Mason Aves: The Wizard(Kinda Complete.. again)
- Thread starter HelloDarkness07
- Start date
The news article seemed weird to me, why would they speculate about desertion? Wouldn't it make more sense they'd speculate about [Insert Heroic death here] and circumstances of disappearance while avoiding any hint about desertion? Considering all the PR and propaganda surrounding captain Aves?
- Location
- hell
Please don't contradict yourself in the same sentence, it pisses me off.
- Location
- miami
Wizards aren't egotistical madman because they have magic they are wave a stick and change the laws of reality do that for even a year and see how big a head you get. And with magic you have painting of your elders literally talking your ear off about how you have to uphold the family legacy.
Only thing I see coming from this is him realizing he's not different then any other magic user. After all the reason so many people dislike dumbledore isn't because he's a "greater good" would be chess master who seeming never uses his power for anything actual helpful ( atleast the book version of him) no most of us hate him because he just sucks at it and gets people killed needlessly. It's why it's so damn easy to make him out as either grossly incompetent or out right evil in fanfiction.
Thanks for the chapter. Wondering here how bad could lady Potter screw him on that oath is she wanted too like could she of bared him from using wizard magic altogether if she wanted?
Only thing I see coming from this is him realizing he's not different then any other magic user. After all the reason so many people dislike dumbledore isn't because he's a "greater good" would be chess master who seeming never uses his power for anything actual helpful ( atleast the book version of him) no most of us hate him because he just sucks at it and gets people killed needlessly. It's why it's so damn easy to make him out as either grossly incompetent or out right evil in fanfiction.
Thanks for the chapter. Wondering here how bad could lady Potter screw him on that oath is she wanted too like could she of bared him from using wizard magic altogether if she wanted?
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- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
The punishment should suit the crime. As far as Healer Potter knows, Mason broke his oath while in War, torturing people. Torturing is bad, but it is war, and she understands a little. His crimes are only to say goodbye to his dreams of becoming a Healer.
49. Darla White
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
A/N: Pat-reon: HelloDarkness07
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Lieutenant General Adam Rivers, that was his name. For 40 years, he had served the country, either in the British Army, or in the MI5, or as of the last decade, the MIS.
Magical Intelligence Services, an organisation created by the hard working, normal people, to keep an eye on the British Wizarding Government, and even the British Wizarding World.
Never, in his 40 years of service, however, had he been through anything so insulting, as this.
One of their own, Captain Sir Mason Aves, or Captain Avalon, as he's more famous as, had deserted not just the British Army, but the MIS too. He had been recruited by the MIS a year ago, he had given oaths that made it impossible for him to lie to them, to betray them, and yet, he had done so.
At first, when Mason Aves had disappeared from the Hydra battlefield, everyone had thought him dead, or captured. Since that is the only thing that could prevent him from showing himself. Even the MIS thought the same, when their own Wizards couldn't track him down, even after using a variety of spells and Rituals.
But now, he had just received intel, that Mason Aves was alive and well, in the Wizarding World. He had disappeared off the face of the muggle world, and hidden away in the Wizarding one, with no one knowing exactly where he is.
This is why he was here now, in the most secure Room in the Buckingham Palace, meeting the most Politically powerful people in the United Kingdom.
Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of the UK, puts his cigarette out in the ash tray, and says, "The conclusion is plain, the boy betrayed us, betrayed the United Kingdom. He must have found a way to get rid of the Oaths he took, Magical or not. I don't think how it's possible, otherwise, for him to not be here, giving excuses for his desertion."
Special Agent Watson, the only Wizard currently in the room, and the one who did the most research on Mason Aves's capabilities, says, "It's certainly possible for him to do so, Sir Mason Aves is a certified genius, even Grindelwald seems to think so. But, on the other hand, the Wizarding Government has ordered him to not show himself to the Muggle world, which does count this group of honourable people, I'm afraid."
Rivers nods, accepting the point. Aves's orders from the MIS included an order to lay low, under cover, unless called upon, so it could be that he's doing just that, laying low.
Or, it could be that he has found a way to get rid of the Oaths binding him to the MIS, and decided to just leave. He certainly seemed like a strong Wizard, nowadays.
Major General Sir Stewart Menzies, the Chief of the MI6, scowls, and says, "We both know that Aves is more than capable enough of coming here without anyone knowing. If it wasn't for those flimsy Magical wards of yours, then I would have been afraid of him coming here too."
Director General Sir David Petrie, of the MI5, and Adam Rivers's boss, slams his hand on the table, and says, "I don't bloody care if he's a genius, or if he's the bloody Lord almighty himself. Aves deserted his station, deserted SSR, where he was needed still, and deserted the MIS, whom he was supposed to be loyal to. That. Is. Treason."
Adam Rivers nods, and says, "Yes, we still have need of him, and he betrayed us. He needs to be punished for his crime, at least his image needs to be tarnished."
No matter the reason he had decided to keep hiding, Mason Aves was a deserter. And the praise he's getting, well, he does not deserve it. Seriously, praising the man who deserted, saying he deserves some rest after everything he's been through?
The only rest that Soldiers get, is Death.
The King, who had remained silent up till now, reading the file, finally asks, "What of this Demon? The Demon that Aves supposedly fought and defeated, single-handedly."
Agent Watson fixes the glasses on his head, and says, "It's gone. Whatever parts of it were cut off, were destroyed by either Captain Aves himself, or by the ICW Wizards who were the first on site. The two immortal Wizards, the Flamels, made sure nothing remained of the Demon, so nothing can be used by anyone."
The King sighs, annoyed, as far as Rivers can tell. He then looks up, and says, "Three Wizards were bled dry, their blood used in the Ritual to summon the Demon. We don't know what kind of Demon it was, how Hydra did it, or why Wizards were the ones sacrificed. We don't even know what methods Aves used to defeat it. It seems Aves has all the cards, at this moment."
It is then that Rivers realised it. If 3 unwilling wizards can be used to summon a Demon that was so dangerous that the ICW showed up, then what can a group of Wizards do.. willingly? Aves might not be on their side if another Demon shows up, they have no guarantee he will be. Heck, he might be the one to summon the Demon.
Rivers looks around, and sure enough, everyone's faces looked as if they had sucked on a lemon.
The King closes the file, and says, "We will leave Aves be, for now. The Wizards need him to take care of this Dark Lord, who is definitely a threat to the entire World. They certainly believe so, or they wouldn't have recalled him so soon."
The King turns towards Rivers, and says, "Do not be mistaken, we will bring Aves to heel. He's a Knight of the Realm, sworn in duty to us. And he will do that Duty, whether he wants to or not. His Oaths will ensure that. For now, keep an eye on him, on his friends, and on the Wizarding War. Keep up with the recruitment, but don't do anything to ruin Captain Aves's image. He's a symbol of bravery to our people, and ruining his image will do nothing good for us."
'It might do a lot to harm Aves, though.' Rivers thinks, but holds his tongue.
As they leave, Rivers can't help but feel as if the King had given Aves a free reign, despite his betrayal. But, well, Royal orders are Royal orders.
ooOoo
Darla White, an Auror. For 6 years, she has been an Auror, working with the same mediocre salary of G225 per month. Considering that her girlfriend's shop makes that much in a week, during slow days, is just..
But, well, she liked her job. Despite the discrimination against her in the office politics, the snide remarks of her ever becoming barely anything more than a low ranked Auror, and the leagues of paperwork she has to go through, for everything, she still liked her job.
There were days, however, when she found her job slightly annoying.
As she stuns the two Wizards, and a Witch, that she was fighting against, and binds them with the Incarcerous spell, she asks, "What number is this for this week?"
Auror James Fern, one of her team mates, turns away from the 2 Wizards that he had had to deal with, and says, "The number of muggle places attacked, or the number of Police stations? The number is too bloody high for the first, and it's the fourth Police station."
4. That was how many Police stations had been attacked by Wizards, either under Grindelwald's orders, or inspired by him.
The Demon attack, and the fact that muggles had sacrificed three Wizards in a Summoning Ritual, had become very famous, no doubt thanks to Grindelwald's own actions. This had inspired many.. extremists, into attacking muggle Government buildings, places of importance to the Muggle Government.
Army Recruitment centres, Post offices, the bloody Palace of Westminster, the Libraries, and of course, numerous Police stations. The worst part was, these Wizards were mostly British, people who she remembered seeing at one point in time or another.
And these people wanted an all out War with the Muggle world, with a lot of the Pureblood Houses in support of the movement now.
Hearing the sound of footsteps, she turns towards her Team leader, Madam Crickerly, and says, "The job is done, Ma'am. 3 Police officers lost their lives, unfortunately enough, and several more are injured."
The attacking Wizards weren't.. competent, not too much anyway. Muggles might have had trouble with them, but for experienced Aurors such as them, it was a job for just two minutes, without receiving a single injury.
Madam Crickerly nods, and says, "Prep them for transfer. The Obliviators should be here soon."
As soon as she says that, multiple cracks sound, as the Obliviation Squad appears. The place was already deserted, thanks to Muggle Repelling Wards that Darla's team had cast as soon as they had come in, and so, it doesn't take them long to start with their job.
Darla sees the Obliviators doing their job, and asks, "The situation is really getting bad, isn't it?"
Madam Crickerly glances at Darla, and the remaining members of the team, and says, "The situation can get a lot worse than this, White. My grandmother told me stories about the last Dark Lord, and he had managed to wage a one man war against entirety of Britain, with just an army of Inferi at his back. And he almost won. So, yes, the situation is bad now, but it can get a lot, lot worse."
Ah, yes. Darla had read about the Dark Lord Inferus. A Necromancer from an unknown background, destroyed the Leaky Cauldron building entirely, and was on his way to attack Hogwarts.
Thankfully, he never reached there, thanks to his Inferi army turning on him. The Unspeakables took care of the Inferi, by burning them with Fiendfyre. But before his death, he dealt a lot of Destruction and Death to Wizarding Britain.
7 families died out, 18 shops in Diagon Alley, and 13 in Knockturn Alley were destroyed, and a total of 1000 people lost their lives, before he lost his. The reason not many people spoke about him, was that he wasn't defeated by anyone.
His own spell backfired, turning his horde of thousands of Inferi against him. And the Ministry didn't like that, they wanted to forget about him.
Shaking her head, Darla says, "I just hope the War ends quickly. The muggles have caused enough destruction on their own, we don't need any Wizards to add on to it."
A few hours later, at the end of Darla's duty hours, Darla apparates home, right outside the door. The house was in Sutton and Cheam, in South London. It was a modest 3 bedroom house, that Darla had brought along with her girlfriend, a little over 3 years ago.
Opening the door, she walks right in, and says, "Darling, I'm home!"
No one answers her, however, and she smiles, knowing the reason. Putting her Auror Coat on the hanger, she loosens her tie a little, and walks towards one of the bedrooms, which was almost always locked.
Tapping the door with her ring, she whispers the password, causing the door to open with a click. As she walks in, Darla sees her girlfriend with her head ducked, as she sat at her workshop table.
Anastasia Greengrass, her girlfriend, doesn't even notice her, as she walks towards her, and puts her hands around her neck, causing her to jump a little, the wand in her hand immediately pointing at Darla's forehead.
"6 years of us staying together, and you still manage to be startled every time." Darla whispers in Ana's ears, as she kisses her cheek lightly.
Ana sighs, holding on to Darla's hand, and says, "You enjoy it, startling me. You know I'm in my own mind when I'm working, and you take advantage."
Hugging Ana from behind, Darla says, "Well, I could have been someone else, and you wouldn't even know. That's a bad habit, staying so focused. What are you working on, by the way?"
As Darla goes to sit on a chair on the opposite side of the table, Ana continues working on what looks like a Mirror, and says, "It's a Foe Glass, it is supposed to show me my enemies, any threats to my life. But, well, it's a work in progress." She then looks up, seeing Darla smiling in content, and asks, "Tough day at work?"
Darla shakes her head, not saying anything. But she doesn't need to, Ana knows her, too well. Putting the Wand down, Ana holds on the Darla's hand, and says, "You know you can quit, right? I won't think any worse of you, and I doubt anyone else will either."
Darla looks into the loving eyes of Ana, still wondering how she managed to bag a beautiful bird like her. She then remembers the day she had first found out about Demons, the day she felt the absolute Evil in Set. She remembered how afraid she was then, and she remembered how helpless she was.
The most dangerous spell she knew, the Blood Boiling curse, was absolutely useless in front of the Demon, and Mason still fought it, held it back even. He didn't use anything too impressive, when it comes to magic, but he still kept Set busy, and then defeated the Demon.
Shaking her head, Darla says, "You know I won't do that, I became an Auror because I wanted to, and I'll be damned if I quit now that it's getting hard."
She then looks at the clock, and says, "Come on, I'll start heating dinner up. You better get down in half an hour."
Darla then approaches Ana's desk, leaves a heavy kiss on her lips, and then walks out, to go towards the Kitchen.
After Dinner, Ana asks, "Have you met Mason, recently? I've heard he's back now."
Darla shakes her head, and says, "I have no idea where he is. I know he visited St Mungo's 2 days ago, poor guy. I spoke with Healer Potter. She said he was devastated with everything that's happened. Lost two friends, lost his chance of becoming a Healer. I didn't even have the time to ask anyone where he is, let alone go visit him."
Ana frowns, and says, "Darla, our friend is upset, and we haven't even tried to find out where he is? Have you tried asking that House Elf of his?"
Darla automatically corrects her, saying, "Elf, not House Elf. Mason says he doesn't own Blinky."
"Miss White called?" A voice says suddenly from behind her, the surprise causing Darla to apparate in front of Ana, with her Wand raised at the voice.
Seeing Blinky, Darla sighs, dropping her wand down, and says, "Bloody hell, Blinky. I could have attacked you."
And it wouldn't have been the first Elf she had attacked on instinct, the Potter family's elf came to mind.
Blinky looks up, confused, and it looks so weird, that Darla can't help but snort. Wearing a black and white butler's uniform, Blinky also had dark black shoes on, and a monocle on her left eye.
Blinky says, "But you couldn't have, I have learned to defend myself."
Ana, who had taken her own wand out when Blinky came in, uninvited, says, "Gods, Mason's really hell-bent on his free Elves movement, isn't he?"
Darla shakes her head, and says, "Not the point. Blinky, do you know where Mason is?" As Blinky nods, she asks, "Can you take us to him?"
Blinky hesitates, and says, "I need to ask Mason Sir before taking you. He wants to be alone, you see."
Darla shares a look with Ana, both of them now really concerned. Bending down, Darla sits on her knees, right in front of Blinky, and says, "Blinky, you want to help Mason, don't you?"
Blinky nods, now looking upset, and says, "Mason Sir has been working, just training or learning, continuously. I want to help him, but there is nothing I can do right now."
"Take us to him, Blinky. We're his friends, you know that. I can talk to him, try and bring him back to a better mood." Darla says, while Ana looks on.
Blinky frowns, thinking, and after a while, she says, "Mason Sir never told me I couldn't bring his friends to him."
Trust an Elf to always know about loopholes. Darla couldn't remember the number of Elves that had snitched on their Masters simply because they never told the elf not to do that.
Smiling, Darla turns to Ana, and says, "Can you see if Dorea wants to come, we'll get the gang back together. Maybe that will help make Mason feel better."
As Ana nods and walks out of the Kitchen, towards the floo, Darla turns towards Blinky, and says, "Just a minute, let's see if Dorea wants to come."
A few minutes later, Ana walks back in, Dorea with her, whom Darla greets with a hug. While Ana and Darla stayed together, and hence were always in contact, Dorea was currently living alone, and they rarely met.
She was training for her Alchemy Mastery, which she had gotten interested in after her 17th Birthday. Mason had given her an introductory book on Alchemy, as a Birthday gift, one that had been banned almost a century ago.
Even 7 years after beginning learning, Dorea was barely 70% done, with her highest Alchemical capabilities being Transmutation of one precious metal to another. She could also create Alchemical Potions, and transmute other things, but she was nowhere close to figuring the Philosopher's Stone out, let alone the Universal Solvent.
All three of the girls take Blinky's hands, and close their eyes, bracing for the Side Along Apparition. Side Along was always rougher on the senses than apparating by yourself, it was a result of someone else doing the Magic.
And then, they disappear from Darla's and Ana's home, within a wormhole created by Blinky's magic.
When she opens her eyes, now out of the Apparition tube, Darla sees that she is in the Chamber of Secrets, and smiles. 'Of course, he's here.' she thinks.
