Grindelwald's First Lesson

Sean, sitting below, curled his lip. When Grindelwald mentioned the so-called student representative, he knew he was definitely going to be chosen.

Judging from Grindelwald's personality, he'll probably find some excuse to call him over for a talk—as for the content of the talk, that's something Sean can't possibly imagine.

Hermione, flattered, sat up straight. Although she rarely mentioned it, Sean knew that this girl was determined to Prefect at Hogwarts in her fifth year. It wasn't that she was obsessed with power, but rather that Hermione felt that being given the position was a recognition of her academic abilities by the professors.

Hermione doesn't blindly believe in power, but she does blindly believe in authority...

After randomly selecting seven men and seven women, the so-called 'student representatives' of Hogwarts for this Academic Exchange were decided.

Grindelwald stood up and waved his hand. "The dinner is over. The student representatives whose names were called earlier, please come to my office. You will be responsible for conveying the school rules of Newmontgard."

A dozen or so people looked at Professor McGonagall, and after she nodded, they stood up and followed Grindelwald, who had taken the lead and walked out of the Great Hall.

Throughout the journey, Grindelwald was extremely talkative and kind, like an elder who loved his juniors.

Instead of leading Sean and his group to the office, he went to a classroom on the fourth floor of the castle.

The room was decorated in a strange way, with many chains and rings on one side of the wall. In the center of the room was a table with many Cauldron of different sizes, and an old man with a face full of wrinkles was brewing Potions.

His hair had long since fallen out, and his mouth was terribly dry; the black priest's robe looked somewhat comical on him. However, the strange necklace hanging around his neck was chilling, strung with rabbit legs and human teeth.

"Lord Grindelwald." The old man bowed deeply upon seeing the newcomer.

"Don't be so formal, Macdouff," Grindelwald turned to the students and introduced, "This is Professor Macdouff, who teaches Potions and also serves as the Inspector of Newmontgard."

"He will tell you all the rules of Newmontgard. Oh, and I should tell you in advance that you should also tell others when you get back—in Newmontgard, violating the rules will result in severe punishment if caught."

Grindelwald smiled kindly, "This also applies to exchange students, and your headmaster has already agreed to that."

The students who came here exchanged horrified glances. They had all seen the chains and rings and the strange old man. They knew that the punishments here would be far from as lenient as those at Hogwarts.

Only Sean blinked; he understood the meaning behind Grindelwald's words.

You only get punished if you break school rules and get caught... Isn't that just like Hogwarts?

Grindelwald walked toward the door, but just before he was about to leave, he turned his head back as if he had remembered something.

"I almost forgot, I haven't given you your class schedules yet—someone come to my office to get them, um, this handsome little wizard?"

He smiled and looked at Sean.

Sure enough... Sean had no choice but to nod obediently.

Since there's no escaping it, let's face reality... and see if we can get some good stuff from Grindelwald...

Amidst the complicated gazes of his classmates, Sean caught up with the other person.

Throughout the journey, Grindelwald remained silent, simply leading the way at a leisurely pace, without even turning back to look at Sean.

Sean didn't approach them directly; he was actually quite interested in Newmontgard.

The castle here is smaller than Hogwarts. The empty stone corridors lack thick curtains, talking paintings, and wandering ghosts. The style here leans towards a simple and clear classical aesthetic, with huge floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere.

After following Grindelwald up a spiral staircase, Sean finally arrived at the Headmaster's Office in Newmontgard once again.

The decorations here are exactly the same as when he last came.

Grindelwald walked to the chair behind the desk and sat down, smiling and waving at Sean.

A chair that was against the wall flew and landed right under Sean's butt.

"Please sit down, Sean."

After Sean sat down, he slowly began to speak, "Sean... what do you think of Newmontgard?"

"Oh, very good, sir."

"That's a very nice compliment. I hope you have a great second semester."

"This is exactly what I've been hoping for."

Grindelwald leaned back comfortably in his chair, one hand on the armrest and the other stroking his short, silver-white hair.

"Sean, I remember you've always been very curious. What's wrong? Don't you have anything you want to ask me?"

Sean chuckled awkwardly, "Curiosity has led me to quite a few unexpected situations."

"Ha, the unexpected often means risk, and risk means unexpected gains." Grindelwald raised an eyebrow.

Sean shook his head helplessly. The old man opposite him really knew how to talk, switching between various concepts and shifting the focus.

"Sir, are you encouraging me to take more risks and explore the unknown?" Sean asked.

"No, I'm teaching you something else," Grindelwald said, holding up a finger. "When risk and reward go hand in hand, we need to learn to mitigate the risk. And how do we mitigate the risk? It's simple—just have enough power."

"Sir, I do study quite diligently, but unfortunately, I haven't been exposed to magic for very long. Much of the knowledge can only be fully digested after a sufficient period of time." Sean shrugged.

Grindelwald smiled nonchalantly, "Of course, of course, you're only a sophomore—so we can try to master other powers, even those powers that don't belong to you."

"Sir, what do you mean?" Sean asked, puzzled.

Grindelwald raised the corners of his mouth. "Sean, we need to learn to 'borrow,' whether it's people or things. You're too much of a loner—don't look at me like that, kid, you never even considered asking your little girlfriend for help."

"In fact, my friends have helped me a lot, but there are some things they really can't help with. Besides, I'm just a student now and don't have that many difficulties to solve—and besides, she's not my girlfriend."

"Really? I misread it? Oh... never mind, I'm really not good at matters of the heart..." Grind waved his hand dismissively and continued, "You should understand what I mean, you, Sean Wallerup, whatever your mindset, you have to admit one thing."

Grindelwald leaned forward slightly. "You don't have any team—you only have friends, and friends often mean one thing: you can't easily give them up. And you're obviously kind-hearted and don't want your friendships to be tainted."

