The Butcher of Hogsmeade

"What are you going to China for?" Shen Hou had a vague guess in his mind, but he still had to ask.

"Obviously, I went to see your parents." Dumbledore didn't keep them in suspense, stating the facts directly while also asking with a smile, "You don't think we would handle the time traveler issue so hastily, do you? Without conducting on-site investigations and verifications, making a decision based solely on theoretical deductions and your account? Professor Crocker was worried that hasty contact with your current parents might lead to your 'inability to be born' in the future, so he specifically entrusted me, rather than sending investigators from the Ministry of Magic."

"What's the point of you contacting my current parents? They're only at most..."

"Starting primary school?" Dumbledore interrupted Shen Hou before he could finish speaking, "According to your family history, your parents don't know each other, let alone you who are not yet born; however, my purpose is merely to confirm their existence to corroborate your story."

Shen Hou asked anxiously, "Have you found them?"

"That's the problem! I went to the addresses you provided, both of them, but I didn't find the two people who would become your parents."

"Nothing?" Shen Hou exclaimed in surprise, sitting up in bed, momentarily ignoring the pain in his left side. "How could there be nothing? You've come to the wrong place!"

"I still have a few old friends in China, Mr. Shen," Dumbledore said calmly and confidently. "I don't consider myself a rash lad, so I spent ten whole days investigating every possible oversight: misremembered place names or names, wrong ages, family changes you're unaware of, and so on. But do you know where the most serious problem lies?"

"where?"

"Not only can't we find the names of the people you provided, but even the place names of your hometowns—including the hometowns of both your parents—don't actually exist," Dumbledore said solemnly. "According to China's administrative divisions, the provinces, cities, and counties you mentioned all exist, but the two villages you claimed your parents lived in from childhood and that you returned to every year after your birth simply don't exist; they're not on the map, they don't exist in reality, and there aren't even similar place names within a certain geographical area. I even searched through all the families with the surname Shen in the vicinity, and there wasn't a single one that matched your description of your grandfather's and father's families, and the same goes for your mother's side."

"Impossible, why would this happen?" Shen Hou's mind was in turmoil. He felt a thought was about to emerge from his head, but he couldn't quite grasp it.

There are only two explanations: either you deceived us...

"I didn't!" Shen Hou blurted out.

"There's a second explanation: your memory is faulty, but you're unaware of it."

"Is my memory playing tricks on me?" Shen Hou was flustered and decided to give up trying to catch that fleeting thought and focus on the present.

"It's not impossible in the wizarding world for someone to have tampered with your memories. The Ministry of Magic even has special memory erasers who deal with Muggles who accidentally come into contact with the wizarding world by modifying their memories."

"Which category do you think I am?" After focusing on his conversation with Dumbledore, Shen Hou's thoughts cleared a bit. "A liar, or an unlucky guy whose memories have been altered without his knowledge?"

Dumbledore did not answer immediately, but looked at Shen Hou for a long time before slowly saying, "I tend to think it's the latter."

"Why? Because I don't look like a con artist?"

Dumbledore shook his head: "Because there are indeed other memories in your mind. Those training processes in magic and swordsmanship, those experiences fighting magical creatures—you're actually troubled by those memories of unknown origin, aren't you?"

"How do you know I've never told anyone?" Shen Hou was horrified.

"I once told you that I did some unethical things during the investigation of you."

"Of course, I remember, it was on our first trip to the Department of Mysteries."

Dumbledore said frankly, "Well, now I can tell you that what is considered immoral is looking into your memories without your consent."

"You can see my memories, mind reading?" Shen Hou instinctively shrank back until his back hit the headboard. "I remember now, that night in Hogsmeade, Alastor could also see my memories. He cast a spell on me, and my head felt like it had been hit by a hammer."

"Levitation to the Mind, reading the memories in the mind of the target." Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, I used the same method as him, but this magic is not as magical as mind reading, at least not as magical as in your Muggle legends."

"But I don't remember you casting a spell on me."

"For me, some spells don't require a wand or incantations."

Shen Hou gasped and tried to turn to the other side of the bed, a biological instinct to stay away from threats.

"Leech is indeed a curse that violates moral principles, and I am very sorry for that. I did it purely out of unease about the time travel accident." Dumbledore expressed his apology again, his voice calm, neither overly forceful nor shirking responsibility.

"Now that you've seen it, what do you think those images in my mind are?" Shen Hou tried to convince himself not to pursue the issue of mind control further, but to focus on the main topic.

"It looks like a traditional wizarding apprenticeship, but it's hard to tell if these memories are real or fake. As far as we know, it's difficult to determine which memory in your mind is real and which is fake. Apart from the verified Muggle crown prince marriage, other memories about the future could have been altered or implanted. Even your identity as a time traveler might be fake, which might explain why Professor Crocker didn't find any trace of time manipulation in you."

"What should I do? Is there any way to verify which memories are real? Or can someone help me recover them? Can hospitals in the magical world treat amnesia?" Shen Hou asked.

Dumbledore shook his head with difficulty: "It's difficult. Even in St. Mungo's, memory loss and restoration are among the most difficult conditions to treat."

Shen Hou was deeply disappointed, and Dumbledore had nothing to say. He could only comfort him and tell him to focus on recovering from his injuries, and that everything could be discussed after he was discharged from the hospital. Then he got up and left.

The ward returned to silence, leaving only Shen Hou sitting alone on the edge of the bed; as the surroundings quieted down, his mind gradually cleared, and the thought that had been on the verge of emerging but couldn't be grasped became clearer.

The inability to find parents and hometown might not be due to memory errors, but rather to another reason—a simple reason that every online novel enthusiast could readily identify: transmigration to another world.

It wasn't simply a matter of going back in time; it was a journey to another world. Although this world was also called Earth, and it had Britain and China, it was a completely different world.

The Earth is no longer the same, so naturally, my hometown and my parents no longer exist.

"Damn it, if this were a time-travel novel, the content would be clearly stated in the first three chapters... no, the first three paragraphs of the first chapter. Why is it so complicated in my case?"

Shen Hou cursed inwardly, a mixture of self-mockery and self-pity.

"Having transmigrated for so long, with so many twists and turns, including imprisonment and injuries, if this were written as a novel, it would be enough for at least thirty chapters, let alone three. Yet, we still don't even know where we came from."

"I must have been misled by Kroc and Dumbledore. One minute it's time travel accidents, the next it's time converters. They've completely distorted my thinking, which is why I didn't even think about traveling to another world."

"After all, where in the world is there magic, where are there wizards? With the Skynet project already in place, what magical world can be hidden so well?"