Final Year, Chapter 11 – Soul Searching

Rose hopped eagerly onto the sofa next to her mother while Hermione reached for the well-worn notebook that chronicled the fateful year that was to have been her final one at Hogwarts, but was instead occupied with the Horcrux hunt.

“Don’t forget, you were going to tell me about Ron and Daddy talking about you,” the young girl prompted.

“That’s right,” Hermione recalled. “I suppose that’s as good a scene as any to look at next. But first, I need to tell you a bit more about the tent.” She leaned back and closed her eyes a moment, sorting through her memories.

“If you remember from the last book, it was a magical tent that had four rooms – a kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms – which could be expanded or contracted based on the needs of the users within a fixed total floor space. We spent most of our time together in the living room, so we made that a comfortable size for the three of us. And Harry and Ron’s bedroom was sized for two people while mine was a single. What it did not have, however, was a full bathroom; only a small water closet in each bedroom, with a basin and toilet.”

Now Hermione opened the journal and found the notes for the particular event she intended to relate. “By that time we’d been camping for weeks and weeks, and after a while you get tired of cleaning yourself with scourgifying spells,” she explained. “So one day we were camped by a lovely little lake, and I decided I wanted to have a bath.”

-oooOOOooo-

Harry was sitting on a rock overlooking the lake, keeping a lookout and watching Hermione undress by the shoreline, when Ron walked out of the tent.

“Hi, what are you up to …. whoa!” Ron began to ask before he spotted the female member of the trio shedding her clothing. He quickly walked past Harry, then turned his back to the lake and faced his best mate. “Sorry about that. You are one lucky wizard, you know that right?” he smirked.

“You better believe it,” Harry agreed. “Except for that whole ‘dark lord wants me dead’ thing, of course.”

“Yeah, besides that,” his friend grinned. Then he turned serious. “I’ve been meaning to say something related to this, actually,” he declared. He paused to gather his thoughts for a moment, then took a deep breath. “Wouldn’t you rather share the room with her instead of with me?”

Harry regarded his best mate thoughtfully. He and Hermione would certainly prefer to go back to sleeping together, but she had taken the single bedroom in the tent, with Harry and Ron sharing the other, out of consideration for their best friend’s feelings. They had been limited to snatching brief intimate moments where they could, whenever they had a bit of time by themselves, without flaunting them in front of Ron.

“You’re sure that you’d be OK with that?” he asked carefully, wanting to be certain.

“Yeah, I will,” Ron responded with a shrug. “I admit there was a time there for a while when if I’d run across a boggart it would have turned into you and her snogging your brains out. That and my mum telling me she’d rather have you as a son instead of me.” He paused and grimaced. “But I know I’ve got to get over it, and I’m almost there. Getting together with Luna’s been a big help. She’s convinced me that she actually likes me for me, and not because I’m Harry Potter’s best friend.”

“She really does, you know,” Harry affirmed. “And she’s as loyal as any Hufflepuff I’ve ever met.” He took a long look at Ron to be certain he was being completely straightforward about his offer. “So you’re really sure, then?”

Ron leaned forward and gave Harry a mock shove on the arm. “Yeah, I am. Now why don’t you go down there and get naked with your girlfriend while I keep watch up here. I’ll definitely keep facing in this direction.”

Harry grinned and headed down toward the lake, where Hermione was now immersed nearly to the top of her breasts. He quickly stripped down and waded out to join her.

“Need someone to scrub your back?” he asked suggestively.

Hermione gave him a quizzical look. “I thought you were keeping watch,” she wondered as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him.

“Ron’s taking care of that,” he responded with a grin. “Don’t worry he’s mostly watching in the other direction.” Hermione chuckled. Since that day at the Lovegoods the idea of Ron seeing her starkers no longer put her into a panic. Besides, at this distance he wouldn’t have nearly the view he’d had from a few feet away in the pool. Harry continued. “But I have some news that I do believe you’ll really like.”

-oooOOOooo-

Hermione cleared her throat and closed the book again. “That’s probably enough – I’m sure you get the idea.”

Rose huffed in annoyance. Things had just started to get interesting! Then she looked up at her mother slyly. “So, is that when you and Daddy started having sex?”

“Rose Elizabeth Potter!” Hermione gasped. “I cannot believe you could ask me that! I would never have said anything like that to my mother.”

