Link nodded slightly, without much surprise.
Because, in his understanding, this was exactly the kind of person Dumbledore was.
But understanding was one thing, Link wasn't about to just let Dumbledore off the hook that easily.
The corners of his mouth curved upward in a faintly mocking smile as he said, "This doesn't seem like your style of doing things."
"I thought that if you ran into something like this, you'd abandon Hogwarts without hesitation. After all, this was a golden chance to force Voldemort back into hiding, or even seal him away completely."
As soon as Link said this, a bearded old man in one of the portraits on the wall couldn't help but laugh out loud.
This made Dumbledore's expression turn extremely dark. His eyes complicated, he said, "Not to that degree. Not yet."
'So if it really did come to the point of no choice, you really would abandon all of Hogwarts, wouldn't you?'
That thought flashed through Link's mind, and in an instant, his smile disappeared.
He had expected as much, but Dumbledore's cold-blooded way of thinking still managed to shock him.
Faced with such a Dumbledore, Link no longer had the patience to beat around the bush. He said directly, "I'm extremely disappointed in this cooperation. If you still want to work with me in the future, you'll have to compensate me properly."
With the topic returned purely to interest and exchange, Dumbledore clearly relaxed quite a bit. He sat back down into the armchair opposite Link, dropping sugar cubes into his tea as he said, "Of course. In the end, this time I wronged you. Say it, what do you want?"
Link leaned forward, emphasizing each word, "The Elder Wand!"
"No!" Dumbledore's eyes hardened as he rejected without hesitation.
"Not just the Elder Wand. The Invisibility Cloak and the Resurrection Stone, I can't give those to you either. The Cloak I've already given to Harry, I don't have the right to take it back. And as for the Resurrection Stone, I still need it for other purposes."
He paused, then added, "I should have told you before, the story of the Deathly Hallows is false. It's nothing but a trap."
Link chuckled at that, "Do dragons hoard gold because they want to spend it? No, they just like shiny things. Same principle, I don't care whether the legend of the Deathly Hallows is true or false. I just simply want to collect them."
Dumbledore clearly couldn't accept that logic, shaking his head, "I can't meet that demand. But I can give you something else."
He pulled out a blank piece of parchment and began inscribing runes onto it. Then, raising his wand, he pointed forcefully.
A brilliant blue light of magic instantly lit up the office.
An enormous surge of magical power poured straight into the parchment. As each rune lit up one by one, an astonishing pressure began to form on it, accompanied by roaring winds that raged through the office.
Only after a long time did Dumbledore finally lower his wand. Sweating heavily and panting for breath, he rolled up the parchment and handed it to Link, "This parchment seals a single Vanishing Spell at the power of my full-strength strike. Next time you face a strong enemy, just tear it open and it will be released."
"Be careful, the sealing magic will slowly weaken over time. If you leave it unused too long, the spell inside will lose power. By my estimate, it'll last about three years."
'Holy crap! Isn't this basically a magic scroll?!' Link screamed inwardly.
His heartbeat quickened, and the hand gripping the parchment began trembling. His pupils widened.
Now, Link finally had a clear idea of the destructive power unleashed by a full-force strike from a wizard of Dumbledore's level.
To put it bluntly, with this thing, against almost every wizard in the world, including Snape and Professor McGonagall, it was basically, whoever he hit, died. And instantly.
Even if he ran into a legendary wizard like Voldemort or Dumbledore himself, holding this parchment gave him a real chance to counterattack from the brink of death.
At the very least, he wouldn't end up in such a miserable state as he had this time.
Which led directly to the question, why hadn't Dumbledore brought something like this out earlier?
With that thought, Link's fiery excitement quickly cooled, and the look he gave Dumbledore, and the parchment, turned ice-cold.
"Link, you don't think this kind of curse-sealing parchment is easy to make, do you?" Dumbledore let out a bitter laugh, his voice weak and hoarse.
"The truth is, every time I make one, I fall into a long period of weakness. Right now, I doubt I could even defeat you. If I had given this to you earlier, what would I have had left to fight with?"
Link nodded, accepting Dumbledore's explanation.
He had no real reason to doubt it, because by the time Dumbledore was halfway through speaking, Link had already activated his heightened Occlumency, which had pushed his super-sensing charm to level 5.
After upgrading, its cost and side effects were greatly reduced, and its effectiveness had undergone a qualitative leap.
Through it, Link could clearly "see" that Dumbledore's magical reserves had indeed fallen to a shockingly low level, even his physical strength showing signs of decline.
"Not a bad bit of compensation. This time, I'll..."
Link carefully tucked the parchment into his bag and spoke expressionlessly.
To be honest, he hadn't really planned on what to demand from Dumbledore in the first place. The Flamel family wasn't lacking in ordinary resources.
As for treasures like the Deathly Hallows, Link knew full well Dumbledore would never hand them over. He had only mentioned them earlier as a way to test the waters, raise the stakes, maybe squeeze out a higher price.
Luckily, this "magic scroll" was plenty good. Even though the sealed spell was just a Vanishing Spell, which didn't sound all that deadly, Link was already satisfied.
But before he could finish, Dumbledore cut him off, "Wait, I still have something else for you."
Dumbledore reached into the left side of his robes near his chest and drew out a pendant. Staring at it with nostalgic eyes for a long time, he finally placed it before Link.
"Take it, Link. This is my treasure. One day, it will help you."
