Chapter 149: The Hog's Head

Tracing Newt's location through the two-way mirror, Xiwen opened a dimensional gateway leading to the Hogwarts’ alternative haunt, the Hog's Head Inn.

Stepping through the golden aperture, Dumbledore, the young wizard Xiwen, and the phantom Xiwen entered the tavern in succession.

Truth be told, this was Xiwen’s first time visiting the pub run by Dumbledore’s brother, so the moment he stepped inside, he began looking around with curious eyes.

The interior of the Hog's Head was cramped and filthy, permeated with a pungent, musky odor that might well have come from goats. The tavern's windows were caked with grime, letting virtually no sunlight filter into the room; the only illumination came from a few flickering candles set upon rough wooden tables.

The young wizard Xiwen looked down at the stone floor, which was covered in a layer of dirt as if it had never been cleaned in its existence, and carefully tiptoed across the slightly cleaner patches of the flagstones, feeling as though there was nowhere proper to set his feet.

"Doesn't anyone ever clean this place?" he couldn't help asking.

"Come if you like, leave if you don't!" bellowed a tall, thin man with a goatee rudely.

Xiwen shot the man an annoyed look, then caught sight of features somewhat similar to Dumbledore's, complete with the very same piercing blue eyes.

"Are you Mr. Aberforth Dumbledore?" Xiwen asked, putting aside his irritation at the man's rudeness and the filth of the floor, observing him with keen interest.

"So, are you expecting me to praise your powers of observation?" Aberforth rasped gruffly. As he spoke, he casually wiped down a glass in his hand with a rag that looked as though it hadn't been washed in decades.

"Xiwen, Aberforth just has that kind of personality. He doesn't actually mean any harm, and I hope you can understand," Dumbledore said, stepping over to Xiwen.

Xiwen shook his head and was about to reply when Aberforth’s gruff voice cut him off.

"I don't need a little whippersnapper's understanding!" he growled.

Hearing his brother undermine him so mercilessly, even Dumbledore couldn't help feeling a touch awkward. He decided to say no more, and silently led Xiwen further into the back of the pub.

The two of them walked into a back room, where they saw a number of people already gathered around a rather grimy table. Most of them were veteran members who had joined Dumbledore’s cause the previous winter—Newt, Theseus, and Yusuf Kama.

In addition, there was a pretty witch in the crowd wearing a deep blue jacket.

"Albus, Strange, oh—and Xiwen, you've made it!" Newt said, rising to greet the two arrivals and the one ghost. "What a coincidence, I was just telling Tina about Strange."

"That certainly is a coincidence!" the phantom Xiwen nodded, looking at Newt as he asked, "Newt, this must be your girlfriend, Tina Goldstein, right?"

"That's right, she's my fiancée now," Newt said with a shy smile.

"Tina, this is Mr. Stephen Strange, the very powerful ghost I was just telling you about."

With great interest, Tina walked over to Xiwen, extended her hand, and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Strange."

The phantom Xiwen looked down at Tina's outstretched hand, momentarily bewildered.

"I almost forgot, I can't shake hands with a ghost," Tina laughed, withdrawing her hand and nodding to Xiwen instead.

Xiwen nodded back politely in return.

To be honest, Xiwen was quite curious about Tina. He couldn't fathom what kind of witch could capture the heart of a man like Newt, whose mind seemed perpetually devoted to magical creatures.

Besides, there were no shortage of famous stories about her—not least how Newt had once used a "fire salamander" to describe Tina's eyes...

It was a pity Xiwen had never laid eyes on a fire salamander, so he had no idea how romantic that unspoken metaphor between the two of them truly was.

"Thank you all for making the journey here today," Dumbledore said with a smile. "Before we begin, I must tell you that our task ahead remains arduous!"

"Grindelwald and his followers have been stirring up riots all across the globe. They make no effort to conceal their actions from the Muggle world, which suggests they intend to carry the exposure of our magical community to its absolute conclusion."

"Indeed, the MACUSA threat level indicator for magical exposure has now shifted to orange, signaling an extremely grave risk of exposure!" Tina chimed in, taking over from Dumbledore and addressing the group.

"Speaking of which, how has MACUSA been handling this?" Dumbledore asked with interest.

"Things are slightly better with us than they are in Europe, but the situation is still far from optimistic," Tina introduced gravely. "Grindelwald has a considerable following in America as well, and every riot is primarily driven by masses from the lower strata of the magical world, which leaves the Magical Congress in a very difficult position."

"We cannot simply throw everyone into prison on a whim, yet neither can we stand by and do nothing. However, the instigators of these riots tend to slip away very quickly, and though the Auror Office has mounted several operations to capture the ringleaders, few have met with success."

"Consequently, the Congress dispatched me here to coordinate with you all, which is how I finally found the time to come." Tina glanced at Newt beside her, and the two exchanged a knowing smile.

"Things are holding up reasonably well here in Britain, likely because Dumbledore is in Britain," Theseus added by way of supplementation. "Our Aurors still have enough surplus manpower to assist other nations in answering the call of the International Confederation of Wizards."

"The situation in Britain and America looks tolerable for now, but it cannot go on this way indefinitely. Grindelwald will not be satisfied with mere small-scale disturbances like these," Dumbledore said to the gathered company after listening to Tina and Theseus.

"Our most pressing problem right now is that we are caught in a mismatch of timing. Because of his gift of foresight, Grindelwald always manages to slip away from a location just ahead of my arrival, which is why I haven't truly crossed paths with him once in these past few months."

"So, does your plan this time mean using the dimensional gateways to help you reach Grindelwald more swiftly?" the young wizard Xiwen asked, puzzled. "But wouldn't Grindelwald foresee this method of travel as well?"

"You are quite right, which is precisely why this is the specific problem we need to discuss," Dumbledore nodded. "Naturally, our plan this time will be far more difficult to execute."

"Having been deceived by us during the last election, Grindelwald will no longer completely trust what he sees. He is not the sort of man to make the same mistake twice!"

"So, will this plan be another planless plan?" the phantom Xiwen couldn't help asking.

"No, our objective this time is to ensure he knows our plan," Dumbledore said with a light chuckle and an air of inscrutable mystery.