Hogwarts.
After several Apparitions in Phoenix Form, Will finally returned—whether deliberately or simply because he had forgotten, Dumbledore hadn't given him a Portkey.
Back at the Castle, Will mulled over Grindelwald's words. Deep down, he already understood: Grindelwald wanted him to follow the same path he himself had taken all those years ago. Strictly speaking, Grindelwald had intended that all along.
That had been true both when Grindelwald had previously spoken of the Saints and when he had said those things just now.
"The power of the heart." Will thought it was worth trying, but he still had no idea how to go about it.
How was he supposed to harness trust or faith? Old Grindelwald hadn't told him that. Still, winning people over wouldn't be too difficult in itself, as long as he made good use of his charisma.
Whether he could do that anytime soon was another matter—he couldn't start doing all this right after meeting Grindelwald. Otherwise, he would bear a certain resemblance to a particular person whose name couldn't even be mentioned: Voldemort, the Dark Lord, the heir of Slytherin.
The old bee might well be on high alert right now, so it was best not to provoke him at such a sensitive time. Dumbledore granting him permission to conduct the werewolf experiment was already a relaxation of the restrictions.
For now, he should use this opportunity to study magic itself. He was eager to find out: if magic could turn a Muggle into a werewolf, and he could successfully strip the werewolf form from a test subject, would it be possible to create wizards artificially?
If he succeeded, following the path taken by Grindelwald and Ramesses II would become exceptionally easy.
Of course, all of that would have to wait until he had conducted the