"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...
The Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."
In a small, dark, and utterly filthy pub in Hogsmeade that reeked of a thick, musky goat stench, the already white-haired Albus Dumbledore furrowed his brows as he listened to the near-somniloquent murmurs of the woman before him.
Sybil Patricia Trelawney was the great-grandniece of the famed seer of the wizarding world, Cassandra Trelawney.
Compared to her ancestor Cassandra, however, Sybil's prophetic gift had been greatly diluted through several generations of inheritance.
Rather than making precise predictions about the future, Sybil more often operated like a psychologist—accurately discerning others' traits and then spouting vague, ambiguous statements to deceive them.
Dumbledore gazed at the gaunt woman before him, her enormous glasses magnifying her eyes, and for a moment, he wasn't sure whether to believe her prophecy.
As if sensing the skeptical gaze cast her way, Sybil Trelawney—clutching a wine bottle and drunk to the point of bleary-eyed stupor—snapped halfway out of her half-dreaming, half-awake state.
"What happened? Where's my sherry gone?"
She had no recollection of what she had just said.
All she knew was that her bottle was empty again.
Sybil Trelawney rapped on the bar counter, signaling the bartender to bring her another bottle of her favorite sherry.
Watching Sybil's drunken, alcoholic demeanor, Dumbledore felt slightly more convinced of his opinion of Trelawney—she was a fraud.
The Dark Lord she spoke of was fully named Tom Marvolo Riddle, once Dumbledore's own student.
To date, Albus Dumbledore had lived through two wars.
Coincidentally, both of these wizarding wars that had shaken the magical world had been instigated by individuals who shared a deep connection with Dumbledore, known as "the greatest white wizard of the magical world."
The first wizarding war Dumbledore had personally experienced was called the "Global Wizarding War."
The man who ignited that war was named Gellert Grindelwald.
After being expelled from Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Grindelwald traveled the world and met the equally brilliant Dumbledore in Godric's Hollow.
The two saw each other as heroes and gradually fell into a love that the world would not accept.
In 1945, Dumbledore personally ended the war his lover had started.
And now, he was caught up in another wizarding war.
Though this war was confined to the British Isles—far smaller in scope than the devastation Grindelwald had wrought across Europe—it instilled no less fear in witches and wizards than the Grindelwald era had.
It was now 1980, the ninth year since Tom Riddle, who called himself "Voldemort," had unleashed a wizarding war in the British magical community.
Nearing a hundred years old, Dumbledore was no longer the young man he once was. His hair had turned entirely silver, and his whitening beard was long enough to tuck into his belt.
He should have been enjoying his later years in peace, yet due to the Ministry of Magic's inaction, he was forced to step forward. He founded the "Order of the Phoenix," a secret society to oppose Voldemort's organization, the "Death Eaters," and raised the banner of resistance against the Dark Lord.
This was a critical period in the wizarding war.
In the years of confrontation with Voldemort, Dumbledore had gradually begun to feel the strain.
Even as the greatest white wizard in the magical world, he could not withstand the erosion of time.
If the war continued in stalemate, the scales would tip toward Voldemort. After all, Voldemort was decades younger than Dumbledore—time was on his side.
Throughout these nine years of wizarding war, Dumbledore had never stopped seeking a way to defeat the Dark Lord.
This time, he had carved down precious time to meet the descendant of the famed seer Cassandra Trelawney at the Hog's Head, hoping to hear something valuable from Sybil.
But seeing Sybil Trelawney in this state, he realized this trip had been in vain.
Dumbledore let out a soft sigh, fell silent for a moment, placed a few Galleons on the bar, and then turned to leave the pub.
Gazing at the clear sky, Dumbledore's mood felt as though it were shrouded in dark clouds.
Yet as the leader of the Order of the Phoenix, he had no time to waste brooding here. He needed to return to the Order's headquarters as quickly as possible to oversee the bigger picture.
Dumbledore cleared his mind, envisioning the location he was about to travel to. His body gradually twisted and faded into nothingness.
With a crack, Dumbledore's figure vanished from Hogsmeade village.
The next second, Dumbledore's figure instantly appeared at the Order of the Phoenix headquarters.
A house-elf with ears as large as a bat's and bulging eyes the size of tennis balls came forward to greet him.
House-elves were a race conquered by wizards in ancient wars. From birth, each one underwent training in servitude, becoming slaves who served their masters generation after generation.
They handled all household chores, bound by their masters, unable to casually disobey orders. If they did, they were required to punish themselves.
For them, their greatest right was to obey their master's commands.
"Great Dumbledore, I—"
Dumbledore, somewhat irritated, waved his hand, signaling the house-elf not to disturb him.
But the house-elf did not retreat. "Sir, it's the one you told me to watch—"
Hearing the house-elf's words, Dumbledore's expression changed instantly. "Kyle? What happened to Kyle!?"
The house-elf, startled by Dumbledore's sudden change in demeanor, was about to open its mouth to explain what had happened.
But the anxious Dumbledore didn't wait for it to speak. He hurried toward a certain room.
In a secret chamber protected by numerous safeguarding spells, Dumbledore gazed intently at the infant wrapped in a mass of transparent gelatinous substance suspended in midair. Uncontainable joy surfaced on his face.
Inside Kyle's body, Dumbledore—the master of Legilimency—sensed the fluctuation of consciousness for the first time.
What he had previously felt was only a blank void.
This meant that within Kyle's body, a soul had been born!
Overwhelmed with ecstatic joy, Dumbledore quickly calmed himself.
This was a critical time in the fight against Voldemort. Kyle had transformed from a soulless shell into a complete person—this was certainly cause for celebration. But at present, he could spare no energy to care for Kyle.
Moreover, Kyle's surname was Grindelwald.
That surname carried great weight in the wizarding world, especially since Kyle was a direct descendant of Grindelwald.
After much deliberation, Dumbledore made a decision that was, for him, somewhat difficult.
He would send Kyle to a safe place.
Moments later, a brown-feathered owl, clutching a letter tightly, flew out of the Order of the Phoenix headquarters, heading across the Atlantic toward that distant country.
Under the golden sunlight, the name of the recipient on the envelope was clearly visible—Newt Scamander.
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