Hogwarts: This Dark Lord is so evil

When Leewood woke up from his sleep, the sunlight outside was already shining on the foot of the bed.

It seemed it was already late, but no one woke him up to go to class or anything.

Just as Leewood was about to sit up in bed, he saw Dumbledore.

At this moment, Dumbledore was sitting between Leewood and Tom's beds, with a deep look of exhaustion on his face.

But his azure blue eyes seemed very bright.

Tom was also awake, and seemed to have woken up earlier than Leewood.

However, in front of Dumbledore, he was as docile as a little chick.

"You're awake. It seems your body is indeed fine," Dumbledore said with a smile.

"Professor... Grindelwald, he..."

"Unfortunately, he still escaped," Dumbledore said helplessly.

"I see..."

Leewood looked at Annie's empty bed, then looked at Tom.

Tom shook his head at him, indicating that he didn't know either.

"Don't worry, Miss Rosier is just going for a physical examination. This is just a routine check-up, it's not that something is wrong with her body," Dumbledore said, as if he saw Leewood's doubts. "Later, you and Tom will also have to go for a re-examination."

Leewood breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't too concerned about whether there was a problem with Annie's body.

He thought Annie had exposed her identity and had been caught.

It wouldn't be good if she was caught, he still had great use for this spy.

Since Grindelwald hadn't been caught, it would be a bit of a pity if he could only milk such a large experience pack once.

"Leewood, last night... thanks to you all. If you hadn't discovered his conspiracy and sent me a letter in time, I don't dare to imagine what the consequences would have been..." Dumbledore said with some lingering fear.

When he returned, although the entire Hogwarts internal defense mechanism had been fully activated, all the professors, including the headmaster, were unconscious...

If he was still busy with the Magical Congress of the United States, and Grindelwald successfully obtained what he wanted, who knows what kind of damage Hogwarts would have suffered?

At that time, Hogwarts, to Grindelwald, would have been no different from being defenseless.

"Don't say that, Professor, it was just luck..." Leewood said calmly.

"In my opinion, that's not the case. I've already heard some of the details from Miss Rosier," Dumbledore said with emotion, "Before I returned, you not only knocked down Grindelwald's henchmen with sleeping draughts, but also held him off alone for a long time until my return... This can't be done with a simple word like luck."

"It really was just luck... Professor, even Tom almost died," Leewood said helplessly.

Tom's face couldn't help but turn pale again when he heard this.

Leewood's words were not wrong. If he hadn't prepared in advance according to what Leewood said... and put a few "sleeping draught dung bombs" in his pocket... although it was later confirmed that they were poisonous gas bombs, they still saved his life...

It was really a close call!

Grindelwald, who had been angered at that time, seemed very irritable, and the wand pointing at his jaw had even started to heat up at the tip!

This was enough to prove that Grindelwald's Killing Curse was already on the string... even if his movements were a second slower, he would have died!

Such an experience, for Tom, who cherished his life very much, was frightening just thinking about it...

"This is my fault, Tom," Dumbledore looked at Tom with a face full of apology, with a kind of joy of regaining something lost.

Tom felt uncomfortable being looked at, and couldn't help but pull the quilt up.

"From now on, I won't leave Hogwarts so easily again. Even if I have to leave, I will make sufficient preparations," Dumbledore said seriously.

In fact, he made preparations every time he went out, but he didn't expect that Grindelwald would really be so insane and sneak into Hogwarts through the secret passage to do something wrong!

"In any case, you have all made great contributions! Although Headmaster Dippet said that rewards and punishments should be clear, and your violation of school rules cannot be easily let go, but... we later found out when reviewing the whole thing that if you hadn't violated the school rules this time, the consequences would have been unimaginable, so, at the suggestion of Professor Slughorn, the professors collectively voted to cancel your punishment. And decided to award each of you a special contribution award at the end of the semester. Your trophies will remain at Hogwarts forever."

After Dumbledore finished speaking, Leewood just smiled happily, while Tom's face was full of joy.

