Once upon a time (based on the true story)
This is a story of ardour, cunning, bravery and luck. It`s a story about young man who defeated Grindelwald in the most unique way. He called himself Victor Dictus, He-Who-Give-His-Name-To-Victory. And it was true. As true as his real name – Callidus Vimp (clever wimp). Is it possible, you may say, that two opposite meanings combined couldn`t be true? Yes. And no. Listen and don`t say you haven`t been informed.
He was born in 1914 into a poor family of Cornish wizards. His mother always said that she was related to Marvolo`s family, but she never cited evidence. His father ended his life in Azkaban for repeatedly using Summoning charms to steal from Muggles. There were some whispers that his mother Oclundia took part in these crimes, but she was never under investigation.
Young Callidus came to Hogwarts and was put into Slytherin. Mid- and end- of the 1920s were the time of the start of Grindelwald`s uprising, and a lot of young Slytherins dreamed of joining his Army. Callidus wasn`t that type of romantic. Those youngsters mostly came from such aristocratic Wizard families as Malfoy, Umbridge and Avery. Callidus felt envious. He was poor, weak but craved for glory and dreamed of becoming an object of admiration. So he left Hogwarts in the third year and disappeared in the fast life of the Continent.
Six times he was put in Caillebotis (“summer Azkaban” in France) for fraud, cardsharping, theft and robbery, and he became a sophisticated cheater. But in 1934 he disappeared again.
Callidus appeared again in 1937 with a new look, a new wand, new papers and new name. Victor Dictus, wearing a deep purple robe with an Order of Merlin 3rd Class on it, with a confident gait entered the gate of Nurmengard to enlist in the Department of Propaganda of Grindelwald Army. There were a few British wizards in GG`s service, so he was calm. Nobody would recognize the once pimply youngster as this tall, strong, bearded man. The Order of Merlin was a fake, the papers were stolen from a chance companion and magically modified. Even the robe was stolen by his mother from a wizard who had brought it to be repaired. But nobody asked any questions. Victor was enlisted into the service and he requested a trip to the Albanian Troll War.
He got 300 Gellert`s Golden Marks for an expenses and didn`t go anywhere. He spent the money at Monte-Carlo and falsified a letter from the field hospital of the Académie de Traitement et de Soins de France, stating that he was wounded in action, when he singlehandedly defeated 17 mountain Trolls. More than that – Victor falsified a letter from the dead Gunther Harbrod, Chief-of-Command of the Bavarian Division of Grindelwald`s Army and pinned on himself a fake Iron Triangle.
When Victor returned as a wounded hero with the battle award he was immediately promoted in the service and he married the daughter of his boss. His career was at its zenith, and Victor was admitted into the elite circles of the Nurmengard and joined the group of observers in Gellert Grindelwald’s personal Staff.
But he wanted more. He wanted to be the first to be awarded the recently established Order of the Golden Triangle personally, legally and officially from the hands of Gellert Grindelwald.
He brought his mother, under a fake name, of course, and got her a job as a scrubbing woman at the Ministry of War. There she stole a stamp, some official blank paper and a sample of Grindelwald`s signature. So he falsified the letter from Grindelwald and send it by official crow to the Office of the Ministry of War.
No-one dared to check with Gellert – so on May 12, 1939, Gellert Grindelwald personally pinned the Golden Triangle on the robe of Victor Dictus, and it was published in newspapers all around the Wizard World. It marked the end of the story.
Also w-photos of Callidus reverently kneeling was published in the Cote d`Azur wizard newspaper «Potins» (“Whispers”), and Comissaire de L`Aurore Maurice Valadié recognized his face immediately. He gave an interview to a local journalist and soon all European wizards roared with laughter at the fool Gellert. Perhaps that laughter reduced the ranks of volunteers in Grindelwald`s Army more than all the lost battles.
Callidus Vimp was hanged on the Nurmengard`s gates together with his mother, wife, father-in-law and half the staff of the Department of Propaganda. In the following years much of the efforts of the new staff of the DoP were utilised trying to wipe this story from the memory of the Wizard community – but they failed as had Gellert himself.
Callidus/Victor became the first Commander of the Order of the Golden Triangle. And he was the first stripped of it. Who was defeated in this hustle? – You must decide for yourself.
