Even in the dark
Author: ScarletLioness
Disclaimer: This is merely fan-fiction; no copyright infringement intended. All right belong to J.K. Rowling. I only own some OC's.
Summary: The last months before Grindelwald is defeated in 1945. While young Minerva McGonagall is held captive by Gellert Grindelwald, her friends and her mentor try their best to free her. Will there be a 'Happily ever after'?
Genre: Angst/Drama/Friendship
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Chapter 1: A missing discovered
The woman slowly got back into consciousness. He watched her with mild interest from his chair from across of her. Her facial expression showed her pain clearly as she woke though she did not open her eyes. Probably she was currently experiencing the worst headache of her life right now.
Even in the dim light of the cell her hair, a messy black mass, shone. She was covered in bruises and cuts, only clothed in her underwear. Everything which had been in her possession as she was captivated was taken away. It did not matter for now since it would take a while until she had ordered her thoughts. He was positive she would not attempt on doing anything before this had happened.
It was not their usual way of dealing with their captives that he was now sitting in the cell with her. But this case was not usual. Because sitting there on the ground was Minerva McGonagall. The witch had caught the attention of him as she had become the century's youngest animagus – under the tutelage of Albus Dumbledore.
And this thought brought a devilish grin to Gellert Grindelwald's face.
A few years back Dumbledore's betrayal had set back his plans. Now it was finally time to get revenge. After their last meeting he was sure that Dumbledore would never allow one of his precious charges to be hurt because of him. And she was a girl as well – that would only serve to make him feel more anger on him.
But his patience was wearing off. A good while had passed.
"So, you're finally able to talk a bit, aren't you?", he asked with a hint of threat in his voice.
She winced visibly as he addressed her. Quite a blow had taken her down and his footmen had not been exactly careful with her.
"What do you want?", she spat. He merely laughed at that.
"You are Minerva McGonagall.", he said.
"Yes I am. Will you now tell me your name – for the sake of good manners?"
Gellert got up and made his way over to where her form was covering on the floor. Directly above her he stopped.
"My name is Gellert Grindelwald."
She opened her eyes and looked up at him. He did not even bother to look down on her.
"I guess you know why you're here?"
The blank look on her face told him she did not. He had not suspected her to. But it did not matter whether she knew, as long as he understood.
Without further words he left her to herself.
Minerva was feeling awful. The sudden movements she had made during Grindelwald's "visit" made her headache worse, not to mention the dim light which hurt her eyes. She was fairly sure her head would split in two if the amount of pain was any indication.
With a sigh she looked around in her cell. Its ceiling was twice the height of a usual room, a cell made of cold, bare stone with one tiny window on the upper edge of the headwall across the door. It was a square of about 5 feet length without any furniture.
She shivered for the first time becoming aware of the fact that she only wore her underwear. Deciding that in her condition the best would be laying down and sleeping while not moving too much; she could not be sure if she had some serious injuries right now anyway since the headache numbed the rest of her.
So she did just that.
When Minerva woke up it was not on her own account and the headache had faded only slightly. The cell was flooded with light – a lot brighter than what she would have suspected out of the tiny window.
After a while quite suddenly the light turned off completely and left her in blessed darkness. Her headache was fading to a level she could bear. So naturally her mind started working. Minerva tried to concentrate on everything Alastor had told her about Nurmengard.
That clearly had been the simulation of a day – though much shorter than a day, most likely some hours. It was a common practise to confuse the prisoners by using a simulated rhythm of day and night which was not only shorter than outside but also irregular. This was a torture designed to destroy ones biological rhythm.
All Minervas hopes now lay in help from outside and she knew that there probably would be no way of getting out of this by herself.
With a shudder she thought back to how she had even ended up in this cell.
It was a very cold day even considered that Scotland was never too warm. Luckily Minerva had taken a few days off and did not need to leave her warm and cosy home. She had - rather out of character - decided to stay in bed long and read a book. It was past noon when she finally had gotten up and ready feeling a little hungry.
Downstairs in the kitchen she ate a combination of breakfast and lunch, boiling up some water for a good cup of tea.
Just as she had brewed the tea everything went out of control. The protection charms placed around her home were breaking all at once and the sheer magic being broken crashed down on her, catching her by surprise.
Before Minerva was able to process the situation her wand was out and she was duelling five wizards in dark hooded robes. Even though she had been a fairly good dueller she succumbed to the superior number of her attackers.
One of them disarmed her as another send her flying against the counter. The last noise she heard was the breaking of her cup next to her before everything went black.
Feverishly thinking Minerva spent her time on looking for the reason Grindelwald had implied. Also she wondered whether she could have done anything to prevent getting into her delicate situation.
After a while she lost any consciousness for the time she had spent in Nurmengard.
Very long there was no contact to anyone be it a guard or Grindelwald himself. Once a day she got some food and water, just enough to keep her alive. She could not be too sure of the schedule, but if she got food once a day she felt as if there was some kind of orientation.
She was brought into reality as the clicking of the cell door sounded.
"Have you found out the answer?" Grindelwald asked sounding convinced she had not.
"There are many reasons I could come up with at that moment." was her truthful answer. Her voice sounded raw with disuse.
