"Today is a practical class."
Felix said as he stood on the podium. With a wave of his hand, hundreds of wooden jars appeared in the air, which floated in mid-air. Then he waved his hand once more and the space in the classroom began to stretch out in all directions, widening in the blink of an eye to the size of half a great hall.
The students exchanged excited looks and whispered to each other.
Then a big, ancient-looking book appeared in Felix's hand, and he opened the first page, from which a tidal wave of brightly coloured ancient runes poured out, each half an inch in size, tangled and linked together like some kind of tiny flying creature, resembling a long, unfurled scroll or a long, gorgeous carpet -Only instead of being woven out of thread, they were pieced together with ancient runes.
Felix silently looked at the wall-like runes that surrounded them for a moment with the students, and then said.
"Some of these runes are special enough that they don't blend well with the elements around them, and all you have to do is single them out - a test for both the eye and the hand, since the slightest miscalculation will destroy the nearby structure... ... If you successfully pick one off, you will receive one point, and you can use the chestnut jar to hold the runes you collected. A note, the final score will be related to the length of your homework for the day, so let's begin."
"Oh, and by the way, no wands are allowed. This will be considered a general rule for future practical classes as well"
One by one, the students came forward to take their preferred jars, while Felix himself sat in a soft chair, reminiscing about the academic conference that had just ended.
There were many people had shown up, from all over the world. As originally planned, the evening party on the first day was a sort of reception, serving to provide an opportunity for networking and meeting, something that could not be avoided as many people's impressions of each other was limited to the names and contents in academic journals, which did not reflect the real individuals.
Someone had to act as a sort of moderator, and the best person Felix had in mind was naturally Slughorn. The old professor was like a fish in water, and the smile on his face never stopped throughout the evening.
The Tonks couple also came.
They stayed for a long time in front of the huge booth. They didn't really understand much of what was being discussed, nor could they accurately discern the significance of the rune sequences frozen in front of them by Felix's magic, but every time the sound of the experts' awe rang in both their ears, their hearts wavered a little.
The hall on the ground floor of the Sword Castle was overcrowded as they searched for their daughter. Finally, they found her near a spacious pillar, with Lupin beside her, his face looked calm, but he was inwardly excited. He remembered the prophetic remarks Felix had made: that with the invention of the wolfsbane potion, new theories would emerge, and the werewolf situation would change for the better.
In a way, those words had come true. In just two years' time, an improved formula of Wolfsbane Potion has emerged at a much lower cost, and the Ministry of Magic has passed a law that grants a discount on the purchase of Wolfsbane Potion to all registered werewolves.
For that reason, a significant number of werewolves had chosen to remain neutral during the war.
But none of this was as exciting as what he had heard earlier tonight, and Lupin was already aware of the two solutions Felix had proposed - ancient magic that could control the werewolf's transformation; and advanced human transfiguration that would transform the body along with its internal structure -both of which he hoped he could do if he studied hard enough, and the latter would even allow him to become a true human for a short time, meaning he could have an extremely healthy child.
God knows how ecstatic he was when he found out about the news.
In fact, werewolf disease is not 100% passed on to offspring, but for Lupin it was akin to waiting for God's judgment, an uncertainty he could not afford after decades of being a werewolf.
There was also an episode on the day of the dinner.
Lucius Malfoy made a high-profile appearance with his wife, a couple who were well-dressed to the hilt, and promised a generous donation of 50,000 gold galleons for the good cause. This caused the politically insensitive crowd, who are currently living abroad, to gather around him to hear him talk about his son Draco's "dream of becoming a healer".
The effect ... was not bad.
"The newspaper reported," Hermione said as she carefully surveyed the glowing scroll in front of her, which looked like tightly packed bricks, "that over two hundred people were present, all experts in the three fields of potions, healing, and alchemy, as well as officials from different countries' ministries of magic. "
She pressed her right hand against the wall made of runes and easily retrieved a glowing ancient rune.
"What a masterstroke." Harry said with admiration.
"But the strange thing is that the host of the meeting was Professor Slughorn." Hermione said.
