If he had been tongue-tied before, this new revelation went beyond words.
For a few seconds, he lay there staring at the ceiling but seeing nothing. Then a single word slipped past his lips as if by its own accord.
"How?"
It wasn't a question meant for the headmaster, it was more of a monologue as he tried to decipher how that could have happened.
Dumbledore seemed to think it was meant for him anyway.
"Well, one might say the course of action you initiated triggered the whole thing... One minute Professor McGonagall was coming to help you, and the next she was a victim herself."
He paused and looked at him like he was reading his thoughts.
"You do have an idea what might have happened?."
Again, it wasn't a question. The headmaster wasn't leaving him any room to wiggle out, and in any case, he really didn't see any reason to try. Hermione's fate, as well as that of her Pokémon, fully lay in Dumbledore's ability to defend them. The more he knew, the better he could do that.
The soft bedsheets that a second ago had felt like heaven had now grown so uncomfortable that he kept shifting his body from side to side. He was trying to find a less damning word to describe the Pichu's condition, but apparently none seemed to surface.
"Hermione's hatchling is an electric type, sir," he said, with his gaze transfixed on the ceiling.
Dumbledore had clearly been waiting for further explanation, but could see none was forthcoming.
"You do realise this... 'type system' you mention is of your own creation, so you may see why I don't understand any of it."
He did.
It's just that putting it in the simplest explanation felt like total betrayal to Pichu. Even Dumbledore may want the Pokémon as far away from the school as possible...
"Mr. Magnus, I am about to meet with the Ministry officials...one of whom I opposed her decision to confiscate Ms. Granger's Pokémon. Don't you think I have a right to know?"
He could hear some impatience creeping into the headmaster's voice. There was no other way of saving the Pichu.
"It means the Pichu is vulnerable to producing sudden jolts of electricity, which often shocks itself and others...including its trainer."
For a second, he thought he saw a panic look in the headmaster's face, but the next second there was nothing but those deep blue eyes behind the glasses.
"Electricity? You mean the energy Muggles use to power their homes?"
Magnus nodded eagerly.
For a while, he had thought he might need to explain the concept of electricity.
"How strong... this electricity... how strong can it get?"
This question was unexpected. Most wizards, once they grasped what electricity was, wouldn't care how strong it was, it would immediately be regarded as a threat.
"Well, the Pichu is at the first stage, so it's not very strong..." he began, but then remembered the Pichu had actually zapped McGonagall unconscious. However that could be argued to be as a result of sudden fright from the unexpected incident.
He hastened to clarify.
"What I mean is... the strength increases when it evolves into a Pikachu, and reaches maximum after it becomes a Raichu."
"how strong then...I mean at it Raichu phase?". The headmaster insisted.
''Almost equal to a thunderbolt sir" he flinched at the sound of his own words.
Dumbledore stared at him in what could have been awe or trepidation. Magnus couldn't tell which so he hurried to offer some good news.
"By then, the Pokémon will have mastered control over itself and only discharge if commanded by the trainer."
The headmaster was still staring at him with that piercing gaze, and now Magnus realised he was probably doubting how someone this young could have managed all this research by himself.
It was, however, not the question the headmaster asked.
"And I assume you and Ms. Granger had been training it?"
"Yes, sir," Magnus quickly affirmed.
Dumbledore sat upright and pushed back his slipping glasses.
"And what about Mr. Weasley's Pokémon? I assume you are behind this as well?"
He nodded, feeling a sense of trepidation fall on him.
They had now come to the main point, the deadliest of all.
Pichu might have its electricity issue, but it was Fred's Eevee that had evolved in front of the crowds...including McGonagall. It was the now fully evolved Espeon that had used what to the onlookers could only be magic, to attack a student . The fact that it had also stopped a badger mid-air would be overlooked or worse be used as one more point against it.
This would be where the Ministry would centre their attack.
Now he already knew that his expulsion wasn't a question. He had come to terms with that. But this was one of the points he could fight back.
This was where he could show them just how resourceful his knowledge was.
Perhaps they would, after all, decide to keep him around for the sake of how much he knew about Pokémon.
