Chapter 4: Finding Mr. Graves
Come the afternoon, there were a good number of people working at the shipyards. However, no one noticed the small group of trench coat-clad men and women who suddenly materialized in the alley between 221 and 223 Stockard Way. The wind was high and the clouds spat rain at the group as they hurried to take cover from the No-Majs behind a pile of empty packing crates. Aurors Markus Abernath, Tina Goldstein, Manny Aldrich, Olivianna Kelley, and Stewart Warren all huddled around their mission leader, Iris Faeborn.
The address Grindelwald had provided belonged to an old brick factory that had gone out of business years ago. The building had been condemned by the city due to a sinking foundation, making it a perfect place for Grindelwald to operate undisturbed. Naturally, he had cast spells on the factory that made anyone who approached forget why they were interested in it. This must have worked particularly well, Iris imagined, if anyone ever saw him coming in or out.
Iris instructed her team to stay close and to be ready for what they might find. Grindelwald hadn't volunteered what would be waiting for them inside, and Iris was sure he would not make it easy for them to reach Percival. The dark wizard had already proven he was out for blood and he would most certainly take whatever little digs at MACUSA he could get- especially if it meant picking off several Aurors in the process.
"Be prepared for anything," Iris warned them before proceeding. After what Grindelwald had told her in the interrogation chamber, she hardly felt prepared herself. So far she was holding it together, but every so often her anxiety stirred in the pit of her stomach making her feel ill.
The group stepped away from the crates and headed to the back of the building where they found a small set of stairs leading to a side door. A few simple spells gained them entrance, to which they all exchanged curious glances with one another. Meeting the darkness they saw beyond the door with suspicion, each team member illuminated their wands before heading in.
The inside of the factory looked like it was on the verge of collapse. The floor was cracked clean in two forming a shallow V which ran diagonally from one corner to the other and all four walls slumped inwards, like a great force had pushed it in from the outside. Three wooden balconies ringed the walls of the factory that led off to different rooms. The main interior was open all the way to the ceiling where rain fell through rotted holes in the roof, gathering in a long pool where the two halves of the broken floor met.
"Grindelwald has enchanted the building, Ma'am," said Tina, having checked the soundness of the structure. "The only thing holding it up is magic."
"Everyone, keep your counter-curses and enchantment-breaking to a minimum," said Iris, as she led them carefully through the sea of rubble and discarded equipment. "And be very specific when you use them."
A chorus of yes Ma'am's sounded from behind her as they crossed to the stairs leading to the upper balconies. Each Auror proceeded with caution, their heads on a constant swivel, looking for traps that might spring on them at any moment.
Floor by floor the building was cleared but to no avail. Their worry slowly melted into confusion as they realized there was no sign of Percival anywhere. Besides the cursory protective spells, the whole factory appeared to be untouched. There weren't any footprints or fingerprints left in the dust anywhere, no further enchantments placed on any of the walls or doors- nothing that would indicate that anyone had stepped foot in the building since it was shut down.
Iris felt her heart drop into her stomach as she realized they had all but ran out of places to look. There had to be something they were missing. Grindelwald wouldn't have lied to her about the address. He simply couldn't have. She stepped up to the edge of the third floor balcony and screwed her eyes shut tightly in frustration at the thought of Grindelwald sending them on a wild goose chase. She needed to calm down and think. Percival was once her closest friend and one of the only people she'd felt truly connected to. If he was somewhere in the building, surely, somehow, she had the power to find him.
Thinking along this line, she was struck by a peculiar idea. It was a long shot, just a gut feeling, but she was compelled to try it. Loosening her tight grip on the balcony railing, she tentatively reached into her white coat for her wand and raised it in front of her. Her heart swelled with her most happy memory as she cast her patronous. A skylark burst fourth and swooped around the top floor then downwards in a large, circling, arc until it reached the bottom of the factory where it dove into a pile of debris in the far corner. The patronus glowed in that spot for a while until it slowly faded away with a final beating of its wings. Iris stared at the pile of junk, concentrating so hard that it looked like she was trying to start a fire with her gaze.
