Back at Hogwarts, Kasen first appeared in the Great Hall. The enchanted ceiling showed a perfectly clear night sky. Nothing seemed wrong.
"So? Voldemort's real target wasn't here? Have there been any reports of attacks anywhere else?"
Kasen looked at Dumbledore, who was standing not far away.
Dumbledore shook his head, then immediately gathered all the teachers and students for a brief meeting.
The main message was simple. Hogwarts had been checked over and over again and remained safe. Everyone should act as though nothing had happened, continue living normally, and focus on their studies.
Once the meeting ended and the Great Hall emptied, Kasen immediately used Ender teleportation to return to an office.
Dumbledore's office.
From what he knew of Dumbledore, that old man was absolutely not the sort to create some false sense of peace for the students.
Forget Voldemort attacking Downing Street just moments ago. Back during the Triwizard Tournament, Voldemort had merely shown himself briefly in a graveyard hundreds of miles away, and Dumbledore had immediately put his gift for words to full use.
He returned and skipped everything else, directly announcing that Voldemort had returned and telling the young wizards to prepare for battle.
And now Voldemort had done something far more dangerous than before, yet Dumbledore had merely told the students not to panic and to carry on eating and drinking as usual?
Something was wrong.
Extremely wrong.
Before long, Dumbledore returned to the office looking utterly exhausted. The moment he entered, he saw Kasen sitting alone on the sofa drinking.
"Good timing. I was going to ask you something later anyway. How is the Prime Minister?"
"I gave them a Charged Ender Pearl. My two books aren't especially useful to me right now either, so I left them with the Prime Minister. If I need them, I can summon them back directly. This way, if Voldemort tries another attack, we'll have more time to prepare instead of what happened tonight, where Voldemort's people deliberately waited so long after displaying the Dark Mark before attacking. Maybe they never intended to take it seriously in the first place."
"But what's going on with you? I listened to that meeting from beginning to end. That wasn't your style," Kasen asked.
The exhaustion on Dumbledore's face was impossible to hide.
"I suspect Voldemort has infiltrated the castle."
"Infiltrated... Who did he replace?" Kasen's eyes widened instantly.
"If someone's entire demeanour suddenly changes, there can be many explanations. The Imperius Curse, Polyjuice Potion, and so on. But Tom may have used a far more sophisticated method this time," Dumbledore said.
"What do you mean?" Kasen frowned.
"A variant of the Confundus Charm. A normal Confundus Charm could be understood as me confusing you so that you believe I am Grindelwald."
"This variant, however, would mean confusing everyone else while also confusing myself. Confusing my memories, confusing my body, so that what everyone sees is genuinely Grindelwald."
"That's not what I meant. I mean there's a very real possibility that Voldemort has already harmed a young wizard," Kasen said, making his concern perfectly clear.
"I told you, Tom would not replace anyone. Instead, he has fabricated an entirely new identity within our perception. Hogwarts has suddenly gained a young wizard who never existed before."
As Dumbledore spoke, he stood up and headed toward the attic.
"Where are you going?" Kasen asked.
"To check the Book of Admittance. It contains the names of every young wizard from those years. Why do you think I suddenly called that meeting? Naturally, it was to gather every student in Hogwarts together so I could compare them one by one against my memories and the Book of Admittance," Dumbledore explained.
"What if Voldemort simply didn't attend the meeting? Does he look like someone who obediently follows instructions?"
Dumbledore sighed.
"If this works, all the better. If it doesn't, then I'll have to rely on you. At present, only you and I know about this. Even Gellert doesn't know."
"Finding someone... ah... I really wish I'd learned a few more tricks from Sherlock Holmes back then."
Kasen sighed. Techniques like this were only useful if he himself knew how to use them.
And right now, Sherlock Holmes was far away in America with absolutely no chance of helping him. After all, if Voldemort could directly confuse his own memories and body, then confusing other people would be even easier.
Besides, if Voldemort learned that Kasen had a Muggle friend like Holmes, wouldn't that simply give him another weakness to exploit?
"I never thought being a professor would involve detective work too."
Kasen sighed and disappeared from Dumbledore's office.
........
The next day, Kasen sat at the staff table, eating while looking down at the groups of young wizards who might have been extremely familiar to him.
Of course, at this point, he did not even dare to be certain whether that sense of familiarity was genuine or merely another effect of Voldemort's Confundus variant.
The worst consequence of this move was that Voldemort had done almost nothing, yet had already driven a wedge between Kasen and everyone around him.
For a brief moment, Kasen even began to doubt Harry Potter.
Was Harry Potter really Harry Potter?
Had he truly killed Voldemort?
Was he really on the side of justice?
What if all those memories in Kasen's mind concerning Harry Potter had been altered?
Kasen knew perfectly well that this was impossible, but whenever he looked down at those familiar faces, he could not stop such thoughts from appearing.
"Impressive. Truly impressive!"
Kasen muttered through gritted teeth as he tore the final piece of bread apart while eating it.
"What?" Snape asked, glancing at him suspiciously.
Kasen shook his head. "Nothing. I just feel a little unwell."
"Drink more milk," Snape said succinctly.
Kasen's eyes immediately lit up.
That was right!
How had he not thought of that?
Drink more milk!
Maybe that would allow him to shake off the effects of the Confundus Charm.
With that thought, he quickly took out a bucket of milk and gulped the entire thing down.
Then he looked back at the groups of young wizards below.
Nothing.
Kasen put the bucket away and gave a helpless burp.
Milk could remove external forces from within the body. There was nothing wrong with that.
But Voldemort's modified Confundus Charm did not exist entirely inside Kasen's body. Instead, it continuously influenced him from outside, affecting his vision and hearing, then using those two senses together to construct memories.
Strictly speaking, everything was happening outside Kasen's body.
It really could not be considered an internal force.
"Milk doesn't work..."
Kasen sighed.
This time, Voldemort's code ranked higher than theirs.
...
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