A/N: I feel I have to apologise now, at the start, for taking SO long to update this story. I have been extremely busy with University, and been in hospital a few weeks ago (to have my appendix out) and so I admit that I have neglected this story. I feel terribly guilty about that, and so I wrote this in one go, and stayed up until 3am to finish it. It is very much longer than my other chapters, to make up for my delay. I hope you continue to enjoy this story, as I still have a few good memories lined up. (Sorry for the long-ish AN)

Harry went to bed after viewing that last memory involving his father. He somehow felt less than satisfied with the knowledge that his father and Sirius had nearly killed Snape. After viewing all those memories he felt drained of all his energy. He slipped out of the office quietly and hurried to the room he would be sleeping in that night. By his estimate, he would be able to complete his viewing of all Dumbledore's memories by the next night. He was glad, as all he wanted to do now was get home to Ginny. Harry slept fitfully that night.

The next morning, he woke early and dressed quickly. He wanted to try fit in another memory before breakfast. He spoke the password to the gargoyle outside the Headmistress's office and it shifted out of the way, grumbling about being woken rudely so early in the morning.

Harry was not entirely surprised to see a steaming cup of tea sitting on the table next to the Pensieve. The house elves were diligent as usual. He took the cup and stood by the window, looking out. From where he stood, Harry could see over the front lawns, all the way down to Hagrid's hut. He saw a flock of birds rising in the distance over the forest, disturbed, most likely, by Grawp, whom Harry was certain still lived in the forest.

Cup of tea finished, Harry opened the cupboard once more, picking up the next memory in the line. This one seemed different to Harry. The contents were silver like all the others, but were swirling a lot more violently, or so it seemed to Harry in any case. He poured the contents into the Pensieve, and slipped quickly in.

-xxx-

It seemed to Harry that he had landed up in the countryside. He was standing at a point half way down a hill. He could hear what sounded like gunfire and men shouting. The sky was a murky grey colour, and Harry could smell death in the air. He glanced behind him and saw a man in a uniform. The man had relatively long grey hair that was tied up at the nape of his neck. The man was pacing, his hands behind his back. As he turned, Harry was rather shocked to see that this man was, in fact, Albus Dumbledore himself. Harry thought he looked very different in a Muggle army uniform.

Dumbledore changed direction and climbed to the top of the hill, Harry following him. Harry stood on the top of the hill, dumbstruck by what he was seeing. Below them, not too far away, Harry could see two distinct armies attacking each other. He could see the trenches dug up, with men crouching inside them. Every now and then a small group of soldiers would attempt to move closer to the enemy lines, and the enemy would shoot at them, occasionally hitting true to their target. Harry felt absolutely nauseated by the sight of this and turned away from the sight. He couldn't help but be sick all over the grass.

Dumbledore never once showed any indication that he was aware of Harry's presence, and continued watching the battle below. He would occasionally glance at his watch, as though he were waiting for something. Harry sat on the top of the hill next to Dumbledore, but with his back facing the fighting. This brought back too many still-raw feelings about the last battle he had been in. He wondered why Dumbledore would be so callous as to show him this so soon after what had occurred, but then he remembered that Dumbledore had not been a part of that particular Battle, that Dumbledore had died before then.

After a long moment, Dumbledore checked his watch again. This time, instead of continuing to scrutinize the battle, he pulled out his wand and put a disillusionment spell on himself. Harry was stumped for a moment, before Dumbledore came into view again, albeit with a shimmer. Harry suddenly realised that he could still see Dumbledore because it was Dumbledore's memory of the event. Dumbledore made his way carefully down the side of the hill opposite the side that the battle was happening. He stopped half way down once more.

Harry heard a loud BANG behind him and he spun around. He knew that that was the magical sound of a long-distance apparition. He was not surprised to see a wizard standing on the top of the hill. This wizard was not dressed in Muggle uniform, but instead he was wearing a dark green robe. The wizard surveyed the battle with a smug grin on his face. With a malevolent chuckle, he pulled out his wand – a wand that Harry recognised immediately to be the Elder Wand. Suddenly, from behind him, he heard Dumbledore speak.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Gellert," he said quietly, but loud enough to be heard. The wizard – an older Gellert Grindelwald – spun round, as did Harry. Dumbledore had lifted the charm on himself, and was advancing slowly up the hill towards Grindelwald, wand trained on him.