“I guess that’s just the way I was raised,” Rose shot back, still smirking. “You always said we could be open about things with each other.”

Hermione just shook her head, muttering something about ‘kids these days’. “Well, it wasn’t like that at all,” she finally responded. “You know very well how I feel about waiting until marriage. We’ve had that discussion plenty of times.”

“Mother,” Rose retorted, drawing out the word the way a typical preteen girl would, while rolling her eyes. “I know when my birthday is, and I know how to count to nine. According to the book, you and Daddy would have still been living in the tent when …”

“That just goes to show, you can’t believe everything you read,” Hermione answered primly. Mother and daughter stared at each other for a few seconds after this assertion before a snort from Rose started them both chuckling at how incongruous that statement would have been coming from Hermione when she was Rose’s age.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Rose pointed out cheekily.

“And I’m not going to either,” Hermione chided. “There are some things children don’t have to know about their parents.”

“But Mum …”

“I know what’s really bothering you, don’t worry. You’ll understand by the time we finish.” Rose folded her arms across her chest and scowled, but her mother would not relent. Turning her attention back to the notebook in her lap, Hermione frowned.

“I think we should probably skip ahead a few months,” she decided. “Otherwise it would start to sound like a never-ending camping trip. I’ll just give you the highlights.” She began flipping pages, pausing occasionally to refresh her memory or confirm a detail.

“What it all boiled down to is that we spent a lot of time searching in Albania, we did find the place where the diadem had been hidden, but it wasn’t there anymore. And we discovered that Voldemort had been in the area during the time between when he had left Britain and when he resurfaced and began his rise to power. So, while we didn’t find the diadem, we pretty much confirmed that Voldemort had taken it and most likely used it to create a Horcrux. In addition, we also uncovered a lot of evidence that he came back in some sort of spirit form, possessing first animals and then a few people, for most of the decade when his whereabouts were unaccounted for after October 31st.”

“While we were in the area, we also spent some time in Greece, since Dumbledore’s notes included a few possible ancient magical sites in that country that he might have utilized as a hiding place for a Horcrux. We came up empty there, too, although we did learn some fantastic things about magical history. Then we moved across the Adriatic to Italy, checked out a few more leads, and then finally went up to Germany. This all took us about three months, and we chased down dozens of possibilities.”

“During that time we kept in touch with Remus and Tonks through the enchanted mirrors, and with Susan, Neville, and Ginny by messages sent back and forth with Hedwig,” she noted. “Some of their adventures were actually quite a bit more interesting than ours were. Luna and Ron exchanged letters as well,” she added with a smile, “but Ron didn’t share those with us.”

-oooOOOooo-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – September 13

Remus and Tonks have made several visits to Godric’s Hollow, trying to determine the nature of the trap that Snape warned us about. They couldn’t find anything. Tonks even morphed herself to look like Harry, and walked past the remains of his house, with no results. No signs of a trap of any kind, and no evidence of a Horcrux in the house either. We’d thought there might be something in the room where Voldemort attacked Harry, but they snuck into the house and couldn’t detect any residual dark magic at all.

They’ve concluded that either the message from Snape was phony, or that he was misleading us or was mistaken. It’s also possible that there was a trap there, but when the entire summer went by without them catching us, the Death Eaters gave up. I’m not sure which explanation I believe. Harry still wants to go there when we get back, but we’ll still disguise ourselves, perhaps with polyjuice.

Now that they’re finished with that task, they’re devoting all their time to going on the offensive against the Death Eaters. They plan to track them down and take them out one or two at a time. For example, Knockturn Alley is a popular place to either spot Death Eaters or to obtain information on their whereabouts. Remus says they already have several targets in mind.

It’s somewhat disconcerting to think of the kind, gentle professor and the fun-loving witch with purple hair in the roles of cold-blooded assassins. On the other hand, Harry and I might well be doing the same thing if we were there and didn’t have Horcruxes to search for. I do wonder if I could actually ‘pull the trigger’ if it came to that. I know I killed some Death Eaters in the battle at Privet Drive, but that was in self-defense. I’m not saying that it’s not the right thing to do, just that it would be difficult.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – September 24

Communication with our friends at Hogwarts is considerably less frequent, due to the distance Hedwig has to fly. But we received several letters today, and they had some interesting news. Neville and Susan are now leading the DA, which is back to being an underground organization of course, now that Umbridge is the headmistress. Nevertheless, the interest among the students has skyrocketed after their successful defense of the castle during the Death Eater invasion last June. Fortunately, the Room of Requirement is infinitely flexible in accommodating them.

