Farewell, Grindelwald

"Password."

"Memory."

The Gargoyle jumped aside to make way for Sean, muttering as it did so, "The headmaster isn't in his office."

"I know, I'm here to look for something..."

The Headmaster's Office was empty, but it was no longer the same as when Sean last visited.

The Pensieve that Dumbledore used to access memories has been put away, and the long river of memories no longer floats in mid-air.

"Wallerup kid!" Sean shouted as soon as he walked in, seeing a photo.

It's Phineas Black.

"Hello, sir," Sean greeted politely.

"Wallerup, Albus in his office. This isn't a place for a student like you!" Phineas blew his beard and widened his eyes.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a silver goblet flew from another canvas into Phineas's canvas, striking him squarely on the head.

The one who threw the cup was a thin, white-haired old man who angrily shouted at Phineas, "Don't you dare tamper with Albus's meaning! Besides, you're dead, this isn't your office anymore."

Sean shrugged, wondering why Phineas always seemed to dislike him, since the other headmasters all seemed to like him quite a bit—or perhaps Phineas disliked all non- Pureblood Wizard.

The composed headmistress and therapist, Delilah Derwent, nodded to Sean and said gently, "What you want is in Albus's desk drawer."

Upon hearing this, Sean went over and opened the drawer. Sure enough, a huge bottle was lying between Cockroach Cluster and Fizzing Whizbees.

Is this the memory that Grindelwald extracted himself?

Sean looked at it curiously and found that the bottle was also enchanted, making people unconsciously want to ignore it and giving it a blurry appearance.

However, this was not Sean's purpose in coming. This bottle of memories was meant to be saved until the two Grindelwald "merged into one." He came to see if Dumbledore had Time-Turner.

Before coming here, Sean used his privileges to thoroughly search the Room of Requirement's inventory, but he couldn't find the Time-Turner, so he turned his attention to the Headmaster's Office.

Although the Ministry of Magic was completely destroyed, someone Dumbledore should have had some left over.

Sean peeked into the drawer twice, but ultimately gave up on his plan to search it himself. He looked up at the Portraits of the principals and asked them a question.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Professor Dumbledore told me that I could borrow his things, and I was wondering if there were any spare Time-Turner here?"

He told a small lie, Dumbledore probably wouldn't mind.

Unexpectedly, the white-haired old man who had just thrown the wine glass spoke up directly, "Don't even think about it, child, Hogwarts won't have such a thing."

That was Dumbledore's predecessor, Armando Dippet, who greatly admired gifted wizards like Voldemort during his tenure, and had previously treated Sean quite well.

"Why, Mr. Dippet?" Sean asked, puzzled.

"The Time-Turner is a very special kind of Magical Item," Armando Dippet explained to him. "It cannot be stored outside the Department of Mysteries indefinitely, because each Time-Turner needs to be replenished with energy, otherwise it will become useless after five or six years at most, and only the Department of Mysteries has the means to replenish its energy."

"But the Time-Turner of the Department of Mysteries have all been destroyed," Sean said, frowning.

Armando Dippet took back his silver goblet, wiped it carefully, and then held it up with one hand as if there was still wine inside.

"Yes, that's the problem. Because only the Department of Mysteries can replenish the energy of the Time-Turner, even if someone steals an illegal Time-Turner, he can only use it for a few years before it becomes an ordinary hourglass—unless you can steal the mysterious time energy as well, but that's unrealistic because time energy also needs a container to be stored. You should have seen that."

Sean recalled for a moment and asked, "That bell-shaped glass dome? There was a strange airflow inside, and a little hummingbird was constantly repeating the process of molting, being born, and growing."

"It seems you've seen it. Well, I regret to inform you that since that thing is still in the Department of Mysteries, it proves that there are no more usable Time-Turner outside." Headmaster Dippet shook his head.

"What about the Department of Mysteries? Um, I saw the cabinet that contained the Time-Turner, but all the hourglasses were damaged. Would the Ministry of Magic keep any extras?" Sean asked, frowning.