"There's a basement!" yelled Iris, spotting a hidden set of cellar doors under the pile. The entire team, who had joined her at the balcony railing, jumped, startled, by her loud exclamation.
Resisting the urge to break out into a run, Iris hurriedly descended the stairs to the first floor, the rest of the Aurors in tow. She could hardly believe her idea had worked. An odd mix of excitement and dread filled her as she realized their search was about to come to a close.
Reaching the bottom floor, the group crossed over the narrow pool and inched towards the pile of broken machinery covering the cellar doors to the basement. With a quick swish and flick of her wand, Iris cleared the area of rubble. Making a sharp pulling motion with her left hand, the doors snapped open with a puff of dust, revealing a wooden set of stairs descending deep into the darkness below.
"Aright," said Iris, turning to look into the faces of her team members. Each one seemed to be holding fast to their courage. "This is it. Stay close and be vigilant."
The first stair creaked loudly under Iris's foot as she carefully made her way down. The further she went, the more she realized the light from her wand seemed diminished in the dark. From what she could see, the basement was in far worse shape than the factory above.
The ceiling sagged above them, stained and sodden. Large puddles had formed on the uneven floor from muddied water that dribbled from the ceiling down the walls. There was a heavy stench of rot muddled with the stagnant air. As the team came down the stairs, it felt like they were being submerged in it. The basement was like a different world from the one above.
Iris's heartbeat became unnervingly loud in her chest the moment she stepped off the stairs and onto the wet floor. Instinctively, she held up her hand, signaling for the others behind her to stop. There was something terribly wrong with this place. She could feel it in her bones.
"There's dark magic here," muttered Iris, tightening her grip on her wand.
Her eyes searched the shadowed room, straining to see beyond what her wand could not illuminate. It was large and filled to the brim with empty pallets and shelves. The way forwards was unclear.
Once Iris gave the signal for them to proceed, Tina and Manny edged closer to her, in order to defend her left and right flank. Oliviana and Markus followed next while Warren brought up the rear, his wand shaking in his hand as he held it aloft. The group worked to detect any enchantments or curses Grindelwald might have placed, but found none. However, the moment Warren stepped off the stairs to join the group, everyone felt an immediate shift in the room.
"Did you hear that!" cried Warren, stumbling into the group pushing everyone forwards. "Scratching... There under the stairs!"
Everyone turned to where he was pointing but saw nothing. Only a rotted 2x4 lay in the open area behind the staircase.
"I'm not kidding!" He insisted, fighting off embarrassment. "Something was there!"
"It could have been a rat," reasoned Oliviana, hopefully. She was always the optimist.
Iris felt a chill run down her back, a sense of panic taking over her as she whipped around to face the darkness in front of her. She saw nothing, creating a moment of false calm before a hand of rotten gray flesh sprung out from behind the shelf in front of her, feverishly clawing for her face. With a startled cry, she instinctively smacked it away and stumbled back into Tina and Manny. The two of them spun around to see a rotting corpse advancing on them and fired a round of hexes at the creature without hesitation. To their chagrin, their attacks seemed to have no effect. Regaining her footing, Iris cast Everte Statum, flinging the corpse into a stack of pallets behind it.
"What the hell is that thing?" Markus yelled, before another pair of gray hands gripped hold of his arm, startling him.
Iris pointed her wand at Markus's shoulder, knocking the rotted corpse back a good ten feet.
"Inferi," she breathed, unable to believe Grindelwald had mastered such a level of Dark Magic. Inferi had not been seen for hundreds of years- the process was thought to be lost. Their group must have triggered them to wake up once they'd all stepped onto the basement floor.
"How do we kill them?" cried Oliviana, blasting back several more that had appeared among the crates and shelves.
More and more seemed to follow, crawling out from the darkness. Iris was quickly beginning to realize if the team didn't act soon, they would find themselves overtaken by the multiplying hoard.
Having run the gamut of obliterating spells, Iris finally cried out, "Incindio!"
