"I understand."
Though Tom's unreliable antics had somewhat eroded her trust in him, Ariana obediently closed her eyes and began the dangerous process of activating the Obscurus within her, just as Tom had instructed.
She couldn't help it—despite everything, she trusted Tom. Since this was her choice, she would carry that faith through to the very end, even if it meant confronting the monster she'd been hiding from for over a century.
As her memories delved deeper into the past, those sensations of fear and agony began surfacing like drowned corpses rising from dark water.
The expression on her face crumbled gradually.
Her smile twisted, contorted grotesquely, and finally gave way to pure anguish that no ghost should have to experience. The transformation was heartbreaking to witness.
Simultaneously, wisps of black, thread-like mist began seeping uncontrollably from within her ethereal form. The parasitic magic responded to her pain like a predator scenting blood.
The dark vapor didn't dissipate into the air as normal magic would, but gathered with sinister purpose, growing denser and more substantial with each passing second. The temperature in Dumbledore's office plummeted as the Obscurus manifested.
As the black fog accumulated and squirmed in the air like living smoke, the very atmosphere became viscous and oppressive.
"Ariana..."
Dumbledore's voice cracked on her name, rough with emotion he could barely contain.
He gazed at his sister's tormented expression, and his eyes flooded with helpless concern.
In this moment, the great Albus Dumbledore ceased to exist. He was neither the brilliant strategist who had orchestrated Voldemort's downfall, nor the most renowned wizard of the age whose very name gained respect across the magical world.
He was simply Albus—an old man worn down by guilt and regret, helpless and aching for his family, watching the sister he'd failed to protect suffer once more while utterly powerless to intervene. His hands trembled at his sides, useless for all their accumulated magical knowledge.
Without Newt Scamander present, having no practical knowledge of how to safely handle an Obscurus without destroying its host, he could only place his desperate hopes in the peculiar blue cat who looked decidedly unreliable by any conventional standard.
(It's coming out! (★ω★))
Sensing the escaping energy beginning to merge into something more coherent, Tom's eyes lit up with recognition and excitement.
Though he didn't understand Obscuruses in the conventional magical sense, what did that matter? He could perceive with perfect clarity the fundamental nature of the Obscurus dwelling within Ariana's soul.
From Tom's perspective, the so-called Obscurus was nothing more than a concentrated mass of manifested magical energy that had been corrupted and twisted by trauma.
Put simply, it was magic that had been tainted by particular emotions and given terrible purpose by a child's desperate wish—nothing more complicated than that, really.
The mystery that had baffled generations of magical scholars was, to Tom's alien understanding, just a particularly nasty knot that needed unraveling.
Through his time observing this world with the fresh perspective of an outsider, Tom had discovered that Harry Potter's magic was remarkably abstract in its fundamental nature.
Compared to the stable, structured magic systems he remembered from Western fantasy stories with their rigid rules and consistent principles—, his world's magic functioned more like wish fulfillment, more fluid and intention-based.
It was a special energy that manifested desires and intentions directly into reality, shaped as much by belief and emotion as by technique and knowledge.
The Obscurus phenomenon occurred when young wizards, terrified of their own magical nature by abuse or trauma, unconsciously wished their power away so ardently that their magic responded to that desperate desire.
The magic, being fundamentally responsive to its wielder's will, tried to grant that wish but magic cannot simply cease to exist. Instead, it transformed itself into something else, something destructive and parasitic.
It became a monster born from a child's desperate prayer to be normal, to be safe, to not be hurt anymore for what they were. The cruel irony was that in trying to protect their young hosts from outside harm, the suppressed magic became the greatest danger of all.
But regardless of its monstrous form and the tragedy of its creation, an Obscurus remained fundamentally magical energy at its core—just slightly more temperamental and infinitely more dangerous than usual.
And to Tom, magical energy was nothing more than a toy to be manipulated at will.
[(￣ω￣) A mere ball of magic thinks it can cause trouble? Be a good little thing and disappear, meow!]
However, during the brief moment Tom spent analyzing the situation with interest, the destructive black energy rapidly condensed together with alarming speed. It was attempting to envelop Ariana completely within its writhing mass.
"Meow?!" (Holy crap, this thing actually tries to devour its host?!)
Sensing that Ariana's soul could merge irreversibly with the Obscurus at any moment, Tom's playful demeanor vanished instantly. He didn't dare hesitate for even a second.
He hastily extended his paw and like unraveling tangled thread with patient precision, carefully extracted a single strand from the churning black mass.
Then, under the shocked and horrified gazes of everyone present, he opened his mouth and—like slurping up a noodle—sluuuurp sucked down that tendril of concentrated dark magic in one smooth motion.
As Tom continued drawing in the darkness with steady pulls, although more black vapor kept pouring from Ariana's body like blood from an opened wound, the overall mass visibly thinned.
When the last wisp of darkness was finally pulled from within her, Ariana's ethereal form suddenly dropped from where it had been hovering several feet in the air.
Fortunately, despite being weakened considerably by the Obscurus's violent removal, she was still fundamentally a ghost rather than a living body that could be injured by the fall.
Operating on pure instinct, Ariana managed to arrest her descent and float herself upright just before an embarrassing collision with the floor. She
"(;ﾟДﾟ) Is... is this even possible?"
