The Unspeakables—just hearing the na, one would expect them to be serious and disciplined professionals. In Kyle’s mind, they were supposed to be the no-nonsense type—get things done, keep their mouths shut.
Diana, for example, was much more composed and thodical at the Departnt of Mysteries than she ever was at ho.
But the one standing in front of him now... Kyle couldn’t shake the feeling that she was quietly laughing at him. It felt exactly like catching Fred and George doing sothing absurd—and instead of helping, standing by just to enjoy the show.
He rubbed his forehead.
How should he put it? This Unspeakable was a little too lively—definitely not the cold, professional figure he had imagined.
But there was no ti to worry about that now. Kyle took two steps forward and began, "I have sothing to—"
"Yes."
Before he could finish, the Unspeakable nodded.
"What?" Kyle blinked, thrown off.
"You’re here to ask to pass a ssage to Diana, aren’t you?" the Unspeakable said calmly.
"You know that?" Kyle asked, puzzled. "Did you overhear our conversation?"
"No. And I didn’t need to," she replied, shaking her head. "Under normal circumstances, you should still be at Hogwarts. But here you are, at the Departnt of Mysteries. What other reason could you possibly have besides looking for Diana?"
"That does make sense... Wait, how do you know I was at Hogwarts?" Kyle blurted out—then instantly shut his mouth.
He was supposed to be impersonating Dumbledore there, sothing absolutely no one else was supposed to know. His trip to Hogwarts was top secret. Aside from him and a few professors, no one should’ve had any idea.
His brain had short-circuited just now. He’d let it slip without thinking.
Kyle gave his head a shake, trying to snap himself back into focus.
"Confused?" the Unspeakable asked, glancing at him. "Or did you really think Albus using a Ti-Turner would go unnoticed by the Departnt of Mysteries?
"We’re talking about a hundred years. That kind of temporal span is massive—so massive that the mist in the Hall of Ti is practically spilling over. If the Departnt of Mysteries didn’t notice sothing like that, we might as well shut down entirely."
"Uh..." Kyle had no reply to that.
He’d nearly forgotten—this departnt dealt with ti, space, and all manner of intangible forces. If soone used a Ti-Turner, of course they would know.
"Godric’s Hollow. The sitting room of Madam Bathilda Bagshot’s house. That’s the place, isn’t it?" she continued. "As soon as the Ti-Turner was used, we went to investigate. There were a lot of people nearby, yes, but with a little effort, we narrowed it down. You were the only possible person involved."
"Why ?" Kyle asked. "Why not anyone else?"
"Because of the phoenix," the Unspeakable explained patiently. "Phoenixes are incredibly rare magical creatures. They don’t just bond with anyone. The fact that you had one with you told us everything. Any other questions?"
"So you’ve been following ?" he asked.
"Not exactly. ’Following’ sounds too harsh," the Unspeakable said. "You’re Diana’s family. We just... paid special attention to your movents. For instance, we noticed you went to King’s Cross Station on September 1st to see soone off—Harry Potter."
"But you didn’t co back with the others. Which led us to deduce that you boarded the train and went to Hogwarts."
"Couldn’t I have Apparated back early?" Kyle asked.
He was imdiately t with a look that could only be described as you know better than that.
"Okay, yeah, that was a dumb thing to say," Kyle admitted awkwardly.
The Departnt of Magical Transportation could track Apparition traces. And if the Departnt of Mysteries had been watching him, of course they’d already accounted for that.
"It’s alright. Understandable. Don’t worry about it," said the Unspeakable, smiling—or at least, he thought she was.
"And I don’t need to walk you through what happened next, do I?" she continued. "You went to Hogwarts, and then—surprise—Albus Dumbledore shows up at the Start-of-Term Feast."
"No need," Kyle said, shaking his head. "So... you already know why I ca to the Departnt of Mysteries, don’t you?
"If you’ve been monitoring this whole ti, you’d know I went to France. You’d know what I went through there."
"That part... we actually don’t," the Unspeakable said with emphasis. "Let say this again—we weren’t following you. We just made educated guesses based on your travel patterns and the events that followed. Diana knows you well enough that it wasn’t difficult."
Diana...
Kyle’s mouth twitched slightly.
If it was his mother behind all this, then yeah... it all tracked.
"Besides, getting into Beauxbatons isn’t exactly easy—even for us. Naturally, we don’t know what you experienced there."
"But..." she added, changing tone, "based on Diana’s assessnt, you ca to the Departnt of Mysteries because you realized that Albus Dumbledore is trapped in the past—and you want to bring him back."
"Yes," Kyle admitted with a nod. "I want to know what I should do."