But, as she looks around, she doesn't find Mason anywhere, or even any evidence of the place having been lived in. She knew, that there was a Secret room somewhere, where Mason could live in if he wanted to, but she hadn't seen it, ever.
"Now what?" Dorea asks, sounding a bit annoyed, as Blinky apparates away, to God knows where.
Darla ignores the annoyance, somewhat understanding it. Dorea must have dropped some research to come here, to meet with Mason, and he was nowhere to be seen.
Summoning her wand, Darla closes her eyes to focus on a happy memory, and waves her wand in a wide arc over her head. She whispers, "Expecto Patronum!" And smiles, seeing the familiar lioness Patronus. She says, "Tell Mason, we're in the Chamber of Secrets, where are you?"
And then, the Patronus flies away, surprisingly enough, going into the floor. As they watch the Patronus disappear into the ground, Dorea asks, "Okay, did you know that there are more rooms below the Chamber? We're already what, a mile underground?"
Shrugging, Ana says, "It could be a room, or it could just as well be something Mason created. You know him, his preparation borders on paranoia. He probably hid the room away behind Wards or something, even if no one can come to this chamber anyway."
"Oh yeah? Is that why you're standing inside the main Chamber, without me bringing you here?" The familiar voice of Mason Aves says from behind them, startling all three girls there into pointing their wands at him.
Mason just looks at the wands, as if they're an annoyance to him, and knowing what she does about his capabilities, Darla can't say it's not true. Putting her Wand back in its holster, Darla is the first one to approach Mason, as she hugs him tightly.
Mason just stands there, taking the hug, barely reciprocating. He instead, looks them all over, and says, "Hey, Dorea. Long time no see, how have you been?"
"Pretty good, better than you, in any case, from what I've heard." Dorea says, just shrugging. She was no longer the cute little Dorea, who was head over heels for Mason. She was still cute, beautiful even, but she no longer pined after anyone, preferring to focus on her Alchemy.
Mason chuckles, and says, "Yeah, I've had a rough month."
Even if his voice sounds normal, and he looks normal, Darla somehow knows, that he's anything but normal. She could feel it, his sadness.
Looking up from the hug, as Dorea and Ana come closer to hug him too, Darla softly says, "You don't have to pretend, Mason. You can show your emotions here."
Mason smiles, a bit sadly, separating from the hugs, and says, "I'm afraid I'm already done crying, Darla. I might still be upset, but I've gotten over it."
He then waves his hand, creating a portal to somewhere, and says, "Come on, let's talk somewhere comfortable."
Darla walks through the portal immediately, already having experience with the Sorcery Portals, while Ana and Dorea stop in the chamber itself, slackjawed.
'Oh, yeah. They don't know about his Portals.' Darla thinks, as she looks at Ana's surprised face, sheepishly smiling. She hadn't told Ana about Set, or the battle they had had. It was Mason's secret, and she wasn't going to share it with anyone he didn't agree to tell.
"I didn't know you had learned Sorcery, Mason." Dorea says, being the first to get out of shock, as she walks through. Of course she knows about Sorcery, her family has had dealings with some Sorcerers, and even some of the Demons in the past.
Her voice manages to bring Ana out of her shock, and she says, "You aren't surprised, you knew about this?"
Mason says, "I asked her not to share it with people, you know how the relations between Sorcerers and Wizards is.. barely there. I didn't want to create problems for anyone."
Darla internally thanks him, wondering if he'd read her mind or something. After a moment, she dismisses it. Her mental shields were too good, thanks to Mason's own teachings. She would have known if he had entered her mind.
"Where are we anyway?" Dorea asks, as Mason leads them towards what looks like a house, at the end of the path.
Mason smiles, and says, "This.. is my Home. The Aves Manor. It had burned down some 50 years ago, and I had it rebuilt when I became an adult. I'm sorry for not bringing you here before, I was content with just staying in my Islington House, you know."
Darla could think of a few words for Mason, but she understood his worries. He wanted a house to remain private, she could accept that.
For the first half hour or so, Mason gives them a tour of his house, and the grounds. She was glad to know that this place is as secure as they come, thanks to the Fidelius charm. She was also glad to know that the only people who knew about this house were the ones inside the house.
'At least I have one more place to look for, when I can't find him.' Darla thinks, as they sit down in the living room, taking a chair each.
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Mason POV:
Waving my hand, I summon a few bottles of different alcohols, and place them on a table in between us. The talks that we were going to have will surely need drinks.
I wasn't upset anymore, I didn't lie. There was some pain in my heart, sure, but it wasn't anything I couldn't manage.
As I hand them a glass of scotch each, I can't help but notice that Dorea has gotten a lot more attractive than the last time I had seen her. Which was.. wow, I haven't seen her in years!
"So.. ready to talk it out?" Dorea asks, raising an eyebrow at me.
I chuckle, as I go back to my own seat, and say, "I wasn't lying before, you know. I'm over it." Seeing all their dubious faces, I say, "It still hurts, everything that has happened, sure. But I'm not being a bitch about it."
"Are you sure? You know we're here for you, right?" Darla asks, as she drinks her drink.
Nodding, I smile at Darla, and say, "I'm sure. I appreciate it though." Pausing, I smile, remembering my Army days, and say, "Tim wasn't the first friend I lost, you know. I'd made a few friends in my training days, and more than a few on the battlefield. Tim was just.. special."
I see Dorea smile, with Darla joining in. Ana was just observing me, probably trying to see if I'm actually alright, not trusting my own judgment.
I'm glad Blinky brought them to me, that Darla bothered to try. She might not be much help in taking my psychology back to normal, but the fact that she tried does make me happy.
Turning towards Dorea, the one I hadn't seen the most out of the girls, I ask, "What are you up to anyway? Last I'd heard you were beginning with Alchemy."
Dorea pours some more scotch for herself, her glass already empty, and says, "Yeah, I'm still learning." Seeing my dubious face, she adds, "Oh, piss off. I'm studying by myself, and I don't have much study material. I've bought many books, but Old Alchemy books are hard to find. My family had.. other interests, even in the past. Alchemy is not something they bothered too much with."
Oh, understandable. The Black Family is notoriously famous for being Dark.
I say, "I'll see if I have any more books on the subject."
I doubt the Flamels will take Dorea on as a student. They're really selective over whom they take, and Dorea, as impressive as she is, does not fit the bill.
Soon, our talks move on to our lives, all of us telling how our lives have gone for these years. Just listening to them speak helps me, since it makes me realise that I'm not alone. Steve and Tim might be gone, and I might have lost the Howling Commandos and the SSR too, but I still have these girls.
"Excuse me? You were going to be married?" I ask, stopping Dorea's talk, as she was explaining her own life.
Dorea frowns at me, making me realise what I just said, and asks, "What is that even supposed to mean?"
Raising my hands, I say, "Nevermind, I'm a twat. Please continue." I poke my tongue out at Darla, who had laughed at me taking my words back so soon. I might be a better fighter, but I know how to choose my own battles.
As she continues speaking, I take the Firewhiskey in my hand, knowing that I'll need this. Didn't know my actions changed this much out here.
"His name was Charlus Potter, a son of one of my father's old friends. He lost his life recently, in one of the Muggle air raids. Don't know which one though, his uncle didn't tell us much. I'm just glad to not have to marry someone I don't know." Dorea says, and the last part does make me sigh internally.
Thank God, I thought she loved him or something. Not that I have feelings for her, no, we don't know each other enough for me to say that. I just didn't want one of my friends to be upset because of my actions.
Yeah, I'm not mentioning that I was the one to kill him. If Monty didn't mention it, then it means they don't want his image tarnished. Good enough for me.
When the girls leave, at almost 12 AM, I have a smile on my face. I love Darla, no question there. She came here, to make sure I was okay. She's a true friend, and I'm glad she's my best friend.
Ana too, she might not be as close to me now as we were before, but she still came here, she bothered. And so did Dorea.
Dorea, now that's something I'm pleasantly surprised to see changed. She doesn't have feelings for me anymore, not a huge crush at least. And you know what, I'm glad. I might ask her out some day, I might not. But that doesn't mean I want her to keep pining after me, keep waiting for me.
If she finds someone that makes her happy, good. She deserves it. If I find someone that makes me happy, also good. I probably deserve it too. I think.
But before that, Dorea has to focus on her Alchemy Mastery, via independent studies, while I have a War to win.
After waving them goodbye, through a portal that takes them to Darla's house, I turn around, and summon a book. I've been practicing Runes, the last few days. I might have taken Grindelwald's Scrying advantage away from him, thanks to a handy Runic Tattoo branded on my back, but that doesn't mean he's any less knowledgeable.
He just can't scry anything about me, but he can still scry the future. Which means, he probably already knows whatever result is destined to happen, or one of them.
Scrying, unlike using the Time Stone, does not show you multiple possibilities, with no fixed result. It just shows you one vision each time, the rest depending on your own capabilities.
But, from what Grindelwald said, he has seen multiple versions of our fights, which means he has something else, probably a mutation, that allowed him to look into different futures. There is no fixed future, I know that. But every future he has seen, gives him that much more advantage.
That's not counting whatever other Mutations he has, and the fucking Death Stick in his hands. The Elder Wand, the most powerful Wand, in arguably the most powerful Wizarding hands alive.
If I'm hoping to defeat him, since I doubt Dumbledore will be able to, then I'm going to need to use every advantage I have, or gain advantages myself. Which is why, Runes.
Rowena was right, I need to use my imagination a lot more than I do now.
---
A/N: This chapter was a filler, I know. It does not have anything important, or any major changes to the ongoing plot. This will, however, help me when I write the eventual battle between Grindelwald's army, and the Good guys.
Thank you for your support! Tata!
---
Lieutenant General Adam Rivers, that was his name. For 40 years, he had served the country, either in the British Army, or in the MI5, or as of the last decade, the MIS.
Magical Intelligence Services, an organisation created by the hard working, normal people, to keep an eye on the British Wizarding Government, and even the British Wizarding World.
Never, in his 40 years of service, however, had he been through anything so insulting, as this.
One of their own, Captain Sir Mason Aves, or Captain Avalon, as he's more famous as, had deserted not just the British Army, but the MIS too. He had been recruited by the MIS a year ago, he had given oaths that made it impossible for him to lie to them, to betray them, and yet, he had done so.
At first, when Mason Aves had disappeared from the Hydra battlefield, everyone had thought him dead, or captured. Since that is the only thing that could prevent him from showing himself. Even the MIS thought the same, when their own Wizards couldn't track him down, even after using a variety of spells and Rituals.
But now, he had just received intel, that Mason Aves was alive and well, in the Wizarding World. He had disappeared off the face of the muggle world, and hidden away in the Wizarding one, with no one knowing exactly where he is.
This is why he was here now, in the most secure Room in the Buckingham Palace, meeting the most Politically powerful people in the United Kingdom.
Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of the UK, puts his cigarette out in the ash tray, and says, "The conclusion is plain, the boy betrayed us, betrayed the United Kingdom. He must have found a way to get rid of the Oaths he took, Magical or not. I don't think how it's possible, otherwise, for him to not be here, giving excuses for his desertion."
Special Agent Watson, the only Wizard currently in the room, and the one who did the most research on Mason Aves's capabilities, says, "It's certainly possible for him to do so, Sir Mason Aves is a certified genius, even Grindelwald seems to think so. But, on the other hand, the Wizarding Government has ordered him to not show himself to the Muggle world, which does count this group of honourable people, I'm afraid."
Rivers nods, accepting the point. Aves's orders from the MIS included an order to lay low, under cover, unless called upon, so it could be that he's doing just that, laying low.
Or, it could be that he has found a way to get rid of the Oaths binding him to the MIS, and decided to just leave. He certainly seemed like a strong Wizard, nowadays.
Major General Sir Stewart Menzies, the Chief of the MI6, scowls, and says, "We both know that Aves is more than capable enough of coming here without anyone knowing. If it wasn't for those flimsy Magical wards of yours, then I would have been afraid of him coming here too."
Director General Sir David Petrie, of the MI5, and Adam Rivers's boss, slams his hand on the table, and says, "I don't bloody care if he's a genius, or if he's the bloody Lord almighty himself. Aves deserted his station, deserted SSR, where he was needed still, and deserted the MIS, whom he was supposed to be loyal to. That. Is. Treason."
Adam Rivers nods, and says, "Yes, we still have need of him, and he betrayed us. He needs to be punished for his crime, at least his image needs to be tarnished."
No matter the reason he had decided to keep hiding, Mason Aves was a deserter. And the praise he's getting, well, he does not deserve it. Seriously, praising the man who deserted, saying he deserves some rest after everything he's been through?
The only rest that Soldiers get, is Death.
The King, who had remained silent up till now, reading the file, finally asks, "What of this Demon? The Demon that Aves supposedly fought and defeated, single-handedly."
Agent Watson fixes the glasses on his head, and says, "It's gone. Whatever parts of it were cut off, were destroyed by either Captain Aves himself, or by the ICW Wizards who were the first on site. The two immortal Wizards, the Flamels, made sure nothing remained of the Demon, so nothing can be used by anyone."
The King sighs, annoyed, as far as Rivers can tell. He then looks up, and says, "Three Wizards were bled dry, their blood used in the Ritual to summon the Demon. We don't know what kind of Demon it was, how Hydra did it, or why Wizards were the ones sacrificed. We don't even know what methods Aves used to defeat it. It seems Aves has all the cards, at this moment."
It is then that Rivers realised it. If 3 unwilling wizards can be used to summon a Demon that was so dangerous that the ICW showed up, then what can a group of Wizards do.. willingly? Aves might not be on their side if another Demon shows up, they have no guarantee he will be. Heck, he might be the one to summon the Demon.
Rivers looks around, and sure enough, everyone's faces looked as if they had sucked on a lemon.
The King closes the file, and says, "We will leave Aves be, for now. The Wizards need him to take care of this Dark Lord, who is definitely a threat to the entire World. They certainly believe so, or they wouldn't have recalled him so soon."
The King turns towards Rivers, and says, "Do not be mistaken, we will bring Aves to heel. He's a Knight of the Realm, sworn in duty to us. And he will do that Duty, whether he wants to or not. His Oaths will ensure that. For now, keep an eye on him, on his friends, and on the Wizarding War. Keep up with the recruitment, but don't do anything to ruin Captain Aves's image. He's a symbol of bravery to our people, and ruining his image will do nothing good for us."
'It might do a lot to harm Aves, though.' Rivers thinks, but holds his tongue.
As they leave, Rivers can't help but feel as if the King had given Aves a free reign, despite his betrayal. But, well, Royal orders are Royal orders.
ooOoo
Darla White, an Auror. For 6 years, she has been an Auror, working with the same mediocre salary of G225 per month. Considering that her girlfriend's shop makes that much in a week, during slow days, is just..
But, well, she liked her job. Despite the discrimination against her in the office politics, the snide remarks of her ever becoming barely anything more than a low ranked Auror, and the leagues of paperwork she has to go through, for everything, she still liked her job.
There were days, however, when she found her job slightly annoying.
As she stuns the two Wizards, and a Witch, that she was fighting against, and binds them with the Incarcerous spell, she asks, "What number is this for this week?"
Auror James Fern, one of her team mates, turns away from the 2 Wizards that he had had to deal with, and says, "The number of muggle places attacked, or the number of Police stations? The number is too bloody high for the first, and it's the fourth Police station."
4. That was how many Police stations had been attacked by Wizards, either under Grindelwald's orders, or inspired by him.
The Demon attack, and the fact that muggles had sacrificed three Wizards in a Summoning Ritual, had become very famous, no doubt thanks to Grindelwald's own actions. This had inspired many.. extremists, into attacking muggle Government buildings, places of importance to the Muggle Government.
Army Recruitment centres, Post offices, the bloody Palace of Westminster, the Libraries, and of course, numerous Police stations. The worst part was, these Wizards were mostly British, people who she remembered seeing at one point in time or another.
And these people wanted an all out War with the Muggle world, with a lot of the Pureblood Houses in support of the movement now.
Hearing the sound of footsteps, she turns towards her Team leader, Madam Crickerly, and says, "The job is done, Ma'am. 3 Police officers lost their lives, unfortunately enough, and several more are injured."
The attacking Wizards weren't.. competent, not too much anyway. Muggles might have had trouble with them, but for experienced Aurors such as them, it was a job for just two minutes, without receiving a single injury.
Madam Crickerly nods, and says, "Prep them for transfer. The Obliviators should be here soon."
