Even Dumbledore hasn't told him the answer. What the old schoolmate said in his book was that he felt Dumbledore didn't know either, but Ian thought that Newt just hadn't navigated the relationships properly.
"Newt the old schoolmate definitely doesn't have this thing!"
Ian picked up the two letters under the rising sun outside the window, each with a photo inside. Of course, he would only choose to include the delightful group photo in the letter to Albus Dumbledore—after all, Ian didn't know Abeforth and didn't like eating goat meat.
As per routine, he woke up his roommates.
Just as he stepped into the dining hall, Ian hadn't yet paired his breakfast from oatmeal, bread rolls, cornflakes, pickled fish, eggs, bacon, and toast and butter, when the headline from today's wizarding world newspaper had already reached Ian's ears from the surrounding chattering little wizards.
[Shocking! According to insiders, the Ministry of Magic has lost a Dementor, and it might be wandering anywhere now, however, our irresponsible Ministry of Magic denies this!]
Several newspapers have published this news.
Both senior and junior little wizards were quite concerned about it.
"I bet! This isn't the first time! When I was young, I saw a Dementor at my doorstep! My non-magical mom insisted I wasn't being scientific and said what I saw could only be an alien!"
"That's just how the Ministry of Magic is, bureaucracy is too rampant, they don't know how to correct their mistakes, only how to cover them up, sooner or later the entire wizarding world will be ruined by this group of trash!"
"Indeed, even though my dad is just a minor official, our cellar is stuffed full of Galleons. He said if he doesn't take them, Umbridge the Deputy Minister will fire him."
"Ah? Is this really something you should casually tell us?! I think instead of focusing on the corruption of the Ministry of Magic, maybe we should ask whether the Dementor from that dark magic Defense class was real…"
...
Seeing William trying to incite other little wizards to seek the truth, Ian hurriedly approached, furrowing his brows and rebutted in a tone that seemed like reasonable judgment, "If a Dementor really got lost, there would have been deaths already. Have you seen any news of someone dying?"
Not waiting for everyone's response.
Ian loudly made the decision himself.
"No! Not a single person has died! So this proves it's just people with malicious intent trying to damage our Ministry of Magic. Right now is when the Ministry of Magic most needs our support!"
"Let me guess, I think it must be those Death Eaters who are trying to disrupt our harmonious wizarding society. Many of them are still working at places like the Prophet Daily!"
"Do you trust the Death Eaters or the Ministry of Magic?"
"Can the Ministry of Magic's words really be false? I don't believe it! It's an authoritative official institution, we should choose to believe in the Ministry of Magic's announcements and have a little more trust in our judicial system!"
The positive energy-filled speech, accompanied with rational analysis and judgment, plus Ian's usual image in the eyes of the little wizards, successfully shifted the topic from the lost Dementor to the unscrupulous newspapers—Ian secretly breathed a sigh of relief and joined the criticism of these newspapers.
Everyone seemed somewhat reluctant to mention the Death Eaters.
Tom indeed has lingering influence.
Ian and his two roommates finished their breakfast, picked up the "Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi" and "Magic Potions and Elixirs", preparing to apologize to Snape today and let the matter from the last class pass. Before they could make it to the second floor, they saw the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Grindelwald waiting beside a dozen boxes.
"It's Professor Lockhart!"
The two roommates were quite scared of Gilderoy Grindelwald, who bore the appearance of Gilderoy Lockhart, due to the Dementor incident. They even still suspected the previous Dementor was actually the one lost by the Ministry of Magic. A majority of the little wizards who attended that class easily linked the lost Dementor with Gilderoy Grindelwald.
However.
Since Ian stood up to support the Ministry of Magic, classmates who always attended Ian's little classroom naturally wouldn't refute—even if they inwardly didn't want to report their school professor.
After all, there's still seven years to go.
Who knows if little wizards who report professors will get unfair treatment?
"Kid, lend a hand here."
Gilderoy Grindelwald noticed Ian and immediately gestured to him. Ian saw his two roommates practically speed away from his side.
"Traitors!"
Ian had no choice but to brace himself and step forward to greet. Considering numerous little wizards were coming and going, he still addressed the professor as Professor Lockhart.
"You should have learned the Wingardium Leviosa spell, right? Move them to the Forbidden Forest entrance; I have to wait a while before going over," Gilderoy Grindelwald ordered Ian without any courtesy.
Ian wished dearly he'd studied Teacher Morgan's technique instead last night, being preoccupied with researching egg hatching; otherwise, he could have shown more assertiveness in front of the professor.
"Professor, my Magic Potion Class is about to start, and you wouldn't want your student to be late, right?" Ian could only try leveraging some moral coercion.
Unexpectedly.
Gilderoy Grindelwald merely raised an eyebrow, "I imagine to start the class, we need to catch some things. Guess why? Choose between being late for Magic Potion Class or choosing Azkaban, I think your decision isn't difficult. Hmm, let me think, you probably wouldn't want the Ministry of Magic knowing their lost things are with you, right?"