The atmosphere in the cemetery was eerie, and the faint lights of the Little Hangleton town in the distance, were dotted like ghostly fires instead of adding some life to the atmosphere, acting as some kind of ghastly element common in horror stories as Voldemort and Bellatrix conversed in the background.
Voldemort, draped in a loose black robe, with his bare skin reflecting the ghastly white moonlight, spoke in a soft whisper as Bellatrix's head bowed lower and lower, all the while her eyes glowed in the desolate graveyard.
"Yes, My Lord - I have been looking forward to this moment," Bellatrix said in a flattering tone as best as she could muster, "They would never have anticipated it!"
Tonight is destined to be an uneventful day.
"Dumbledore, something is wrong with you." Felix said with a stern look, his eyes turning into a pupil-less grey-white like Thestral, as he unabashedly looked up and down at the older man sitting behind the long-legged table.
Dumbledore smiled and lowered his head to gaze at the bizarre silverware in front of him.
Felix guessed that this silverware had been personally crafted by Dumbledore, like the lamp extinguishers he had previously demonstrated; at least Felix assumed that their function would not be 'merely' to spew out a stream of smoke in a jubilant manner. The two men did not speak. Halfway through the proceedings, Dumbledore removed the glove from his right hand and examined it for a moment, then placed the dry, charred hand in the smoke, the jet black colour of his palm becoming less pure, like some kind of old, mottled paint beginning to peel and fade.
After almost ten minutes, the hand in the smoke stopped changing, but it did not return to full normalcy; if one looked closely, one would see that the palm of that hand had very tiny black things tangled in its palm lines, twisting persistently and wickedly.
"That Horcrux - the Gaunt's Ring," Dumbledore uttered softly, "has a particularly powerful curse placed on it, hidden and powerful. And - perhaps Voldemort himself didn't consider that the material of the ring itself was very tempting to me; he sort of played it right, but all in all, I completely zoned out -"
"Perhaps it was fate that I carried the Christmas present you gave me during that time," he smiled and complimented it once again, "the design was so cleverly thought out that it made me want to study it ... "
"It's just a detector." Felix quipped.
"More amazing than any detector I've ever seen," Dumbledore corrected, "not to probe the outside world for danger, but to examine oneself for anomalies ... I must stress again, a very clever design concept. "
He continued, "After I brought the ring back, I spent some time studying the curse on it and managed to extract some of it." Said Dumbledore, showing his hand to Felix as if he was showing off his results.
"So the result of your research was to get yourself re-tainted with the curse?" Felix asked incredulously.
Dumbledore smiled, "Oh, as much as I keep saying that Voldemort is pathetically ignorant, it is because he put his whole heart and soul into the wrong path, and I have wondered more than once if he had stayed on the right path, would these tragedies have happened ..."
"Felix, when dealing with him, we better not harbour unrealistic expectations, especially in areas that relate to his field of study, it won't be easy to hide it from him, so it's a necessary price to pay."
"The price ..." Felix repeated.
"Exactly, this is why you should understand why I didn't tell you the location of the duel. Voldemort holds the initiative in the duel, he could leave at any time and pick up a fight somewhere else, and then we would all remain passive."
A moment of silence followed.
"Is that all?" Felix asked.
He pointed to his eyes and said, "If the curse is a necessary price, I can understand that, and I'm sure you're perfectly capable of keeping it in check. I was talking about something else - in my eyes, your soul is like a wavering torch, intact but pulsating abnormally, or did the curse hurt your soul? That can't be right, if Voldemort had that kind of ability he would have gone into hiding and healed his own ugly soul which is on the verge of collapse ... You know what I am getting at, Dumbledore? You seem to be cooking up some kind of terrible plot. I doubt you can even defeat Voldemort now, this isn't what we discussed at the beginning!"
He unconsciously raised his voice, the portraits on the walls opened their eyes and Phineas Black said in a grim tone, "How rude, in my day nothing like this would have happened, I am extraordinarily favourable towards order-"
Felix waved his hand back and Phineas's mouth was immediately glued shut in the portrait, as he whimpered in exasperation.
"No, Felix." Dumbledore said, "We are heading down the right path, and I have no intention of changing the plan, all I am doing is filling in the gaps that may exist. I have plenty of confidence in this duel, and don't forget, I told you I have the skills to temporarily boost my strength."
Felix furrowed his brow.
"Now that you mention it," he put on a 'by the way' attitude, "that trick ... I can't figure out how it's done at all, that doesn't seem to be a boost in strength, but a recovery, or retrospective ... you have that strength within yourself, except not now, but at the peak of your life ..."
When he said this, Felix himself was a little surprised.
Ever since he had become a 'magical being', his strength has been constantly growing, not in a way that he suddenly became very strong, but in an all-round steady way. Of course, the most essential change is still his magic power, but then again it's not just his magic power, the strength and control of all those spells he normally rarely uses have followed suit.
He had once put forward the conjecture in the Magic Rune Club that "the process of studying magic is actually the process of finding one's own spellcasting instincts." His own experience seemed to validate this.
"Is it transfiguration? Bloodline magic? Dark magic? Or perhaps - something to do with time?"
"Why do you say that?"
Dumbledore crossed his arms and rubbed his chin, looking at Felix with interest.
" You mean time? There are many clues that suggests that you are by no means a stranger to time-turner, and of course, all time-turners are passed through your hands to Minerva, who in turn gives them to those good students ... You have had ample opportunities to study time-turners. Even that ..."
Felix paused, with a strange look in his eyes, as a thought suddenly occurred to him, and that was, had Dumbledore ever been to the Department of Mysteries? There is no way to prove that point though, because even if he did, Dumbledore would not have been as blatant as he was, stealing most of the time energy.
Perhaps another way of looking at it would be to consider whether Dumbledore had any interest in studying time magic?
Yes, who could resist the temptation of 'time'? In any case, Felix is incapable of doing that personally, even without the whole 'Ms. Jane' thing he would have found the opportunity to study it himself, he hadn't forgotten that he had given a mission to Mundungus.
But after inheriting Nicolas's research notes later on, he had no hope that Mundungus would hit the jackpot.
Let's just say that for Wizards at Felix and Dumbledore's level, there is no such thing as an impregnable defensive fortress in this world, as long as they are given ample time to prepare. Of course, Voldemort is counted as one, which is why Ms. Bones didn't ask for that part of the time energy back.
Even Grindelwald, who is currently imprisoned in Nurmengard Castle.
Dumbledore didn't answer the question and didn't touch the previous question either, all he did was sigh sentimentally, "Time, time, how many people through the ages have longed for your favour?"
He waved his hand, causing Phineas' sealed mouth to re-open. As soon as his binds were untied, Phineas Black began to curse and Felix raised his eyebrows threateningly, and the male wizard immediately hid behind a green banner in the portrait.
"Abominable, evil, portrait-bullying Slytherin brat, I'm your Headmaster!"
"Oh." Felix said in response with an expressionless face.
"Hmph! I'll go and find my genius grandson -"
"Um - Headmaster Black? Did I mention to you that I personally captured Sirius in the old Black mansion, when he was still wanted ..."
Felix kindly reminded the Black family ancestor.
Phineas, who hid behind a framed green banner, let out a strange shout, "He'll always have children! The Black family's bloodline is noble and pure, not something you can compare with!" In a smug tone, he said, "I've heard all about it, he and that Minister - hmmmmm - must have made a very gifted child."
"Just you wait, little bastard!"
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