The Inferi before her burst into flame then crumbled into a pile of ash in moments.
"It worked!" cheered Oliviana before being yanked to the ground by a crawling Inferi who had gotten a hold of her ankle. She screamed and kicked feverishly at the snapping mouth trying to bite her leg. Oliviana was able to hold it off long enough so Markus could blast it back then incinerate it. Warren, who had yet to do anything useful, grabbed her with his shaking hands and dragged her to her feet.
"We have to fight them with fire! Everyone form up and cast a Firestorm on my mark!" ordered Iris. The team fell into a semi circle formation to cover the area. "Go!"
The room was suddenly ablaze with six streams of fire coming from each Auror's wand. The hoard of Inferi wordlessly fell to ashes. Some of them tried to scramble away but ended up getting caught in the flames and perishing. Once the area was clear, Iris shouted for them to cease-fire. Only a few pallets and shelves had caught aflame, the rest had only been singed- far too waterlogged to light. The team quickly set about putting out the flames before continuing to further into the basement.
"W-who do you think those people were?" asked Warren, quaking with fear.
"No-Maj's, obviously," Markus grumbled, annoyed by Warren's lack of courage. "Probably vagrants since there's ben nothing in the news about missing people."
Iris nodded in agreement. Continuing to move forwards through the darkened basement, she carefully stepped over the piles of ash that now littered the floor. Inferi were horrible to think about, but even more disturbing was the knowledge that Grindelwald was willing to use them to achieve his ends.
Having crossed the room, Iris and the team were faced with another dead end. All that was in front of them was a brick wall. Bringing up her wand, Iris caught sight of something strange. Approaching the wall, she brought her wand up to get a closer look at one of the bricks. Etched into the corner was the sign of the Deathly Hallows. She ran her fingers over the mark and felt the pulse of magic it emanated.
"He's behind here," said Iris.
As she spoke, the symbol beneath her fingers began to glow a faint red. The images of the wand, the stone, and the cloak illuminated individually, in that order, before fading away. The symbol was clearly activated by speech, which meant it was sealed with a password.
"How do we get to him, can we just blast through it?" asked Manny.
"No, Grindelwald sealed the wall with an Oratoris lock. If we try to force it, the spell might backfire," explained Iris.
"But the password could be anything," said Oliviana, dismayed. Her large brown eyes reflected everyone's inner worry.
Iris, on the other hand, felt a swell of determination at this challenge. She was becoming more and more familiar with Grendelwald and his work. It might be enough to riddle this out, she thought.
He was clever, and prided himself on his knowledge of the Hallows. She doubted he could resist linking the symbol and the password. She knew had to have something to do with the wand, stone, and cloak, in that order.
The three objects in the Three Brothers are symbolic of the lessons they were meant to teach, she thought. Though she doubted Grindelwald and her agreed on the particulars of the lessons, there was one interpretation of Death's gifts themselves that was widely agreed-upon among scholars. She would bet, more than anything, that he also held that interpretation to be true.
Tracing her finger down the center of the mark, she muttered, "Power." Dragging it around the circle she said, "Longing." Lastly, she continued to follow the lines of the triangle uttering the final lesson of the Hallows, "Humility."
Starting at the center of the glowing red symbol, the wall split down the middle, dust irrupting from the newly formed crack. Iris's heart gave a startled leap as she moved away from the wall. She had done it.
"Stand back," she warned as the wall in front of the group began to stretch open, revealing a simple wooden door.
Iris stepped up to it and grasped the handle, her chest tightening as she pulled it open. The team watched her proceed, uncertain if they should follow her. Her figure soon disappeared from sight as she headed deeper into the blackened room.
Iris greeted the darkness with a wordless tap of her wand, illuminating the tip once more. It took but a moment for her to see the man crumpled at her feet. Her heart gave a painful twist as her eyes met those of a bloody and beaten Percival Graves.
"Percival!" Iris choked, stumbling to her knees beside him.
He looked up at her in hazy recognition. One of his eyes was fully swollen shut. He must have fought so hard, Iris thought mournfully.
