I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin. After Kuilin's diligent work, I suppose I can update this story twice per week for a while.

Chapter 37.

Nurmengard, Part I, German Minister of Magic

9:46 am, July 15th, 1993

Ever since 1952, the West German Ministry of Magic put into place a rather peculiar tradition: that all appointees to the position of guard at the Nurmengard Wizarding Prison needed to be interviewed and approved by the Minister of Magic. It was not that the men and women on the top of the political structure had no better things to occupy their time with, nor did it mean the Ministers were all power-hungry busybodies who couldn't handle any power - no matter how small - to their subordinates. It was because of a single name: Gellert Grindelwald.

If the matter were given to the hands of Rudolf Schmidt, the current German Minister of Magic, sometimes he just wished the winners of World War II just decided to handle Grindelwald to the dementors, instead of creating a permanent problem for the Ministry of Magic.

Unfortunately, after Albus Dumbledore defeated Gellert Grindelwald, both the Russians and the Americans wanted to get the secrets Lord Grindelwald knew, especially why he had been invincible as a result of the Muggles he sacrificed. And the Brits, since they got the majority of Grindelwald's ancient relic collections, and maybe since Albus Dumbledore had a special soft spot for the blond dark lord, did not protest the decision to keep the lives of the cold blooded murderers and warmongers of the previous Wizarding World War.

From a certain point of view, Rudolf Schmidt could understand why the lords and ladies who wielded real power wanted to keep Grindelwald alive; but what he didn't understand was why the Americans, the Russians, and the French had regular visits with Grindelwald, and swindled Merlin knew how many secrets out of him, while the Germans had to be held responsible for the safety of Nurmengard!

-Don't they know that all German wizards and witches with real powers are either dead, or in Nurmengard? And no security is perfect unless it has some powerful wizards or witches behind it!

Rudolf had suspected that, if it were only up to the lords and ladies in Washington, D.C., or up to the comrades in Moscow, they might decide to torture the secrets out of Grindelwald, hence ending the permanent problem. However, Washington and Moscow were obviously not friends, and they fought fervently for moral high grounds on such eyeball-attracting matters.

-And not to mention the goodie-oldie Albus Dumbledore, who was against torture of any kind!

To be fair, before June 1992, the only thing that kept the previous West German Ministers of Magic asleep at night was the fact that Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard in the world, paid Grindelwald a monthly visit, and checked the securities of Nurmengard. The fact that Grindelwald promised Dumbledore that he would not escape might have helped, but nobody wanted to rely too much on that promise, nobody except the goodie-oldie Albus Dumbledore, anyway.

Unfortunately, even Albus Dumbledore couldn't stop Grindelwald from parceling some of his dark secrets to unwanted ears. In 1947, there was a prisoner named Emeric Meyer, who was sentenced four years into the prison for multiple petty thefts. This man was assigned to Grindelwald as his errand boy. According to what Rudolf heard, it was because you didn't want the most dangerous dark lord in the European Continent to decide that he wanted to run away for trivial things such as the taste of his morning coffee, or the way his bed was made, and because Emeric Meyer was weak in magic and was pretty slow in the brain department - according to his interrogators, anyway. Rudolf had doubted whether the Americans might be behind this decision as well. Not entirely a surprise for anyone, only one year after Emeric Meyer was released, that man became a very dangerous dark wizard. It took three really powerful wizards to track him down and kill him. Rudolf had suspected that if those three were not each from the United States, France, and the Soviet Union, it might not take that many powerful wizards to do it, nor might Meyer be killed during his arrest.

It was needless to say that the world powers had put more efforts into persuading Lord Grindelwald into parceling out more of his secrets ever since, and no prisoners with any sentence shorter than lifetime imprisonment was allowed anywhere near Grindelwald.

Unfortunately, the Ministry couldn't restrict the freedom of the prison guards after their job. The Ministry had wanted to let every guard take an Unbreakable Vow of some sort, yet both the Americans and the Russians had fervently objected any idea of that sort for "human rights reasons". Rudolf was sure that some of the guards were actually American spies, or Russian spies, or both, and Grindelwald might know who was on which side better than the poor West German Ministry of Magic.

-Well, while American Muggle troops and wizarding delegations were in one part of your country, and the Russians were in the other part, one couldn't actually argue the unfairness of the whole matter. At least, when the Americans had five to seven powerful lords and ladies, and the Russians had three to five comrades, magical West Germany, which had none, had no bargaining power whatsoever.

