Harry Potter's Weird Scene With Voldemort And Grindelwald Finally Explained
The two Dark Lords — Grindelwald and Voldemort — only met once, and it was a very strange meeting that raised quite a few questions. It’s time to address them.
In The Deathly Hallows, Lord Voldemort visited Nurmengard, one of the magic prisons, to talk to someone very special: the darkest wizard who came before him, Gellert Grindelwald. Grindelwald was a power greater than his successor back in the day but ended up imprisoned after losing his famous duel with Albus Dumbledore.
Voldemort didn’t just stop by to have a quick chat or pay his respects, though: he needed information. It was during his hunt for the Elder Wand that he learned that the greatest weapon of the Wizarding World once belonged to Gellert Grindelwald. Voldemort came to extract its whereabouts from the old man as he wanted the Wand for himself.
Grindelwald’s attitude toward Voldemort was pretty unexpected: he showed no fear and no respect for the new Dark Lord and even straight-up mocked him. He refused to help him locate the Elder Wand, too, even though he was well aware that it belonged to Dumbledore after that duel many years ago.
But why was he behaving like that? Many factors need to be taken into consideration to answer this question.
Ego and spite
The most obvious answer is: one egomaniac will not respect another. For Grindelwald, Voldemort was an amateur fool to laugh at. He found their entire interaction pretty funny and took his sweet time poking fun at his successor.
Gellert wouldn’t have helped him regardless of the circumstances — both out of spite and to please his own ego knowing the other couldn’t possess his knowledge.
Loyalty and attachment
Even decades after the duel with his old friend (or even lover, depending on who you ask), Gellert Grindelwald still valued their past relationship. Voldemort was a bit of a personal rival for him since he was Dumbledore’s enemy, and Grindelwald didn’t want to help him.
But what’s even more important, Gellert protected the whereabouts of the Elder Wand with his life — literally — to avoid the desecration of Dumbledore’s tomb and, consequently, his fond memories of Albus.
Remorse and redemption
Grindelwald had dozens of years to contemplate his life choices, and he was a brilliant man. It’s entirely possible that even if he kept some of his beliefs, he resented the methods he used back in time. Gellert’s remorse led him to despise Voldemort as an even worse being than his young self; trying to shield the world from the new Dark Lord wielding the power of the Elder Wand was his redemption.
These three reasons combined resulted in what we saw happen in Nurmengard. Grindelwald refused to collaborate, mocked Voldemort, and proved his moral superiority to him as a nice bonus.
Grindelwald, much like Dumbledore and the younger Peverell, did not fear death, and accepted it calmly after stalling Voldemort’s progress and protecting his old friend’s memory, even if not for long.