Chapter 715

After separating from Hermione, Felix returned to his office and entered Classroom Seven.

The space in Classroom Seven seems to have expanded again, here both imagination and reality will intersect; you might have originally walked a few steps into a path in this place, then it would suddenly turn into a beautiful garden … Felix deviated from the path that students usually use in class, and through the layers of mist, a small, humble village emerged before his eyes.

Felix stood in front of a small, plain house and knocked on the door.

It was Grindelwald’s memory body that opened the door. To Felix’s surprise, what he saw before him was not the image of a younger person, but the face of Grindelwald in his old age, but when he looked closer, his face seemed a little different.

“I knew you would visit me, so I used this face to meet you. I have been waiting for you for a long time.” The old man grinned and laughed. He was wearing a purple robe, his demeanour was calm and subdued, and there was no trace of hostility could be discerned.

The two of them sat down opposite each other. “You have something to share with me?” Felix asked, and then gave the old man a curious look, “Are you complete now? I mean, your memories-”

“Of course, of course.” Grindelwald said, “At this moment when I’m talking to you, I’m more complete than ever. You know what? After staying for a while, I’m actually not very happy with this place.”

“Why?”

“One reason: it’s too dull, and only two memory bodies in the whole space have the characteristics of life, which is equivalent to half a living person.” Grindelwald said. This surprised Felix quite a bit, because although the memory bodies looked like they are alive, they are very different in the way of existence compared to real people, for example, their perception of time is very different.

“You surprised me just as much by appearing to be no different from a regular person.” Felix said as he looked at Grindelwald’s memory body with a probing gaze, and the other man smiled without speaking.

“Other than the first reason? You said you were waiting for me, so it has something to do with me?”

Grindelwald nodded slightly, then slowly shook his head again.

“I did initially intend to talk something with you, after the funeral, I decided to leave the necessary information and talk openly, but you never came … later those ghosts told me what you had done in the meantime, and I decided that there is no point in talking anymore, you have fully grasped my intention. ”

“Then today–”

“It’s a sort of farewell. Or would you like to hear a story from my past? You know, it’s a strange feeling to meet them, but they don’t remember me like I’ve turned back time and everything starts over, but I’m the only one who remembers what really happened. My memory becomes a burden.”

“Do you mean Dumbledore, or his sister Ariana and nephew Credence?”

“Aurelius,” Grindelwald said slowly, “I prefer to call him that, that boy has helped me a lot.”

Felix made a gesture of listening.

“Aurelius Dumbledore,” said Grindelwald, “I remember … well just seventy years ago. He chose to join my side during the underground rally at Lestrange Mausoleum, after my careful planning. You can’t imagine the importance I placed on him.”

“Because of his lineage?” Felix asked.

Credence was Dumbledore’s nephew, but for a long time neither Dumbledore nor Aberforth knew of his existence, and it’s fair to say that it was a huge secret at the time, and it definitely took no small amount of research for Grindelwald to figure it out.

“More than that, he was an Obscurial, an Obscurial who lived to adulthood. His potential was unimaginable, surpassing ninety-nine percent of wizards by sheer instinct alone despite never receiving a systematic education in magic – I had planned for him to follow my footsteps.”

Felix was taken aback by this statement, and he looked at Grindelwald, who had no need to lie, and Felix sorted out many scattered threads along the line.

Grindelwald’s biggest obstacle at that time was Dumbledore, even with the Blood Pact standing between the two, as long as Grindelwald didn’t give up his dream of ruling wizards and muggles, they would surely go against each other as the whole world would force them to do so.

In the end, even the most unbreakable blood pact proved that everything would crumble.

“Rather than sitting back and waiting for Dumbledore to find me, my plan was to nurture a wizard who could rival Dumbledore and fight him on a number basis.” Grindelwald said slowly.

“Nurture an Archmage? That was a daring notion.” Felix relaxed his breathing, he put himself in Grindelwald’s shoes at the time, and all he could think was that this plan was a thousand times harder.

“A bit whimsical indeed, but I eventually found a solution – perhaps even the only viable solution, the Obscurial.”

Felix drifted off. Grindelwald was aware that the Obscurial couldn’t live past the age of ten, the proof was Dumbledore’s sister Ariana. Perhaps he originally had the idea of finding a young Obscurial, taking good care of him, and helping him subdue his own dark magic, the Obscurus, but he didn’t expect to accidentally pick up the lost child of the Dumbledore family. Credence.