In the 1970s, while the extraordinary powerful dark wizard who named himself Lord Voldemort rose into power in Great Britain, many people had suspected that this man had somehow gained magical knowledge from Grindelwald. Lord Grindelwald had neither confirmed nor denied that speculation.

After David Monroe was supposedly killed by Lord Voldemort, Bartemius Crouch, the Director of the Department of Law Enforcement in the British Ministry of Magic had called the international wizarding society for help. The Americans, the Russians and the French had offered nothing more or less than their utmost moral support.

Some presumptuous Muggle-loving nerds had explained the reluctance of the international community to offer any real help to the Brits as some laughable Muggle psychology terms, such as "bystander effect". However, Rudolf had a much better explanation: the Brits had possessed too many powerful magical relics and secrets for too long.

On the Muggle side of the world, if the Americans and Russians had cooperated in one really important matter since the end of World War II, it was the demolition of the British and French colonial system. After World War II, both the Muggle British and Muggle French government had tried both diplomatic and military approaches to continue their reigns in their colonies, yet the Americans and the Russians had sabotaged all their efforts. In the Suez Crisis, while Muggle Britain and France allied with Israel and started a military operation in Suez Canal to keep their special interest in Egypt, the Americans staged a run on the pounds while the Russians threatened Britain and France with a nuclear war. With the efforts from the Americans and Russians, the 1960s and 1970s witnessed the birth of many newly independent states, and Great Britain was no longer an imperial power.

On the wizarding side of things, however, Great Britain had Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard in the world. Since the old man was never interested in helping the Muggles of his country maintain their colonial system, the goodie-oldie was highly praised by both the Free and the Communist countries, and was showered with all kinds of honors. However, by the 1970s, when most of the British colonies had declared independence, and the Americans and the Russians each got their share of the game, the most powerful wizard in the world began to seem too old and too stubborn with his important secrets.

Therefore, while Lord Voldemort rose out of nowhere - some speculated Grindelwald was behind him, others suspected the Americans or Russians were backing him up, while some even speculated whether the hands of the Chinese or Japanese were involved - the world just held back their hands and observed what Albus Dumbledore could do.

To the amazement of the entire wizarding world, each time Lord Voldemort seemed to have gained the upper hand, Albus Dumbledore could pull something out of his magical hat, or did something really complicated and weird, and then he was able to regain some advantage. And in 1981, Lord Voldemort was vanquished - surely by a trap from Dumbledore, not some baby - and Dumbledore had proved that he was the better man.

The world became much friendlier toward Dumbledore after that, and the interest in Grindelwald's secrets reached a new height - everyone who wielded real power knew that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were close in their youth, and it was against common sense to think that these two gained their ancient knowledge through different means.

The demolition of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War brought a major reorganization to the Ministry of Magic, and Rudolph became the first German - no longer West German, or East German, just German - Minister of Magic.

Unfortunately, the reunification of the two German Ministries of Magic hadn't ended the permanent problem in Nurmengard - Rudolf had hoped the Americans had decided to just take Grindelwald to Washington as a trophy for winning the Cold War, but the goodie-oldie Albus Dumbledore was still the most powerful wizard in the world, so the Americans didn't even try.

One year ago, the day when Lord Voldemort suddenly reappeared and was subsequently vanquished again, the Flamels were slaughtered, and Albus Dumbledore disappeared as well. The story the Boy-Who-Lived recounted was obviously a lie for anyone with a shred of a brain - many had agreed that the Flamels might be killed by Voldemort, while Voldemort might be defeated by the combined forces of Albus Dumbledore and the previously disappeared David Monroe.

Before anyone had figured out what really happened that night, or, more importantly, what actually happened to Albus Dumbledore, the British wizards shocked the rest of the world again, by offering the healing power of the Philosopher's Stone to everyone in the world. This overtly nice gesture and the attribution of all glories to a young child had some resemblance to the wired plots of the goodie-oldie, but it was too good to be true even for Albus Dumbledore.

And after Gellert Grindelwald learned that Albus Dumbledore was "frozen in Time", and the Philosopher's Stone was available to anyone with lethal conditions, he claimed that he might be able to unravel some mysteries related to "the origin of magic" if he were given the chance to try to rescue Dumbledore from Time and study the Stone. Lord Grindelwald even promised that he would take Unbreakable Vows of any contents that might satisfy the British, German, and American magical authorities before doing so.

Grindelwald's eagerness forced all the lords and ladies with real power and intelligence to pause and think before they made any efforts in robbing or stealing the Stone.

