(I swear I clicked publish yesterday. I don't know what happened—I woke up and found it still wasn't published. Anyway, here are the two chapters from yesterday, and today's chapters will be published in a few hours.)
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For any order Grindelwald gave, the Acolytes standing before him wouldn't raise a single objection. They would simply carry it out without hesitation.
And so two hours later, the German Ministry of Magic had been taken over.
There was no large-scale conflict. The Acolytes had been infiltrating their former stronghold for years. The few officials who weren't aligned with them were completely unprepared and were subdued almost instantly. Those "outsiders" made up barely twenty percent.
Not that the rest were all Acolytes. Grindelwald wasn't recruiting that casually.
The real reason was that the country still longed for its past glory and was bitter about its decline. The German Ministry was still a giant on paper, but its international standing didn't even match that of the small countries nearby. They still hadn't paid off the fines from decades ago and were living year to year on a shoestring budget.
Most of the Aurors who'd been sent to arrest Grindelwald at Gregorovitch's wand shop hadn't even wanted to go. Many secretly hoped Grindelwald would return, rise to power again, and lead them into one more charge toward prominence.
And after witnessing the battle with Dumbledore, Grindelwald had proved his strength. That was why this takeover went so smoothly, like a rehearsal exercise. Not a drop of blood spilled.
The first thing Grindelwald did after taking control was send people to "invite" Gregorovitch.
The people he sent were Ministry Aurors. Gregorovitch didn't think anything was off and followed them without question. When he arrived at the Minister's office and saw Grindelwald sitting in the main chair with the former Minister standing respectfully behind him, his legs nearly gave out.
"G–Gr-Grindelwald? Why are you here?"
Grindelwald smiled with amusement. "From today onward, the Ministry… and all of magical Germany… will be under—" He waved dismissively. "Forget it. Explaining it to you is pointless."
"Mr. Gregorovitch, the quality of your wands is terrible. They can't even withstand a proper duel."
He gestured lightly. "You'll live in the Ministry from now on. Once you craft a wand that satisfies me, I'll let you go. Tell the guards whatever materials you need. They'll fetch them."
"Mr. Grindelwald, I still need to serve other wizards, you can't just—"
Grindelwald raised a hand. The Aurors led the old wandmaker away.
"Reindott," Grindelwald said without turning, "start organizing your people. I won't be helping you this time. If you want to reclaim your former glory, you'll prove your worth and your resolve."
The German Minister, Blitz Reindott, bowed. "Lord Grindelwald, you will see results that please you. We've waited fifty years for this day."
"Go."
Grindelwald closed his eyes. Reindott slipped quietly out of the office.
...
Two and a half hours later, the Polish Ministry of Magic had fallen.
And the entire world was just... stunned.
...
That night, the Ministries of both countries (Germany and Poland) issued statements declaring their withdrawal from the International Confederation of Wizards and prohibiting all foreign wizards from entering. Aurors were authorized to detain or even kill intruders.
Of course, if you could prove you were an Acolyte, you were welcome.
Grindelwald spent the night reflecting on the reasons he'd failed in the past. Losing to Dumbledore was only the final blow. It wasn't the whole story.
He realized he'd been too impatient back then. He expanded too quickly, his foundations unstable. His ranks were crowded with people who looked loyal on the surface but weren't committed at all.
Tom had done well these past two years. He'd already screened out a group of reliable people. Grindelwald decided he would also advance step by step, spreading his influence across Europe, enforcing elite management, and tightening his grip on the foundation.
It was a wild night. After word spread, neighboring countries immediately sent people to investigate.
Partly it was to greet potential new allies and show off their strength. Partly it was to see whether Dumbledore would show up. If he did, they definitely wanted a "conversation."
Unfortunately for them… dozens of spies had been caught, yet Dumbledore never appeared.
---
The next day
Hogwarts was practically a satellite meeting hall of the International Confederation. Wizards from all corners of the world kept arriving. Dumbledore had no choice but to head to the Ministry to keep them from disrupting the students.
Not that it helped. The students were completely distracted by the news, whispering in every class and speculating about whether a world war was coming.
McGonagall finally used her ultimate method to calm them all down: exams.
With exams looming, who had time to worry about a magical world war?
Sure enough, the moment she announced it, the little witches and wizards went pale and scrambled to review everything they'd learned that term.
Meanwhile, Tom was focused on perfecting an alchemical creature capable of producing the Codex for him… along with most of his alchemical tools.
With the world situation growing tenser, orders had completely overwhelmed his production capacity. Even if he worked nonstop until after Christmas break, he wouldn't finish half of them.