"Ha!" Phineas sneered, turning to Sean with a sarcastic tone, "Look at this year's best student, he actually wants to sneak into the Ministry of Magic to steal things!"

Sean patted his chest in a gesture of thanks. "Thank you for praising me as the best student, sir—and I must correct you, I was just going to borrow it."

Phineas's eye twitched. He hadn't expected a student who wasn't Pure-blood to be so shameless in front of him.

The other headmasters ignored Phineas, while Delilah Derwent said to Sean, "When I was in office, the Ministry of Magic had only been established for a short time, so I know them fairly well. But I tend to think they didn't have any extra preservation, and even if they did, it's probably not something you can find just by sneaking in."

Upon hearing this, Sean rubbed his chin, looking rather troubled.

Without Time-Turner, all plans would lack the most basic element.

Seeing his frown, Phineas snorted coldly, "I told Albus long ago that you're not exactly a smart person, and he kept insisting that you'd already found the answer."

"I've found the answer?" Sean ignored Phineas's mockery and began to ponder the meaning of Dumbledore's words.

Answer... Answer...

Sean looked up abruptly and smiled at Phineas, "Oh, thank you, sir."

After saying that, he left the Headmaster's Office.

In the Portraits, Phineas's mocking expression froze on his face as he looked at the Portraits beside him.

Did I remind him?

Room of Requirement, Sean rummaged through the ring for a while, then took out the thing he had in mind.

A Golden Egg.

This is where he played the Fire Dragon in Newmontgard, and then Grindelwald played him in turn, ultimately winning the prize that Newmontgard Day was supposed to be.

Sean tried a lot of methods but couldn't find what was hidden inside the Golden Egg, so he just put it at the bottom of the box—consider it some kind of honor.

But after hearing what was said today, Sean remembered.

Grindelwald had clearly planned many things before extracting his memories, and it was impossible for him not to have thought about the Time-Turner issue.

The fact that Grindelwald in his memory didn't emphasize it to himself meant that he was certain the Time-Turner was already in Sean's hands.

So this seemingly ordinary Golden Egg becomes special, because Grindelwald is not the kind of person who values honor and fame.

Sean waved his wand, making the Golden Egg float in mid-air, and then circled around the round, Winky golden thing.

This Golden Egg is bigger Sean's head; it takes two hands to hold it. There's a button at the top; when you press it, the perfectly sealed Golden Egg will slowly split into three pieces.

It was completely empty inside.

"Strange..." Sean examined the Golden Egg carefully several times, but still couldn't see anything special about it.

"Let's think about it another way... how did I get the Golden Egg..." Sean muttered to himself.

I became Fire Dragon ... Grindelwald became me... Finally, Grindelwald, who was me, pretended to speak dragon language and tamed me, which was the Hungarian Horntail ...

Is the key point the dragon and the Transfiguration? Sean raised an eyebrow.

Among the Twelve Uses of Dragon's Blood that Dumbledore researched, it was mentioned that dragon's blood could be disguised as human blood, used as a hearth cleaner, and could restore certain spells...

Grindelwald also liked to use the Fire Dragon as one of his symbols...

After a moment's thought, Sean took out a bottle of dragon blood, which he had bought at a high price from the black market. He had considered whether he could bleed himself after transforming into Fire Dragon, but the blood was essentially Sean's own blood and had no special effects.

Sean's eyes lit up as he smeared dragon blood on the Golden Egg.

Suddenly, light emanated from the center of the Golden Egg.

It works!

After waiting for a long time, nothing else happened except for the light.

Sean thought for a moment, then cleared his throat and let out a low growl.

"Open."

After mastering the Beast Speaker, Sean, who could Transfiguration Fire Dragon, also learned Dragon Language, although his accent wasn't quite authentic.

The Golden Egg didn't react.

"Reduction."

Still no response.

Sean pondered for a moment, then pointed his wand at himself.

He transformed into Grindelwald's likeness.

Just as Grindelwald stood before the glowing Golden Egg, the Golden Egg trembled slightly, as if it had seen its master.

