XI. Rites of Passage

The cool sea air blew through Harry's hair, tugging the ends up to dance and sway gently with its currents. He stood at the top of the Tower, looking out over the glistening blue waters as the morning sun shone down on them from behind him. Somewhere, across those waters, was England, his home, where his family waited. He could feel the tug in his chest calling him back even at that very moment; unfortunately, it was a call that he would not be able to heed for a long time to come.

It was quite early yet, and the others had not yet stirred from their sleep. Or at least Barty and Regulus had not. He hadn't seen Grindelwald since he had disappeared after their sudden duel and following conversation the previous evening. He didn't know where the man slept, but there were many closed doors in the Tower, and Harry knew better than to go around opening doors in a place that he was not familiar with and was home one of the most famous 'Dark Lords' ever to live.

It was by a stroke of luck that he had found his way up to the very top on his own. He had been climbing the stairs, thinking it might help him with his stamina training, when he noticed the door standing ajar and a cool ocean-scented breeze was blowing through.

It had still been dark outside when he stepped out onto the rampart, and now the sun was painting the landscape in hues of orange as it rose higher and higher in the sky at his back.

"Would Young Sir like something to drink or eat?" a heavily accented voice asked from near his knee.

Harry looked down at the old Elf, not having heard him appear beside him. "Some tea, with cream and honey, please," he answered.

The Elf bowed and disappeared without a sound. Harry raised a brow, impressed with the silent apparation the Elf had performed. His own Elves were not so skilled, still emitting a small pop with every apparation.

He turned back to the sea and smirked. His cup of tea, served in a wooden mug with no handle on the side, was sitting on the parapet, steam wafting lazily from the hot liquid. He picked it up and blew on it softly to cool it before taking a long sip of the semi-sweet drink. He sighed in contentment as the warmth spread through him and the honey coated his throat. It wasn't quite as good as what Dobby used to make for him but for an Elf that didn't know his personal tastes, it was pretty good.

Taking another sip, he turned his eyes back to the ocean, hearing the waves crash against the rock-face far below. The steady rhythm of it soothed him, as the quiet song of birds as they greeted the morning in the trees that surrounded the Tower on the opposite side from the sea and cliffs.

Nurmengard, as it turned out, was located on an island in the waters between Germany and Denmark. The island was not overly large, perhaps little more than a square kilometer all around, and most of it was covered in a thick forest, save for the white beaches that made of three of the four sides of the island. The fourth was crags and cliffs where the Tower was located, at the highest point of the island.

From where Harry was standing, he could see the entire island.

There were no other structures on the island that housed Nurmengard, and there was no other human presence on the island beyond Grindelwald himself, and now Harry and his brothers. There were no guards, no watchmen, nothing of that sort. There was absolutely nothing keeping Grindelwald there, and yet he had not once tried to leave the island and make another bid for power. It was something that not many people ever thought about. He had spoken to Hermione of it once before, while they had been spending Yule at Potter Hall. He had posed her the question of why Grindelwald never left, when he could do so at any time. She had first answered that it was because he knew he was wrong in what he had done and his reasons for doing it, but Harry had claimed that that was not so. Of course, he didn't know for sure why, having never met the man before the previous day, but from what he had read of the man and heard of him from Albus, he had believed he was right. He had said it was because he knew that the world as it was was not ready for the changes he sought to bring about.

He wondered now if that was true.

He took another long drink of his tea.

"There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life." Harry turned at the sound of the soft, wise voice behind him. He found himself watching Grindelwald walk out onto the rampart with him, hands held behind his back and head slightly down-turned. "A man by the name of Lin Yutang said that. He was a squib from China. I met him once, in the thirties. He was an interesting fellow. I would not call him a friend, as I only met him the one time, but it is a memory I will not forget."

Harry did not respond to this as the old man came to stand beside him, his dark robes billowing slightly in the breeze.

"Throughout our lives we meet many people, some great, some less so, but they all have some impact on us and who we become. Whether it be to reaffirm our own character or to show of that path that we must never venture down. Or to give us something to aspire to." Grindelwald sighed and looked out over the ocean. "I met many people in my life, but none made such an impact as Albus Dumbledore. He and I were as close as two people could be. He was my best friend and my brother, though I know that is not where he had wanted to be. He loved me, I know this, and I loved him too, in my way." He sighed again. "It was not the way he wished, but it was love all the same."

"He spoke of you often," Harry said, finally breaking his silence. "At least to me. He knew I looked up to you and sought to make me better understand who you were from the perspective of one who knew you, as opposed to what the Ministry would have me think."

