After receiving confirmation, Dumbledore left Nicolas Flamel's cottage.
He tore up the letter announcing Voldemort's return. From the looks of it, Voldemort's full resurrection was still some way off, which meant there was no need to forward the letter to the Ministry of Magic.
What mattered most now was finding the person who had taken the Philosopher's Stone.
Yet Dumbledore had no leads at all. This individual seemed to have simply passed through, coincidentally encountering Voldemort while the Stone was being taken, coincidentally killing Quirrell, and then, coincidentally, walking off with the Philosopher's Stone.
Aside from this string of coincidences, Dumbledore found it difficult to believe that anyone could have stolen the Philosopher's Stone without leaving a trace.
Back in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts, Dumbledore sank into thought once more. Before long, a messenger owl arrived with a letter.
And the sender was…
The Ministry of Magic. And the letter had been written personally by Cornelius Fudge.
He hadn't written to the Ministry, yet they had written to him first?
Holding the letter, Dumbledore felt a twinge of emotion.
How long had it been since he'd last received a letter from Cornelius Fudge?
When Cornelius Fudge had first taken office as Minister of Magic, he used to write frequently, asking for advice on matters of governance. Each time, Dumbledore had offered his own opinions and suggestions.
But back then, Cornelius only needed Dumbledore's reputation to shoulder the blame for the orders he issued. Once he had firmly grasped control of the Ministry, not a single letter followed.
Now, out of the blue, another letter had arrived. It took Dumbledore by surprise.
With this inexplicable mood lingering, Leonard opened the envelope and began to read. After only a few lines, his expression turned solemn.
"A large number of pure-blood wizards have gone missing?" Even with Dumbledore's self-control, he couldn't help but exclaim aloud.
Merlin's beard. This was serious.
Dumbledore's expression darkened.
While pure-blood families often produced fools, it had to be admitted that these intellectually lacking descendants of inbreeding were, in a twisted way, part of what kept the wizarding world stable.
After all, more than half the shops in Diagon Alley were owned by pure-blood families.
If so many pure-blood wizards vanished all at once, the resulting turmoil would be impossible to ignore.
But how could so many pure-blood wizards disappear so suddenly?
Dumbledore stared at the detailed list in the letter and froze.
The missing pure-blood wizards overlapped almost perfectly with the Death Eaters who had escaped punishment.
No, not almost.
They were practically identical.
Dumbledore recalled the Ministry's rulings from eleven years ago. Every single pure-blood wizard listed in the letter had claimed they had escaped conviction because they'd been under the Imperius Curse.
This wasn't an accident. Someone was deliberately targeting the Death Eaters.
Lucius.
Dumbledore confirmed that Lucius Malfoy's name was not on the list. He hadn't disappeared.
That fit neatly with Dumbledore's earlier suspicion that Lucius Malfoy had been deliberately spreading rumors of Voldemort's return in order to draw the Death Eaters together.
And he had succeeded.
He had actually sent those Death Eaters to their graves.
But how had he done it?
Dumbledore's fingers tightened slightly around the parchment.
To eliminate so many pure-blood wizards without a sound was something Dumbledore himself doubted he could accomplish. Even with large-scale magic, there was no way to wipe them all out in one stroke. Wizards capable of Apparition were notoriously difficult to capture, unless a counter-Apparition Charm had been set in advance.
And places with such a Charm existed only at Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic. Neither could possibly be the burial ground of those pure-blood wizards.
What Dumbledore didn't know was that Leonard had already accounted for Apparition before making his move. The moment those wizards appeared, his plants launched surprise attacks, stunning them while the teleporting Chomping Cabbages locked onto each individual wizard.
Any wizard who tried to escape via Apparition was met with a petrification curse, followed by a relentless assault from the Chomping Cabbages.
Leonard's ability to wipe out the pure-blood wizards wasn't because he was stronger than Dumbledore, but because he had overwhelming numbers on his side.
"The one who orchestrated the collective disappearance of the Death Eaters must be Lucius," Dumbledore murmured to himself. "But he definitely doesn't have that kind of power on his own. He must have set a trap or had help."
Originally, Dumbledore had assumed Lucius would have the Death Eaters attack the Ministry of Magic or Azkaban, sacrificing them entirely in the process.
That should have been Lucius's only option, given his lack of absolute strength.
Yet somehow, he had managed to wipe them out quietly, leaving not a single survivor.
"Could it be… that Lucius is working with someone?" Dumbledore folded the letter away, his eyes filled with contemplation.
For reasons he couldn't quite explain, his thoughts drifted to that unknown individual who had caused Quirrell's death and forced Voldemort to flee, abandoning the Philosopher's Stone.
If that person were cooperating with Lucius, it would make a certain amount of sense.
Of course, it was only speculation. Perhaps the two incidents were unrelated, carried out by entirely different people.
Still, Dumbledore found himself inclined to trust his own judgment. After all, someone capable of wiping out so many pure-blood wizards at once, someone who could drive Voldemort into retreat, was hardly a common figure.
...
Two such people appearing at the same time would be far too absurd.
Unfortunately, Dumbledore had neither the reason nor the standing to question Lucius about who this mysterious accomplice might be.
"What a troublesome time," Dumbledore sighed, burning the letter as he gazed out the window.
At least the Philosopher's Stone itself wasn't likely to stir up too much trouble, so long as it didn't fall into Voldemort's hands and allow him to return ahead of time.
After all, the prophesied Chosen One, Harry Potter, hadn't grown up yet.
Dumbledore walked over to the window, pondering how he might arrange a few challenges for young Harry Potter, when he noticed George Weasley and Fred Weasley practicing magic on the open ground below.
The two were sparring on the lawn. Though there was still more rolling around than spellcasting, they had reached the point where they could stabilize their magic even while tumbling, instead of letting it fly wildly in all directions.
It was a considerable improvement, and it caught Dumbledore's attention.
"Hm… If there's no immediate way to arrange trials for Harry…" Dumbledore mused. "Perhaps it would be better to let him grow familiar with magic through practice."
As the thought formed, the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor came to mind.
That role existed to teach students how to protect themselves against dark magic, as well as how to properly apply certain spells.
"Next term… we'll need to find a more reliable professor," Dumbledore muttered to himself.