39. Gellert Grindelwald

"We are sorry sir, but no one is allowed to meet him." A supervisor said.

"And why is that?" Alexander asked.

"B-Because he's a level 10 criminal with a history of successful jailbreaks. He's very strong too... sir," the Supervisor replied.

"So you're telling me that a more than hundred-year-old Wizard, who hasn't been able to use magic since the past 50 or so years, who is probably in his most vulnerable state right now, can fight me and run away?" He asked with a slight irritation. He needed to act like a big man or else they wouldn't take him seriously.

"No... No sir, it's not like that." The supervisor stuttered.

"It's alright man, I'm not going to eat you. Just go and tell the prison director about me. I'm sure he'll know what to do." He suggested.

The supervisor nodded and ran back into the castle. Soon he came back with another guy.

"We're sorry to keep you waiting, sir. Please follow me, I'll take you to your destination." The man said.

"Nice... Let's go then" Alexander followed the guy. They entered the castle and the guy led him to a small room with a small globe at the center.

"Please touch the globe, sir. It will take us to the prison."

"Hmm, I knew this castle in the mountain was just a fake. The real prison is somewhere else." He said and touched it.

They were portkeyed to somewhere frozen. For as far as he could see there was only ice.

"Woah... Who knew it was at the south pole. Wait, are those?"

"Yes, sir. They are ice dragons. We feed them and in return, they guard the perimeter." The guy answered.

"Cool, by the way. What's your name?" He asked.

"My name is Sam. Me and my brother Dean run this prison. We keep many dark and dangerous creatures in here," he answered.

"Why did you allow me in so easily?" Alexander asked.

"Sir, we all know that this world runs on the concept of survival of the fittest. You are 'THE' strongest being in the world, so you get to do many things that no one else can. And I also knew that even if I denied you, you would've found another way in." Sam answered.

"Haha... I like you. Can you tell me about Grindelwald? How's he been behaving? The last time I met him was in 1944, when he was madly running around the world calling for magical purity," he asked while walking.

"Well, he's surely calmed down a lot. In fact, he's been spending all his time watching the T.V. that you gifted him. He really likes it. He even counseled some guards to invest their money in the market, especially your company. It kinda really makes you ask, why did he turn evil back then." Sam said in a thoughtful voice.

"That's a big question indeed," he added.

"Here we are. This is his cell. I'll wait outside." Sam said.

Alexander opened the door and walked in. The cell was quite spacious. There was a bed at the corner, a covered lavatory. And then there was a couch and a T.V. in front of it.

An old man sat there on the couch watching the Terminator movie. "Finally, we meet again my old friend. Come, sit"

Alexander calmly walked and sat on the couch. "I must say, Nurmengard is much better than Azkaban."

"And I agree with you. Azkaban is really an inhumane place. Instead of giving a quick death, they throw you in a place full of Dementors to be tormented, and they call me evil"

Alexander quickly checked his sins,

|| Gellert Grindelwald - Category 2

Indirect Murder - 300

Kidnapping - 300

Torture - 400

Sin percentage - 34% (Reduced from 68% for already serving some punishment)||

"Quick death is what they get now. If proven guilty," Alexander said.

"Is that why you've come? To grant me quick death? Well, I suppose I've lived more than I ever expected to. It's not really a bad time to die." Grindelwald said with a sigh.

"I can give you death if you're so fixated on it, but I came here to discuss the terms of your release."

His words shocked the withered old man a bit. "Is that your new way of torturing people? By giving them false hope?"

"Oh, you have no idea about my ways of torture. Anyway, just read this and tell me what you think." He gave him a paper.

Grindelwald read it slowly. "Interesting, a blood contract. It makes me unable to break the clause written or else my magic will kill me. And you want me to follow the command of this Edward Firestorm?"

"Yes, he's my apprentice. My heir. You will also accompany Dumbledore in his world tour, that he's just about to start after retiring." He answered.

"Dumbledore has retired?" He asked.

"Not yet but he's doing it after the end of this term."

"And why are you doing all this? Last I remember, you abhorred my way of thinking."

"And I still do. You are a pretty strong and smart wizard Gellert. I want to use you for the betterment of the world. That contract will make sure you don't turn rogue. As said in it. You will never be allowed to wage war or fight against any person, country or organization in the world. You cannot study or perform dark magic either. Except for some fighting curses. You can not go against the Universe industries and Edward Firestorm. You will also listen and help Edward Firestorm. These are just some of the clauses." He said.

"So you want me to become a slave?"

"No, you will be free. If you want you can just spend the rest of your life with Dumbledore and travel the world, see new things. Like a normal retired old man." He answered.

*Sigh* "I can agree to that but I have two requests. One, I will only follow the Firestorm boy if he can defeat me and second, I want you to tell me why you were against my ideals. Your own parents were murdered by muggle weapons and you still helped them" He asked.

"Sure, Edward can easily defeat you. Even after you return to your prime. As for your question. Well, it's simple"

~Shit, there's no memory about this. I guess I'll have to bullsh*t my way out.~

"I remember your sales pitch. Your pureblood supremacist theory. Though I know that you yourself didn't believe in it, you just wanted to obtain strong followers. You said that humans were barbarians, they waged big wars. You gave the example of world war 1. But I saw things differently. We Wizards were barbarians too. Did you ever think about the ratio of the muggle population versus the magical population? There were more than 2 billion muggles back then and probably about 13 million Wizards. How many humans out of 2 billion waged war? Millions. How many Wizards of those 13 million waged war because of some random dark lord? Again, nearly a million. In fact, we wage war more often than muggles.

Now tell me, are we better than muggles? No, instead I'd say, we've become even worse. At least muggle society learned something from their mistakes and focused on advancing. Now they number more than 6 billion. While we Wizards were stuck in the same cycle. A new dark lord comes and dies with a lot of other Wizards. How many of us are there now? Nearly 30 million. 6 billion vs 30 million." He stopped.

Grindelwald stayed silent for a while and then signed the document with his blood without any second thought. "You are much stronger and better than me in things I thought I was good at. I can see the future Wizarding world flourishing because of what you are doing now. I'd rather join Albus in his travels. Though I still want to fight your apprentice"

"Good decision. Now I just need to go and convince the ICW. I'll return at the end of the school term to get you out. In the meantime. Drink this potion. It will make your body 50 years younger and also add extra lifespan. See you later, Gellert"

...

"Thanks for having me, Sam. I can see that you guys are in some need of repair. I'll donate 10 million galleons for the prison funds and also get you some good builders." He said while shaking hands.

"T-Thank you, sir. We will put that money to good use." Sam answered. With that, Alexander returned to the U.K. and then to his office.

"Boss, there is an important letter from the International Confederation of Wizards," Nagini told him on a call.

"Okay, I'll check it" he replied and hung up.

He opened the letter and slowly read it. The more he read the happier he became. Dumbledore had stepped down from the post of Supreme Mugwump. The ICW council had unanimously agreed to make him the next Supreme Mugwump as he was the strongest and righteous Wizard alive. The ICW would have a meeting the day after tomorrow and they had humbly asked him to be present.

~This makes things so much easier~ he mumbled aloud.