Meeting their match, chapter 34
"You know you want to know more about me, don't you," Gellert suggested, putting the intriguing hat back on. To his own mind, he sounded like one of those animated advertising cards.
The kind that is sent out by companies wanting your money, putting an attractive young man or woman at its center, so that you won't be able to put it down, while it offers you a host of enchanted items you really have no need or place for.
Of course, unlike any of these cards, he was really offering something of value as far as he was concerned.
"I know everything there is to know," the hat responded indignantly, a tear in its brim opening wider, creating the impression of a pout, that amused Grindelwald to no end.
"You on the other hand do not know everything, and might need to know there is a security breach at the school premises," the hat grumpily volunteered.
"Well, yes, you have seen a lot, are both wise and good looking. But there was that moment of confusion in you that you would surely like to resolve," the dark wizard pressed on. As his mind caught on with what the hat offered, Gellert decided to incorporate the information as a basis for their future negotiations.
"Indeed, well I am listening. Tell me more. You see, we can work something out, I can help you and in turn, you may be able to assist me with puzzling something out," he casually dropped, and the hat left his head and began dancing in front of him, on a long table perhaps as a sign of its agitation.
"A dark wizard, darker than you, sought to unravel my mysteries. To influence my work in some fashion. To influence my very thinking. And I am of course too good for it and will have none of it," the hat angrily stated, with Gellert appreciatively nodding at its sense of dignity.
"Wooo,"Blaise exclaimed as the hat had done something he'd of course never seen or even heard a rumor of it doing. Though it could move a slit in its surface like a mouth, he had never considered that this meant it could move itself in general.
"I and surely most people believed its movement was limited to the mouth bit there," he said, gesturing to the slit in the hat that moved as it spoke its indignant complaints.
"See here," Blaise told the hat, snatching it up and placing it on his own head in case doing so served to make the communication even more clear. He didn't know all that the hat and Gellert had exchanged but the end was enough for what he needed to say.
"As you are well aware dark wizards do not always mean evil wizards and we're not out to harm the world as Voldemort is likely to do if you don't help us to stop him. We simply wish to learn how you operate and incorporate it into our own work. If you know so much you'd see that we're both enchanters and we were tasked to use our skills in the fight against Voldemort. You could keep out of it aside from your dire warnings or you could excel and help. We won't share any of what you've told us," he concluded, tone only mildly peevish and impatient. He was met with a silence that he hoped was thoughtful, so he looked at Gellert and shrugged.
"It can be all on your terms," Gellert cajoled, a small smile playing on his lips. He felt a certain thrill from having a challenge. Having something to work for that was not immediately yielding. In the area of magic he has not experienced anything similar since his youth.
"The first one has great potential, and this one as well. Different talents, and similar. Truly, truly. What a conundrum. It almost reminds me of an earlier song. But never mind that. I suppose, I shall deal, on limited terms. You will know what you need to know, and no more. Do not ask me for the location of the Sword though. Neither of you are attuned to its particular magic. Otherwise, I shall instruct you..." the hat peevishly allowed.
"Is it just me, or does he remind you of Bramble a little," Gellert wondered with considerable amusement.

Blaise laughed, nodding in agreement. Come to think of it, the hat and Bramble had a lot in common, with the elf also only giving as much as was entirely necessary or that he could legitimately get away with, Blaise thought dryly. Though it wasn't likely his elf would enjoy the comparison. Removing the hat, Blaise held it in both hands, opening himself to its magic, allowing himself to feel as much as he could, to soak it in. It was the way he always began when studying an object. As to be expected there were many layers of spellwork woven into the fabric of this hat. More than four, so each founder had cast far more than one simple enchantment to imprint his or her values and understanding into the hat.

"Thank you," he told the hat distractedly, glad the thing hadn't made some sort of embarrassing comment about when Blaise was sorted in his first year. Not that anything embarrassing had happened, but who knew what the hat could come up with?

Blaise wanted to tell Gellert that they could just take whatever information the hat was unwilling to give if they worked carefully, but not wanting the hat to withdraw his offer of cooperation, kept the thought to himself until later. It was highly doubtful they could fully study the hat in one session, so he'd have plenty of time to tell Gellert later.

"I don't think we need anything from the sword at present, so we agree to your terms," he told the hat,then to Gellert, "It's the sword of Gryffindor, goblins made it and that's all I know or was able to find in books other than it was highly prized by the goblins and by Godric Gryffindor who commissioned it. So much so that it started a goblin wizarding war or so it is said. It was so long ago, though, I believe much is lost to history, leaving small minds to fill in the blanks," he said disdainfully.

Standing, Blaise drew a nearly black wand carved of smoky quartz from the pocket of his black summer slacks. Reseating himself he placed the hat onto his lap and passed the wand over it several times, murmuring a charm of revealing. He'd discover what he could, then take whatever the hat would offer on its own. The spell was surely one Gellert was familiar with, so Blaise didn't bother explaining that it would reveal at best all the charms or spells used on the hat and at worst at least the exact amount of them even if some were hidden.

Words began to flash over the hat in an old English script, and Blaise found himself squinting at them as his brain struggled to work them out.