"Ah, Albus. Come to join the party, have you? Finally realised what's best for wizardkind, have you?" he said, cackling gleefully as he turned to the battle once more. Dumbledore was now level with him on the hilltop. Harry chose wisely not to get too near the pair, despite the fact that he could not be harmed in the memory.

"No, Gellert. I have come to stop you from causing any more harm to these Muggles," said Dumbledore calmly. Harry knew by the frozen tone that this calm was merely a mask. Grindelwald turned to Dumbledore again, contemplating him.

"You know, Albus, we were never actually chasing a fantasy, you and I. The Deathly Hallows are real." He watched Dumbledore, waiting for a reaction, but when he got none, he continued. "I discovered that the wand-maker Gregorovitch had in his possession a wand more powerful than any other in existence. I knew it was the Elder Wand, so I took it." He looked at the wand in his hand fondly. "I am now the master of the most powerful wand in existence, Albus. Do you really want to challenge me now?" His tone was still light, but there was an evil glint in his eyes.

"You killed Arianna, you turned my brother on me, and now you are trying to enslave the Muggle and magical world. You think I am just going to stand by idly and watch as you ruin everything I hold dear to me? I trusted you once, and you betrayed me!" Dumbledore was starting to lose some of his feigned calmness.

"I know of your feelings towards me, my dear Albus. I know that you are too weak to harm me. You love too much, and you can never harm anyone, much less me." Grindelwald laughed condescendingly. In his arrogance, he turned away from Dumbledore to the battle below, raising his wand once more.

Harry wasn't sure which part of Grindelwald's taunt had set him off, but Dumbledore seemed to explode with fury. Harry had never seen this much pure rage in his old headmaster before. He had been sure that Dumbledore didn't have it in him to be this angry, but he supposed that this was forty six years worth of anger, resentment and guilt finally coming to a head. Harry watched as Dumbledore cast a silent spell at Grindelwald, who deflected it as though he were brushing away an annoying fly. He must have felt the fury behind the spell, however, because he turned to face Dumbledore once more.

"Tut, tut. You know you can't cast a good spell when you are feeling such strong emotion, Albus. I think it was you that taught me that, was it not?" Grindelwald laughed again, but this time did not turn away from Dumbledore. He seemed to be waiting for Dumbledore to cast again.

Harry was reminded somewhat of the night in the graveyard, the night that Voldemort returned. Voldemort had also laughed condescendingly at Harry, teasing and taunting him, waiting for him to make the next move.

Dumbledore, having realised the truth behind Grindelwald's words, took a deep breath and schooled his features to calm once more. Even Harry, standing a good few meters back, could see the fire in Dumbledore's eyes. Grindelwald obviously noticed it too. It was he who cast the next spell. It was Dumbledore's turn to flick it away as though it were nothing. Grindelwald cast a few more silent spells in quick succession, and Dumbledore evaded them all or deflected them. There was a brief pause, and then all hell seemed to break loose. Dumbledore and Grindelwald were now sending spells in each other's direction faster than Harry could keep up with.

Suddenly, a spell seemed to glance off his shoulder, opening a gash in his shoulder that began to bleed profusely. Dumbledore took advantage of that brief moment of weakness and cast two spells in quick succession.

"Expelliarmus! Stupefy!" The wand dropped from Grindelwald's hand, and at the same time he dropped to the ground, knocked out cold. Dumbledore picked up the wand that was now his, and quickly healed the gash in Grindelwald's arm. He then bound Grindelwald up tightly with ropes and grabbed his arm. Dumbledore vanished with a loud BANG, much as Grindlewald had done on his arrival. Harry remained for a moment, then the memory changed around him.

Dumbledore was standing on a dock, still gripping Grindlewald who was still unconscious and bound. Dumbledore summoned a boat which rose from the water, in a fashion that was eerily similar to the boat in the cave Harry and Dumbledore had visited. He climbed in, dragging Grindelwald with him. Harry jumped in too, not wanting to be left behind. The boat sailed over the rough sea of its own accord, obviously aiming for a pre-determined location. Harry watched Dumbledore as the man contemplated his captive. Harry was sure he saw a single tear fall down Dumbledore's cheek, but a sudden spray of sea water against the boat washed it away.

