Gellert Grindelwald

"Kill me, then. Voldemort, I welcome death! But my death will not bring you what you seek… that wand will never, ever be yours!"

— Gellert taunting Tom Riddle

Gellert Grindelwald
Born	c. 1884
Died	March or April 1998 Nurmengard
Character information
Species	Human (Wizardkind)
Blood status	Pure or Half-blood
Family	Bathilda Bagshot (great-aunt)
School	Durmstrang Institute
Wand	Elder Wand (c. 1900s - 1945)
Book information
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Last appearance	Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Gellert Grindelwald is a character in the Harry Potter book series, and a very powerful and dangerous Dark Wizard. He is considered to be one of the most notorious Dark Wizards in all of history, second only to Lord Voldemort. Educated at Durmstrang Institute,, Grindelwald would go on to be expelled, and strike up a relationship with Albus Dumbledore. The two talented young men had a falling out after the death of Ariana Dumbledore, and Grindelwald would later go on to lead a revolution until he was stopped by Albus in 1945.

Biography

Early life and education

Gellert Grindelwald was born in around 1884 in an unknown place. He was the great-nephew of Bathilda Bagshot. He attended Durmstrang Institute and became very drawn to the Dark Arts championed by the school. He excelled in many fields and began experimenting with the Dark arts.

The experiments involved hurting other people, and eventually even Durmstrang would not enable the dark nature of Gellert at their school. They expelled Gellert from the school at the age of 16, by which point he had developed a fascination for wizarding artefacts.

Friendship with Dumbledore

Grindelwald spent time wandering in search of the knowledge and power of the Deathly Hallows. By the summer of 1899 (not long since he was expelled), he went to Godric's Hollow in England when he found out it was the former home of the original owner of one of the Deathly Hallows.

Grindelwald's great-aunt lived in Godric's Hollow, and she let him live with her for the summer. She provided very minimum supervision and a home of many books and documents about the magic world and it's artefacts which suited Grindelwald very well. In the summer, he befriended Albus Dumbledore, a teenager who had a lot in common with Grindelwald. They both had substanial knowledge and magical power, and at the time had the same ambitions and spent a lot of time debating.

The two became very good friends (gei) in their mutual search for the Deathly Hallows which they hoped would bring them the coveted immortality and invincibility, and it then became known that Gellert and Albus both opposed the International Statute of Secrecy and hoped to found a new order that overturned that law and gave them complete dominance over the international wizarding society (and muggle society), electing powerful and wise witches and wizards in power and putting the Muggles back in their place.

Grindelwald had long hated the fact that witches and wizards had to cower in secrecy from muggles in a way akin to fear, and had the idea that the law protected and benefited the Muggles, and not the wizarding world which the government claimed. He adopted the slogan proposed by Albus saying "For the Greater Good", which explained the actions they intended to make in order to achieve their goal of giving the power taken by the law, back to the wizarding world.

Albus did not go with Gellert in the end. Albus wanted to use the Deathly Hallows to put his family back together again while Grindelwald wanted to make an army of the dead. Family was so important to Albus that when Aberforth discovered his plans to leave, he was angry that Albus would consider abandoning his family or taking the Ariana with him for personal gain, which he felt was wrong and selfish. He neither approved or condoned their plans and it eventually led to an argument between Albus and Aberforth.

The argument enraged Grindelwald who used the Cruciatus Curse on Aberforth. Albus started began duelling Grindelwald to protect his brother. Aberforth then joined in and during the ensuing chaos, Ariana was killed. Grindelwald accepted part of the blame for her death, and fled the country with the help of a portkey arranged by Bathilda who never saw him again, without Albus,, who from then on, would begin avoiding Gellert out of fear that he knew which one of them had the wand which killed Ariana. Albus would later changed the opinions he had and find he and Grindelwald to be in the wrong for the plans they made.

Gaining power

Grindelwald continued to pursue the Deathly Hallows and eventually located the Elder Wand. He broke into the workshop of Gregorovitch, subdued the wandmaker with Stunning Spell and stole the wand. Grindelwald appears to have learnt that he did not have to kill the previous owner to gained the Elder Wand's loyalty like many others believed. Grindelwald adopted the sign of the Deathly Hallows.

Grindelwald also built Nurmengard, a home base and prison for his enemies. He carved the words "For the Greater Good" on the entrance, the slogan proposed by the young Albus and adopted by Grindelwald.

In the 1920s, he was in New York where he was captured for the first time by Newton Scamander. Grindelwald later escaped custody.

Defeat

Grindelwald's war being international meant he spent less attention on Britain in particular and focused on a much bigger picture. It also meant that he avoided any kind of confrontation with Dumbledore who was attempting to avoid Grindelwald anyway. It led to rumours that they both had a fear of each other's power. Albus had spent years finding ways around people's calls to confront Grindelwald, since many people thought only he had the power to defeat him.

Dumbledore later claimed that he avoided Grindelwald because he was afraid that Grindelwald knew which one of them killed Ariana. Eventually, people's demands became too much and he had to track Grindelwald down. It was then 1945, and the two engaged in a confrontational duel of legendary proportions that eye-witnesses claimed was an incredible duel matched by none other in history. Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald even when Grindelwald owned the Elder Wand. The wand switched loyalty to Dumbledore but even he later admitted that he was only a "shade more skilful" than Grindelwald. The defeat of Grindelwald was a huge event and turning point for the wizarding world.

Death

Grindelwald was imprisoned for life in Nurmengard, the prison he had invented. About 53 years later, Grindelwald woke up and found he was no longer alone in the cell. Voldemort (a new Dark wizard gaining power in the Second Wizarding War) wanted to find the Deathly Hallows and broke in, demanding Grindelwald tell him the location of the Elder Wand. Grindelwald was expecting Voldemort to show up eventually but was unafraid of him.

He had nothing but contempt for Voldemort and found he had a lack of knowledge of the Deathly Hallows. He laughed at him when he demanded he tell him the location, saying he would never win the Elder Wand. It enraged Voldemort and he killed Grindelwald with the Killing Curse.

Legacy

The memory of Grindelwald's crimes continued to affect people many decades later. He had killed many people to the point that the sign of the Deathly Hallows became very connected with him and people found it wrong to bear it, even when it had nothing to do with Grindelwald originally. Grindelwald was once found to be cool by later pupils of Durmstrang, who copied Grindelwald carved Deathly Hallows sign they found in a wall, thinking it made them look powerful. However, pupils who had family killed by Grindelwald would teach them better not to do that. Grindelwald was never very powerful in Britain and the things he had done would be not be widely known in Britain, but Grindelwald was however mentioned in many books.

Appearance

When he is younger, Grindelwald has golden blond hair which falls in curls at a longer length, and his "handsome" and "merry" look made him look triumphant. He has blue eyes. By the time of his death, he is a frail, old man with his skeletal form and the shape of skull being very noticeable. He has sunken eyes, wrinkled cheeks and the majority of his teeth have fallen out.

Trivia

• Despite having seeming no access to the news or outside world, Gellert was aware of Voldemort and his pursuit of the Elder Wand. It is unknown how Grindelwald was privvy to this information, and whether or not he was a Seer remains to be confirmed.