It is apparently quite different than it was for us during fifth year, however, since they are receiving the full support of the rest of the professors (except for the two that Umbridge just hired, of course). Also, most if not all of the Voldemort sympathizers among the students are now gone. It seems that Umbridge has little control over the school, and is headmistress in name only. I wonder how much help she gets from the portraits. Harry reminded me to caution them about that; Dumbledore told him that the portraits in the school are magically bound to assist the current Head, so they have to watch what they say when near any portrait.

Ginny is the new Gryffindor quidditch captain, although she comments that the sport isn’t nearly the all-consuming pastime that it used to be. All of the students realize that there are more important things going on, and seem to have a better perspective on what is really only a game after all. (I have to be careful not to say too much along those lines around Harry and Ron, though, as they were pretty saddened when they read what Ginny wrote.) Ginny reports that her main efforts are focussed on pranking Umbridge. She is being aided considerably in this effort by her brothers, as Fred and George have a standing offer to all Hogwarts students of half off the price of any prank that is to be used against the Toad.

We were somewhat concerned when we learned that Ginny had been caught breaking into Umbridge's office to set some pranks, and was punished with the blood quill like Harry was. She regards it as an honor, though, and assures us it won’t happen again. Not that she won’t do it again, mind you, just that she won’t get caught again, now that she knows about the portraits.

Some bad news – Umbridge has demoted Hagrid and brought back Professor Grubbly-Plank. He’s still the Hogwarts Gamekeeper, though, and Neville writes that he’s not complaining. As long as he can stay at Hogwarts, which is the only home he’s known for more than 50 years, Hagrid says he’ll be OK. I worry, though, that this might just be the first step. Harry and Ron point out that Umbridge is likely to keep him on in that position just to make the point that taking care of animals is an appropriate occupation for a half-breed. I suspect that they’re right.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – October 12

Remus and Tonks have now ‘eliminated’ 7 Death Eaters, including Rookwood and Jugson, and the Ministry has finally taken some action. They had been ignoring it, trying to stay out of what they still insist is a conflict that is none of their concern. But the more influential Death Eaters have complained enough that they finally issued a statement condemning the attacks against innocent citizens as the work of outlaw groups. It fell just short of specifically naming the Order.

A weird situation has arisen. The Death Eaters are still hunting muggleborns (and Harry, of course). The Ministry is also hunting muggleborns to put them into their ‘protective custody’ camps. And a third group has arisen, comprised of individuals who have been termed ‘Snatchers’. These people are hunting down muggleborns as well, and turning them over to whichever side will pay the most (usually the Death Eaters). Against these are Remus and Tonks and some sympathetic former Aurors and Order members who are either assisting the muggleborns in hiding or fleeing the country, or hunting the Death Eaters. All in all it’s a very dangerous game.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – October 31

Today is a mixed bag of memories. It’s best known as being the date of the death of Harry’s parents and the first defeat of Voldemort, of course, but also it’s the 6th anniversary of the day I became friends with Harry and Ron. I’ve been trying to emphasize this aspect. I know Harry appreciates my doing this, but he pointed out that it’s also the day Ginny first opened the Chamber of Secrets, as well as the day his name came out of the Goblet of Fire. Rather an auspicious date, all things considered.

We received another letter from Hogwarts. McGonagall and Flitwick asked Neville and Ginny to send along their regards, and let us know they are bearing up reasonably well under a new set of Educational Decrees (basically by ignoring most of them). They also reported that Slughorn has agreed to brew Wolfsbane Potion once a month, no questions asked, in return for some of those Basilisk ingredients we harvested last June. Ginny also described some outrageous pranks she’s pulled off, such that Umbridge now rarely leaves the Headmaster’s office.

I don’t think this is related to Ginny’s pranks on Umbridge, but Fred and George’s shop was attacked by Death Eaters. They had some nasty defenses in place, as one might expect, and 3 Death Eaters were killed, with 5 injured. The Ministry’s response was to charge the twins with public endangerment. So they’re now officially out of business and in hiding. They’ve moved in with Bill and Fleur who have put their house under the Fidelius charm. Obviously, I have no idea where it is, although Ginny reassures us that we’ll be let in on the secret as soon as we go back to England.