"Not that strange," Ron chimed in, leaping to his feet as he saw Harry successfully retrieve an ancient rune as well, "We all know that's what he's good at, can you think of someone who can deliver a heartfelt, emotional eulogy in front of a giant, hideous spider corpse? Oh, hell nah."
He groaned and tried to shove the ancient rune he had taken off back in, but it was too late; a dozen of the runes glowed with a dangerous red hue in front of him.
"Bang!"
Ron was submerged in black smoke, and he covered his mouth in a coughing fit as Harry and Hermione rushed to the side, nearly squeezing Neville against the wall. "Sorry, Neville!" Harry said with an apologetic face to Neville who was rubbing his jaw, Neville's eyes glistened with tears, "It's okay."
On the other side of the room, Ernie was completely oblivious to the small mishap and kept muttering to himself, "Justin got six points, I don't want to lose to him."
When the smoke cleared, Ron muttered disgruntledly to Harry and Hermione, "That was a hell of a ride, I nearly spat out the mandrake leaf, Hermione, you should have warned me."
"You chose the right target, but there was a problem with the technique." Hermione pointed out his mistake, then with a wiggle of her fingers, deftly removed a rune from the wall and raised her hand towards him.
"Like this, use your own magic to stabilize the connections around it. We only need to pick out the ones that seem out of harmony with the other ones, so it's going to be lot easier."
"I know." Ron said with a sigh of resignation, "We shouldn't be talking about Slughorn when my attention was directed towards it, we might as well be figuring it out-" he paused, gritting his teeth and removing an ancient rune like he was pulling a Lego block.
At the same time, a word came out of Harry's mouth, "Blood Pact."
Hermione drew a sharp breath and her fingers shivered as a materialized rune dissolved into pure magic and dispersed like smoke. "Watch out!" She yelled out nervously, and quickly condensing an ancient rune in her fingertip, she shoved it back in, and the three of them stared cautiously at the wall for a while, and only when the red glow on it stopped flickering, they breathed a sigh of relief.
"This game is kinda exciting." Ron said cockily, in a much better mood.
Hermione looked around twice and the crowd's attention was drawn to the commotion Cormac McLaggen was making, and she took the opportunity to lower her voice and say, "I think it's best not to say it out loud, especially when it concerns that person." She gave an incredulous look as if she might scream out in the next second, but she desperately tried to suppress it.
"It's incredible, I mean the headmaster and ..."
Harry remained silent, as he pulled a glowing rune off the wall. These were the contents he had seen in the Pensieve last week, at that point he couldn't hide it anymore, he was deep in it and desperately needed someone to talk to, the people he trusted most in the school would undoubtedly be Ron and Hermione.
In the last lesson, Harry saw a new and subversive memory.
Young Albus is preparing for his graduation trip in high spirits, but then a tragedy befalls him in the blink of an eye. His mother tragically dies due to a magical outburst caused by Ariana, and he must return home to look after his younger siblings. Harry witnessed his pain and impatience throughout and for the first time he accused Albus, who was showing impatience. Of course, the memory could not refute it, but the owner of the memory could, it was just that Dumbledore acquiesced to it all.
This caused Harry to feel a little regret. To put it another way, if he had had to stay with the Dursleys even as an adult, he would have gone absolutely mad. But they were Albus' own family after all, weren't they? But when he saw Albus forming a friendship with a young man, Harry felt happy for him from the bottom of his heart.
Until he heard the name of that person.
"Hello, my name is Gellert Grindelwald."
Harry instantly recalled the letter he had read, where his own mother Lily had mentioned in a letter to Sirius that Dumbledore and Grindelwald had once been very close friends, but perhaps due to space limitations, Lily had not mentioned the circumstances leading up to it, let alone the time. That was why Harry seemed completely unguarded when he heard the name through the mouth of the blonde boy in front of him, who was not much older than him.
What followed were large fragments of memory, but enough for Harry to realize that the friendship between the two was progressing at a remarkable pace, and he even read a few passionate letters from the perspective of a spectator, which presented themselves in a sudden and highly uncomfortable manner, the words Muggle, rule, government, army ... appearing repeatedly like a sharp thorn right before his own eyes, constantly poking him in the heart.