“A child who rivals the Archmage in terms of potency and emotionally constrains Dumbledore simply fits my requirements perfectly.” Grindelwald’s memory body said slowly and thoughtfully as if he was personally sitting in front of Felix, talking calmly to him about past schemes and hidden secrets that were not known.

“That rally also allowed me to grasp a crack in the Ministry of Magic as an Auror killed a common folk who came to hear my speech, which gave me a perfect excuse. It was not me who sought out violence, and from that point on, the Acolytes engaged in a full-scale confrontation with the existing hierarchy of the Ministry of Magic.”

“My power expanded rapidly. In the middle of this process, Aurelius and a woman who could read minds played a huge role. The former appeared all over the world while receiving my teachings, and defeated the Aurors in various countries; the latter – I remember her name was Queenie – used her innate talent to identify the spies placed in our ranks by hordes, and with the ability of Legilimens she was able to keep a check on bad apples.”

“Everything was moving in a good direction.” Grindelwald said calmly. But Felix knew there was a twist coming, and sure enough –

“I had kept the secret of Aurelius’ identity hidden, to use it as a killer, ready to use at the critical moment. But several accidents occurred one after another, on the one hand, a phoenix followed him everywhere on the battlefield and became famous. A phoenix -” Grindelwald clicked his tongue, “the Dumbledore family has a legend; when their family members are in dire need, a phoenix will appear. It was probably what drew Dumbledore’s suspicions; I was forced to reduce his appearances.”

“Good times did not last long, his body went out of order, and his ability became extremely unstable, I thought of some ways, but I still couldn’t do anything other than watching his body moving toward its collapse, perhaps this is the fate of Obscurial … I was disappointed by this, I was sure he also realized this by himself, he volunteered to assassinate Dumbledore; but I refused, as he was totally not Dumbledore’s opponent at that time. Later … later he brought over his little girlfriend, she was Maledictus, when they met again, her condition became serious, and most of the day she took the snake form. They stayed together all day until one day, Aurelius disappeared for a while and came back empty-handed …”

“Is that woman’s name Nagini?” Felix asked.

“Do you know her too?”

“I know her and even met her once, but in the appearance of a snake. I think it was Aurelius who set her free.”

“Set her free?” Grindelwald repeated in a low voice, “I thought she was dead.”

“Remember the woman I mentioned who could read minds? She had the same problem – well, it wasn’t about how her sister, desperately tried to bring her back, but something else – she had a muggle … lover and wished for them to publicly stand together. But after so much time, there was no hope in sight, so her stance began to waver. I noticed her negligence, especially in the most important task – the assessment of Aurelius’ mental state and in the matter of concealing his origin. When I realized this, I knew that the original plan was not suitable anymore, and I had to speed up.”

“I decided to run for the International Confederation of Wizards’ Supreme Mugwump seat that year. In fact, no matter what the result was, I was ready to wage war against the Muggles, but there were many people opposed us at that point in time, and I wanted them to join my side.”

“I found a clue about the Qilin, which has unique magic that can increase the chances of my victory in the campaign, so I sent several small teams to look for it, and finally it was Aurelius who brought it back. I turned that newborn Qilin into a puppet, and also saw part of the future with the help of its blood … saw Dumbledore. At that time I had a premonition, although I handed him the blood pact for several years, he did not find a way to crack it, but I did have a bad feeling.”

“It turned out to be just as I expected. I managed to get elected as Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards thanks to the already dead Qilin, but that trick was foiled when Newt Scamander brought in another Qilin, and it turned out they were twins. It was all Dumbledore’s master plan, he had no idea what he had done. It wasn’t that I wanted to create division, but rather he was creating it. At that moment I finally made up my mind, I drew my wand, and Aurelius stood in the way …”

Grindelwald’s eyes became cloudy.

“It was as if everything had happened just yesterday, me, Dumbledore, and his brother, three of us all at once fired out, while the defenseless Obscurial stood next to us, nevertheless the result was very different, Aberforth was irrelevant, my spell connected with Dumbledore’s, and the chains wrapped around his hands finally shattered.”