Sean paused for a moment, then stubbornly raised his head again. He didn't think it was wrong to interact with others this way.

Grindelwald looked at his expression and suddenly burst into laughter. "Haha, just as Albus said. However, Sean, you may have misunderstood. I have no intention of influencing your way of making friends."

He clasped his hands together. "I just want to tell you something, something you definitely understand, that there's strength in numbers, my child—do you understand what I mean? You'll face a lot in the future, a lot, so you need followers, you need some power that you don't have to devote yourself to but that you can use when necessary."

"Helpers?" This word left Sean somewhat puzzled.

He doesn't like to approach others with ulterior motives; he prefers to get along with others in a friendly manner.

Does Grindelwald mean he wants to develop an organization? An organization that he can utilize?

But Sean was never cut out to be a ruthless leader. He could be ruthless when facing enemies, but frankly, he couldn't do that to his classmates.

A carefree smile curved Grindelwald's lips; he seemed to have read Sean's mind.

"Oh, oh, what a kind lad," he laughed nonchalantly. "Be flexible, Sean, don't forget to be flexible. You've rejected one path, so what about another? Like this intersection you're standing at right now."

The current intersection? Sean was taken aback; he didn't immediately understand what the other person meant.

Grindelwald didn't disturb his thoughts; instead, he turned a pen into a razor and leisurely began trimming his nails.

This old man is just like Dumbledore, he likes to play the Riddler game... Sean muttered to himself as he looked up in thought, when he happened to see a flag hanging in the office.

It had the Newmontgard School Crest printed on it.

Wait a minute... Sean's expression turned strange. The other path Grindelwald mentioned, was it Newmontgard?!

The old man meant to have himself develop a precursor to his organization among the students of Newmontgard.

This... you're the principal of those students...

Grindelwald blew on his fingers and smiled, saying, "Good that you've figured it out. Also, let me remind you that henchmen are not cannon fodder. Every wizard is a valuable asset—dangerous tasks can be left to dangerous people. I remember you've always been decisive and ruthless when dealing with those kinds of people."

Dangerous people... Sean immediately thought of the Carrow siblings, whom he had killed with his own hands.

Death Eaters... What does Grindelwald mean...?

The other party neither explained nor continued on the topic; he stood up from his chair and walked to the center of the office.

"Let's talk about something else— Sean, your speech at Hogwarts was pretty good."

"Oh, it's just so-so..." Sean shrugged. The other person really knew his every move at Hogwarts. He just didn't know if it was Dumbledore or some mole who told him.

Grindelwald shook his head. "My 'good' only refers to the effect of your first inflammatory speech—in fact, you made too many mistakes, namely that teenagers are at an age of passion, and the guys at my school went a little too far."

He put his hands behind his back, his expression becoming serious. "If it were an adult wizard, your speech would be empty and powerless; they would just look at you like you're an idiot."

Sean scratched his head sheepishly. He knew his problem was serious, but now it seemed it was very serious.

After all, Grindelwald was the kind of person who could turn guards against their will with just his words; when it came to persuasion, no one in the Wizarding World could compare to him.

Grindelwald suddenly switched to a lecture mode. "Sean, if you want your language to be more persuasive, then you need to understand one thing first—emotions."

"I divide the generation of human emotions into four steps: physiological, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral."

"Let's take an example, such as the emotion of 'fear'."

Grindelwald pulled out his wand, which looked like a branch casually torn from a tree. It was completely black, crooked, and had tear marks and three protruding branches on it.

Before Sean could react to what Grindelwald was about to do, he aimed his wand at him with incredible speed.

A beam of green light grazed Sean's head and struck the wall behind him, causing it to explode and sending debris flying.

The Killing Curse ... Sean's heart pounded, his abdomen tightened slightly, and he gasped for breath. Just now, if Grindelwald had intended to kill him, he would have become a corpse without any resistance.

Grindelwald gracefully withdrew his wand, ignoring Sean's gaze, and said slowly, "Like this—"

"Just now, you were panting, your heart was racing, and your abdomen was tightening. These are your physiological instincts. Next, it's your perception and interpretation of this situation. In this process, you consciously or unconsciously realized that the situation was dangerous and therefore felt fear."

"The third step is to feel the green light and the explosion, typical characteristics of the Killing Curse. Your brain sends out sensations of the physiological reaction, and at the same time, memories of your past physical state are also awakened. You know and have witnessed the Killing Curse, so you know its terror even more."

"Finally, behavior. You made a fearful expression and gesture; you might fight back or run away—this will be one of your actions."

Grindelwald sat back down in his chair. "Sean, if you want to incite someone, you must first understand how emotions arise. You need to analyze how other people's emotions are generated and what their first action is after they are generated—if you can understand these things, you've entered the field."

"What the hell are you thinking about...?" Sean wiped the sweat from his forehead; his breathing was still rapid.

Grindelwald's teaching methods are not something that ordinary people can accept...

After calming down a bit, Sean pondered what the other person had just said—although Grindelwald's example was crude, his explanation was very accurate.

Grindelwald didn't interrupt his process of digesting the knowledge. After Sean raised his head, he smiled and said, "Don't rush, you have plenty of time to figure it out slowly, even though you've only just begun."

Sean gave a wry smile, "This way of getting started is a bit too exciting..."

"To help you remember," Grindelwald said with a friendly smile, "And I can also teach you something else—how to deceive and how to discern the true motives behind other people's actions..."

He waved his hand, and the shattered stone wall returned to its original state. Then, he raised his wand again.

"Avada Kedavra"

Grindelwald pointed his wand at himself.

Thanks to the two big shots, [As long as it's silly enough] and [Zhuanye CS], for their generous donations.