But none of that compares to the scene that appeared in the barn.
Two men - young, but would-be famous individuals - Dumbledore and Grindelwald, standing face to face, slicing their palms with their wands, then their hands joining together, their blood mixing as a dazzling light illuminated two young, solemn faces.
Harry felt a wave of dizziness. In the end, when the fused, inseparable beads of blood were enveloped in a metallic shell, he asked aloud what it was, and Dumbledore, who was at a loss for words, told Harry in a weak but strong voice, almost forcibly, that it was a 'blood pact', a blood oath he and Grindelwald had made.
The lesson ended in a rush, in a way that Harry had least expected.
"Harry, Harry?" Ron called out, "We're already falling behind, and I don't want to get two inches more on my homework today."
"Got it." Harry muttered and became busy, but his mind was already made up.
Before the class ended, the students lined up for an inspection.
"Susan Bones, 52, well done, homework - one foot; Anthony Goldstein, 47, one foot two inches; Millicent Bulstrode, 29, well, you need more practice, or you won't be able to keep up with the next stage - -homework length of a foot and a half."
Felix commented casually, and the long queue dwindled.
Harry, who was purposefully lined up at the back, clutched the chestnut jar and waited for Ron and Hermione to move away and walk up to him.
"Harry Potter, let's see - 59, ranked fairly top, very good, seven inches for homework."
Harry racked his brain to ask two questions and mentally waited anxiously for the other students to finish packing their bags and walk out of the classroom, Ron and Hermione knew what he intended to do and waved at him, leaving first. Felix looked at him thoughtfully.
"It seems your real problem can't be heard by anyone else."
"Well, yes ... Professor, I wanted to ask what is a blood pact?"
Felix showed an expression of surprise.
He thought for a few seconds in his mind-
"Many pacts exist in the magical world, from verbal agreements with little binding effect, to magical pacts; the most solemn and carefully crafted type of pact has to be treated with utmost importance, and once signed, it cannot be broken. For the price of breaking it is too great."
"Death?" Harry asked softly.
"... Yes, like the Unbreakable Vow, and of course, there is the Blood Pact. Only the latter has even more harsh conditions and exists only in legend."
"Why? Don't they have similar effects?" Harry asked with confusion, "Apart from the difference in terms of people it can be made, and unbreakable vow requiring a witness."
"I could name numerous differences, such as - and finally like you said, an unbreakable vow requires three people." Felix finished, and Harry flushed, feeling a little stupid for not spotting the 'many differences' that the Professor had mentioned.
"But the most important thing is the content of the pact. An unbreakable vow is more flexible; I can swear that I'll never eat a chocolate frog in my life, or that I'll never walk through the door with my right foot again ..., in any case, there are no specific requirements. But a blood pact is different, it has its own magical core and there is no need to specify a pact to be kept, and that poses a serious problem, can you spot that, Harry?"
Harry tried to think outside the box, no need to swear ... what did that mean? No need to waste words? No, not that by any chance ... wait, no need for words ... then no restrictions ...
"The Blood Pact will not be deceived by lies?" He blurted out.
Felix smiled and nodded.
"An unbreakable vow is closer to the word 'contract', so the content of the vow must be defined in words, and words ... can be toyed with, there are always loopholes to be exploited, as long as the ultimate requirements are met. In other words, it controls what you do and has a certain degree of lag."
"In extreme cases, a person with a determination to die can sign any unbreakable, 'false' vow at will."
"But a blood pact is not like that," Harry said excitedly, "it has fixed elements, which makes it impossible to be deceived by fancy words, and two people must be absolutely sincere, to even think about breaking the oath - " he looked at Felix as if looking for confirmation.
"You guessed correctly, the Blood Pact binds the heart, and any thought that arises in an attempt to violate it invites an instant backlash."
"And what's it all about?" Harry asked impatiently.
Felix hesitated for a moment.
"As far as I know, it's not to harm each other."
"Can it be destroyed? I mean, the relic formed by the Blood Pact?" Harry continued to pursue the question.
