...
For practically anyone that wished to have a meeting, of any kind regardless of reason, with Gellert Grindewald, the sheer amount of hoops they would need to loop through over and over again just to request said meeting which in almost all cases would be refused anyway, were enough to drive the notion of anyone's head.
Truth be told, one had better odds of requesting the usage of the Philosopher's stone from his old friend, for blatantly selfish reasons, than they had of getting a meeting with Gellert Grindewald.
Because it wasn't simply a matter of requesting it from the foreign head of the country that housed the infamous prison, but rather a matter of getting approval from at the very least half of the international wizarding committees. The less said about managing to even get contact with the people necessary for the opportunity to gain that approval, the better.
It took him two weeks.
And quite frankly, given the... Nature of what he'd learned from visiting the orphanage, was two weeks too long.
Still, the moment his approval was voted in favor, was the moment he realized once again that... He really did have too much sway in the magical world. That he was right not to truly try for an attempt at politics. That he was right all those years ago to defy the man he was going to meet. That he was simply right not to proclaim his view of the world better than anyone else.
It was at that moment that the whisper that had originally led him down a dark path made itself known once again. The whisper that promised a perfect world. That promised eternal peace. That promised him a legacy to be proud of.
The whisper that was made all the more powerful by the wand in his possession, once again proving that even decades later Gellert's influence laid heavily around the Elder Wand. Or rather himself, if he was honest.
Yet, a whisper he ignored all the same.
He was truly here for one reason and one reason alone.
To ask why.
The caretaker had been... Albus shook his head, his mind mournful of the woman whose very life had been turned on it's head to the point she'd only kept the worst parts of her life tightly wound around. So tightly wound he hadn't even need to so much as ask her any question before she'd let the dam open and tell him herself.
Years, upon years of... Fear, of wariness, of... Paranoia of the worst kind had echoed out of her mouth, her body, her very words.
It was the closest a squib had ever come to truly using magic given the sheer understanding that swept over him because if she hadn't admitted to her status herself, he'd have thought it an attempt at directly effecting his emotions.
A decade of living in what had to be a nightmare from her past in her mind had... truthfully he couldn't imagine what it must've been like.
And yet, for all that...
She had been wrong. She was in the wrong, currently still. Because, despite her warnings, he knew she had been lied to, from the moment Rodrick had been placed in such a place.
She had thought the boy terrifying for being able to control his emotions, to control his reactions, to... Do everything that Tom Riddle had lacked when he was the same age. She had thought it all as evidence that the boy would turn out worse, turn out all the more dangerous. When the truth of it all was quite simply... disheartening.
It was the Occulemency.
The Occulemency that was no doubt a result of Gellert's own machinations. The Occulemency that had caused the woman to abandon all hope of a child's future. Occulemency she would never understand, and so would never be able to reason with. Occulemency that would forever prevent her from seeing Rodrick for what he was- A child.
A child forced into the visage of a budding dark lord by his own grandfather.
Gellert had done many things in the past to disappoint him, to hurt him, to... Try and break him, and yet...
He never imagined him capable of this.
And for all that, a small of him still hoped the man would've had any reason for what he'd done.
After he'd gone through the prison's security, having once again been reminded of the sheer amount of thought that had gone into it when his former friend had built it- From the dozens of magical shields that crossed over and strengthened each other, each of them linked down to their own guard in the ground, or rather linked to the blood-created magical keys they held. Keys that changed once a decade. To the fact that even he, the wizard responsible for putting the man there in the first place, had been searched dozens of times over with magic and otherwise; any tools, wands, so much as a magical hat, taken from him before he was allowed to proceed. And to the most impressive aspect- The sheer magical pressure that swamped the entirety of the towering prison. Magical pressure that dragons and other great beasts avoided for sheer survival.
The pressure that made pushed down against his own magic, to the point that even had held the Elder Wand, instead of having left it hidden back in his office in the castle, he doubted he would've been able to cast and hold so much as a protego for a period of time.
Sure, the wand itself could do it, but his own magic would likely harm itself and him for that matter, worse than a continued usage of Fiendfyre trying to keep up.