He had already mastered extracting spirituality; what he lacked now was memory—a segment capable of holding his alchemical knowledge, something an alchemical creature could genuinely digest and use.
He could pull information from his own mind, but information wasn't the same as memory. He needed to create a memory the alchemical creature had truly "experienced."
In the end, Tom thought of one solution: dreams.
A vivid dream and a real experience were almost indistinguishable.
He mentioned the idea to Ravenclaw, who approved immediately. "A very unique angle. Dreams are incredibly flexible. A single night could cover half a lifetime. But weaving a dream, while easier than forging a memory, still isn't simple."
Tom smiled faintly—please, who was he? A full-time cheater blessed by a system.
With his popularity passing twenty percent, he'd just earned another five hundred achievement points and a gacha pull. And the prize was—quite perfectly—related to dreams.
Well… he paid extra points to choose the gift type, and the gacha rank dropped by one.
[Dream Seeds: Consume a seed to construct a dream. Nourishes mental power and enhances life energy.]
The system had awarded him a pouch of dream seeds. Fifty in total. Alchemical creatures didn't need mental power or life energy, so once he crafted one stable dream, he could just implant the same pattern repeatedly.
As for the extras, he planned to try them himself and give some to Daphne and the others. Especially Astoria—she really needed something that could strengthen her life force.
Ravenclaw examined the seeds. Even she, who had long grown numb to Tom's endless oddities, clicked her tongue in amazement. She borrowed a few for study, though only inside the study space as intangible projections—no risk of them being used up.
As for the dream-testing subject…Tom had originally planned to go in himself, but Ariana volunteered, insisting she wanted to be his test mouse. Her reasoning was very "convincing"—she loved learning. If she could study in her dreams, she'd save time and get her sleep.
Tom suspected the truth: Ariana just wanted to slack off—study while asleep, then spend the daytime watching cartoons…
Recently he had conjured a batch of cartoon shows for her. The girl was addicted, especially to The Amazing World of Gumball. She rewatched every single episode over and over.
Still, if she wanted to slack, he didn't mind. Even if she stopped studying entirely, he wouldn't say a thing. As long as she was happy.
"So? How was it? How much do you remember?"
After another round of dream-calibration, Tom woke Ariana. She thought for a moment, then recited a scattered list of details. Tom's brows tightened the more she said.
She shrank her neck. "Did… did I mess it up? Am I stupid, Tom?"
Tom blinked and laughed softly. "You're not stupid. People only remember dreams unconsciously, so it's normal to recall less than usual. I'm just thinking about how to speed up the dream cycles. There are also some details I still need to... refine."
Crafting a dream realistic enough wasn't easy. Any illogical jump or gap would create fuzzy memory spots.
---
Tom had gone almost completely quiet. Every day he became a one-man dream-weaving machine, enriching and polishing the dreamscape.
And Hogwarts also grew peaceful as exams approached. Even though the storm outside had spread to half of continental Europe, none of it touched the school.
Grindelwald wasn't expanding territory anymore, but his call to the Acolytes stirred huge waves. Every day, wizards found ways to travel to Berlin—descendants of Acolytes, idealistic followers, all sorts of people.
Naturally, no magical government was going to sit back and watch him grow stronger. The German–Polish border turned into a battlefield, with new clashes erupting daily. German Aurors and Acolytes capturing people, Aurors from other countries arresting Acolytes in return.
But Grindelwald played dirty—picking on the weak.
Yeah, Old G was beating the other countries' wizards pretty badly.
He didn't kill anyone, true, but the number of battered wizards and shattered wands was incalculable.
Grindelwald didn't capture or kill. He just tortured you—body and spirit—then let you go with a smile.
Dumbledore had originally intended to wait—watch for Grindelwald to slip and then strike decisively. But at this rate, the magical governments would collapse before any "slip" appeared. Many had already begun pressuring or outright threatening him to step in.
Not wanting to be shackled again like seventy years ago, Dumbledore left Hogwarts during exam week and intercepted Grindelwald on the German–French border.
When Grindelwald saw Dumbledore suddenly appear, he frowned and tossed aside the unconscious Auror in his hand.
"I'm not in the mood to fight today. If you want to talk, follow me."
And without waiting for a reply, he Disapparated.
They were in the Vosges Mountains. Grindelwald, of course, knew that Fleur's grandmother's Veela tribe lived nearby. So even though he was itching to test Dumbledore again, today was definitely not the day.
Dumbledore didn't hesitate. As soon as Grindelwald vanished, he traced the spatial ripple and Apparated after him. Moments later, the two of them appeared inside a café in Lyon.
.
.
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