Tom had always been a person who liked honor, and this was the fundamental reason why he cared so much at the beginning whether his ancestors were Slytherin.

And this special contribution award can be said to be the first personal honor he received!

Although, he didn't actually contribute much... but, you can say he had a part in it!

In addition to his joy, Tom suddenly thought of something, "Professor, that kind of power... the kind of power that Grindelwald wanted to plot, how do the professors plan to deal with it?"

In fact, he wasn't really concerned about the whereabouts of these magical powers, he just wanted to use this question to test whether those magical powers really had some kind of side effect, as Leewood had said before!

In his opinion, if there were no side effects, then the professors would definitely use it, and if there were side effects, they would not use it, or directly destroy it.

"That ah..." A trace of helplessness flashed in Dumbledore's eyes, "I remember, your night tour was also to pursue this power, right?"

Tom lowered his head when he heard this, not knowing how to answer this question.

"Yes, we spent a lot of effort to obtain this power, but we didn't expect to encounter an accident when we finally found this power..."

While Tom was silent, Leewood frankly admitted his desire.

In fact, since he met Dumbledore, he had never concealed his pursuit of power.

When he awakened ancient magic, he once asked Dumbledore what to do if he couldn't control his desire to pursue power.

Dumbledore said at the time that since Leewood could ask this question, it meant that he could already control his desires.

He also said that it was normal to have a desire to pursue power, the important thing was not to abuse it.

Therefore, as long as Leewood frankly admitted his thoughts as he did at the beginning, Dumbledore would be able to understand.

Sure enough, Dumbledore just nodded and didn't say much about this issue.

This made Tom next to him very speechless.

He was very sure that if he directly admitted his desire for power, Dumbledore's reaction would definitely be extremely vigilant!

Of course, what Tom didn't know was that his image in Dumbledore's eyes had actually undergone many fundamental changes...

Especially when Dumbledore heard that Tom had made the same choice as Leewood when facing Grindelwald's recruitment.

Dumbledore said: "Headmaster Dippet has made some analysis of that power. It can indeed increase the magic power of wizards, but... this power contains too many negative emotions. It's okay to absorb a small amount, but if a large amount is absorbed, although the wizard's strength will be greatly improved, but, affected by a huge amount of negative emotions, this person is very likely to become character twisted... become... no longer himself..."

"Like… overusing dark magic?" Tom couldn't help but ask again.

"That's not entirely wrong, but… it's much more serious than that." Dumbledore said, "Even wizards who frequently use dark magic don't experience such significant negative effects."

Upon hearing this, Tom couldn't help but gasp.

He didn't shy away from using dark magic because he believed he could handle the minor side effects that came with it.

But this kind of power… severely warping one's nature? Becoming unlike oneself? No thanks!

At this moment, Tom was very grateful that he had completely followed Leivde's choice!

Those magical powers Grindelwald had sent over, although not in large quantities, must have had some impact on his sanity!

He didn't want his clever brain to be affected and ruined by any factors!

Meanwhile, Leivde thought of the upperclassman.

The upperclassman had also absorbed a large amount of this magical power, that is, the "residue."

Fortunately, she possessed the talent of ancient magic, so when facing this "residue," which was originally extracted using ancient magic, she was more resistant than ordinary people.

Therefore, even after defeating Ranrok and absorbing a large amount of "residue," it didn't distort her personality or physical form.

However, the negative effects still existed…

The immense pleasure brought by the massive enhancement from that "residue" was indeed addictive.

Therefore, both Professor Morgana, who discovered this power, and the upperclassman later, became "addicted."

And after repeatedly pursuing this power, the upperclassman's body reached its limit, and she had to be sealed away with the help of her close friends.

Dumbledore didn't know what the two young wizards in front of him were thinking. He continued, "Because this magical power has huge negative effects, Headmaster Dippet ultimately decided to destroy it. Yes… last night, under the collective witness of the professors, we destroyed that magical power."

"I see… thinking about it that way, we were indeed lucky. If we hadn't encountered an accident and directly absorbed this magical power, the consequences would have been unimaginable," Leivde said with a look of relief.

