Prologue - Escape From Nurmengard

For decades, Gellert Grindelwald had sat in a prison cell within the fortress he had constructed for himself so many years ago. Albus bloody dumbledore. A man who claimed to love him, believe in him and even share his ideas. He had been betrayed by the one man he had thought his equal. His biggest mistake, he had no doubt. He had never loved Dumbledore the same way that Dumbledore had loved him, but he had counted him amongst his true friends, something that Gellert did not take likely. His true friends back in those days were far and few between. He knew better than to count his followers as such, men such as Zabini or Anton Vogel. They had their uses, but they would have easily fled if it had became obvious that he would lose the war.

For decades, he had thought about all of these things, what he could have done differently, how he could have done better himself. His knowledge of magic was unparalleled, even compared to the mighty Albus Dumbledore. After all, it was he himself that taught his former friend half of what he knew. Not that Dumbledore would deign himself to use what he called 'Dark Magic'. He scoffed to himself internally. He did not believe in such differences, there was only magic and magic did not take sides and was neither good nor evil. To think otherwise was foolish. Magic was a tool to be used, nothing more.

He thought back to all of the times that Albus had visited Nurmengard to see him in vain attempts to make him see the error of his ways, or to speak to him of his experiences as Headmaster of Hogwarts, a school that Gellert felt restricted learning to such an extreme degree that Britain now produced subpar Witches and Wizards compared to the rest of the Wizarding world. He knew that the Ministry Of Magic was partly responsible, however most of the blame lay at the feet of his former friend. Albus' hate of anything he considered dark and dangerous had led to the old fool banning a major portion of the curriculum, such as the Dueling Class, most offensive magic bar the bare minimum, such as stunners.

This line of thought made him remember the harsh lessons of Durmstrang, classes like the Dark Arts and Necromancy. Granted, Necromancy was only open to Witches and Wizards that displayed certain traits, but the fact alone that it was available was huge compared to Hogwarts. Merlin, even Beauxbatons whose students were more interested in singing and dancing, had a dueling class. It was no wonder so many British families sent their children abroad for school. And Hogwarts had the gall to call itself the premier school of the Wizarding World! 'What a joke' he chuckled to himself inside of his head.

Quite often Gellert would think about these things, day in and day out. After all, other than Albus, nobody visited him. Not even his Aunt Bathila! It didn't exactly leave much for him to do really, being locked in a bare cell for so long. On the odd occasion that the guards lingered, he would often be given a newspaper by one of the more sympathetic individuals, one he recognised as the son of one of his followers, if looks were anything to go by. Today, fortunately for him, was such a day. The young guard, one Karl Engel, was on duty. As usual they conversed, strictly against orders for the guard but he didn't seem overly bothered. In the early days, the young man had been much more nervous, but had soon relaxed a few months in.

"Well Mr. Grindelwald, it looks like someone wished to take up your old title of Dark Lord and failed miserably thanks to a 1 year old boy, Harry Potter." Said Karl.

Raising an eyebrow, he simply held out his hand to take the newspaper Karl was holding. Karl obliged, handing the newspaper through the bars and waiting to hear Gellerts response. It never came. The moment Gellert Grindelwald touched the front page of the newspaper, his eyes turned pure white and he froze up, still as a statue. Karl responded with a small amount of worry, unnerved by the former Dark Lords behavior. He turned to go and fetch a senior guard when a hand shot out through the bars, grabbing his arm. Panicking, Karl quickly turned around to see Gellert Grindelwald standing at his full height and who seemed to be de-aging before his very eyes, a look of abject fury on his features.

"Albus you fool… what have you done!" A roar of anger escaped his throat and instead of dying down, it seemed to get louder, sounding more like the roar of an animal than that of a human. The bars of the cell began to buckle outwards, causing Karl's eyes to bulge.

"Scheiße." He mumbled, stumbling back before running for his life down the corridor, the jeers of the other prisoners following him as they cheered on the former Dark Lord.

With a final primal shout, the bars to his cell exploded outwards and into the wall opposite. Stepping out of the now open cell, the Dark Lord Grindelwald took in a deep breath, looking to all of the other prisoners as if he had not aged a day since his incarceration, the shock of white hair on his head looking almost elegant the way it stood. He began to stroll slowly down the corridor, following Karl's footsteps and murmuring all the way.

"You will pay for what you have done to that boy Albus… they all will."

The newspaper left behind was laying on the ground of his cell, most of the frontpage scorched away by the blast, leaving only the date visible.

31st October, 1981.

AUTHORS NOTE

Well folks here it is, Grindelwald seemed the most popular idea so I decided not to waste time and get a prologue out. I've got a pretty vague idea of where I'm heading with this fic, but I'm still unsure on the pairing.

It will probably be Daphne, but I'm also leaning towards less used females, such as Lily Moon. Maybe even an OFC!

Anyway, I hope you guys like the prologue and look forward to more!