Albus' posture stiffens a bit. He straightens his back, the blue of his eyes meeting the mismatched pair of the man that sits down in front of him.
"I don't have any regular haunts," he responds, a chuckle leaving him. His gaze wanders through the cafe, but he missed a certain someone.
They continued talking about the blood pact and of the ideologies they once shared.
"With or without you, I'll burn down their world, Albus. There's nothing you can do to stop me. Enjoy your cup of tea."
Grindelwald stands up and prepares to leave when his old friend speaks up.
"Where is Elena?"
The wizard raises an elegant eyebrow and turns over his shoulder to look at Albus Dumbledore. He smiles at him with tight lips.
"And since when are my niece's whereabouts any of your concern," he asks with an irritated undertone. Albus was getting under his skin and he knows it very well.
"You keep her on a tight leash since the mausoleum. Are you perhaps afraid she will turn her back on you?"
Grindelwald scoffs.
"I needn't be afraid of something which shall never happen. Elena knows where her loyalties lie: family."
"But are you that, Gellert? Family, I mean?"
His temper was rising, Albus could sense it. The way he balled his fist and cocked his jaw forward. Somehow Elena was a sensitive topic to discuss, especially if her loyalty to him was put into question. Interesting..
"We are blood. That's all that matters. Goodbye, Albus."
Before the wizard could continue arguing, Grindelwald disappeared and the cafe around him begins burning.
➳
Nurmengard was a castle located in the Austrian Alps. Gellert Grindelwald had ordered its built while he remained in his home country of Hungary for the time being, raising his niece out of sight of other wizards and witches in a humble cottage.