Edit - Sorry to all the readers and Thank You so much to the reviewer who pointed this out! In my short time as a fanfic writer, this is probably the biggest mistake that I have made. I had messed up the name of one of my characters. Her name is supposed to "Kristin" and not "Tristin". And after being told about this, I have edited my previous chapters to remove the error. Thank You!
{{{"ARIANA! ARIANA!" screamed Aberforth as the sparks went out from their wands. A moment later, the Dumbledore brothers saw a puff of dust, and Grindelwald was gone.}}}
{{{"Albus, do you think your sister would have been what she was if this revolution had happened earlier?" asked Grindelwald.
"We are not any better or worse than the muggles. I was blinded a long time back, but I can see what power does to one. Gellert, stop this madness," said Dumbledore calmly, yet there was an urgency in his voice.
"Are you really going to fight me?" asked Grindelwald, smirking. "You know, you can't defeat me," he added.
"We had a pact, we don't anymore," replied Dumbledore.
"Congratulations on the dragon's blood, by the way. Quite the discovery! And people thought experimentation is bad," smirked Grindelwald}}}
{{{"Can I trust you?" asked Dumbledore.
"I don't deserve this freedom," said Grindelwald.
"The boy is lucky to have you as his guardian," replied Dumbledore.}}}
"UNCLE G! Say something!" yelled Harry. Grindelwald, who had been still for well over a minute, broke his trance and looked at Harry.
"Master Potter, what do you want me to say?" asked Grindelwald in a very low voice.
"I want you to tell me who you are, who you really are," replied Harry fiercely. "Why... did... that death eater call you a dark wizard? Why did Hermione tremble... when she found out your name? Why... did she call you the greatest dark wizard the world had seen before You-Know-Who? Why have you never told me anything about yourself? In all these years... before I knew magic... since I have known magic... never once have you answered my questions about yourself properly. I need my answers now," finished Harry breathlessly and half in tears.
"I believed in an ideology. In many ways, I still do. And I did what I thought was right, but what I did was wrong. I was given a chance to redeem myself. Not completely, I can never be redeemed completely. The things I did, the people I killed, my actions of the past make sure that I can never redeem myself. But, I can still repay the world, and that's what I have been doing," replied Grindelwald.
"Tell me everything," said Harry disgusted. And so Grindelwald told him. The Deathly Hallows, the Elder Wand, his obsession over magical blood, and why the International Statute of Secrecy is a failure, Grindelwald poured his heart out to a 15-year-old boy who wanted answers but knew nothing about understanding them. The only thing going through Harry's mind was that his Uncle was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
"I never wanted to kill the muggles, I simply wanted to enlighten them of a world of people much more powerful than they could ever be. If the muggles understood the wizards, would we need an International Statute of Secrecy? People fear what they don't understand. When a muggle sees a wizard move an object with his wand he fears the wizard. He fears the wizard because he does not understand what a wizard is and what he can do. Throughout centuries, there have been innumerable conflicts between our kind and the muggles. Why is it that we should live in secrecy? We can do things that the muggles can only dream of. Wizards who had faced oppression, who had lost their loved ones, who had lost their freedom to the muggles followed me. This is what I believe. What I did all those years ago was a mistake, an irreparable one. But what I believed in, is still what I believe in," finished Grindelwald.
"You haven't changed, have you?" retorted Harry. "Uncle G! If you could go back and do this all over again, would you still do the things you did?" asked Harry. He desperately wanted his uncle to say no. He wanted his uncle to give no further explanation, no further justification, just a simple no.
"The knowledge of the future is a very useful thing, Master Potter. We can all accomplish great things if we had the advantage of hindsight. As a young man, I had my goal in sight. As an old man, I revisit some of my actions. If I had the opportunity to go back, I would of course do things differently. But I would not change my goal," replied Grindelwald with conviction. The moment he uttered his words, Grindelwald got reminded of how hypnotic his speeches used to be. He felt like a young man again, but this time he wasn't uttering the words to sway a large population in his favour. This time he was uttering the words to a hormonal 15-year-old. Harry on hearing those words stood speechless for a moment and then rushed upstairs to his bedroom and slammed the door.
"Magnus, wake up! How much longer are you planning on sleeping?" came Kristin's voice.
"Why are you here? Let me sleep..." replied a sleepy Magnus.
"Why am I here? You told me to come here in the morning," replied Kristin as she shook Magnus to wake him up.
"Get Harry and come back here," replied Magnus as he pushed Kristin away.
"We'll go to Harry's together," said Kristin.
"Please! Let me sleep a little longer," replied Magnus.
"FINE!" said Kristin and went out of his room.
