Grindelwald suddenly remembered a joke Tom had once told him, something about a man standing before the court asking who dared bring charges against the magistrate himself.
He swallowed down the urge to laugh and addressed Robert instead. "I'll take you in for now. Prove yourself more valuable than Tom Riddle, and you'll have everything you're asking for. Go find Pedro, he'll see you settled."
"Yes, sir." Robert's excitement was written plainly across his face as he left the room.
Grindelwald had just settled back, thinking he might share this little amusement with Tom later, when Vogel entered to report that Dumbledore's party had already entered the monitored perimeter and would arrive shortly. Robert's business would have to wait. For now, he needed to focus on making sure Tom's plan went off without a hitch.
Half an hour later, Grindelwald met the negotiating party at the door of the council chamber.
He and Dumbledore stood ten meters apart, gazes locked, and for a moment time itself seemed to stop. The two of them, standing there in silence, became the absolute center of everything, light against dark.
It was Grindelwald who finally broke the standoff, looking away first.
He let out a short laugh and stepped aside. "Do come in."
Dumbledore said nothing, his expression giving away nothing either, and led the way inside first. The other representatives hurried after him, each one giving Grindelwald as wide a berth as possible as they passed, not daring to meet his eyes.
Only Tom, walking past, gave him a small smile.
Grindelwald returned it, but the moment his gaze shifted to Dumbledore's retreating back, something like pity crept into his expression.
Tom's plan didn't actually conflict with Dumbledore's interests, not really. It was simply meant to keep him out of the way. Still, watching the old man play the fool, kept in the dark through all of it, felt genuinely pitiable.
A man his age, still running himself ragged over nothing, day after day. Hopefully after today he could finally rest a little easier.
With that thought, Grindelwald took his seat across from Dumbledore, his gaze slowly sharpening.
Dumbledore noticed the shift and spoke, his voice cool. "Grindelwald. Why did you insist Mr. Riddle be present before you'd agree to speak with us at all?"
"Does it need a reason?" Grindelwald asked.
Dumbledore countered, "Would you ever do something without one?"
"Well... if you truly need an explanation."
Grindelwald leaned back at ease. "A negotiation between the two of us calls for a witness, and there aren't many in this world qualified for that role. Aside from you, Aberforth counts for half a witness, that old alchemist counts for one, and then there's Scamander."
"Shall I go fetch them? Would you actually bring them along?"
"Better instead to let this young man stand as witness. He's the future of our world, and he ought to see this era's true peak firsthand."
Tom offered a well-timed, bashful smile. "You flatter me, Mr. Grindelwald."
Babajide and the other representatives exchanged uneasy glances. They hadn't even begun negotiating yet, and Grindelwald had already managed to needle them with backhanded praise.
So apparently, aside from the handful of names he'd bothered to mention, the rest of the magical world amounted to nothing worth naming at all.
Dumbledore, oddly enough, seemed to believe the reasoning outright.
He'd long since taken the measure of Grindelwald's arrogance, and privately suspected that not even the names just mentioned held any real weight with the man. More likely, he simply wanted them all gathered together so one well-placed curse could finish the lot of them at once.
"Very well. Since that's the case, let Mr. Riddle stand as witness."
Dumbledore's gaze turned to Tom, questioning, and only once Tom nodded did he continue. "Grindelwald, name your terms. What will it take to have the prisoners returned to us?"
The delegation stiffened at once, palms damp with sweat.
"It's simple, really." Grindelwald spoke as though the matter barely interested him. "Dissolve the International Confederation. Have these nations' Ministries declare their loyalty to me. And every Auror goes home untouched."
"You... are you joking with us?"
Babajide had meant to say you must be dreaming, but at the last moment he lost his nerve to push it that far, and the words came out sounding almost pleading instead.
"Don't push this too far."
Dumbledore's brow furrowed as well. This wasn't negotiation. This was demanding surrender outright.
"I didn't come here to entertain your fantasies, and I don't have the patience to haggle with you. If there's room to talk, we'll talk. If there isn't, that's fine too."
A rare flash of something fierce crossed the blue of Dumbledore's eyes. "I don't believe for a second you'd actually kill all three hundred of those Aurors. Do you have any idea how many wizarding families stand behind them, how many connections that would drag in?"
"And if you truly went through with it, no one left in this world would ever want to join your cause again."
"Dumbledore—"
Babajide had never once seen Dumbledore carry himself this way, and it left him badly shaken, terrified that provoking Grindelwald further might push the man to simply slaughter every hostage on the spot.
Tom, delighted by the spectacle and entirely unbothered by the stakes, shot Dumbledore a small wink of encouragement.
Yes, exactly like that. What good was a Dumbledore who never showed any teeth at all?
Just like that. Keep pushing him!
"Alright, alright, you've frightened me. Happy now?"
Grindelwald raised both hands, and though his words claimed fear, his face carried nothing but delight. This was exactly the Dumbledore he'd wanted to see, not that tired, worn-down old man who bore no resemblance to the one he remembered.
"You're right, I won't kill them all outright. But I can certainly follow the thread they leave behind."
Grindelwald leaned forward slightly. "Once I've converted these three hundred Aurors, don't you think the families and friends behind them might become potential Saints themselves?"
Dumbledore's expression shifted, just slightly.
That was exactly what worried him most. The longer they stayed captive, the more room there was for things to go wrong. Held for the better part of a year and then released, and who knew how many of them might come back having quietly become double agents.
Seeing that flicker of alarm, Grindelwald finally felt satisfied enough to show his true teeth.
"My actual demand is simple enough. The moment you, Albus Dumbledore, sign a blood pact with me, I'll hand every one of them back to you today."