As the Christmas holidays passed, the students of Hogwarts returned to the castle.
At the banquet on the evening of their return, the students were surprised to find an unfamiliar figure sitting at the staff table.
That was right—after the holidays ended, Grindelwald did not return to Nurmengard Castle, but instead freeloaded at Hogwarts and refused to leave.
According to Grindelwald, Dumbledore's protection of Kyle was far too much of a failure, and he couldn't feel at ease about his son, so he simply stayed behind.
It was a very fair and reasonable excuse, one that Dumbledore had no way to refuse.
Thus, the Hospital Wing run by Madam Pomfrey gained an additional healer named Gellert Dumbledore.
As for whether anyone would recall past events through the name Gellert, Grindelwald wasn't worried about that at all; the one who should be worried about that was Dumbledore.
Besides, students generally didn't ask for a healer's name anyway.
Just like Madam Pomfrey, whose full name was Poppy Pomfrey.
Yet, if someone mentioned the name Poppy in front of the students, they would only look utterly bewildered: Is there a person like that in our school?
However, when speaking of Madam Pomfrey, the students weren't unfamiliar in the slightest.
Even Harry Potter—whose combined hospital visits within two years exceeded the seven-year total of three ordinary students—only knew the surname Pomfrey, let alone anyone else.
Gellert D. Grindelwald rightfully occupied the seat to Dumbledore's right.
On ordinary days, this seat belonged to Minerva McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Regarding this, Professor McGonagall had no objections, nor did she dare to have any.
Even though current Grindelwald seemed no different from a kindly old grandpa next door, the Heads of House were all too clear on the sinful, heavily burdened past of this Asura of the wizarding world.
The addition of yet another Dumbledore family member was like ripples spreading across water, creating a few minor stirs in Hogwarts before quickly settling back into tranquility.
After all, the students had never heard of Gellert Dumbledore's name; their curiosity about him was purely due to Albus Dumbledore, the great White Wizard.
Just as the Hogwarts students, after a long day of travel, were delightfully enjoying the delicacies prepared by the house-elves—whose culinary skills were improving by the day—
Far away in London at the Ministry of Magic headquarters, our "beloved" Minister, Cornelius Fudge, had no appetite for dinner whatsoever.
At this very moment, he was staring in extreme terror at the draft layout of The Daily Prophet in his hands.
This layout was originally supposed to be sent to the relevant department for printing after approval, and then dispatched via owls across the British wizarding world tomorrow morning.
Normally, reviewing newspaper content was something that didn't require Minister Cornelius to step in at all.
Which made it thoroughly strange that this layout had ended up in Fudge's hands right now.
Clutching the newspaper, Fudge's hands trembled slightly, because the front-page headline was written in enlarged, bold print:
"The Mystery of Kyle Dumbledore's Lineage: A Rising Star of the Wizarding World, or the Future Dark Lord?"
The article was very long, occupying almost an entire page of the newspaper, something that had never happened before.
This also went to show how massive the news reported this time was, which was why it took up such a large amount of space.
During the several months she had vanished from sight, Rita Skeeter had practically traveled through every country in Europe that had once fallen under Grindelwald's sphere of influence.
After inquiring through various channels, Rita finally confirmed that Grindelwald was still self-imprisoned in the tower of Nurmengard and that the Acolytes had all vanished without a trace. Only then did she dare send the manuscript she had written long ago to The Daily Prophet.
Of course, what Rita didn't know was that the news she had gathered was actually false information Grindelwald had deliberately engineered.
Summarized simply, the report contained a single bombshell: exposing Kyle's true heritage as the son of Grindelwald.
Considering that a certain old bumblebee was still active in the wizarding world, Rita selectively ignored the fact that Kyle was actually the love child of both Dark and Light Lords.
Er, calling him a love child wasn't entirely accurate either.
After all, Kyle's biological mother was Vinda Rosier, making Dumbledore look more like an intruding third wheel.
All in all, Rita Skeeter only revealed one of Kyle's identities—the one as the son of the Dark Lord.
As for why Kyle bore Dumbledore's surname, that was also easily explained.
Whether in the wizarding world or the Muggle world, there was a saying: misfortunes do not extend to one's family.
Of course, whether one abided by this depended entirely on individual moral standards. For instance, a certain noseless freak never cared about such things, wiping out entire families whenever he said he would, only to end up crashing and burning at the Potter house.
However, Dumbledore's moral standard was clearly far more noble than the noseless freak's; taking the initiative to shelter his old lover's son was well within the realm of reason.
As for why Kyle was over a hundred years younger than Grindelwald, that question was deeply worth pondering.
Normally, according to Rita's usual practice, she would fabricate wild claims on such an issue where much could be made of it.
Yet, this time, she made a rare exception and refrained.
Even though her searches everywhere turned up no trace of the Acolytes whatsoever, Rita still lacked the guts to pull a stunt like that.
Who knew whether what she had uncovered was truly the truth?
Publishing this manuscript was already risking an immense threat to her life.
Didn't you see that she didn't even dare use any of the pen names she frequently used before, but instead made up a completely new one?
Furthermore, she specifically chose a time when she was still in Austria to write a letter to her house-elf back home, instructing it to send the manuscript from her study drawer to The Daily Prophet.
Otherwise, if the true story of Kyle's lineage was exposed the moment she returned to Britain, anyone could guess that she was the author.
As for proof?
Proof wasn't needed at all.
If there were truly remaining Acolytes in the wizarding world, when they saw this manuscript and wanted to kill her, the author, would they bother discussing proof with her?
Better to kill by mistake than to let one slip.
The wizards who had followed Grindelwald were no easy targets.
In matters like this, they would never be soft-hearted.
Under these multiple precautions, Rita still felt her life wasn't entirely safe, let alone actively looking for trouble.
Reading through the manuscript in The Daily Prophet three or four times over, Cornelius Fudge finally took off the glasses perched on the bridge of his nose with trembling hands.
A gesture that was normally executed with ease felt incomparably arduous at this moment.
Failing to control his hands, the glasses were placed heavily onto the desktop, emitting a somewhat piercing clatter.
Fudge looked toward the young female secretary waiting in front of the desk.
"Call Barty Crouch over. We have a massive problem."
His voice carried a thick, heavy dread.
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