Chapter Five
An Expected Tea

Coincidences being what they are, especially among fantastical stories and real life, Professor Dumbledalf, who naturally knew all about the osmium-taegidium effect, the torus, and its powers over minds, and was a senior member of the Brethren to boot, happened to have befriended Jeremiah Potts years before, after a chance meeting involving rabbits (Jams tended to shoot ‘em and he tended to eat ‘em), and had known young Hapless since he was very small. One fine Saturday afternoon, Dumbledalf sat warming his feet before the fire as Jams Potts was in his shed, putting Dumbledalf’s Sunday dinner in a bag. As he gazed around the room, Dumbledalf spotted the doughnut and inspected it closely. It seemed familiar.

“Where did you get this object?”, he asked Jams, who was scraping his boots at the back door.
“Won it in a bet”, came the perfunctory reply.
“Hmmm, curious”, said Dumbledalf, “Do you know what it is? I’m sure I’ve seen something like this before”.
“No idea at all”, replied Jams, “but I like it.”.

He entered the room bearing two cups of tea. All through the ensuing conversation, Dumbledalf’s thoughts dwelt more and more on the doughnut. It was clearly more than it seemed, and it was obvious that some mechanism was concealed within. Jams, however, was more interested in showing Dumbledalf the new walking stick he had made and, his mind distracted by these immediate matters, Dumbledalf thought little more of it at the time, but after musing on it unconsciously for seventeen years, he eventually realised what the doughnut might be.