Regarding Grindelwald's arrival, the many professors at Hogwarts who knew Kyle's true identity were not particularly surprised.
Because Dumbledore had already informed them beforehand.
For an event like the first-generation Dark Lord descending upon Hogwarts, if the professors hadn't been notified in advance, they might have assumed Grindelwald was here to seek revenge on Dumbledore—and that would have caused quite a chaotic scene.
As for the fact that Grindelwald was no longer in Nurmengard Castle, none of the professors cared.
They had already learned about it more than two years ago when Grindelwald came to Hogsmeade Village to pick Kyle up.
In any case, if the sky fell, Dumbledore was tall enough to hold it up. If anyone was going to have a headache over this, it would be Dumbledore; they certainly didn't have the ability to meddle in the love-hate relationship between those two.
Walking through the antique castle, Grindelwald was like an old child, completely full of curiosity about everything around him.
It had been nearly a century since he first met Albus Dumbledore in the summer of 1899, yet he had never once set foot inside this castle.
"Dad! Look at that stone statue!"
On the third floor of the castle, Kyle pointed toward an ordinary-looking corridor where a hideously ugly stone gargoyle was crouching.
Dumbledore's Headmaster's office had two entrances. One was on the eighth floor of the castle, right next to the tower where the Gryffindor common room was located.
The other entrance was through the wall behind that gargoyle, which concealed a magical version of an escalator leading up to Dumbledore's office.
After all, given the sheer complexity of Hogwarts Castle, walking all the way from the eighth floor down to the Great Hall on the first floor for meals was far too long a journey.
Dumbledore couldn't exactly leap down from the Astronomy Tower every day like his rebellious son did, so a magical escalator leading to the lower floors was highly necessary.
Kyle pointed to the escalator exit guarded by the gargoyle. "I set a Dungbomb trap right there before. I almost blasted Dad Albus all over!"
Hearing Kyle's boasting tone, the veins on Dumbledore's temples throbbed.
If he weren't absolutely certain that Grindelwald would stop him from hitting the boy, Dumbledore would have rolled up his sleeves right then and there to teach this troublesome child a lesson he wouldn't forget.
Glancing back at Dumbledore, who was lagging a few steps behind them, the corner of Grindelwald's mouth quirked into a subtle smirk.
"Wizards of Albus's and my caliber have a much sharper perception of danger than you think."
Grindelwald drew his wand and tapped the air lightly, causing an invisible ripple to wave through the air.
"You can try using this spell to disrupt his senses." Showing absolutely no concern that Dumbledore was right there, Grindelwald immediately began a live tutorial on how to deal with the Leader of the Light.
Under Dumbledore's increasingly cold glare, Kyle enthusiastically pointed out several more spots where he had set up prank traps to Grindelwald.
"Ahem," Dumbledore interrupted the high-spirited father and son. "Gellert, let's arrange a place for you to rest first."
Grindelwald gave Dumbledore a strange look. "Can't I just stay in your bedroom? Why make it so complicated?"
Then he turned back to chat with Kyle again.
It was perfectly normal for a father and son who hadn't seen each other for half a term to have endless things to talk about.
But Dumbledore did not see it that way.
Pushed beyond his patience, Dumbledore raised his hand and brought it down hard on Kyle's head with a loud thwack.
If he hadn't been afraid that the two of them might start a fight and leave Hogwarts Castle as nothing more than a giant crater, Dumbledore, who was on the verge of snapping, would have thrashed Grindelwald along with him.
Having been thoroughly smacked by Dumbledore, Kyle finally behaved himself.
He obediently took Grindelwald on a tour around Hogwarts Castle, not daring to mention his past "glorious achievements" along the way.
Hogwarts Castle was quite vast, and by the time they finished wandering around, it was already lunchtime.
There really weren't many students staying at school over the Christmas holidays; the four long tables, which should have been packed, were mostly empty.
If you gathered all the students currently in the Great Hall onto a single table, they probably wouldn't even fill it.
At this moment, Hermione, Ginny, Cedric, and the Weasley brothers were all eating by the Gryffindor table.
Harry had gone back to the Black ancestral home with Sirius, so he wasn't present.
