Chapter 78.3- Doom Days

“One of who, Gellert. Tell me”

“You would have the truth from me, but you lie to me just as assuredly. Tell me now and tell me the truth. Who are you and how do you know who I am?” He asked.

“I am Harry Potter of Great Britain. I know who you are because we were taught about you at school. You grow up to become a Dark Lord of some notoriety. You unite Europe against you, and still you fight on, outmatching them all with your brilliant mind and skill with a wand” With every word, he seemed to preen like a peacock strutting before a peahen.

“And then you reached too far. You came for Britain and a schoolteacher there stood from his seat and challenged you. You fought, and he won.” I said, enjoying the way he deflated like a popped balloon. There was little use taking joy in his disappointment, but it did reveal something. Because the word he had used— projection— was a lie. This. This could only be one thing.

Gellert Grindlewald had made a horcrux.

“A schoolteacher? Surely it could not be so. Even in my fifth year, none of those old fogs at Durmstrang stood a chance.”

“Hogwarts was cut from a different cloth, it seems”

“You are a Hogwarts man then, are you?”

“I am”

“So tell me about the teacher that defeated me”

“Nope. I’ve done you two, now you owe me one. What is this place? And what is going on here?”

“It is a prison, of sorts. Well, more of a lab since I was left here as a projection” I nodded along, not contesting the obvious untruth.

“My original had used this place for a prison, and one of his men, a Chinaman, had used it for experiments on magical creatures. He created all sorts of abominations. And then one day he stopped coming. Perhaps this is when the real me must have been defeated. Anyway, there was no one here for so long that I could not possibly say and then they came. Another set of Chinamen. They have been doing experiments of their own. I remain out of sight of them”

“Why did you show yourself to me and not them then?”

“You look to be the right sort, you know” He said, gesturing to me.

“You mean white?”

“Gods no. I’m not a racist. Morgana forbid you think me such a man. I just mean that you are a wizard. Fully a wizard. The Chinamen. I don’t know what they are, but they are not human. Not completely. Only one of them seems untainted, and even at that it could just be that it is a taint I can not perceive yet. So I stay away as a good wizard ought” So he was a different kind of racist then. How beautiful.

“And they are in this place as well. Why don’t the creatures do anything to them?”

“The creatures are warded away at this level. That is why I do not recommend leaving this room. In the even you do so, you will find yourself beset by them from all sides. If I were more than a projection, then I would be able to see you make passage with my protection, but alas I cannot” He said.