The Elder Wand's Allegiance

After hearing Professor Breen's question, Krum's pupils contracted involuntarily, and his heart shuddered.

During his few encounters with Professor Breen, he had always carefully kept his emotions in check. Yet Professor Breen had still seen through him. Should he feel alarmed, or should he marvel that Amosta Breen, hailed as the most powerful wizard of the age, was so perceptive?

Viktor bit his lip and did not answer at once.

But then again, how was he supposed to answer that question?

Should he brush it off? No, he probably could not fool him. Or should he simply remain silent? After all, Professor Breen had said he would not force him to answer.

Amosta took a sip of medicinal tea. He had sampled it while investigating Hermione's matter in Germany, and drinking it now and then had a distinctive charm.

Viktor remained silent, and Amosta was in no hurry for an answer. Just as he had said, it did not matter if Krum was unwilling to respond.

"Professor Breen, do you think—"

As the light and shadows outside the window shifted in the silence, sunlight fell across Krum's pale face, still shaken by the sudden upheaval. He looked at Amosta cautiously, his tone guarded.

"Do you think what Gellert Grindelwald did was right?"

Amosta's brows rose slightly. He had imagined several possible answers from Viktor, but he truly had not expected the boy to ask this. What did it have to do with the change in his attitude toward him?

"Gellert Grindelwald..."

For a moment, Amosta's thoughts drifted. Before his eyes appeared the old man atop Nurmengard's tower, thinly dressed and with age written across his face—and within that stooped, withered shell, a heart that still held faint traces of stirring emotion.

"Without question, he was an extraordinarily gifted wizard, possessing