"Preferably? Nothing at all," said the Unspeakable. "If you just let soone else handle it, there’d be nothing for you to worry about. Personally, I think Minerva McGonagall would be a great choice. She’s capable, detail-oriented, and perfectly suited to retrieve Albus from the past."
"I know," Kyle said. "But I have a feeling... that this will fall to , no matter what."
"That so?" The Unspeakable paused. "Then the advice is the sa. Do nothing. Let things unfold naturally."
"’Do nothing,’" Kyle repeated. "That co from my mother?"
"The first part, yes," the Unspeakable replied. "You should know she’d never approve of you using a Ti-Turner. I can pass on the ssage if you’d like, but the answer’s almost certainly going to be the sa."
"No need. Thanks anyway," Kyle said, shaking his head. He turned to leave.
But then he stopped, glanced back, and asked, "Do we know each other?"
"You could say that," she replied.
"Who are you?"
This ti, the Unspeakable didn’t answer. She simply raised her hand and opened a black door that had appeared out of nowhere.
Just before stepping through, she said lightly, "You’ll find out—but not yet."
The door shut behind her and lted seamlessly back into the wall, vanishing without a trace.
Kyle called out twice.
No response.
"What a strange person," Kyle muttered under his breath.
He stepped into the lift and returned once more to the bustling main hall, still thinking over the Unspeakable’s words and trying to match her appearance to anyone he might know.
But no matter how long he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out who she was. None of the familiar faces in his mory matched.
As he mulled it over, Kyle made his way through the busy hall toward the Floo fireplace corridor.
He couldn’t have been on the ninth floor for more than an hour. At that rate, there was no way Chris would have returned from the Hebrides yet.
So Kyle didn’t bother going to find him. Instead, he simply used the Floo Network to return to the Burrow.
...
"Fred, George, will you two be quiet for a minute!"
"Charlie, could you grab a cushion? This chair’s too hard."
"Mum, you already gave him two cushions. Why can’t he just stay at St. Mungo’s?"
"Yeah, maybe Big-Headed Boy could write a brilliant report on hospital bed firmness."
"Even better than his cauldron-bottom report."
"You’re ruining his career..."
...
The Burrow was full of voices—chaotic, overlapping chatter from every direction.
When Kyle stepped out of the fireplace, everyone instinctively looked his way.
"Sorry to interrupt—oh, Percy, when did you get back?" Kyle said in surprise, catching sight of the pale, thin figure seated in the center of the room.
Percy Weasley. He’d been caught up in the Death Eater attack on the Ministry and had ended up in St. Mungo’s after being hit with both the Cruciatus and Imperius Curses.
Kyle hadn’t expected him to be discharged this soon.
"Just now. Mum brought back about half an hour ago," Percy replied, his voice weak.
"Why didn’t you stay a few more days?" Kyle walked over and noticed Percy still looked pale, his red hair dull and lifeless.
"I know the director there—you could’ve taken your ti to recover."
"There’s no way to rest in a place like that," Percy said, shaking his head. "It’s overcrowded. The guy in the bed next to was hit by so weird dark magic—he kept thinking he was a snake, crawling all over the room. Last night, he even broke out of his restraints, climbed onto , and tried to swallow whole."
Just rembering it made Percy shudder involuntarily.
Fred and George, on the other hand, burst out laughing, nearly falling over.
Fred was wiping tears from his eyes. "He started with Percy’s feet!"
"I bet he’ll never eat anything unusual again," George added, leaning on the table for support.
"Will you two keep it down!" Mrs. Weasley tried to scold them, her expression stern—but even she looked like she was trying not to laugh.
"In any case, we should be thankful to that man," she said. "If not for him, Percy wouldn’t have woken up so quickly."
"I doubt Percy wants to thank him," Fred said, raising an eyebrow.
Percy certainly didn’t.
Waking up to find soone trying to eat your leg was the kind of trauma that could haunt you for life—more terrifying than the Imperius and Cruciatus Curses combined.
That was why Percy had urgently asked Bill, who was keeping watch at his bedside, to send for Mrs. Weasley and bring him ho.
"In that case, why don’t I contact Director Sykes and have you moved to a different ward?" Kyle offered. "St. Mungo’s really is the best place for treating damage from the Unforgivable Curses."
"Thanks for the offer, Kyle, but it’s really not necessary."
Just then, Mrs. Weasley ca over and placed a large tray of sweets on the table.
"When I went to pick him up, I asked the Healers. They said Percy hadn’t been under the curses for long, and now that he’s regained consciousness, he should recover just fine. Resting at ho is actually better for him than staying at St. Mungo’s."