"I'm going to get you out of here," she promised, swallowing down the tears that welled up in her eyes. She needed to keep her composure if she was going to help him.
Leaning over him, she tapped her wand on his bound wrists and freed them. Both his hands were broken, but his wand hand, which he quickly pulled close to his chest with a painful groan, was by far the worst.
"Iris, you're not safeā¦" he ground out before he was unwillingly pulled into unconsciousness.
Iris clenched her fists, her nails biting into her palms as she fought the tidal wave of emotion about to crash down on her. He was near death, and yet he was trying to warn her of danger. If she could, she'd blast Grindelwald into oblivion that very moment. With a shuttering breath, she quickly forced herself to her feet.
Pulling out her wand she cast a levitating spell on Percival and carefully guided him out of the doorway and into the main room where the team had been waiting.
There were a few gasps at the sight of him. Oliviana clapped her hands over her mouth in shock. Warren averted his gaze as if he were looking at something indecent. Then there was Tina and Manny who stared at the scene in grim silence. It was as if all hope had been sucked from the room.
"There's no possibility we can Apparate with him. He's far too injured. We'll have to use the Floo System," explained Iris, abnormally calm.
Snapping out of his momentary shock, Abernath reached into his trench coat and pulled out a map of the city that had all the active Floo systems and port keys listed on it. Levitating it in front of him, he studied it as quick as he could.
"Ma'am," said Markus, hesitant to deliver bad news. "The nearest fireplace connected to the System is five blocks away."
Iris felt her stomach drop, her cool faltering as she looked to where he was pointing on the map. "That far?"
Markus hurriedly rechecked the illuminated parchment before nodding in the affirmative, "Yes. I'm sorry."
Iris sucked in a deep breath as she considered her options. They were in a race against time and she could only think of one way to get Percival to the fireplace without being spotted by any No-Majs. The only question was, who she was going to trust to stay behind with her.
"Alright, listen up," said Iris, decisively. "Aldrich and Abernath, go to the hospital and make sure they're ready to receive Mr. Graves the moment he arrives. Warren and Kelley, return to MACUSA and report to the President. She needs to know Grindelwald has been using Inferi. Goldstein, stay behind with me. I'll need your help transporting Mr. Graves."
The team nodded before Disapparating, leaving only Tina and Iris behind with Percival.
"Tina, Mr. Graves won't make it if we waste time taking back roads and alleys. The exposure alone will be a huge shock to his system," she explained, the direness of her tone increasing as she came to her point. "The only way we have a chance of saving him is to go a direct rout through the streets."
Tina nodded in understanding before asking the obvious question, "What about all the No-Majs?"
"Tina, I'm going to be honest with you, I can conceal Mr. Graves from the No-Majs but not by legal means. It's the only solution I have. I can understand if you don't want to be involved, but I have no choice. Percival is... he's..."
"I'll do it," replied Tina, without so much as a second thought.
The brunette witch only needed to see the desperate look in Iris's eyes to make up her mind. She knew Mr. Graves meant a great deal to Iris, and she could only imagine herself in her place. Besides, Mr. Graves had never treated her unfairly. He'd even stood up for her when others had simply dismissed her. She knew he was a good man. If they had a chance to save him, they had to take it.
"Thank you," breathed Iris. Reaching into her coat pocket, she retrieved the Invisibility Cloak. "This was sent to my office earlier today. It should conceal Mr. Graves from the No-Majs."
"Is that an invisibility cloak?" asked Tina, stepping up to take a closer look.
Iris nodded, letting Tina take the garment from her. Unfurling it, Tina tested it on her hand before gently draping it over Percival, making him disappear from sight.
"We better hurry," said Iris, switching to wandless magic to guide him through the cluttered basement to the stairs. "I've never tried to levitate someone so far using wandless magic. If I tire out, you'll need to be ready to help catch him with your wand."
"What if someone sees me do it?" asked Tina, perturbed by the idea of, yet again, breeching the Statute of Secrecy.
