A flood of letters come in that morning after the party, an entire army of owls swooping over and dropping off a small mound each in front of Tom and Gellert. One letter gently flutters down onto the table in front of Credence too but Gellert whips around in his seat at the Gryffindor table and vanishes it before it can touch anything.

Unnecessary, as Credence has nothing to fear from withering curses because there is simply nothing inside him to wither, but Credence feels warm inside at his brother trying to protect him.

Tom and Gellert also vanish the letters in front of them without bothering to look because the only people opening communications so soon after meeting them are either the lesser or the ones testing them. They'll start accepting letters in a few days, after people have had the opportunity to actually research them.

Tom has already warned Harry to not accept strange people into the house and to throw all the letters through the portal in the backyard so Tom can read them later and hunt down anyone who tried to use Harry to get to the boys.

Harry protested as Dnoces and Mooney use the dragon flap regularly and might get hurt by random unopened letters. Tom then told the Unspeakable to watch Harry instead.

Things are about to pick up.

When the real letters come in, they're a slow trickle. It's only greetings at first, some filling two pages worth of nothing in particular, others a few short paragraphs asking after their personal work.

Tom and Gellert aren't playing nice, they have no need to, not when these people aren't offering anything they can't get elsewhere. So any letters asking for trade secrets are blatantly ignored and any who request a meeting or demonstration are put off until they have the time.

They were hoping to gather a larger amount but after Gellert puts off the first meeting to a week later, everyone else stops asking or says they're only free the week after that. The senders are clearly talking to each other behind the scenes.

That's fine, Gellert expected nothing less, he's not so fragile as to be thrown off by petty games like this. Tom is just frustrated at the messy scheduling.

Both of them will look back on this in disappointment because they should have known better. They've been playing with people who own a shallow power, nothing they couldn't forcefully control, no one they weren't already better than.

Gellert's first meeting is a cute demonstration, in a separate location than the first – which has already been torn down and purged so no one can trace the kinds of magic he used. Gellert arrives on time and has to wait another fifteen minutes for his guest to arrive.

When the man does arrive, he brings two others with him, stepping out of the apparation mid-conversation and they continue to talk for two minutes while Gellert patiently waits with a smile on his face.

Childish tactics. Gellert has gotten worse from Harry when Gellert asked to buy an acromantula for a certain project - not that Gellert is going to let this stand regardless.

"Pardon me," the man chuckles, finally turning to Gellert and holding out a hand. "You must be Gellert Grindelwald?"

"I am," Gellert says and cheerfully shakes hands. "Sorry, who are these two? I'm not really supposed to be around strangers."

The three adults titter like that was a joke and Gellert isn't genuinely gearing up to a fight. He doesn't want to be known as the uncontrolled one but it's better to be that than get pushed around and seen as weak.

"They're friends of mine," the man says dismissively. "We were talking and I lost track of time."

Like they didn't just exchange corresponded this morning to verify the time, like the man is doing Gellert a favour.

"So this is the base then?" one of the women asks, walking forward and gracefully dropping to a knee where the plate is embedded into the soil, uncaring of the dirt on her pantsuit. "Fey vein circuitry I'm assuming, well done on the casing though personally I wouldn't be using this kind of titanium alloy."

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't interfere with the internal magics, it's sensitive," Gellert says lightly.

She already has her wand out and casts a diagnostic charm, but halfway through flicks up a strong shield instead as the ley line connected to it pulses and spits out lightly glittering sparks that implode upon touching the ground and carve out small but perfectly rounded craters.

"A bit temperamental," the other woman tsks. "Honestly, such defences are so gauche. I most certainly know who you learned that from."

"British Ministry mandated," Gellert lies apologetically, none of the building anger heard in his tone as he watches the first woman continue to try and run diagnostic charms to see how Gellert made it. The sheer audacity.

The Unspeakable recommended something stronger actually, and Gellert laughed at the thought of anyone underestimating him at what is literally a demonstration of his power and intellect. Gellert owes the Unspeakable an apology.

It won't let her in anyway, Gellert is confident in that since he tested it on Tom, the Unspeakable and even Albus.

But it's been such a long time since people who understood were so utterly dismissive of Gellert that honestly, the boy has gone straight past rage and is starting to have fun. They're genuinely taking him seriously, but they're not going to give in easily and Gellert is going to have to fight to get into the big kids club.

The elder wand lying against his forearm in a holster spell is heating up, wanting to be used, burning with the need to show these people their place. Gellert hushes it. Not now, later. Oh my, the wand is such a bad influence on him. (Or at least that's what he's going to tell Harry.)

"Shall I go ahead with the demonstration?" Gellert muses, a smile playing on his lips. "I'm afraid I have another appointment soon."

"Back to school then?" the man asks. "How is that quaint little castle?"

"As wet as usual," Gellert laughs and just summons up the miniature town square, much smaller scale than the one he demonstrated before and with even less finesse.

The woman kneeling is now curiously attempting to interfere or damage the base plate and the other two have gone back to discussing the British architecture's influence on Gellert's spontaneous town.

He can see the way they look at him though. He's a threat and now they can categorise him after seeing this display.

"What sort of standards do your apothecary buildings need?" Gellert asks the man, the whole reason he bothered to agree to a demonstration. "My brother is partnered with one or two smaller shops, but nothing accredited like yours."

'Smaller shops' is not quite indicative of Tom's budding kingdom run through his pureblood minions but it is technically true when compared to this man's global franchise.

"It's all in the warding," the man dismisses. "Lovely little shops you've got though, I can see this being a nice alfresco dining street."

Gellert can create Hogwarts. He can build sprawling catacombs to rival the graveyards of France. He can remake Atlantis with all the ancient magic that entails, so the very air breathes with magic, so the walls come alive, so the entire empire moves at his command.

"A little ice cream shop on the corner perhaps," Gellert agrees easily enough.

.

A/N: Gellert slowly losing his shit the entire chapter. Poor guy is disillusioned now, thinking the higher he goes the more people will be like him.

Nope, just more assholes.