A Professor of Magic at Hogwarts

Felix had known about Grindelwald since his school days; it was written on the Chocolate Frog card, after all.

"In 1945, defeated the Dark Wizard Grindelwald."

But back then, Grindelwald was merely one of the footnotes in Dumbledore's legendary journey, overshadowed by the respect Dumbledore commanded. Anyone who glanced at that Chocolate Frog card would only feel reverence for Dumbledore, without sparing much attention to the "Dark Wizard Grindelwald," the loser. Of course, perhaps his dreadful reputation circulated among children, sparking their imagination when discussing questions like "just how bad was this person?"

Felix had every reason to doubt: among many young wizards' upbringing, some were forced to play the role of "Dark Wizard Grindelwald" in dueling games, only to end up defeated by the forces of justice.

What truly piqued Felix's curiosity about Grindelwald himself was after he heard Newt's words:

"I can't reveal more—it involves Headmaster Dumbledore... Grindelwald was very proud, or rather confident... and quite charismatic, though I didn't particularly like that aspect, he caused quite a lot of trouble at the time..."

Obviously, the mere line of description on the Chocolate Frog card was much more thrilling and even heart-stopping in reality.

And Newt's silence also confirmed this.

Later signs indicated that perhaps Voldemort had given up the pursuit of the Elder Wand since then and instead investigated the whereabouts of the wand passed down from the ancestor Salazar Slytherin. The ten powerful wands were just a means for Voldemort to control Felix, to give him some trouble, while also confirming the authenticity of the "Elder Wand" in Felix's hands. And perhaps in Voldemort's plan, the bloody inheritance rules of the Elder Wand would somehow affect the tacit understanding between Felix and Dumbledore.

But as it turned out, the true master of the Elder Wand was Dumbledore, and the scheme to sow discord was in vain.

From this, Felix also guessed that before Dumbledore, the previous owner of the Elder Wand was Grindelwald.

Later, Voldemort fell abruptly and cleanly, shocking many people with the speed of his downfall, leaving them completely speechless. Felix also got in touch with Grindelwald, or more accurately, Grindelwald reached out to Felix. The two became pen pals.

It was a novel experience for Felix, who had never written letters to someone in prison before. Considering that Grindelwald once wrote back letter by letter under the dim light of a yellowish oil lamp, without even a decent table, he felt nostalgic about that time.

Unfortunately, shortly afterward, Felix learned from Dumbledore's mouth about Grindelwald's suspected escape. Dumbledore confessed for the first time his close friendship with Grindelwald and expressed fear of the other's ideology.

But in the blink of an eye, Dumbledore changed his attitude and let the voluntarily appearing Grindelwald stay at Hogwarts, taking up the position of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

There were multiple reasons for this.

Some reasons were voluntarily disclosed by Dumbledore to Felix, such as Grindelwald's terrible physical condition, which had almost permanently declined in strength; Felix partially understood and accepted this explanation. In his view, Voldemort's downfall had a considerable impact on Dumbledore.

Felix roughly simplified his psychological changes as follows:

After resolving a long-standing worry, Dumbledore must have felt a thousand emotions, stirring up distant memories. Meeting a former friend and enemy after half a century was bound to soften him momentarily.

Although this softness had its limits, Dumbledore promised that Grindelwald would only teach at the school for a year, after which he would return to Nurmengard to continue serving his sentence.

So, what was Dumbledore's purpose...

Felix pondered for a moment, having a vague idea. He decided to go talk to Professor Septima Vector and Mrs. Pomfrey later.

"...I didn't even realize that the old man's health was getting better, even the sound of arguments sounded vigorous..."

He suspected Dumbledore was secretly helping Grindelwald.

In addition to the reasons Dumbledore voluntarily disclosed to Felix, he also heard half of a conversation from the portraits in the headmaster's office, which also involved a prophecy...

Here, Felix had to thank Phineas Nigellus Black.

As for the content of the prophecy—over the past six months, Felix had gradually grasped some patterns. He didn't know the specific content of the prophecy, but from Dumbledore's tolerance of Grindelwald's teaching content, he could roughly outline the shape of the prophecy.

It probably had something to do with confidentiality laws.

Felix frowned slightly as he recalled. What did that imply? Was the exposure of the wizarding world inevitable? But he and Dumbledore had a similar understanding: unless Grindelwald could present more direct evidence, such as specific event times.

Felix was slightly startled, seeming to hit on something. He had speculated before that the prophecy might be something that needed interpretation, like tea leaves, crystal balls, star charts, or a fragment of the future. His thoughts kept rolling... He thought of the New Year's parade that Grindelwald showed the students in his first class.

Parade.

So, there would be a grand anti-wizard parade in the future?

Felix noted this down. He didn't feel particularly urgent about it; Dumbledore's sense of responsibility was much stronger than his own. When the time was right, the contents of the prophecy would automatically appear before him, impossible to avoid.

Felix felt that Dumbledore was entirely capable of pulling off such a thing; the headmaster was very good at keeping secrets.

As for Grindelwald, the professors had a generally good impression of him. He was outstanding in ability, knowledgeable, and polite in his interactions. Even Professor McGonagall, who had some reservations about some of his dangerous remarks, gradually accepted this somewhat unconventional colleague. The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor even took him as a confidant. "Professor Bagshot's handling of spells is remarkable," the short Professor Flitwick had said more than once.

Hmm, one exception, Felix thought. Professor Slughorn, as sharp as ever, rarely interacted with Grindelwald alone.

Felix was very curious if he had noticed something.

But this possibility was actually very low.

Because Grindelwald had been imprisoned for half a century, his appearance had long changed. Even professors like McGonagall and Flitwick didn't recognize him, let alone that Grindelwald's departure from Nurmengard was not made public. So even if Slughorn had some suspicions about his identity, he didn't think in that direction at all.

And in the eyes of those who knew his true identity (Dumbledore and Felix), Grindelwald's actions did not cross the line. If he contacted or responded to the Saints, Felix believed that Dumbledore would not hesitate to send Gr

indelwald back.

Thinking back to Dumbledore's initial cautious attitude, to now allowing Harry to have solo contact with Grindelwald, and even follow him to study magic, undoubtedly represented an increase in trust.

Felix was also at ease with this.

Whatever Grindelwald wanted to do, whether it was passing on his magic (which he welcomed), or passing on his ideology, he only had one year. If he really intended to influence Harry, he would surely find that Harry was more stubborn than he imagined.

Dumbledore had not done nothing either; the weekly classes were not a secret. Harry's thoughts had almost solidified over the past few years, and what Grindelwald wanted to do was to reverse that. Dumbledore was guiding him to think independently, and the difficulty of the two tasks was completely incomparable.

Just like the blood pact Harry mentioned today, Felix was both surprised at the question itself and surprised that Dumbledore had the courage to reveal this past. When it came time for Harry to make a choice, the hidden Grindelwald would have no advantage.

Perhaps this was also within Dumbledore's expectations; he hoped to complete another part of Harry's character. However, what exactly it was, Felix was not sure yet.

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