Chapter 13:

Rodrick stared ahead at the mirrors in front of him. He saw his eyes and the familiar hidden face. He brushed his hands over his face and noticed it didn't match the one he was staring at; he smiled a little when he realized his magic was still working even in sleep. The old wizard showed up beside him, eyes intent on the mirror. He turned towards Rodrick with a sad look in his eyes before he apologized. There was no reaction on Rodrick's face, he merely nodded. The temporary weakness, however, disappeared from his grandfather's face before it turned into a steel mask.

The two proceeded to spend the day like any other, Gellert Grindlewald was passing off his knowledge to his heir. He had never made an attempt to force his ideologies onto the boy as he had tried with his mother. The result of that... It wouldn't do well to dwell on it. He would raise Rodrick to the highest ability he could and let him choose his path, just as he did, of course, he would try and make sure he didn't waste it. He had made tremendous progress in the past six years, at the beginning it had been difficult to convince the boy he was magical, he had taken it with a grain of salt, which frankly was impressive. How the boy managed to flip his room inside the orphanage upside down and still think he was normal was beyond his comprehension. Only when he had received his letter and allowance did he really believe it.

Gellert recalled memories of his daughter as he stared at his grandson work on his latest spell, some form of summoning charm, his mother had almost never listened to what he had to say, in fact the one and only point she had agreed with was when she had decided to marry a pureblood. The boy had made attempts to ask about his parents however he received no answers, his daughter rarely spoke to him about her life. She rarely even let him into her mind for that matter. By the time he had realized he had a daughter, it was too late for her to accept him, deeming him the cause of all her misfortunes. He couldn't blame her.

The boy had potential. However, years of growing up in that god awful place limited him immensely. The thoughts about that had enraged him, had he been capable he would've burnt the place to the ground. The fact a Grindelwald had to hide out of fear of prosecution... He had planned to become death's master and yet all he had managed was to send his family line into fear of it, the irony was not lost on him... Though the day he'd decided on his quest was long gone, it was still just as fresh in his mind.

When the boy had received his letters, he had initially planned to urge him to go to Durmstrang, but his own history quickly made him realize the stupidity of that idea. Hogwarts was, to his irritation, the better option, whatever can be said about his old friend, he was a fool when it came to mercy. of course, he still instructed Rodrick to at least hide his identity. No need to tempt fate, Grindelwald's didn't have a particularly good time doing that. He was both glad and angered when he'd learned of his grandson's adventure with the troll, glad at how quickly he overcame the beast but angered that it had taken a premonition to make it happen, the boy had admitted it himself, without the vision he probably would've avoided it out of fear. There was a lot of work to do to get him to break out of his shell... He certainly had the time to teach him at least.