Chapter 722: The First Generation Dark Lord (Edited)

"Interesting memories... I suppose you're referring to my memories of battling the others," Dumbledore asked with a wistful smile.

"That's right, nya!"

(`н´)

Fish nodded his head as if it was nothing. "Fish will never leave without seeing an interesting story, nya!"

Dumbledore hesitated for a moment, but eventually sighed inevitably and said, "Very well..."

He raised his wand and pricked the tip into his silver hair near the temple. When he withdrew the wand, it seemed to have strands of hair stuck to the tip, but it was actually a small tuft of the same silver-white substance as the basin.

Dumbledore added this new piece of memory to the Pensieve, then he held the Pensieve and spun it like a prospector panning for gold...

Young Dumbledore flashed into the Pensieve, followed by a strange face, several flashes of spells, and finally, the silver substance in the Pensieve calmed down, returning to its strange state of gas and liquid.

Dumbledore held the Pensieve, lost in his thoughts for a moment as he gazed at the slowly rotating silver substance in the basin until Fish prompted him to regain his composure.

"Albus! Show Fish the battle, nya!"

(?ω?)

Fish shouted while pounding the desk.

"Ah... very well," Dumbledore handed the Pensieve to Fish and took a step back. "I won't accompany you this time."

Fish didn't care whether Dumbledore followed or not; the impatient Fish had already plunged his head into the Pensieve as soon as it was lowered.

Hermione smiled apologetically to Dumbledore, then followed his example and entered the memory.

Harry and Ron hesitated, but they couldn't resist their curiosity and followed suit.

After all the young wizards had entered the Pensieve, Dumbledore sat back in his chair, fingers steepled beneath his crooked nose, his unfocused eyes staring at the wall in front of him, seemingly lost in his memories.

Upon entering the memory for the third time tonight, even Ron, who had only recently had his first experience, had grown accustomed to the sensation of falling and barely needed to adjust to look around once his feet touched the ground.

Soon, they saw a middle-aged Dumbledore not far away, facing off against a wizard of similar age.

Both stared at each other, wands clenched in their hands, and although not a word was spoken, Harry and the others could feel the tension in the air surrounding them.

The exception, of course, was Fish, or rather, if he sensed the tension, he didn't care.

"Fight! Battle!"

(≧≦)

Fish knew he couldn't influence the characters in his memories, so he danced without a care.

Soon enough, Dumbledore and the wizard facing him moved, both raising their wands almost simultaneously, and without the standard waving or incantations, they were firing off a dozen spells in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, they easily countered each other's spells through protective spells, Apparition, the corresponding counter-curses, and their own evasive maneuvers.

The spells that were deflected or dodged struck the stone tile floor and nearby buildings, creating massive craters that demonstrated the power of these spells should not be underestimated.

After a brief but far from easy exchange of positions, Dumbledore and the man were once again at a stalemate.

"...Oh my goodness!" Ron had been holding his breath since the moment they started fighting, and now he let out a long sigh. "Who is this man? I can't believe he's fighting Dumbledore!" he exclaimed as he took a deep breath.

"I don't know, all I know is that I wouldn't last ten seconds against either of them." Harry didn't blink as he watched the two men facing off, unable to look away.

He had been somewhat proud of his strength due to the Order of the Cat and his fight against Voldemort, but after seeing these two battle, he realized how ridiculous his combat skills were.

"I don't know if it's just me..." Harry hesitated for a moment, then said, "But Voldemort doesn't seem as strong as either of them."

"Isn't that normal?" Ron rolled his eyes and reasoned, "Dumbledore is the man Voldemort fears the most, and it makes sense that the man who could fight Dumbledore to a draw would be more powerful than Voldemort... I just don't know who he really is..."

Suddenly, he remembered his miserable experience of Hermione grabbing him in first year to check the books, he unconsciously shuddered and blurted out, "Could it be Nicolas Flamel?"

"I don't think so, he doesn't look much like the Nicolas Flamel in the Chocolate Frog card." Harry scrutinized the wizard's face and then shook his head gently.

As they spoke, Dumbledore and the unknown wizard exchanged several more attacks, using spells that Harry and the others didn't even recognize, if they knew them at all.

The fight was intense, but the outcome remained the same. Both sides were evenly matched, and neither could do anything against the other.

Harry and the others naturally rooted for Dumbledore, so even though they knew he was alive and well, they secretly cheered him on.

Fish, on the other hand, didn't hesitate for a moment. He was so excited and thrilled by the intensity and level of the battle that he couldn't wait for the two of them to keep fighting, regardless of who would win or lose!

Fish's wild nature had awakened with the fight, and he danced with excitement as he watched, even as his nails and teeth sharpened.

"Go for the head! Idiot! Limit his movements! Why didn't you use a Transfiguration spell? Just make ice or oil under Albus's feet and he'll be in trouble! So stupid!"

(ΦДΦ)

Fish threw punches and kicks in the air as he shouted advice at the top of his lungs, completely forgetting that the man in the memory couldn't hear him at all.

"I might know who this person is..." Hermione, who had remained silent, suddenly spoke up.

Fish, who had been enthusiastically cheering for both sides, reacted even faster than Harry and Ron, who were curious about the man's identity, and jumped to her side, asking urgently, "Who is it? Tell Fish!"

(?ω?)

"Gellert Grindelwald, the first Dark Lord," Hermione said dryly. "Dumbledore defeated him in 1945 and had him imprisoned in Nurmengard."

Upon Hermione's reminder, both Harry and Ron recalled that Rita Skeeter had mentioned in the newspapers that Fish's cat head symbol could be a sign of the rise of the third Dark Lord, and since then, they had learned a bit about the first Dark Lord in passing, but hadn't given it much importance at the time.

And Fish also remembered the name, from the magical bag Dumbledore had given him, which was said to be one of his rewards for defeating Grindelwald.

"Where is Nurmengard? Fish will go fight Grindelwald!"

(?ω?)