227 Chapter 227: Black and White
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30 June 1994, Paris, France
It was night. The city of Paris, with its sprawling boulevards and grandiose monuments, lay cloaked in a serene silence, broken only by the soft murmur of the Seine as it meandered through the city's heart. The moon, full and luminous, cast a silver glow over the cobblestone streets, painting the city in a spectral light that seemed to belong to another world.
In the midst of this nocturnal serenity, a faint pop sound, barely audible above the whispering river, marked the arrival of Albus Dumbledore in an inconspicuous alleyway nestled between the towering edifices of the Latin Quarter. His figure, tall and imposing, with a long, flowing beard that glimmered under the moonlight, seemed at once both out of place and perfectly at home among the shadows of the city.
For the first time in a while, his colourful robes were gone, replaced by a sombre ensemble that mirrored his mood. Clad in deep, midnight blue robes that seemed to absorb the moonlight, casting him in an aura of understated authority, Dumbledore stood as a stark contrast to the whimsical figure he often presented. There was no need to pretend to be the elderly grandfather anymore. Gellert had made sure of that.
He looked around and spoke up with an authoritative voice, "Gellert! I don't have time for games. I got your message You wanted to speak under truce, well here I am."
From the shadows, the familiar figure of Gellert Grindelwald appeared. The man had a smug smile on his face, "Well, I had to savour the moment. You know as well as I do that by accepting the offer to meet, you've officially recognized that you lost…"
The former headmaster gritted his teeth, "You've done a very good job at destroying every scrap of political influence I had. And don't pretend it was about the ritual. You could have stopped me without going so far, without even showing your face."
"Yes, I could have, but then, we would be here right now… You wouldn't have gotten the lesson I wanted to teach you. I was planning on revealing myself next year, but you provided me with such an attractive opportunity that I didn't have in me to refuse it. If I had just stopped the ritual, it would have just been a setback amongst many. Not that I needed to; the Potter boy somehow escaped the Gardens. You would have lost anyway…"
Albus stiffened at the realization, "I assumed you had let him out somehow."
"That was the plan, yes. I was either going to use the magic within after my agents stole it, or would have saved him, giving me the loyalty of a very promising young man who would have hated you with everything he had. Imagine my surprise when I returned to my base to find every single person killed and a single boy standing over them, having escaped the famed eternal prison on his own."
"And you let him live?"
Gellert's grin turned mischievous, "I had my reasons."
"You may have, but we're not here to talk about the boy. You decided to intrude on my business and ruin my dreams. Don't pretend this is about the prophecy. We both know that you could have just spoken to me, and I would have listened."
"Would you have?" Gellert responded with a snort, "Sure, you would have respected my words, but you wouldn't have cared. You would have cared about laws and political positions as you have for years. You would have cared about your school, where you've been playing the kindly benevolent god that we both know you have never been."
"So, you took out everything I have built for myself in years, set back decades of changes, and cost me a veritable fortune and my reputation…"
"And don't you feel free, right now? Don't you feel just a bit relieved that you don't have anything holding you back anymore? I mean look at you now. You're not even wearing those eyesores of robes anymore. You don't care if anyone is overhearing us because you don't have to care about your reputation. And now you're fully free to focus on Ragnarök with me, like in the old days. Like before our war, before Arianna."
Albus glared at his former friend, "You destroyed my dream, Gellert. You had no right…"
He was interrupted by Gellert yelling, "I HAD EVERY RIGHT. Albus just as I have taken your dream from you, you did the same to mine. Just as I destroyed your reputation, you bound me to an eternal prison, where you would know that I would have fallen to madness after a few centuries, in your fear that another Dark Champion would return. You have betrayed your mentor, killed him, tried to steal his prized possession… What I have done to you, you have, in turn, done to so many other people without even a shred of regret. The only difference is that you have the power to get back at me. So, tell me, Albus, are you prepared to fight me again?"
"I have the elder wand…"
"And so, did I. Yet, you did win, didn't you? The wand would have made me win any direct battle of wills. But you knew that and sacrificed the lives of an entire village to act as a trap to defeat me. You know for all people are terrified of me, I think they forgot that you took as many lives, and caused as many innocent deaths as me during the war. But you won, and history is written by the victors. I wonder what people will think about us fighting here. Paris would be flattened, of course, and the muggles would know about us. They've become quite advanced; I have to admit. Are you truly willing to risk war, on a scale even bigger than our previous one, to get back at me?"
Albus lowered the elder wand and his former friend smirked, "Thought not."
The former headmaster gritted his teeth, suppressing his desire to just let go and kill Gellert once and for all. But the man was infuriatingly right; he could afford to fight them. Merely a decade after his victory over Gellert, he recognized that the Champion of the Dark had a point. Muggles progressed on an exponential scale, creating weapons of mass destruction. Sure, the wizarding world still stood a chance, should there have been a war. People who truly understood magic could do wonderous and terrible things with it, but it was the aftermath of the war that he was worried about. The mere idea of peace would be gone. Albus' dream of a magical utopia would have been destroyed forever.
