"Huff, huff..."
In the Hogwarts Headmaster's Office, Jerry gasped for breath, staring at Dumbledore and Grindelwald in disbelief.
"Wasn't that just a memory in the Pensieve? Who was the person who appeared at the end? How could he possibly have noticed us?" Jerry's voice trembled as he gripped his steaming teacup, struggling to calm the turmoil raging inside him.
Someone that powerful had existed in Dumbledore's day, yet why had Jerry never heard anyone mention him?
After a moment of silence, Dumbledore and Grindelwald both shook their heads. Jerry could not tell whether they did not know or simply did not want to say.
Everything that had happened today was, to them, like a fog beyond imagining. From the attack on Jerry by those Pure-bloods to his successfully obtaining the memories he wanted, every detail carried an unsettling strangeness. Everything in the Pensieve seemed out of the ordinary, whether it was the mysterious man's sudden appearance at the end or the sinister magic that had been altered.
Dumbledore was filled with unease. He could not imagine what sort of being could rewrite the Soul Curse, a sinister spell originally intended to grant immortality, into something he considered even more evil and aggressive—a terrifying spell designed to harvest enemies' souls.
Dumbledore even felt that this spell rivaled the Three Unforgivable Curses. Most importantly, the altered spell seemed practically tailor-made for Jerry. Those ten-odd minutes when everything in the Pensieve had frozen, in particular, seemed like time deliberately left for him!
"All right, Jerry. You need to calm down now. This isn't something you should concern yourself with too much at present." Once the three of them had settled on the sofa and reflected for a moment, Dumbledore gave Grindelwald a meaningful glance, then turned to Jerry and said solemnly, "At least