Too much information had come at once.
For a moment, even old Dumbledore found it difficult to sort it all out.
Dumbledore took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. His gaze fell on Ian's face, complex emotions flickering in those azure eyes.
Shock, curiosity, confusion, and a trace of... indescribable gratification.
"So, I would like to ask," he said slowly, his voice calm yet carrying a certain conviction, "Mr. Ian, if you'll permit me to call you that—you are a student at Hogwarts in the future, correct?"
At this moment, although Dumbledore was asking a question, his tone already carried certainty. From the clues he had gathered, he had reached several conclusions.
Ian looked at him without answering immediately.
Dumbledore continued his analysis, lightly tapping a finger against the tabletop. "On some future timeline, Grindelwald became a professor at Hogwarts. And you are her student. That is why she referred to 'final exams coming up,' why you know so much about her ability to 'prophesy,' and why—when you first saw her—you said, 'I'm a little surprised that you're the one who came looking for me.'"
He paused, his gaze sharpening further. "Because you had originally thought that someone else would come for you. Perhaps... someone from our era?"
As expected of someone so intelligent it was almost inhuman.
A faint ripple passed through Ian's eyes—that was surprise.
He truly was surprised.
Not because Dumbledore's deduction had been particularly precise—those clues were obvious enough that anyone who knew Grindelwald was a professor in the future could infer that he was a student. What surprised him was that, from such fragmented information alone, Dumbledore had pieced together such a clear picture. And—he had not guessed wrong.
"Headmaster Dumbledore," Ian said, and for the first time, his voice carried genuine,