Could Two Grindelwalds Really Lose to One Dumbledore?

After listening to Grindelwald's account, Kyle pointed at himself in disbelief. "So my actual birthday was in 1945?"

Grindelwald shook his head. "More precisely, 1946."

By that calculation, he was already forty-five this year.

As far as he knew, Professor Snape was no older than forty, while Professor McGonagall was at most ten-odd years older than him.

When school started and he returned to Hogwarts, would he get beaten up if he called Snape little brother and McGonagall big sister?

Ahem. Calling Professor McGonagall big sister might be fine, but calling Snape little brother...

He did not think his neck was as tough as a werewolf's.

And even a werewolf's neck would not withstand Snape's Sectumsempra.

That huge pile of headless corpses in the Forbidden Forest that day was still vivid in his mind.

Kyle scratched his cheek and suppressed a certain restless idea in his heart.

"Da... Dad..." Sure enough, calling a strange old man over a hundred years old Dad was still rather difficult to say. It was far harder than teasingly calling Dumbledore Mom.

"What is it?" Grindelwald looked at his son with a smile on his face.

"Can I learn magic from you?" Kyle spread his hands. "Professor Dumbledore wouldn't even let me learn Sectumsempra. He said it was Dark Arts and was only willing to teach me what they taught at school."

Grindelwald did not know what sort of Dark Arts Sectumsempra was, but as a master of the Dark Arts, it was not difficult for him to analyze its effects from the construction of the incantation.

The incantation for Sectumsempra—Sectumsempra—could be broken into two parts: sectums and sempra.

The first part came from the Latin sectum, the participle form of seco, meaning to cut or slice apart.

Then there was the latter part, semper, which meant—forever—in Latin.

Put together, it was not hard to guess that the spell's effect was to leave wounds on its victim that were difficult to heal.

To Grindelwald, this childish Dark Arts spell was only fit to serve as introductory material for first- and second-year students at Durmstrang.

Grindelwald snorted. "Albus has truly grown more foolish with age. Since when has something this low-level been classified as dangerous Dark Arts?"

He turned to Kyle. "I can teach you this spell."

He did not know Sectumsempra, but he could create a similar spell right now based on its effect.

"I've already mastered it." Kyle grinned smugly. "He thought he could stop me."

A delighted smile appeared on Grindelwald's face at the thought of Dumbledore being thwarted. "How did you do it?"

Kyle gave Grindelwald a rough account of how he had forged Dumbledore's authority and caught him off guard. The smile on Grindelwald's face grew even wider.

Along with what Kyle had mentioned over dinner—getting around Dumbledore's lockdown of the Hogwarts secret passages by climbing over the walls to go out.

An eleven-year-old brat already had so many sneaky ideas. This child was far from ordinary.

Light gleamed in Grindelwald's eyes. If he gave Kyle careful guidance as well...

No one understood better than he did how to deal with Dumbledore.

Grindelwald suddenly could not wait to see what Hogwarts would look like two months later when he sent such an anti-Dumbledore weapon back into the school.

Letting Kyle torment Dumbledore could only count as a small act of revenge against him.

What mattered more now was Kyle's education.

Grindelwald affectionately stroked Kyle's short, brilliant golden hair. "What kind of magic do you want to learn?"

"Combat magic!" Kyle blurted out without hesitation.

Grindelwald was not surprised by that answer in the slightest. He would have found any other answer strange.

"Of course. But before that, we need to start with the basics."

"Magic is not something you can cast just by casually shouting an incantation and waving your wand around. For a beginner, even the slightest mistake in a casting gesture can cause the spell to fail."

Kyle scratched his cheek. Was that really how it worked?

Wasn't magic supposed to be like ninjutsu, where you could do whatever you wanted?

Kyle hesitated for two seconds, then pulled his wand from his sleeve and scanned the surroundings for a suitable victim.

Very soon, his gaze locked onto a vase in the distance. Then he flicked his wand with an exceedingly casual casting gesture, not even uttering an incantation.

Crash!

Grindelwald: ???

Seeing the vase split neatly in two, Grindelwald stared blankly.

What had he just said?

Oh, he had not said anything.

One of the essential skills of a Dark Lord was having nerves of steel and skin thick enough to remain unruffled even if Mount Tai collapsed before him.

Judging from Kyle's extremely casual casting posture just now—and the fact that he had cast it silently—the Kyle who had not even officially enrolled yet was closer to the essence of magic than the vast majority of mediocre wizards.

If that was the case, then his plan for Kyle's education had to change as well.

The magic wizards learned nowadays was all modern magic with convenient casting methods.

As long as wizards strictly followed the corresponding casting gestures and accurately pronounced a certain incantation, they could cast the matching spell.

They did not need to understand the principles behind a spell during the process. So long as the gestures and pronunciation were correct, that was enough.

Modern magic with convenient casting methods could be called both the most successful and the most failed invention of recent times.

It allowed wizards of mediocre aptitude to master many spells, but it also restrained those with exceptional talent.

It had limited the development of modern magic.

If a wizard merely learned by rigidly following gestures and pronunciations, then he would never become a master of magic. At best, he would become a walking spell textbook.

A certain Copy Ninja, Konoha's Number One Technician: I feel attacked.

Grindelwald did not want Kyle to become that kind of wizard.

With that in mind, Grindelwald raised an eyebrow with a relaxed expression. "We can begin studying magic tomorrow."

After Kyle left Grindelwald's study, the old butler Alfred knocked on its door.

From the obvious upward curve of Grindelwald's lips, Alfred could tell that he was in an excellent mood. The loyal old butler became happy as well.

"It seems you and the young master had a good talk." Alfred spoke as he cleared the empty teacups from the desk.

"It was indeed good, but I am still not a qualified father."

"That takes time." The old butler smiled. "Besides, Master Kyle's previous life was not as bad as we imagined. On the contrary, he lived quite well."

Grindelwald waved a hand. "That does not excuse the mistakes Albus and I made."

The old butler paused in his steps toward the door. "You have already done your best. You did not know about it then, did you?"

"Perhaps the next time I see Albus, I should beat him up?" Grindelwald muttered. "Two people named Grindelwald should not lose to one named Dumbledore, right?"

At Grindelwald's words, a smile appeared on Alfred's aged face. He quietly closed the study door behind him.

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A little preview: an important female character will appear in a few days, and we'll begin collecting suggestions for the female lead.

There are currently four candidates. Whether there should be only one or several, we can discuss it first.