Felix glanced at him, "Did I mention the relic?"
"Oh, uh-"
"Maybe it could be destroyed." Rather than pursue the loophole in Harry's words, Felix said bluntly, "I've never signed such a pact and don't know the exact consequences."
In fact, all the pacts he had signed had one feature in common: he could tear them up and twist them at any time. But of those that he is not that certain of breaking - whether it be an unbreakable vow or a blood pact - he has no half-hearted interest in touching it. There is also an extremely limited scope of knowledge.
Harry left, with a heavy heart.
Felix stayed where he was, watching him disappear, then suddenly lifted his head to stare at the ceiling, his eyes seeming to penetrate the walls. He stared thoughtfully at the tower of the Headmaster's office.
Perhaps Harry himself didn't realize that the aim of his question was actually quite obvious.
"Blood pact ... Dumbledore and who? Evenly matched - yes, only Grindelwald."
The past trivial information continuously pulled from his memory as Felix began to try and piece together a complete picture of the situation. The first thing that came to his mind was the secret that Newt had inadvertently mentioned that he couldn't reveal more saying that involved Dumbledore.
--------------
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Felix had known about Grindelwald since back when he was still studying in school, the introduction on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card stated the following.
"Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945."
But back then the defeat of Grindelwald was only one of Dumbledore's widely known and well-recognized achievements, a footnote to his legendary exploits. Anyone who saw that chocolate frog card would only have been in awe of Dumbledore, and would not have been able to spare the slightest bit of attention to the failure known as 'Grindelwald the Dark Lord'. Of course, his infamous reputation would probably be passed on from one child to the next, using their imaginations to the fullest when discussing questions like "How bad is this man?"
Felix had every reason to suspect that, as many young wizards who grow up in the magical world, sometimes compelled to play the role of 'Grindelwald the Dark Lord' as bad guy in dueling plays, in which they would eventually fall at the feet of the good guys.
It was only after hearing Newt's words that Felix really became curious about Grindelwald as a person.
"I can't reveal much more - it involves Headmaster Dumbledore ... Grindelwald was very arrogant, or confident ... and very charismatic, though I didn't like him that much for creating a lot of havoc at the time ..."
Apparently, the short one-line description on the Chocolate Frog card was actually spectacular, dramatic, and even thrilling, when they were played out in reality.
And Newt's silence backed this up.
Later on, Voldemort secretly captured a group of wandmakers and experts in the history of magic; Mykew Gregorovitch, the famous wandmaker, and Florean Fortescue, the owner of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour in Diagon Alley were among them, and with the information provided by these people, Voldemort fabricated the narrative of ten powerful wands, which propagated the legend of the "Elder Wand" along with its reputation of being the invincible wand that would never lose was thus spread. It gained the title of the invincible wand, and Felix was rumoured as a current wielder of that wand.
Subsequently, all indications suggest that perhaps Voldemort has long given up the hunt for the Elder Wand back then, and has instead investigated the whereabouts of the snakewood wand passed down from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. The ten powerful wands were merely a means for Voldemort to keep Felix at bay, to give him something to do while he confirmed the authenticity of the 'Elder wand' in Felix's hands at the same time. And, probably in Voldemort's plan, the bloody inheritance rules of the Elder Wand would more or less affect Felix and Dumbledore's tacit understanding.
But coincidentally, the real owner of the Elder Wand was Dumbledore, and the diversion was a waste of time.
Felix thus also guessed that before Dumbledore, the holder of the Elder Wand was Grindelwald.
The speed at which Voldemort's downfall came about was so fast that many people were stunned and did not react at all. Felix also made contact with Grindelwald, or to be precise, Grindelwald reached out to Felix. Then the two became pen pals.
Felix smacked his lips, it was a novel experience for him too, he had never tried writing a letter to someone in prison before. When he considered that at one point Grindelwald was writing back letter by letter with a small, dimly lit oil lamp, and didn't even have a decent desk, he missed those times more and more now.
Unfortunately, it was not long after that Felix learned of Grindelwald's suspected escape from prison from the mouth of Dumbledore, who for the first time confessed his close friendship with Grindelwald and expressed his wariness at the ideas of the other man.
