Chapter 2
The time goes back to before Dumbledore set out, "Professor Dumbledore, I must speak with you!"
Professor McGonagall called out to Dumbledore with a deadly serious expression.
"Minerva, I'm afraid I have an urgent matter I need to attend to right now—"
"I know." Professor McGonagall, uncharacteristically cutting Dumbledore off without regard for courtesy, continued, "It's about Lucian, isn't it?"
"Minerva, I must say I'm a little surprised." Dumbledore's expression remained completely unchanged, yet the atmosphere clearly grew heavier.
"I never imagined even you knew about him. It seems the influence he's had is far greater than I thought!"
"Of course I know him. He was my student—no—no—what are you talking about!" Professor McGonagall's eyes widened as she realized Dumbledore had completely misunderstood her meaning.
"I've kept up regular correspondence with Lucian for years. I communicate with him far more frequently than you do. Of course I know him! Not in the notorious way you're thinking! I mean as a fellow achedemic!"
Professor McGonagall was clearly getting agitated, her tone carrying a touch of indignation.
"…"
Dumbledore's eyes widened slightly, then quickly lowered again.
"Oh. My apologies. I didn't realize you meant it in that sense."
Professor McGonagall wasn't the type to hold grudges. She kept her face stern and fixed Dumbledore with a piercing stare."The Ministry wants you to personally go and capture him?"
"Indeed. While what he's done hasn't caused any immediate harm, both Fudge and I can see a dangerous trend developing. He will most likely be sent to Azkaban." Professor McGonagall blinked once, then twice, choosing not to speak immediately.
After a moment came a heavy sigh.
"Oh no…"
But that was all she said for a while. No one understood Lucian's thinking better than she did.
This student believed that magic was a miracle of mind over matter, a profound mystery containing the ultimate principles of the universe—yet at the same time, it was a science that could be taken apart and understood.
Whether it was charms, Transfiguration, or even the Dark Arts—everything had patterns and rules. The only reason they weren't understood was that they hadn't been studied deeply enough.
During his extremely low-profile twenty-one years, Lucian had successively mastered every charm, reached to almost her level of Transfiguration, and then combined charms and Transfiguration to invent numerous spells that even made Professor McGonagall applaud in admiration.
What pleased Professor McGonagall even more was his open-minded willingness to share. Lucian believed that simply understanding and mastering knowledge wasn't enough—only when you could successfully teach it to others could you say you had truly mastered it.
Although he had never taken up a professorship at any magical school, he had traveled the magical world for many years, taken on more than a dozen students, and even had two assistants whom Professor McGonagall herself greatly admired.
She had once tried to persuade Lucian to stop researching the Dark Arts. In the end, it was Professor McGonagall who was convinced instead.
In truth, every truly powerful wizard had studied the Dark Arts at some point—even Dumbledore and herself were no exception.
What Lucian was doing wasn't really so different from what they had once done… only the era had changed.
Professor McGonagall racked her brain desperately, trying to think of any possible way to spare Lucian from this fate.
Dumbledore sensed the complex emotions swirling within Professor McGonagall and felt somewhat surprised. It was rare to see Minerva showing such complicated feelings.
Did she perhaps hold a completely different view of that quiet student, who always kept himself in shadow?
"Minerva, I deeply respect your perspective." Dumbledore's expression softened as he gazed at Professor McGonagall, who had hurriedly lifted her head.
"Regarding Lucian—if you have any thoughts or opinions, feel free to tell me. I promise you I will consider them carefully and seriously."
Professor McGonagall hesitated for a moment. Although she knew her words would definitely influence Dumbledore's judgment, she still spoke.
"Professor Dumbledore… apart from capturing Lucian and sending him to Azkaban, is there really no other possibility?"
"Of course there is—as long as he agrees to abandon further research into and dissemination of the Dark Arts."
Professor McGonagall's heart, which had just begun to relax, tightened again. Finally she let out a defeated sigh.
"That's impossible."
"He's already that obsessed?"
Dumbledore's eyebrows lifted slightly, and his inner inclination tilted toward the other side.
"Obsessed…? Perhaps. But it is definitely not an obsession with the Dark Arts. It is an obsession with magic itself."
Professor McGonagall sighed again, her mind racing, searching for any other possible solution.
Lucian wasn't just her former student—he was also the close friend she had corresponded with for over a decade, and a true kindred spirit in both teaching and the study of magic.
Even with their differences in philosophy, Professor McGonagall still sincerely respected and felt fortunate to have someone like Lucian in the world.
"I thought magic wasn't only about the Dark Arts branch?" Dumbledore gave a mildly sarcastic remark.
"According to him, he has already reached the end of the road in both charms and Transfiguration—unless some new perspective is introduced, such as Dark Arts or Ancient Runes. But in his view, Ancient Runes is a field with insufficient accumulated knowledge. Asking him to abandon the Dark Arts to study Ancient Runes would be like ignoring a gold mine right in front of him to go digging underground instead—that's what he personally said."
Dumbledore's eyebrows rose almost imperceptibly. Now he was intrigued.
Although he didn't think Ancient Runes were quite as useless as Lucian claimed, he still found the other's perspective on the relationship between the Dark Arts and Ancient Runes rather interesting.
Of course, Dumbledore would never admit that, deep down, he had once thought something quite similar.
Otherwise, why would he have studied the Dark Arts in the first place?
"Reached the end of the road? That's quite a bold claim."
Even Dumbledore wouldn't claim that he could no longer improve in magic. Still, he had indeed seen people who, after reaching a certain stage, could never make any further progress.
"At the very least—are you certain he has truly mastered all charms and all levels of Transfiguration? Or could this simply be an excuse?"
"As far as I know, he only achieved eight O's in his O.W.L. exams. Of course, that's already an extremely impressive result—he didn't even use a Time-Turner. But compared to his own goals…"
Hogwarts library contained the vast majority of knowledge about charms and Transfiguration. Even *Secrets of the Darkest Art*—a book dealing with Dark magic and the Unforgivable Curses—was kept in the Restricted Section.
But no student could possibly master all of that knowledge during their school years. And after graduation, acquiring such knowledge became far more difficult.
Moreover, Lucian had neither joined the Ministry nor the Death Eaters. So how exactly had he obtained all that knowledge?
Or… had Minerva simply been deceived by him?
"When I first learned about this, I was shocked for quite a long time. I even went to verify it myself—I must admit, when it comes to the sheer number of charms he has mastered, I truly cannot compare with him."
As if suddenly remembering something amusing, a smile reappeared on Professor McGonagall's face. She even felt in the mood to tease a little—because just moments ago, another possible solution had occurred to her.
Although the Defense Against the Dark Arts position changed professors every year… compared to sending him to Azkaban, Professor McGonagall would much rather let Lucian take the gamble.
And she believed he might actually be able to solve the problem.
"What method did he use?"
Seeing that Professor McGonagall was only smiling and not speaking, Dumbledore asked half in amusement, half in genuine curiosity.
"He memorised the entire library—including everything he needed from the Restricted Section."