As soon as she says that, multiple cracks sound, as the Obliviation Squad appears. The place was already deserted, thanks to Muggle Repelling Wards that Darla's team had cast as soon as they had come in, and so, it doesn't take them long to start with their job.
Darla sees the Obliviators doing their job, and asks, "The situation is really getting bad, isn't it?"
Madam Crickerly glances at Darla, and the remaining members of the team, and says, "The situation can get a lot worse than this, White. My grandmother told me stories about the last Dark Lord, and he had managed to wage a one man war against entirety of Britain, with just an army of Inferi at his back. And he almost won. So, yes, the situation is bad now, but it can get a lot, lot worse."
Ah, yes. Darla had read about the Dark Lord Inferus. A Necromancer from an unknown background, destroyed the Leaky Cauldron building entirely, and was on his way to attack Hogwarts.
Thankfully, he never reached there, thanks to his Inferi army turning on him. The Unspeakables took care of the Inferi, by burning them with Fiendfyre. But before his death, he dealt a lot of Destruction and Death to Wizarding Britain.
7 families died out, 18 shops in Diagon Alley, and 13 in Knockturn Alley were destroyed, and a total of 1000 people lost their lives, before he lost his. The reason not many people spoke about him, was that he wasn't defeated by anyone.
His own spell backfired, turning his horde of thousands of Inferi against him. And the Ministry didn't like that, they wanted to forget about him.
Shaking her head, Darla says, "I just hope the War ends quickly. The muggles have caused enough destruction on their own, we don't need any Wizards to add on to it."
A few hours later, at the end of Darla's duty hours, Darla apparates home, right outside the door. The house was in Sutton and Cheam, in South London. It was a modest 3 bedroom house, that Darla had brought along with her girlfriend, a little over 3 years ago.
Opening the door, she walks right in, and says, "Darling, I'm home!"
No one answers her, however, and she smiles, knowing the reason. Putting her Auror Coat on the hanger, she loosens her tie a little, and walks towards one of the bedrooms, which was almost always locked.
Tapping the door with her ring, she whispers the password, causing the door to open with a click. As she walks in, Darla sees her girlfriend with her head ducked, as she sat at her workshop table.
Anastasia Greengrass, her girlfriend, doesn't even notice her, as she walks towards her, and puts her hands around her neck, causing her to jump a little, the wand in her hand immediately pointing at Darla's forehead.
"6 years of us staying together, and you still manage to be startled every time." Darla whispers in Ana's ears, as she kisses her cheek lightly.
Ana sighs, holding on to Darla's hand, and says, "You enjoy it, startling me. You know I'm in my own mind when I'm working, and you take advantage."
Hugging Ana from behind, Darla says, "Well, I could have been someone else, and you wouldn't even know. That's a bad habit, staying so focused. What are you working on, by the way?"
As Darla goes to sit on a chair on the opposite side of the table, Ana continues working on what looks like a Mirror, and says, "It's a Foe Glass, it is supposed to show me my enemies, any threats to my life. But, well, it's a work in progress." She then looks up, seeing Darla smiling in content, and asks, "Tough day at work?"
Darla shakes her head, not saying anything. But she doesn't need to, Ana knows her, too well. Putting the Wand down, Ana holds on the Darla's hand, and says, "You know you can quit, right? I won't think any worse of you, and I doubt anyone else will either."
Darla looks into the loving eyes of Ana, still wondering how she managed to bag a beautiful bird like her. She then remembers the day she had first found out about Demons, the day she felt the absolute Evil in Set. She remembered how afraid she was then, and she remembered how helpless she was.
The most dangerous spell she knew, the Blood Boiling curse, was absolutely useless in front of the Demon, and Mason still fought it, held it back even. He didn't use anything too impressive, when it comes to magic, but he still kept Set busy, and then defeated the Demon.
Shaking her head, Darla says, "You know I won't do that, I became an Auror because I wanted to, and I'll be damned if I quit now that it's getting hard."
She then looks at the clock, and says, "Come on, I'll start heating dinner up. You better get down in half an hour."
Darla then approaches Ana's desk, leaves a heavy kiss on her lips, and then walks out, to go towards the Kitchen.
After Dinner, Ana asks, "Have you met Mason, recently? I've heard he's back now."
Darla shakes her head, and says, "I have no idea where he is. I know he visited St Mungo's 2 days ago, poor guy. I spoke with Healer Potter. She said he was devastated with everything that's happened. Lost two friends, lost his chance of becoming a Healer. I didn't even have the time to ask anyone where he is, let alone go visit him."
Ana frowns, and says, "Darla, our friend is upset, and we haven't even tried to find out where he is? Have you tried asking that House Elf of his?"
Darla automatically corrects her, saying, "Elf, not House Elf. Mason says he doesn't own Blinky."
"Miss White called?" A voice says suddenly from behind her, the surprise causing Darla to apparate in front of Ana, with her Wand raised at the voice.
Seeing Blinky, Darla sighs, dropping her wand down, and says, "Bloody hell, Blinky. I could have attacked you."
And it wouldn't have been the first Elf she had attacked on instinct, the Potter family's elf came to mind.
Blinky looks up, confused, and it looks so weird, that Darla can't help but snort. Wearing a black and white butler's uniform, Blinky also had dark black shoes on, and a monocle on her left eye.
Blinky says, "But you couldn't have, I have learned to defend myself."
Ana, who had taken her own wand out when Blinky came in, uninvited, says, "Gods, Mason's really hell-bent on his free Elves movement, isn't he?"
Darla shakes her head, and says, "Not the point. Blinky, do you know where Mason is?" As Blinky nods, she asks, "Can you take us to him?"
Blinky hesitates, and says, "I need to ask Mason Sir before taking you. He wants to be alone, you see."
Darla shares a look with Ana, both of them now really concerned. Bending down, Darla sits on her knees, right in front of Blinky, and says, "Blinky, you want to help Mason, don't you?"
Blinky nods, now looking upset, and says, "Mason Sir has been working, just training or learning, continuously. I want to help him, but there is nothing I can do right now."
"Take us to him, Blinky. We're his friends, you know that. I can talk to him, try and bring him back to a better mood." Darla says, while Ana looks on.
Blinky frowns, thinking, and after a while, she says, "Mason Sir never told me I couldn't bring his friends to him."
Trust an Elf to always know about loopholes. Darla couldn't remember the number of Elves that had snitched on their Masters simply because they never told the elf not to do that.
Smiling, Darla turns to Ana, and says, "Can you see if Dorea wants to come, we'll get the gang back together. Maybe that will help make Mason feel better."
As Ana nods and walks out of the Kitchen, towards the floo, Darla turns towards Blinky, and says, "Just a minute, let's see if Dorea wants to come."
A few minutes later, Ana walks back in, Dorea with her, whom Darla greets with a hug. While Ana and Darla stayed together, and hence were always in contact, Dorea was currently living alone, and they rarely met.
She was training for her Alchemy Mastery, which she had gotten interested in after her 17th Birthday. Mason had given her an introductory book on Alchemy, as a Birthday gift, one that had been banned almost a century ago.
Even 7 years after beginning learning, Dorea was barely 70% done, with her highest Alchemical capabilities being Transmutation of one precious metal to another. She could also create Alchemical Potions, and transmute other things, but she was nowhere close to figuring the Philosopher's Stone out, let alone the Universal Solvent.
All three of the girls take Blinky's hands, and close their eyes, bracing for the Side Along Apparition. Side Along was always rougher on the senses than apparating by yourself, it was a result of someone else doing the Magic.
And then, they disappear from Darla's and Ana's home, within a wormhole created by Blinky's magic.
When she opens her eyes, now out of the Apparition tube, Darla sees that she is in the Chamber of Secrets, and smiles. 'Of course, he's here.' she thinks.
But, as she looks around, she doesn't find Mason anywhere, or even any evidence of the place having been lived in. She knew, that there was a Secret room somewhere, where Mason could live in if he wanted to, but she hadn't seen it, ever.
"Now what?" Dorea asks, sounding a bit annoyed, as Blinky apparates away, to God knows where.
Darla ignores the annoyance, somewhat understanding it. Dorea must have dropped some research to come here, to meet with Mason, and he was nowhere to be seen.
Summoning her wand, Darla closes her eyes to focus on a happy memory, and waves her wand in a wide arc over her head. She whispers, "Expecto Patronum!" And smiles, seeing the familiar lioness Patronus. She says, "Tell Mason, we're in the Chamber of Secrets, where are you?"
And then, the Patronus flies away, surprisingly enough, going into the floor. As they watch the Patronus disappear into the ground, Dorea asks, "Okay, did you know that there are more rooms below the Chamber? We're already what, a mile underground?"
Shrugging, Ana says, "It could be a room, or it could just as well be something Mason created. You know him, his preparation borders on paranoia. He probably hid the room away behind Wards or something, even if no one can come to this chamber anyway."
"Oh yeah? Is that why you're standing inside the main Chamber, without me bringing you here?" The familiar voice of Mason Aves says from behind them, startling all three girls there into pointing their wands at him.
Mason just looks at the wands, as if they're an annoyance to him, and knowing what she does about his capabilities, Darla can't say it's not true. Putting her Wand back in its holster, Darla is the first one to approach Mason, as she hugs him tightly.
Mason just stands there, taking the hug, barely reciprocating. He instead, looks them all over, and says, "Hey, Dorea. Long time no see, how have you been?"
"Pretty good, better than you, in any case, from what I've heard." Dorea says, just shrugging. She was no longer the cute little Dorea, who was head over heels for Mason. She was still cute, beautiful even, but she no longer pined after anyone, preferring to focus on her Alchemy.
Mason chuckles, and says, "Yeah, I've had a rough month."
Even if his voice sounds normal, and he looks normal, Darla somehow knows, that he's anything but normal. She could feel it, his sadness.
Looking up from the hug, as Dorea and Ana come closer to hug him too, Darla softly says, "You don't have to pretend, Mason. You can show your emotions here."
Mason smiles, a bit sadly, separating from the hugs, and says, "I'm afraid I'm already done crying, Darla. I might still be upset, but I've gotten over it."
He then waves his hand, creating a portal to somewhere, and says, "Come on, let's talk somewhere comfortable."
Darla walks through the portal immediately, already having experience with the Sorcery Portals, while Ana and Dorea stop in the chamber itself, slackjawed.
'Oh, yeah. They don't know about his Portals.' Darla thinks, as she looks at Ana's surprised face, sheepishly smiling. She hadn't told Ana about Set, or the battle they had had. It was Mason's secret, and she wasn't going to share it with anyone he didn't agree to tell.
"I didn't know you had learned Sorcery, Mason." Dorea says, being the first to get out of shock, as she walks through. Of course she knows about Sorcery, her family has had dealings with some Sorcerers, and even some of the Demons in the past.
Her voice manages to bring Ana out of her shock, and she says, "You aren't surprised, you knew about this?"
Mason says, "I asked her not to share it with people, you know how the relations between Sorcerers and Wizards is.. barely there. I didn't want to create problems for anyone."
Darla internally thanks him, wondering if he'd read her mind or something. After a moment, she dismisses it. Her mental shields were too good, thanks to Mason's own teachings. She would have known if he had entered her mind.
"Where are we anyway?" Dorea asks, as Mason leads them towards what looks like a house, at the end of the path.
Mason smiles, and says, "This.. is my Home. The Aves Manor. It had burned down some 50 years ago, and I had it rebuilt when I became an adult. I'm sorry for not bringing you here before, I was content with just staying in my Islington House, you know."
Darla could think of a few words for Mason, but she understood his worries. He wanted a house to remain private, she could accept that.
For the first half hour or so, Mason gives them a tour of his house, and the grounds. She was glad to know that this place is as secure as they come, thanks to the Fidelius charm. She was also glad to know that the only people who knew about this house were the ones inside the house.
'At least I have one more place to look for, when I can't find him.' Darla thinks, as they sit down in the living room, taking a chair each.
-
Mason POV:
Waving my hand, I summon a few bottles of different alcohols, and place them on a table in between us. The talks that we were going to have will surely need drinks.
I wasn't upset anymore, I didn't lie. There was some pain in my heart, sure, but it wasn't anything I couldn't manage.
As I hand them a glass of scotch each, I can't help but notice that Dorea has gotten a lot more attractive than the last time I had seen her. Which was.. wow, I haven't seen her in years!
"So.. ready to talk it out?" Dorea asks, raising an eyebrow at me.
I chuckle, as I go back to my own seat, and say, "I wasn't lying before, you know. I'm over it." Seeing all their dubious faces, I say, "It still hurts, everything that has happened, sure. But I'm not being a bitch about it."
"Are you sure? You know we're here for you, right?" Darla asks, as she drinks her drink.
Nodding, I smile at Darla, and say, "I'm sure. I appreciate it though." Pausing, I smile, remembering my Army days, and say, "Tim wasn't the first friend I lost, you know. I'd made a few friends in my training days, and more than a few on the battlefield. Tim was just.. special."
I see Dorea smile, with Darla joining in. Ana was just observing me, probably trying to see if I'm actually alright, not trusting my own judgment.
I'm glad Blinky brought them to me, that Darla bothered to try. She might not be much help in taking my psychology back to normal, but the fact that she tried does make me happy.
Turning towards Dorea, the one I hadn't seen the most out of the girls, I ask, "What are you up to anyway? Last I'd heard you were beginning with Alchemy."
Dorea pours some more scotch for herself, her glass already empty, and says, "Yeah, I'm still learning." Seeing my dubious face, she adds, "Oh, piss off. I'm studying by myself, and I don't have much study material. I've bought many books, but Old Alchemy books are hard to find. My family had.. other interests, even in the past. Alchemy is not something they bothered too much with."
Oh, understandable. The Black Family is notoriously famous for being Dark.
I say, "I'll see if I have any more books on the subject."
I doubt the Flamels will take Dorea on as a student. They're really selective over whom they take, and Dorea, as impressive as she is, does not fit the bill.
Soon, our talks move on to our lives, all of us telling how our lives have gone for these years. Just listening to them speak helps me, since it makes me realise that I'm not alone. Steve and Tim might be gone, and I might have lost the Howling Commandos and the SSR too, but I still have these girls.
"Excuse me? You were going to be married?" I ask, stopping Dorea's talk, as she was explaining her own life.
Dorea frowns at me, making me realise what I just said, and asks, "What is that even supposed to mean?"
Raising my hands, I say, "Nevermind, I'm a twat. Please continue." I poke my tongue out at Darla, who had laughed at me taking my words back so soon. I might be a better fighter, but I know how to choose my own battles.
As she continues speaking, I take the Firewhiskey in my hand, knowing that I'll need this. Didn't know my actions changed this much out here.
"His name was Charlus Potter, a son of one of my father's old friends. He lost his life recently, in one of the Muggle air raids. Don't know which one though, his uncle didn't tell us much. I'm just glad to not have to marry someone I don't know." Dorea says, and the last part does make me sigh internally.
Thank God, I thought she loved him or something. Not that I have feelings for her, no, we don't know each other enough for me to say that. I just didn't want one of my friends to be upset because of my actions.
Yeah, I'm not mentioning that I was the one to kill him. If Monty didn't mention it, then it means they don't want his image tarnished. Good enough for me.
When the girls leave, at almost 12 AM, I have a smile on my face. I love Darla, no question there. She came here, to make sure I was okay. She's a true friend, and I'm glad she's my best friend.
Ana too, she might not be as close to me now as we were before, but she still came here, she bothered. And so did Dorea.
Dorea, now that's something I'm pleasantly surprised to see changed. She doesn't have feelings for me anymore, not a huge crush at least. And you know what, I'm glad. I might ask her out some day, I might not. But that doesn't mean I want her to keep pining after me, keep waiting for me.
If she finds someone that makes her happy, good. She deserves it. If I find someone that makes me happy, also good. I probably deserve it too. I think.
But before that, Dorea has to focus on her Alchemy Mastery, via independent studies, while I have a War to win.
After waving them goodbye, through a portal that takes them to Darla's house, I turn around, and summon a book. I've been practicing Runes, the last few days. I might have taken Grindelwald's Scrying advantage away from him, thanks to a handy Runic Tattoo branded on my back, but that doesn't mean he's any less knowledgeable.
He just can't scry anything about me, but he can still scry the future. Which means, he probably already knows whatever result is destined to happen, or one of them.
Scrying, unlike using the Time Stone, does not show you multiple possibilities, with no fixed result. It just shows you one vision each time, the rest depending on your own capabilities.
But, from what Grindelwald said, he has seen multiple versions of our fights, which means he has something else, probably a mutation, that allowed him to look into different futures. There is no fixed future, I know that. But every future he has seen, gives him that much more advantage.