But in the blink of an eye, Dumbledore changed his tune and kept the volunteering Grindelwald at Hogwarts as the new professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts class.
There were multiple reasons for this.
Dumbledore had taken the initiative to tell Felix some of the reasons, such as Grindelwald's poor physical state and near-permanent fall in strength; Felix partially understood and accepted this, and in his opinion, Voldemort's downfall had no small impact on Dumbledore.
Felix roughly simplified the psychological changes as follows.
After solving a long-term burden, Dumbledore must have been overwhelmed with emotion and recalled the distant memories from a long time ago, when his former best friend cum enemy met him after half a century, and inevitably had a moment of compassion.
But there should be a limit to these kinds of softness, and Dumbledore promised him that Grindelwald would only be teaching at the school for a year, after which he would return to Nurmengard Castle to finish his sentence.
So what is Dumbledore's goal ...
Felix pondered for a moment and had a vague inkling. He decided to go and talk to Severus and Madam Pomfrey later.
"... I can't believe I didn't realize that the old man is getting physically active, even his quarrels seem quite full of life ..."
He suspected Dumbledore was secretly starting a little game.
And in addition to the reasons Dumbledore had voluntarily told Felix, he himself had heard half a dozen words from the portrait in the headmaster's office which implied it has something to do with a prophecy ...
At this point, Felix would like to thank Phineas Black.
As for the content of the prophecy - Felix had gradually figured out a hint of what was in store over the past six months or so. He really didn't know exactly what the prophecy was about, but Dumbledore knew it, and from how much Dumbledore tolerated the content that Grindelwald was teaching, it was possible to roughly outline the shape of the prophecy.
It should have something to do with the Statute of Secrecy.
Felix frowned slightly at the recollection, what was that supposed to be? An inevitable exposure of the wizarding community? But he and Dumbledore had shared a similar consensus, unless Grindelwald could produce more direct evidence, such as a specific time of the event.
Felix was faintly stunned for a moment, it seemed to align with the situation. He had previously speculated that the prophecy could be something that needed to be deciphered, like a tea leaf, a crystal ball, an astrological sign, or some fragment of the future. His thoughts kept tumbling ... He thought of the New Year's parade shown to the students in Grindelwald's first class at the start of this school year.
The parade.
So there would be a huge anti-wizard march in the future?
Felix made a mental note of this. He wasn't in much of a hurry, Dumbledore has a much better sense of responsibility than he does, and when the time is ripe, the prophetic content will automatically appear before his eyes and he cannot be able to hide from it even if he wants to.
Felix felt that Dumbledore is perfectly capable of such a thing, the headmaster is very good at keeping secrets.
As for Grindelwald, the professors were generally quite satisfied with him, he is capable, knowledgeable, and courteous to others, and even Professor McGonagall, who was quite critical about some of his dangerous comments, was coming to accept this somewhat dysfunctional colleague. The professor of the charms class even cited him as a confidant, "Professor Bagshot is marvellous in the subtle manipulation of spells." The shorter Flitwick has said this on more than one occasion.
Well, there's one exception, Felix thought. The Professor Slughorn was as perceptive as ever and rarely interacted with Grindelwald alone.
Felix was very curious if he had discerned something.
But the chances of that would actually be very low.
Because Grindelwald had been imprisoned for half a century, his appearance had long since changed. Even the old Professors, such as McGonagall and Flitwick, had failed to recognize him, not to mention the fact that Grindelwald's escape from Nurmengard Castle had not been made public yet, so even though Severus had some doubts about his identity, he still had not considered in that direction at all.
And in the eyes of those who knew his true identity (Dumbledore and Felix), nothing Grindelwald did touch the bottom of the barrel. If he had contacted or responded to the Acolytes, he believes Dumbledore would not have hesitated to deport Grindelwald to prison.
The fact that Dumbledore went from a guarded attitude at the beginning to tacitly allowing Harry and Grindelwald to be in contact with each other alone, and even learning magic with him, certainly represents an increase in trust.
On his part, Felix was also at peace with the situation.
