Fantastic Beasts 3

Rumours Resurfacing

NURMENGARD CASTLE

Grindelwald tipped the contents of his vision into the swirling liquid of the pensieve, then leaned in.

He found himself standing on a large brick path surrounded by water and a dozen sculptures of snake heads. Before him was the large face of a man sculpted onto the entire wall.

A man walked past him, carrying a cage filled with squeaking rats, hissing in Parseltongue at the stone face. The mouth shifted open at his words and out came the same small basilisk with a blindfold tied around its eyes.

Grindelwald had seen this memory, which he had obtained through his own visions a month ago, countless of times. He had come to the vision yet again, knowing that the man who spoke Parseltongue could help him greatly in his cause. He needed to find out where the man was, perhaps finding out whom the stone face belonged to would help him.

As the basilisk ate up the rats, he sat by the man and watched him carefully. Other times he had seen this memory, he had spent the time roaming around and observing the place, hoping that he would spot a name etched onto stone, ignoring the man. But as he listened carefully to the man crooning to his basilisk like a child, he caught onto a familiar name.

Slytherin... He had definitely heard the name before from somewhere. The answer came to him very suddenly.

Slytherin, He realised, the founder of Hogwarts who created the Chamber of Secrets.

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OUTSIDE HOGWARTS, EARLY MORNING

The sun wasn't even above the hills yet, and Dumbledore was already up. He had persuaded Newt, Tina and Queenie to come with him– Jacob was in too deep of a sleep to be woken up. They were at Hogwarts to find a good location to keep the cloak safe from Grindelwald in case he were to come to the United Kingdom in search of it.

Queenie slowly trudged on behind them as they made their way around the outskirts of Hogwarts. Newt and Tina were both early birds; they were both used to getting up early for their work. Dumbledore took the lead, holding the cloak.

"We need to place it not too far to get it if Grindelwald does come to the school," He explained, "but not directly inside the school, as that's where he'll expect it to be. We want to lead him away from the students."

Queenie yawned. "Can't we just put it under the bridge, or something?"

"No, we need to hide it better than that," Tina reasoned as they continued to walk.

"What about the island?" Newt suggested, pointing to a small island in the lake.

"Yes, I suppose that would work." Dumbledore changed the direction he was headed and they walked around the large outskirts of the lake.

A small boat that students had made to cross the water sat by the shore, tethered to a wooden post. Dumbledore waved his wand at it to enlarge it so that they could all fit in. After unravelling the rope that bound it, he and Newt grabbed two oars and began to steer the boat towards the island.

As they got off the boat when they reached the island, memories of his childhood came back to Newt. He remembered how he and Leta had come here to visit the bowtruckle community nestled in the tree. Leta had come here more often than he had to escape teachers, as she was constantly getting herself into trouble. The island had become their refuge and they had used spells to camouflage the boat so other students couldn't cross.

Dumbledore shoved the invisibility cloak down the tree trunk through a hollow in the tree and began to walk away, leaving the three others standing there in shock at the minimal security measures taken to conceal it.