Oh meh goodness.

Finally finished this chapter - and sooooo happy. Didn't think I ever would, but here its, complete with its very own warning:

Anyone uncomfortable with mention of suidice should skip over the bit of dialogue explaining what happened between Marvolo Gaunt and his wife. IT doesn't go into any great grusome detail, just thought I should leave a warning.

And Disclaimer, of course: Me no own Gaunt family, Diagon Alley or any places in it, galleons, sickles, knuts, Amortentia, Grindelwald, Little Hangleton, Tom Riddle, or any canon facts in the realm of HP. Me do own Morgana Gaunt, Lindus, Marcus Potter, Belinda Brooks-Potter, Morena Serran, the shack in the mountains in the middle of nowhere, and "Master" Brooks.

I wonder, can anyone that's read my story A Gaunt Tale figure out who Lindus is? Don't answer until you've actually read this chapter and A Gaunt Tale, obviously. I'll give you a cookie if you can, as I made it a pretty easy connection to make.


Merope had taken a total liking to the idea of the use of Amortentia, so much that she had taken immediately to coming up with a plan to get Riddle to drink it. Happier yet with the plan was Morena, who knew for a fact that Merope would have been killed if she hadn't agreed to this. She didn't think the potion would take too long to make, and a concealment charm could be placed on it that would make it look like plain water. She could stop him on a particularly muggy afternoon in July on his way home and offer him a glass of water.

So now, after a day of talking Merope into believing the plan was not only full-proof, but also nowhere near as immoral as the Imperius Curse, Morena was in an apothecary in Diagon Alley with much of her appearance greatly transfigured; she had found rumors in the Daily Prophet that she had killed her parents and taken off, and she didn't particularly want to be seen in public as Morena Serran when she had Aurors out looking to question her. As she also didn't want to be found getting money from the Serran family's Gringott's vault for fear of being suspected, she was using Grindelwald's own money – he seemed to be willing to pay anything or go to any lengths to get even one of the "Deathly Hallows." Morena still thought it to be bogus, but if he was so determined to get that ring that he would kill her if she mucked things up for him, she wasn't about to argue.

She had purchased a book on advanced potion making in Flourish and Blotts after making sure Amortentia was in the book and in great detail. She was now in an apothecary, one of her least favorite places in all of wizarding London. Her cloak was pulled up over her head as she looked at tiny, sparkling fairy wings in a small jar hanging from the wall. She picked it up and put it in a small cauldron she had earlier bought in a cauldrons shop across the street. Interesting as the apothecaries were, their smells were absolutely putrid. This one in particular held to a smell of cow manure and rats, and was probably the worst one she could have chosen.

Morena moved shiftily to the counter to pay for the ingredients. She pulled her cloak's hood up further over her eyes when the cashier gave her a suspicious look as he checked the price on a jar of lacewing flies. "Planning on making anything in particular, ma'am?"

"Ah, no, no," said Morena, keeping her voice as steady as possible as she pushed a strand of yellowish hair behind her ear. "Just ran out of a few things in my potions stores, thought I should probably stock up."

"Right you are. This'll be three galleons, ten sickles, and three knuts."

Morena fished around in a small bag attached to a belt-loop on her skirt beneath her cloak and counted out the coins to lie on the counter. She scooped all of the jars back into her cauldron and left quickly. She Apparated with all of the ingredients into the forest outside of the town she had learned was called Little Hangleton and quickly hurried to the edge of the forest. She stopped there when she heard voices and the sounds of horse hooves clopping on the ground coming from the road. She transfigured her hair to its usual messy, flat-looking black state and put her hood back up, hoping it might help her to blend into the dark forest a bit better.

"… believe Gaunt and his son were taken away, the old tramp that owns that house over there," she heard a woman's voice saying. "It should only be a matter of time before that daughter of his leaves. The poor thing seems horribly mistreated. I've seen her 'round the shop before buying food. I do hope she has the will to leave, no one deserves that sort of treatment."

"That land will belong to the Riddles if Gaunt never comes back, and it'd do better in Anthony's hands, or his son's for that matter," a man's voice replied. "Anthony's getting older, there's no telling whether he could pass on a year or even fifteen years from now."

"Well, I still do have sympathy for that poor girl. Whatever happened to her mother? I believe she was living there with them until a few years ago, do you suppose she left?"

"With Gaunt, there's no telling. Could've beaten the woman to death if he treated her anything like his daughter."

Morena waited until the voices were completely out of her range of hearing before stepping out onto the path lighted only sparsely by sunlight. The Gaunts' house was visible and easily within walking distance. She glanced back at the man and woman that had just passed her, saw that there was no way they would hear her from so far ahead, and she hurried to the house with the cauldron – any Muggles to see her carrying a cauldron to that house would have put strange ideas into their heads about Merope Gaunt, who didn't deserve any such thing.

Morena knocked on the door (which was now free of any nailed snakes) before opening it and hurrying in. She moved to the kitchen table and set the cauldron in the center of it. Merope came out from a side room that was apparently a bedroom and looked from Morena to the cauldron.