"Kristin, you're leaving so soon?" asked Magnus' mother as she saw Kristin heading for the door.
"He isn't going to wake up anytime soon, I'm going to Harry's and will be back," replied Kristin and left the house. The weather outside was beautiful. A wonderful cold wind was blowing towards her as she cycled her way to Harry's. Magnus and Harry lived quite far away, they both lived on opposite sides of the city. Kristin lived somewhere between the both of them. As she sped her cycle through the city, she saw a lot of people on either side of the street. It seemed like a busy day. After about half an hour, she reached the magnificent gates of the Chateau de la Villette, Harry's house. She parked her bicycle and made her way to the door and rang the doorbell. The door was opened in a few seconds by Grindelwald.
"Uncle G!" exclaimed Kristin and gave him a tight hug.
"Welcome dear," said Grindelwald as he gestured her in.
"Where's Harry?" she asked as she looked around the hall.
"Upstairs," replied Grindelwald. Just then, they heard loud footsteps coming from the staircase and a moment later a stumbling Harry came down.
"Harry! Be careful!" exclaimed Kristin at the sight of the stumbling Harry.
"Kristin!" said Harry breathlessly. He looked peaky, and his eyes were darting around for a few seconds. He was sweating profusely and if Kristin were to make a guess, she'd have said that he looked frightened. Harry gave Kristin a tight hug almost as if he hadn't seen her for ages and after a few seconds, he let go of her. "Are you ok?" asked Harry.
"Am I ok? Harry, you are the one who stumbled, are you okay? You look a bit weird," said Kristin.
"I uh… I am fine. I just slipped on the stairs," said Harry.
"Okay! We have things to do today," said Kristin and continued. "First, we go to the lake. And then Magnus wanted to go to some movie. So, we'll do that, and later we have to go to Aryan's birthday party," she finished.
"Do we really have to go to Aryan's birthday party?" asked Harry disinterested.
"Yeah, we said we would yesterday. Why? You don't want to go?" asked Kristin, surprised.
"I don't know, I'm not in the mood," replied Harry.
"What's up with you? Everything alright?" asked Kristin and turned her head towards Grindelwald. "Uncle G! What's up with him?" Grindelwald stood there not sure how to respond. Harry stood silent for a few moments as Kristin looked at the pair of them alternatively.
And then Harry said, "Let's go!"
Kristin stood and looked at Harry but seeing him leave, she followed him after waving Grindelwald goodbye.
"You both had a fight or something?" she asked.
"Yeah, something like that," replied Harry. He wasn't particularly sure why he had acted the way he had in those few minutes. Hearing the doorbell ring followed by Kristin's voice gave Harry a bit of a panic rush. It was this unexplainable feeling of fear that he had. Looking back, he wasn't sure if it was because he knew who Grindelwald really was. But it seemed silly at the same time. He had literally grown up under his care and at no point did he ever feel threatened by him. There was no logical reason to think Grindelwald would ever hurt Kristin, Magnus, or Harry himself. Few minutes into the bicycle ride, Harry started to feel much better about the day ahead.
"Harry, I never asked… How did it go yesterday with… wait what's her name?" asked Kristin.
"Hermione! And, it was alright," replied Harry.
"Alright? What happened?" asked Kristin unconvinced.
"Nothing! We walked around for a long time. We spoke a lot too. It was good," replied Harry. The day ahead was exactly what Harry needed. It was uplifting and happy and made him forget the events of the previous night. The trio had an exciting swimming session as they were joined by a group of 4 friends. Kristin won the swimming race between the 7, even though Magnus and Harry spent most of their time trying to derail her. Once the trio had drained their energy in the lake, they went to their favourite restaurant to eat. Harry was hoping that Hermione wouldn't be there, and fortunately for him, she wasn't. The trio then spent the best part of 2 hours watching a horror movie that gave the chills to all three of them, though Magnus seemed to handle it better than Kristin or Harry. As the mentally and physically drained trio made their way out of the theatre,
"... you should have seen your face," said Magnus laughing at Harry as Kristin joined in the laughter.
"What are you laughing at?" said Harry looking at Kristin. "You grabbed my arm so tight in that scene with the little girl, you almost broke my arm," he added.
"Whatever, you were the worst among the 3 of us," she said laughing.
"Look, even I have a bruised arm," said Magnus, showing his right arm. "One day, years down the line, some man will feel very lucky," he added. Harry and Magnus glanced at each other and a moment later burst into laughter. Kristin seemed to be concentrating on something else.
"Wait… what did you say?" asked Kristin as her concentration broke due to the boys' laughter.
