"I… really appreciate that you didn't bring Severus with you," Dumbledore said sincerely, nodding.
"…Is it still in time if I call him over now?"
"Ah! Sorry, too late. But rest assured, Gellert would never harm any of the young wizards. Even the Aurors at the Ministry don't believe he'd hurt a single child,"
"He also personally promised me he wouldn't, under any circumstances, try to instill his ideology into the students," Dumbledore explained.
"What's in it for him? Then why's he coming to Hogwarts to be a professor? Everyone in the European wizarding world knows that anyone who wants to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts either has something shady going on or is hopelessly bad at magic. If Mr. Grindelwald really can make that kind of promise, then what's even the point of him being here?" Kasen laid it out, plain and honest.
"Wow… So this is what Hogwarts has become under your leadership?" Grindelwald cast a long, pointed look at Dumbledore. His words turned to daggers, stabbing straight into Dumbledore's chest once again.
"I'm sorry. Inviting you to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was also partly for selfish reasons… That position is cursed by Tom. And as you know, I'm not as skilled as you are when it comes to those nebulous, void-born curse magics," Dumbledore said, looking straight at Grindelwald.
"As you wish." Grindelwald nodded agreeably.
"Is that enough for you?" Dumbledore shot Kasen a resentful look—clearly still bitter about how Kasen's blunt honesty had just embarrassed him in front of Grindelwald.
"Mhm… alright then… So, where exactly is Mr. Grindelwald staying during his time here?" Kasen nodded, then casually threw out a gossip-loaded question.
"..."
"…Fine, if you won't say it, I won't ask. I'll go check in on Professor Trelawney instead."
Just then, Grindelwald, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, suddenly spoke. "I can only say that you won't get any answers from that second-rate seer."
"…And what other hidden talents do you have, old man?"
Kasen's gaze flicked back and forth between Grindelwald and Dumbledore.
"He's a Prophecy Magus—he can see the future,"
"Wait, what? Damn.. that's seriously impressive," Kasen said, genuinely surprised.
"If you're looking for that special kind of wood, try the Amazon rainforest or the African savanna," Grindelwald offered casually.
"Wow, thanks. So those two places have the wood?"
Grindelwald shook his head. "That's simply what I saw in the future—you searched those two places. Whether the wood is actually there is unclear. There might be something else you're meant to find in those places."
"Wow, really, thank you so much. But I still need to visit Trelawney—I even prepared a gift for her." With that, Kasen turned and left Dumbledore's office.
"Why did that 'thank you' sound so passive-aggressive? That one line—'Wow, really, thank you so much.'"
"You just need to get used to him," Dumbledore explained. "Once he's familiar with you, the way he talks will be so overly friendly it'll scare you—and make you long for when you'd just met."
"Sounds like you are already feeling nostalgic."
"I am. Back then, he was so sincere, so shy, so…"
Ahem, ahem, ahem…
Dumbledore pulled out a bottle of potion and tossed it to Grindelwald.
"If your throat's feeling scratchy, drink the medicine."
"..."
...
"Oh yes… yes, try opening your third eye… Everyone has a third eye—it's just a matter of whether you've opened it."
The moment Professor Trelawney saw Kasen, she yanked him over to a seat and forced him into a chair.
Then she launched straight into a divination lesson.
"Yes, how is it? Do you feel your third eye opening?" Professor Trelawney asked.
"Uh… what exactly am I supposed to be seeing?" Kasen asked.
"That's something you must ask yourself—what do you want to see?"
"I see… I see Hogwarts in ruins, but no one is hurt. I'm holding blocks and rebuilding a grand castle atop the wreckage."
"I also see myself, during the summer holidays, finding the two plants I need—wood and flower."
"I see myself becoming a writer, with readers who love my books and shower me with gifts."
"That's enough, Professor Kasen. Now try to combine them," Professor Trelawney guided him gently.
"Uh… I guess I'm supposed to see… myself using the gifts from my readers to find the tree and flower I'm looking for, and then using them to rebuild Hogwarts?" Kasen made it up on the spot.
"Excellent! Professor Kasen, you have a natural gift for Divination!!!" Professor Trelawney praised.
Meanwhile, sitting there, Kasenhis could only muster an awkward, polite smile.
Gift for Divination, my ass.
He'd just blurted out the first images that popped into his brain. And as for the "vision," he'd just mashed the three ideas together into one.
Still, credit where it's due—at least this time, Professor Trelawney didn't hit him with a dramatic death prophecy. That alone was worth celebrating.
Professor Trelawney really had changed… she no longer seemed obsessed with predicting funerals. Though… maybe that still needed a question mark.
Hmm… yeah, that definitely deserved a question mark.
"Alright then, Professor Kasen, keep it up every day—maintain your Third Eye training. One day, you'll open it for real and become a Seer, just like me," Professor Trelawney said gently.
"Uh… sure." Kasen nodded awkwardly. As for that so-called Third Eye training—yeah, he was definitely going to skip that.
Divination, from what he'd gathered—not through study, but from upper-year students' complaints—was a subject that relied entirely on natural talent.
This "Third Eye" business… if you didn't have it, you just didn't have it.
The idea that it could be awakened later? Probably nonsense.
Divination wasn't something you could fake. Maybe giving Professor Trelawney a tragic death prophecy about himself could help him pass the final exam, but in the end, the future would always reveal the truth.
________
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