Watching the scene unfold before his eyes—watching a cat casually consume one of the darkest, most dangerous phenomena in modern magical history like it was nothing more than an afternoon snack, Dumbledore felt as though his entire understanding of magic had just been struck by a Confundus Charm.
What exactly was an Obscurus?
It was a dangerous, tragic phenomenon that he, Newt, and even Grindelwald in his prime had been utterly unable to solve!
A problem that had stumped some of the greatest magical minds of multiple generations.
Though they could easily destroy an Obscurus through overwhelming lethal force, doing so would inevitably kill the innocent Obscurial trapped within.
Back then, he, Newt, and even his estranged brother Aberforth had made countless efforts to change Credence's fate. Yet all their attempts had yielded nothing but failure.
And now what had he just witnessed? Tom had consumed the Obscurus like it was nothing more than a strand of pasta being slurped up at an Italian restaurant?
What did that make all their years of desperate research? All their sleepless nights and failed experiments? All their failures and heartbreak?
As for Tom himself, he was currently savoring the dark energy as it settled in his stomach while replaying in his mind the moment the Obscurus had emerged from every part of Ariana's ethereal form.
[Wait a minute... from a certain perspective, doesn't this count as an indirect kiss? The kind that touches every inch of skin, even... (._ .)]
At that thought, Tom's movements froze for a split second, his blue ears were flattening against his head in mortification. Fortunately, he recovered quickly, shaking off the awkward realization with a physical shake of his entire body:
[Well, I genuinely didn't expect the Obscurus to be so different from the magic orb Pandora created that time.]
He recalled Luna's mother, whom he'd saved using the same method just a few years ago by swallowing the rampaging sphere of magical energy that had erupted when her experimental spell went catastrophically wrong.
It was extremely fortunate that Ariana no longer possessed a physical body.
When the Obscurus tried to devour her during its formation, it had faltered—stuck between states like a computer program encountering an error, giving Tom the critical opening he needed to slurp the whole thing down before it could adapt and complete its terrible transformation on her soul alone.
One could say that if even the smallest detail had gone wrong, today's situation would have become exponentially more complicated and dangerous.
[(´-ω-`) Thank goodness the outcome was favorable. The Obscurus has been successfully eliminated. Otherwise, I genuinely wouldn't know how to face her trust in me.]
Watching Ariana continuously examine and assess her condition with wonder, Tom felt a wave of relief wash through him that was surprisingly intense.
Though he possessed various miraculous abilities, there was no getting around the fundamental problem—his expertise didn't align with this particular magical discipline!
Until he achieved a deeper understanding of this world's magic system and its peculiar rules, he couldn't guarantee that his other methods would successfully resolve Ariana's condition.
"Tom, thank you!"
Finally freed from the Obscurus that had been her constant shadow since childhood, Ariana felt lighter than she ever had in her entire existence, living or dead.
She flew toward Tom with unrestrained excitement and embraced him tightly. Tears of joy shimmered in her translucent eyes.
Now, at last, she could make friends without the constant fear. Never again would she have to worry about losing control of her emotions during a moment of happiness or excitement and accidentally harming those around her.
Gently patting Ariana's head with his paw, Tom showed a casual air and patted his own belly with exaggerated nonchalance, as if he consumed world-bending dark magic every Tuesday:
[Hey, this was nothing special! It wasn't even as troublesome as the magical mishap Auntie Pandora created that one time!
I managed to digest that monstrosity just fine. So naturally a little thing like an Obscurus was no problem at all~]
"Mm, but still... thank you so much!" Ariana nodded vigorously.
Then she floated away from Tom with a faint blush coloring her spectral cheeks.
She drifted excitedly toward Dumbledore. She spread her arms wide to embrace her brother though her ethereal limbs passed straight through his solid body without resistance.
"Brother, can I join Hogwarts now?"
Dumbledore forced himself to maintain composure managing a gentle smile despite the emotional storm churning beneath.
"Of course, my dear. Starting today, you are officially a student of Hogwarts!"
"Wonderful! This is wonderful!" Ariana spun in a circle.
Then a thought occurred to her: "Can I be in the same House as Tom?"
Though she yearned to meet many new friends and explore all the possibilities that Hogwarts offered, as her first and currently only true friend, Tom held a special place in her heart.
If possible, she hoped they could share the same House, share classes, share the experience of being students together.
"Ha, that's not something your brother can decide, I'm afraid." Dumbledore gazed tenderly at his sister,
"Which House you enter depends entirely on your own qualities and desires, little Ariana. The Sorting Hat has been making these decisions for over a thousand years, and it's far better at it than I could ever be."
Having said that, he turned toward Professor McGonagall, who had been watching the entire process with an expression that cycled between shock, disbelief, fascination, and grudging acceptance of the impossible:
"Minerva, would you be so kind as to conduct a Sorting ceremony for these two rather exceptional students?"
Speaking thus, Dumbledore retrieved the Sorting Hat from its place on a nearby shelf. He handed it to Professor McGonagall. While Ariana curiously observed the legendary Hat with wide, fascinated eyes. Dumbledore quietly made his way to Tom's side.
After a moment of silence, during which he seemed to be gathering his thoughts, he spoke in a voice so soft it trembled subtly with suppressed emotion:
"Thank you, Tom... truly, thank you so very much."