In the year before Harry Potter learns the truth of his magical life, Gabriel would be going through a daily routine of stale bread, lots of blood loss, extreme dehydration, and experimentation. All of that thanks to his parents, Grayson and Vanessa, who both have tried so hard to influence their biological son with their ideas that Purebloods reign supreme, and that Muggleborns are nothing but trash, well, tried is the right word. Because all their efforts have been for not, and every day they would torture, starve, and experiment with him to make him a living and breathing weapon for the Dark Lord's will.

First, they started off by stripping him of his entertainment, books, friends, whatever that makes him happy. Then, they lock him up in a dark cellar, chained to the ceiling, beneath their mansion and leave him nothing but stale bread and dirty water to drink from. Afterwards, the torture. Lashings, punches, kicks, strangling, the Cruciatus Curse, anything they can use to break their son's mind and will. Then came the worst part of all, experiments. Gabriel didn't have that much magic in him, some say he would've been a squib, if not for the countless excruciating experiments his parents had conducted on his body. It's how he got his many scars.

Over the course of 6 months, nothing but the harshest of methods have been done unto him, until one faithful night, where he could finally say goodbye to the pain.

"Now stay there, and don't make so much as a fucking squeak, or it's going to last an entire week for you." Grayson, the father of Gabriel says before slamming the door shut and locking it with a total of twelve different styled locks. Once gone, Gabriel looks up to reveal his ragged state under a single ceiling light shining above him before he starts to tug on the chains that have completely rusted over time. With every tug, the metal starts to bend and creak, with every grunt of frustration his hope slowly dwindles away, but luckily for him, just like his grandfather, he has a control over the elements. With the remaining murky water from his wooden cup, he starts to control the water out of it and lets it seep into the cracks of the rusted iron. After a minute of silence, the water has worked it's magic and split the chain links, causing him to stumble to the floor from the lack of feeling in his legs.

'Free from those accursed bonds, finally. Now to escape this place and never look back.' Gabriel tells himself before walking up to the only door in the room and casts Alohamora on all ten locks of the door, thanks to the experiments done on him, his magical level is on par with a seventh year at Hogwarts at this point. If he were to hone his talents even more, he could be on par with some of the greatest witches and wizards, like Dumbledore and his grandfather. Anyway, when all the locks click open, he slowly pushes the door open and hears voices coming from the living room. Curiosity gets the better of him, so he climbs up to the ground floor of the mansion and hide behind a wall.

Upon peaking from the wall, he sees his parents and one other person who seems to be constantly licking his lips out of habit.

"The Dark Lord WILL rise again! That Harry Potter is only minor setback to his eternal reign." The crazy man says, as he licks his lips yet again.

"Barty, it will take years for this ritual to even happen, and the conditions must be just right to be able to revive Voldermort." Vanessa says, taking a sip of her glass of red liquid, and it's definitely not wine. Gabriel has heard enough, however, due to his anger flaring up, his hands catch on fire with a black and blue inferno that hasn't been seen since the time of his grandfather. Upon the realization, it is already too late as the flames start to ignite the wallpaper he has touched and soon, the living room follows suit. The three Death Eaters get up from their seats and see who has done this act.

"YOU! I SHOULD'VE KILLED YOU WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE!" Grayson says, pointing his wand at his own son, ready to fire the most Unforgivable Curse out of the three. Before he can do so, Gabriel uses his hands to cover himself from the attack, but in doing so, sends a wall of fire rising up and impeding his father's sight if him. Then, using it to his advantage, he makes a dash for the front door while many spells from his mother and father are fired to stop him from escaping, but all of them have missed him by mere inches.

Once Gabriel grabs ahold of the double doors' handles, he looks at his parents and the other one last time before shouting his final words to his abusers.

"I will kill every single Death Eater among you! I will burn every racist Pureblood to ash! Even if it costs me my life! I won't let you revive Voldermort!" Upon uttering those words, he exits the mansion, leaving the three adults to burn inside the mansion.

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Two months have passed since the destruction of the Grindelwald mansion, and Gabriel has been roaming London, wearing a look that is reminiscent of his grandfather, but much dirtier and more ragged in appearance. Over the course of those two months, he has done nothing but track down suspected Death Eaters, and Pureblood fanatics and kill them where they stood. So much so, that he has even garnered a reputation on the Daily Prophet, they call him

"The Monster of Black Fire."

Everywhere Gabriel went, nothing but fire is left in his wake. But that would all change upon meeting a very curious girl his age.

One night, Gabriel is seen roaming the streets of London, way past any kids curfew, until he hears a shriek of fear in an alleyway just a few meters away from him. He sprints towards the alley and sees cloaked figures wearing masks, a symbol for the Death Eaters, as they are harassing a girl not older than Gabriel himself. Wasting little time in assessing the situation, he grabs a stolen galleon from his pocket, inscribes a familiar symbol and flicks it to the first and nearest Death Eater planning to harm the girl. When the coin is just about to smack into their mask he teleports and grabs onto their head before burning them in a black and blue inferno. No screams were uttered from their death, and the remaining two proceed to take out their wands, but it is too late. They are met with the same fate as their accomplice, burned to ashes.