Susan reports that the Hufflepuff 6th and 7th years are plotting a rescue mission to break Justin and his family out of the internment camp they’re in. They’re taking what she calls a Hufflepuff approach rather than a Gryffindor approach – i.e. – taking time to gather support and plan rather than having a few of them bravely but recklessly storming the castle. It was her way of teasing Harry a bit, and he responded with a good-natured grin when I read it to him. His and Ron’s main reaction was to wish we were back there helping them.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – November 16

After weeks of tedium, something extraordinary occurred today. Kreacher suddenly showed up! He was an absolute wreck, and it took some time for us to understand what had happened. Grimmauld Place has been destroyed! The most sickening part is that Kreacher fully expected to be executed for letting it happen. He actually knelt in front of Harry, waiting to be beheaded. Once Harry managed to calm him down and assure him that he had no intention of doing any such thing, we were finally able to get the story out of him.

It turns out that Mundungus Fletcher finally sold us out, and brought some Death Eaters to Grimmauld Place. (It may have been Death Eaters or it may have been Snatchers, that part was difficult to determine.) They searched through the house but came up empty-handed – it appears as though Kreacher was thwarting them somehow. Finally, Mundungus tripped and fell down the stairs and broke his neck. It was clear from the way Kreacher worded it that this was not an accident – Kreacher finally got his payback for the slimy thief steeling all his treasures. At that point the men with him gave up and decided to just torch the place, which led to an all out battle between them and Kreacher. Somehow they managed to stun him, and left him down in the kitchen to die as the whole house burned down around him.

But these wizards, just like pretty much everyone else in the wizarding world, didn’t understand house elf magic, and before the building was completely destroyed his magic revived him. As near as we could determine, the only reason that he survived, rather than sacrificing his life to save the house, which he made it seem like a house elf would normally do in this situation, was that he had another message from Snape for Harry. It evidently was quite a dilemma for him, but in the end he decided that from what he had observed of Harry, he’d rather have the message than risk losing it while Kreacher tried to save the house. (Even though we may not have realized it, all house elves become attuned to their master’s wishes and so Kreacher spent the time while we were there in August studying Harry.)

The message had apparently been delivered to the house sometime last month, but we foolishly had neglected to leave any instructions for Kreacher as to what to do with one if it arrived, so he had been holding onto it for Harry. And so he escaped from the building just before it came crashing down on him. The only other thing he managed to save was the Black family locket that Harry gave him, which he always wears around his neck. So when he arrived here, even though he made what he thought was the correct decision, he still expected to be punished for failing to protect the house he’d been bonded to, and the standard punishment for a house elf in such a situation is death.

It took most of the morning for Harry to convince him that he wasn’t going to be punished at all, and that Harry appreciated what he’d done. Harry also tried to tell him that he’d rather have Kreacher alive, even if it meant losing the house, but that was too much for him to accept. I’m certain that Harry was sincere in that, particularly since neither Sirius nor Harry had any affection whatsoever for that place. The real tragedy, as far as its loss was concerned, was that the houses on either side probably also burned down with it. We can only pray that the people living in those homes managed to get out alive.

We’re not sure what’s going to happen to Kreacher now that the house he was bonded to was destroyed. (I notice that I’m now able to write the words ‘Grimmauld Place’ so I conclude that the Fidelius has also been broken.) Kreacher seemed to think that he should go to serve either Narcissa or Bellatrix, but Harry quickly assured him that he still wanted him, even though he didn’t have a house for him to take care of. I immediately agreed; we certainly don’t want him bonding to either of them! I’d offer my parents’ empty house for him to live in, but I know he would balk at that, since he still has that residual anti-muggle sentiment that the Blacks instilled in him. So for now, Harry sent him back to Hogwarts, but this time with the instructions that he was to notify Harry if he received another message, or learned anything that he thought Harry should know. (Andromeda Tonks would be another option, I suppose. We should check with her to see if she wants a neurotic house else.)

Now, as for the message, it was again a simple parchment with 3 lines:

Strong git
Stare glen
ta, luv

This one took a bit longer to decipher, but once I decided that each line was one word, we finally got it – Gringotts Lestrange vault. If that’s correct, one of the Horcruxes is in the Lestrange family vault at Gringotts! That makes sense. He left one Horcrux with Malfoy, and Bellatrix was certainly his most fanatical Death Eater, so he left another with her. Also, the Lestrange family was among his original followers.