That's not counting whatever other Mutations he has, and the fucking Death Stick in his hands. The Elder Wand, the most powerful Wand, in arguably the most powerful Wizarding hands alive.
If I'm hoping to defeat him, since I doubt Dumbledore will be able to, then I'm going to need to use every advantage I have, or gain advantages myself. Which is why, Runes.
Rowena was right, I need to use my imagination a lot more than I do now.
---
A/N: This chapter was a filler, I know. It does not have anything important, or any major changes to the ongoing plot. This will, however, help me when I write the eventual battle between Grindelwald's army, and the Good guys.
Thank you for your support! Tata!
When in other povs, i dont know if its just me but you seem to use a lot of commas, its not bad or nothing, it just seems to stop the flow a little when reading.
- Location
- Planet Earth
I Really want the MC to be more proactive, rather than reactive, when it comes to the MIS. He should just straight-up report them or something. I mean, the danger is a bit too much. With them effectively enslaving Magicals. I mean, sure they call it recruitment, but it is under false pretenses, and only done when they are in a position of power and can be sure that NO ONE they invite/recruit could actually decline, combined with the Oaths...
- Location
- Netherlands, Under the sea
Oh wait the Charles Potter that you killed was the potter that would have married Dorea and given birth to JAMES potter the potter better known as the marauder prongs aka HARRY potters dad. LoL how did i only notice that now 
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
The MIS is a tricky issue, for him. He has already seen relations between muggles and wizards are bad, and getting worse with this War. If he tells any Wizarding body about the MIS, an organisation meant to keep an eye on the Wizards as if they're criminals(or subjects of the Crown, which they believe they are not), then it'll definitely lead to some sort of War.
So, he's keeping it to himself, so he can deal with it himself, without bothering with the Bureaucracy of it all. But, since he already has Grindelwald to deal with, not to forget thr DOM, he's waiting for some free time.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Actually Fleamont and Euphemia (which I also write as Monty and Aunt Mia/Healer Potter) are James's parents.Oh wait the Charles Potter that you killed was the potter that would have married Dorea and given birth to JAMES potter the potter better known as the marauder prongs aka HARRY potters dad. LoL how did i only notice that now
- Location
- Netherlands, Under the sea
really i thought james father was named charles, ah might just have read to many fannon stories XD
50. Gellert Grindelwald
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
A/N: Pat-reon: HelloDarkness07
---
Wind flowed harshly over the mountain ranges of Austria, the Alps. Through these harsh winds, an invisible, intangible being flew, not.. in the physical plane.
Me.
From within the Astral Plane, I looked over the mountains, keeping all my senses open, as I was looking for the Nurmengard, a fortress that I know nothing of. I haven't seen it yet, in any of the minds I've encountered.
Even Charlus and Vinda, two of his closest allies, had no idea exactly where Nurnengard was. They'd been there, sure, but they almost always portkeyed there, and left the same way. Which means, other than the fact that it is in the Alps, I know nothing.
I also know that it is large, about 50 stories tall, fortress, surrounded by 2 story tall Walls, and a single entrance, with 'For the Greater Good' written on the outer walls. But that's not going to be of much use, in searching for it.
Grindelwald has no doubt hidden it away, which means my sight might not be of much use. He has also developed a Potion to increase Mental defences of his acolytes, which is how Charlus and Vinda could keep my Telepathy probes out, which makes my Mind obsolete.
And if I can create a spell, and an artefact, that can hide my scent and sounds completely, then I'm assuming that so can he.
But, at least I know it's in the Alps, which is why I was here now, albeit in the Astral Plane, to see if I can find it.
My nose, ears, Magic senses, Mind, and my eyes, I had kept all of my senses open, even if they might not be of much use. I could use them to sniff out a blank spot, or something.
I had gotten my preparations over with, practicing using my spells, and my other gifts together, with Rowena's help. I have no idea how strong Grindelwald really is, but I believe I'm ready to deal with anything he throws at me. I've spent months preparing for it, so I know I'm ready. I have to be.
For hours, I keep flying in my Astral Form, not finding anything even resembling a fortress. The only buildings here, were the Hydra and Nazi bases we had destroyed.
But then, after 10 or so hours of flying around, I hear something that gives me a pause. The sound of thoughts.
The voices were all male, with nothing too.. giving. One was thinking about a woman, fantasizing about her, another was singing a song in his head, while the third was imagining how much damage he could do with the fire in front of him.
Focusing, I enter the mind of the singer, and smile. The three men were sitting around a campfire, talking about some nonsensical stuff, barely a mile away from me. They were close enough, that I should have been able to hear their thoughts before, or hear them talk, move, or even smell them.
That is, if it wasn't for the Wards hiding them. Yup, they're wizards.
"What time is it?" The pyromaniac asks, turning his head away from the flames.
The singer twitches his wand, already in his hands, and casts, "Tempus." The clock in front of his, and now my eyes, says 2:01 PM.
This causes all of them to widen their eyes, and take the metal flask in front of them, swinging back to take a large swig of the drink, no.. Potion.
Almost immediately, I feel the Mind of the Singer try and push me out, its strength now increased hundred fold. The singer doesn't notice anything, however, and they keep talking.
"We could have been really fucked if we were any late. I doubt a minute of lateness is enough to show anything to Avalon." The fantasizing man says, as his Mind becomes silent once again, his thoughts hidden from me.
The Occluding Elixir, an Alchemical invention of Gellert Grindelwald, which can grant anyone the full benefits of Occlumency, without them doing anything.
This can even protect a simple, untrained muggle from the full force of the Legilimency attack by the highest Legilimency Master. This is what allowed all of Grindelwald's soldiers to completely block my Telepathy.
Unfortunately for the Singer, my Telepathy is subtle, very subtle. And while I can't enter the mind after the Potion has been taken, I can definitely stay hidden inside of a mind I'm already in.
The Potion, however, works only for 2 hours per dose, and these guys missed the next dose by a few dozen seconds, which allowed me to sense their minds.
Potion to protect their thoughts, Wards to hide their minds, smell, sounds, and magic. If it wasn't for the few seconds of delay on their part, I would never have found them. Is it actually a coincidence, or just a lure?
I stay in the singer's mind, to find what they're doing here, using my Telepathy to stay hidden inside his mind.
Telepathy can come in two forms, I've noticed. The most common one, is the Brute force Telepathy. This has a lot less subtlety behind it, and most of the times, only allows the Telepath to hear loud thoughts, or control people. They might also possess people, to read their memories like I do, but their Psionic powers are so unsubtle, that it causes their Victims to almost always some pain.
Essex had met a few Telepaths of this kind, in his very long life, and I'm betting that Charles Xavier is of this kind.
The other type, the one I have, is very subtle. The Psionic powers are discreet, allowing for me to stay in people's minds without them knowing, or without them going through any sort of pain. This type also gives me better access to the Mind of my victims.
On the flip side, the subtle Telepathy most often lacks the sheer power needed to control more than one person at a time. Essex, and I came under this category.
Phoenix, is the only being I know of, that has both of these types of Telepathy, since all Psionic Powers do come from her. She can be subtle when she wants to, and Powerful when she wants to. And this also transfers over to her hosts.
Apocalypse, meanwhile, as far as Essex's memories of him can tell, had a very Minor talent in Telepathy, with very little range. Don't get me wrong, his Mind was just so damn powerful, that the minor Telepathy allowed him to take over any mind he wants to. Even other telapths. He can also piggyback on other telepath's Telepathy, which I know of from my memories.
But, it's not important.. for now. Essex is hidden, with no idea I'm responsible for his Clone body's death, while Apocalypse is still asleep.
Taking a few minutes, I go through all of the singer's memories, who's an American Wizard by the name of Mike Hunt, and then, retreat. With a snapping pull on the connection I could feel with my body, I open my eyes, now in my own body, back in the Chamber of Secrets, and smile.
Standing up, I disappear from the Chamber, and instantly appear in the Ministry of Magic's Atrium, and walk towards the DMLE. As a happy coincidence, I see the Head of DMLE, Mr Jeremiah Shafiq, right outside the DMLE entrance, talking with the Minister of Magic, Leonard Spencer-Moon, and Freddie Kelpis, an old man who is the current British representative in the ICW.
They were discussing the latest increase in violence against muggles, and how the ICW was really desperate now to find and defeat Grindelwald.
"What about Albus? Has he broken the Blood pact yet?" Kelpis asks, as I start approaching them.
"No, he's still working on it, or so he says. Alas, we just have to trust in his words." Spencer-Moon says, as he nervously wipes his palms on his robe.
Interrupting whatever Shafiq was going to say, I say, "Well, if he wants a chance to stop his friend, then tell him to hurry. I've found Nurmengard."
At once, all three heads turn to me, with surprise and shock. Shafiq frowns, a bit concerned, and says, "Aves, I know you're stronger than most wizards, and possibly even me. But this is Grindelwald we're talking about."
I ignore his statement, not bothering with proving my strength to him, and give them a paper, with coordinates to the Nurmengard fortress that I had gotten from Hunt's mind. I say, "One hour, that's how long I'll wait for the ICW, the Aurors, and even Dumbledore. After that, I'm attacking the fortress, alone if I have to."
As they just look at the paper with shock, I turn around, and leave the way I came. The only reason I'm even informing them, is that I need someone to deal with the Canon fodder, to give me a clear path towards Grindelwald.
One hour, Gellert Grindelwald. After that, I'll finally have my sweet revenge for everything you've done to me.
My family, the Aves, my capture, involuntary blood donation, and Tim. Not to forget the tens of thousands of people killed by him, or his Army, or even the fact that he's a Nazi. Grindelwald will pay for everything.
-
At the same time, in Hogwarts:
In Hogwarts, in the office of the Head of the Transfiguration Department, who also doubled as the Deputy Headmaster of the prestigious school, a man sat still, staring at the smokey figure of a man, floating in the air in front of him.
The ghost like man looks at the desk in front of the actual, real man, and says, "So, you've broken the Pact. I didn't know you had it in you, Albus."
Albus Dumbledore, the man in question, frowns sadly at the spirit, and says, "You don't know a lot of things, Gellert. You did always believe yourself to be all-knowing, thanks to the handy gift of yours."
Gellert Grindelwald, walks a few steps to the side, to look out the window. He says, "I have improved upon my Sight, Albus. I don't just claim to be all-knowing, I actually am that now." Turning back, he looks at his old friend in the eyes, pleading. He says, "Please.. Albus. I offer this once again, join me. Let's take over the world together, just like we had planned to."
Albus smiles, and says, "Even after all these years, you still don't know me, if you believe I will join you after everything you've done."
"And what have I done? Because of me, Wizards are finally getting together again, uniting! Muggles are destroying themselves, giving us chance enough to finally claim the Earth as ours, as is our birthright! For the first time, us Wizards actually stand a chance of defeating the muggles, all because of me!" Grindelwald says, passionately speaking, boasting.
Dumbledore stands up, glaring at Grindelwald, and says, "And what of the Wizards you've killed in your campaign, Gellert? What of the millions of muggles that died because of your machinations? The three Wizards whose souls you damned by giving the muggles access to a summoning ritual? What of Credence, my brother? And what of Ariana, my sister? You say you're doing everything for the Wizarding World's sake, Gellert, but admit it. This is all for your own benefit, your own spite."
Grindelwald stares at Albus for a while, not saying anything. Finally, he turns around, and says, "You'll see, Albus. You'll all see, when I bring Wizards and Witches to the top of the World." Once again at the window, he turns to glance at Dumbledore, and says, "You know where I am. I'll be waiting for you to come, Albus. Alone."
And then, the transparent figure of Gellert Grindelwald transforms into smoke, and disappears, the spell dissipating.
Albus sighs, looking at the two broken vials of glass sitting innocently on the table, the blood from within destroyed already. There were two of them, one which was always with Grindelwald, the other with Albus. Together, they made the Blood Pact.
As long as both of the Vials existed, neither of them could fight the other, as their Pact dictated. And now, finally, both the Vials were destroyed, the Pact intact no more.
'Alone. He wants me alone, but knowing him, it is not for an ambush. He wants to duel, one final duel to decide it all.' Albus thinks, staring at the destroyed Blood pact vials.
He then waves his wand, summoning his purple robe from the wardrobe. Wearing it, he walks out of his office, towards the gates. As soon as he gets out of the Wards of Hogwarts, Albus apparates away from Scotland, appearing in London. Going to Gringotts, he applies for an international Portkey, knowing that he can't go to the Ministry right now.
Grindelwald wants him alone, he'll get him alone.
Grindelwald had sensed the destruction of the Blood Pact, which had also allowed him to sense exactly where Albus was, and appear to him thanks to some obscure spell. But, just like that, it had also allowed Albus to feel exactly where Grindelwald was, at every moment.
The Pact was very intimate, creating a connection between the two participants, at the moment of its conception. And now, now that the Pact was unraveled, broken, the connection allowed both the participants to feel each other, feel where they are.
Back in Hogwarts, about a minute after Albus left his office, the fireplace burns once again, a face appearing in it. The Floo caller, the ICW representative Kelpis, calls out, "Albus? Albus? Are you there? We know where Grindelwald is! Hello? Albus?"
Alas, Albus Dumbledore had already left for Austria, leaving the ICW and the Aurors no choice, but to leave without him, hoping against all hope, that a larger army is enough to stop Grindelwald's rampage, not knowing that the only one they believe strong enough to defeat Grindelwald was already on his way there, stuck behind only because of bureaucracy.
-
Mason POV:
I open my eyes, the hour almost up. Getting up, I take the swords from the place they were resting in, and store them in Nowhere, along with a few things I'm going to need.
Looking at Blinky, I say, "Wish me luck, Blinky."
Blinky nods, her hands clenched together in nervousness, and says, "Please be safe, Mason Sir."
Smiling, I focus within myself, and disappear, instantly appearing in Brighton, South London. The beach was empty, thanks to the War still going on. I glance at the Portal Ring on my finger, and raise the hand in front of my chest. Spinning my right hand around, I create a Portal to Austria, below the Alps, in a forest I had seen before.
I'd opened the portal about 2 miles away from the Nurmengard fortress, since I have no idea what kind of protection spells there were on the building itself. Besides, knowing Grindelwald, he has probably placed a trap for me right outside the Wards, so better not trip them immediately.
Not hearing any voices, of even heartbeats, blood pumping, footsteps, breathing, or smelling any kind of scent other than those that belong to trees and animals, I open my mind, and find that there weren't any Minds around me either.
It was too silent, which means this is also probably a trap too.
Welp, better the trap further away from the base full of Dark Wizards, than the one near it.
Barely a second after creating the Portal to Austria, I jump in, and immediately duck down, letting a very fast kick go over my head, harmlessly.
Completing a barrel roll, I raise my hand, catching a fist coming at my head, and kick my attacker in the stomach, sending him flying away from me, and into a large tree.
The man was wearing a white shirt, with black trousers, along with black leather shoes. At least he's got style.
He stands up, dusting some of the dirt off, and looks at me with bright red eyes.
"Since when do Vampires work for Grindelwald?" I ask, getting ready for a fight. Grindelwald's Scrying has gotten far more advanced than I believed, if he could still see me coming here. My Runic tattoo should have prevented Precogs to not see me.
I guess the Tattoo lacks the Oomph factor to stop him. Or I was always going to come here anyway, even before I got the tattoo. And Vampires. Seriously?
Vampires are light on their feet, have no scent, have no beating heart, and their blood doesn't make a sound. He's fast, almost as fast as me, in fact, as I've noticed in the small exchange, but his strength is barely more than Steve's.
The vampire, keeps staring at me, and says, "We have an agreement." With an accent, which I'm guessing is Austrian.
Judging by the fact that it's 3 PM right now, with the sun shining above our heads, I'm guessing Grindelwald gave him a little something to allow Vampires to walk during daylight. Why though? Just to delay me? Because there's no way I'm not winning this fight, I have too much at stake to lose.
Feeling something brush my mental barriers, I chuckle, and say, "That's not going to work on me, buddy. I've faced stronger minds than yours."
I'd read that Vampires can Mind Control people, sort of like the Imperius curse without using a Wand, but I didn't think Vampires would be more subtle than the actual Curse.
The vampire smiles, weirdly enough, and says, "Oh, I know. Grindelwald told us that. I was just distracting you."
Us?