"Damn, it's true, this old man is really narcissistic... "Sean muttered to himself.

He cleared his throat and let out a deep dragon roar in Grindelwald's voice.

"Open."

wrong?

"Restore." Still not right.

"Gellert Grindelwald".

"The Deathly Hallows".

"Newmontgard".

After trying a whole bunch of things, the Golden Egg still only trembled slightly.

I hate riddle makers. Grindelwald doesn't learn anything good, he Dumbledore... Sean rolled his eyes.

Um?

Sean cleared his throat and tried speaking in Dragon Language.

"Albus Dumbledore".

The Golden Egg shone brightly from the inside.

The dazzling light faded, and the Golden Egg changed its appearance.

A bell-shaped crystal dome, smaller than the one in the Department of Mysteries, appeared before Sean's eyes. Strange air currents surged up and down, and smaller golden birds molted, crawled, and grew inside, then became wet again and shrank back into their eggs.

There are two identical Time-Turner placed on either side of the bell-shaped crystal cover.

The lingering light from the Golden Egg trembled and merged together, transforming into a line of wild, cursive script familiar to Sean.

"Haha, correct answer! The one on the left is older, and the one on the right is younger."

"Your dear teacher— Gellert Grindelwald."

Sean chuckled.

This old man definitely has some problems.

"This is it..."

On a gloomy, rainy day, a figure appeared by a lake somewhere.

"Tomorrow is Christmas..." Sean lifted the hood of his cloak and looked up at the sky.

He bypassed a whole host of confusing spells and found the location Grindelwald had given him.

He pulled out his monoculars and looked ahead. A dark island in the middle of the lake came into Sean's view.

"However, something doesn't look right about this lake..." Sean peeked out and saw something lurking beneath the dark surface of the water.

"I came here to help, you wouldn't betray me, would you..." Sean muttered to himself, then turned into black smoke and flew towards the island in the middle of the lake.

The moment he flew over the water, the lake, which had been maintaining its last vestiges of calm in the rain, suddenly became agitated, with large splashes of water erupting from every direction.

Something's about to burst out!

Moreover, at the same time, a surge of magical energy rushed toward Sean, trying to force him down from the sky.

Sean revealed his face and shouted towards the center of the lake, "It's me, teacher!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the commotion in the lake and the magic subsided.

"Phew... poor old man..." Sean muttered, increasing his flight speed.

The island in the middle of the lake wasn't very big. Sean landed in the center and looked around, but didn't see Grindelwald.

"Where is he?" he muttered to himself in confusion.

A sinister voice came from the air beside him. "You stepped on my robe..."

Sean turned to the empty air with a helpless look and said, "Teacher, isn't that childish?"

"Haha, come in."

Sean fumbled around for a while, found the edge of the Invisibility Cloak, and then lifted it up and slipped inside.

Inside the not-too-large Invisibility Cloak, he stared at Grindelwald he hadn't seen in a long time.

Before Sean could speak, Grindelwald, who seemed much older, revealed his signature wild smile, "Did you just insult me?"

"I didn't!" Sean declared righteously.

"Ha, that's exactly when I was bored. I've made a note of it," Grindelwald chuckled.

"That's no fun..." Sean's eye twitched.

"Very interesting—" Grindelwald chuckled leisurely, "The fact that you found this place means you've found a way?"

Sean nodded. "I saw a memory."

Grindelwald's face lit up with recollection. "Ah, it was me who left it, wasn't it? When everything was discovered, I realized that I had planted many memory prompts in myself."

He laughed as he spoke, "So, everything's arranged?"

"You've planned this all out," Sean shrugged. "You have to extract your memories, and the other you too."

Grindelwald pondered for a moment, then nodded. "I see. Consistency, tsk, I really am a genius—so, does that mean the thing that could persuade my other self is also here? Hmm, let me think, you also got the thing that increases magic power?"

Sean's eyes widened. "You've regained your memory?"

Grindelwald chuckled softly, "No need for memories, just brains. Who knows me better than myself?"