"That person looks like..."
By the lakeshore, the professors who had still been doing their best to maintain order among the students had all, together with the students themselves, had their attention completely captured by the scene unfolding on the screen. The entire crowd had fallen into an eerie silence, and so a faint, trembling cry of shock suddenly sounded unbearably shrill—
"G-Gellert Grindelwald?!"
"Grindelwald?!"
The trembling voice of an elderly professor instantly detonated the crowd.
"That Grindelwald? The former leader of the Grindelwalds, Gellert Grindelwald, who was imprisoned in Nurmengard?!"
"It really does look like him... I've seen his photograph in books! It matches how he looks now!"
"Wasn't he supposed to have been imprisoned long ago? Why is he here?!"
"Forget that for now... The Headmaster's obviously walked straight into a trap! We need to get down there and help him!"
As the crowd descended into chaos, the Hogwarts students were the first to react. They quickly withdrew, putting some distance between themselves and the Durmstrang students and professors, their eyes fixed on them warily.
They had seen it clearly—the one who had attacked their Headmaster was none other than Durmstrang's Headmaster, Igor Karkaroff!
Even if the others looked just as shocked, who could guarantee that their reactions were not an act, or that a few of them had not secretly been assigned roles as well, when even their own superior had openly betrayed everyone?
"Madame Maxime! Mr. Crouch!"
Amid the uproar, someone shouted toward the only two judges still left on the scene.
"What exactly is going on? Professor Dumbledore needs help!"
"We're trying to think of something!"
Old Barty Crouch also wore an expression of extreme anxiety. His rough, booming voice forcefully suppressed the uproar across the entire lakeshore.
"They're at the originally designated final stage of the Tournament, more than three thousand feet underwater! And the ghost ships have already been driven away by the champions. We don't have permission to use Durmstrang's great ship. If we rely on our own wands alone, it will take us at least twenty minutes to get there!"
"Then what are we supposed to do? Just watch while the Headmaster gets ganged up on by all three of them?!"
"I'm thinking!"
...
Compared with the boiling chaos of the lakeshore, the underwater world was the absolute opposite.
Other than the sound of the currents surging all around them, and the occasional faint chirp coming from Dumbledore's arms, there was only silence.
And within that silence, two pairs of eyes—eyes that had not met for more than fifty years—were now staring at each other once again...
"So you still came out in the end, didn't you?"
Only after a long while did Dumbledore finally speak softly, all while continuing to maintain the magic dragging out the three ghost ships.
"I had thought you might honor our final agreement."
"Regrettably, Albus."
Grindelwald shrugged with effortless elegance.
"It seems I was not as honest as you imagined, nor quite as sentimental as you believed..."
"For the Greater Good?"
"For the Greater Good."
Grindelwald gave a light chuckle.
"I never betrayed my ideals, Albus—not even after you defeated me back then. I admit it, the Muggles at that time were stronger than I had imagined, and you wizards who had sided with them were more united than I expected as well. That was why my plan was ultimately destroyed, and why I spent more than fifty years in Nurmengard... But that does not mean I ever truly admitted defeat, Albus."
"If Muggles are allowed to continue developing unchecked, then in the end they will bring catastrophic destruction upon magical society. So long as I am capable of understanding that for even one more second, I will never stop my work."
"So?" Dumbledore asked calmly. "And so you chose to cooperate with the remnants of Voldemort? To destroy magical society before conquering the Muggles?"
"The essence of their ideas is not wrong," Grindelwald replied. "Wizards born to Muggles really are far too prone to confusing their identity, and therefore they do indeed require closer education and supervision. That was already proven centuries ago. Otherwise, Salazar Slytherin would not have left a basilisk right under your nose... You are the one indulging in wishful thinking, Albus."
Behind him, Ludo Bagman let out a soft laugh, then his lips twitched as though he wanted to say something. But after Karkaroff glanced at him, he quietly swallowed the words again.
"And besides..."
Seeing that Dumbledore had not responded, Grindelwald simply continued speaking on his own, the curve of his lips growing more self-satisfied.
"Did you really think I accomplished nothing during those fifty-plus years?"
"Though I lost my power and influence at the time, my ideals still remained in many people's hearts. And the knowledge in my mind attracted countless ambitious wizards to gather beneath my banner once again... Using those things, I not only secretly reunited my former followers, but also absorbed a great deal of new blood, allowing my influence to spread throughout Europe over the course of decades... And you remained completely unaware."
"...I never should have trusted you like that."
Dumbledore's voice seemed to turn colder. His gaze sharpened like that of an eagle, locking directly onto Grindelwald.
"You trust people too easily. Have you forgotten? Back then, you trusted me just as blindly, and that was why you contributed so greatly to my cause... Tell me, among all the high-level knowledge I used to attract young people, how much of it do you think came from research that you and I carried out together all those years ago?"
"..."
At last, a trace of anger surfaced in Dumbledore's eyes.
But the magic he was forced to maintain still held him in place. Without Karkaroff's assistance, the spell had slowed drastically, and even now he still had not fully dragged the three ghost ships completely free.
"And as for my alma mater, Durmstrang, naturally I had long since brought it under my control. This Mr. Karkaroff here can be considered my representative... Otherwise, how do you think a British Death Eater with no background, arriving as a fugitive, managed step by step to become the headmaster of one of the three greatest schools in Europe? Of course, he still remains loyal to his former master to some degree, so his relationship with me is more one of partial subordination and partial cooperation. Once that Voldemort is revived, the headmaster's seat will still have to belong to me."
Watching Dumbledore's fury—fury he could do nothing with—made Grindelwald's smile widen further.
"So after one of my subordinates established contact between me and the wizards serving Voldemort, I thought it might be a good idea to cooperate with them, eliminate you—the greatest obstacle—first. In exchange, they would provide manpower to help me deal with you, along with some of the resources and training I needed to restore my strength. And I, in turn, promised to revive their master after you were dealt with. And so, this long-planned Triwizard Tournament came into being... Well? Are you satisfied with this trap?"
Suddenly, Grindelwald raised his wand.
But instead of pointing it at Dumbledore, he aimed it toward the three ghost ships that still flickered faintly in midair.
Dumbledore was struck by a belated shock and instinctively tried to make some sort of countermeasure—but to his surprise, the tip of Grindelwald's wand was also releasing that same blue ripple-like magic.
With the sudden addition of his spell, the speed at which the three ghost ships solidified increased by countless times over. In only a few short seconds, they were completely pulled free from space.
"There. Now nothing is left to divide your attention."
With an easy flick of his wand, Grindelwald teleported the three ghost ships away to somewhere unknown. Then he once more leveled his wand at Dumbledore, who was already exhausted and pale from the poison he had been forced to drink.
"Now then, let's fight once more, Albus..."
"Just like fifty years ago."
(End of Chapter)