Turning around, I catch another fist coming at my head, and with a single movement, stab my pointed hand in the attacking vampire's chest, through his heart. As the vampire in my hands chokes, his body struggling to heal with my hand still inside his chest, I partially transform my arm into the Kasha's, burning the Vampire completely with white hot flames.
I turn around, now looking at more than 20 vampires, all suited up in nice clothes, looking down at me from different spots. Some were on trees, some were down on the ground, beside the first vampire. One of them, bigger than the rest, obviously their leader, was standing in the middle, wearing a suit that was definitely designer.
He looks barely bothered by the fact that I just killed one of his Vampires, and says, "Attack."
With a flourishing motion of my hands, I summon two long daggers in my hands, made by me, out of Goblin's Silver. I'm not going to waste my Galadmagol and Durmagol's enchantments on these.. weaklings.
I start walking forward, towards the main Vampire, as the 25 other Vampires start running towards me. 7 Vampires jump at me from their positions on the trees, their altitude allowing them to reach me first.
With a snap, I throw my two daggers into the necks of the two Vampires, beheading them immediately. I step to the right, letting the bodies fall down, and raise my leg, kicking a third Vampire away from me as he had approached me with his hands raised.
Summoning one of my daggers, I catch the kick of a fourth Vampire, and stab him in the chest. Pulling the dagger sideways, I cut through his chest, and use it to behead another Vampire who tried to attack me from behind. The third Vampire returns, this time with a rock lifted over his head as a weapon.
Waving my left hand, I cut his legs off, making him slide on the ground, mid run, and causing the big rock to fall on his own head. This doesn't kill him, but a dagger landing on the ground, after cutting through his neck does.
I cut, stab, behead, and burn any vampire that approaches me, and within a single minute, the only Vampire remaining is the leader.
They're fast, but I'm faster. They're strong, but I'm stronger, and I just have better instincts.
I look up at the last vampire, the leader, standing just a couple meters away from him. He was bigger than me, taller than me by at least a whole foot.
He grins down at me, and says, "I'm stronger, you know. You may have defeated my children, but you won't defeat me so easily."
As a show of strength, he puts his left hand to the side, and stabs his fingers into the trunk of a tree, and crushes the wood.
Okay, yeah, he's stronger than me.
Swinging my arm as fast as possible, softball style, I throw the dagger at his forehead. The vampire ducks, seeing the dagger coming, and says, "As if I'm that slow-"
And then, he dies, his head falling down, courtesy of the dagger returning to my hands, spinning around like a boomerang thanks to my Telekinesis. Snapping my fingers, I conjure flames in the air in front of myself, and send them at all the dead.. well, re-dead Vampire bodies, turning them to ash.
And then, I begin my walk towards Nurmengard, completely invisibile.
Barely 10 steps in, however, I am forced to stop, courtesy of a barrier being raised around me. Correction, around us. There were around 50 Wizards, who had apparated in all at once, to surround me from three sides.
Not bothering with speaking, I become visible, and start walking towards them, my wand in my hand this time. Around 30 spells fly towards me, all at once, few of them killing curses. I wave my left hand through the air, casting a Protego, creating a large shield to absorb the non lethal spells.
As for the Killing Curses, small rocks jump up from the ground, intercepting the spells, and take the curses for me before they can even strike the shield.
The shield maintained by my left hand, wandlessly, I wave my right hand, which held my wand, through the air, casting an area wide stunning charm.
Turning the Stunning charm into an area wide spell, is easy enough. It just loses a lot of power, and speed, allowing competent wizards enough time to shield.
The group attacking me, however, were not all competent. Heck, half the people here were yelling spells loudly, even for stunners. Many others, meanwhile, were in the middle of casting spells of their own, when my spell is emitted, not giving them enough time to shield.
Around 15 Wizards drop down, unconscious, while 10 or so Wizards start becoming dizzy, their Magic resisting against the Stunner.
Holding the Protego in front of me, I banish it at the group to my left. As my shield crashes into them, they get thrown into the forest, as 10 stunners hit the 8 people all at once. Turning to my right, I point my wand at the 7 wizards there, and shoot a basketball sized fireball at them.
The wizards jump away, letting the fireball crash into a tree with an explosion, but while they were jumping, stunners take care of dropping them too.
And now, I turn towards the 20 remaining people, to my front, 10 of whom were still dizzy. Catching a flaying curse on the tip of my wand, I send it back towards the caster, and watch his skin start peeling off, not enjoying his screaming even a little.
My dagger comes out of its holster, and flies towards his heart, thanks to my Telekinesis, which stops his screaming.
The 19 wizards all point their wands at me, and yell, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" in unison.
Well, fuck you too.
Throwing my Wand down, I clap my hands together, and create portals underneath all their feet, dropping them on the ground right in front of me, in the paths of their own curses. Another portal drops me on the opposite side, away from the Killing Curse's path.
The Wizards drop dead, their killing curses hitting them. One of them, however, was still breathing.
"Wow, you're so lucky you can't even cast the killing curse." I say, not knowing if I should be impressed, or disappointed. This man's killing curse had no.. killing factor in it. Despite hitting his face, it did nothing to him.
"Hngh!" The man groans, as he starts to raise his wand to attack me again.
"Percutio!" I say, nonchalantly pointing my own wand at him.
From my wand tip, a focused bolt of magic emits, and hits him on the forehead. The piercing hex stabs through his head, and comes out, killing him. Well, he's dying, but his brain is probably already dead.
What? He tried to fucking kill me! He failed but that's not my problem now, is it?
The 50 wizards all dead, or unconscious, I start walking once again, this time in the Mirror Dimension. Not letting anyone else ambush me, to delay me.
The barrier they had erected to stop me is broken by a simple stab of Durmagol, before me going into the Mirror Dimension. It should allow at least someone to find these bodies.
The Aurors should have reached Nurmengard by now, I gave them enough time to do that. If not, well, canon fodder aren't going to delay me too much.
-
Dumbledore appears out of the Apparition tunnel, around 300 meters away from the outer walls of Nurmengard. In front of him, were thousands of Wizards, all with their wands pointed at him.
One of them raises his arm up, and says, "Stop, it's Dumbledore. Gellert wants him inside."
Albus recognises the Wizard as Heinz Luther, the replacement of Vinda Rosier, and one of Gellert's lieutenants.
As if Albus was Moses, the sea of wizards part, allowing him to see the gate of the Nurmengard fortress. As the gate opens, Albus sees him, his former best friend, the one man he loved the most. Gellert Grindelwald.
He was just standing there, waiting for him, outside the Nurmengard building. The Lethifolds he was supposed to have tamed were nowhere to be seen, but then again, Lethifolds can hide themselves very easily.
Albus starts walking, knowing that these Wizards won't attack him. It's not Gellert's style, at least, when it comes to Albus. Either he would have had him assasinated, or he would have killed him himself.
Calling him to Austria, and cursing on his back, was not something he would condone.
"Welcome, Albus! I'm glad you came here to witness my victory over the Wizarding World!" Gellert proclaims, as soon as Albus is inside the grounds of Nurmengard.
Albus takes his wand out, as soon as he's inside, and stops, the wand held at his side. He doesn't say anything, not having any words to do so.
He had already said all the words he wanted to, tried to convince Gellert hundreds of times over. If that didn't convince him of his errors, then nothing will.
"Shall we begin, my dear?" Gellert asks, bringing his own wand out.
Albus notices that it's not the Wand he had known Gellert to possess, and his heart sinks, realising something. The reason behind Gellert's confidence, it wasn't just his Sight.
"The Elder Wand." Albus whispers, staring in horror at the Wand that's rumoured to be the most powerful Wand ever created. Steeling his heart, Albus starts the duel, by firing a thick bolt of pure magic at Gellert.
Gellert's smile widens, as he shoots his own bolt through the Elder Wand, and Albus's magic, the two spells meeting in the middle.
The Battle of the Century, has begun.
---
A/N: How was this chapter? Honest review please.
Sorry for being late! I'm on meds, and hence a bit sleepy all the time. I couldn't find the energy to write, or post here! I'm still sleepy, dizzy, but I'd waited too long anyway, so I wanted to post.
Thank you for your support! Tata!
---
Wind flowed harshly over the mountain ranges of Austria, the Alps. Through these harsh winds, an invisible, intangible being flew, not.. in the physical plane.
Me.
From within the Astral Plane, I looked over the mountains, keeping all my senses open, as I was looking for the Nurmengard, a fortress that I know nothing of. I haven't seen it yet, in any of the minds I've encountered.
Even Charlus and Vinda, two of his closest allies, had no idea exactly where Nurnengard was. They'd been there, sure, but they almost always portkeyed there, and left the same way. Which means, other than the fact that it is in the Alps, I know nothing.
I also know that it is large, about 50 stories tall, fortress, surrounded by 2 story tall Walls, and a single entrance, with 'For the Greater Good' written on the outer walls. But that's not going to be of much use, in searching for it.
Grindelwald has no doubt hidden it away, which means my sight might not be of much use. He has also developed a Potion to increase Mental defences of his acolytes, which is how Charlus and Vinda could keep my Telepathy probes out, which makes my Mind obsolete.
And if I can create a spell, and an artefact, that can hide my scent and sounds completely, then I'm assuming that so can he.
But, at least I know it's in the Alps, which is why I was here now, albeit in the Astral Plane, to see if I can find it.
My nose, ears, Magic senses, Mind, and my eyes, I had kept all of my senses open, even if they might not be of much use. I could use them to sniff out a blank spot, or something.
I had gotten my preparations over with, practicing using my spells, and my other gifts together, with Rowena's help. I have no idea how strong Grindelwald really is, but I believe I'm ready to deal with anything he throws at me. I've spent months preparing for it, so I know I'm ready. I have to be.
For hours, I keep flying in my Astral Form, not finding anything even resembling a fortress. The only buildings here, were the Hydra and Nazi bases we had destroyed.
But then, after 10 or so hours of flying around, I hear something that gives me a pause. The sound of thoughts.
The voices were all male, with nothing too.. giving. One was thinking about a woman, fantasizing about her, another was singing a song in his head, while the third was imagining how much damage he could do with the fire in front of him.
Focusing, I enter the mind of the singer, and smile. The three men were sitting around a campfire, talking about some nonsensical stuff, barely a mile away from me. They were close enough, that I should have been able to hear their thoughts before, or hear them talk, move, or even smell them.
That is, if it wasn't for the Wards hiding them. Yup, they're wizards.
"What time is it?" The pyromaniac asks, turning his head away from the flames.
The singer twitches his wand, already in his hands, and casts, "Tempus." The clock in front of his, and now my eyes, says 2:01 PM.
This causes all of them to widen their eyes, and take the metal flask in front of them, swinging back to take a large swig of the drink, no.. Potion.
Almost immediately, I feel the Mind of the Singer try and push me out, its strength now increased hundred fold. The singer doesn't notice anything, however, and they keep talking.
"We could have been really fucked if we were any late. I doubt a minute of lateness is enough to show anything to Avalon." The fantasizing man says, as his Mind becomes silent once again, his thoughts hidden from me.
The Occluding Elixir, an Alchemical invention of Gellert Grindelwald, which can grant anyone the full benefits of Occlumency, without them doing anything.
This can even protect a simple, untrained muggle from the full force of the Legilimency attack by the highest Legilimency Master. This is what allowed all of Grindelwald's soldiers to completely block my Telepathy.
Unfortunately for the Singer, my Telepathy is subtle, very subtle. And while I can't enter the mind after the Potion has been taken, I can definitely stay hidden inside of a mind I'm already in.
The Potion, however, works only for 2 hours per dose, and these guys missed the next dose by a few dozen seconds, which allowed me to sense their minds.
Potion to protect their thoughts, Wards to hide their minds, smell, sounds, and magic. If it wasn't for the few seconds of delay on their part, I would never have found them. Is it actually a coincidence, or just a lure?
I stay in the singer's mind, to find what they're doing here, using my Telepathy to stay hidden inside his mind.
Telepathy can come in two forms, I've noticed. The most common one, is the Brute force Telepathy. This has a lot less subtlety behind it, and most of the times, only allows the Telepath to hear loud thoughts, or control people. They might also possess people, to read their memories like I do, but their Psionic powers are so unsubtle, that it causes their Victims to almost always some pain.
Essex had met a few Telepaths of this kind, in his very long life, and I'm betting that Charles Xavier is of this kind.
The other type, the one I have, is very subtle. The Psionic powers are discreet, allowing for me to stay in people's minds without them knowing, or without them going through any sort of pain. This type also gives me better access to the Mind of my victims.
On the flip side, the subtle Telepathy most often lacks the sheer power needed to control more than one person at a time. Essex, and I came under this category.
Phoenix, is the only being I know of, that has both of these types of Telepathy, since all Psionic Powers do come from her. She can be subtle when she wants to, and Powerful when she wants to. And this also transfers over to her hosts.
Apocalypse, meanwhile, as far as Essex's memories of him can tell, had a very Minor talent in Telepathy, with very little range. Don't get me wrong, his Mind was just so damn powerful, that the minor Telepathy allowed him to take over any mind he wants to. Even other telapths. He can also piggyback on other telepath's Telepathy, which I know of from my memories.
But, it's not important.. for now. Essex is hidden, with no idea I'm responsible for his Clone body's death, while Apocalypse is still asleep.
Taking a few minutes, I go through all of the singer's memories, who's an American Wizard by the name of Mike Hunt, and then, retreat. With a snapping pull on the connection I could feel with my body, I open my eyes, now in my own body, back in the Chamber of Secrets, and smile.
Standing up, I disappear from the Chamber, and instantly appear in the Ministry of Magic's Atrium, and walk towards the DMLE. As a happy coincidence, I see the Head of DMLE, Mr Jeremiah Shafiq, right outside the DMLE entrance, talking with the Minister of Magic, Leonard Spencer-Moon, and Freddie Kelpis, an old man who is the current British representative in the ICW.
They were discussing the latest increase in violence against muggles, and how the ICW was really desperate now to find and defeat Grindelwald.
"What about Albus? Has he broken the Blood pact yet?" Kelpis asks, as I start approaching them.
"No, he's still working on it, or so he says. Alas, we just have to trust in his words." Spencer-Moon says, as he nervously wipes his palms on his robe.
Interrupting whatever Shafiq was going to say, I say, "Well, if he wants a chance to stop his friend, then tell him to hurry. I've found Nurmengard."
At once, all three heads turn to me, with surprise and shock. Shafiq frowns, a bit concerned, and says, "Aves, I know you're stronger than most wizards, and possibly even me. But this is Grindelwald we're talking about."
I ignore his statement, not bothering with proving my strength to him, and give them a paper, with coordinates to the Nurmengard fortress that I had gotten from Hunt's mind. I say, "One hour, that's how long I'll wait for the ICW, the Aurors, and even Dumbledore. After that, I'm attacking the fortress, alone if I have to."
As they just look at the paper with shock, I turn around, and leave the way I came. The only reason I'm even informing them, is that I need someone to deal with the Canon fodder, to give me a clear path towards Grindelwald.
One hour, Gellert Grindelwald. After that, I'll finally have my sweet revenge for everything you've done to me.
My family, the Aves, my capture, involuntary blood donation, and Tim. Not to forget the tens of thousands of people killed by him, or his Army, or even the fact that he's a Nazi. Grindelwald will pay for everything.
-
At the same time, in Hogwarts:
In Hogwarts, in the office of the Head of the Transfiguration Department, who also doubled as the Deputy Headmaster of the prestigious school, a man sat still, staring at the smokey figure of a man, floating in the air in front of him.
The ghost like man looks at the desk in front of the actual, real man, and says, "So, you've broken the Pact. I didn't know you had it in you, Albus."
Albus Dumbledore, the man in question, frowns sadly at the spirit, and says, "You don't know a lot of things, Gellert. You did always believe yourself to be all-knowing, thanks to the handy gift of yours."
Gellert Grindelwald, walks a few steps to the side, to look out the window. He says, "I have improved upon my Sight, Albus. I don't just claim to be all-knowing, I actually am that now." Turning back, he looks at his old friend in the eyes, pleading. He says, "Please.. Albus. I offer this once again, join me. Let's take over the world together, just like we had planned to."
Albus smiles, and says, "Even after all these years, you still don't know me, if you believe I will join you after everything you've done."
"And what have I done? Because of me, Wizards are finally getting together again, uniting! Muggles are destroying themselves, giving us chance enough to finally claim the Earth as ours, as is our birthright! For the first time, us Wizards actually stand a chance of defeating the muggles, all because of me!" Grindelwald says, passionately speaking, boasting.
