Had Grindelwald's ideal changed?
No. From his youth until now, he had always hoped that wizards could live openly and honorably beneath the sun, instead of hiding from Muggles like rats skulking in the dark.
It was only during his imprisonment that he came to feel this dream could never be realized, and so he buried it deep within his heart.
Tom had once told him that he did not care about any so-called greater good. To him, the greatest good was simple: to keep learning, and to keep growing stronger.
Grindelwald had also promised that he would never force his own beliefs onto Tom. He did not have that right.
And in truth, there was no conflict between the two.
By now, Grindelwald could say that he understood Tom's nature very well. He was unwilling to live beneath anyone else. His temperament was somewhat extreme. Either he did nothing at all, or he would see things through to the bitter end. He drew very sharp lines between his own people, strangers by the roadside, and his enemies.
Most importantly, Tom was not like Dumbledore. He did not reject wealth, nor resist power, nor pretend not to care whether strength and status ought to match.
Tom's creed was that he wanted it all.
He never allowed himself to suffer a grievance. If anyone tried to make him suffer one, then he would kindly send them to meet their ancestors so the whole family could be reunited as soon as possible.
Grindelwald refused to believe that when one day Tom's strength surpassed everyone else's, he would still be able to tolerate the way wizards were forced to live now.
To possess extraordinary power and yet be unable to use it freely, then return to the Muggle world and live as an ordinary person... with Tom's personality, that was absolutely impossible.
So Grindelwald felt there was nothing he needed to do.
He only needed to help Tom grow stronger with all his heart, and wait for the day the dawn finally arrived.
...
And what was the Tom upon whom Grindelwald had placed such high hopes doing now?
He was taking Cho into the Forbidden Forest to play with the national treasure, while casually trying to extract some information about Helena Ravenclaw.
"The Grey Lady?"
While stroking Poppy's soft belly, Cho's eyes curved into crescents. When she heard Tom's question, she did not find it strange at all, and simply answered, "She really is... well, not very sociable. She rarely talks with the other ghosts. I've only seen her greet the Fat Friar. Usually, she's very cold even toward students."
"But she has helped a few students before. She seems to know the books in the library extremely well. She can casually point out exactly which materials they need to read."
"I haven't seen the Grey Lady even once," Tom said, rubbing his chin.
Cho looked puzzled. "Why are you suddenly interested in a ghost?"
"Well, Halloween just passed. The resident ghosts of all the other Houses showed up, but she was the only one who didn't come. And also..."
The boy suddenly turned mysterious and leaned close to whisper in Cho's ear, "I heard... that our House's Bloody Baron has a story with her. The Baron often looks up in the direction of Ravenclaw Tower, like he's staring at his queen."
"Tell me in detail."
Cho shoved Poppy aside and asked excitedly.
Women, no, humanity itself, simply could not resist gossip. Especially when ghosts were involved. That only added a layer of fantasy to it.
Tom spread his hands like a little bear and said innocently, "I don't know either. That's why I'm trying to figure out how to run into the Grey Lady and get some information out of her."
"Fine, I'll help you think of a way. Marietta always has the best information. I'll ask her when we get back."
...
In the blink of an eye, a new week arrived.
After getting through the Halloween weekend, what awaited the students... was the second monthly exam.
One could only say that, fortunately, Professor McGonagall had not sold Tom out. The students still had no idea that the examination reform had come from Tom's hand. Otherwise, he would have already surpassed Snape and Filch to become the least popular person in the entire school.
To be honest, Tom regretted it a little now.
This many exams really were annoying.
And they were not even allowed to use magic to fill in the papers. They had to write everything out word by word by hand.
"Tom!"
After writing out five methods for dealing with Grindylows and the casting techniques for the Tickling Charm, the Defence Against the Dark Arts exam finally came to an end. Tom had only just stepped out of the classroom with Daphne when Cho, who happened to be coming down from upstairs, called out to him.
"You asked me to look into that matter. There's news."
When they reached a corner, Cho lowered her voice. "The Grey Lady sometimes goes to the library at night. The exact day isn't fixed, but at least once a week, according to Marietta. And Marietta also thinks there's definitely something between Baron and the Grey Lady. She's already found out that the two of them used to be classmates."
The corner of Tom's mouth twitched.
Marietta's gossip-gathering ability really had exceeded his expectations. She had actually managed to dig up that much.
"I got it, Cho. Hurry and go prepare for your next exam."
Cho nodded. Her next class was Herbology, so she needed to hurry to the greenhouses.
Only after she left did Daphne ask what was going on. Tom pulled out the same explanation he had used yesterday to deal with it, and sure enough, Daphne immediately became excited and insisted that he absolutely had to uncover the full story behind it all.
When they arrived at the Transfiguration classroom, what surprised the third-year students was that the one proctoring the exam was not Professor McGonagall, but Professor Sinistra from Astronomy.
Still, it was only an exam. Whoever invigilated made little difference, so no one paid much attention. They simply picked up their quills and began answering the questions.
At that very moment, Professor McGonagall was in the Headmaster's office with Dumbledore, using a special device to connect to the headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards and attend that day's meeting remotely.
New York.
Inside the largest conference room of the International Confederation of Wizards, representatives from various countries were arriving one after another.
Those qualified to participate in this meeting were either the Ministers for Magic of their respective nations, or the heads of their Departments of International Magical Cooperation. Yet for most of the continental European countries, the people who had come were their Ministers for Magic in person.
That alone was enough to show just how much pressure Grindelwald had placed upon them.
Sitting among those people, Barty Crouch looked especially conspicuous.
"Has Britain changed its Minister for Magic?"
"No. Didn't you see the placard in front of him? Crouch is still the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."
"Tsk. From the looks of it, Britain really is scared too."