"Nel, hatred can't solve problems." Dumbledore showed a pitying expression, lowered his wand, and shook his head. "You're still young. You don't understand these things."
"No, you're wrong, Professor Dumbledore." Nelson shook his head. His sweat-soaked hair hung down, the corners of his mouth lifted, and his eyes were cold. "Forgiveness can never resolve conflict. Sympathy for evil is cruelty to the good."
"That will only lead to—"
"No!" Nelson cut him off. "Professor Dumbledore, do you know? This so-called forgiveness of yours is nothing but running away. Do you really think you're in any position to say that?"
"I—"
"Take yourself, for instance." Nelson raised his head, used his wand to brush the loose hair from his eyes, and stared at him with a gaze even more pitying than Dumbledore's. "Gellert Grindelwald, your once dearest friend, your once lover—but the moment he fired a spell at your sister, he stopped being that! Yet you forgave him... Do you think that was forgiveness? Was that kindness? That was only weakness."
"Did Aberforth tell you all this?" Dumbledore's face turned ashen. Those heart-piercing words stabbed deep into him, savagely tearing open the enormous scar buried in the deepest part of his memory, a wound that had never healed even now. But he was Dumbledore, after all. He did not grow angry. He only wanted to use this matter to continue trying to reform Nelson. "Yes, I gave him a chance, and that was why an even greater tragedy didn't happen."
"Really? Professor Dumbledore." Nelson's face was full of disbelief. "As expected of you. Do you still not think you were wrong? The person you forgave escaped from your hands and became a terrorist. Don't you know how many people he killed? Your weakness will only bring even crueler consequences. Are you