Hogwarts: What bad intentions could a little Hufflepuff have?

Professor McGonagall was an Animagus.

She could turn into a tabby cat.

Black gripped the doorknob eagerly.

He wanted to go outside and test the Druid's abilities more carefully.

But...

He remembered the grounding order Mrs. Marian had given him last night.

Ahem...

Black could only draw his hand back sheepishly.

But!

He was an Arch-Druid!

Black locked the door again.

Then he opened the window.

A moment later, a white dove quietly flew out of Black's window...

Austria.

Nurmengard.

After so many years, Dumbledore set foot on this land once more.

If not for Black's matter, perhaps he would never have come to this place again in his life.

Nor would he have seen that man again...

If he had any other choice, he would not have come this time either.

Too many years had passed.

The materials related to Grindelwald from back then

had long since dwindled to almost nothing.

He had no way of knowing...

what the string of letters behind the nameplate—

"G.G. Biological Research Institute"—actually represented.

Unless...

he asked Grindelwald himself.

The once-majestic buildings

had now turned into ruins and broken walls.

On the battered enclosure wall, the incomplete, faded letters above could still faintly be seen.

Although the sentence was now badly fragmented, Dumbledore could still remember it clearly...

"For the Greater Good!"

It had been many years...

Aside from the tower that imprisoned that man, the Nurmengard of old

no longer had a single intact building.

Atop the tower, inside the narrow stone chamber, a hunched figure

was curled in on himself, hiding in the corner.

There was not a trace of light in his dim eyes.

His entire body remained motionless.

Like a Stone Golem abandoned in a corner for thousands of years...

Until he heard the sound of footsteps...

Tap! Tap! Tap!

He raised his head, trembling.

He looked toward the narrow slit of a window high on the opposite wall.

Years of imprisonment...

had left his body nothing like it once was.

At last.

The footsteps stopped.

Right beneath the window.

But the window was too high.

He could not see who was outside.

"Glug-glug..."

Suddenly.

The stone wall he had stared at for decades...

seemed to turn into water.

Ripples spread across it in circles.

Then a hole appeared in the stone wall.

The opening grew larger and larger.

Finally, it became a door.

Outside the door, a tall, thin figure stood there quietly.

Light shone in from behind that figure.

On the floor that had not seen sunlight for decades, it formed a wide patch of light.

Grindelwald narrowed his dim gray eyes.

He tried hard to see who that person was.

The tall, thin figure slowly walked in.

"So it was you..."

Even though the person before him had grown so old, and no longer had the vigor and brilliance of those days, he still recognized him at a glance.

"Dumbledore... Long time no see..."

Grindelwald's voice was hoarse beyond recognition.

Dumbledore looked at the man who had once been his closest companion.

Seeing that he had become so weak, a trace of sorrow involuntarily flashed through his eyes.

But he quickly recovered.

"Grindelwald. Indeed, it has been a long time."

"Say it... What is it?"

Grindelwald braced himself against the wall and slowly stood up.

He and Dumbledore had long since broken with each other.

So naturally, he knew

Dumbledore definitely had not come to reminisce.

"I came here only to ask you a few questions."

Dumbledore did not waste words either.

He went straight to the point.

Grindelwald stood up.

But that simple motion seemed to cost him a great deal of strength.

It left him panting.

"Ask."

"Do you... have any descendants?"

Dumbledore quietly looked into Grindelwald's eyes.

Hearing Dumbledore's question, Grindelwald was visibly taken aback.

"Ha ha..."

Then he burst into wild laughter.

The laughter was so violent

that he almost couldn't catch his breath.

Dumbledore waited quietly.

Only when Grindelwald could laugh no longer

did he ask softly, "What are you laughing at?"

"What am I laughing at?"

Grindelwald braced himself against the wall with difficulty.

"Whether I have any descendants—shouldn't you know that better than anyone?"

"Yes... That's why... I came to ask you."

As Dumbledore spoke, he took out the Nameplate.

The Nameplate slowly floated from Dumbledore's hand to Grindelwald.

The moment Grindelwald saw the Nameplate, the expression on his face clearly froze.

He hesitantly reached out.