Coreal
patreon
[Hogwarts] Ch 159: The Tragic Fate of the Dumbledore Family
🕑 Added 2025-08-15 19:09:12 +0000 UTC— — — — — —
The thick mist churned violently, but Tom was used to it by now. Every time he summoned a new teacher, it looked like this. The space would also expand, making sure the newcomers had plenty of room to move around.
With this latest expansion, the study space was now almost half the size of Hogwarts—excluding the Forbidden Forest.
Andros and Grindelwald had tried in the past to push through the mist, to force it back and carve out more space. But no matter what they did, they couldn't take a single step beyond it. Spells had no effect at all. Eventually, they gave up.
When the new light burst, Grindelwald stared hard at it, trying to sense any magical fluctuations—but there was nothing. The light vanished into the fog without a trace.
"Mysterious. Utterly bizarre."
Grindelwald shook his head. Even witnessing it in person didn't help; this was beyond anything he could understand. All he could do now was wait and see if Tom's new teacher was someone he'd actually heard of.
Five minutes passed, and the three of them began to frown.
"That's… longer than usual," Tom said. Andros and Grindelwald had both appeared much faster when they were summoned.
"Maybe it's going to be someone big?" Tom perked up. The time alone suggested this wasn't just some run-of-the-mill wizard.
"Maybe… one of the Hogwarts founders? It'd be really funny if Godric Gryffindor became the teacher of a Slytherin."
While Tom was buzzing with anticipation, the fog at the far end began to boil violently. Out of it stepped a small, slender figure. A little girl?
"She's tiny," Andros muttered. His own bulk was easily three times her size, and she was clearly not his type of colleague.
Finally, the newcomer emerged fully into view.
Tom's eyes went wide. This wasn't a new "teacher" at all—it was a young, frail-looking girl about the same size as Astoria. She stood with her head down, avoiding everyone's gaze, her expression shy and anxious.
Grindelwald's pupils contracted sharply. Neither Andros nor Tom had ever seen the old man react like this.
"Ariana?!"
The girl flinched at the sound of her name and instinctively looked up.
The first thing she saw was a stranger she didn't recognize. She wondered how he knew her name—then her gaze landed on those unmistakable mismatched eyes.
Her mind instantly dragged her back to a memory she wished she could erase.
"G-G–Grindelwald?!"
An enormous surge of magic exploded from her small body, black force spilling out until it filled the space like a living storm.
Andros' expression turned grave. "Incredible magic… What in Merlin's ass is that?"
"Goodbye!" Tom snapped, realizing at once who the girl was. Without hesitation, he kicked Grindelwald out of the room and used his system's authority to suppress the roiling black force.
"Ariana, calm down… Remember that voice you heard just now? That was me. I summoned you here to be my classmate…"
It took a long time and a lot of gentle coaxing before Ariana finally calmed. The black force receded back into her body and went still.
Only then did Tom get the chance to explain the study space—and repeatedly swear that he and Grindelwald were not on the same side.
Though still nervous, Ariana began to trust him, partly because of the system's constraints and partly because the space was so obviously real and strange.
"Don't worry," Tom said, thumping his chest. "If you don't want to see him, I'll make sure Grindelwald never so much as comes near you. Honestly—picking on a young girl like that? Disgraceful."
Andros twitched at the corner of his mouth.
Seriously? He wanted to defend his friend. But for the future drama, he chose to just watch.
[Ariana Dumbledore's approval rating has reached 20%. You have acquired her talent in Transfiguration.]
The third "teacher" Tom had summoned turned out to be none other than Ariana Dumbledore—the girl whose death in Godric's Hollow had changed the course of history.
The youngest of the Dumbledore siblings, Ariana was born while the family lived in Mould-on-the-Wold.
One day, she accidentally revealed her magic to a group of Muggle boys, who attacked her for it. That moment became the root of all the Dumbledores' tragedies.
From then on, she grew terrified of her own magic. That fear gave birth to the Obscurus—dark, destructive magic feared across the wizarding world.
Her father, Percival Dumbledore, tortured the Muggle boys in revenge. He refused to explain himself, was sent to Azkaban, and died there a few years later.
Her mother, Kendra Dumbledore, moved the family to Godric's Hollow. Not long after, she died in an Obscurus outburst, leaving Ariana even more withdrawn.
One summer, Albus came home to care for her. Their relationship began to heal, and she managed to keep her magic under control most of the time.
Then Grindelwald—recently expelled from Durmstrang—showed up, sweeping Albus off his feet.
From that point on, the two were inseparable, dreaming about the future of the wizarding world and tossing around slogans like "for the greater good."
Naturally, Albus paid less attention to his sister.
When Aberforth returned home and saw Ariana shut away while Albus and Grindelwald were wrapped up in each other, his temper exploded.
The three fought—shouting, then dueling—and Ariana was killed in the chaos.
Albus only realized afterward what truly mattered to him. But it was too late. Even ending his friendship with Grindelwald couldn't bring her back.
Given all that, Ariana's fear just now made perfect sense. In her eyes, Grindelwald wasn't just a charming revolutionary—he was the demon who had stolen her brother away, no better than the Muggle boys who had hurt her as a child.
