25. Old Vandal!

Ryan was studying a book he found in the Black Library, one focused on difficult charms. Or more accurately, the fidelus charm. He had started investigating this charm to learn how Pettigrew could roam freely even after being the secret keeper, without diving into the rat's mind. Detective Black was on the case!

His fantasies aside, Aria had reported to him about Dumbledore contacting someone else, which he had actually considered to be the case. While Ryan had thought of Dumbles as the final boss before, the scare had made him reevaluate a lot of things.

Ryan and Aria had analyzed the movement of the invisible inked quill, which she was able to do easily, and deciphered Dumble's message, which spoke of the change in the wards of the castle, and the possibility of someone being aware of his plan and the descendant of one of the four founding houses.

Except for that, the shadows just saw Dumbles try to damage or override the wards again but failed to do so. Unfortunately, Ryan didn't see Dumbles use the magic of the signature of the bird's stand.

But from what he was able to observe, Dumbledore was most definitely not an idiot. No, the man seemed to be very cautious since arriving back from ICW. Except for the few attempts, the shadows never saw Dumbles do anything other than his official headmaster duties. This was making Ryan very confused, and he wondered if Dumbles was somehow aware of the shadows or if the one he was seeing was an illusion, but Aria denied both claims. She also deduced Dumbles was probably acting patiently, trying to make Ryan take action.

Ryan couldn't help but see Aria's deduction as the most possible scenario. A crone like Dumbles would definitely know better than him about patience and mind games.

In the end, he just told Aria to keep an eye on the twinkle eyes. He also decided to not associate Ryan Black with his recent problems, or it would endanger the Tonks family. If Dumbles was a normal wizard, it wouldn't have been a problem, but the magic he was using was still triggering Ryan's instinct.

From the few attempts, Dumbles was currently looking at people above 16 as he believed only a lord could remove his wards, which granted Ryan a slight advantage. The other was one he was going to create himself.

So, for now, he was going to place the knowledge of him being related to the Potters under a fidelus. This would make most never realize the relationship unless he himself told someone or they saw a written document detailing this. The fidelus only had the drawback that it couldn't erase what was already documented as it affected memories. As for how it does that? Ryan would have to research this himself.

"This should work," Ryan mumbled to himself and teleported away to his appointment. The fidelus required 2 people, the caster and the secret keeper, so Ryan decided to ask someone who was already aware of the secret. King Ragnok. Of course, Ryan didn't get the approval for free, but Ragnuk showed him leniency due to house Pendragon being a friend of the goblin nation.

Ryan went to Gringotts and told Ragnuk about finding Dumbles talking to someone and about his plans on getting documents from Gringotts, which angered the king who thought Dumbledore was looking down on them.

What Ryan didn't expect was the fidelus had no effect on him. Ragnuk was ready to tell Ryan the secret, as both had expected him to forget it, but Ryan's question about the spell failing shocked him into silence for a few moments before he burst into laughter. Confirming another passive effect, Ryan delayed the acquisition of the other rings again and changed his appearance with metamorphmagic, and headed to Olivanders.

Ryan needed to confirm something and give Dumbles another shock, so he gave himself the looks of one Gojo Satorou and headed inside. Dumbles wanted him to make a move, so he shall do exactly that.

"Welcome, welcome, how can I help you, young man?" Olivander asked, curious about the young foreigner.

"Ah, hello" Ryan spoke in broken English, giving the impression of being a foreigner. "I come to buy wand." He spoke.

"Ah, of course, of course, you have come to the right place. Please show me your dominant arm." Olivander asked. Ryan extended both his arms, making to wandmaker raise an eyebrow, but he measure his hand nonetheless. Olivander moved back when suddenly a box flew out and Ryan caught it while looking panicked.

In reality, he had sensed the particular wand and pulled it through telekinesis. The particular wand was 11'' long and made of holly wood with a phoenix feather as its core. That's right, Ryan planned to rob the wand Dumbles had planned for Marcus.

Olivander was too shocked to reply and Ryan used the chance to open the box and pick up the wand, which caused a silver phoenix to come out of its tip and fly around him, this time shocking him as well since he was still having trouble with a patronous and one had just appeared out of nowhere.

