurd.
He'd merely transmigrated, so why had such a ridiculous situation landed in his lap? He'd read plenty of Harry Potter fanfiction in his previous life, but he'd never come across a plot this outrageous!
"Fine," he replied listlessly. "I can understand that it wasn't entirely their fault. I can forgive them... As for the compensation, I don't know much about the magical world, so I don't know what to ask for. Professor, could you help me figure it out?"
"Thank you for your understanding, child."
Croaker let out a breath of relief and gave a faint smile. "I have a compensation offer here for you to consider."
"First, three thousand Galleons in direct compensation, and reimbursement for all necessary expenses while you attend Hogwarts, including textbooks, robes, a wand, a cauldron, and other essentials."
"Also, after you graduate, if you're unemployed, you'll receive an allowance of twenty Galleons a month. And if the Ministry of Magic has a vacancy, you'll receive priority consideration and hiring. If you decide to open your own shop, the Ministry can provide an interest-free loan of five thousand Galleons, repayable over five years. What do you think?"
Avada looked to Dumbledore for help. He had no idea how much a Galleon could buy.
Dumbledore nodded. "That's a very reasonable offer. You can accept it."
"All right, Professor."
Avada nodded in agreement, though he still couldn't believe it. The very first thing he'd done after entering the magical world was get a generous settlement...
He didn't even have a wand yet!
"Then it's settled." Croaker clapped his hands, looking relieved. "I'll submit this offer to the finance office. With the Department of Mysteries' influence and Professor Dumbledore's involvement, it should be approved in about an hour. Mr. Kedavra can go buy a wand, then come back to sign the magical contract."
"Then we'll take our leave for now, Mr. Croaker. Sorry for the trouble."
Dumbledore nodded to Croaker, then summoned Fawkes and took Avada away from the Ministry of Magic. A flash of fire later, Avada found himself on a busy street. Passersby in robes of every color filled the area, and they were now staring at him and Dumbledore in surprise.
"Next, we'll find you a wand."
After waving to the passersby, Dumbledore turned to Avada with a smile. Avada's heart swelled with excitement.
Though he could already cast quite a few spells of his own invention without a wand, who could turn down a wand of their own?
Led by Dumbledore, he finally reached a tiny, shabby shop. Holding back his excitement, he looked up at the peeling golden lettering over the door:
[Ollivander: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.]
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