After Albus Dumbledore and the guards left, only Gellert Grindelwald and Adelaide Grindelwald remained in the dungeon.
Adelaide called out timidly in a soft voice, "Great-Granduncle..."
Hearing her call, Gellert's raspy voice slowly sounded, "Come a little closer, so I can take a good look at you."
Adelaide cautiously took a few steps forward and stood before the iron bars.
Gellert gazed at her, involuntarily murmuring, "You look so much like them..."
Adelaide plucked up her courage and asked, "Great-Granduncle, I feel like your physical condition isn't actually as bad as it looks. Am I right?"
Hearing this, Gellert raised his eyebrows slightly and asked back, "Oh? Why do you think that?"
"Intuition, plus a special ability—I've awakened the talent of a Seer. Just a few days ago, I saw a vision of you standing alone on the spire of a Castle. Today, I confirmed that the Castle was indeed Nurmengard Castle."
Adelaide wanted to test if the man before her was faking his illness; after all, according to the normal timeline, Gellert shouldn't be dying anytime soon.
Hearing this, Gellert actually burst out laughing, and his laughter sounded remarkably frank.
He wasn't in a hurry to defend himself; instead, he confessed straightforwardly, "That's right, I am indeed faking my illness. As for the reason, it's naturally to gain Dumbledore's sympathy... Perhaps you don't know, but we were once intimate lovers, a relationship even closer than that of biological brothers."
No, I know everything. I've even written a lot of Fanfiction about you two.
Adelaide complained inwardly.
Gellert waited a moment for Adelaide to digest this, then asked with interest, "Well then, now that I've told you the whole truth, what do you plan to do next?"
Faced with such a question, Adelaide couldn't help but feel a bit helpless.
As a staunch GGAD fan, she didn't seem to have any better choice other than helping Gellert.
"Great-Granduncle, I'm definitely going to help you," Adelaide replied resolutely.
This pleased Gellert greatly. Even though Adelaide had been raised by Albus for several years, at heart, the child was still closer to him!
"Then, little one, how do you plan to lend me a hand?" Gellert asked curiously, his eyes sparkling with anticipation.
Adelaide's lips curled up slightly into a sly smile. "Great-Granduncle, if you want to stage a tragic drama, then I will naturally do my best to help you perform it to the fullest!"
When Dumbledore entered the dungeon again, the scene before him left him dumbfounded—Adelaide was clutching Gellert tightly through the iron bars, tears streaming down like a burst dam, her mournful cries seemingly piercing the soul.
"No, no! Great-Granduncle, please don't leave me! I'll ask Mr. Dumbledore to help cure you!"
Gellert sighed weakly, "Child, it's enough that you have this heart, but Albus is busy every day. With so many affairs to attend to, how could he have time for me? Just let me go peacefully."
Dumbledore's deep, sea-blue eyes stared intently at Gellert. He had completely calmed down and begun to suspect that Gellert was actually playing a Self-injury ruse.
He was no fool. The candles on the stone walls were clearly new replacements. While that might be somewhat excusable, the fact that even the candlesticks were as brand new as if they had just come out of the forge was quite unusual.
What was even more suspicious was that, according to the guards, Gellert's cell door had never been opened in the past forty-three years.
Yet in such a long time, not even a single toilet or chamber pot had been set up in the dungeon. Could Gellert have endured forty-three years without attending to his physiological needs?
The only thing he could think of was that the cleanliness-obsessed Gellert, even when acting, was unwilling to share a room with a chamber pot.
Furthermore, the Prison doctor claimed that Gellert's life was rapidly fading due to an unprovoked exhaustion of magic.
But upon careful observation, Dumbledore was surprised to find that although the magic within Gellert's body was indeed in a state of rapid depletion, his heart was still beating strongly and powerfully, not at all like the heart of someone dying of weakness.
All signs indicated that Gellert, who had once made the entire Wizarding World tremble, was highly likely faking his illness, and there must be some unknown, grand conspiracy hidden in the shadows.
While pacing outside the dungeon, Dumbledore had already reached a conclusion. For the peace of the European Wizarding World, he had to expose Gellert's disguise and bring the truth to light!
But when he re-entered the dungeon and saw Adelaide's face by the bars—distorted by extreme grief, with tears flowing like a flood—his heart, usually known for its calm and steadiness, involuntarily began to soften and waver.
After a moment of silence, Dumbledore finally broke the heavy atmosphere, saying slowly in a low and firm voice, "I will submit an application to the International Confederation of Wizards to grant Gellert Grindelwald Medical parole."
These words were like a clap of thunder, exploding in the air.
The guard leading the way couldn't help but smile, but fortunately, since Dumbledore was standing in front of him, his smile went unnoticed.
Hearing this, Adelaide snapped her head up, her tear-stained face instantly overcome with pleasant surprise, so excited she was almost incoherent. "Mr. Dumbledore, what you said... is it true? This is simply wonderful! Thank you so much!"
As she spoke, her tears welled up again, but this time they were tears of joy.
"Great-Granduncle, we succeeded!"
Adelaide whispered excitedly into Gellert's ear.
Gellert gave a wry smile and patted her head, replying in an equally low voice, "No, it wasn't I who succeeded; it was you."
He keenly noticed Albus's scrutinizing gaze; clearly, Albus had already become suspicious of him.
However, when Albus saw Adelaide weeping so heartbrokenly and inconsolably, a flicker of pity still rose in his eyes.
He could see that Albus was helping "Adelaide's Great-Granduncle," not his "old lover."
"What do you mean?"
Adelaide looked blank, completely confused by the situation.
Wasn't her success the same as Gellert's?
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