Ten more years before Grindelwald starts off on the next great adventure.
1989
15th January 1989
Dear Gellert
I do not know why I am writing to you to discuss the staffing problems in Hogwarts when I know you will likely be laughing at this old fool. As you and half of the wizarding world is aware of by now, Hogwarts is incapable of keeping a DADA tutor. The Potions master has been questioned for student abuse and the History tutor is stuck perpetually on the Goblin Wars despite the syllabus having moved on since. The Care of Magical Beasts master keep losing body parts and the Divination professor is honestly hopeless. I consider it a miracle we are still having students passing their OWLs and NEWTs. I really feel inclined to throw in the towel at times. Managing a school is not the same as teaching a class of students.
However, quitting at this time will mean I will miss the Potter boy's arrival at Hogwarts. There is also the paperwork from the Wizengamot and the ICW. One would think at our age, we should be taking it easy…
Albus
Spring 1989
Dear Albus
You old prat. You are running the bloody place into the grounds and I am surprised why the school board still has you there. You should be replaced long ago by some other wizard or witch like Minerva or even that Potions master. Maybe he would instil the discipline needed in your students - and staff. Maybe if the Potter brat is lucky, Hogwarts will go belly-up like a dead dragon. Then he can go to that fancy Beauxbatons or Koldie. Away from whatever ill-thought of, convoluted plan you have lined up. About your Chief Warlock role, you only turn up for the Spring and Fall Sessions, twice a year and you end up dozing through most of the debates. You have not been to any ICW event since 1973. I do receive newspapers here you know, including the Wizard International and the Daily Prophet. What happened to making a difference? You might as well be another piece of furniture in the Ministry. Perhaps with all the bulk you have been putting on, you would make a comfy armchair.
Gellert
15th May 1989
Dear Gellert
Good to know you are still reasonably sane after that anti-Vision rune got broken. Alas, I am not letting you sit in my lap, even for old times' sake. Do write to your Auntie, please. Tell her to cease and desist with her little campaign to bring forward your parole hearing. You did set off a global Wizarding War the likes of which had not been seen since the Middle Ages. I have more than enough on my plate now thank you.
Albus
Spring 1989
Dear Albus
Says someone who used to scoff my Auntie's cauldron cakes until he looked like a chipmunk. Your lot recently went through a British Wizarding War and is likely facing another – or do you call them schoolyard brawls? It is understandable if you call in some help. Sure you are not raising this at the ICW? The entire ICW was meant for international wizarding cooperation. If your Dark Lord is hiding out in the wilds of the Balkans or what not, you should use those connections.
Gellert
16th June 1989
Dear Gellert
I have no wish to spend my twilight years fencing with you by letter. While I appreciate that you are the only one of us with experience in heading an international organization with revolutionary ideas using unorthodox means, there is no legal way I can allow you to consult on domestic matters in Britain. I have things under control.
Albus
Summer 1989
Dear Albus
I beg to differ. You have a castle full of hormonal teenagers and faculty of dubious credentials. In fact, I believe hiring a part-giant or even a centaur to teach the young ones would be a vast improvement. Things are far from under control. Your ministry is corrupt to the core from the last war. The only other ministry infiltrated to such an extent is Herr Vogel's Ministry of Magic. Perhaps in the next decade or so, Mister Riddle will be running the show.
Do not be surprised if your students will find themselves resorting to guerrilla tactics and such to clean up the mess you are leaving behind. Or perhaps they will be joining the ranks of the infamous castle spooks?
Gellert
31st August 1989
Dear GG
I do hope this gets through to you. I have been stuck here in Hogwarts since the 1940s and frankly, I want to move on. I tried tagging along with Olive Hornby to the Ministry once, but they banished me back to the girls' bathroom where I died. It was fun at first learning to do ghost things from the other ghosts like old Nick and Helena, but that is getting old. It is not like I am teaching a subject like old Binns. I am bored mostly. I do meet a few interesting students over the years, but they all graduate eventually. I am like the only ghost kid about, and the other ghosts treat me as that. If I hadn't died as I did, I would likely be sending my own kids and maybe grandkids to Hogwarts.
Might you be able to advise me how to move on? Did it have anything to do with how I died? I heard a weird hissing sound and boy's voice in the girl's bathroom. I was about to report him to the teachers. Look, boys are not allowed in the girls' bathrooms and dorms. The next thing I remember were glowing eyes. I heard they expelled Hagrid for keeping a monster and that his pet monster killed me, but I am sure it was not him I heard. But no one really listens when I try to tell them.
Myrtle
Summer 1989
Dear Myrtle
As much as I would like advise you on this, I have no idea how to move on as well after death. Not everyone ends up as a ghost and those who do have some resentments or unfinished business. Your description of your death is highly unsettling as it suggests a certain dangerous creature might be haunting the castle. It is a pity I cannot be there to check the place out for more clues. Would you be willing to write to an expert on magical creatures like Newt Scamander?
I do hope that I pass on cleanly as I have no wish to spend eternity haunting my cell. Half a century is more than enough, thank you.
GG
Summer 1989
Dear Newt
I have just received a possible tip from a student of Hogwarts about a possible dangerous creature haunting the castle. Based on the child's description, I would believe it is a basilisk or similar serpent-type. It kills by eye contact. Mind the last report was from the 1940s. you might want to look into the newspapers if they did not hush everything up. You might want to chat with some ghost named Myrtle.
Grindelwald
30th September 1989
Dear Gellert
Care to explain why the Scamanders made an impromptu visit to Hogwarts to look for some dangerous serpent-type creature in the castle? They were searching around the cellars and dungeons for secret chambers much to the annoyance of the house elves and the Slytherin House. Newt let slip that he got a tip-off from you about some basilisk on the loose. Please do not re-open old wounds where Hagrid is concerned. The furore back in the 1940s is over. If there is still a basilisk about, no one has been harmed since the 1940s. It should be safely hibernating, and I have no wish for Newt to trip over and wake it.
Albus
Fall 1989
Dear Albus
Aha, I knew it. You never dealt with the problem – just kicked it down the road for the next headmaster to deal with. I would not worry about Newt opening the chamber unless he is a parselmouth. Then with his fluffy charm, I will not be surprised if the basilisk decides to adopt him as a master. Lad looks like he would give dragon tummy-rubs.
You told me that old Hogwarts legend about the Chamber of Secrets left by Salazar Slytherin guarded by an unknown beast. We might have narrowed it down to a basilisk, which incidentally, is not what any sane wizard will want about vulnerable children. Legend had it the chamber can only be opened by a parselmouth and heir of Slytherin. Does your esteemed founder have any surviving descendants at all? I hear parselmouths are more common outside of Europe.
Remember the old stories we swopped under the stars about our alma maters? I told you about the Screaming Tower of Durmstrang where our founder supposedly met a very bloody end, and you told me about the Chamber of Secrets, that Gryffindor sword and some diadem of knowledge. Those were the days (and nights).
With fondness
Gellert
Author's Notes:
Newt was sent on a wild goose chase and will not find the Chamber or the basilisk. That is left for Harry in a few years' time.