Though Rudolf himself was never powerful enough to anywhere near the level of Albus Dumbledore - otherwise, nobody would make him Minister of Magic - sometimes, he couldn't help but to wonder if Albus Dumbledore had plotted the whole thing.

-Maybe the old man finally realized his old age, and foresaw what might happen to Great Britain once he died. Perhaps he had sacrificed his own life and magic, - or maybe that of the unfortunate Flamels, Monroe, Lord Voldemort, and Death Eaters - to construct some formidable protections against all potential enemies.

-Maybe the Stone is just a bizarre lure, and something unspeakable would happen to anyone who made a real effort to get it. This thing may only be able to strike a limited number of times, but nobody wants to be the first one at the receiving end of Dumbledore's final weird plot.

-Moreover, who can be sure that Albus Dumbledore is actually "disappeared"? Great Britain had witnessed the disappearances and reappearances of Lord Voldemort, David Monroe, the Girl-Who-Revived, and most recently, Lucius Malfoy. Who can say that Dumbledore isn't going to be the next one?

-Maybe this is indeed something related to the origin of magic, as Grindelwald had claimed. In that case, the whole affair might relate to why Dumbledore and Grindelwald had risen to their level of power. Then...

Not being a really powerful wizard himself, Rudolf couldn't quite fathom the "what-ifs" in case the matter involved the origin of magic, but he knew it was enough to cause the world's lords and ladies to temporarily halt their plans.

-Maybe they want Grindelwald to test things out first, or maybe something else.

It was needless to say that Madam Bones' insistence that all prisoners in Azkaban should be moved to Nurmengard attracted more attention to a particular prisoner, and the whole world wondered the real reason behind this bizarre act.

-True, the dementor treatment before was highly inhuman, but after the Girl-Who-Revived supposedly killed all dementors, why did they still have to move every prisoner to Nurmengard? Actually, why did they get rid of all dementors in the first place? They suddenly became better persons? What a joke!

Under the pressure from the curious Americans, Rudolf agreed to accept the British prisoners. Luckily for him, most of the prisoners had gone mad due to years of exposure to dementors, and they could be easily managed. And, since then, the British Ministry of Magic had only handed him common criminals, and nobody needed to be locked into the lifetime wards in which Grindelwald was held.

After a year, poor Rudolf had fantasized that things might have settled down a bit, yet he knew that was too good to be true: the aged Lord Gellert Grindelwald was on the waiting list for the use of the Stone, and it would be his turn to return to youth in two months. After that, Rudolf wondered what forces could possibly hold the rejuvenated most powerful wizard in the world in the very prison that he built.

For what was worse, three weeks ago, the supposedly dead Lucius Malfoy suddenly reappeared. From the looks of it, the British Ministry of Magic had every intention to put this intelligent ex-Death Eater into the lifetime wards.

-For Merlin's sake, who are they kidding? The very Death Eater whose son is a very close friend to the Boy-Who-Lived, and who had been an ally of Harry Potter? And you are telling me the Brits are not up to something?

-Is it a plot on the Brits' part to get in contact with Grindelwald? Or are they trying to warn the rest of the world that Dumbledore might return anytime?

-Who would reappear next? Charles Nott, whose son is closed to Potter as well? Any other Death Eaters? Any previous holders of Line of Merlin Unbroken? Hogwarts Four? Merlin himself? I wonder when the Brits get this habit of reappearing after their supposed death!

-Moreover, damn the Americans! I am quite sure they are going to pressure me to put Malfoy together with Grindelwald, just to see what happens next!

And now, after what appeared that Lord Voldemort might have made another return, Rudolf was faced again with the permanent devil for every German Minister of Magic: approving a prison guard for the lifetime wards of Nurmengard.

During the years, Rudolf had already given up the hope of figuring out why each and everyone of those intelligent people applied for the low-paying and low-status jobs in Nurmengard; if the power behind the applicants were the from Americans, Russians, French, or whoever; and whether they were just some self-motivated wannabe dark wizards.

At any rate, Rudolf Schmidt glanced again at the resume of the best candidate for this job, a likeable young chap named Alexander Dimitrov. According to the papers, his parents were heros in the war against Grindelwald, he was educated in Durmstrang, graduated with outstanding marks, and had several suspicious "international traveling" years after graduation. In a word, he was the common sort of people who applied for prison guard jobs in Nurmengard.

-Damn the Americans! Ever since the end of the Cold War, they have even abandoned the courtesy to make the resumes look at least inconspicuous!

Rudolf sighed, and signaled his secretary to let Alexander Dimitrov in.