Dumbledore did not emerge from the dark stone tower until dawn the next day. He looked exhausted.
He and Grindelwald still had not worked out exactly what was going on with Will. Dumbledore only felt the weight on his shoulders grow heavier. Guiding a student like him would be no easy task.
At least Will was gradually changing. He was far better than the gloomy boy he had been in his first year. Dumbledore felt his old bones would have to hold out a while longer... Yes, he very much wanted to guide Will onto the right path.
Since the boy had not received the Response of Magic, Dumbledore had all the more reason to guide him.
With that thought, Dumbledore's figure twisted and vanished with a pop. At the top of the stone tower, Grindelwald drew his head back inside and took a piece of cloyingly sweet cake from the bag on the table. He stuffed it into a mouth with only a few teeth left.
The sweetness nearly made Grindelwald choke after so long on a plain diet. He could not help laughing. "Al, you're still the same Al you were back then."
But his thoughts soon returned to the child Al cared about so much. The last few times Al had visited, it had almost always been because of that boy. "Will Behrens, what kind of person are you, really?"
Dumbledore kept telling him that Will Behrens was much like him. Yet deep down, Grindelwald had a feeling the boy might be like both of them.
They had discussed it the last time they met. The boy "had both the spark of an idealist and the ruthlessness to do whatever it took, both the ambition to change the world and the ability to make it happen."
Grindelwald