No matter what Grindelwald wanted to do, whether it was to pass on his magic (which he would be happy to see) or to pass on his ideas, he only had a year to do so, and if he did intend to bewitch Harry, he was bound to find him more stubborn than he thought.
It wasn't as if Dumbledore hadn't done anything; the weekly lessons were no secret. Harry's mind had been nearly set in stone over the years, what Grindelwald is trying to do is to turn things around, whereas Dumbledore is guiding him to think independently, the two things are completely incomparable.
Just like the Blood Pact that Harry mentioned today, Felix was surprised both by the question itself and by the fact that Dumbledore had the courage to reveal this past, and by the time Harry was faced with the choice, Grindelwald, who is hiding his identity, had no way of gaining the upper hand.
Perhaps this was also expected by Dumbledore, who hoped to patch up another part of Harry's character. Only what exactly it is, Felix can't quite figure out yet.
...
Later that day, Felix emerged from the hospital wing with the information he wanted.
His suspicions had been correct.
All of Grindelwald's magic had been almost completely blocked, he is no different from a Squib, and he had been suffering from poor physical health for decades, and Madam Pomfrey had been supplying him with a mild nourishing potion.
In a moment of clarity, a thought dawned in Felix's mind: the blood pact between Dumbledore and Grindelwald might have been broken - otherwise, they could not have dueled - but there might have been another unknown magic pact between them.
And the proof is in what Dumbledore said on the day he learned that Grindelwald had disappeared from Nurmengard Castle.
"... He is restrained by powerful spells, and I can make sure that those restrictions remain in place, making it difficult for him to use advanced magic ... Whatever he wants to do, these conditions objectively set the bar for him. "
Why was Dumbledore so sure that the spell has not been broken? There was only one answer Felix could think of, Dumbledore's involvement (or even his own leadership) in the International Confederation of Wizards' plan to imprison Grindelwald after that duel.
It was getting dark as Felix walked down the grand staircase and made his way through the entrance hall.
To his slight surprise, the open space at the entrance to the castle was already occupied, two familiar silhouettes bathed in the golden dusk sunlight, and as Felix squinted, the edges of their bodies seemed to reflect a haze of seven shades of light.
Dumbledore's elderly, forgiving, understanding voice blended in with the scene before him.
"... There is still time, Miss Granger, and you have plenty of time to see the path ahead. I think - there is a similarity between the process of mastering magic and recognizing yourself - that is to follow your heart, and where the treasure is, there will be the heart ... Don't forget, we are Gryffindors."
Hermione bowed her head and didn't say anything for a moment.
"Headmaster Dumbledore? Granger?" Felix voiced out.
Hermione jerked her head up and glanced at him quickly, squealing and jumping backwards a few steps.
"Right, well excuse me, I've got things to do, I'll be off." She ran off without looking back.
Felix looked stunned.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Miss Granger is a little confused about her future path, which is the privilege of youth." Dumbledore smiled faintly and said, "She trusts me enough to tell me something from her heart."
"Oh," Felix said with a slight tsk as he looked back into the silent entrance hall, "I thought she had set her goals a long time ago, Amelia expects a lot from her and a whole lot of confidential information has been shown to her."
Dumbledore blinked and didn't say anything. His azure eyes reflected the last rays of sunlight in the sky and his long silver beard seemed to glow. As the golden curtain at the edge of the Forbidden Forest disappeared, the night came down like a thick curtain and the land became dim, but soon some starry lights appeared.
"Albus," said Felix, breaking the silence and weighing the words, "I heard a term from Harry today, Blood Pact..."
"Ah, I have considered it, that there might be a real possibility of him asking you for help." Dumbledore said calmly, "I didn't think I could keep it a secret anymore when I decided to say it, and I agreed to let Harry draw wisdom from other people. Like Miss Granger just now when she asked me for advice."
"That's a blood pact." Felix said softly.
The implications of that are completely different. It at least showed that at some point in Dumbledore and Grindelwald's lives, they were willing to give a portion of their fates over to the complete control of the other.