"Yeah," Percy nodded. "I feel more relaxed here already."
"Oi! Who are you really?" Fred suddenly shouted, making everyone jump.
George whipped out his wand and pointed it at Percy. "Whoever you are, don’t you dare use the Imperius Curse on Percy!"
"You two—"
Mrs. Weasley, startled and fuming, rolled up her sleeves and stord toward them, ready to twist their ears.
Fred ducked away from her hand, putting on a serious face. "Mum, you’ve all been fooled. Percy would never say sothing like ’The Burrow is comfortable.’"
"Yeah, he used to say it was suffocating and that he’d never co back!" George chid in.
Mrs. Weasley froze mid-step, her expression shifting to sothing more complicated.
Because... they were right.
Percy had said those things—back when Voldemort still hadn’t shown himself publicly and the Ministry was still denying his return.
At the ti, Percy had stubbornly sided with Fudge, even at the cost of alienating his own family. From that mont on, he hadn’t set foot in the Burrow again.
Even after Fudge changed his tune and Voldemort made a dramatic return, Percy only offered a quiet apology—but he continued avoiding his family and had never truly co ho.
The Burrow fell into a heavy silence. Kyle had no idea what to say to break the tension.
And truthfully, it wasn’t his place. This was a Weasley family matter.
Feeling awkward, Kyle tried to distract himself. He carefully reached for a Tooth-Splintering Mint, slowly unwrapping it and doing his best not to make a sound.
Just as he peeled it open, a thick arm shot out beside him and snatched the candy.
Charlie glanced back at Kyle as he popped it into his mouth.
It was clear he felt just as uncomfortable.
Though he was a Weasley too, he’d been in Romania when Percy fell out with the family. By the ti he returned, the others had mostly stopped talking about it.
And now... he had no idea what to say either.
"I’m sorry."
It was a long ti before Percy finally spoke. "I don’t know what ca over back then. Maybe it was just stupid pride. Even when I realized I was wrong, I didn’t know how to face you and Dad... so I thought, as long as I didn’t see either of you, I could pretend nothing had happened..."
"But I know I was wrong. I’m sorry. And if it’s still possible... I’d like to co back. Back to this family. May I?"
Percy looked nervously at Mrs. Weasley, his hands tightly wringing together.
"What are you talking about, you silly boy?" Mrs. Weasley’s eyes filled with tears in an instant as she pulled Percy into a tight hug. "You’re part of this family. You can co ho whenever you like."
"That’s it?" Fred muttered, clearly displeased. "One apology, and all the rubbish he pulled just gets wiped clean?"
"And you two." Percy turned to them. Even though he was still weak, he stood up shakily. "I’m sorry for everything I did. If you want to take it out on , go ahead. I won’t stop you. Just let co ho—even if it’s the attic."
Then he bowed deeply, just like he had at the Quidditch World Cup when he’d seen Barty Crouch. He bent so low his glasses slipped off onto the table.
"You... don’t think saying that makes everything okay," Fred said, his earlier indignation faltering. He looked at Percy, then quickly looked away.
George was the sa. The two of them stood there, a little stiff, like they hadn’t quite processed what was happening.
"Unbelievable. You actually said sothing like that?" George tossed his wand aside.
It hit a chair and, with a soft pop, transford into a plush cod toy.
"Now I’m seriously wondering if you’re even Percy," Fred said. "The Percy we know would never apologize to his own brothers."
"He’d just say, ’Fred, George, can you two keep it down? I can’t concentrate on my book.’"
"And then go tattle to Mum."
"You can check if you want. Use whatever thod. I won’t object," Percy said.
"Don’t talk like that, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, wiping her eyes. "I trust the Healers at St. Mungo’s. If they say you’re well enough to co ho, then I believe them."
"We’ll check anyway," George muttered through a mouthful of candy after hastily unwrapping one. "But forget the attic. If we made you sleep up there, Mum would kill us."
The two of them still looked uncomfortable—or maybe they just hadn’t expected Percy to change so much. With a muttered, "We’re heading back to the shop," they made a hasty retreat.
The Burrow’s front door opened and shut.
"I don’t think I’ve ever visited your ho," Charlie suddenly said, turning to Kyle.
"You haven’t since you graduated," Kyle replied.
"Has it really been that long? How’s Tom doing?" Charlie asked. "That Kneazle your family keeps."
"He’s doing well. He’s put on quite a few pounds, though Dad insists it’s just that his fur’s grown longer."
"I’ve always liked Kneazles. Smart little creatures, and a lot easier to deal with than dragons. Mind showing him to ?"
"Of course not." Kyle stood up, and the two of them left the Burrow together.
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