Far across the sea, at Hogwarts.
Dumbledore had watched the entire farce unfold from beginning to end. Throughout it all, his expression remained as calm as ever, unchanged in the slightest.
Only the shifting light in his eyes proved that his heart was far from undisturbed.
Professor McGonagall, however, had gone pale long ago. After seeing Grindelwald suppress dozens of Aurors and then kill a man as though no one else were present before calmly departing, her face had turned white as paper. Her voice trembled as she said, "Albus... he's back."
Dumbledore understood exactly what she meant.
Grindelwald had not shown even the faintest trace of decline or old age. It was as if time itself had frozen upon him, as if those long years in prison had simply never existed.
"Calm yourself, Minerva."
Dumbledore met Grindelwald's gaze across the screen. Only after a moment did he withdraw his eyes and speak in a gentle, steady tone.
"Things have not yet reached the worst possible stage. You know as well as I do that he is a master of Dark Magic. He commands many forms of magic even we have never understood. It is not impossible that he possesses some method of altering the condition of his body."
"We were watching from far too great a distance, and Grindelwald was not fighting seriously. We cannot judge his true state based on this alone."
McGonagall looked as though she had choked on the words. It took her a long moment before she finally asked in uncertainty, "What did you just say? He wasn't fighting seriously?"
"Of course."
Dumbledore gave a slight nod.
"Didn't you notice? Aside from Newt and Tina, and the final man he killed, that Sam Picquery, he never attacked anyone with any real intent to kill."
It was a cruel truth, but Dumbledore had to say it.
In McGonagall's eyes, and in the eyes of everyone else, that battle had already been terrifying enough. Yet in reality, Grindelwald had not even used much of his strength. So if they truly wanted to determine his current condition, it would not matter even if everyone present had died.
Only Dumbledore himself could test the depth of Grindelwald's power.
McGonagall took a deep breath. Once again, her understanding of what wizardkind could truly achieve had been raised to a new and unsettling height.
"What are you planning to do, then? Go to North America to find him?"
"If I left now, it would already be too late. I cannot allow Grindelwald to lead me by the nose."
Dumbledore took out WhatsApp and began writing something across it. Then, all of a sudden, a faint smile touched his face.
"Thank heaven. We really ought to thank Mr. Riddle for inventing something this convenient. Otherwise, our position would be even more passive than it already is."
...
"Thank heaven Dumbledore didn't go to that meeting. Otherwise your eyes would have stayed glued to him."
On the other side, inside the learning space, Tom was complaining about Grindelwald.
If the system had not just granted him a new function that allowed his consciousness to descend into the body of someone who had signed a contract with him, then Sam Picquery would have escaped today.
Of course, even if he ran today, he could not run forever. Sooner or later they could still have found his house and dealt with him there.
But if Grindelwald had made a mistake on his very first move, then where would either of them have put their faces?
Old Gellert clearly understood that as well. And with Andros and Ariana both staring at him with obvious contempt, he could only stiffly defend himself.
"He's different. I can stay calm when I see Albus, but I can't do that with Scamander's harmless little face. The moment I see him, I want to throw every spell I have ever learned straight at it."
Tom's face darkened with black lines. For a moment, he suddenly felt as though he were looking at a lovesick fool.
"Then stay farther away from Uncle Newt in the future. Otherwise the moment you two get together, you start fighting."
"It was an accident. Today was purely an accident." Grindelwald waved a hand awkwardly. "Putting that aside, just tell me this: today's disturbance was big enough, wasn't it? Very soon the entire world will know I escaped from prison. There's no way to cover it up."
"That much is true."
Tom nodded in approval.
"Then go to the Picquery family and casually kill off a few of their core members. Leave the old, the weak, the sick, and the young alive. After that... do whatever you like."
Grindelwald could not help baring his teeth.
Compared to Tom, he really was a great philanthropist.
To kill off the backbone of a family while leaving behind only the old, the weak, the sick, and the young, that was even more terrifying than simply wiping the bloodline out. The survivors would have to watch helplessly as the benefits and influence their family once held were devoured bit by bit, until they finally perished in slow decline.
Ariana did not understand the logic behind it. She thought Tom had gone soft, and quickly tried to persuade him.
"Tom, you're just too kind. What if the people left behind come after you for revenge later? It's better to kill them all together."
"It's fine." Tom spoke with a sorrowful, compassionate expression. "I simply can't bring myself to harm the elderly and children. Besides, if they want to hate someone, they'll only hate old Gellert. What does that have to do with me?"
Grindelwald: "..."
That last sentence was the real point, wasn't it?
"You two keep talking. I've got Aurors catching up to me on this side."
Grindelwald clearly could not afford to provoke these two little ancestors any further. He waved his hand, then withdrew his consciousness from the learning space.
After he left, Ariana muttered a few more bad things about him before Ravenclaw called her over to continue studying.
Only after no one else was around did Andros finally ask in confusion, "Tom, why are you insisting on having Grindelwald make such a huge disturbance? Are you planning something for the entire magical world?"
"Even if that's the case, couldn't you wait a bit longer? Wait until I am revived. In fact, you would not even need Ravenclaw by then. And you will soon cross that threshold as well. With the three of us together, we could crush every opposing voice like dry leaves."
Tom smiled gently, then shook his head.
"Unify the magical world? Too much effort for too little reward. Wizards are the hardest group of people to manage. Having enough useful and dependable subordinates is more than sufficient."
"Andros, do you know when Muggle civilization advances the fastest?"
Andros froze for a moment, then honestly shook his head.
He had never cared about the lives or world of Muggles. At most, when bored, he watched a little Tom and Jerry, and he especially enjoyed the parts where "Tom" got bullied by Jerry.