“I had a brief clash with Dumbledore, the first time we had fought in over thirty years, and when my hand contacted his heart, I could feel his heartbeat, but could no longer sense his inner thoughts. This meant that the Blood Pact was completely broken.”

“The plan was forced to suspend, and temporarily I couldn’t focus on waging war on Muggles, Dumbledore got in the way, even though I came the closest to success.”

“So the Blood Pact shattered because – ” Felix asked.

“I’m not sure, it was an accident.”

“It couldn’t possibly because of love, could it?”

“Huh, maybe. The Blood Pact uses blood as a link, but it takes a strong emotion to solidify the magic into shape, and we’ve been bound by that emotion for decades, and we can’t break the bond no matter how hard we tried. The only thing that makes sense might be that Dumbledore used a stronger love to override the limits of individual emotions at that time.”

Grindelwald’s memory body stood up and walked to the door.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Felix asked all of a sudden.

“Perhaps because, after today, this will become a permanent secret.”

Silver specks of light began to escape outside of Grindelwald’s memory body, then his face changed little by little, becoming younger, and his back regained its stature, his hair turned into a brilliant gold colour, and when he opened his eyes, his pupils were clear blue.

As he said at the beginning, the memories of the past became a burden, and if he wants to start over, he must let go of unnecessary things.

…

When the students came downstairs the next day, they found a white and cold fog covering the yard. As the trio passed the bulletin board in the entrance hall, Harry saw a group of people pointing at the bottom, and from the looks on their faces, the notice was a positive one.

“Let’s go over and take a look.” Ron said.

“No need,” Harry said, “I know what it is, if nothing goes wrong, it should be about the first Hogsmeade weekend schedule.”

Ron whistled lightly.

“That’s great, I heard some new stores have opened in Hogsmeade, I’ll have to check them out.” He said, “But how did you know that?”

“I suppose,” Harry flashed a smile, “probably because I posted it there myself.”

“Ron,” Hermione said kindly, “If you look closely, you will also find the handwriting on the notice resembles the homework you usually use for ‘reference’.”

Despite knowing this in advance, Harry looked ahead in anticipation to this short trip in three days, he simply wanted to go out and let off some steam and clear his head, even if it only consisted of having a drink with Ginny at the Three Broomsticks and spending two or three pleasant hours.

“Hey Harry,” Hermione said, “you could take this opportunity to ask Mr. Doge to meet you, didn’t you say you wanted to talk to him face to face?”

Harry froze, and halfway through he muttered, “I’ll write to him.”

“Why don’t you guys use the communication mirror?” Ron asked, in confusion.

“Mr. Doge isn’t used to it.” Harry said, “He thinks writing letters will help him clear his mind.”

At that moment Neville came towards them, his face was flushed, and he seemed to be wider than usual, it was uncertain whether it was from the cold or from being overdressed. They went to the great hall together to eat.

At about the same time, Felix appeared at the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Horace Grimsditch, President of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, appeared not long after. When they were about to part, the expression on the other two men’s faces looked extraordinarily grave.

“I will send Aurors to search and investigate,” Horace Grimsditch said in a deep voice, “and the investigation will be conducted in secret, without affecting the next general assembly of the Confederation.”

The Headmaster of the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry also said, “If there are really young wizards in their hands, the most cost-effective way is not to imprison them or do all kinds of experiments, but to let them grow up – whether it is for the purpose of cracking the mysteries of magic or training a force of wizards of their own, both of them are better than Simply imprisoning them. What’s more, they can also send them to find out all kinds of information by using their wizard identity …”

They talked in detail for a while, and then Felix appeared at the headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards, waiting for the assembly that would be held in the afternoon. He had a vague picture in mind, and Grindelwald’s words made him realize that he was also creating a division between wizards as a whole, although this might not be obvious at the moment and seemed necessary – Grindelwald’s identity did make some of the problems easier – but there is no doubt that the two forces will eventually have to be brought back together.

“It requires a perfect opportunity …”

—————

[Author:]

Felix and Grindelwald definitely need to meet, but meeting in reality, would not meet the expectations, so it was changed to Classroom Seven; also out of frustration with the new films, I took the plot of the last three films, and combined it with my own ideas to tinker with it and insert it into the book. I’ve always wanted to do this, but I didn’t find the right opportunity before.

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