We are less than a month from the release date. THERE ARE SPOILERS for Fantastic Beasts 2 below. Turn away now if you want to go into the movie unspoiler-ed.

Hello everyone,

Despite the time, I still keep getting e-mails of people following this story and PM requests about updating this story.

We need to have a talk.

As I believe I have said before... I am someone whose stories match Canon. I am not big into telling the story. It's JK Rowling's story. No one can tell it as well as she can. I just like to come in and fill in the holes. With the previous couple of chapters, I branched out a bit and added what I think is a good guess toward what will happen, but then I stopped. It's time for JK Rowling to tell the story. If anything I have written contradicts Canon, then I will be removing it.

There are some things I have written that I think will neither be confirmed nor disproved in the next movie. I do not think we will get a satisfactory explanation about Percival Graves and how Grindelwald came to impersonate him. Therefore, I am probably going to leave the meeting between Graves and Grindelwald, along with my explanation of how their paths crossed. However, if this is proven not true, I will be taking that chapter down.

When I first started writing this story in 2014, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was not yet revealed to be about Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. Yes, I know it's "really about Newt," but let me address that in a second. The point is, in 2014, when Gellert Grindelwald entered my story, I was going off of 2007-2010 Canon.

Recently, Albus/Gellert Canon has changed.

This is something that is blowing people's minds online. So let me explain.

I have been following JK Rowling interviews since the slump between 2000 and 2003 (in between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix book releases). This is because interviews were the best proof available as to what would happen next in the books.

I know that JK Rowling says she has the entire Wizarding Universe already planned out in her head. And while I think that is mostly true, I do think she changes her mind based on what was said in past interviews versus what is being said now.

JK Rowling on Gellert Grindelwald:

July 2005 Canon: Rowling states that Grindelwald is dead and that he died in 1945. In 2005 Canon, Dumbledore had killed Grindelwald in 1945.

Interview July 16, 2005:

Emerson: Is he (Grindelwald) dead?

JK Rowling: Yeah, he is.

Emerson: Is he important?

JK Rowling: Ohh…

Emerson: You don't have to answer, but can you give us some backstory on him?

JK Rowling: I'm going to tell you as much as I told someone earlier who asked me. You know Owen who won the [UK television] competition to interview me? He asked about Grindelwald. He said, "Is it [a] coincidence that he died in 1945?" and I said no. It amuses me to make allusions to things that were happening in the Muggle world, so my feeling would be that while there's a global Muggle war going on, there's also a global wizarding war going on.

Two years after this interview, the Deathly Hallows is published, and Grindelwald is alive but imprisoned.

June 2007 Canon: Grindelwald died imprisoned in 1998.

Then, in October 2007, JK Rowling announced:

Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him.

October 2007 Canon: Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald, but he was horrified when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he really was.

We sat here until 2008. The topic was, of course, pressed again in an interview.

JK Rowling: In the seventh book - he has, what I think a child would read as an intense friendship, a friendship through which he is lead astray, but which for me was always an infatuation. But Dumbledore meets this handsome, his dark twin in a sense, and he's a very charismatic, brilliant young man. And whether or not that relationship was physically consummated or not I think is irrelevant, it's actually about love. And I think that the sensitive, maybe sophisticated adult reader could see that Dumbledore, who had been a very, you know, a very moral student, a model student up to that point, who goes so wildly off the rail suddenly, to think "yeah, genocide, that'll work!" You know - what did he feel for this person? Well, as for me, it's a step beyond friendship. And I think that a person of Grindelwald's type would have exploited that being as it is.

2008 Canon: Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald, and Grindelwald knew it and exploited him.

We sat here for another two years, until a 2010 interview.

JK Rowling: I think [Grindelwald] was a user and a narcissist and I think that he would use it, would use the infatuation. I don't think he would reciprocate in that way, although he would be as dazzled by Dumbledore as Dumbledore was by him, because he would see in Dumbledore, 'My God, I never knew there was someone as brilliant as me, as talented as me, as powerful as me. Together, we are unstoppable! So I think he would take anything from Dumbledore to have him on his side.

2010 Canon: Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald, Grindelwald knew it and exploited him, and though Grindelwald did not have romantic feelings for Dumbledore, Grindelwald would have been in a relationship with him if that was what it took to have Dumbledore on his side.

This is where the line is drawn because this was where we are when I started writing this story.

2010 Canon is NOT 2018 Canon, just like 2005 Canon was not 2007 Canon.

I see lots of people online saying, "OMG, Grindelwald and Dumbledore were so in love," and then someone who read those 2007-2010 interviews says, "Grindelwald didn't have any feelings back for Dumbledore, JKR said so!"

We saw a hint of jealousy when "Percival Graves" said, "What makes Albus Dumbledore so fond of you, Mr. Scamander?" That was just a hint though, not concrete proof.

