Hogwarts: This Dark Lord is so evil.

Chapter 530 A Surprise Gift for Dumbledore
In the blink of an eye, several more days have passed.

Ariana was carefully cared for by Percival in the cave for several days until she fully recovered and awoke from her slumber.

“Ariana, you’re finally awake. How are you feeling?” Percival asked with concern.

Ariana saw a stranger beside her and, frightened, shrank into the corner of the stone bed.

"Who...who are you? Don't come any closer! If you dare to bully me, my brother will...will beat you." Ariana trembled like a frightened little rabbit.

“Ariana…don’t you recognize me? I’m your father!” Percival looked at Ariana with heartache.

Upon hearing this, Ariana cautiously looked up at the stranger in front of her. She felt that he looked somewhat familiar, but she was still not sure.

"I remember once when you were little..."

When Percival saw her like this, he knew she had recognized him, so he patiently began to recount Ariana's childhood stories, one by one.

As Percival rambled on, his image gradually overlapped with the image of her father in Ariana's memory.

Ariana was simply ill and unable to control the erosion of the Obscurus; she wasn't a mentally unstable person.

So, as Percival recounted the events one by one, she gradually calmed down and soon recognized the weathered man in front of her as her father, who had been imprisoned in Azkaban.

"Dad...it really is you, you...you've finally come back?"

Ariana's voice was soft, but to Percival's ears, it sounded like the most beautiful music in the world.

"Yes! I'm back! I'll never leave you again..."

……

Li Weide and Tom have also been keeping busy lately, frequently venturing into deep mountains and forests.

With the help of Caroline, they searched for various rare and magical plants and animals, and made a lot of progress.

When they returned to the cave, they were each carrying a suitcase filled with rare plants and animals that could no longer be found in this world.

Of course, they didn't take all these creatures away; they thoughtfully left some for the world.

"Alright, it's time to go back," Li Weide said, looking at the cave in front of him.

“Yes, let’s go home,” Tom said.

But he quickly turned to look at Li Weide, "You... your way of getting home can't possibly go wrong again, can it?"

"That's not the case... If I can't go back, there are people who are more worried than me," Li Weide said with a smile.

If Li Weide doesn't make it back, Death will be much more anxious than he is.

“Go in. Get ready, we’ll leave.” Li Weide said, pushing aside the protective magic and striding inside.

As the two entered the cave, Caroline was leaning against the stone wall at the cave entrance, quietly watching the father and daughter embrace each other.

“You’re back,” Caroline said.

"Hmm... have they finally recognized each other?" Li Weide asked.

"Yes. So, what else do you want to do next? When are you leaving?"

Caroline was getting impatient for the great adventure that was about to begin, especially after hearing that her counterpart in another parallel world was incredibly powerful.

Meeting another version of yourself sounds pretty interesting. What's more, there are living, breathing Gryffindors, Slytherins, and Hufflepuffs.

"Have you and your friends made arrangements?" Li Weide asked.

“I’ve already explained it to them. I told them I was going to explore ruins around the world and might be out of contact for a while,” Caroline replied.

"Okay, then let's..."

Before Li Weide could finish speaking, he suddenly heard a crisp "ding" in his mind!
"Ding! System repair progress 8%! System shop is updating, merit points are being settled..."

"Ding! Congratulations, host, you have successfully rescued Ariana and Percival, and have gained 178567 merit points."

"Ding! Merit Points balance is...buzzing...temporarily unavailable!"

Li Weide's heart skipped a beat. Good heavens, this system, which has been dormant for so long, has finally started to move again!
He thought he had traveled to the wrong world and that there was no way to fix the system.

He quickly opened the system interface, which had previously displayed some glitches, but was now much clearer.

The items in the system store are also showing as being updated, and should be available for redemption again soon.

The system's merit point balance was still a jumbled mess, making it impossible to tell how many merit points he had accumulated.

However, judging from the frequency of the garbled text, the merit points are still slowly increasing.

At the same time, a progress bar appeared at the bottom of the system interface.

There is also a line of small text above the progress bar.

System repair progress: 8%

In this light, the system is similar to a game modifier; the repair effect will only be activated when the merit points are significantly altered.

