In truth, Dumbledore did not know that compared to them, Leonard himself was not especially eager to fall out with anyone either.
In the end, it all came down to the sword still hanging over his head.
Odin. An Eternal Wizard who had already become legend.
Only an Eternal Wizard could stand against another Eternal Wizard. Leonard was strong now, strong enough that the plants he controlled casually could crush several legendary wizards.
But he was not an Eternal Wizard.
As the World Tree, becoming an Eternal Wizard was still very difficult for Leonard, because the power that had originated from the World Tree had already been transformed into Odin's ancient magic and now sustained Odin as an Eternal Wizard.
Unless Odin died, Leonard would never be able to rely on ancient magic to become an Eternal Wizard.
But Leonard could not beat Odin.
If he could not beat Odin, he could not free ancient magic and become an Eternal Wizard. If he could not become an Eternal Wizard, then he could never be Odin's match.
The road ahead had become a hopeless closed loop. Without outside help, all that awaited him was being caught by Odin and turned into a living battery.
By then, his consciousness would probably be erased as well. After all, who would tolerate their own bank card developing self-awareness and transferring money away at will?
So if Leonard wanted to survive, he had to find another Eternal Wizard to oppose Odin.
And the only person Leonard now knew who might actually become an Eternal Wizard was none other than...
Grindelwald, of course.
Dumbledore was powerful, certainly, but Hogwarts and the matter of Voldemort had cost him too much time. In terms of magical attainment, he was still inferior to Grindelwald, who had remained in Nurmengard all these years.
The last time they met, Leonard had not understood Eternal Wizards very deeply. But now he had a framework for it, and he could roughly sense just how terrifying Grindelwald's aura and bearing had really been back then.
There was a very real chance that Grindelwald had already become an Eternal Wizard through modern magic.
And that old man's feelings toward Dumbledore were exceedingly complicated. Just hearing that Dumbledore might die had stirred such obvious emotion in him.
Leonard felt he could stay by Dumbledore's side for a while and maybe build up a little goodwill through him.
And if that did not work, Leonard could always steal the Elder Wand. It was one of Death's Hallows after all. If he had it in hand, maybe he might be able to glimpse Death's power as an Eternal Wizard.
With that in mind, Leonard did not leave Hogwarts. Instead, he stayed on like an ordinary good student and continued studying there.
Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall also kept quiet about Leonard and told none of the other professors anything.
Aside from the few people who had been in the Headmaster's office that day, no one knew Leonard had anything to do with the tree that had alarmed the Ministry of Magic.
As for the others, Sirius probably had no time to badmouth Leonard for the moment, and Dumbledore would not let him anyway.
Tonks, as an Auror, was the more troublesome case, since she held public office. But Dumbledore had secured her promise to keep the matter secret. Judging by the situation, he seemed to want to bring her into the Order of the Phoenix ahead of schedule.
As for Ron Weasley, a third-year child...
No one cared what he said. Even if he swore up and down that Leonard was extraordinary, or that the tree had something to do with Leonard, no one would believe him.
So Leonard's easygoing life remained undisturbed. He could still spend his idle time researching new weapons, attending class, and throwing parties with the Hufflepuffs.
Still, Leonard did not become completely careless. He remained alert within reasonable limits.
Even though Dumbledore had said nothing, Leonard understood that Dumbledore already suspected he had something to do with the deaths of Draco Malfoy and the others. He simply lacked evidence.
You could tell just from the way Dumbledore had looked at him before.
If he ever found proof, he would probably move decisively to have Leonard arrested.
But until that proof appeared, Dumbledore would continue doing his duty as headmaster, educating Leonard and protecting him.
Even so, Dumbledore's eyes would remain fixed on him, just in case this unstable element caused uncontrollable destruction at Hogwarts.
But Dumbledore very soon had no spare energy left to keep watching Leonard.
He had to wrangle with the Ministry of Magic. Sirius's case also still needed to be resolved, and the first hurdle was getting the Ministry to accept that Peter Pettigrew was not dead, and that he was anything but innocent.
That was going to be a long process. Dumbledore did not want to completely fall out with the Ministry, so for the time being he chose not to go through public opinion. He was trying to leave the Ministry some face.
Until everything was settled, Sirius, still a wanted fugitive, could not show himself freely. So Harry Potter still had no idea he had a godfather.
And while Leonard was living his somewhat abnormal daily life, an unexpected development, one completely outside his expectations, was quietly unfolding where he was not looking.
...
Great Hangleton. In a secluded forest, a broken-down wooden shack stood amid a tangle of weeds.
As unbelievable as it seemed, this really was the ancestral home of the Gaunt family, that once-pure-blood wizarding line.
The Gaunt family was gone. That once illustrious family, obsessed with purifying Slytherin blood through inbreeding, had produced nothing but madmen and fools.
On top of that, they spent lavishly and had no real property to support themselves. In the end, all that remained of the Gaunts was this old house, which looked more like a refugee camp than a family estate.
The last heir of the Gaunt family, Morfin Gaunt, had been framed by his own nephew, Voldemort, and died in Azkaban.
As for Voldemort... although he was Slytherin's heir, he certainly did not count as one of the Gaunts.
And today, this long-abandoned old house received a visitor.
"The Gaunt family..." Grindelwald looked at the dilapidated shack before him and sighed with some feeling.
When he was young, the Gaunt family had already been in decline, but not yet reduced to this point. He had never imagined they would vanish completely.
And they were hardly a special case. Many pure-blood families had disappeared for one reason or another.
That was the inevitable result of a wizarding world trapped in stagnation. A world like this had no future worth speaking of.
After taking a moment to pay his respects to this last remnant of the Gaunt family, Grindelwald slowly walked toward the shack.
He had not come here to indulge in old memories. Families like this, already discarded by history, gave him nothing worth remembering or reflecting on.
He had come here with a very clear objective.
"The Gaunt family may have fallen, but it seems they never sold their ancestral heirlooms. The Resurrection Stone, as the Gaunt family's token, should still be here."
Grindelwald's gaze darkened.
Dumbledore was going to die because of the curse on the Resurrection Stone?
Then Grindelwald would simply take the Resurrection Stone first and see how that fool intended to die such a stupid, laughable death then.