The War Has Already Begun!

At Grindelwald's persuasive words, the wizards became as agitated as a powder keg on the verge of exploding, and Ivan had no doubt that at the mere command of the other side, the five hundred or so wizards would immediately rush out into the street and massacre the Muggles.

At that moment, however, a piercing scream pierced the hall.

"Lies!"

Ivan turned his head in surprise, trying to see who was brave enough to interrupt Grindelwald's speech. Was he not afraid of being killed?

To Ivan's surprise, it was an elderly witch who spoke. She was visibly frightened by the angry stares of the Saints, and her legs were shaking, but she still found the courage to berate them.

"That's a complete and utter lie! What proof do you have that what you just saw was the future of the wizarding world? I lived through the last Wizarding War myself, witnessed how you murdered witches and wizards with a sense of justice, and instigated your followers to abuse and murder Muggles…"

"This witch's name is Barbara, and according to our investigation, her son died in the last Wizarding War…" Connor lowered his voice as he explained the information to Ivan.

Ivan nodded. 'No wonder he was so stubborn. He must have seen his enemy and left life and death behind.'

Under the influence of her son's death, Barbara braved the malevolent stares of the saints and rebuked Grindelwald in the worst possible terms for his actions fifty years ago.

"This demon in front of you was insane enough to want to destroy an entire city and kill millions of people! Countless wizards have died at his hands. Don't be fooled by him. He's just trying to trick us into helping him rule the world!"

The wizards in the Great Hall were shaken and turned to look at Grindelwald, who, to everyone's surprise, did not kill her with a Life-Extinguishing Curse. He did not rush into an argument, but waited for her to finish before speaking.

"I think you're mistaken, ma'am. I wasn't the one who started the war. I never was!"

Barbara's first instinct was to question him, but Grindelwald raised his voice and continued. "You've all read yesterday's European Times. Three days ago, a wizard killed dozens of Muggles on the streets of Paris with a Blasting Charm."

"It was a tragedy, no doubt, but I feel no pain at all for the deaths of those Muggles. On the contrary, I feel that there were not enough of them, not fast enough!"

Grindelwald's cold-blooded words caused some wizards, many of whom loathed Muggles, to frown, but not to applaud such a tragedy.

Grindelwald must have read their minds because he sneered and said, "I'm guessing you've never seen the wizard before, and you didn't know there was a secret laboratory under that street!"

"The poor wizard was tricked by a group of Muggles into stealing his wand and being held there, deep underground, while cruel researchers drew his blood with needles, slit his brain with the edge of a knife, and experimented on his body in every way we can imagine, in order to steal the magical power that was uniquely his…"

As Grindelwald spoke, threads of memory flew out of his Elder Wand, filling the room with images that infuriated the wizards present, many of whom nearly threw up when they saw the extreme experiments.

Grindelwald proceeded to explain how he had stumbled upon the lab and rescued the poor wizard.

"Unfortunately, I was too late," Grindelwald said. "The poor wizard was driven insane by his experiments, and all I could do was return the wand to him so that he could exact his revenge."

"Good kill, kill all those disgusting Muggles!" one of the Saints shouted fiercely.

"Where are the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic? Why didn't those Aurors come to this poor man's rescue before?" said another witch, her hand covering her mouth in grief.

"We have Muggle Protection Law, so why not Wizard Protection Law?"

Shouts of anger rose and fell, and even Barbara, who had been berating Grindelwald, was silenced.

Ivan turned to Conal and sighed. "Is it true about the wizard?"

"According to the Aurors we sent to investigate, there are a lot of suspicious points…" Conal quickly explained.

"But there are Muggle institutions that imprison wizards for experiments, aren't there?" Yvonne didn't think Grindelwald had made the whole thing up. Grindelwald might be hiding something, but he wasn't stupid enough to try to fool the public with something that was completely false.

And he knew that Muggle authorities would never do such a thing.

"In fact, the International Confederation of Wizards has always tried to avoid such incidents, although some of the places you know of are outside our jurisdiction," Conal replied sheepishly.

Ivan glanced at him, but said nothing more, his gaze returning to the stage.

"The war was fought long ago, my friends. Muggles who feared and envied the power of wizards and sought to use cruel human experiments to steal magical miracles that were only yours and mine." Grindelwald's gaze swept across the room. "They imprisoned our brethren, bound them to test tables, and tortured them to death … as they did the wizards who were burned at the stake in the fifteenth century!"

"This time, there is no going back. We have relinquished control of the world, and if the Muggles succeed, every one of our people will suffer the same fate as that poor man."

"I now implore you to convey my message to your friends and family, to rally together those wizards who are clear-minded and not deceived by the Ministry, and to join them as one of us."

"Of course, I would also like all of you to bear in mind that Muggles are our true enemies, and that wizards should not repeat their mistakes and point their wands at our fellow citizens, let alone wage civil war!" Grindelwald proclaimed.

As Grindelwald spoke, the magical barrier over the Great Hall slowly descended, and the witches and wizards trapped in the Great Hall began to perform Disapparations with their wands, not to escape, but to spread Grindelwald's message…