Chapter 1199: A Date
Chapter 1199: A Date
"Looks like the game is over?"
"Yes, it was quite exciting. Harry did well." Albert smiled and sighed, "It's been a long time since I last saw Gryffindor win a Quidditch match so decisively."
"I recall that you're quite the Quidditch player yourself."
"One has limited energy; priorities must be set." Albert steered the conversation back on track, "How did it go over there?"
"We've located the approximate position of your prophecy." Dumbledore withdrew his gaze from the window, "However, we didn't find the bodies of Cassandra Vablatsky and her family. Would you mind performing another divination to save us from searching around when we get there?"
"Sure, I assume they've been turned into Inferi or petrified." Albert took out his crystal ball and proceeded to divine the whereabouts of the bodies.
"Do you think they're trying to keep this matter under wraps?" Dumbledore asked, looking at Albert who was in the midst of divination.
"I hope that's the case." Albert lifted his head to glance at Dumbledore, "Do you think he wants to keep this quiet?"
"I'm not sure." Dumbledore shook his head, "Cassandra must have anticipated that Voldemort would come after her, which is why she checked herself into the hospital. Unfortunately, she still underestimated him."
"If she had left Britain or gone into hiding from the start, she wouldn't have met such an unfortunate end." Albert focused all his attention on the crystal ball in front of him, "That's why I never underestimate mysterious figures, nor do I joke about my own life."
"Voldemort is indeed malevolent, but many still hold on to a glimmer of hope." Dumbledore could understand the mindset of ordinary people; they just wanted to live peaceful lives.
"That's the thinking of regular people. No one wants to be dragged into this cruel war, but they have no choice, do they?" Albert put away his prophecy ball and said, "Near a Muggle village, the bodies were turned into a pile of stones and discarded casually."
"We should depart."
Dumbledore raised his arm, and with Albert's hand on top of it, they disappeared with a pop, using Side-Along-Apparition.
As Albert's vision returned to normal, he felt a gust of cold wind blow against his face. He found himself standing in the wilderness, with several unfamiliar figures nearby. They must have heard the sound of their arrival, as several witches and wizards pointed their wands at them.
"Dumbledore!"
Kingsley looked at Dumbledore in surprise, his eyes then shifting to Albert who was surveying their surroundings. He was evidently astonished by Albert's presence.
"You look busy!"
Albert tapped his wand lightly on his body and instantly donned a thick cloak to shield himself from the chilly wind.
"All the Aurors in the Ministry are occupied with other matters, so many non-dangerous tasks are now delegated to the Crisis Response Squad." Kingsley felt helpless about the situation. The Crisis Response Squad was essentially running errands for the Ministry, but they couldn't expect the Aurors to divert their attention to these trivial matters when more perilous issues demanded their attention.
"Have you found it?" Dumbledore inquired.
"Not yet..."
"I reckon you're searching in the wrong place. The location I divined isn't here!" Albert gazed at the village in the distance, suspecting that they were waiting for him and Dumbledore to arrive before taking action together, as it would be safer that way.
"Follow me!"
Dumbledore strode forward briskly, leading the group to a nearby abandoned village.
After taking in their surroundings, Albert waved his wand, causing a pile of bodies to appear out of thin air from what was originally an empty patch of ground.
"Transfiguration." He explained to the group, "The Death Eaters turned the bodies into a pile of stones and left them here."
Albert waved his wand again, neatly arranging the bodies in front of them, and began searching for Cassandra among the corpses.
Undoubtedly, the centenarian had perished.
"I really can't fathom why Voldemort would kill them."
As the witches and wizards helped to handle the bodies of Cassandra and her family, Kingsley approached the duo to discuss the matter. The others also eavesdropped curiously.
"The mysterious figure probably wanted to use divination for some purpose." Albert turned to look at Dumbledore and suddenly asked a baffling question, "What do you think are the chances that she was an imposter?"
"An imposter?" Kingsley was taken aback, not comprehending Albert's words. How could there be a fake corpse?
"Do you mean a Polyjuice Potion?"
Dumbledore reacted swiftly, immediately grasping Albert's implication.
After all, Barty Crouch Sr.'s mother and Peter's mother had used Polyjuice Potion to transform into their sons and died in Azkaban Prison.
Once one died after consuming the Polyjuice Potion, they would not revert to their original form.
This was the method Albert had suggested to Scrimgour as an escape plan—to have a Dark wizard take his place and be killed by the mysterious figure.