"Yes, two smart and cocky teenagers who made reckless oaths when they were closest to each other." Dumbledore said, with a faint note of relief in his tone, "We are smarter than the average person, a lot smarter and therefore a little more arrogant, convinced that we can accomplish what no one before us could ... but I would say that being smart is not a substitute for being wise, nor can it be a substitute for experience, and we are in some areas are just equally ignorant."
He looked out into the distance when twilight replaced the haze and stars appeared in the flimsy sky.
"As I have mentioned before, Gellert's ideas attracted me, inspired me, and expressed things that I had kept buried deep in my heart but never dared to reveal, my dissatisfaction with the status quo at the time. I was brilliant but forced to stay stuck in an abandoned village, I was gifted but unable to provide shelter for my loved ones ... Felix, my father's experience still affected me and there was a time in the dead of night when I would always ask myself in my mind: what would I have done if I had witnessed Ariana being bullied? "
"Sometimes I hate myself for being too mature. I kept telling myself that there are equally good and bad Muggles as there are wizards and that it is foolish and condemnable to dismiss a large group of people at will, but when my mother tragically died and Ariana's condition worsened, I was filled with resentment and grudges ..."
Dumbledore closed his eyes. After a long pause, he reopened his eyes and said calmly, almost indifferently, as if he was narrating another person's experience.
"At a time when I was suffering most, Gellert appeared, and as soon as we met, he told me that the same thing had happened not only to me but to many, many fellow wizards, how absurd it was that we should suffer misfortune when we had the power! He proposed the best of both worlds - or at least that's what I thought at the time - to join forces and create a whole new order. From then on wizards would not have to hide, Ariana would not have to hide, and the tragedy that happened to our family would never happen again."
"We pride ourselves on our superior intelligence and strength, and as a result, we have made even greater mistakes."
"I was so enthralled and completely absorbed, think about it, to solve my family's troubles and free millions of wizards at the same time, that plan was simply too much to my liking, I worked day and night to perfect it, and eventually we've deviated from our original intentions, completely sidelined from the family I should have been valuing and immensely focused on a brilliant cause that existed only in fantasy ... You should have guessed the final outcome, my sister, Ariana ... who had been well cared for and looked after by my mother and us ... became the first victim. "
It was completely dark, and Dumbledore blended completely into the darkness.
"Albus-"
"There is no need to comfort me, Felix, I have gotten what I wanted." Dumbledore turned and walked slowly towards the castle while whispering, "Perhaps we are born with our own missions, and mine is to right the wrongs I have made. Felix, you have a mission of your own."
Felix stared at Dumbledore's back as he caught a hint of something else.
Suddenly, his eyes widened, the Thestral's ash-white eyes glowed in the darkness, and Dumbledore's steps faltered slightly before he continued to leave. Felix couldn't help but inhale slightly.
He had watched Voldemort with this pair of eyes, Voldemort's soul tattered and torn, emanating an unsettling blackness. He had also seen Dumbledore, whose soul glimmered like pale jade and emitted a hazy luminescence.
But right now, everything is different.
A bright, soft light radiated from Dumbledore's body, covering the land like the moon. Vaguely, Felix seemed to see Dumbledore holding a little girl in his hand, but they disappeared into the entrance hall in a flash.
Felix stayed still, looking up at the sky, the stars reflected in his ash-white pupils.
He waited silently as a ray of moonlight flickered past the windows of the castle's seventh-floor corridor, eventually stopping at the tower of the Headmaster's office, there is no moon tonight, but moonlight spilled all over Hogwarts Castle.
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[Author:]
This chapter is meant to sort out some of the clues from the previous chapters, as well as to show what Dumbledore has achieved in the realm of the soul.
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#Educated_Blade, Thanks for all your love and support.
Read 50 days or 100 chapters in advance on P@treon. If you have some extra pocket money, Support me at P@treon: www.p@treon.com/Crazy_Cat.
Happy Reading!!!
#Educated_Blade, Thanks for all your love and support.
Read 50 days or 100 chapters in advance on P@treon. If you have some extra pocket money, Support me at P@treon: www.p@treon.com/Crazy_Cat.
Happy Reading!!!
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