The book stated right at the beginning that it wasn't a guide to alchemy, which made Julian chuckle. It wasn't about teaching the craft at all. Instead, it was a catalog of well-known alchemical items and what they did.
It made for surprisingly easy reading. It wasn't trying to instruct him, it was simply presenting an image of each item and a description. Not every entry had a picture, for obvious reasons, like the Philosopher's Stone, but the descriptions were still detailed and informative.
...
Julian took his time with it, reading until lunchtime. Eventually he headed to the Great Hall to fill his stomach and maybe spend a little time with his friends.
The meal started out normally enough.
Then a glowing leopard padded into the Great Hall. It bounded forward with purpose, leapt up to Dumbledore, and dissolved into light, leaving the headmaster with a visibly troubled expression.
Julian recognized it at once. A Patronus.
He didn't know whose, but it wasn't hard to guess it had delivered an urgent message. Whatever it said clearly rattled Dumbledore. The man rose and left the hall in a hurry.
...
Earlier that same day, a small town on the outskirts of France had been enjoying an ordinary winter morning.
Then a tall man with a thin build, neatly combed white hair, and a clean-shaven face walked into the town, dressed in a dark green suit. His eyes were two different colors, and his smile looked calm, almost gentle.
It was Grindelwald.
But unlike the aged, feeble figure he once had been, he now looked youthful and strong.
"POP! POP! POP!"
Three sharp popping sounds rang out near him. In the space around the Dark Lord, three wizards appeared as if from nowhere, each wearing an eager expression.
"Sir!" they said together, saluting him with clear respect.
"Today we take the first step in righting the wrong done to wizardkind," Grindelwald said smoothly. "Prepare the barrier."
The three wizards ran in separate directions at once, spreading out to surround the town from different points.
...
"Some sacrifices are necessary for the greater good," Grindelwald continued, voice sincere. "And I thank you for your contribution to the cause."
He bowed toward the town, then drew a wand from the right side of his suit and raised it, erecting his portion of the barrier.
...
Back in the present, Dumbledore could only feel horror at the information delivered by his confidant in the Ministry, Kingsley Shacklebolt.
An entire town in France had been sacrificed in a massive ritual, the purpose completely unknown. The magic left behind bore Gellert's signature.
Worse still, by the time the aurors reached the location, the ritual circle had already been destroyed. The residual magic was scattered and warped, distorted enough that it was impossible to determine what the ritual had been meant to accomplish.
...
Dumbledore had wanted to believe, somewhere in his heart, that his old friend might have softened after fifty years of imprisonment.
It seemed he had been wrong.
If anything, Gellert was the same as he had always been, perhaps even worse.
Dumbledore didn't know what his old friend was planning, but he knew one thing with certainty. It would mean nothing good for the world.
"Fawkes," Dumbledore said gravely as he entered his office, "I need you to take me to the French Ministry of Magic. It's Gellert."
The phoenix didn't hesitate. It landed on his shoulders, and in an instant, both bird and wizard burst into gold and red flame, vanishing from the office.
...
Nobody in the school understood what had happened until the next morning at breakfast, when the Daily Prophet ran the incident as its headline.
Everyone could tell it was horrifying.
Only the professors, and Julian, seemed to truly grasp the weight of it, the meaning behind sacrificing an entire town in a ritual.
Rituals were like alchemy in one crucial way. Their most important rule was equivalent exchange.
So the question had to be asked.
What was worth an entire town?
Julian didn't know.
But he was certain the answer probably wasn't anything good, not with what he knew, and what he could dig up, about Grindelwald.
...
I need to improve my power as fast as possible, Julian thought, his face set as he left the Great Hall and took as many shortcuts as he could toward the seventh floor.
He stopped at the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and paced back and forth in front of a blank stretch of wall, repeating the same thought again and again.
I need a place to safely create poison smoke.
Soon, a wooden door appeared where there had been nothing before.
Julian didn't hesitate. He stepped through with a serious expression.