"Some things… can not be said twice," replied Magnus cheekily. As the trio walked towards their parked bicycles Harry noticed Kristin looking back twice or thrice.
"What happened?" he asked Kristin, as he looked back.
"There was a funnily dressed couple, but I can't see them anymore," she replied.
"Funny how?" asked Harry.
"Weird combination of colours," she replied. They soon forgot about this as the birthday party discussion began. Harry, whose mood had improved remarkably in the past few hours, was still unsure about going to the party. Magnus teased Kristin about having a crush on Aryan, which she blushingly denied. They ended up going to the party but left in an hour.
As the trio walked their bicycles, Magnus poked Kristin and asked, "Why don't you tell him that you like him?" teasingly.
"I… don't like him," replied Kristin, but she was flustered and it didn't go unnoticed by Magnus.
"Don't lie to me," said Magnus with a smile.
"Can we please change the topic?" she asked.
"Harry! What are you looking at?" asked Magnus after a few moments of looking at Harry who was looking behind.
"Nothing, I thought I saw someone," said Harry.
"Looks like someone is imagining things… Harry, don't worry, that old man in the movie isn't real," said Kristin and started giggling. Magnus joined in the laughter as the trio wound up an eventful and fun day. And soon they reached Magnus' house.
"Can we have a sleepover tonight?" asked Kristin suddenly. "My parents aren't home and my brother has been spending a lot of time at his boyfriends' place, so it gets boring."
"Yeah, I'd love that," said Harry, thanking the stars that he wouldn't have to go home that night.
"Yeah, sure.. We can do that," said Magnus and continued after a moment, "You both go ahead, I'll inform my mother and catch up with you," he said. So, Kristin and Harry hopped on their bicycle and rode to Kristin's house.
"Harry, how are you going to tell Uncle G that you're sleeping at my place?" asked Kristin.
"I uh… I'll tell tomorrow when I go home," replied Harry. A small part of him thought that this decision was uncalled for, and that he should inform Grindelwald, but it was overruled by the majority which was carefree at the moment.
"Thank you! I was worried we may have to cycle that far," she said. It took about 15 minutes for them to reach Kristin's house. It was empty when they reached. They parked their bicycles and went in. It took about 20 minutes more for Magnus to reach.
"We have been waiting for ages," said Kristin exasperated as she opened the door.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, I started late," said Magnus, but he did not come into the house. He stood at the entrance and dragged Kristin by her arm to outside the house.
"Magnus, leave my arm, what are you doing?" shrilled Kristin's voice.
"Shh… I saw 2 people standing, a few meters outside the house. They were staring at the house," he whispered and guided her to the gate. Kristin's face had gone pale, both of them were slightly shivering. They were walking slowly, Magnus was even stooping. But when they reached the gate, they couldn't see anybody outside.
"Magnus, if that was a prank, I swear, I'll kill you," said Kristin and walked inside the house. Magnus looked confused but he followed her in.
"What took you guys so long?" asked Harry.
"Magnus and his stupid prank," replied Kristin.
"It wasn't a prank. I swear, I saw 2 people, a man, and a woman standing just outside your gate. They even moved away when they saw me coming," said Magnus.
"And where did they go? It's a long street, Magnus and there was absolutely no sign of them. They can't magically disappear," replied Kristin, looking annoyed. Magnus had his arms up in the air but Harry had other doubts. He was grateful that he had his wand, but decided not to think about his other part of life.
"We have some urgent news for the Dark Lord," said a throaty male voice.
"What is it?" asked Bellatrix rudely. The man looked at the woman beside him and after a glance, the woman spoke up.
"We have information about what happened in Iceland," replied the woman.
"We saw the mudblood talking to the boy. And we overheard the boy tell her that his uncle is… the boy's uncle is Gellert Grindelwald," added the man.
"What?" Bellatrix asked, shocked.
"Yes," replied the woman.
"What else do you know?" asked Bellatrix after a few minutes of silence.
"The boy could be a muggle. We are not sure if he is a wizard or not. We followed him and his muggle friends today, but we couldn't find anything else out," replied the man.
"But his uncle is Grindelwald? Are you sure?" asked Bellatrix.
"Yes Bella, we are. We thought of attacking the boy and bringing him here, but we did not attack the boy, we weren't sure if it was safe," replied the man.
"If it was safe? Safe from what? You don't want the Dark Lord to hear these words from your mouth," threatened Bellatrix.
"The boy lives with the dark wizard, Gellert Grindelwald. If he found out that we followed the boy all day..." said the woman but did not finish the sentence.
"What boy? Who were you following Amycus?" came the cold sneering voice of Severus Snape.