As the boat sailed through the mist, Harry could make out what seemed to be a giant cliff-face ahead of them. When they were almost upon the cliff-face, Harry noticed a small, very heavily guarded dock. When the boat bumped gently against this dock, Harry realised that this was not a natural cliff-face, but a prison. The words FOR THE GREATER GOOD were etched into the stone above what seemed to be the entrance of the prison. He realised suddenly that this was not Azkaban, as he had first assumed, but Nurmengard. He wondered why Dumbledore was bringing Grindelwald here, but then he remembered that this had been the prison created by Grindelwald himself.

"This man is now a prisoner here. He is not your employer anymore. This man may never see the outside of these walls again. Do you understand me?" Dumbledore spoke to the guard standing at the dock. The guard stared dumbly at Dumbledore and the bound Grindlewald for a moment, then his face broke into a grin.

"I understand," said the guard in a very strong Germanic accent, nodding happily as he took the prisoner. "Thank you!"

Grindelwald was now waking, and for a moment, seemed to panic. Then he saw where he was, and saw Dumbledore standing quietly nearby.

"Ha! You think I will be kept prisoner in my own prison?" he spat at Dumbledore. He started laughing almost manically. "You are more of a fool than I thought you were, Albus!"

Dumbledore merely smiled, and the prison guard pointed his wand at his prisoner. "Silence!" yelled the guard, casting a silencing charm over Grindelwald. Harry almost laughed at the looked that crossed Grindelwald's face at the realisation that he had, in fact, lost. He tried shouting at Dumbledore, but nothing came out. His face began to turn red at the effort he made to both shout at Dumbledore, and resist the guard.

When he had vanished into the prison, Harry turned to see Dumbledore sigh and climb into the boat. Harry was about to jump in with him, when the familiar tug at his navel pulled him from the memory.

-xxx-

Harry's head was pounding when he landed in the office once more. He couldn't decide if it was from hunger, having emptied his already empty stomach on the grass, or if it was from what he had just seen. He decided that he would read the letter, then go down to breakfast. He opened the letter that had accompanied the memory, and read.

Harry

This memory, as you may have noticed, was the day I defeated Gellert Grindelwald. It was a bittersweet day for me, the day I saved the magical world from an all-powerful dictator, but also the day I lost the one I had always loved. True, he had not been killed, but I realised that day that Gellert was not the man I had thought, no, hoped he would be. He was power hungry and determined to take over the world; much like Tom Riddle is (was, I hope, by the time you read this).

The confrontation occurred a few days before the end of World War II. The Second World War, initially a Muggle war, affected the wizarding world as well. We might live lives parallel to the Muggle world, but sometimes things happen that affect both. Gindlewald was the magical equivalent to Hitler at the time. In the same vein that Hitler tried to create the 'perfect race' for the 'good of mankind', so Grindelwald tried to create his own ideal world. His reasoning for this was that it was 'for the greater good'. That soon became his maxim, his explanation for his every action.

I felt almost responsible for Grindelwald's rise to power, because I had known what his plan was, had helped him come up with it some forty six years before, and had not done anything to stop him. I felt compelled to stop him then, as things were at a crux in both the magical and Muggle world. I also had a personal reason: he had betrayed me, and had possibly killed my sister. I had heard of his whereabouts through certain connections I had and through rumours. I had heard he would be attempting to kill of many of the British soldiers as an experiment, and I went there to confront him.

I had heard he had in his possession the Elder wand, and to be honest, I feared for my life. I knew the power that wand possessed, and for a moment I was doubtful of my own strength in comparison. However, I had faith in my ability and myself, and in my power to love, something that I knew Grindelwald was not good at, and it was with this faith – and perhaps pure dumb luck – that I managed to overpower Grindelwald.

I did not wish to boast with this memory, more, perhaps, show you that the power of faith and love generally will overcome any enemy, and also show you how correct that Muggle saying – "Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely" – is.

A.D.