Chapter 155: For the Greater Good
"*Sigh* The incident at Gringotts was indeed my doing," Cyrus nodded.
"But I initially followed the proper procedure to retrieve some items. Those greedy goblins tried to double-cross me. You've reminded me—I can't let them get away with that."
Cyrus planned to write a letter to Lucius Malfoy.
The greedy goblins would pay for their actions, and mere bloodshed wouldn't suffice. Cyrus intended to seize their most cherished treasure—their wealth.
Harry had no comment on this.
"So, what brings you here this time?"
"I'm here to find something at the school, but I need to cover my tracks first to avoid detection," Cyrus explained.
He was referring to the Marauder's Map.
Although the Athenaeum was in Hogwarts, Cyrus didn't expect to find its exact location immediately.
This could take some time, and Cyrus needed to ensure he could stay at Hogwarts without being discovered.
"Do you need someone to possess?" Harry quickly asked, looking almost eager.
Cyrus was taken aback.
"No, I don't need to possess anyone right now, Harry."
Seeing Harry's slight disappointment, he added, "Just don't tell anyone about my presence, okay? It's our secret."
"Of course!"
Cyrus picked up his wand and, in front of Harry, transformed into another person—Neville Longbottom.
Neville Longbottom was a chubby-faced boy with a terrible memory who frequently misplaced things.
Cyrus had interacted with him during his possession of Ginny last year and found him to be a familiar and easy target for transformation.
The most important aspect was that, given Neville's poor memory, it was entirely plausible for him to be seen wandering around the castle on a day when everyone else was heading to Hogsmeade.
No one would suspect anything, assuming he had merely forgotten something and had to stay behind.
After perfectly transforming into Neville, Cyrus prepared to leave. He noticed Harry eagerly watching him.
"Want to come along?" Cyrus asked tentatively.
"Really?!" Harry, as if he had been waiting for this invitation, nodded without hesitation. "Of course!"
Rather than staying alone in the dormitory, Harry preferred to accompany Cyrus, whether it was an adventure or simply wandering around.
"Where are we going now?"
"First, to Fred and George's dormitory. I need to find a map and erase my name from it. By the way, have you ever heard of the Athenaeum?" Cyrus asked as they walked.
"Sounds like a library?"
They quickly reached Fred's room, and it didn't take Cyrus long to find the Marauder's Map.
Harry was astonished by the utility of the map, never dreaming that such a treasure existed at Hogwarts.
"This was made by your father, Sirius, and two others," Cyrus explained as he cast a Confundus Charm on the map and then used anti-tracking and vanishing spells to remove his own name from it.
"Can you remove my name too?" Harry asked eagerly.
"If I did that, they'd know someone tampered with the map," Cyrus refused.
After finishing this task, Cyrus and Harry left the common room together. The castle was sparsely populated, with only a few lower-year students occasionally passing through the corridors.
Despite this, Harry felt anxious, worried that someone might notice something off about Cyrus.
They made their way to the Owlery, where Cyrus asked to use Hedwig.
"Of course!" Harry agreed.
Cyrus approached the snowy owl and tied a letter to her leg.
"Who are you writing to?" Harry asked.
"Lucius Malfoy," Cyrus answered honestly.
"Malfoy... you're in league with him?" This answer made Harry feel extremely uneasy, as he never considered the Malfoy family to be trustworthy.
"To strike at the economic heart of the goblins, I need the Malfoy family's help; they have significant influence among pure-bloods," Cyrus explained.
To effectively challenge Gringotts, it had to be done swiftly, capitalizing on the current loss of the bank's prestige.
If too much time passed and the uproar over the attacks subsided, the effort wouldn't be as effective.
It would certainly be easier if Cyrus used Voldemort's identity, but now was not the time to make a show of that.
"If Malfoy cooperates, he will soon declare that Gringotts is untrustworthy and that the goblins cannot protect their wealth. He will then withdraw all his gold from Gringotts. When that happens, I hope you can support this move by doing the same," Cyrus told Harry. "It would be even better if you could persuade Black to do the same."
