klisemfg Chapter 106, Section 105: A Rewritten Fate, A Mysterious Man
Chapter 106, Section 105: A Rewritten Fate, A Mysterious Man
Chapter 106, Section 105: A Rewritten Fate, A Mysterious Man
Nurmengard.
This somber castle, nestled in the valley, seems like a forgotten corner of a magical world, long shrouded in thick fog and dense forest, isolated from the world's view. The castle's stone walls are weathered and worn.
Over time, the years have left indelible marks on the site, with every brick and tile seemingly telling a story of past glory and present decay.
In the dimly lit and cramped room, everyone knew that Gellert Grindelwald, who had committed heinous crimes, was imprisoned. Even Voldemort's Death Eaters would feel fear in the face of such a figure.
"My master sent me with his greetings to you." The cloaked, bearded man shoved a wand into the room and spoke in a low voice, barely containing his nervousness. "He knows your ideals and agrees with your beliefs. Now the time has come, and he hopes you can once again show the world your power."
"Dumbledore has corrupted the wizarding world for far too long. We need someone like you to stand up and put him to the test. My master hopes you can seize this rare opportunity." The cloaked bearded man knew how audacious his words were, so he immediately took a few steps back after seeing the old man stand up.
to be frank.
If it weren't for the need to repeat his master's exact words, the cloaked bearded man really didn't want to speak like that. He was genuinely worried that Gellert Grindelwald would directly retort by asking him, "Are you telling me what to do?"
There's no way to respond to that!
For most wizards in the British wizarding world, Grindelwald may just be a character in a historical story, but for the bearded man from the Ministry of Magic, he knows more about him than other wizards, not to mention that the Death Eaters, who have been dormant for years, have been studying Dumbledore and his weaknesses.
When it comes to Dumbledore's past, even the pure-blood nobles probably don't know as much detail as the Death Eaters. Of course, the fact that they could suggest Grindelwald should judge Dumbledore shows that their understanding of Dumbledore and Grindelwald isn't quite thorough enough either.
That's actually normal.
After all, the story from a century ago has been sealed away for too long and hidden too deeply by Dumbledore himself. Only a handful of people know about the unspeakable past.
Voldemort and his cronies certainly couldn't have access to such secrets so easily.
"A magic wand?"
A flicker of excitement flashed in Gellert Grindelwald's eyes as he strode toward the cell door, his words laced with intense resentment.
"Dumbledore has indeed been brought to trial! He is an extremely treacherous and cunning villain! I was deceived by him! He is the one who caused me to be locked up here, only able to eat raw pickles and millet porridge every day!" This was clearly the old man's genuine expression of emotion, filled with extreme resentment through gritted teeth.
Perhaps what he said was different from what the bearded man thought, but the bearded man couldn't detect the difference. He was only pleasantly surprised that Gellert Grindelwald's reaction was the reaction they wanted to see.
"Yes, that's right. We'd be happy to help you from behind the scenes. If you and your friends need allies, you can work with us after you get out."
"With just a little inquiry, you'll be able to contact us—we share a common desire and ambition to kill Dumbledore." The cloaked bearded man's tone was also filled with resentment and hatred; no one hated Dumbledore, who had robbed them of their glory, more than these Death Eaters.
"you?"
Gellert Grindelwald frowned and looked up, picking up his wand from the ground to balance its weight. Seeing that the man was about to cast a spell, the cloaked, bearded man immediately pulled out his Portkey.
"We look forward to your visit."
The bearded man stared at the wand he had given away, and after leaving only one sentence, he hurriedly activated the Portkey. His timid appearance suggested that he was worried that Gellert Grindelwald would use him to test the sharpness of the new wand. Even fellow dark wizards had to be extremely careful when facing a dark wizard of this caliber.
The bearded man knew all too well what the wizard in the prison was capable of and what he had done before, such as burning down half of Paris. He didn't want to be used by such a wizard to vent the anger he had accumulated over decades of imprisonment.
"Whoosh~"
The mysterious cloaked man vanished outside the cell. He had disrupted the security measures, rendering the shield ineffective. His hasty escape was likely due to a fear of being spotted by arriving Ministry of Magic officials—but he was clearly overthinking it. A group of Ministry of Magic officials, sensing the security measures had failed, had already moved far away.
They all just stood up abruptly, exchanged glances, and then sat back down to start another game of Wizards Chess.
Report it to higher authorities?
What newspaper? -- Which civil servant sitting here playing chess doesn't know that everyone above them is someone on the other side? Eleven years ago, the saints started their secret activities again. Not to mention other places, just in Austria, heaven knows how many Austrian wizards have secretly joined the party in these eleven years!
Who knows, maybe the ancestral lineage of my colleagues guarding this prison was impeccable!
We can't afford to gamble, we really can't afford to gamble. You have to understand that the Saints only became active again eleven years ago, while the Austrian Ministry of Magic replaced a large number of its high-ranking officials more than ten years ago.