2018:

David Yates: A couple of scenes we shot [for Fantastic Beasts 2: Crimes of Grindelwald] are very sensual moments between [young Dumbledore] and the young Grindelwald.

Also David Yates: They fell in love with each other's ideas, and ideology, and each other.

2018 Canon: Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald, Grindelwald knew it and exploited him, Grindelwald was in a relationship with him because he wanted Dumbledore on his side, and Grindelwald reciprocated some of those feelings.

If you ask me, I believe that Grindelwald denied having any feelings for Dumbledore that summer, but he did wind up reciprocating some of those feelings. I don't know if Grindelwald was really, truly in love with Dumbledore, but I do think he had feelings he would have rather not developed. Hence why, when Newt's around, Grindelwald keeps throwing Dumbledore's name out at him (he does this in the second movie too). Someone is not over his ex.

Lastly, even though Newt is the main character, this story is also about Dumbledore. JK Rowling recently said, "These movies are largely about how Dumbledore became Dumbledore."

As for me... I am going to sit back, watch those sensual scenes, and then start filling in the holes.

I am also going to go back and start changing things already here. I am hopefully a better writer than I was 4 years ago.

NEW EDIT 10/24/18

As we are getting closer to the release date, interviews are falling out the sky like hail.

THANK YOU to the Guest who reviewed letting me know about the new Johnny Depp interview.

More Albus/Gellert interviews.

Whether you like Johnny Depp or not (I'm not thrilled at the casting choice, personally), he is portraying 1920s-1940s Grindelwald, so he is a credible source for talking about his character. He told us some interesting information that solidifies my above statement that Dumbledore/Grindeldore canon has changed.

Johnny Depp Interview:

Interviewer: What does Grindelwald think of Dumbledore at this point?

Johnny Depp: I think he's just waiting. He's looking forward to [their inevitable showdown]. I think there's probably a lot of residue left over from days gone by. They quite bonded, you know? When you loved someone, and cared for someone, and it arrives into a [combative] arena - as it has with Dumbledore and Grindelwald - it's very dangerous when it becomes personal.

Interviewer: There's been lots of focus on Dumbledore's sexuality and how much should be in the film, but very little speculating about Grindelwald. What's your take on your character's sexuality and how much of that is apparent in the portrayal?

Johnny Depp: I think it should be left up to the audience to feel it first, and when the time comes... It makes the situation with Dumbledore all the more intense. I think there's a jealousy with Scamander. He sees Scamander as Dumbledore's protege - he's boy, in a way. That in itself is enough for Grindelwald to want to take Scamander down in a way that is ferocious and eternal.

I always knew that was jealousy coming from "Percival Graves." Let's go to someone else.

Ezra Miller Interview:

Ezra Miller: [Dumbledore's sexuality is extremely explicit], all around. He sees Grindelwald, his young lover who's the love of his life, he sees him in the Mirror of Erised. What does the Mirror of Erised show you? Nothing more than the most desperate desire of your heart. If that's not explicitly gay, I don't know what is.

Ezra Miller Interview 2:

Ezra Miller: The relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald was a very complex one, a very intimate one, a close one - it was a relationship that happened during adolescence, and I think we all can identify with how much someone can come to mean to you at that time. Someone who's your age becomes the closest person to you and the love that exists there and what happened between them was sort of an ideological split wherein their philosophies were aligned and they were very excited about this dangerous, idealistic mentality that they shared. Then at some point their path, their beliefs, started to diverge and we get to explore more about that as this series progresses. It's a very important relationship for the history of the whole Wizarding World and it's a beautiful thing that it actually comes from this very intimate root of two people who really, really connect when they're young, and who really love each other and rely on each other, and then who are broken apart, go different ways, and actually become both incredibly influential on different sides of the Wizarding World.

There is also Jude Law interviews about Dumbledore staring into the Mirror of Erised "lovingly," and how Albus sees himself as a monster, but there's no need for me to include those. We already know Albus' feelings.

November 15th Note:

So, I've seen the movie twice now, a couple days apart. What's going to happen with this story now? Is anything going to change?

Um, hell yeah. I'm going to change almost every single chapter I have written thus far. Because my goal is to conform with canon and not write my own version of the story, most of my chapters are now going to be under construction.

Some changes I make here are going to be major, while other changes will be very minor, and other chapters will remain untouched. I am resisting editing anything or adding anything new (there are some ideas I have that I'm already ITCHING to write about, but I'm going to resist until I have read the screenplay from beginning to end. The book comes out tomorrow morning.

Gellert's chapters are going to get heavy makeovers. I'm probably going to scrap at least some of them. But new Gellert chapters from his perspective are coming.

These past two days have been a crazy ride!