"I understand."
Avada nodded hard—if he did not still need to focus completely on dealing with Grindelwald right in front of him, his true body would already have rushed straight into Dumbledore's office.
"And if I remember correctly, Albus seems to have been researching soul-related matters recently?"
Grindelwald suddenly shot Avada a half-smiling look. "At a moment like this, bringing him news like that... quite a move."
"..."
Avada blinked innocently. Wasn't you the one who brought up the Deathly Hallows in the first place?!
Seeing the look on Avada's face, Grindelwald merely shook his head with an amused smile and let the matter pass.
"I think we've spent enough time talking about the Deathly Hallows. Don't forget, I called you here for another matter—one even more important."
"Something more important? What is it?"
Avada's heart tightened.
On the surface, Grindelwald's first matter had merely seemed like a reminder not to reveal the Resurrection Stone to Dumbledore. But through that topic, he had casually poured out a huge amount of information about the Deathly Hallows, and most of it was not some unreachable secret to Avada. Some of it was practically right in front of him, things he could begin researching at any time. Among them was even information he currently needed the most...
There was no way Avada believed there was no prophetic element involved in that.
What kind of matter could be even more important than that?
"The time for Leach University to formally reveal itself to magical society is almost at hand."
Grindelwald's very first sentence made Avada's heart skip half a beat.
What did the formal unveiling of Leach University mean?
It meant the obstacles created by the pure-blood families had been largely swept aside. It meant large-scale restrictions on knowledge would be loosened. It meant the operating model of magical society would enter an entirely new phase.
And that future was coming soon?
But right now, he could not see even the slightest sign of it. Even the pure-blood families, who had already lost one round in this struggle, were nowhere near truly crippled. As for the Ministry of Magic, there was not the slightest indication it intended to ease up on controlled knowledge. On top of that, outside Britain there was still the International Confederation of Wizards—a huge variable that could become a major obstacle at any moment...
Before hearing Grindelwald say those words, Avada had already prepared himself mentally to spend half his life breaking this deadlock.
But now?
"And I can vaguely foresee that the opportunity for the university's public debut is closely tied to something you did."
Grindelwald's expression also turned serious. In a sense, Leach University was also an inheritor of Grindelwald's ideals, carrying the last trace of obsession buried in his heart. So when it came to the university, the degree of attention he gave it was almost no less than when he had still commanded the Acolytes.
"This prophecy suddenly surfaced in my mind last November. It was also one of the main reasons I decided to meet with you... Think carefully. What did you do around that time?"
"Last November... around Halloween, I guess?"
Avada began carefully reviewing everything that had happened then, doing his best not to miss even the tiniest detail. Before long, he found the answer—
Peter Pettigrew!
Back around Halloween last year, that had been when Sirius Black broke into Hogwarts, and Avada had taken the opportunity to reconstruct Peter Pettigrew's memories, turning him into a massive buried bomb planted among the pure-blood families!
If there was one thing he had done that could affect the overall balance of the entire game, then this was absolutely one of the most influential events.
Even though he actually regretted doing it very much, he had to admit that now.
What was more, he already knew that Sirius Black had also become another buried bomb among the werewolves—and the werewolves were very likely closely tied to the pure-blood families...
"It seems you've remembered."
Observing the shift in Avada's expression, Grindelwald abruptly pulled him back to reality with a single sentence.
"It's enough for you to have your own judgment. There's no need to tell me exactly what happened. What I want to say is that the thing you did last November greatly accelerated the progress of the Leach University plan. If my expectations are correct, then the moment for the university to go public... will be next year."
"Next year?!"
Avada was genuinely startled.
Was Peter Pettigrew really that crucial?!
Could he really create an opportunity to bring down the entire pure-blood establishment in just one year?
And next year...
If nothing unexpected happened, wouldn't that be the Triwizard Tournament? If Leach University chose that moment as the opportunity to reveal itself to the world... did that mean the university would also send students to compete as champions?
Wouldn't that be way too unfair to everyone else?
"What exactly is going to happen, Mr. Grindelwald?"
"I don't know."
Grindelwald stared into his eyes.
"This matter is simply too vast, and the amount of information involved is far too complicated... If this were before fate was shattered, then this event would even have qualified to become a true Prophecy, like the one made by Albus's Divination professor."
"With my strength alone, I cannot sort through the nearly infinite fragments of possibility and find the line of fate closest to how reality will actually unfold. And that is the main reason I called you here..."
"Miranda should already have told you not to take part in any of the university's upcoming operations, and to temporarily hand over the classes you're responsible for to someone else, right?"
"Uh, yes."
Avada nodded, then asked hesitantly, "Do I need to do something very time-consuming? But as you know, on the Hogwarts side, I..."
"It won't require too much of your energy."
Grindelwald directly dispelled his concerns.
"You only need to set aside some time each day. From now on, I need you to come to Nurmengard every day and use your magical perception talent to observe my spiritual power. At the same time, I will do my utmost to use my prophetic abilities to foresee the future, and your task will be to help me process and analyze the fragments of possibility that appear in my mind. That way, we can analyze the future at double the efficiency and quickly find the fate most beneficial to the university's plan..."
"...Uh, that might not be necessary, Mr. Grindelwald."
Avada interrupted him a little awkwardly.
"Actually, I can directly observe the entire flow of time through your spiritual power..."
Just like Professor Trelawney, there was also a strand of spiritual power within the radiance of Grindelwald's mind, one that extended deep into the magical world and led toward an unknown realm. Avada could once again follow that strand, just as he had in his third year, and enter the shattered timeline to freely examine fragments of possibility.
However, ever since he had suffered that brutal blow inside the timeline, he had never done it again.
On one hand, that kind of "divination" was basically brute-force enumeration, making it horribly inefficient.
On the other hand, that mysterious giant sphere of light could appear again at any moment and heavily damage his spiritual power once more...
But if this was combined with Grindelwald's actively controlled prophetic ability, along with the intelligence gathered by Leach University, then everything would be different!
(End of Chapter)