The Butcher of Hogsmeade

"You have to tell me first, what is the Order of the Phoenix?" Shen Hou asked half-jokingly. "Is it that little group that opposes the Death Eaters and operates independently outside the Ministry of Magic?"

Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, a small group used to oppose the Void and the Death Eaters, while remaining independent of the Ministry of Magic."

Hearing the old wizard say that, Shen Hou felt a little embarrassed: "I was just joking."

"No, I quite like that way of putting it, really; we're not saviors, just a group of people who feel the need to stand up and do something, and who are all dissatisfied with the current state and practices of the Ministry of Magic."

"Because they're always slow to react, incompetent, unable to keep secrets, and there's internal power struggles that cause them to hold each other back?" Shen Hou wasn't so embarrassed when he was criticizing the Ministry of Magic. "That's all I've seen in the past month. Do you think there's anything else that needs to be added?"

"I only have one thing to add: Don't let Millison hear this; she's done a great job. If it were the former minister... well, she's the former anyway."

"Why now?" Shen Hou asked again, and this was clearly his biggest concern. "I've had a grudge against the Death Eaters for quite some time now. If that's why you want to recruit me, shouldn't you have brought it up sooner?"

"Because this isn't a game, Mr. Shen, this is a war that will stop at nothing. Tom—I'm referring to the mysterious man—loves to manipulate people and is adept at all sorts of intrigue and deception. Do you understand what I mean?"

Shen Hou nodded, then shook his head: "Are you worried that I won't understand the cruelty of war and will rashly agree without thinking, or are you worried that I have an unknown background and might be a spy sent by the mysterious person? Tom... is that the mysterious person's real name?"

"Yes, that name... quite a few people used to know it, but nowadays very few dare to call him that." Dumbledore answered the second question first. "Tom Riddle, I remember that name because he was once my student."

"Judging from your tone, you seem quite remorseful? Do you feel you haven't fulfilled your responsibilities as a teacher and guided the mysterious man onto the right path?" Thanks to his frequent online arguments during his reclusive life, Shen Hou was quite adept at finding angles to criticize. "In the entire British wizarding world, the vast majority of wizards under eighty years old have been your students, right? I read 'A History of the School,' you've been a professor at Hogwarts for seventy years? In those seventy years, all the dark wizards imprisoned in Azkaban are your responsibility? Then you are indeed heinous and unworthy of being a teacher, Professor Dumbledore. Or are you actually not only the mysterious man's teacher, but also his biological father?"

Dumbledore paused, turned around, and gave Shen Hou a deep look; this was the second time tonight that he had lost his composure because of the words of the "half-Muggle" young man.

Meeting the old professor's unfriendly gaze, Shen Hou awkwardly spread his hands: "Don't look at me like that. I'm just stating a fact: put aside your desire to help others and respect their fate. You say you're not a Christian, then don't try to be God; you can't save everyone, nor can you choose the path for others. Not every student can be taught well, and not everyone can be moved by kindness."

"You are pessimistic and cold-hearted, Mr. Shen." Dumbledore's gaze grew even more profound.

"No, I am not pessimistic at all; it may be right to be distant from others, but it cannot be called cold-hearted. On the contrary, I believe that most people in this world are kind, and I believe that most people are willing to fight for a better future. But once I focus on a specific person, I am not afraid to speculate about human nature with the greatest malice. The whole and the individual, beauty and cruelty, they are contradictory yet coexist."

"Who taught you these ideas?"

"Part of it was learned from Muggle high school textbooks, and part of it was learned from Muggle society."

"Muggle wisdom..." Dumbledore shook his head, not continuing the topic. "I must admit, I have been observing you—your origins, your abilities, your character, even those conversations we just had, that's also a form of observation. Only recently have I come to the conclusion that you are trustworthy, and that your abilities are what we need."

Shen Hou sarcastically remarked, "Because I killed two Death Eaters and, directly or indirectly, helped you capture four more?"

"Yes!" Dumbledore readily admitted. "Killing and capturing Death Eaters demonstrates your ability, and... although Tom doesn't care about the Death Eaters' lives and treats them entirely as tools, slaves, and expendable resources, the possibility that he would be willing to expend so many people, especially at the risk of damaging his own dignity, just to help you gain my trust is extremely slim."

"The loss of manpower is not as great as the loss of personal dignity?" Shen Hou asked curiously.

"Yes, that's Tom's character. In his student days, he was polite, humble, and enthusiastic, but after becoming 'Voldemort,' he regarded his own authority as one of the key means of ruling the Death Eaters, and he would not allow anyone to desecrate it."

Shen Hou sneered: "That only proves that his past politeness and humility were all an act."

"Yes, but he was very good at it and fooled everyone. When he was still at Hogwarts, almost every professor liked him."

"Besides you?"

Dumbledore shook his head slightly: "I was suspicious of him, but to be honest, I didn't dislike him at the time; especially academically, he was the kind of good student that every professor liked. It wasn't until he left the school, disappeared for several years, and then suddenly returned that he was completely different in appearance and behavior, and that's when I really became wary of him."

"Why are you suddenly telling me all this?" Shen Hou abruptly changed the subject. "Why are you suddenly telling me so much about the life of this 'mysterious man'?"

"I want you to understand what kind of enemy you are going to face."

Shen Hou smiled wryly: "Of course...of course, regardless of whether I ultimately join the Phoenix Society or not, I'm destined to be the Mysterious Man's enemy. This information might come in handy someday."

Dumbledore smiled and said, "Whether you join the Order of the Phoenix is ​​something you can consider at your leisure, but there is another matter that is more urgent and requires your immediate attention."

"What's more urgent?"

"Look, they've arrived."

Dumbledore gestured for Shen Hou to look up, and then he saw the Auror office director, who was furious and whose hair was standing on end like the mane of a raging lion.

"Eight corpses, and many more wounded, some lightly, some seriously—Professor Dumbledore, shouldn't you explain this to me?"

"You should have asked me directly, Director." Shen Hou stepped forward. "I don't believe you couldn't tell that those dark wizards all died at my hands."