"This is everything," Morena told her, knocking on the cauldron with her knuckles. "Also stopped by the Daily Prophet building, they'll be delivering the paper here now by owl. I imagine they're common in the woods out here, so there should be no questioning on the part of the residents of Little Hangleton."

"Idiot. She'll just get comfortable if you do things like that."

Morena glanced over her shoulder discretely in case Merope hadn't heard the strangely echoing voice of Grindelwald. She apparently hadn't, as Grindelwald was nowhere to be seen. What was he doing now, then? First he could read her mind, now he could bloody invade it?

"Oh, nice job, I didn't think you'd ever guess." She heard the voice again and even though it sounded to be coming from somewhere in the room, she was sure she was only hearing it in her mind. "Make up an excuse to leave now, we need to discuss whatever plan it is you've come up with that you haven't bothered informing me of yet."

"Right, then," Morena said, both to Merope and the annoying voice she really wished would go away. "I need to get home for a couple of hours and do a bit of house work. Old shack in the middle of nowhere, quite dingy, really, needs some fixing up, anyway." Morena nodded. "If I'm not back today, I will be first thing tomorrow morning. So, au revoir."

"Er – bye."

Morena gave a wave and Disapparated from the spot. After travelling through what felt like a wormhole that she definitely wouldn't have been able to fit through in normal circumstances (or even as a snake), she reappeared in the living room of the log cabin in the middle of nowhere she was now forced to call home. Already sitting in an armchair with a cup of tea was Grindelwald, looking rather bored. Morena didn't so much as glance at him as she took her favored seat in the middle of the sofa.

"I see my broadcast made it to you," he said, sounding rather pleased about this. "First time I've ever attempted using Legilimency at such distance, it's quite good to know it works."

"Nice to know I'm just a test dummy," said Morena. "I believe you called me here to find out what I'm planning?"

"Yes. I understand you were away from Merope Gaunt for a period of time today to head to London, Diagon Alley specifically. I was merely wondering if it had anything to do with your plan to get her out."

"Had everything to do with it, thank you very much." Morena pulled her feet up onto the large sofa to sit with her legs crisscrossed. "Merope Gaunt refuses to leave the house unless she leaves with Tom Riddle. Tom Riddle is a Muggle that lives in Little Hangleton, which is the town she lives just outside of. I suggested the Imperius Curse, but nice a girl as Merope Gaunt is, she doesn't want to use an Unforgivable Curse, particularly not on the love of her life. So, I suggested Amortentia."

"The strongest love potion," Grindelwald said. "Did you happen to mention to her that it doesn't actually create love, but rather an obsession?"

"Trick question," said Morena with a put-on bored sigh. "Had I told her that, she wouldn't have gone for the idea. I just told her that she could disguise it as water and offer him a drink on his way home on a day he doesn't have his girlfriend with him."

"Very good," said Grindelwald. "I also have a bit of information, regarding the current situation with Morfin and Marvolo Gaunt. Marvolo Gaunt will be in Azkaban for six months. Morfin has a year (AN: Canon says three years, but I had to change it for the story to work. Really didn't want to =( ). That means that Marvolo Gaunt will return here by the end of December. Amortentia takes exactly five and a half months to make. I hope for your sake that she can convince this Riddle to take the potion in less than half a month, or she and her father will both be killed, I can't have her getting in the way. I prefer to remain discrete, so you will be the one doing the killing, obviously."

"I already told you I'm not killing anyone," said Morena stubbornly, looking at Grindelwald for the first time since she had arrived to glare at him. "Particularly not Merope, do you even know what she's had to go through?"

"I know all about her entire family," said Grindelwald boredly, examining the back of his hand as though its subject matter was much more interesting than the Gaunts' family history. "Firstly, her parents, like most purebloods of the age, were related. Purebloods are a dying breed, and certain things can't be avoided. Cousins, I believe they were, Marvolo and Morgana Gaunt. They absolutely detested each other, but the marriage was arranged in advance and neither of them could do anything about it. They were good parents. Morgana was a kind woman and an obedient wife. Marvolo was a great father – oh, he was," Grindelwald said at a snort of laughter on Morena's part, "but he was a terrible husband. He drove poor Morgana to the end of her wits. Merope was six at the time. Her mother had a nervous breakdown. It wasn't the first one she'd ever had, but definitely the worst, and also her last. She and her mother were at home alone – Morgana and Marvolo had an argument, and Marvolo took his son out somewhere to allow his wife some 'time to think.' Morgana told Merope she was going to go lie down in her room, and she never came back out. Marvolo found her. She had hung herself from a chandelier, which he took down and burned only a day later.

"Despite how much he had always detested Morgana, Marvolo blamed the suicide on himself – quite accurately, in my opinion – and with some people, they just can't take that sort of responsibility on their shoulders. So, he lied to himself. How?" Grindelwald set down his now empty tea cup on the coffee table in front of a dumbstruck Morena. "He blamed Merope, of course. She had been the one at home with Morgana when it happened, so Merope had to have caused it somehow. He managed to convince himself it was true in his twisted train of thought, and therefore, he began treating her as he would have treated anyone who he blamed the death on. He pushed her around, made her do every little bit of housework, called her names – any sort of punishment that came to his mind, he would use it. That girl has had the Cruciatus Curse thrown at her more times than she could probably count – used mostly as threat, I don't believe it's ever actually hit her more than a few times. You can relate, I know, with as many times as your father attempted using it on you."

