Disclaimer: the world in which this story is set in and the characters in it belong to JK Rowling, and the cover is a picture of fire which I do not own.
Read this to understand the one-shot: The RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner, designed as a faster, larger, more luxurious ship to respond to the increasing rivalry between transatlantic passenger companies (the Germans in particular). It was carrying goods and passengers and part of a lucrative business. It was en route from New York to Liverpool, and the Germans had declared the UK seas a war zone after the British had declared war on them in 1914. On May 7, 1915, it was torpedoed by a German U-boat, killing 1,198 passengers and turning the general population of the entirety of Europe and America against the Germans, leading towards American entry into World War I. This story is based off the idea that Grindelwald sparked the attack on the liner.
A/N: (you can skip to the story now) This round of QL was exceptionally difficult. AUs are awesome, yes, but I really really wanted to do something different: something that could actually be placed in the Potter universe, into my head!canon, into canon. Originally, I was going to write something sparking from a conversation I had with my friend and physics teacher, about what Grindelwald was doing in World War II, and his possible desire to be a Hitler-like figure driven from the war. However, I've decided to take a different route with WWI, and the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, but also extending Grindelwald's insane obsession with power to world war i, as he would be at least thirty.
Written for:
QL round 3: Seeker for the Harpies: a bit of real world history- write something that takes place when a vessel/aircraft was destroyed; off block comp: im hard: write about grindelwald; delirium comp: easy: lauren oliver quote; thinks you can think comp: king derwin: write about someone who tries in vain to control something; divergent comp: veronica roth quote; wand wood comp: cherry: write about a spell that caused awful damage; spells comp: legilimens: write about dumbledore; tv show comp: smallville: write about two people who started as friends and became enemies; Ffn terms challenge: flame: write about a fire;
Everyone you trust, everyone you think you can count on, will eventually disappoint you. - Lauren Oliver
Up in Flames
The U-Boat's captains' chambers was dead silent. The porthole showed the depths of the dark ocean, and the only source of light was the small overhead above the instruments. One would think you could lose your mind down there, with no one for company but the occasional beeps on the radar, whirl of the turbine, and radio messages that contained nothing but orders.
The captain seemed comfortable enough, though. He would, considering the practically empty ocean surrounding them, and the instructions to simply lie in wait, creating an effective blockade in British waters.
In comparison to the tragic Great War to come, one could say it was moment of peace.
It would not last.
If there was one thing Gellert Grindelwald needed, it wasn't peace.
Sneaking onto the U-20 was possibly the easiest thing he had ever done. He had cast spells to numb the mind, stun the opponent, and to keep himself hidden, and right before the U-boat sank beneath the waves, Grindelwald was on it. The German Muggles had no idea, not even when he walked through with a uniform he had nabbed from a stupefied officer in the closet, and none of them seemed to register that they had never seen him before.
What were they going to do about it, though, anyway? That's the real question. Kill him? Quite unlikely.
So Gellert sat in a corner of the captains chambers, lurking in his disillusionment charm and thinking of some way to possibly cause a bit of madness.
Everyone needed a bit of madness.
A good distraction was all he needed, really. Because the one person he thought he could trust most was the one who, in the end, completely let him down. Albus had been his best friend, the only friend he'd ever had, actually. These were their big dreams. All they had ever talked about was fulfilling them, together.
And now Albus would be his demise. He wouldn't let him, of course, but Albus surely was causing him a lot of trouble: alerting the Ministry of his whereabouts, spreading his name as someone to worry about.
How awful.
Gellert just had to something about these accusations. Live up to them, maybe? Threaten, surely. Maybe the safest thing to do was to stay and work under a guise, but covering up acts he was clearly proud of so that he wouldn't get arrested was nver his style.
There was something about being almost a hundred kilometers under the Ocean, in a small, pressurized container, in the beginnings of a Muggle War, that really made you think. If his home country were to fire against him right now, (and not that he was on the German side, he just was definitely not on the British side), which they would do if they regained their nautical prowess of the last hundred years, and they decided to fire at this particular U-boat with a submarine of their own, everyone in here would die. Grindelwald was not; he was a wizard, after all, and not ashamed to say the best of his time. Apparition would have him out of here in an instant.
He wondered if others get a thrill out of knowing how much damage can be caused in an instant. Then again, he's quite mad.
Muggles were far inferior, they always had been and they always will be, but their Wars were impressive. They were feats of greatness, Grindewald thought, pitting countries completely against one another in dynamic displays of engineering, fire, bullets, and death. There is so much satisfaction in watching something go up in flames.
They were mindless, though. Here is where the foolishness and stupidity of their inferior race never fails: the amount of money they could save, the lives they could prevent from being taken away, the War and death and fire they could prevent if they stopped and thought once in a while. If they took a step back before jumping into war.
Do they care? No. That's the thing: they would always be beneath them, because Muggles were obsessed with the idea of being above everyone else.
Though, he couldn't really pass judgment, there.
Not to mention, right now, he was quite thankful for it.
Gellert wondered if the foolishness in man was always there, or if it was a selective trait. Looking back, he's willing to bet the former.
How does it go? One man's folly is another's fortune. And this couldn't be better for Grindelwald, who with the sudden start of the beep on the radar, the one this captain was supposed to ignore if not given strict orders to fire on it (for the Germans changed the "zone of war" around Great Britain everyday), Grindelwald stood with a start, and cast Imperio on the man in the captain's chair. He knew which ship this was. Everyone did. It was a passenger vessel, the best in the world right now.
He spoke only three words: "Light it up."
The Captain fired one torpedo, and RMS Lusitania struck fire, with an explosion that could be heard for miles and screams of innocent passengers that could be heard around the world.
The Captain fired a second, and the vessel plunged into the ocean, leaving terror in its wake.
And as the World was strewn with red, erupting in the sparks of War, Gellert Grindelwald sank into the shadows. Watching, and waiting.
Ready to strike.
There is power in controlling something that can do so much damage. - Veronica Roth
I actually love how that turned out. Reviews are very appreciated!