Chapter 36. The Strange Man in Black
"Then where did you finally find Harry?" said Dumbledore, frowning.
"An alley next to King's Cross Station," said Professor McGonagall.
"I searched the whole area and, in the end, found Harry there."
"He was lying on the ground unconscious, without a single mark on him."
"Was it caused by magic?" said Dumbledore, as he and Professor McGonagall went into a room on the second floor.
Harry Potter lay on a single bed with his eyes closed, his brow lightly furrowed, as if pondering some life problem.
Professor McGonagall shook her head and said, "I'm not sure."
"When I arrived, only Harry was there, and I didn't find any clues."
"Then why didn't you take him straight back to the school?" Dumbledore gently lifted the quilt and bent over to examine Harry carefully.
Snape stood at the doorway and did not enter, simply looking, with a complicated expression, at the figure lying on the bed.
Lowering her voice, Professor McGonagall said, "Although I didn't see anyone, I had a feeling—an unease that wouldn't go away."
"I suspected someone was watching us."
"I was afraid something might happen, so I brought Harry here first and thought we'd wait for you to arrive before taking him back together."
"Oh?" Dumbledore's movements paused, a flash of severity in his eyes, but in the next instant he returned to his kindly manner.
Dumbledore tucked the quilt back over Harry, straightened up, and was about to say something when Fawkes gave an urgent cry from above.
"Who's there?" Dumbledore snapped, turning sharply to the window.
A man in black, wrapped head to toe in a wizard's robe with a hood, stood beneath a dim yellow street lamp in the distance.
Sensing Dumbledore's gaze, he bowed gracefully, saluting toward the place where Dumbledore and the others were.
Power surged from Dumbledore in an instant; his robes billowed without wind, and he raised his wand high, pointing it out the window.
He spoke no incantation, yet a dazzling light burst from his wand tip, becoming a beam that hurtled viciously forwards.
The window glass shattered the instant it met the beam, turning into a flurry of snow-like shards that were swept along and shot toward the man in black.
The next second, two soft pops sounded in the room; Dumbledore and Snape vanished almost simultaneously.
Professor McGonagall and Dedalus, wearing alert expressions, stood guard before Harry's bed, ready for any further attack.
"He's gone," said Snape, staring at the empty ground under the lamp, his face dark.
Dumbledore did not reply.
Wand in hand, he walked forward step by step, ready to strike back.
Snape lagged one step behind Dumbledore and asked as they walked, "Did you see what he looked like?"
Dumbledore gave a slight shake of the head.
"He was swathed in a robe, showing only a pair of eyes."
The two of them slowly reached the base of the street lamp.
No one attacked them.
The man in black seemed truly to have left.
Snape looked around and said, annoyed, "Who on earth was that man?"
"What was his purpose?"
"Newt wrote me a letter some time ago," Dumbledore suddenly began on another topic.
Snape's brows knit.
He looked at Dumbledore in puzzlement, not knowing what he was up to now.
"He told me there's a mysterious organisation secretly capturing magical creatures," said Dumbledore, bending to look at the ground.
A pitted flagstone was stuck full of tiny bits of glass, but the very centre seemed protected by some force.
Not a speck of glass had fallen there, and only a small black chess piece sat undisturbed.
Dumbledore examined it carefully, picked it up, tilted his head a little, and, by the light of the lamp, turned it to inspect it.
It was a bishop from Wizard's Chess—an armoured figure with both hands crossed over the pommel of a long two-handed sword.
"He suspected those people were plotting something, so he set off with Tina to investigate, and wrote to warn me."
"You mean…" Snape looked at Dumbledore.
"What happened to Harry Potter is connected to those people?"
"In Newt's letter, the point he stressed was…" Dumbledore showed the chess piece to Snape.
"Those people use pieces from Wizard's Chess as their emblem."
"This should be what that person just left behind."
"But I haven't worked out the reason," Dumbledore said, musing.
"Why would he do that?"
"Why would a group that captures magical creatures make a move against Harry?"
"And only knock him out without harming him?"
"And even deliberately leave this chess piece to declare their identity…"
"Do they know of my connection with Newt and mean to provoke me?"
"But his attitude just now was very friendly, not as if he meant to be our enemy."
"Then did he save Harry Potter from someone else's hands and, by showing goodwill, want Newt to stop investigating them?"
"Could he have done something to Harry Potter—left something on him?" Snape reminded him.
"I checked him just now," said Dumbledore.
"I didn't find anything unusual."
"But we can't take it lightly," Dumbledore said at once, overturning his own words.
"Come."
"Let's take Harry Potter back to the school first and examine him again in detail."
When the two of them returned inside, Professor McGonagall came up at once and asked, "Well? Dumbledore?"
"He slipped away…" Dumbledore shook his head slightly, and repeated to Professor McGonagall what had just happened.
"An organisation that uses Wizard's Chess as its emblem."
"Harry Potter's just about to start school and already someone can't sit still."
"It seems our peaceful days are at an end again," Professor McGonagall said in a low voice, lips pressed together.
Dumbledore looked down at the somewhat roughly made Wizard's Chess piece and kept silent, his thoughts unknown.
"Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall asked softly.
"It's nothing," said Dumbledore, putting the piece into his pocket.
"Come on."
"It's getting late."
"We should go back."
Smiling at Dedalus, he said, "We've troubled you today, Dedalus."
"Your place may—"
"All right, all right, off you go," Dedalus waved a hand.
"Nothing good ever happens when I run into you lot."
"I'm used to it."
"Once you leave, I'm moving!"
Dumbledore nodded with a smile, called Fawkes down from the rafters, and had him take them back to the Headmaster's Office.
"Let's hope Madam Pomfrey hasn't gone to bed yet."
"Take Harry to the Hospital Wing first."
"I'll come along in a bit."
When Dumbledore had finished and the others had gone, he sat in the chair, thinking, then took out Newt's letter again to look it over.
"What's happened?"
"Need any help, Dumbledore?" asked a voice from the portraits on the wall.
"There is a matter."
"In the time ahead, I may have to trouble you to go out and look around more often," Dumbledore replied.
He drew out a piece of parchment and wrote down what had happened that day, preparing to send it to Newt.
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