"..."
Looking at William calmly blowing on his tea in front of him, Grindelwald's expression was somewhat complicated—
He had long known the boy's identity from Dumbledore, and when he was expelled from Durmstrang, he had stayed at his aunt Bathilda Bagshot's place for a time, and in his search for the existence of the three Deathly Hallows, he had gone through a lot of books and newspapers.
This naturally included the "Prophet Daily," which was delivered punctually every day.
William Richard, a name "as familiar as thunder," although at the time, William was mostly active in the Scottish Highlands, and the areas where Ashwinder's followers were eradicated were generally distributed in the northern part of Scotland near the Hebrides Islands—but the impact he brought spread almost throughout the entire United Kingdom.
He crushed the Goblin Rebellion forces, eradicated the Dark Arts followers, and received 7 O's on his N.E.W.T. exams...
Unfortunately, this renowned Duel Master vanished completely after being active for just three short years post-graduation, and during that time, many media writers speculated about his disappearance, made guesses... and even wrote complete fabrications without reason.
Among them were theories like being defeated by Ashwinder's retaliation, meeting the love of his life and choosing to live in seclusion, gaining a professor's seat by threatening Headmaster Blake only to be assassinated by him later... The most chilling thought was that Headmaster Phineas Black never denied the authenticity of these claims.
Though Grindelwald knew at the time that those journalists were purely making things up without any evidence, when he learned the truth from Dumbledore, he couldn't help but concede that some of those journalists' inventions seemed... a bit more plausible.
At that time, Grindelwald felt a pang of regret. For some reason, he always had a premonition—William might become an aid in his revolution.
He even had thoughts of going to Scotland to find William if the search for the Hallows proved fruitless.
But due to some events afterward, he and Dumbledore had a complete falling out, which led to him leaving the United Kingdom, and the experiences thereafter made him completely forget those youthful rumors he'd heard.
But now, perhaps because both of them knew their days were numbered, the two old men seemed to finally let go of their obsession with each other, and at this point in collaboration, while Dumbledore needed this external factor of Grindelwald to break the stalemate, Grindelwald naturally had his own needs—
He never let go of his ambitions, thinking Dumbledore probably knew this, but he still let him out...
It's a kind of trust, but he might be about to betray it... The old man sighed, his gaze unconsciously flicking to Dumbledore beside him, who hadn't noticed; he just rested both hands at his lips, eyes slightly closed.
"Ahem, Wil..."
Having mentally prepared and thought through the direction of the conversation, Grindelwald finally coughed and began to break the silence that had spread in the office.
"Dumbledore calls me a senior, eh? You should be around his age, right?"
"Ahem—ahem—"
Hearing William's words, Dumbledore instinctively began to cough, and a piece of pineapple jam fell out of his mouth.
"You..."
You're sneaking candy? While I'm getting exposed, and embarrassed, you're secretly eating candy? Grindelwald's eyes widened in disbelief as he glared at Dumbledore.
Just moments ago, he thought the concentrated expression was Dumbledore's plan to strategize.
And feeling the intense gaze from his right, the unscrupulous Old Bee decisively chose to ignore it—
For heaven's sake, it's your cover that got blown, not mine, why should I feel embarrassed? Finally getting a break from Professor Meow's ambushes... Just as Dumbledore thought of this, he noticed William raising an eyebrow, and an ominous premonition surged in his heart—
"I recall Professor McGonagall explicitly telling you that you must control your sugar intake, right?"
William squinted, the corner of his mouth slightly curling up—now, if there is anyone who can control this Old Bee in some matters, Professor Meow is definitely one, no doubt because Professor McGonagall's work capability is indeed very strong; without that incident, it's assured she would have been a Head of Department or Director in the Ministry of Magic.
Dumbledore didn't want to lose such a competent right-hand, so after Professor McGonagall repeatedly used resignations as a threat, Dumbledore could only accept the "Sugar Restriction Ordinance" drafted by her with a bitter face and had to comply with it on the surface. He just didn't expect that William would also know about this—
As for how William knew?
Let's just say he got along quite well with Professor Meow, and McGonagall knew about his special relationship with Dumbledore, so she mentioned it to him, asking him to help keep an eye out occasionally.
As a result, on his first "mission," he caught Dumbledore red-handed—
Heh heh heh, Old Bee, you wouldn't want Professor McGonagall to know about your midnight candy escapades, would you?
Though William's view is that people who lived over a hundred years don't have that many years left even in the Wizarding World, in the end, letting the old man eat some candy—what's wrong with that? Keeping such a tight control looks more like mistreating an old empty nest... But there's no choice, in this aspect, Professor Meow is the ultimate authority.