"Let's just hope that doesn't happen."
Tina nodded, taking her place at Percival's feet in order to help Iris guide him. This way, she could better prevent people from running into him. It wouldn't do to waste time obliviating Mo-Mags right and left.
The two witches left the building through the front doors, knowing it was the quickest way to the street. They flinched as their eyes met the unforgiving sunlight. Iris tensed her wand hand, forcing herself to concentrate harder on keeping Percival suspended in the air. At least it wasn't raining anymore, she thought. They had that much in their favor.
The two witches briskly headed forwards, trying to look inconspicuous among all the overall-clad dockworkers. However, it was painfully obvious they didn't blend in. With Iris's particularly witchy coat and Tina's overly tense expression, they stuck out like two sore thumbs. The only reason no one bothered to stop them was because they were minding their own business.
They walked four harrowing blocks weaving in and out of people, and in some heart-pounding cases traffic, to optimize expedience while avoiding detection. At one point, Tina had to shoulder check a No-Maj heading right between her and Iris so he wouldn't run into Graves. The man was going to snap at her until Iris whipped around and gave him the haughtiest 'how dare you' stare she could muster. As the man left, she nodded at Tina who offered a reassuring twist of her lips.
Iris's chest tightened anxiously the closer and closer they got to their destination. She feared that maybe they weren't going fast enough, that once they got to the hospital, it would be too late to help Percival. No matter how much she refused to accept the possibility of losing him, she knew it very well could happen.
As they turned the corner of the last block, there was a pained groan from under the Invisibility Cloak. Iris's heart froze in her chest as she saw the top of Percival's head slowly being revealed as he pulled at the fabric covering him.
"Tina-" Iris began, but the brunette was already on it.
Tina hurried up behind Iris, kneeled down, and pulled the Invisibility Cloak back over Percival's head. She whispered something to him then, explaining about the Cloak. He did not move after that. Whether or not he actually heard her or simply drifted back into unconsciousness was unclear. Taking her place back at his feet, Tina nodded to Iris to keep going.
Reaching the address where the fireplace was located, Tina went on ahead of Iris to unlock all the doors that barred their way. The building was a boarding house with about eight different residences. One of them must have belonged to a witch or wizard.
By the time they broke into the proper apartment, Iris seemed to be visibly struggling to keep up her strength and concentration. Still, they had made it, and Tina noticed that it had refortified her somewhat.
"Did you find the Floo powder?" asked Iris as she took the Invisibility Cloak off of Percival and stored it back in her white coat.
Tina nodded holding up a cracked glass sugar jar.
"Excellent," Iris nodded, not feeling the slightest bit odd for having just broken into a stranger's home. "MACUSA will have to compensate these people after all this is over."
They squeezed themselves into the fireplace, which was a very tight fit with Percival having to remain horizontal. Iris placed her hand on Percival's shoulder and Tina did the same to Iris as she grabbed a fistful of Floo powder in her other hand. With a loud pronouncement and a flash of acid green flames, the three disappeared leaving behind a sooty mess on the floor.
Once they reappeared in the fireplace at the hospital they were met by Manny, Markus, and a team of healers who were anxiously awaiting their arrival. Two healers hurried forwards to take Percival from Iris who nearly fell to her knees the moment she was able to cease the spell and drop her concentration.
Tina pressed her lips together tightly in concern. Carrying Percival seemed to have taken more out of her superior than she'd let on. Wandless magic wasn't something she was overly familiar with, but she knew it worked differently from the Western style she was raised with. She wonder just how much Wandless Magic Iris actually knew.
With a steadying breath, Iris pushed herself to stand up straight and join the group as they put Graves on a gurney and rolled him back to the emergency room.
Tina felt a twinge of pity as she noticed the mask of controlled calm slipping back over Iris's face.
AN: REVIEW FAVOR FOLLOW! I'm so sorry this took me so long to update. Life got in the way a bit (as it tends to do), but now I'm back on a roll. Next chapter will be about Percival's fate and a trip into the pensive to see how he and Iris first met.