Morena was too busy pondering the information she had just been given to shoot at Grindelwald to stop invading her mind. He understood everything that Merope had gone through – and he was still perfectly fine with killing her if she "got in the way"? He really was a monster. There was something terribly wrong there.

"Wrong?" said Grindelwald. "It's all for the greater good, Morena."

"Greater good…." Morena scoffed. "You're going to try to wipe Muggles off the face of the Earth, explain to me how that's good. I just don't understand. As long as they remain ignorant of our existence, we'll all get along fine."

"I'm not going to wipe them off the face of the Earth," said Grindelwald, waving his hand. "That would be completely unnecessary. We were given powers that they weren't, true enough, but there's nothing saying we should use them to kill them. However, in all other species, power signifies dominance. Users of magic have more power than Muggles, and therefore should be the dominant ones of the human race. Only those who get in my way – whether witch, wizard, or Muggle – will die."

"You're still bloody mad," said Morena spitefully. "What point would be served in wizards dominating the world? I have no problems with not using magic in front of them. Power signifies primal tendencies. Muggles continue growing more and more technologically advanced. They have light bulbs and electricity – we're still stuck with candles and fire like a bunch of cavemen. They're inventing motor run cars, and we've been using bloody broomsticks since the medieval times. I'd love a car, I can't bloody stand flying. Because they can't make everything appear out of thin air, they're making things and getting more educated. Hogwarts has had practically the same lesson plans since the founders were there, and I'm sure most other wizarding schools have as well. If anything, they have a right to force us into hiding. If we dominate them, we may as well go back to living in caves and hunting food to survive. Sure, in cavemen times, power signified dominance, just as it does in animals. Today, intelligence is the main factor. As far as the sciences and math go, Muggles are ten times more worthy of control than we are. Oh," she said, rolling her eyes at Grindelwald's laughter, "and what the bloody hell are you laughing at now?"

"Just give it time," said Grindelwald. "You'll agree. You're a smart enough woman, and if you take the time to think about it, I can tell you'll agree. Now, I believe I'm on the trail of another of the Hallows," said Grindelwald, standing from his seat. "Wait until tomorrow to return to Merope. I suggest you find the house-elf that lives here and speak with him in the meantime. He already attempted to poison my tea, I'd rather it didn't happen again. I believe his name was Lindus."

With a wave and a swish of his cloak, Grindelwald disappeared silently from the spot. Morena remembered his mention of that elf from their last meeting, and that it might attempt to kill her in her sleep if she didn't do something about it. Halfway wishing that it had succeeded in poisoning Grindelwald's tea, she gave a quick look around the living room – no house-elf in sight. She gave a shrug, deciding that her idea was better than nothing.

"Lindus?" she called. She then jumped at the sound of a pop! noise next to her. She turned her head to see a house-elf standing there with its arms crossed, ears standing straight up, and looking rather disgruntled.

"You is not Lindus's master and cannot summon Lindus whenever you wishes to! Now where is the blonde man? Lindus has a present for him…"

Morena noticed that Lindus was holding a small bottle of some green liquid. She was sorely tempted to allow the elf to stay until it achieved its goal of killing Grindelwald, but she knew what would happen to her if she did. That scared her. She wasn't noble in that sense; she'd have been sorted into Gryffindor if she was.

However, she was cunning.

"Lindus," said Morena kindly, "that's your name, isn't it?"

"Yes, now where is –"

"Grindelwald left," she said. "I'm terribly sorry about what he did to your master. Did he have any family that you could stay with? I don't want to make you leave your home, but I'll be killed as well if I don't. I'm not working for him of my own accord."

Lindus looked up at Morena, his ears lowering sympathetically. "Miss is in danger, too?"

"Yes, very much, unless I do everything he says. Of course," said Morena slowly, eyeing the bottle of poison, "if you were to give me that little bottle and go to your new Master's home, then I could slip that into his tea next time he comes here. Then you wouldn't have to worry about him hurting anyone else."

The house-elf looked down at the tiny bottle in its hand, seeming to debate over what to do. "Lindus does know that Master Brooks's daughter Belinda lives in Britain…" he said slowly. "He could tell her Master Brooks died of old age. Mistress Belinda is due to be married soon to Marcus Potter, her family will surely need Lindus to help with cooking and cleaning and such," he said, nodding. "Lindus must go." He held the bottle out to Morena, who had to suppress a triumphant grin. "Will Miss take care of this Grindelwald person for Master Brooks?"

"Of course I will, Lindus. Just go on ahead and find Belinda, I'm sure her family will need some help."

"Lindus thanks kind Miss very much!" he squeaked, sounding quite a bit happier. He pushed put the bottle on the coffee table, snapped his fingers, and was gone.

Morena took this moment of alone time to fall sideways onto the sofa. It was going to be a terribly long six months….