As for why her summoning light was gold mixed with silver, the system explained: the growth potential of an Obscurial was directly tied to a wizard's innate magical talent. Thanks to the Obscurus, Ariana could overpower most wizards. She had been a 'seed' for a potential King—one who had died before reaching her peak.
And with Aberforth Dumbledore himself just a hair shy of being the strongest wizard below that rank, the Dumbledores of this generation were all born monsters.
The "SS-Tier" was a mixed bag—full of strange and unpredictable personalities.
Sure, Tom hadn't pulled the top-tier "SSS-tier Legend," but Ariana was classified as SSR, a rarity in the SS-tier because of her own talent and the dark force.
But Tom honestly couldn't decide if he should be celebrating or crying.
Either way, the fact remained—there was now a little girl living in his head. No point stressing about it.
Then a thought hit him. "Ariana… how old are you?"
The girl's voice was barely above a whisper. "I'm fourteen."
So… she was actually older than him.
Tom gave his head a shake and waved a hand. The study space shifted with his thoughts, and a three-story villa appeared at the edge of the fog, wrapped in a warm golden glow.
"Grindelwald can't get anywhere near the place without your permission," Tom assured her. "He won't be able to see inside either. If you're still uneasy, I'll throw up a high wall around it."
"No need," Ariana said quickly, shaking her head. "As long as I don't have to see him."
"Then don't worry," Tom promised with a grin. "Here, I make the rules. Grindelwald won't so much as cross your line of sight."
"From now on, we're classmates. Andros is an incredible wizard—learn from him, and you'll be able to control the Obscurus."
"Tom…" Ariana's voice was soft but hesitant. "When the space summoned me, it said I was your teacher."
Tom froze. Andros didn't. In fact, his lips twitched into something dangerously close to a smirk.
With mock solemnity, Andros patted Tom's shoulder. "Tom, I have to call you out on this. You're the only student here. Everyone else is your teacher."
Tom groaned. "Fine. Then Ariana, study hard, and try to start teaching me as soon as possible. Deal?"
The girl's lips curved into the faintest smile.
"Ariana, go get some rest in your villa. If you want something, just picture it in your mind and it'll appear—as long as you've seen or used it before. I've got a few things to take care of."
"Alright." She nodded and slipped away into the golden-lit house.
Only then did Tom drag Grindelwald back from his daydream in the high tower of Nurmengard.
"Old Gellert, look what you did. The moment she saw you, she completely lost it."
"How is that my fault?" Grindelwald looked genuinely baffled. "How was I supposed to know you'd summon Ariana Dumbledore? I wasn't prepared at all."
"Neither was I." Tom rolled his eyes. "See that villa over there? Don't go near it. She made it clear—she never wants to see you again."
Grindelwald frowned slightly. "At least let me apologize. It really was an accident back then—none of us even noticed she was there until it was too late."
"No," Tom said flatly. "For you, decades have passed. For her, it's still the day of your duel. Right now she won't listen to a word you say. Once she gets used to this place and steps out of her shadows, I'll set something up."
Grindelwald sighed and nodded. He knew Tom was right.
"Do you know whose spell actually hit Ariana that day?" Tom asked suddenly.
Grindelwald didn't rise to the bait. He simply acted as though he hadn't heard. That, in itself, told Tom plenty—it wasn't Aberforth. If it had been, Grindelwald would've been spitting the man's name already.
Then was it Albus or Gellert?
Tom let it drop. Leaving the study space, he checked the time and hurried toward History of Magic.
He hadn't even eaten lunch after all the chaos earlier, and now it was almost class time.
Before going, he gave Ariana permission to watch the outside world. Sure enough, the girl was instantly captivated by Hogwarts. She'd been cooped up at home her entire life, never traveling anywhere. She feared human contact, yet her curiosity about the world was endless.
Now, with Tom as her anchor, she could see everything without leaving the safety of her space—and her approval rating for him shot up fast.
That was the perk of summoning someone young. Grindelwald's approval had been stuck stubbornly around ninety for ages. Ariana hadn't even been here that long, and she was already close to thirty.
Now, Tom wished his next teacher to be baby Merlin.
---
Five minutes into Cuthbert Binns' boring lecture, Daphne was snoring on her desk, and Tom had blocked out the ghost's voice entirely to chat with Ariana. He told her about himself, about Hogwarts, and about her older brother, the Headmaster.
When she realized more than a century had passed, Ariana seemed dazed. It sank in—she had been dead for over a hundred years.
"Ariana," Tom asked quietly in his mind, "after class, want me to take you to see Dumbledore?"
She didn't answer immediately. After a long pause, she said, "Then… maybe. Do you know where Aberforth is?"
"Of course." Tom, for convenience, credited Newt with the intel. "An older friend told me Aberforth's running the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade these days."
"If you want, we can sneak out this weekend and pay him a visit."
"Thank you, Tom," Ariana said softly.
Her approval rating jumped straight to forty.
Tom felt smug.
Now this was the right pace. Grindelwald, you old fossil, take notes.
.
.
.