But Dumbledore smiled and said, "I don't think you would have. If you had really absorbed this power, I believe you would have stopped when you noticed something was wrong."

"Professor, isn't your confidence in me a little too much? I'm just an ordinary person."

Dumbledore said meaningfully, "Don't be modest, Leivde. I know you've encountered even greater temptations, haven't you?"

Leivde blinked, seemingly not quite understanding Dumbledore's words.

At this moment, Annie also returned to her bedside.

Seeing that Dumbledore was still there, a trace of guilty smile appeared on her face.

Dumbledore didn't notice her abnormality.

In fact, Dumbledore had initially suspected Annie, wondering if she had taken Grindelwald's orders to lead Leivde and the others to the secret chamber.

But Dumbledore quickly dismissed this idea because it was precisely because Leivde had informed him that he had returned so quickly.

If she had acted according to Grindelwald's orders, wouldn't Grindelwald be shooting himself in the foot?

Without Leivde's information, he would have succeeded directly! He wouldn't have been beaten into a hasty retreat due to his timely return, and even his most elite subordinates were almost all captured…

Dumbledore didn't have a God's-eye view, so he quickly dismissed this possibility.

"Alright, the first thing I'm here to tell you is to announce the school's commendation for you. I've already told Miss Rosier about this commendation when you were still unconscious. And now that you're both here, I can conveniently tell you about the second thing," Dumbledore said.

"What is it?" Leivde asked.

"Grindelwald has experienced a miserable defeat last night. It is foreseeable that after this news is spread, the situation will become more turbulent…" Dumbledore frowned and said, "Grindelwald may still maintain some sanity and hide to lick his wounds, but many of Grindelwald's supporters may lose their minds and take some overly radical measures to retaliate… And you… if they know that the root of Grindelwald's failure lies with you, you will become the target of public criticism."

"You want to hide what we did from the outside world?" Leivde reacted.

"Yes… although in this way, the world will not know your achievements in this incident for the time being, your safety can be guaranteed. Of course, I still have to be honest with you, if the world knows your achievements, you will instantly gain huge fame and fortune… I believe you already understand the pros and cons of this, so what choice will you make?" Dumbledore asked.

"Then let's hide it, safety first," Leivde said directly.

"My choice is the same as Leivde's!" Tom was even more straightforward. He couldn't wait to extract himself from the whole thing!

If he could do that, he would rather not even have the Special Contribution Award…

He was just here to go to school…

Safety! Still damn safety!

And Annie had no objections.

In fact, she was still very sad about Grindelwald's failure.

"Very good… you are really good," Dumbledore said with relief. "Not many people can remain clear-headed when facing such great honor! Alright, since you've made your choice, let's do it this way… However, we won't hide everything you've done. After all, for that Special Contribution Award, we also need some persuasiveness…"

…

Nurmengard.

Grindelwald slumped in his chair, looking at the snowy scenery outside the window.

At this time, behind him, Vita was reporting on the achievements of the force's transfer during this period, as well as some losses caused by not being able to transfer in time, and of course, some of Dumbledore's movements.

"Sir? Are you alright?" Vita asked with some concern.

Grindelwald had been in this state for some time.

Although he hadn't reached the point of not eating or drinking, he was still depressed all day long.

"I'm fine, Vita… I'm fine…"

Grindelwald's low voice came from the chair, but the high spirits of the past were gone.

Obviously, this failure was a bigger blow to Grindelwald than any previous one!

"…According to what you said, Dumbledore decided to protect his students by hiding their achievements, is that right?"

"Yes… Sir, should we deliberately leak the news they want to hide?"

"No…"

"But… are they really worth you doing this? It's because of them that you…"

"It's not because of them, Vita… it's Dumbledore…" A glimmer of light reappeared in Grindelwald's eyes, but it quickly went out again, "All these years, I've been striving to become stronger, pursuing the Deathly Hallows… But he clearly didn't do anything… Why? Why did he suddenly become so strong? What exactly did he rely on?!"