So, now we just have to figure out how to break into Gringotts! Polyjuice perhaps? Harry thinks Tonks might be able to impersonate Bellatrix and get in that way. We decided to wait until we get back to England and talk to Bill about it.

Speaking of getting back to England, the news from back home is not good. Ginny and Luna were kicked out of their Defense class by Dawlish for being disruptive, and threatened with expulsion. This may be related to what’s going on outside of Hogwarts. Mr. Lovegood has been skewering the Ministry in the Quibbler. And to top it off, Mr. Weasley was fired from his job at the Ministry, as were all the other former members of the Order, including Hestia Jones and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

This was most likely in response to the success of Tonks and Remus and the others fighting with them in their attacks on Death Eaters. To make matters even worse, Tonks’s father was captured by a band of Snatchers. It appears that the muggleborns left in Britain have either disappeared into the muggle world or have chosen to stay and fight back, and he was one of those. They’ve gathered in bands, hiding out in forests and such, and make attacks on whatever targets they can find. The Ministry’s response to this is to crack down even more on the ones they’re holding in the internment camps.

Ron is understandably anxious about what’s going to happen to his family, given the loss of income from both the twins and his dad. He was already starting to complain about how things were going, and now it’s likely to get worse. He’s frustrated that we haven’t found anything for more than 2 months. He’s also not happy with the food situation. He can’t cook at all, of course and my cooking class last year was in French cooking, which is considerably different than English cooking (which happened to be one of the major points of contention between Fleur and Mrs. Weasley). He grumbles whenever we have anything other than traditional English dishes. And since we’ve been in Albania, then Greece, and are now moving to Italy, it’s pretty much impossible to find things like pudding or steak and kidney pie.

Ron even went so far as to claim that if his mum were here she could just conjure up some good English food. I immediately pointed out that that’s impossible – no one can conjure food, it’s against the Universal Laws of Transfiguration. That got us started on another row before Harry stepped in and shut us up. Fortunately for my sanity, Harry, who was basically starved for most of his life, never complains about anything we have to eat.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – December 1

What I’d long suspected has now been confirmed. Ron and I are definitely not compatible. Thank goodness we never tried to make a go of a relationship. If Harry weren’t here I think we would have killed each other by now. In these last 2 weeks things have come to a head, and we agreed last night that Ron would go back to England. It’s not that I don’t understand what he’s going through, but I really do think it’s best for all concerned that he leave.

Fortunately, we’re still friends, and it’s better that we did it this way and came to a decision that we’re all satisfied with. I shudder to think what would have happened if we’d just let things fester with us each saying more and more spiteful things to the other until one of us exploded and walked out. I expect that would have been Ron, because there’s no way I’d leave Harry, and if he hadn’t, then I think Harry would have had to demand that he leave. I’d have hated for Harry to have to make that decision, even though I know that he’d choose me over Ron.

We agreed to join up again when Harry and I return. We’ll both have had some time to cool off by then, and if we go to Bill’s house as seems to be our likely course of action there will be other people around to act as a buffer. We won’t have to be in such close contact all the time. If they’re tight for space, Harry and I can camp out in their yard in the tent.

It’s tempting to try to analyze what it is that causes Ron and me to always be at odds, while I get along just fine with Harry. It’s not that I don’t disagree with Harry sometimes, it’s just the way we go about handling those disagreements. I could try to delve into their respective psychological make-ups (and mine too, to be fair about it) and I suspect it goes back to the way we were raised and how we respond to conflict, but that’s probably not a productive use of my time right now.

Northern Italy isn’t too far from the Delacour estate in southern France, so we’re going to drop Ron off there before Harry and I head on to Germany to try to interview Grindelwald in his prison. The Delacours will figure out how to help him sneak back into England.

On the battlefront there, our side just suffered a near disaster. The Death Eaters finally worked out Remus and Tonks’s strategy, and set up an ambush. Tonks was badly injured and 3 other Order members were killed, including Hestia Jones. Remus and Shacklebolt were also injured.

Remus talked to us about it on the mirror, and urged us to stay the course. He said everyone in the Order knows what they’re getting into, and are willing to give their lives to help defeat Voldemort. He stressed that it’s not Harry’s fault when someone else dies. I’m glad he said that, since Harry has a tendency to react that way to bad news.