If you shout out that a man has escaped from prison, the person who ends up in jail the next day is most likely not that man. Even if you go to check the security measures, you'll have to worry about being stabbed in the back. Any sensible Ministry of Magic civil servant knows what to do; this kind of question appears on the civil service exam every year.
"What happened?"
"It must be an illusion."
"Yeah, I think it's just my imagination too."
"Since you all think it's an illusion, then I must be having an illusion too."
The guards, understanding each other perfectly, all sat down to continue drinking tea and playing chess. None dared show excessive concern, and they all had to concentrate fully, as always, on figuring out how to win the wizard's game. They were all shrewd wizards.
Even if something really serious happens, being transferred from prison guard to security guard will not affect their salary.
Many of the guards here even harbored a glimmer of hope.
On the other side...
Inside the cell in Nurmengard.
What is happening is not quite what they imagined.
"Where is he! How did he get away! I haven't finished speaking yet!" Gellert Grindelwald, or rather Gellert Lockhart, who had been maintaining an air of inscrutable composure, immediately lost his composure and panicked when he saw the black-robed, bearded man escape using the door key.
"You still haven't told me who you are? Dumbledore's Rebellion? The Anti-Authority League? The Anti-Hogwarts Society?" Gellert Lockhart grabbed the iron bars and shouted into the air.
No one responded.
"Damn it! Can't you just let me out? Open the cell door!" Gellert Lockhart couldn't hold back any longer, his expression full of frustration as he looked at the still-locked cell door.
After shouting in a fit of impotent rage several times, realizing that the person might really be gone, Gellert Lockhart immediately slapped himself, regretting that he should have just asked the other person to open the door for him.
"Let me think, let me think. I am now the most powerful dark wizard in the world. Of course I have a way to get out of here. I have done many more amazing things in the past." Gellert Lockhart gripped the wand that the Death Eaters had brought to the cell. He tried to wave the wand a few times, but a fireball suddenly burst out of it.
It nearly set his shoes on fire—clearly not a compatible reaction. Wands will rebel against wizards they don't approve of, and many wizards who forcefully use other people's wands encounter accidents, a fact that can be seen from the moment they first touch a wand and infuse it with magic.
Choosing a wizard for your wand isn't just a slang term. Even though Gellert Lockhart was a bit of a bumbling fool, he hadn't completely lost his knowledge in this area.
of course.
Despite this, it didn't diminish Gellert Lockhart's stubbornness. Even knowing he wasn't compatible with the wand, he desperately wanted to escape this mundane prison. He just wanted to go back and immediately sue Dumbledore and that damned dark wizard Grindelwald!
These two dark wizards must have staged a play back then to make Dumbledore a hero among wizards. Lockhart realized this "truth" after being imprisoned here.
His superb methods of gaining fame amazed him, but also made him resentful. Why should he be imprisoned here as a scapegoat to replace Grindelwald?
"I want to get out!"
"It's just a simple unlocking spell. Now that I have a wand, even if this wand is condescending, I should be able to force my way into this simple door."
"Calm down, I must calm down, I am a wizard—" Gellert Lockhart extinguished the fire in the cell.
After mentally preparing myself, I confidently walked towards the door.
"A mere unlocking spell!"
He even adjusted his expression and demeanor, reverting to the face he was currently wearing, as if he felt that doing so might increase his chances of success.
It's hard to imagine that a former Ravenclaw graduate would be so focused and serious about simply casting a very simple "Unlocking Charm".
"The Arahomon Opens!"
Gellert Lockhart, adhering to the principle that the louder the voice, the stronger the magic, shouted out the spell, and his wand immediately emitted a magical light.
"Click, click~"
The lock on the cell door rattled a few times.
It is open but not yet open.
Gellert Lockhart tugged hard at the cell door, but the scenario he had imagined—that he would immediately escape—did not occur. The ordinary lock seemed to be silently mocking him.
"Damn it!"
Undeterred, Gellert Lockhart gritted his teeth and tried again.
"The Arahomon Opens!"
The door lock continued to open.
"The Arahomon Opens!"
The gold content of the gold is still rising.
"The Arahomon Opens!"
"The Arahomon Opens!"
"The Arahomon Opens!"
In an instant.
The increasingly resentful and angry chanting of Gellert Lockhart echoed continuously in the cell—perhaps it was really as Ian guessed, that he had completely lost the magical diversity of a wizard. With one attempt and failure after another, even a freshman could probably learn this simple spell.
however.
Gellert Lockhart has only ever experienced failure.
"Open it for me!"
As Gellert Lockhart grew increasingly agitated, he let out a roar, his considerable magical power surging wildly within him.
The wand, which was already unwilling to be used by him, suddenly began to get hot.
"The Arahomon Opens!"
Unaware of what was happening, Gellert Lockhart continued casting the Unlocking Spell.
This time.
Instead of remaining in a state of forced use, the wand chose a special response.
"!"
It just exploded.
The unleashed, out-of-control magic hurtled directly towards Gellert Lockhart's face.
