"No!"
Harry clearly had ideas of his own. "I think I should go to the bathroom first."
The two children scrambled to help, practically carrying Harry as they ran toward the bathroom.
Edward's expression turned serious. "Professor Dumbledore, you had your brother and Fawkes protecting Harry at close quarters, correct?"
"That's right. Where are they?"
"...I haven't seen them. In other words, Harry and the other two may have been in danger without anyone protecting them ever since Barty Crouch Jr. abducted them."
"!!!"
Dumbledore's expression changed drastically. "How could that be... even if Aberforth couldn't defeat the Death Eaters, Fawkes could have taken them away. Could they have..."
With a flash of fire, Fawkes appeared with Aberforth, who looked like an unkempt version of Dumbledore.
"Damn it!"
Aberforth cursed the moment he landed. "That bastard used some trick-I don't know what-and Fawkes and I ended up in the United States when we Apparated..." He suddenly glared at Grindelwald. "What are you doing here, you old bastard?!"
"Albus begged me to come and help," Grindelwald said coolly.
"Bullshit!"
Aberforth snorted and muttered, "Those children are all right, aren't they?"
"They're fine."
"Good. I just saw that the Death Eaters were driven back too, so I'll be going."
Aberforth turned and left as soon as he finished speaking, unwilling to look at Grindelwald for even another second.
Fawkes hopped onto Dumbledore's shoulder, chirping incessantly. Dumbledore could only stroke his head and soothe him gently.
Then he looked at Edward and asked, "Did things go smoothly on your end?"
"Not very. Voldemort escaped."
Edward shook his head. "It wasn't just an escape. His scheme seems to have succeeded."
He stopped there and glanced at Grindelwald.
Grindelwald sneered. "Heh. Not something I should hear, is it? Fine, I'll leave."
"Come along with us."