Afterward, Cyrus and Harry wandered around Hogwarts several times, but they couldn't find the so-called Hall of Knowledge.
"Do you think the Athenaeum might be in the headmaster's office?" Harry asked.
Cyrus thought it was a perceptive question.
However, going to the headmaster's office obviously couldn't be done with Harry tagging along.
"Tonight is the Halloween feast, so Professor Dumbledore will be in the Great Hall for a longer time than usual," Harry suggested. "I can keep watch, and if the professor leaves the Great Hall, I'll notify you."
"Good idea." Cyrus immediately conjured two fake Galleons and tossed one to Harry. "If anything happens, use this to notify me. Just cast a spell on it, and mine will heat up. Then I'll know to leave immediately."
Harry nodded and pocketed the fake Galleon.
Next, the two strolled near the Black Lake. As the evening approached, the students who had visited Hogsmeade started to return.
Cyrus, realizing it would be unwise to continue his activities disguised as Neville, separated from Harry and transformed into an eagle, circling above the castle.
When night fell, Cyrus descended under the starlit sky.
He arrived at the entrance of the headmaster's office.
The door was locked, and two gargoyles glared at him.
"Lemon sherbet," he tried one password.
But the statues remained unresponsive. He continued trying various sweets as passwords, but none worked. Cyrus wasn't surprised. Reality was not like fanfiction, where the protagonist conveniently guesses the correct password on the first try.
Otherwise, the security of the headmaster's office would be a joke.
'The password to the headmaster's office has always been a sweet, but that's when Dumbledore is in the office and expecting to meet someone,' he thought. 'But if he's away and doesn't want anyone to enter, what kind of password would he leave?'
"What password would be both unexpected and significant to Dumbledore?" Cyrus muttered to himself.
Suddenly, an image of a person flashed in his mind.
—Grindelwald!
He was Dumbledore's love and regret; someone he desired but could never forgive. Cyrus didn't think Dumbledore would blatantly use Grindelwald's name as a password.
Dumbledore's feelings towards Grindelwald were undoubtedly complex, encompassing a difficult-to-confess love during those couple of months and a deep-seated hatred.
The death of Dumbledore's sister, Ariana, at the hands of an unknown spell, was a matter too painful to dwell on any longer.
Dumbledore, Aberforth, and Grindelwald likely all bore some responsibility.
More heartbreaking was Grindelwald's decision at that time.
He left two grieving boys and a cold corpse behind, fleeing Godric's Hollow on his own.
After that, there was the matter of Kreston...
Grindelwald owed Dumbledore too much.
Cyrus had heard that since Grindelwald entered Nurmengard, he frequently wrote letters to Dumbledore, but despite tearing his bedsheets to shreds, he never received a reply.
The password couldn't possibly be Grindelwald's name; it had to be something else.
Cyrus looked at the two gargoyle statues and tentatively spoke:
"For the greater good."
The door opened.
Cyrus suddenly realized that this wasn't merely a password to open a door but an incantation imprisoning two tormented souls.
In faraway Northern Europe, the gates of Nurmengard prison bore the same inscription in German. Grindelwald willingly confined himself there, while Dumbledore, similarly, created his own prison within Hogwarts.
"For the greater good."
This phrase was indisputably correct, but it depended on whose "good" it referred to.
Grindelwald's perspective naturally represented the interests of wizards.
His stance was similar to Voldemort's in viewing Muggles as adversaries, but his ideology was entirely different.
Grindelwald neither hated nor underestimated Muggles; quite the opposite, he valued their strength immensely.
He regarded Muggles as distinct from wizards but equally useful people.
Yes, "people"! (A/N: People or Humans)
The magical world had repeatedly revised the concept of "people." Nowadays, creatures like goblins, centaurs, and giants were all classified under the category of "people." However, in the past, they were considered magical creatures.
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