Just like now, after Percival was rescued and fully reunited with Ariana, the system finally started popping up rewards.

The reward was skipped before the repairs even started...

"Hey, what's wrong with you? Have you been bewitched by some kind of dark magic?" Caroline raised her hand and waved it across Li Weide's face.

She had just been talking when he suddenly froze, staring blankly into space. She had thought Li Weide had been cursed by some dark creature.

"It's nothing... I just suddenly felt a little hungry." Li Weide came to his senses and exited the system interface.

Tom frowned at Li Weide. "Really? ...Didn't you just eat a whole roast chicken before you came back?"

"Huh? Really? I mean, I want some dessert... You know, the stomach for desserts isn't the same as the stomach for regular meals." Li Weide has already read the random reply.

Tom stared at him in shock. "No...aren't you some delicate little girl?"

……

Ariana finally learned from Percival what had happened and understood the current situation of the father and daughter.

“Thank you, Vader. You not only rescued my father, but also cured my illness…” Ariana expressed her gratitude very shyly.

“You’re welcome, Ariana. It’s what I should do. Any capable and good person wouldn’t be indifferent to something like this,” Li Weide said with a smile.

Tom couldn't help but laugh when he heard Levi say that he was a good person.

But considering Li Weide's ruthless methods, he ultimately chose to pinch his thigh hard to barely maintain his composure...

"So, does that mean I'll never see my brothers again?" Ariana said sadly.

“No, Ariana, we will see them again soon,” Percival said. “They will still be your brothers in the future, won’t they?”

“Yes…no matter how old they are, they are still my good brothers…” Ariana said softly, her eyes reddening again.

"Ariana... are you still sad?"

“I’m heartbroken for my brothers. They all thought I was dead, didn’t they? They won’t see me again for decades… How will they get through that long?”

“Oh... Ariana…”

Li Weide watched them talk quietly from the side without interrupting.

To this day, he still makes the father and daughter believe that they are going to a future timeline, not a parallel future timeline.

Although upon closer examination, he did feel somewhat sorry for the father and daughter, he had no choice but to do so in order to fully unleash Dumbledore's fighting power.

After everyone had fully recovered, Li Weide erased all traces of habitation from the cave, and finally secretly left a magic circle on the ground. This would be the time anchor point for sending Caroline back after the mission was completely completed…

Before leaving, Ariana secretly went to check on her two brothers and happened to see young Albus and Aberforth parting ways at the front door of their house...

With Ariana's passing, the family finally fell apart.

This left Percival and Ariana, who were secretly observing, with extremely mixed feelings.

After making all the preparations, Li Weide found a secluded open space and invited everyone to put their hands on him.

He raised his right hand, and the Grim Reaper symbol on his palm slowly lit up. The next second...

"Whoosh!"

A dazzling red light flashed!

The people in the open space also disappeared as the red light faded...

……

Floating city, basement.

The enormous magic circle suddenly flashed with dazzling light, and in the blink of an eye, several more people appeared...

"Ugh..." Tom leaned against the wall, almost throwing up. "Didn't you say... you'd feel better on the way back?"

“I need to make changes, but I can only implement them after I get back. Just bear with it this time…” Li Weide said with a smile.

At this moment, Percival and Ariana were also pale. They finally understood why Livid insisted on waiting until they were fully recovered before "time travel".

That feeling was absolutely awful!

Caroline remained silent, merely observing the magic circle on the ground with curiosity.

The incredibly uncomfortable time travel she had just experienced seemed to have no effect on her at all.

"Anyway, I'm finally back. I need to rest for a few days!" Tom stretched.

“Then you might not be able to rest,” Li Weide said.

"Why?" Tom had a bad feeling.

"I need to find someone and ask you exactly how many days of classes you missed..."

"Holy crap!?" Tom was dumbfounded.

"Who told us our time travel to start so suddenly? I haven't even had a chance to teach you how to ask for leave yet..." Li Weide said with pity.

"How much time has passed? Could the exams be over by now? What if I miss the exam..." Tom's face turned green.

"It's not that bad. The timeline is the same, and only a short time has passed," Li Weide said, picking up a newspaper from the side and looking at it.