Hearing this, Link frowned, lowering his gaze to inspect the pendant with a look of distaste.
It was a strange pendant, shaped like a long screw piercing through a three-dimensional diamond. Most of the "screw" part was made of pure silver, while the diamond shape was carved with intricate patterns.
Only at its center was set a large golden sphere. It looked utterly ordinary, and, from Dumbledore's years of wearing it, its surface was covered with a dull gray grime. Filthy, even.
More importantly, while Link could sense a faint trace of magic from it, the power was so weak it couldn't even fuel the simplest spell.
So he really couldn't understand what Dumbledore meant by saying this thing could help him.
Still, for Dumbledore's sake, Link picked it up.
And the moment his hand touched the pendant, Link's expression changed dramatically.
[Golden Skill Point *1 Acquired!]
No explanation. No warning. Just like that, a golden skill point appeared on Link's status panel.
Link, '???'
His expression grew extremely strange.
He examined the pendant again closely. No matter how he looked, it was still nothing more than an ordinary pendant.
Pressing his lips together, Link carefully slipped it into his breast pocket, yet his attitude toward it was now entirely different.
After all, this was something that had given him a golden skill point. It could not be ordinary.
Inside, Link even started to believe Dumbledore's words.
Seeing this, Dumbledore looked gratified, nodding seriously, "Take good care of it."
"I will."
"Then I'm at ease." Dumbledore nodded again. "Now, can you tell me what exactly happened on your side?"
Link shifted into a more comfortable position and said, "Actually, there's not much to tell. Voldemort had already set up an Anti-Disapparition Jinx, and he had more forces than we expected."
"Without your intervention, he successfully resurrected. My men suffered heavy losses, and I nearly died myself."
"Then came the most critical part."
"Right when the battle was at its peak, two skeletal knights suddenly appeared, walking through the air, and effortlessly abducted Voldemort!"
"They abducted Voldemort easily? To do that, the magical power those two had must be at least on par with him, and me." Dumbledore rubbed his temples.
"What's worse, on my side another mysterious wizard of that same level appeared. He used Hogwarts as leverage to keep me tied up here."
"And judging by the timing, the reason Voldemort was taken away by force on your side was likely because the mysterious wizard here was about to fail."
"In other words, assuming Voldemort might even join that mysterious faction, that group must have at least three or four legendary-level wizards."
"Yes. It looks like our enemy is much stronger than we imagined."
Dumbledore sighed. "Forget it. I'll handle this matter, we'll plan for the long term. For now, the urgent priority is rooting out the traitor inside Hogwarts."
"You mean Karkaroff?" Link said. "That guy's already been killed by Voldemort."
Because of his Unbreakable Vow with old Barty, Link kept quiet about young Barty.
Dumbledore didn't doubt him in the slightest, and said slowly, "That's indeed Tom's style. A pity Igor never understood it, even after following him so long. But the insider I'm talking about isn't just Igor."
"Oh? You've found someone else?"
Link was genuinely curious now. Aside from Karkaroff, he hadn't noticed anyone else suspicious.
"It's Ludo Bagman, our dear Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports." Dumbledore gave the answer directly.
"You may not know, but during the match commentary just now, he behaved extremely strangely."
"From start to finish, he almost never gave Harry any coverage, and kept dragging things out. That's why we didn't realize in time that Harry had been kidnapped."
Link frowned deeply.
He thought Dumbledore was being a bit hasty.
Just from those reasons, you couldn't convict Bagman. The man could easily come up with countless excuses.
"Anyway, come with me first."
Dumbledore rose with a smile, gesturing for Link to follow.
Link got up in response and followed him out.
Then, to Link's surprise, Dumbledore led him around a corner in the corridor straight into the Room of Requirement.
At this time, the room had already taken the form of the dungeon Link knew well. Dumbledore stood there in the shadowy hall, watching Link with a faint, ambiguous smile.
"Headmaster Dumbledore! Mr. Flamel?! What, what are you doing here?!"
Filch scurried up with quick little steps, staring at them both in shock.
Dumbledore waved a hand, "Filch, how is Bagman?"
"Same as always, Headmaster," Filch said nervously, rubbing his hands. "He keeps shouting his innocence, like he doesn't even know what fatigue means."
"It's fine. He'll be talking soon enough."
As Dumbledore spoke, he pulled a vial of potion from his robes.
Link froze for a moment.
Though the liquid inside was clear and unmarked, his solid knowledge of potions let him instantly recognize it, Veritaserum.
Link drew a deep breath and looked up at Dumbledore.
Only now did he truly feel the weight of Dumbledore's resolve.
Because Veritaserum was one of the strictly controlled potions banned by the International Confederation of Wizards. Using it privately without clearance was punishable by Azkaban.
And as a controlled potion, Veritaserum's effects were infamous, it could force the drinker to speak only truth for a period of time. The price? A chance of permanent brain damage.
Someone like Dumbledore naturally feared little about punishment. But if Bagman turned out not to be Voldemort's mole, the fallout would be huge.
At the very least, someone like Rita Skeeter would be overjoyed. She'd smear Dumbledore with another black-ink article, and this time the effect would eclipse all her past slanders combined, dealing real damage to Dumbledore's reputation.
"You really want to resort to such extreme methods?" Link frowned.
"Even if Bagman's mind has protection, I still think Cruciatus might be a better solution than Veritaserum. If you can't bring yourself to do it, I can handle it for you."
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