It was a slim chance, especially knowing how stubborn the Ministry was, but he was a drowning man, and even such a thin straw of hope was something worth clinging to.
"Yes. After I left St. Mungo's..." Magnus faltered, realising Dumbledore himself had never thus far alluded to the hospital incident. Then again, if he knew so much already, chances were he was just holding back. He went on, hoping the question of his escape from the hospital wouldn't arise now.
"That is... that is when I learned magic was a thing. I met the twins at the Leaky Cauldron... I eavesdropped on them talking about a Pokémon match..."
Dumbledore looked keen and alert but made no move to interrupt.
"So I engaged them, and they helped me get to the stadium where the battles were happening... That is where I realised my research was right."
At this, Dumbledore interrupted.
"Right in what way?"
"Well... magic, sir. That Pokémon can, in fact, have abilities of their own which resemble magic—but can be learned by Pokémon of the same type."
He was getting confusing, he knew. But that was because there was no better way of explaining it.
"You mean you saw a Pokémon using this magic?" Dumbledore asked curiously.
"Everyone saw, sir. Even the commentator asked the handler about it. The Gyarados used a stream of ice-cold air to freeze its opponent."
Dumbledore looked a bit disappointed.
"But that wasn't magic. It's much like a dragon spitting flames."
'No it wasn't,' Magnus wanted to say, but then stopped himself. He had asked himself why no one made a huge fuss about the incident after the battle. Maybe this had been their reasoning all along.
"We were on Mr. Weasley... Our time is almost over," Dumbledore said, looking at Madam Pomfrey, who had re-entered the room looking apprehensive.
"Just a couple more minutes."
The nurse retreated back to her office, and he turned back to Magnus who went on with his tale.
"So during the opening day, I met the twins' Eevees at the train. I had decided I would conduct my research here because I had learned that students had Pokémon. That meant a large pool for my research. My interest, however, was in how Pokémon could transform from their current form to something completely different without knowledge of the Ministry... and when I saw how common Eevees were, I made a deal with the twins to help them win the inter-house battles. In exchange, they were to allow me to train their Pokémon."
Dumbledore looked up at that.
"Any particular reason for choosing the Eevee? Aside from the fact that they are common... I'm sure you might have noticed there are plenty of Hoothoots around the school."
Magnus nodded and realised that the pain in his head had almost completely vanished.
"Yes, sir. According to my research, Eevees have the easiest requirements to fulfil one of their eight evolutions. That means one Eevee can evolve into any of the eight...but it depends on conditioning."
"For the twins, I theorised, based on their nature, that friendship and close bond would be the requirements for triggering their evolution. Later, I observed the behaviour of the two Eevees in relation to their environment, and I learned that Fred's was a psychic type due to its active nature during the day and in sunlight-filled spaces. George's was a dark type..."
"A what?!" Dumbledore exclaimed.
He rushed to clarify...the word 'dark,' after all, had a completely different meaning in this world, whose mention could jeopardise everything.
"Oh... not like the Dark Lord 'dark'," he explained quickly.
"In my system, it just means they are mischievous and prefer underhanded tactics to win battles."
The headmaster seemed to relax after that.
"And this psychic?" he asked, seemingly in a rush.
"They are sort of mind-readers. They rely on their bond to their trainer. They sense commands even before they are spoken..."
He faltered. This was where the current incident came in.
"And...?" the headmaster encouraged.
"And in order to evolve them into Espeon, which is the actual psychic version in Eeveies, they have to display complete loyalty and willingness to protect their trainer."
Dumbledore looked at him with that look which was completely impossible to tell what it was exactly.
"So that is why you feigned attacking Fred Weasley?"
Magnus hesitated, knowing well he had damned himself.
"I wasn't feigning sir".
The headmaster glared at him silently for close to a minute. ''are you telling me you meant to hit another student with a quiditch bat?".
The accusation sounded crazy put that way but it was the plain truth.
"They read thoughts sir. If I was only joking, it would have never responded."
"And thus never evolved," Dumbledore finished for him.
He nodded as the headmaster got up.
"Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Magnus. You should try and rest as much as you can. I'm sure the nurse will have something to help you with that."
The headmaster turned and hurried towards the door.
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