"ah!!!"
He let out an extremely painful scream.
Like a gun exploding, Gellert Lockhart was struck by the out-of-control magic. Fortunately, he had only used a unlocking charm, so he didn't suffer a fatal headshot. Of course, even so, the spell that caused his right eye to bleed continuously still caused him excruciating pain.
"My face! My face!"
What is professionalism? This is the professionalism of an idol. Gellert Lockhart doesn't care about his eyesight, he only cares about whether his face will be disfigured by this out-of-control curse.
He stumbled towards the mirror, and even though he was dizzy and sweating profusely from the pain, he still forced himself to use his other eye to check his face.
Fortunately, the curse only hit the right eye.
"It's all that damned anti-Dumbledore alliance's fault!" Gellert Lockhart clearly still didn't understand who had come after him; his intelligence in this area had obviously not improved despite being subjected to the biomorphic spell.
"You're Grindelwald now, shouldn't you be turning against Dumbledore?" Suddenly, Gellert Lockhart heard a mocking chuckle behind him.
It's not a hallucination.
This gave Gellert Lockhart goosebumps.
"Forget everything, and all is emptiness!"
At what he perceived as a critical moment, Gellert Lockhart turned around and instantly unleashed his most prized magic, the only spell that guaranteed 100% success.
The swift and powerful Forgetting Spell is a stark contrast to the previous Unlocking Spell. It is faster and more potent than the normal Forgetting Spell, clearly demonstrating its own unique understanding and improved methods.
Many unsuspecting and powerful wizards would surely suffer as a result. However, there was no one standing where the sound came from; only an ancient mirror floated in mid-air.
It seemed to have anticipated the landing point of the Oblivion Curse, catching it directly with its mirror surface. Then, Gellert Lockhart's extraordinary Oblivion Curse was immediately deflected back.
They arrived very quickly.
The speed of the rebound is naturally the same.
Gellert Lockhart had no time to dodge and was struck directly in the face by his own Oblivion Curse—he collapsed to the ground as if his computer had shut down.
The strange suspended mirror that suddenly appeared slowly disappeared.
After a long while.
Gellert Lockhart got up from the ground, clutching his head.
"who I am?"
Gellert Lockhart leaned against the dressing table with difficulty, his mind blank. He stared blankly at the mirror in front of him, his injured eye still slowly bleeding.
"Am I a handsome old man?"
What's wrong with my eyes?
Despite losing his memory, Gellert Lockhart couldn't shake his narcissistic tendencies. He raised his hand and touched his right eye.
The bleeding eyes were blasted into the texture of cataracts by an out-of-control curse.
He narrowed his eyes slightly in confusion.
"Click~"
The lock on the dressing table drawer suddenly opened, startling Gellert Lockhart so much that he stumbled back several steps and even fell to the ground.
"That scared me to death!"
After patting his chest to calm himself down for a while, Gellert Lockhart finally stood up from the floor and cautiously approached the dresser drawer to look inside.
A thick diary lay quietly in the drawer.
"Gellert Grindelwald—"
Lockhart read out the signature from the diary.
"Is this my diary?" Lockhart, who was already anxious and couldn't remember anything, felt as if he had grasped at a straw.
The village of Hogsmeade is quiet and deserted at night.
under the tree.
The middle-aged wizard wearing a comical top hat looked up at the distant castle, and an ancient mirror appeared out of thin air, which he then expressionlessly put into his robe.
Then the wandering chess player looked at the chessboard in front of him. Unlike the chessboard he had set up his stall during the day, this chessboard was full of all kinds of characters and chess pieces.
The chess pieces are uniquely designed and do not belong to any of the Wizarding Chess games. Instead, they resemble sculptures of living people, including Dumbledore, Snape, and Grindelwald.
"Careless prophet, this is the right direction—" the middle-aged wizard muttered to himself, staring at the chess pieces. He raised his hand and gently tapped the black pieces on the board.
"At least that's how it is for me."
A quiet night.
The homeless man murmured wearily. Moonlight streamed through the branches, illuminating the pure silver ring on his hand.
The old ring gleamed faintly.
It has a raven carved on it.
The next day.
Ian woke up in the Room of Requirement.
He felt a headache coming on, his mouth was dry, and the pillow he was hugging was a bit too cold. It might be fine in the summer, but it was definitely not suitable in the winter. As Ian's thoughts slowly restarted, he opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a face without eyes.
"What did I do last night!"
Ian let out a terrified scream.
He released the desolate Dementor, dressed in a Halloween costume and bound like a dumpling, and jumped up from the floor of the Room of Requirement like a startled deer.
"Yes, what did you do to us last night?"
Before Ian could even look at the Dementor on the floor, which looked like it had been made into a pillow, and recall his fragmented memories, he was completely lost.
next moment.
Dozens of books made from bones floated over.
They surrounded Ian.
He uttered a question filled with resentment.
The Book of Snakespeaking
Ian recognized his own crooked handwriting on the book.