As long as Scrimgour stayed dead and never reappeared in Britain, it was unlikely anyone would notice the anomaly, nor would anyone go looking for a dead man.
"It's possible, but not very likely. And why would Voldemort do that?"
Dumbledore looked at Albert, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.
If the mysterious figure had indeed done this, how much hatred must he hold for Albert to set such a trap?
"It can't hurt to be cautious."
Albert took out a bottle of potion from his pocket and handed it to Kingsley. "Try this. I can't be sure if the potion will work on the dead."
As expected, the potion had no effect on Cassandra's body, or rather, this was indeed Cassandra's real body.
"Could it be that Cassandra refused to help with the prophecy, so Voldemort killed her entire family?" Kingsley was confused, feeling that this incident was quite different from what he had imagined.
"Of course not. Cassandra must have made a prophecy for the mysterious figure." Albert reminded him, "If you calculate the time of Cassandra's disappearance carefully, you'll realize that she must have made the prophecy recently. Otherwise, she wouldn't have just died now. I never believed that the mysterious figure's temper could be so... tolerant of people going against his will."
"But why would the mysterious figure kill her entire family?"
"Perhaps she lied, or perhaps the mysterious figure... who knows." Albert shook his head. "After all, the mysterious figure is an unpredictable madman."
"Have you found something?"
Albert saw Dumbledore bend down and pick up something from Cassandra's finger.
"Some clues, most likely a hidden message from Cassandra to you!" Dumbledore took out what looked like a few strands of hair and examined them.
"Can you decipher it?" Albert narrowed his eyes, staring at a strand of hair in Dumbledore's hand, which seemed to have some peculiar knots on it.
"I eventually got a string of numbers: 1227, 624, 815." Dumbledore looked at Albert and asked, "What do you think these three sets of numbers represent?"
"Dates." Albert replied without hesitation, "Three time points, most likely December 27th, June 24th, and August 15th."
"Dates?"
Kingsley was even more puzzled, wondering how Albert had immediately associated the numbers with dates. He felt like a clueless fool in comparison.
"But why would Cassandra leave these dates?"
"She probably wanted to hint that something unpleasant might happen on these three dates." Dumbledore glanced at Albert, feeling that he probably knew something.
"No, I mean, she seemed certain that we would find her body." Kingsley felt that the whole thing was becoming increasingly bizarre.
"It should be said that she thought I would confirm whether she was truly dead or not." Albert felt that he might be overthinking things. If all these bodies were fake, then the trap set for him was enormous.
However, when Dumbledore mentioned finding clues, his suspicions lessened considerably. He thought that June 24th was probably the date of Dumbledore's predicted death, and August 15th might be Scrimgeour's predicted time of death. That would make December 27th his own predicted demise.
Of course, this was all woven by Voldemort, but the possibility was not high.
After handing the bodies over to the Ministry of Magic for handling, Dumbledore and Albert returned to Hogwarts School.
"What have you discovered?" Dumbledore placed three white strands of hair on the table.
"In my prediction, you are likely to die in June." Albert picked up the warm cup of tea and took a sip.
"You think June 24th is the date of my death." Dumbledore readily accepted this, not shying away from discussing his mortality and even considering whether to set the time for it.
"August 15th is most likely the date of Scrimgeour's death." Albert put down his teacup and continued speculating, "Although I haven't divined the exact time, Scrimgeour's death should be around this period. Moreover, I suspect that the timing might not be entirely accurate; it's more of a predictive range."
"Do you have any plans for December 27th?" Dumbledore seemed to have realized something.
"Hermione wants to send her family away, and she hopes I can help." Albert narrowed his eyes slightly, "Cassandra probably divined this and conveyed it to the mysterious figure."
Dumbledore stared at the hair on the table for a while, then sighed softly, "I think I know what prophecies she made for Voldemort."
"It's not difficult to guess." Albert said quietly. He didn't blame Cassandra, especially since she was already dead.
"What do you plan to do?" Dumbledore asked again.
"It depends on the situation. If there's danger, I'll definitely avoid it!" Albert replied without hesitation, "As long as I steer clear of the prophecies, there's a high probability they won't come true. Umbridge once avoided a prophecy by not going to the Forbidden Forest, otherwise, she would have certainly received the centaurs' 'hospitality'."
"We can bring the timing forward." Dumbledore took out a quill and quickly wrote something on a piece of parchment, "There's no need to take the risk. If Miss Granger needs to take leave to deal with family matters, I can approve a few days of vacation for her."
"You're quite considerate."
(End of Chapter)
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