"My love, Albus Dumbledore…"
Seeing the nauseatingly mushy opening of the letter, Kyle's hand trembled from the face-full of dog food that hit him.
Fortunately, the rest of the letter was perfectly normal—mostly Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore exchanging ideas about overturning the Statute of Secrecy.
Kyle's expression turned strange as he double-checked the letter's heading. It was indeed addressed to Dumbledore.
Who would've thought that his mother—widely hailed as "the greatest white wizard of the modern magical world"—had once, in her youth, fantasized about overthrowing the Statute of Secrecy and establishing wizard rule over Muggles?
For those who kept preaching that Dumbledore was the ultimate champion of Muggle-born rights, this would be one hell of a blow!
Of course, if young Dumbledore hadn't held such beliefs, he probably wouldn't have gotten together with a dark wizard like Grindelwald in the first place.
At the end of the letter, beside Grindelwald's signature, Kyle spotted a familiar mark—a triangle, a circle, and a vertical line intersecting.
That day at the Three Broomsticks, Grindelwald had been holding a pendant with the exact same design.
What did the mark mean?
Kyle was genuinely curious. He started rummaging through the bookshelf again, pulling out every volume signed by Albus Dumbledore.
He found five more letters exchanged between his parents.
But none of them contained the information he was looking for.
Just then, footsteps sounded outside the study. Kyle glanced at the chaotic mess around him and frantically began tidying the scattered books.
He hadn't even managed to return the stack of letters in his hand to the shelf when the study door opened.
Seeing Kyle in his study, clutching letters addressed to Dumbledore, Grindelwald didn't seem particularly surprised.
The letters had been left in such an obvious spot on purpose—he'd wanted Kyle to find them.
He simply wanted Kyle to understand the real Dumbledore, so that when school started and Kyle returned to Hogwarts, he wouldn't be completely hoodwinked by that two-faced, scheming old bee.
"Kyle." Grindelwald's voice was calm.
Hearing no anger in Grindelwald's tone over his unauthorized snooping, Kyle casually slid the letters back onto the shelf. "Dad, I've got a question."
He pointed at the pendant hanging from Grindelwald's chest. "Does that mark have any special meaning?"
Grindelwald glanced down at his chest. "This? It represents the Deathly Hallows."
"The Deathly Hallows?" Kyle didn't follow.
Grindelwald pulled over a chair and sat down. "Hasn't Albus ever told you a bedtime story?"
Kyle's face darkened. What did bedtime stories have to do with anything?
Grindelwald snorted. "What an unqualified father."
He beckoned to Kyle.
"Come sit. Let me experience what it's like to tell my son a bedtime story."
Kyle's face grew even darker. "Unless you conjure a bed, wait for me to fall asleep, then tell me the story, it won't feel right."
Grindelwald glanced at the other chair nearby, drew his wand, and flicked it casually.
Kyle instantly regretted opening his big mouth.
Grindelwald looked at Kyle, then jerked his chin toward the oversized crib beside them—his meaning crystal clear.
"Talk too much and you dig your own grave!" Kyle declared righteously.
Ten seconds later, Grindelwald's magic hoisted Kyle up and forcibly tucked him into the crib's blankets.
"Once upon a time, three brothers were traveling along a lonely, winding road as twilight fell…"
Kyle lay in the oversized crib, utterly dead inside, head buried under the blanket, listening to the scheming old Dark Lord tell The Tale of the Three Brothers in the gentle, coaxing tone one uses with a child.
"They walked and walked until they came to a river. The water was too deep to wade across, and swimming was far too dangerous."
"Yet the three brothers were well-versed in magic. With a wave of their wands, a bridge appeared over the treacherous waters. Halfway across, a hooded figure blocked their path."
"Death spoke to them…"
"Death was furious—he had lost three new victims, for travelers usually drowned in that river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the brothers on their magic, saying that for outsmarting Death, each deserved a prize."
"The eldest was a combative man. He wanted the most powerful wand in the world: a wand that would always let its owner win duels, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death! Death walked to an elder tree on the bank, fashioned a wand from a hanging branch, and gave it to the eldest."
"The second was an arrogant man. He decided to further humiliate Death and asked for the power to recall the dead. Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, telling him it had the power to resurrect the dead."
"Then Death asked the youngest brother what he wanted. The youngest was the humblest and wisest, and he did not trust Death. So he asked for something that would let him leave without Death following. Most reluctantly, Death handed over his own Invisibility Cloak…"
Kyle poked his head out from under the blanket. "So the Deathly Hallows are the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak?"
He'd heard some gossip about Snape from Dumbledore before. If Snape had the Resurrection Stone…
"Of course." Grindelwald's words cut off Kyle's wandering thoughts.
He summoned a piece of parchment and a quill, drew a vertical line on the parchment. "This is the Elder Wand."
Then he added a circle. "The Resurrection Stone."
Finally, he drew a triangle around the line and circle. "The Invisibility Cloak."
The line, circle, and triangle together formed the symbol on the pendant hanging from Grindelwald's chest.
Grindelwald rubbed the Deathly Hallows pendant. "When we were young, Albus and I planned to seek the Deathly Hallows and become the Masters of Death. That's why I made it my emblem…"
From his father's tone, this thing was practically a special token witnessing their love.
Kyle scratched his cheek. How had he accidentally gotten force-fed another mouthful of dog food?
"We planned to use that power to lead a revolution in the wizarding world, overthrow the International Statute of Secrecy, and establish a new global order led by wise and powerful witches and wizards…"
Kyle crawled out from under the blanket. "Build a world ruled by wizards?"
He genuinely thought it was a pretty good idea—though if it meant becoming a founding emperor himself, he'd pass.
If Grindelwald and Dumbledore joined forces, conquered the world, and let him be a lazy crown prince who lived off the fat of the land, that he could get behind.
The former Dark Lord's voice carried a faint trace of melancholy. "But in the end, Albus and I fell out. I was the only one left pushing the plan… You know how it turned out."
At that, Grindelwald reached out and ruffled Kyle's hair with clear distaste, messing up his meticulously styled locks. "None of this concerns you. Go to sleep."
With that, Grindelwald stood and left the study.
Still lost in his crown prince fantasy, Kyle obediently lay back down—but suddenly realized something was off.
Wait! Why was he sleeping in a crib?!
Standing at the study door, the corner of Grindelwald's mouth curved into a smile.
————
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