Remus told us that Tonks will be out of action for about a month, but that she’s already planning how to hit back at them. The good news, especially from my point of view, is that they got Dolohov. Last month they killed both Lestrange brothers. There are only a handful of inner circle Death Eaters left, most notably Bellatrix, Lucius Malfoy, Avery, and Macnair.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – December 12

We finally got in to see Gellert Grindelwald today, and it was definitely worth our while. The prison (Nurmengard) has very high security, and it took a whole week to get the proper clearances. Part of it was that we’re traveling in secret, so we had to make our contacts with the German Ministerium für Magie v ery discreetly. It actually helped that Harry is currently on the outs with our Ministry back home, because the German Ministerium, like most ministries in Europe right now, is none too pleased with what’s going on in Britain.

The years in confinement have not treated Grindelwald well. There is almost no trace of the grinning, bright-eyed blonde boy in the picture from Bathilda Bagshot left in this broken old man. One can still sense the power in him, despite his age and condition, just as one could in Dumbledore’s presence. Interestingly, he seemed to be expecting us. It appeared that he wasn’t completely isolated from the wizarding world, and had at least some knowledge of what’s been happening for the past 50 years. We eventually learned just how much.

“Ah, come in my young friends,” the gray haired, sallow faced old wizard rasped. “Please forgive my inability to offer you more hospitality, but as you can see I am not situated to entertain visitors here.” Harry motioned Hermione to take the single chair in the small room, and took a position behind her, while the aged former dark lord settled himself on the room’s simple cot. “So, this is the famous Harry Potter,” he continued, “the protégé of my old friend Dumbledore. I had vondered if I might be receiving a visit from you. And if I am not mistaken this must be your Schlammblut companion I haf read about.” Harry stiffened as he deciphered the insult to Hermione, but she raised her hand to cover his in a silent request to let it slide.

“We were hoping you might be able to answer some questions,” Harry suggested. Grindelwald responded with a resigned shrug, as if to say he didn’t really have any choice in the matter.

“We’re interested in learning more about this symbol,” Hermione explained quickly, pulling out a parchment with the familiar triangle in a circle. “We’d been told that you used it while you were at Durmstrang.”

“But of course you are,” Grindelwald responded, ignoring the puzzlement this assertion generated in his two interrogators. “The Deathly Hallows do tend to haf that effect on people.” Hermione resisted the urge to comment on what this response revealed about the extent of his knowledge, and forced herself to wait to hear what else he would divulge.

The decrepit old wizard leaned back on his bed and closed his eyes. “Vere to begin … I suppose you must know of my association vith your headmaster, and the plans ve made together before he lost his nerve. Vell, vithout his aid I sought another source of power, a means to bring our vision into being. Ven I returned home I decided to study the art of vandmaking vile I developed my plans, and who better to learn from than the greatest vand crafter on the continent? As it happened, Gregorovitch vas a member of a secret society dedicated to unraveling the legend of the Deathly Hallows.”

“One of the Questers?” Hermione blurted out.

“Ah, you know of them? Yes, the very same,” Grindelwald nodded. “He, of course, vas most interested in the Vand of Destiny. As vas I, for an invincible vand vould be most useful to me in my own quest. So I quietly learned vat he knew about it, and ven I discovered who he believed to be the current master of the vand, I took my leave and tracked the man down. And ven I killed him, I became the master. Now nothing could stop me from fulfilling my destiny.”

Hermione wasn’t sure what she wanted to ask first, so Harry was the one to fill the silence. “But Dumbledore did defeat you,” he pointed out, not very tactfully.

The dark wizard’s eyes flashed menacingly. “Yes, he did, the coward!” he spat. Then he glared at the astonished looks this statement generated. “I suppose you haf heard all about the magnificent duel ve fought, in vich the great Albus Dumbledore defeated the evil Dark Lord Grindelwald.”

“Sure, everyone knows about that,” Harry replied with some confusion. “It’s on his Chocolate Frog card.” Hermione couldn’t stop herself from shaking her head slightly, but did manage to refrain from rolling her eyes at Harry’s cited source of historical knowledge.

“And who vas there to vitness this epic battle?” the German wizard challenged. Harry just shrugged but Hermione saw the implication.

“Probably the same number of people who witnessed Harry’s defeat of Voldemort when he was a year old?” she suggested.