"Ah, is tis' why ma friend said a wand chooses its wiz'rd?" Ryan spoke, quickly coming out of his shock, deciding to investigate what happened later, "Thank you, Mr. Old Vandal, here is my payment," Ryan said and placed a pouch of galleons, and bolted out of the shop before Olivander snapped out of his stupor.

He immediately entered stealth and watched as a panicked Olivander exited his shop in a frenzy and tried to look around, but didn't find anyone. He then saw him enter and take out some items. Ryan frowned as his instinct warned him, and put his wand in his inventory as a precaution. He was glad he followed his instinct as Aria had found some traces on the wand to monitor it which matched the magical wavelength Olivander's apparatus had.

Snickering at what happened, Ryan exited stealth as himself and went to Madam Malkins to pick up some robes he had ordered before with special enchantments, for both Hogwarts and outside, and teleported back to the castle. It was still over one month till Ryan's birthday, but he knew his letter would be arriving soon because McGonagall had started writing them.

"Oh, Dumbles, Dumbles, what will you do?~~" He sang and waited for Aria to show him the perspective from his shadow ants in Dumbledore's office.

**A Few Minutes Later**

Dumbledore was again plotting to set up his old wards, hoping to lure out the one who had destroyed his work behind his back, when his floo acted up. He accepted the signal and Olivander's face showed up in the fire.

"Dumbledore, something bad has happened, let me in." Dumbledore paused for a second and opened his floor gates, which flashed brightly and Olivander showed up from the flames.

"Garrick, how have you been? Lemon drops?" Dumbledore said, acting grandfatherly like always.

"This is bad Dumbledore, the wand you had me make is gone," Olivander spoke hurriedly.

Dumbledore's face immediately changed as if he ate a particularly sour lemon drop, "What do you mean disappeared?" He asked 'calmly'.

"It's better you see my memory," Garrick spoke. Dumbles took out a pensive as Garrick took out a memory strand through his wand and inserted it in the pensive, and both dived inside. Both came out of it after a few moments, and Dumbledore had lost all expressions on his face.

"This won't do... the letters are supposed to be delivered tomorrow. There isn't enough time to have another wand be made of Fawkes's feather." He muttered as he paced around the office, and Olivander watched him.

Dumbles turned towards the bird and said, "Hand me your tail feather, now!" The phoenix looked at Dumbledore for a few seconds, but still plucked one feather out. Dumbles turned towards Olivander and said, "We have lost the pair of feathers plucked that exact day, but we still need young Marcus to have a sibling wand. I will have the letters delayed, but I can't do it for too long or the board would get suspicious. Go, hurry."

Olivander took the feather and placed it in a box, and flooded back to Diagon Alley. Dumbledore paced around the office, frowning. Things have not been going his way. First the wards, and now the wand. Someone... knew of his plan, or at least some parts of it, and was working against him. He needed to find out what was happening, and the first step was to find the silver-haired boy who took the wand.

**Back to Ryan**

"Didn't expect him to delay the letters. That would impact a lot of things if he did so. I still don't understand why he is planning all this... What's your endgame Dumbles?" Ryan said, looking at the man pacing around his office.

Ryan looked at the wand in his hand and closed his eyes. He started to shift through his memories, trying to synchronize them with the feeling he experienced in the shop. Shuffling through them, he entered a particular one. Him coming out of the cinema with the Tonks family, laughing at what they had seen, with ice cream in hand.

Ryan's eyes opened and he muttered, "Expecto Patronum." A silver beam of fire shot out of his wand, forming a ball at some distance, which split itself to form a phoenix. Ryan even heard the phoenix release a cry before flying around the room and then perching on his shoulder, looking at him curiously. Ryan had the same look of curiosity, wondering how was the phoenix acting so sentient.

Ryan extended his hand which got engulfed in his obscurus. The patronous Phoenix chirped and flapped its wings, sending some burning silver feathers on it, which suck into the pitch-black obscurus, devoured by Belezzebuth for analysis by Aria. Desummoning the patronous, Ryan relaxed in his chair and wondered what would Dumbledore do, and does he really have to maintain his cover given his current capabilities.

After thinking for a while, Ryan concluded he was doing this for his entertainment as well as to now protect his new family. He had found something that could threaten him, and he was sure as hell not going to run away. No, Ryan would stay here to learn and outgrow whatever Dumbledore had in store and come out stronger. Ryan was now a Pendragon... and you don't step on a dragon's tail.