This was something he had instructed Toby to put a newspaper here every day, so that when Victor returned, he would know how much time had passed.

Tom took the newspaper, glanced at it, and his voice became numb. "So... I skipped school for almost half a month..."

"Toby!" Ignoring the emo Tom, Li Wade summoned his house-elf directly.

"Young Master Wade! You're back!" Toby excitedly appeared in front of Wade.

“We have guests. Arrange accommodations for them, and then… send a message to Professor Dumbledore and Uncle Aberforth, asking them to come over,” Li Wade said with a smile.

“Yes!” Toby walked up to Percival and the other two. “Please come with me…wait, Miss Miravia?”

Toby stared in astonishment at the witch in front of him who looked exactly like Miravia. He remembered that Miravia seemed to have never left.

Ariana looked at Toby curiously, not understanding why he called Caroline Miravia.

Li Weide coughed twice, "Ahem... I took a time-travel trip, so this is not Miravia, but... Miravia's grandmother Caroline."

“Grandma…Grandma?” Caroline looked at Li Weide in shock.

If she weren't outmatched, she would have loved to rush over and give that bastard a good beating! She hasn't even found a boyfriend yet! Where did this granddaughter come from?
Tom put his hand to his forehead. This bastard just lies so easily!
However, neither Ariana nor Percival suspected anything, because this was the future, and it was perfectly normal for Caroline to meet her granddaughter.

“Then this Miss Miravia must look a lot like Miss Caroline,” Ariana said innocently.

Caroline sighed, "Well, I'd like to meet my granddaughter properly... and ask her what kind of grandfather I've found for her..."

Toby seemed to realize he had said the wrong thing and stood aside looking terrified.

“It’s alright, Toby. Go ahead and take them to rest.”

……

Dumbledore and Aberforth soon arrived at the floating city.

They met in the garden in front of the moving castle.

Aberforth's son, Aurelius, followed beside him, looking at the floating city with curiosity... this magnificent building that he had only seen in newspapers.

"Aberforth, Aurelius, good afternoon," Dumbledore greeted cheerfully.

"Hmph..." Aberforth ignored Dumbledore's attempts to ingratiate himself and turned his face away.

"Sigh..." Dumbledore's eyes dimmed.

Although he had let go of some of his inner turmoil, the rift between him and his younger brother was ultimately difficult to mend.

"Uncle Albus, hello." Aurelius didn't seem to have much animosity and greeted his uncle.

At that moment, Toby appeared at the castle gate.

"Welcome, everyone. Young Master Wade said he insisted on inviting you to the reception room because there are some guests he has invited back there, and he hopes to meet you there."

“Wade’s back?” Dumbledore breathed a sigh of relief. “Then Tom must be back too? He hasn’t been to class for days…”

“Yes, Master Tom is back too. Master Wade said it was an accident, he left in a hurry and didn’t have time to ask the school for leave,” Toby explained.

Dumbledore, however, sensed that something was amiss. Where couldn't they have gone to send a letter back asking for leave? Good heavens, these two lads had been gone for almost half a month… If Toby hadn't seemed completely unconcerned, he would have thought those two little devils had been kidnapped by some villain like Grindelwald…

"What kind of guest wants us to meet them?" Aberforth also realized something was amiss.

"This is a surprise gift from young master Wade. You'll see when you see it," Toby said cheerfully.

The group exchanged glances and had no choice but to follow Toby inside.

Reception room.

Ariana and Percival were sitting on the sofa drinking tea.

Percival was engrossed in reading the newspapers of the time, while Ariana sat quietly to the side, looking somewhat nervous.

"Crack!"

The door opened, and Dumbledore walked in first.

But the moment he suddenly met Ariana's gaze, he was struck dumb, standing frozen in the doorway...

Ariana was stunned. Looking at her brother, whose face was full of vicissitudes, she suddenly felt a pang of heartache.

My brother, who was once incredibly handsome and full of youthful energy, has aged so much now…

"Tsk, why are you stopping? Get out of the way!" Aberforth's rude voice came from behind Dumbledore.

Aberforth shoved Dumbledore aside and strode in, then he too froze...

(End of this chapter)