Without a second thought, Kyle walked over and sat down right next to Hermione.
Grindelwald naturally took a seat right next to his son at the same table.
Glancing up at Dumbledore, who had stopped in his tracks, Grindelwald jerked his chin toward the staff table up on the dais, as if saying, "What are you standing around for? Go back to your Headmaster's throne."
Currently, Hermione was sitting on Kyle's right, and Grindelwald was on his left, leaving absolutely no room for Dumbledore.
The atmosphere gradually grew incredibly tense.
Sitting next to Kyle, Hermione's expression froze. She felt as if... she could smell the scent of a brewing storm.
If Kyle knew what Hermione was thinking right now, he would definitely curl his lip in disdain and say, "You worry too much over nothing."
He had seen plenty of dramatic standoffs between these two tsundere old men; he had long since grown used to it.
Glancing at Dumbledore, who didn't look particularly pleased, the little beaver tactfully stood up and yielded her seat to him.
"Professor Dumbledore, please, have a seat."
Dumbledore waved his hand. "No need."
Looking at the father and son who were thick as thieves, Albus—it was clearly me who came first, why did it turn out like this, my heart aches—Dumbledore turned and walked away without looking back.
At this moment, none of the people sitting around the table were strangers to Grindelwald.
George, Fred, and Cedric—the trio of trouble-making sons—had already met Grindelwald in the Three Broomsticks over two years ago.
Granted, back then over two years ago, Grindelwald had just left prison, and the hair on his head had almost entirely fallen out due to malnutrition and a lack of proper food in Nurmengard.
Now, however, under the tireless feeding of their butler, a well-nourished Grindelwald had grown a brand-new head of hair, looking completely different from the skeleton-like figure he resembled right after his jailbreak.
Yet, the three still recognized him because those heterochromatic eyes, identical to Kyle's, were simply far too distinctive.
As for the others, though they had never met Grindelwald, they could still glean some clues from the matching eye colors of the two.
"Let me introduce you. These three are the bad influences I always tell you about, the ones who always cause trouble with me."
When it came to introducing Grindelwald, Kyle hesitated for a moment. "Uh... this is my father, Gellert Dumbledore."
Hearing Kyle's words, Grindelwald raised an eyebrow but did not dispute it.
In his heart, however, he didn't quite agree with Kyle's phrasing.
No matter how you looked at it, Dumbledore should be taking his last name, making him Albus Grindelwald.
After all, according to Muggle biology, he was the one who provided Kyle with the Y chromosome, while Dumbledore provided the X chromosome.
Therefore, from a biological standpoint, Dumbledore was actually Kyle's mother.
It wasn't as if he, Grindelwald, had married into the Dumbledore family, so there was absolutely no reason for him to change his name to Dumbledore.
"Hello, hello, Mr. Dumbledore. It's an honor to meet..." Cedric stopped dead mid-sentence.
What did Kyle just say?
This old man in front of him was his father?
Cedric's face immediately contorted into a look of sheer, bewildered disbelief.
Everyone at the table simultaneously swore in their minds.
Looking at Grindelwald's aged appearance, the age gap between this father and son was a bit too massive.
They had originally assumed this old gentleman was Kyle's grandfather, or perhaps his great-grandfather.
But it turns out he's your father?
It wasn't that they had never seen cases of children born to older parents.
Generally speaking, the higher the biological tier of a species, the more difficult reproduction became.
Wizards were on a slightly higher plane of existence than Muggles, so their fertility rates were somewhat inferior by comparison.
Thus, having a child late in life was a fairly common occurrence in the wizarding world.
But generally, having an offspring at the age of fifty was already considered having a child late in life.
Yet the age difference between you two is at least an eighty-year gap...
That is simply absurd.
Furthermore, the name Gellert... why did it sound so familiar?
For the sake of his son, Grindelwald gave the three of them a slight nod, considering it a greeting.
Up at the staff table, Snape's veiled gaze occasionally swept over the white-haired old man sitting by the Gryffindor table.
Although Gellert Grindelwald's presence here was unexpected, it wasn't as if Snape lacked a way to handle it.
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