A Belated Home Visit

"And this is?"

Looking at the old man before her, Lin Wanyin thought the legendary Santa Claus had come to their house.

Gavin introduced him.

"This is a professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He's also the headmaster."

Dumbledore sat down at the dining table, set the jar of Cola Syrup beside his feet, and folded his hands on his knees.

Gavin had taken his long, dark-purple coat at the door and hung it up. Now he wore the silver-gray casual robe beneath it—

To a Muggle, it probably looked like an oddly tailored trench coat.

Gu Jianguo sat opposite him, with Lin Wanyin beside her husband. Both studied the old man.

Strange.

That was their first reaction.

An old man drinking Cola Syrup straight from the jar, his peculiar taste in clothes, the unnatural length of his beard...

Everything about him felt bizarre.

Gu Jianguo began to wonder if pyramid schemes were recruiting old men now.

It was a forward-thinking approach, he supposed. In many countries, the law made old men impossible to target.

"Hello, Headmaster," Gu Jianguo ventured. "I'd like to ask: is the magic school Gu Wen—or Gavin—told us about real?"

"Oh, certainly." Dumbledore smiled. "Hogwarts has existed for more than a thousand years."

Gu Jianguo did not believe him at all. "But we've never heard of it."

"That's quite normal. We must abide by the International Statute of Secrecy and cannot reveal magic to Muggles."

"Muggles?" Gu Jianguo had never heard the word.

"Ordinary people without magic," Gavin translated.

"Under normal circumstances," Dumbledore said with a nod, "the school sends a professor to visit the guardians of students from non-magical families and explain their enrollment in person."

"Then why did no one come?" Gu Jianguo frowned.

Dumbledore looked at Gavin.

"Because Mr. Gu led