Now, as long as researchers kept finding new ways to elude muggle surveillance, war would be averted. However, destroying the capital of France would have easily become the first shot in a war that Albus wasn't sure his people were going to win.
Instead of fighting Gellert, he might as well understand what the man was talking about, "Tell me about Ragnarök."
"You know the prophecy as much as I do, Albus. The first true prophecy, made by the gods before they left this plane of existence."
"I thought it was broken during the battle of Camlann? Everyone, even the Light and Dark thought that this would have been it, the final showdown but something stopped it, killing both Merlin and Morgana."
Gellert snorted in amusement, "Not something, someone. Morgana was so sure of her victory, and Merlin was so caught up in using Arthur as a weapon against the Dark, that they never saw Mordred coming."
"Mordred? Morgana's pawn?"
"I thought so at first, but I spent decades researching Camlann out of pure curiosity. Mordred might have started out as the Black Witch's pawn, but he was the only one who won on that fateful day."
Albus just stood there flabbergasted, "What? How?"
Gellert grinned back at him, "I think I'll keep that to myself. The point is that everyone with a drop of magical drop would have noticed a prophecy on the scale of Ragnarök being broken. You did notice what happened in the previous one? How much damage it caused…"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he denied.
"Oh, come on. James Potter. The stag with Death's cloak, surviving thrice from a broken Riddle … doesn't that ring a bell at all?"
Albus stiffened, "How do you know about that?"
"Oh, I have my ways. But you kept James Potter on your side as a broken prophecy, only for someone to break it before you, and we both know what happened then… Weaponizing prophecies is a very dangerous business, Albus. And yet you never learned your lesson. You're still keeping the Longbottom boy as a backup."
"How is that any of your business, Gellert."
"It concerns me when Ragnarök is around the corner. If you break a prophecy, I'll do the same to another and we both know what will happen then. A full war between Light and Darkness… Either way, humanity will lose."
Albus had to admit that Gellert had a point there. Still, it would have been hard to let go with something of decades of planning. Not that it mattered anymore. Albus' dream was barely more than that, now.
Gellert, though, continued, "Besides, it's not like access to your golden boy is going to be easy anymore. Augusta Longbottom ended up pulling a lot of strings in the Department of Mysteries and the healer's guild, to search for his scar. The boy has been under watch for a while, not an easy position to channel his death into a ritual, not with a small army of researchers near him at all times. So, stop thinking about your foolish dream for once and get on the fold. A lot of things are happening at once and my return is just the tip of the iceberg."
"You're suggesting a permanent truce? After what you've done?"
"Oh, come on, Albus. You needed the wake-up call. A war between us will achieve nothing and you know it. You probably started gathering up that Order of yours, telling them all about my return and my evil plans. Let me be straight and tell you that I have no plans of taking over the world."
"So, what are your plans," Albus couldn't help but ask.
"We both know you're still not invested in this. You're still not seeing what's coming…"
"Again, with the prophecy, Gellert. I get it. Ragnarök is coming," the former headmaster responded with an exasperated tone.
"The World Serpent is dead, Albus. Old things are coming back. Jörmungandr's demise has sent a signal to everyone. Even the Goblins have upped their training. I can feel the world holding its breath, waiting for the inevitable…"
Albus rolled his eyes, "The Goblins are always preparing for way, Gellert, it's what they do."
"The Red Witch is back, Albus."
"That's impossible. She's supposed to be dead."
Gellert grimaced, "Not according to an associate of mine. She was merely banished. She'll be coming for you, especially after what you've done to her."
"How do I know that you're not distracting me?"
"I am distracting you. But nevertheless, she is the more immediate threat, especially since she knows who is in that little group of yours. I wonder how many of them will survive her wrath. I have a feeling that you're going to be very busy lately."
Albus glared at his former friend, "This isn't over…"
"Of course it isn't, Albus. When it comes to us, it will never be over. Not until 'only ash remains, the final scene, a silent world, eerily serene'."
And just like that, he disappeared, leaving an empty alley and Albus shivering at his words. They made him shiver just as they had when Nicholas Flamel uttered them to him all those years ago. It was what made him recognize despite himself that the words were true. After all, if only a few verses of the prophecy caused such a reaction out of him, it must still hold power over the world.
Thankfully, Albus had something else to focus on besides a prophecy of inevitable doom. Lily Potter was back, and he needed to prepare.
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AN: Not sure about this chapter to be honest. I wanted there to be another small confrontation between Grindelwald and Dumbledore after the consequences had set in, as well as slowly introducing Ragnarok. As usual, let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