Dumbledore stands up, glaring at Grindelwald, and says, "And what of the Wizards you've killed in your campaign, Gellert? What of the millions of muggles that died because of your machinations? The three Wizards whose souls you damned by giving the muggles access to a summoning ritual? What of Credence, my brother? And what of Ariana, my sister? You say you're doing everything for the Wizarding World's sake, Gellert, but admit it. This is all for your own benefit, your own spite."
Grindelwald stares at Albus for a while, not saying anything. Finally, he turns around, and says, "You'll see, Albus. You'll all see, when I bring Wizards and Witches to the top of the World." Once again at the window, he turns to glance at Dumbledore, and says, "You know where I am. I'll be waiting for you to come, Albus. Alone."
And then, the transparent figure of Gellert Grindelwald transforms into smoke, and disappears, the spell dissipating.
Albus sighs, looking at the two broken vials of glass sitting innocently on the table, the blood from within destroyed already. There were two of them, one which was always with Grindelwald, the other with Albus. Together, they made the Blood Pact.
As long as both of the Vials existed, neither of them could fight the other, as their Pact dictated. And now, finally, both the Vials were destroyed, the Pact intact no more.
'Alone. He wants me alone, but knowing him, it is not for an ambush. He wants to duel, one final duel to decide it all.' Albus thinks, staring at the destroyed Blood pact vials.
He then waves his wand, summoning his purple robe from the wardrobe. Wearing it, he walks out of his office, towards the gates. As soon as he gets out of the Wards of Hogwarts, Albus apparates away from Scotland, appearing in London. Going to Gringotts, he applies for an international Portkey, knowing that he can't go to the Ministry right now.
Grindelwald wants him alone, he'll get him alone.
Grindelwald had sensed the destruction of the Blood Pact, which had also allowed him to sense exactly where Albus was, and appear to him thanks to some obscure spell. But, just like that, it had also allowed Albus to feel exactly where Grindelwald was, at every moment.
The Pact was very intimate, creating a connection between the two participants, at the moment of its conception. And now, now that the Pact was unraveled, broken, the connection allowed both the participants to feel each other, feel where they are.
Back in Hogwarts, about a minute after Albus left his office, the fireplace burns once again, a face appearing in it. The Floo caller, the ICW representative Kelpis, calls out, "Albus? Albus? Are you there? We know where Grindelwald is! Hello? Albus?"
Alas, Albus Dumbledore had already left for Austria, leaving the ICW and the Aurors no choice, but to leave without him, hoping against all hope, that a larger army is enough to stop Grindelwald's rampage, not knowing that the only one they believe strong enough to defeat Grindelwald was already on his way there, stuck behind only because of bureaucracy.
-
Mason POV:
I open my eyes, the hour almost up. Getting up, I take the swords from the place they were resting in, and store them in Nowhere, along with a few things I'm going to need.
Looking at Blinky, I say, "Wish me luck, Blinky."
Blinky nods, her hands clenched together in nervousness, and says, "Please be safe, Mason Sir."
Smiling, I focus within myself, and disappear, instantly appearing in Brighton, South London. The beach was empty, thanks to the War still going on. I glance at the Portal Ring on my finger, and raise the hand in front of my chest. Spinning my right hand around, I create a Portal to Austria, below the Alps, in a forest I had seen before.
I'd opened the portal about 2 miles away from the Nurmengard fortress, since I have no idea what kind of protection spells there were on the building itself. Besides, knowing Grindelwald, he has probably placed a trap for me right outside the Wards, so better not trip them immediately.
Not hearing any voices, of even heartbeats, blood pumping, footsteps, breathing, or smelling any kind of scent other than those that belong to trees and animals, I open my mind, and find that there weren't any Minds around me either.
It was too silent, which means this is also probably a trap too.
Welp, better the trap further away from the base full of Dark Wizards, than the one near it.
Barely a second after creating the Portal to Austria, I jump in, and immediately duck down, letting a very fast kick go over my head, harmlessly.
Completing a barrel roll, I raise my hand, catching a fist coming at my head, and kick my attacker in the stomach, sending him flying away from me, and into a large tree.
The man was wearing a white shirt, with black trousers, along with black leather shoes. At least he's got style.
He stands up, dusting some of the dirt off, and looks at me with bright red eyes.
"Since when do Vampires work for Grindelwald?" I ask, getting ready for a fight. Grindelwald's Scrying has gotten far more advanced than I believed, if he could still see me coming here. My Runic tattoo should have prevented Precogs to not see me.
I guess the Tattoo lacks the Oomph factor to stop him. Or I was always going to come here anyway, even before I got the tattoo. And Vampires. Seriously?
Vampires are light on their feet, have no scent, have no beating heart, and their blood doesn't make a sound. He's fast, almost as fast as me, in fact, as I've noticed in the small exchange, but his strength is barely more than Steve's.
The vampire, keeps staring at me, and says, "We have an agreement." With an accent, which I'm guessing is Austrian.
Judging by the fact that it's 3 PM right now, with the sun shining above our heads, I'm guessing Grindelwald gave him a little something to allow Vampires to walk during daylight. Why though? Just to delay me? Because there's no way I'm not winning this fight, I have too much at stake to lose.
Feeling something brush my mental barriers, I chuckle, and say, "That's not going to work on me, buddy. I've faced stronger minds than yours."
I'd read that Vampires can Mind Control people, sort of like the Imperius curse without using a Wand, but I didn't think Vampires would be more subtle than the actual Curse.
The vampire smiles, weirdly enough, and says, "Oh, I know. Grindelwald told us that. I was just distracting you."
Us?
Turning around, I catch another fist coming at my head, and with a single movement, stab my pointed hand in the attacking vampire's chest, through his heart. As the vampire in my hands chokes, his body struggling to heal with my hand still inside his chest, I partially transform my arm into the Kasha's, burning the Vampire completely with white hot flames.
I turn around, now looking at more than 20 vampires, all suited up in nice clothes, looking down at me from different spots. Some were on trees, some were down on the ground, beside the first vampire. One of them, bigger than the rest, obviously their leader, was standing in the middle, wearing a suit that was definitely designer.
He looks barely bothered by the fact that I just killed one of his Vampires, and says, "Attack."
With a flourishing motion of my hands, I summon two long daggers in my hands, made by me, out of Goblin's Silver. I'm not going to waste my Galadmagol and Durmagol's enchantments on these.. weaklings.
I start walking forward, towards the main Vampire, as the 25 other Vampires start running towards me. 7 Vampires jump at me from their positions on the trees, their altitude allowing them to reach me first.
With a snap, I throw my two daggers into the necks of the two Vampires, beheading them immediately. I step to the right, letting the bodies fall down, and raise my leg, kicking a third Vampire away from me as he had approached me with his hands raised.
Summoning one of my daggers, I catch the kick of a fourth Vampire, and stab him in the chest. Pulling the dagger sideways, I cut through his chest, and use it to behead another Vampire who tried to attack me from behind. The third Vampire returns, this time with a rock lifted over his head as a weapon.
Waving my left hand, I cut his legs off, making him slide on the ground, mid run, and causing the big rock to fall on his own head. This doesn't kill him, but a dagger landing on the ground, after cutting through his neck does.
I cut, stab, behead, and burn any vampire that approaches me, and within a single minute, the only Vampire remaining is the leader.
They're fast, but I'm faster. They're strong, but I'm stronger, and I just have better instincts.
I look up at the last vampire, the leader, standing just a couple meters away from him. He was bigger than me, taller than me by at least a whole foot.
He grins down at me, and says, "I'm stronger, you know. You may have defeated my children, but you won't defeat me so easily."
As a show of strength, he puts his left hand to the side, and stabs his fingers into the trunk of a tree, and crushes the wood.
Okay, yeah, he's stronger than me.
Swinging my arm as fast as possible, softball style, I throw the dagger at his forehead. The vampire ducks, seeing the dagger coming, and says, "As if I'm that slow-"
And then, he dies, his head falling down, courtesy of the dagger returning to my hands, spinning around like a boomerang thanks to my Telekinesis. Snapping my fingers, I conjure flames in the air in front of myself, and send them at all the dead.. well, re-dead Vampire bodies, turning them to ash.
And then, I begin my walk towards Nurmengard, completely invisibile.
Barely 10 steps in, however, I am forced to stop, courtesy of a barrier being raised around me. Correction, around us. There were around 50 Wizards, who had apparated in all at once, to surround me from three sides.
Not bothering with speaking, I become visible, and start walking towards them, my wand in my hand this time. Around 30 spells fly towards me, all at once, few of them killing curses. I wave my left hand through the air, casting a Protego, creating a large shield to absorb the non lethal spells.
As for the Killing Curses, small rocks jump up from the ground, intercepting the spells, and take the curses for me before they can even strike the shield.
The shield maintained by my left hand, wandlessly, I wave my right hand, which held my wand, through the air, casting an area wide stunning charm.
Turning the Stunning charm into an area wide spell, is easy enough. It just loses a lot of power, and speed, allowing competent wizards enough time to shield.
The group attacking me, however, were not all competent. Heck, half the people here were yelling spells loudly, even for stunners. Many others, meanwhile, were in the middle of casting spells of their own, when my spell is emitted, not giving them enough time to shield.
Around 15 Wizards drop down, unconscious, while 10 or so Wizards start becoming dizzy, their Magic resisting against the Stunner.
Holding the Protego in front of me, I banish it at the group to my left. As my shield crashes into them, they get thrown into the forest, as 10 stunners hit the 8 people all at once. Turning to my right, I point my wand at the 7 wizards there, and shoot a basketball sized fireball at them.
The wizards jump away, letting the fireball crash into a tree with an explosion, but while they were jumping, stunners take care of dropping them too.
And now, I turn towards the 20 remaining people, to my front, 10 of whom were still dizzy. Catching a flaying curse on the tip of my wand, I send it back towards the caster, and watch his skin start peeling off, not enjoying his screaming even a little.
My dagger comes out of its holster, and flies towards his heart, thanks to my Telekinesis, which stops his screaming.
The 19 wizards all point their wands at me, and yell, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" in unison.
Well, fuck you too.
Throwing my Wand down, I clap my hands together, and create portals underneath all their feet, dropping them on the ground right in front of me, in the paths of their own curses. Another portal drops me on the opposite side, away from the Killing Curse's path.
The Wizards drop dead, their killing curses hitting them. One of them, however, was still breathing.
"Wow, you're so lucky you can't even cast the killing curse." I say, not knowing if I should be impressed, or disappointed. This man's killing curse had no.. killing factor in it. Despite hitting his face, it did nothing to him.
"Hngh!" The man groans, as he starts to raise his wand to attack me again.
"Percutio!" I say, nonchalantly pointing my own wand at him.
From my wand tip, a focused bolt of magic emits, and hits him on the forehead. The piercing hex stabs through his head, and comes out, killing him. Well, he's dying, but his brain is probably already dead.
What? He tried to fucking kill me! He failed but that's not my problem now, is it?
The 50 wizards all dead, or unconscious, I start walking once again, this time in the Mirror Dimension. Not letting anyone else ambush me, to delay me.
The barrier they had erected to stop me is broken by a simple stab of Durmagol, before me going into the Mirror Dimension. It should allow at least someone to find these bodies.
The Aurors should have reached Nurmengard by now, I gave them enough time to do that. If not, well, canon fodder aren't going to delay me too much.
-
Dumbledore appears out of the Apparition tunnel, around 300 meters away from the outer walls of Nurmengard. In front of him, were thousands of Wizards, all with their wands pointed at him.
One of them raises his arm up, and says, "Stop, it's Dumbledore. Gellert wants him inside."
Albus recognises the Wizard as Heinz Luther, the replacement of Vinda Rosier, and one of Gellert's lieutenants.
As if Albus was Moses, the sea of wizards part, allowing him to see the gate of the Nurmengard fortress. As the gate opens, Albus sees him, his former best friend, the one man he loved the most. Gellert Grindelwald.
He was just standing there, waiting for him, outside the Nurmengard building. The Lethifolds he was supposed to have tamed were nowhere to be seen, but then again, Lethifolds can hide themselves very easily.
Albus starts walking, knowing that these Wizards won't attack him. It's not Gellert's style, at least, when it comes to Albus. Either he would have had him assasinated, or he would have killed him himself.
Calling him to Austria, and cursing on his back, was not something he would condone.
"Welcome, Albus! I'm glad you came here to witness my victory over the Wizarding World!" Gellert proclaims, as soon as Albus is inside the grounds of Nurmengard.
Albus takes his wand out, as soon as he's inside, and stops, the wand held at his side. He doesn't say anything, not having any words to do so.
He had already said all the words he wanted to, tried to convince Gellert hundreds of times over. If that didn't convince him of his errors, then nothing will.
"Shall we begin, my dear?" Gellert asks, bringing his own wand out.
Albus notices that it's not the Wand he had known Gellert to possess, and his heart sinks, realising something. The reason behind Gellert's confidence, it wasn't just his Sight.
"The Elder Wand." Albus whispers, staring in horror at the Wand that's rumoured to be the most powerful Wand ever created. Steeling his heart, Albus starts the duel, by firing a thick bolt of pure magic at Gellert.
Gellert's smile widens, as he shoots his own bolt through the Elder Wand, and Albus's magic, the two spells meeting in the middle.
The Battle of the Century, has begun.
---
A/N: How was this chapter? Honest review please.
Sorry for being late! I'm on meds, and hence a bit sleepy all the time. I couldn't find the energy to write, or post here! I'm still sleepy, dizzy, but I'd waited too long anyway, so I wanted to post.
Thank you for your support! Tata!
- Location
- Madness realms
One of these guys is going to cop a spell in the back and Mason is going to be the one to do it.
- Location
- England
Here's hoping he wasn't an undercover agent intentionally flubbing the cast.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wouldn't hundreds be more plausible? If he had thousands of wizards he would have taken over the ministry by now. Thanks for the chapter.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
He wasn't fighting one nation, he was fighting all of them.
Jordisk
<Unverified N00B>
- Location
- Blind Eternities
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Plus, he DID take over the ministry. The German Ministry, and maybe also the Austrian and Hungarian magical governments as well. He didn't take over the BRITISH ministry, but since Britain is what is usually focused on in HP stories, people seem to think that he wasn't better than Tommy-boy because he wasn't fighting door-to-door in Hogsmeade or whatever.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Tom Riddle was called the worst Dark lord in this century because he barely managed to take over one country in 50 years. Grindelwald declared war on all the countries, almost succeeded, and even the other Wizarzs leaned on Dumbledore to defeat him, because they believed no one else could.
51. Albus Dumbledore
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
A/N: Pat-reon: HelloDarkness07.
---
Two Wizards, once friends, now enemies. Albus Dumbledore, and Gellert Grindelwald.
Both loved each other dearly once, cared for each other completely. But now, they're fighting each other, trying to defeat the other completely, so that the other may turn over to their own side.
Two intense beams of light, Pure Magic, one light blue, and the other a dark violet, meet in between the two Wizards, crashing into a dark blue orb that hovers at the point of impact. The two wands connected to the beams of Magic, stay raised, each one trying hard to push the orb over to the other's side.
Because both of them knew, the person who loses this battle of wills, will lose this battle entirely.
At Albus's back stood near to the outer walls, was a group of 15 men, with 10 of those men holding their wands at the necks of the other 5. Albus knew those 5 men, they were Officials of the Magical Germany's Ministerium.
And right now, they were standing as Witnesses to this amazing battle of Magic, where both wizards used more Magic in the single attack, than most adult Wizards have access to.
The orb, where the Magic from the two wands was battling for dominance, stays in one spot, exactly in between the two men. The Orb, not being stable enough, causes a lot of the magic to leak, sending it in the form of different spells flying outwards.
Lightning strikes the ground around the two wizards, and a few patches of ground get hit by imitations of the Bombarda spell, as the orb destroys some land. Some bolts of magic leak into the sky, to no awail, and some even try to go further, to attack the spectators.
Fortunately for them, Grindelwald had already erected a barrier around the duo, to protect those outside from stray spells, and to prevent anyone from interfering.
For a moment, the orb of battling magic, moves forward, away from Albus, as he puts more effort into his attack. But then, he sees Gellert twitch his wand once, his own face showing the focus he has in this battle, and the orb starts moving towards Albus.
Albus raises his left hand, to help his Wand hand, by supporting the Magical strain of holding a spell active, and to help it push the orb backwards. And it does work, as the orb once again starts moving backwards, towards Gellert.
It keeps moving forward, with Albus putting more and more effort into it, and Albus takes a moment to glance at Gellert, and smiles through the concentration, seeing a bead of sweat leak from Gellert's head.
