Austria, the weather here in November was still quite mild. In the mountains and huge valleys, vast broadleaf forests grew on large rolling hills. And on the top of a steep cliff, a cold, dark, and remote tower stood at the highest point, its gray, monotonous brick walls exuding a heavy sense of loneliness.
This was Nurmengard, a prison as infamous as Azkaban.
Decades ago, when the powerful dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald was in power, he built it to imprison his opponents, but now no one was sure if it was still in use.
It was at this moment that a golden burst of phoenix flame suddenly appeared in front of the tower. Dumbledore slowly stepped out of the flame, his expression complicated as he looked up at the highest point of the tower, lost in thought.
Pushing open the rusty iron gate that creaked and groaned, one could see the words "For the Greater Good" (Für mehr Nutzen) faintly written in German on the sign at the entrance.
The cell at the very top of Nurmengard tower was extremely dim, its only window a very narrow slit in the black stone wall. Only a thin ray of sunlight could shine in, bringing a little light and warmth to the room.
Below the narrow slit window, Grindelwald was lying on a thick, cold slate bed, with only a thin, tattered blanket covering him, his eyes closed and doing nothing. Since his defeat by Dumbledore, he had spent almost every day in the prison in this manner for decades, except on some special holidays.
It was at this moment that a familiar sound of footsteps came from outside the cell. Grindelwald opened his eyes, his still-sharp gaze fixed on the source of the sound that appeared from the stairway.
"Gellert…"
"Haha, this is a rare sight!" Grindelwald slowly got up from the slate bed. "It was only before Halloween that you came to visit me!"
"Looking at you, you must have encountered some tricky problem, and one that requires my help!"
"Let me guess, is it related to that Ravenclaw heir?"
"Gellert, I need your help," Dumbledore said. He then ignored the prison's enchantments, and his entire body passed directly through the cell door, appearing in front of Grindelwald.
"Sybill Trelawney made an incomplete prophecy today, and I need you to help me piece it together."
"Trelawney… Cassandra's descendant, right?" Grindelwald responded to Dumbledore's request with unusual indifference. "If it's her, how much stronger do you think my ability could be than hers?"
"You are the only person in the world who possesses the gift of prophecy and can actively open their Inner Eye," Dumbledore said. "So at the very least, you can see some things about the future more clearly than a Sybill who is not in her right mind."
"..."
After Dumbledore finished speaking, he waited silently for Grindelwald's answer. He knew that this man, with whom he had a complicated relationship, would not refuse his rare request. Sure enough, after a while, he heard Grindelwald ask, "Did you bring any wine?"
Dumbledore heard this and took out a bottle of wine. But when Grindelwald saw the color of the wine in the bottle, his face immediately showed disgust and he said, "Why is it Butterbeer again?! I want German dark rye wine!"
"I told you, that winery you liked has long been out of business."
Dumbledore said, then waved his hand, and a table and two chairs appeared between the two of them. He put the Butterbeer on the table and pushed the entire bottle to the other side.
"I also told you that I only want dark rye wine!" Grindelwald sat down in a chair and took a sip of Butterbeer, his expression of disgust deepening. "How can you drink this greasy, oily wine?!"
"Honey can cut the grease, but you only like bitter wine," Dumbledore said. "But the last time I brought you a bottle of absinthe, you said it was too bitter!"
"That was years ago!" Grindelwald took another swig of wine, then put the bottle down and looked up into Dumbledore's eyes. "Fine! Tell me, what happened?"
Dumbledore then proceeded to tell Grindelwald everything about the prophecy Sybill had made today.
"Hahahaha…" After hearing the story, Grindelwald immediately let out a few contemptuous laughs. "Albus, ever since you told me about Victor Dreyar last Christmas, I've foreseen a day like this would come. Although he is very young now, his power is great and his mind is active, and his reckless behavior means that in the future, whatever stands in his way will be crushed into dust by his powerful magic.
"And you told me before that he wants to overthrow pure-blood supremacy and that this is a revolution. I think you know what that means! Victor Dreyar knows exactly what he is doing. For the sake of this so-called revolution's success, all the lives and money before it might just be the price to be paid. This kind of person is even more dangerous than you and I were back then, because he is too young, and time is his greatest weapon. When we are both dead, there will probably be no one in the world who can stop him!"
"I am aware of all of this, which is why I've come to you for help!" Dumbledore said with a worried expression. "I must know the specific content of Trelawney's prophecy, otherwise I can't rest easy!"
"You could always just not bother with any of this. After all, these old bones of ours only have ten more years left at most. Of course, if you have Nicolas Flamel's Elixir of Life, then just disregard what I said!" With that, Grindelwald took a few more gulps of Butterbeer.
"If I could truly wash my hands of this, the world might be a different place today." Dumbledore's words hinted at his final duel with Grindelwald back in the day. If he had not risked severe punishment to break the blood pact, the world today might truly have been ruled by wizards.
"Your ridiculous pity has never matched your strength," Grindelwald said mockingly, finishing the Butterbeer in his hand, then reaching out to Dumbledore. "Give me the Elder Wand."
"As far as I know, you don't need a wand for prophecy," Dumbledore said, his face instantly filled with caution upon hearing the other man demand the Elder Wand.
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