The blonde with the aristocratic features and piercing grey eyes had brought a chair with him. Once more he sat down directly across from her looking down.
"Well," he said, "that's the best you can come up with? Such a vague answer is, as I've been told, not like a Gryffindor, is it?"
"So to you being a Gryffindor is manifested in taking rash action without thinking of consequences?" Minerva challenged.
The sound of the slap she took for her forwardness echoed from the walls.
"I will warn you only once, Minerva. You won't want to suffer the consequences of offending me." He never raised his voice nor did his tone change; what frightened her was the malicious look in his eyes.
Just the way he pronounced her Christian name gave her goose flesh.
"I will give you a hint. It is not usual for me to enter a prisoners cell myself – but I've visited you for the second time now. So I dare you to answer my question."
She gulped. Normally she was not faint at heart but she felt weak and defenceless under his glare.
Weird enough another of Alastor's lessons kicked in her mind. 'There is always a way to make your opponent feel inferior. The most common technique is to always be physically higher positioned. Also, muggles found out that the less a person is wearing in contrast to you will influence them to feel inferior. There are several other ways to get that effect but are not so often used...'
"Maybe my work is of interest to you... or knowledge on certain aspects of magic." she answered.
"This is wrong," he replied while taking her chin up with his hand, "but I'm sure you will find the correct answer by our next meeting."
With that he was gone again, leaving behind an evenly confused and relieved Minerva.
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It was already dark on the early evening in February. Two young aurors wandered through the snow covered streets of a small village in the Scottish Highlands.
The taller one was Alastor Moody, who had already gained a name in war. His talent as auror had shortened his training as an auror to a year.
The other one was Ian Martins – a year below him. While they made their way down the main street of the village they kept fighting whether they should actually look after Minerva. Their friend had not been seen for three days and had not reacted on any tries of contacting her.
Therefore Alastor had decided they should make sure she was fine – they were in war after all. Ian however was sure that the probably brightest witch in his year was fine and had her reasons not to answer them. She would surely explain to them once she got back.
As soon as they stood in front of the house in which Minerva lived both knew something was seriously wrong. There were no protection charms and the door looked as if it had been demolished recently. More out of trained reflex they performed jinxsearching spells.
They overcame the nasty curses which were spread across the front lawn intended to hurt whoever tried to enter the house easily. The door opened easily and let them into the mess which used to be a hallway. Everything was thrown into the way – someone had searched here for something.
"Minerva? Can ye hear me?", Alastor called out.
They went into every room, never getting an answer. But the picture of destruction gave them quite a lot answers.
From what they could see there were signs of fighting and blood everywhere in the kitchen, together with a broken cup.
"Do you think...?", Ian started. He could not bring himself to end that sentence. A few minutes ago he was sure Alastor was overreacting but now...
"We should call the others.", Alastor said.
Within minutes the whole place was stuffed with aurors on duty. After the details for the report on the incident were taken they placed the supervising charms that would inform them if anyone tried to enter the house and left.
Ian was completely shaken. Alastor had told him yesterday already that something had to be amiss but he thought it was nothing. And so maybe their friend was dead by now because they had not looked for her earlier.
Under any other circumstances Alastor would have first spoken to him, but now there were other things to do. He had to inform all their friends; if there was any chance of Minerva being found alive they would have to work together. And so he also came across Albus Dumbledore. Their former head of house had a soft spot for Minerva and might be able to provide information from other circles.
"Professor Dumbledore? Are you there?", he shouted through the floo into the study.
The other was in front of his fireplace in a flash.
"Ah, Mister Moody, what a surprise. How might I help you?", he inquired friendly.
"It's about McGonagall. We were worried for her and visited her home. She had been captivated – at least that's our hope. Otherwise... well, I guess you understood."
Dumbledore's expression had changed from pleasant to fury.
"I see. I will try to get information about Miss McGonagall's whereabouts. Should anything change please inform me instantly.", Dumbledore ordered.
With curt nods the men ended the conversation.
Albus Dumbledore rose from the carpet by the fireplace. He began to pace his study, feverishly trying to make out which steps to take first.
"Fawkes!", he called. The phoenix knew right away that there was something troubling his companion, therefore it ignored the unfriendly calling and appeared.
"Find out if Miss McGonagall is alive.", Dumbledore ordered.
An explosion of flames later the bird was gone.
Albus ordered a cup of hot chocolate from his house-elf, Twinkle, and waited.
If Minerva really had been taken by Gellert's followers she was alive, he was sure. Gellert Grindelwald was a psychopath with a burning on revenge. He felt betrayed by Albus' change of heart after one of them... had killed his sister Ariana.
A shadow crossed his face at the thought. It might even have been he himself...
Too well Albus could imagine Gellert taking notice of his friendship with Minerva – and making her suffer in order to bring pain to him.
If that was the case he had no other choice but rescue her. He could not allow that she was hurt because she was a friend of him.
It took a while, but eventually Fawkes was back. He chirped a tune which faded from happiness into sadness. She was alive but also his assumptions had been confirmed.
Albus gave a treat to his feathered friend and made to call Mister Moody. There were quite a lot of things to organize.
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