Gellert catches Albus eyes, his face straining, and says, "You know.. Albus.." he pauses, grunting in effort as the orb pushes backwards once again. But, Albus takes a step forward and straightens his arm, the orb pushing back once again.
Gellert continues speaking, as the orb continues to move towards him, and says, "You're as strong as ever, even with the odds stacked against you." The orb reaches Gellert, and is about to touch his wand, from where it would have spread to Gellert's body with a shock, stopping his Magic from working.
But then, it stops a foot away from Gellert's Wand, causing Albus to widen his eyes in shock, as Gellert raises his own left arm to join the right. He then raises his left arm backwards, and pushes both the left and right hands forward, with a second wave of Magic.
The second wave causes the Orb to zoom backwards, towards Albus, and he disconnects the spell, jumping to the side. The orb flies into the barrier, and splashes on it harmlessly, the Magic being absorbed by the Ward to better itself.
Albus looks up, with horror, and sees Gellert smirking at him from his position. Gellert wipes the sweat off his brow, and says, "But I'm still stronger than you."
Albus stands up, and raises his wand up, casting a shield charm to stop a dark red curse from hitting him. Before the curse even hits completely, Albus moves, and sends a barrage of stunning spells at Gellert's head.
"Stunners? Really Albus?" Gellert says, casually stopping all the spells with a wandless shield.
But then, suddenly, his shield breaks, a nonverbal expulso hitting it, and Gellert is sent skidding back. He raises his left arm, and slaps his hand downwards, using a small shield charm to slap the next stunner away.
He glares at Albus, and says, "You won't be able to capture me, Albus. You either kill me, or I kill you. This is how it was always going to be, there is no other way."
Albus looks at Gellert, a sad look upon his face, and says, "I am still going to try, old friend."
He then turns to his left, his wand twirling through the air, pointed downards. Gellert raises his own wand, and fires a reducto at Albus, to stop him from his work.
Unfortunately, the spell splashes harmlessly on a steel shield, held by a Knight made completely out of stone, that rises from the ground in front of Albus.
The Knight, transfigured completely by Albus, with its shield formed by Alchemically transmuting the stone shield he had originally transfigured to be held by the Knight, is joined by three more such Knights, all standing in front of Albus.
"Attack." Albus says, and immediately, the four knights, holding sharp steel swords, and shields, start running towards Gellert.
Gellert wasn't idle, however, and he twirls his own wand at the ground in front of him, transfiguring 3 gorillas in front of him. He wasn't proficient enough in Alchemy to transmute metal weapons, but he knew, that 3 large primates were enough to take care of the four knights.
As the knights and gorillas start their fight, Albus points his wand at Gellert, and shoots a concentrated ball of magic at him. Gellert slashes his wand downwards, casting a shield spell to block the magic blast, and then slashes his left hand towards Albus, sending a burst of lightning out of his hands.
Dumbledore waves his wand, causing one of the Knights to get in the way of the spell, with his sword raised. The Knight then stabs the sword into the ground, just before lightning hits it. The lightning hits the sword, and safely goes into the Earth, without harming anyone. Unfortunately, a simple banishing charm hits the Knight, sending it flying towards Albus.
Albus raises his wand with a shield spell already cast, and as the Knight crashes into his shield, he casts another spell at it, splitting it's volume, and transfigures them into a thousand sparrows, all made of stone, with their talons and beak made of the same steel that made the sword and shield of the knight.
The sparrows jump into flight, and dive bomb towards Gellert Grindelwald, who slashes his wand upwards to cast a Praesidio Totalum charm, creating a full spherical shield around himself, that protects him from anything physical.
But he doesn't stay still, and twirls his wand into the air, in front of him, focusing on casting a very specific spell. Dumbledore, who also hadn't stayed idle, helps his Knights defeat the gorillas, and sends them to attack Grindelwald's shield.
As a back up, he then focuses deep within himself, summoning all the desperation to win this fight, and stabs his wand towards Gellert, silently casting a Fulmen spell. The Fulmen spell sends a single, thick lightning bolt at Gellert, and immediately rips through his Shield spell.
Gellert was ready, however, and he does two things at once. With his left hand, he wandlessly casts a strong Protego spell to stop the lightning, and then, with his wand, he fires an intense wave of dark magic.
The dark magic wave was a spell of his own design, through many experimentations with the Elemental spells while in Durmstrang. He created a Dark Arts spell. A fire so hot, that everything in its path was immediately disintegrated, with not even ash left behind.
So, when the white coloured dark magic spell hit the approaching golems, it only caused them to disintegrate, with no damage to him.
Albus frowns, seeing the wave come closer, and slashes his wand upwards, forcing a wave of Pure magic through it, while keeping the image of what he wants to happen in his mind. The slash of his wand splits the Dark Magic wave into two, causing the two parts to veer off towards his two sides, and hit the barrier. Once again, the barrier holds, not getting damaged in the least.
Albus had already seen the spell before, when he had fought Gellert along with his brother, so long ago. And while it didn't hit anyone, he knew how dangerous it was to humans.
Spinning his wand over his head, Albus summons a fire whip, with his wand acting as the handle of the whip. The Fire Whip, over four meters long, spins around his head a few times, gaining momentum, and then, as he slashes his wand towards Gellert, it flies towards him, the tip aimed at his neck.
Gellert raises his wand upwards, conjuring a giant wave of water in front of him, which stops the flame whip before it can harm him. The water wave then grows two hands out of its front, that catch the flame whip, and water starts climbing the whip.
Albus sees the water start covering his flame whip, and raises his left arm, willing the fire to become even hotter. The increasing temperatures causes the water to start boiling, and evaporate away within a single second. A wave of his left hand sends the hot mist towards Gellert, who was not ready for it.
Some of it hits him in his face, and his raised hands. Gellert winces, and glares at Albus, as his burn wounds start healing right before Albus's eyes.
"What did you do?" Albus whispers out, horrified.
Albus is a teacher, a pretty good one at that. He has seen a lot of things, and amongst them, he has seen the school medic heal hundreds of wounds, and even burns. Whatever Gellert did, was not that.
He didn't even feel any magic being used for the wound healing, and Albus was confident in his senses.
Gellert chuckles, sounding even more menacing, and says, "It's a handy Ritual, Albus. Vinculum Sanguinis, the Bond of Blood. I can use it to absorb anyone, or anything within myself, as long as they're alive. You must've felt my Magic, didn't you? It's.. not stronger, no.. but better. I absorbed souls within myself, Albus, Life. As you can see, having so much Life within myself.. has some fortunate side effects."
Albus realises, that the fight has gotten just that much harder now. Gellert was immortal, or long living. Depending on how many Wizards he has.. absorbed(- and it still makes Albus's stomach clench in disgust, when he thinks about it) Gellert must already be the strongest Wizard in the world.
That's if he only stuck Wizards.
But he knew, that absorbing more Wizard souls does not mean that Grindelwald has more magic, it doesn't work like that. Magic is Soul, Blood, and Body. Increasing the Potency of just one won't increase the Potency of his Magic, his body is still weak. And there's a limit over how strong Wizards can get, even with Rituals.
Albus stands up, having ducked in preparation for a counter attack that never came, and says, "This just means your capture is that much more necessary, Gellert. How low have you fallen?"
Scowling, Gellert shoots a concentrated beam of Magic at Albus, who counters with his own beam, and says, "I've fallen low, Albus?! Tell me, was it me that tried to kill his own brother? Was it me that helped MUGGLES in their war, when no one was looking? You might have believed yourself invisible, Albus, but I could see you! I could see you all the time!"
As the two beams of magic begin fighting once more, Albus realises that his secret isn't a secret anymore, with the Lieutenants of Grindelwald, as well as the German Prisoners having listened to his words.
Albus knew, that Grindelwald had some hand in Hitler's successes, but he didn't know how far it went. And so, without anyone knowing, Albus had utilised his personal Time Turner, one he had gotten from the Ministry thanks to his Magical accomplishments, and joined the muggle war.
He had been under a disillusionment charm, so strong, that it made him completely invisibile, with some additional charms to prevent his detection. He had destroyed a few of the Nazi tankers, knowing he can't do too much without causing suspicions. And he had destroyed a single Hydra factory, deeming the Bombs they had made too dangerous to be left intact.
No one knew about his deeds, and it was by choice. He didn't want that negative attention towards him, and after seeing how Mason Aves had been turned into a propaganda machine, his fears were well founded.
Or at least, he thought no one knew. Gellert, it seemed, always knew.
Suddenly, Albus feels something climbing on top of his legs, and looks down. There was grass growing on the ground, just underneath him. Everywhere else, all the little greenery there was had disintegrated in Gellert's last attack.
Albus waves his hand at the grass, to dispell the Animation charm he believed cast on it, but his wave of hand does nothing to the grass. He then waves his hand again, to undo the transfiguration, once again to no avail.
Scowling, Albus focuses on the Volatile magical orb floating in front of him, and pulls his wand upwards, sending the orb flying upwards, while at the same time forcing Gellert's wand arm to point upwards too. As the orb explodes into the sky, Albus grunts, and sends a strong exploding hex at Gellert.
Gellert casts a shield, but the strength behind the spell sends him skidding backwards.
Albus takes the time to point his wand at his legs, and casts an Incendo charm, burning just the grass from his legs. He then looks up, to attack Gellert once again, but feels something climb his leg, again, this time far faster than before.
And then, before he can try anything, the grass pulls back for a moment, and then stabs into his leg. Somehow, what was supposed to be soft grass, had enough strength and sharpness to it, that it makes Albus bleed, as he gasps in pain.
"Ah!" He whispers, casting another incendo to burn the grass away.
Albus immediately summons a Bezoar from his pouch, feeling himself poisoned by the grass, and throws it in his throat, swallowing it whole. He then points his wand at his leg, to start healing the wounds, but before he can cast a spell, his wand gets pulled out of his hand and into the hands of his enemy.
Albus Dumbledore had lost, and Gellert Grindelwald had won.
'I…. Lost?' Albus wonders, feeling all his hope fly out. He had thought he would lose, there were very high odds of that happening, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt.
Grindelwald smirks at Albus's bleeding form, his hands stopping the blood from flowing too much, with Albus's wand in his left hand, and the Elder Wand in his right. He then starts walking towards Albus, each footstep taunting Albus with his loss.
Albus blinks his tears away, as Gellert stops a foot away from him, and asks, "Kill me then, finish it."
Gellert snorts, and slowly sits down on his knee. He keeps Albus's Wand in his own pocket, with Albus following it with his eyes, and waves his hand over the wound in Albus's thighs.
The wounds start healing, thanks to the Healing spell cast by Gellert, and Albus winces, feeling the pain of flesh binding together once again.
Gellert ignores his pain, and slowly says, "I never wanted to kill you, Albus. I want you to join me, just like old times."
Albus looks up from his now healed legs, and smiles up at Gellert. He says, "We both know what my answer is, Gellert. I will never join you, not after all you've done to the Magical World. To me."
"To? No, Albus. Everything I did, I did FOR the Magical World! How long will we stay hidden from the muggles? 50 years ago, these filthy idiots couldn't even bath regularly, and now, they have giant flying machines capable of destroying the entirety of London in a week. What do you think 50 more years will do, Albus, because I have Seen it, and they don't become any dumber." Gellert says, looking into Albus's eyes, pleading with him.
He says, "You think I showed them the Ritual just because I wanted conflict? No, Albus. I wanted the Wizards to see, that sooner or later, Muggles will realise the Worth of Wizarding Blood, the Worth of Magic. I just.. sped up the process. And while I regret the three Wizards I had to give up, it was necessary. For the Greater Good."
Albus chuckles, seeing through Gellert's manipulation, and asks, "Is that what you truly think? That you still work for the Greater Good? Admit it, Gellert. You abandoned the Greater Good the same day that I did, you just pretended not to. All of.. this.. is for YOUR Greater Good, not the Magical World's. All of this, is so you can get the Throne that you think you deserve, as the Ruler of the Wizarding World."
Contrary to Albus's expectations, Gellert smiles, and says, "You're right, I do believe I deserve to be the Ruler of the Wizarding World, the Supreme Warlock. But you know as well as I do, that under me, Wizards and Witches will live peacefully, it won't matter if they're Pureblood, Half-blood, or New-Blood."
"I believe, you're mistaking Peace with Quiet." Albus says, not believing anything Gellert was saying.
It has been a long time, since Albus believed in Gellert, and now, no matter what Gellert says, Albus knows that Gellert cannot be trusted with the fate of the Wizarding World.
A hand on his cheek brings Albus back to Gellert, as he says, "Peace, quiet, fear. Doesn't matter what you word it as, I will still rule the Wizarding World for years to come, without anyone rebelling against me." He then pauses, staring in Albus's eyes.
So long, Albus had wanted to see those beautiful eyes of his friend's again, to tell him how much he loved Gellert. But now, even if the opportunity was right in front of him, Albus refused to do it, he refused to give Gellert the satisfaction of hearing those words.
He had lost the fight, and with it, Gellert had won the personal War they had between them. His body was healed, but his Magic was not at 100 percent. Even if he somehow managed to get the Wand from Gellert's pocket, which was almost impossible, he wouldn't be able to defeat Gellert, he knew that. And it seems even Gellert knew that.
Gellert's lips twitch upwards, as he says, "You've realised the futility of any actions you might take against me. You're right, you won't win. No matter what you pull out of your robe pockets, you've lost. And it seems you still won't accept my offer."
He then stands up, pointing his Wand at Albus's head, and says, "At least you can rest easy, knowing that the Elder Wand is in good hands."
"I thought you didn't want to kill me." Albus says, stopping Gellert from casting a spell.
Gellert grins at Albus, as if he had already seen the question coming, and says, "I still don't want to, but I know the futility of my own actions. No matter what I promise you, no matter what I offer, you won't accept my hand now. I admire your guts, Albus, and I would have loved to have you there by my side, when I begin my rule. But.. what can you do?"
And then, a green coloured spell flies out of Gellert Grindelwald's wand, going towards Albus's resolute face. He didn't want to die a coward, if he was going to die, he was going to die looking straight at his killer's eyes.
Surprisingly, however, the Killing Curse splashes on the ground underneath Albus, as he finds himself involuntarily flying backwards, roughly rolling to a stop at the edge of the barrier separating the two old friends from the outer world.
The Barrier, which had gotten opaque sometime during their fight, glows brighter and brighter, increasing in intensity, and then, with a loud sound of glass breaking, the barrier breaks, the magic dissipating into thin air.
"You're not fucking dying yet, Dumbledore. You are not going to leave your mess in someone else's hands, uncleaned." A youthful and passionate voice yells, as the light of the barrier breaking dies down.
Albus chuckles, despite himself, as he recognises the voice. He says, "I wouldn't dream of it, Captain Aves."
He then turns his head to look at his back, and sees the German officials now free, fighting with the Lieutenants of Grindelwald, together with a couple Aurors, the Headmasters of the three European Schools, and Nicholas Flamel.
And standing beside Albus, was the one who had saved him from certain death, someone he didn't trust too much, but trusted him enough to not be on the wrong side of this War. Whether he was strong enough to take Grindelwald on, he didn't know. But he knew that he had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, and it makes Albus smile wide, now relieved.
Mason Aves was here, and he was pissed.
---
A/N: Welp, had to stop here. I hope I portrayed the Battle of the Century well.
The next chapter will continue with Mason's POV, from last chapter, because a lot of time has passed since the duel began. Wish me luck!
Thank you for your support! Tata!
---
Two Wizards, once friends, now enemies. Albus Dumbledore, and Gellert Grindelwald.
Both loved each other dearly once, cared for each other completely. But now, they're fighting each other, trying to defeat the other completely, so that the other may turn over to their own side.
Two intense beams of light, Pure Magic, one light blue, and the other a dark violet, meet in between the two Wizards, crashing into a dark blue orb that hovers at the point of impact. The two wands connected to the beams of Magic, stay raised, each one trying hard to push the orb over to the other's side.
Because both of them knew, the person who loses this battle of wills, will lose this battle entirely.
At Albus's back stood near to the outer walls, was a group of 15 men, with 10 of those men holding their wands at the necks of the other 5. Albus knew those 5 men, they were Officials of the Magical Germany's Ministerium.
And right now, they were standing as Witnesses to this amazing battle of Magic, where both wizards used more Magic in the single attack, than most adult Wizards have access to.