After their quick demise, Gabriel starts to feel the effects of his constant overexertion and falls headfirst into the cement and right in front of the girl he saved.

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Gabriel soon wakes from his unconscious state and finds himself bandaged in many spots that been untreated. Upon sitting up from a surprisingly comfortable bed, he is in awe at how big the bedroom is, it is at least the size of a small classroom he has seen in the Muggle world and to top it all off, and the wallpaper is decorated with many different types of birds, then he hears the door click open and sees that the he had saved enters the room, carrying a tray of a full English breakfast with the side of orange juice.

"O-Oh! You're awake, thank Merlin. I thought you would never wake." The girl says in a slight accent, probably from a country that speaks a different language. She walks over to the bed and sets the tray down on the bedside table before sitting down beside Gabriel on the edge of the bed.

"Thank you, for saving my life. I'm Mara, Mara Dorian." As she introduces herself, she raises her hand to allow him to shake it, but what she doesn't expect is for Gabriel to recoil at it, scaring her in the process. Realizing that he's not in immediate danger, he sighs and quickly apologizes.

"I-I'm sorry... After being on the run for so long, you forget to know how it feels to be safe from harm." Gabriel says in a hoarse tone, desperately in need of something to quench is parched throat. Mara then grabs the galls of orange juice and holds it up for him to take a sip off, which he thankfully accepts.

"T-Thanks. M-M-My name is Gabriel Grindelwald, you might've heard of me in the Daily Prophet."

"I did hear from my father that a young man was out killing Purebloods, and Death Eaters as well. I never thought I would meet you in person." This shocks Gabriel, he would assume that she would move back in fear, but it's the exact opposite.

"Y-You're not scared of me...?" He asks, which gets him a giggle from her.

"Of course not, a boy my age and doing this like this? Something horrible from your past has definitely sparked your need for justice."

"You're not wrong there." The two of them laugh it off before Mara sets the tray onto his lap.

"You've been unconscious for several days, this should help you regain your strength. Eat up now." She says excitedly. And when Gabriel takes a bite out of his Black Pudding, tears immediately stream down his face, shocking Mara as if she's done something wrong to him.

"I-Is something wrong? Oh no, I knew I shouldn't have-" She is immediately caught off guard by Gabriel's soft laughter.

"It's not your cooking that's made me cry, it's just that, I haven
I haven't had good food like this in a long while..." He continues to eat the breakfast as if it was his last meal before a death sentence before the door opens yet again, and a man who's already showing signs of greying enters the room.

"Good, you're awake. Mara, could you wait for us outside please? I would like to have a chat with the young man." He asks her, and she nods.

"Yes, papa." As soon as she walks out the door with an audible click, the man grabs a chair and sits beside the bed.

"Welcome to my home, I'm Vincent Dorian. I assume that you're well acquainted with my daughter, Mara." The old man starts off before continuing his introductions.

"I know who you are, Gabriel Grindelwald, and I know of the many things you have done in the Daily Prophet. Most of the articles have been written by Rita Skeeter however, so I find them to be lies." This calms down the grandson of Grindelwald slightly before Vincent places a hand on his shoulder and keeps a slightly firm grip on him.

"My daughter trusts you with her life, and so do I, but on no account mention about her mother, it still brings out horrible memories in this old and dusty house." Confusing him slightly, Gabriel goes to ask why that is, but Vincent beats him to it.

"Her mother was a Pureblood fanatic. She ha gone mad with the teachings of Voldermort, and now that she has left Mara and I with nothing but her old vault and this house, I'm not so sure what yo think about her anymore." Knowing that the Dorians are in the same situation as Gabriel, he nods to Vincent, intending to keep his end of the bargain to never speak of his wife/Mara's mother.

"Rest up, Gabriel. You will need a full night's rest before you can freely roam around the house. I will have to ask Mara to give you a tour of the areas that are not prohibited while you're here."

"I was thinking of resting already. Thank you again, sir Dorian. I cannot thank you enough for letting me stay here." Gabriel bows his head to the leader of the house, who gives him a smile before leaving the former to finish his breakfast and get some rest.

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"That's pretty much everything that's culminated up to this point. For a while, I've been living under the Dorians' residence until Auror raided the home to arrest me. I put up a good fight but they managed to take me down, you can thank Alastor Moody for that one. And that's pretty much it, the origin of me, a monster in the eyes of the public." As Gabriel finishes his story, Hermione can only look at him with visible sympathy, placing a hand on his knee.

"You're not a monster, Gabriel. If you were one, you wouldn't be able to fee any sort of sympathy towards who you've killed. Has there ever been a time where you've regretted killing?" She asks him.

"Yes, a Death Eater family had a child, they were only a few months old when I had killed it's parents, and knowing that I would have no resources to take care of the child, I did the only thing I still regret to this day." He didn't want to say another word after that, and Hermione got the message down. They leave the conversation at that before they decide it is best to head back to the common room to meet up with the others.