“Precisely,” the other famous dark lord of the century confirmed, impressed not only that Hermione had come to the correct conclusion so quickly, but also with the analogy she had drawn. “Ve battled, that much is true. Vevere both powerful vizards, and our skills vere evenly matched. But as the Master of the Vand of Destiny, there vas no question that I vould be victorious. It vas a short contest, and I had him on his knees at my mercy. It vas then that he begged me to spare his life, citing our old friendship. I had not planned to kill him in any case, merely to prove to him that my path had turned out to be superior to his, that I had surpassed him, that I vas vithout question the greatest vizard in the vorld. I released him and accepted his surrender.”

“But …?” Harry broke in before Hermione could stop him.

“But Albus Dumbledore proved himself to be a man without honor!” the shrunken and defeated old wizard hissed. “As I reached out to return his vand he vithdrew a second one from his boot and cursed me with it, taking me by surprise. Yes, the great and noble Dumbledore von only by employing treachery.”

“Then what happened to the Wand?” Hermione asked, breaking the stunned silence that had fallen upon the room. “That would mean that Dumbledore became its master, wouldn’t it?”

This time it was Grindelwald’s turn to be surprised. “But … I thought you knew. Albus has been the master of the Vand of Destiny for the past fifty years. I assumed that vas vy you vere here, inquiring of its history. Surely you haf the Vand now? I vas under the impression that the man who killed him fled the scene.”

There was an awkward silence as Harry and Hermione pondered how to explain the sequence of events that had led them to that prison tower, and how much could be safely divulged. After a moment Harry motioned to Hermione that she should handle the explanation.

“Professor Dumbledore never told us, or anyone else as far as we know, about the Wand. But he did leave us some information on the Deathly Hallows that led us to believe you might be able to tell us more about them,” she began, choosing her words carefully. “But …” she looked back at Harry and he nodded, “… there’s a chance – no, it’s actually pretty likely – that Voldemort is now after the Wand. And he might find his way here as well to try to get this information out of you.”

Grindelwald straightened himself noticeably. “He vill get no such information from me,” he declared forcefully. “I may not be permitted to do magic here, but my mental defenses are as powerful as ever.”

“Then he’ll kill you,” Harry replied solemnly.

The German one-time dark lord shrugged. “If it comes to that, I am prepared. My only goal all these years vas to outlive Albus, and I haf now achieved that. There is really no reason for me to hang on to this life any longer.” He directed a shrewd look at his two visitors. “I could end my life now if it vould help your cause.”

“But why?” Hermione blurted out. “Why would you want to? Help us, that is.”

“I haf little to do in this place except read, and ponder,” the aged wizard replied. “I haf taken particular interest in the machinations of Albus during this time, so by extension I haf studied your life most thoroughly, young Mr. Potter. I haf found you to be a most honorable vizard, perhaps more so than any I haf ever encountered. If only part of vat I haf learned is true, you haf faced and overcome more difficulty than any vizard of your age ever has. And yet you haf not succumbed to the temptation to turn on your enemies and seek power for yourself.”

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his position behind Hermione, and she reached her hands up to his and gave them both a squeeze while Dumbledore’s one-time nemesis continued. “I haf also had time to contemplate my own actions, and examine my mistakes, as vell as those of my old friend. His errors may haf been different than my own, but both ultimately derived from our arrogance. It vould be interesting to see if you are able to avoid the trap that claimed us.”

Harry was unable to respond to that statement, and although Hermione certainly had some thoughts on that particular topic, she kept them to herself for the moment. But as they were preparing to leave, Harry had an idea.

“Erm, if you’re willing, and depending on how long it takes for Voldemort to find his way here,” he suggested, “it might be to our advantage if you did let him know that Dumbledore took the Wand from you, especially if you can keep him from learning that we know anything about it.” He briefly laid out his idea, and Hermione and Grindelwald quickly came up with a way to implement it. On their way out of the dark fortress, after they retrieved their wands from the prison guards, Hermione placed a passive detection rune on the outside wall of the tower room.
 

We decided to make one more stop before we return home – to visit a retired wandmaker by the name of Gregorovitch. If Voldemort is indeed seeking the unbeatable wand, the trail could very well lead him in that direction. Another detection Rune at that location could come in handy.

Then, it’s back to Hogwarts to pick up a very special wand.

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