The only way anyone was getting through, was through a very powerful form of self-contained flight. An art not even in existence- And even that, the pressure would likely rip most who attempted it apart worse than a student attempting apparition for the first time.
After going through all of that... After proclaiming his knowledge of the man's grandson... Of the things he'd done... Of asking him why...
Gellert Grindelwald's only response was to laugh in his face, before answering a single question.
The question of why the man hadn't trusted him enough with his child's protection.
He hadn't told him it was because he chose to be his enemy.
He hadn't told him it was because he didn't trust him not to turn them against him.
He hadn't told him it was because he'd never gotten the chance to.
No... He'd simply told him that Rodrick's mother was a failure in his eyes and had been written off early into her years. And that Albus certainly wasn't capable of saving her from herself.
The words ominous enough on their own had left him speechless as he stared at the caricature of the man he'd once loved.
...
"Is that all then?" Gellert's voice washed over him, his mind turning back to the man himself. His face old beyond measure, his body almost skeletal- Yet the pride and arrogance in his eyes were as bright as ever. "I'm rather busy being a prisoner you know," The man snorted.
Dumbledore simply shook his head, his disappointment clear to see.
"That's all." He remarked sadly. "Truth be told, it is rather difficult seeing what you've become."
The man simply chuckled at him, the threat of that laughter returning for some reason.
"Oh Albus, always so smart about everything and yet so ignorant about what truly matters."
He blinked in bemusement at the words.
"I could say the same to you," He remarked easily, yet the man in front of him didn't so much as change an eyebrow at his words, instead choosing to continue without a missed beat.
"You come here, to ask me about my grandson's living conditions... To ask me about my failure of a daughter- To ask me a hundred and one questions and none of them important." The man paused for a second letting him digest the words.
"Yes, well, I can't say I hold the same view regarding human life that you always did." He stated, his eyes mildly narrowed, even if his emotions threatened to turn to turmoil.
The man simply continued his chuckle at him in response.
"True. But that's beside the point- The value of a life is hardly enough reason to ignore what's standing right in front of you."
"Oh, perhaps you mean the shell of what could've been a great man?" Albus remarked testily.
Gellert's sunken eyebrow rose for a second at the words. "Fair enough, but no." He remarked shaking his head, a bony finger swaying from side to side. "I am more referring to the... How of it all." The man remarked, a glint in his eyes. "The coincidence, if you will-" The man's voice teetered into another laugh, one that send a cold spark of feeling through him as his eyes narrowed.
Because despite it all... Dumbledore couldn't help but be tense at the thought that threatened to enter his mind.
The man was right.
Of all the orphanages to send him to, how did his daughter- He kept his focus on the man before him.
"...How did you find her?" A single beat passed. "How did you know about her?" He questioned referring to the only squib that had been in Tom's orphanage. A sick shudder ran through him as he looked at the all-too-still smile on the man's face, memories of the man's grandson filtering through his mind. Memories of Snape exclaiming of visions-
"...Gellert..." The smile on the man's face grew. "...Did you know about Tom? About what he would become?"
"It took you forty-seven years to finally ask," The man snorted. "Then again, you always did have a habit of being late to every party." Another beat passed, the man's borderline insane chuckling continuing, a darker tone to it with every second that passed. "And you're still not there, even now!"
He opened his mouth to respond, to curse the man for his lack of humanity, to demand a reason, to... To...
And yet, he couldn't, because it had finally occurred to him.
It hadn't taken much for him to originally realize how the man before him had communicated with Rodrick... And more than likely not, the mystery woman that was his daughter. The mind shield protecting the boy's mind was a rather glaring answer.
What hadn't occurred to him was that...
He almost stiffened as he turned on the spot, his hurried call for the guards that his visit was over, his mind willfully making a note to inform those in command of the place to increase its security, while Gellert's amusement danced out of the man calmly relaxed into his cell.
Despite the fact that Nurmengard was one of, if not the most heavily magically dampened places, more from the inside than out of it, in the world-
Because for all that his body was old and withered- Every other aspect seemed to have been strengthened for Gellert Grindelwald's magic was capable of seeping through Nurmengard with ease.
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