The orb, where the Magic from the two wands was battling for dominance, stays in one spot, exactly in between the two men. The Orb, not being stable enough, causes a lot of the magic to leak, sending it in the form of different spells flying outwards.
Lightning strikes the ground around the two wizards, and a few patches of ground get hit by imitations of the Bombarda spell, as the orb destroys some land. Some bolts of magic leak into the sky, to no awail, and some even try to go further, to attack the spectators.
Fortunately for them, Grindelwald had already erected a barrier around the duo, to protect those outside from stray spells, and to prevent anyone from interfering.
For a moment, the orb of battling magic, moves forward, away from Albus, as he puts more effort into his attack. But then, he sees Gellert twitch his wand once, his own face showing the focus he has in this battle, and the orb starts moving towards Albus.
Albus raises his left hand, to help his Wand hand, by supporting the Magical strain of holding a spell active, and to help it push the orb backwards. And it does work, as the orb once again starts moving backwards, towards Gellert.
It keeps moving forward, with Albus putting more and more effort into it, and Albus takes a moment to glance at Gellert, and smiles through the concentration, seeing a bead of sweat leak from Gellert's head.
Gellert catches Albus eyes, his face straining, and says, "You know.. Albus.." he pauses, grunting in effort as the orb pushes backwards once again. But, Albus takes a step forward and straightens his arm, the orb pushing back once again.
Gellert continues speaking, as the orb continues to move towards him, and says, "You're as strong as ever, even with the odds stacked against you." The orb reaches Gellert, and is about to touch his wand, from where it would have spread to Gellert's body with a shock, stopping his Magic from working.
But then, it stops a foot away from Gellert's Wand, causing Albus to widen his eyes in shock, as Gellert raises his own left arm to join the right. He then raises his left arm backwards, and pushes both the left and right hands forward, with a second wave of Magic.
The second wave causes the Orb to zoom backwards, towards Albus, and he disconnects the spell, jumping to the side. The orb flies into the barrier, and splashes on it harmlessly, the Magic being absorbed by the Ward to better itself.
Albus looks up, with horror, and sees Gellert smirking at him from his position. Gellert wipes the sweat off his brow, and says, "But I'm still stronger than you."
Albus stands up, and raises his wand up, casting a shield charm to stop a dark red curse from hitting him. Before the curse even hits completely, Albus moves, and sends a barrage of stunning spells at Gellert's head.
"Stunners? Really Albus?" Gellert says, casually stopping all the spells with a wandless shield.
But then, suddenly, his shield breaks, a nonverbal expulso hitting it, and Gellert is sent skidding back. He raises his left arm, and slaps his hand downwards, using a small shield charm to slap the next stunner away.
He glares at Albus, and says, "You won't be able to capture me, Albus. You either kill me, or I kill you. This is how it was always going to be, there is no other way."
Albus looks at Gellert, a sad look upon his face, and says, "I am still going to try, old friend."
He then turns to his left, his wand twirling through the air, pointed downards. Gellert raises his own wand, and fires a reducto at Albus, to stop him from his work.
Unfortunately, the spell splashes harmlessly on a steel shield, held by a Knight made completely out of stone, that rises from the ground in front of Albus.
The Knight, transfigured completely by Albus, with its shield formed by Alchemically transmuting the stone shield he had originally transfigured to be held by the Knight, is joined by three more such Knights, all standing in front of Albus.
"Attack." Albus says, and immediately, the four knights, holding sharp steel swords, and shields, start running towards Gellert.
Gellert wasn't idle, however, and he twirls his own wand at the ground in front of him, transfiguring 3 gorillas in front of him. He wasn't proficient enough in Alchemy to transmute metal weapons, but he knew, that 3 large primates were enough to take care of the four knights.
As the knights and gorillas start their fight, Albus points his wand at Gellert, and shoots a concentrated ball of magic at him. Gellert slashes his wand downwards, casting a shield spell to block the magic blast, and then slashes his left hand towards Albus, sending a burst of lightning out of his hands.
Dumbledore waves his wand, causing one of the Knights to get in the way of the spell, with his sword raised. The Knight then stabs the sword into the ground, just before lightning hits it. The lightning hits the sword, and safely goes into the Earth, without harming anyone. Unfortunately, a simple banishing charm hits the Knight, sending it flying towards Albus.
Albus raises his wand with a shield spell already cast, and as the Knight crashes into his shield, he casts another spell at it, splitting it's volume, and transfigures them into a thousand sparrows, all made of stone, with their talons and beak made of the same steel that made the sword and shield of the knight.
The sparrows jump into flight, and dive bomb towards Gellert Grindelwald, who slashes his wand upwards to cast a Praesidio Totalum charm, creating a full spherical shield around himself, that protects him from anything physical.
But he doesn't stay still, and twirls his wand into the air, in front of him, focusing on casting a very specific spell. Dumbledore, who also hadn't stayed idle, helps his Knights defeat the gorillas, and sends them to attack Grindelwald's shield.
As a back up, he then focuses deep within himself, summoning all the desperation to win this fight, and stabs his wand towards Gellert, silently casting a Fulmen spell. The Fulmen spell sends a single, thick lightning bolt at Gellert, and immediately rips through his Shield spell.
Gellert was ready, however, and he does two things at once. With his left hand, he wandlessly casts a strong Protego spell to stop the lightning, and then, with his wand, he fires an intense wave of dark magic.
The dark magic wave was a spell of his own design, through many experimentations with the Elemental spells while in Durmstrang. He created a Dark Arts spell. A fire so hot, that everything in its path was immediately disintegrated, with not even ash left behind.
So, when the white coloured dark magic spell hit the approaching golems, it only caused them to disintegrate, with no damage to him.
Albus frowns, seeing the wave come closer, and slashes his wand upwards, forcing a wave of Pure magic through it, while keeping the image of what he wants to happen in his mind. The slash of his wand splits the Dark Magic wave into two, causing the two parts to veer off towards his two sides, and hit the barrier. Once again, the barrier holds, not getting damaged in the least.
Albus had already seen the spell before, when he had fought Gellert along with his brother, so long ago. And while it didn't hit anyone, he knew how dangerous it was to humans.
Spinning his wand over his head, Albus summons a fire whip, with his wand acting as the handle of the whip. The Fire Whip, over four meters long, spins around his head a few times, gaining momentum, and then, as he slashes his wand towards Gellert, it flies towards him, the tip aimed at his neck.
Gellert raises his wand upwards, conjuring a giant wave of water in front of him, which stops the flame whip before it can harm him. The water wave then grows two hands out of its front, that catch the flame whip, and water starts climbing the whip.
Albus sees the water start covering his flame whip, and raises his left arm, willing the fire to become even hotter. The increasing temperatures causes the water to start boiling, and evaporate away within a single second. A wave of his left hand sends the hot mist towards Gellert, who was not ready for it.
Some of it hits him in his face, and his raised hands. Gellert winces, and glares at Albus, as his burn wounds start healing right before Albus's eyes.
"What did you do?" Albus whispers out, horrified.
Albus is a teacher, a pretty good one at that. He has seen a lot of things, and amongst them, he has seen the school medic heal hundreds of wounds, and even burns. Whatever Gellert did, was not that.
He didn't even feel any magic being used for the wound healing, and Albus was confident in his senses.
Gellert chuckles, sounding even more menacing, and says, "It's a handy Ritual, Albus. Vinculum Sanguinis, the Bond of Blood. I can use it to absorb anyone, or anything within myself, as long as they're alive. You must've felt my Magic, didn't you? It's.. not stronger, no.. but better. I absorbed souls within myself, Albus, Life. As you can see, having so much Life within myself.. has some fortunate side effects."
Albus realises, that the fight has gotten just that much harder now. Gellert was immortal, or long living. Depending on how many Wizards he has.. absorbed(- and it still makes Albus's stomach clench in disgust, when he thinks about it) Gellert must already be the strongest Wizard in the world.
That's if he only stuck Wizards.
But he knew, that absorbing more Wizard souls does not mean that Grindelwald has more magic, it doesn't work like that. Magic is Soul, Blood, and Body. Increasing the Potency of just one won't increase the Potency of his Magic, his body is still weak. And there's a limit over how strong Wizards can get, even with Rituals.
Albus stands up, having ducked in preparation for a counter attack that never came, and says, "This just means your capture is that much more necessary, Gellert. How low have you fallen?"
Scowling, Gellert shoots a concentrated beam of Magic at Albus, who counters with his own beam, and says, "I've fallen low, Albus?! Tell me, was it me that tried to kill his own brother? Was it me that helped MUGGLES in their war, when no one was looking? You might have believed yourself invisible, Albus, but I could see you! I could see you all the time!"
As the two beams of magic begin fighting once more, Albus realises that his secret isn't a secret anymore, with the Lieutenants of Grindelwald, as well as the German Prisoners having listened to his words.
Albus knew, that Grindelwald had some hand in Hitler's successes, but he didn't know how far it went. And so, without anyone knowing, Albus had utilised his personal Time Turner, one he had gotten from the Ministry thanks to his Magical accomplishments, and joined the muggle war.
He had been under a disillusionment charm, so strong, that it made him completely invisibile, with some additional charms to prevent his detection. He had destroyed a few of the Nazi tankers, knowing he can't do too much without causing suspicions. And he had destroyed a single Hydra factory, deeming the Bombs they had made too dangerous to be left intact.
No one knew about his deeds, and it was by choice. He didn't want that negative attention towards him, and after seeing how Mason Aves had been turned into a propaganda machine, his fears were well founded.
Or at least, he thought no one knew. Gellert, it seemed, always knew.
Suddenly, Albus feels something climbing on top of his legs, and looks down. There was grass growing on the ground, just underneath him. Everywhere else, all the little greenery there was had disintegrated in Gellert's last attack.
Albus waves his hand at the grass, to dispell the Animation charm he believed cast on it, but his wave of hand does nothing to the grass. He then waves his hand again, to undo the transfiguration, once again to no avail.
Scowling, Albus focuses on the Volatile magical orb floating in front of him, and pulls his wand upwards, sending the orb flying upwards, while at the same time forcing Gellert's wand arm to point upwards too. As the orb explodes into the sky, Albus grunts, and sends a strong exploding hex at Gellert.
Gellert casts a shield, but the strength behind the spell sends him skidding backwards.
Albus takes the time to point his wand at his legs, and casts an Incendo charm, burning just the grass from his legs. He then looks up, to attack Gellert once again, but feels something climb his leg, again, this time far faster than before.
And then, before he can try anything, the grass pulls back for a moment, and then stabs into his leg. Somehow, what was supposed to be soft grass, had enough strength and sharpness to it, that it makes Albus bleed, as he gasps in pain.
"Ah!" He whispers, casting another incendo to burn the grass away.
Albus immediately summons a Bezoar from his pouch, feeling himself poisoned by the grass, and throws it in his throat, swallowing it whole. He then points his wand at his leg, to start healing the wounds, but before he can cast a spell, his wand gets pulled out of his hand and into the hands of his enemy.
Albus Dumbledore had lost, and Gellert Grindelwald had won.
'I…. Lost?' Albus wonders, feeling all his hope fly out. He had thought he would lose, there were very high odds of that happening, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt.
Grindelwald smirks at Albus's bleeding form, his hands stopping the blood from flowing too much, with Albus's wand in his left hand, and the Elder Wand in his right. He then starts walking towards Albus, each footstep taunting Albus with his loss.
Albus blinks his tears away, as Gellert stops a foot away from him, and asks, "Kill me then, finish it."
Gellert snorts, and slowly sits down on his knee. He keeps Albus's Wand in his own pocket, with Albus following it with his eyes, and waves his hand over the wound in Albus's thighs.
The wounds start healing, thanks to the Healing spell cast by Gellert, and Albus winces, feeling the pain of flesh binding together once again.
Gellert ignores his pain, and slowly says, "I never wanted to kill you, Albus. I want you to join me, just like old times."
Albus looks up from his now healed legs, and smiles up at Gellert. He says, "We both know what my answer is, Gellert. I will never join you, not after all you've done to the Magical World. To me."
"To? No, Albus. Everything I did, I did FOR the Magical World! How long will we stay hidden from the muggles? 50 years ago, these filthy idiots couldn't even bath regularly, and now, they have giant flying machines capable of destroying the entirety of London in a week. What do you think 50 more years will do, Albus, because I have Seen it, and they don't become any dumber." Gellert says, looking into Albus's eyes, pleading with him.
He says, "You think I showed them the Ritual just because I wanted conflict? No, Albus. I wanted the Wizards to see, that sooner or later, Muggles will realise the Worth of Wizarding Blood, the Worth of Magic. I just.. sped up the process. And while I regret the three Wizards I had to give up, it was necessary. For the Greater Good."
Albus chuckles, seeing through Gellert's manipulation, and asks, "Is that what you truly think? That you still work for the Greater Good? Admit it, Gellert. You abandoned the Greater Good the same day that I did, you just pretended not to. All of.. this.. is for YOUR Greater Good, not the Magical World's. All of this, is so you can get the Throne that you think you deserve, as the Ruler of the Wizarding World."
Contrary to Albus's expectations, Gellert smiles, and says, "You're right, I do believe I deserve to be the Ruler of the Wizarding World, the Supreme Warlock. But you know as well as I do, that under me, Wizards and Witches will live peacefully, it won't matter if they're Pureblood, Half-blood, or New-Blood."
"I believe, you're mistaking Peace with Quiet." Albus says, not believing anything Gellert was saying.
It has been a long time, since Albus believed in Gellert, and now, no matter what Gellert says, Albus knows that Gellert cannot be trusted with the fate of the Wizarding World.
A hand on his cheek brings Albus back to Gellert, as he says, "Peace, quiet, fear. Doesn't matter what you word it as, I will still rule the Wizarding World for years to come, without anyone rebelling against me." He then pauses, staring in Albus's eyes.
So long, Albus had wanted to see those beautiful eyes of his friend's again, to tell him how much he loved Gellert. But now, even if the opportunity was right in front of him, Albus refused to do it, he refused to give Gellert the satisfaction of hearing those words.
He had lost the fight, and with it, Gellert had won the personal War they had between them. His body was healed, but his Magic was not at 100 percent. Even if he somehow managed to get the Wand from Gellert's pocket, which was almost impossible, he wouldn't be able to defeat Gellert, he knew that. And it seems even Gellert knew that.
Gellert's lips twitch upwards, as he says, "You've realised the futility of any actions you might take against me. You're right, you won't win. No matter what you pull out of your robe pockets, you've lost. And it seems you still won't accept my offer."
He then stands up, pointing his Wand at Albus's head, and says, "At least you can rest easy, knowing that the Elder Wand is in good hands."
"I thought you didn't want to kill me." Albus says, stopping Gellert from casting a spell.
Gellert grins at Albus, as if he had already seen the question coming, and says, "I still don't want to, but I know the futility of my own actions. No matter what I promise you, no matter what I offer, you won't accept my hand now. I admire your guts, Albus, and I would have loved to have you there by my side, when I begin my rule. But.. what can you do?"
And then, a green coloured spell flies out of Gellert Grindelwald's wand, going towards Albus's resolute face. He didn't want to die a coward, if he was going to die, he was going to die looking straight at his killer's eyes.
Surprisingly, however, the Killing Curse splashes on the ground underneath Albus, as he finds himself involuntarily flying backwards, roughly rolling to a stop at the edge of the barrier separating the two old friends from the outer world.
The Barrier, which had gotten opaque sometime during their fight, glows brighter and brighter, increasing in intensity, and then, with a loud sound of glass breaking, the barrier breaks, the magic dissipating into thin air.
"You're not fucking dying yet, Dumbledore. You are not going to leave your mess in someone else's hands, uncleaned." A youthful and passionate voice yells, as the light of the barrier breaking dies down.
Albus chuckles, despite himself, as he recognises the voice. He says, "I wouldn't dream of it, Captain Aves."
He then turns his head to look at his back, and sees the German officials now free, fighting with the Lieutenants of Grindelwald, together with a couple Aurors, the Headmasters of the three European Schools, and Nicholas Flamel.
And standing beside Albus, was the one who had saved him from certain death, someone he didn't trust too much, but trusted him enough to not be on the wrong side of this War. Whether he was strong enough to take Grindelwald on, he didn't know. But he knew that he had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, and it makes Albus smile wide, now relieved.
Mason Aves was here, and he was pissed.
---
A/N: Welp, had to stop here. I hope I portrayed the Battle of the Century well.
The next chapter will continue with Mason's POV, from last chapter, because a lot of time has passed since the duel began. Wish me luck!
Thank you for your support! Tata!