After class, Kasenhis hummed a little tune as he returned to his office.
Back when he was a student, his teachers always said, "Reviewing the old helps you learn the new." And after breaking down and spoon-feeding the mechanics of the Empowerment Sigil to the students, he himself had gained a much deeper understanding of it.
For example, he now realized he could enhance a damaging spell twice within his spellbook to its limit, then draw an Empowerment Sigil in mid-air for a third layer of enhancement.
Let's say a normal person has ten hearts — one heart equals two health points — so twenty health points total.
A basic damage spell deals five points. Three enhancements later, that's twenty damage on the dot. Low-budget Avada Kedavra, basically.
"This thing's way more eco-friendly than tossing around Wither skeletons," Kasenhis muttered, flipping to another page in his magic book.
The Newborn Magical Arts spellbook not only allowed him to edit spells, but also their sound effects and visual colors.
So with that in mind… heh heh heh heh heh…
Meanwhile, after snooping through the Gryffindor tower trying and failing to locate Ron's dorm room, a thoroughly exhausted Sirius returned to Kasenhis's office, casually pulling up in a small boat to the work area.
And there — he saw Kasenhis, holding a spellbook, unleashing an unhinged blast of sickly green magical energy at a training dummy.
Each shot echoed with a thunderous boom.
Sirius's doggy face was full of shock. The spell looked like Avada, sounded like Avada, and every fiber of his instincts screamed — this IS Avada.
Faced with that primal fear of death that lives in every creature under the sun, Sirius's brain stopped buffering, his tongue quit lolling, and he slammed on the magical gas. With a sharp drift of the rudder, he vanished out of sight like a blur.
Took that corner like a drainpipe drift.
"So… who taught you that spell?" a voice suddenly rang out behind Kasenhis, nearly making him toss a budget Avada straight over his shoulder in panic.
It wasn't until he saw it was Dumbledore that he finally relaxed. "Merlin—don't sneak up on people like that! Do you know if I'd actually flung that at you, you'd be gone?"
"In fact, I could've blocked it." Dumbledore said as he walked over to the dummy, inspecting it from every angle before finally letting out a breath. "If we're talking about being scared, you're the scary one. Do you have any idea what it's like for a headmaster to suddenly walk into a professor's office and find said professor blasting a dummy with a sickly green spell like a lunatic?"
"That thing looks way too much like the Killing Curse."
"I can change the color, you know. If I wanted to, I could make it red — trick the enemy into thinking it's just… Expelliarmus." Kasenhis said as he flipped to another page in his book. Sure enough, a red spell shot out toward the dummy next.
"....."
"Is that a new spell you developed yourself?" Dumbledore asked as he took a seat nearby.
"Yup. You're not shy, are you? There's black tea under the coffee table. Anyway, what brings you here all of a sudden? And what did you mean, 'who taught you that'?"
"I just don't believe you would be capable of learning the Killing Curse — and I definitely don't think it'd be a good idea for anyone to teach it to you. So I was going to… never mind, it's clearly not the Killing Curse anyway."
"…You're talking in riddles again. But let me guess — you're here to dump another annoying errand on me, aren't you?" Kasenhis said flatly.
Dumbledore shook his head. "That's not why I'm here. What I want to talk to you about is… well, Gellert told me about it."
"…Go on."
"Gellert said… you want to repair the relationship between him and me?" Dumbledore said slowly.
"Why the hell does he tell you everything— wait. No. You're not Dumbledore," Kasenhis said, staring at him in confusion.
Dumbledore gave a helpless shrug. "Alright then." And in the blink of an eye, his appearance shifted back to his original form — Grindelwald.
"How'd you figure me out?"
"Well… while Dumbledore does have his moments of being flamboyant in plain sight, to be honest, there's no way he'd talk to me about something that personal. Even if he never says it directly, it's obvious he sees me as a kid."
"He always thinks I need looking after — that I need supervision. If he doesn't hear from me for a while, he assumes I've cooked up some ridiculous chaos."
"So when you suddenly popped into my office using who-knows-what and acted all shocked by what I was doing, I didn't doubt you for a second. Because if Dumbledore had found out I'd learned the Killing Curse, his reaction would exactly match yours: surprise, anger, and then a demand to know who taught me."
"In that sense, you played the role well. You really do know him," Kasenhis explained.
"I might be the person who understands him best right now... So how did you figure out he was actually me in disguise?" Grindelwald asked knowingly.
"Like I said — would you share your... romantic history with a kid?" Kasenhis shrugged.
"Solid reasoning."
Kasenhis was very happy with that compliment.
Sure, compared to some genius-level freaks of nature, he might come up a bit short — sometimes even getting dimensionally curb-stomped — but that's when you're comparing him to Sherlock Holmes.
Is it embarrassing to lose to Sherlock Holmes? Nope, not at all.
But compared to the generally questionable logic skills of most wizards, Kasenhis got to enjoy playing the big-brain boss for once. He was low on EQ but his IQ wasn't that fucked.
"Alright then, since you're not Dumbledore… that means you're not here to dump work on me?"
"Well, actually, I do have something…" Grindelwald said. "Did you know Albus isn't an only child?"
Kasenhis shook his head.
"He has a brother — the owner of the Hog's Head Inn. And ...a sister — her name was Ariana. She passed away. That's... what started the distance between us."
"So… you and Albus had a falling out over Miss Ariana? What exactly happened?" Kasenhis asked.
"That's what I came to tell you. That day, Albus, Aberforth — his brother — and I, we were all at the Dumbledore family home. We got into a duel. Somehow, one of our spells hit Ariana, who had come downstairs to check on what was going on. That's what caused everything…" Grindelwald explained.
"So… whose spell was it?" Kasenhis asked, hesitating.
"It wasn't mine. The spell I cast was blocked by Aberforth. And Aberforth's spell at the time was a shielding charm," Grindelwald said with a sigh.
"Which means… Dumbledore…" Kasenhis murmured.
"He'd been temporarily blinded by one of my flash spells. So he responded with a burst of raw, non-elemental magic — one of his standard techniques to deflect incoming spells," Grindelwald continued.
"So why are you telling me all this?"
Grindelwald took a deep breath. "Because it's something we've never been able to get past. At first, I thought it was fine to leave it buried, but now that I've… well, never mind. If he ever asks, please tell him — it was my spell that hit her."
"But it wasn't," Kasenhis frowned.
"A Dark wizard — a so-called Dark Lord — killing a magical child who couldn't defend herself... or a brother accidentally killing his own sister. Which one do you think is easier to live with?"
"But—"
"You're his favorite professor. I hope you'll live up to the affection and trust he's shown you." Grindelwald smiled gently.
Kasenhis sighed. "…Alright."
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