Grindelwald nodded. "Yes. He told me of you when he came to visit me. Yule was always one of my favorite times of year. At Durmstrang, there was always this large celebration. We would make sacrifices to the Old Gods, sing songs and drink ale and mead. Then, at night, we would all strip naked and run through the forest with torches and raise our voices to the northern lights. It was a time of friendship and family and of light in the darkness. Of course, I would later learn that the light wasn't all it was boasted to be."

"The light is a crutch, for those who could no longer see in the dark," Harry said, wondering where the words had come from.

Grindelwald finally turned his head toward Harry with a small smile, his white teeth showing. "Yes, that is the basic idea. Though, in truth, the real dynamic of light and dark is too complex for even I to fully grasp." He scoffed. "Albus was more adept at such things than I. Tell me again, how did he die?"

Harry sighed, casting his mind back to that night. "He and I had gone to retrieve what we thought was a piece of Voldemort's soul, housed in a vessel known as a Horcrux. You have heard of these?" Grindelwald nodded, though he didn't say anything. His eyes were closed as he listened to Harry speak, as though he were trying to picture it all. "I already knew that I would have to kill him. It was what I had been sent there to do. I didn't want to do it, but my hand was forced. Voldemort didn't trust me as much as we had thought and had set up a second assassin, along with a plan to infiltrate the school with an assault group. They were in the castle when we returned, and Albus was weakened by a potion that he had to drink to get to the Horcrux. I was able to turn my wand on him before anyone saw that I had been helping him only a moment before. Of course, I hesitated, and Albus saw it. He told me 'It's okay, Harry. I do not fear death. To the well-organized mind death is but the next great adventure'." He saw Grindelwald mouth the last words with him, nodding. "So I killed him. Killing Curse. It was quick and he died with a smile on his face."

Grindelwald inhaled and then let the breath out in a slow rush as he contained an emotional reaction. "It is good that he did not suffer at the end." He turned to Harry and opened his eyes. "It would have been his wish that I take you under my wing. He spoke of it when he visited me. He said he saw something in you. Something that reminded him of me. I do not know what it was, but I hope in time that his judgment will prove false and that I will instead see something in you that reminds me of him. For all that I was the fire that burned bright and drew people to me like moths to that flame, he was the one who kept that flame from becoming a wild fire."

Harry let his lips curl up in a small smile. "If I have even a spark of either of you in me I shall count myself lucky."

It wasn't flattery, because he meant it. Albus Dumbledore had been a good man and wise man. He was not perfect, and he had known it. He did the best he could with the hand he was dealt and Harry admired that. His path in life had changed drastically due to his time with Albus and he knew that his path would be further changed by Grindelwald himself. As Grindelwald had said, everyone you meet has an impact on who you are, and he knew just from these short conversations that this man would be one of them, just as Albus had been, just as Barty and Regulus had been, just as Charlie had been, just as his mother had been, just as Nymphadora had been. Just as Hermione had been; And his son, Hugo, who had changed so much in such a short time.

It seemed Grindelwald could tell as much because he smirked and his eyes lit up with a small spark of life and a glint of determination. "We shall see, Mr. Potter." He started back into the Tower. "Do not linger too long atop here. It is easy to become lost in one's thoughts here, and in doing so one forgets the important things. Like breakfast."

Harry did not reply as he turned his eyes back to the horizon, taking a sip of his still-hot tea. This would be his home for the foreseeable future but he knew better than to dwell on things that could not be changed. Hermione had taught him that, in her way. "Eyes on the horizon, Potter," he whispered to himself with a smirk. He took another sip of tea and turned to follow Grindelwald into the Tower, where breakfast awaited, and the promise of the wisdom of one who had lived a long life.

XXXX

Conversation over breakfast consisted mostly of Grindelwald telling them all war stories from the Great Wizarding Revolution, also commonly called the Global Wizarding War and the First Magical World War by various media outlets and history texts.

He told them of his time at Durmstrang, and of his being expelled for a slew of experiments on a three students and a staff member; a muggleborn, a half-blood, a pure-blood and a squib who worked for the school. It was rare enough that a muggleborn was allowed to attend Durmstrang, and even less so now. Grindelwald theorized that his targeting of one might have been a reason for the current no-muggleborn policy that the school had adopted.

As he told it, his experiments had been a precursor to those that he had performed with German geneticist Ernst Rüdin. He had wanted to see if there were any obvious differences in their genetic makeup, as well as that of their magic in general. Unfortunately, he was caught in the midst of an experiment and severely wounded a professor, resulting in his expulsion.

"The problem, I came to realize," Grindelwald said, lifting his cup of tea to his mouth to take a sip. "Was that we assumed that there was a center-point from which the magic in our bodies came forth. A pool, or a 'core', if you will. It has been theorized by many that such a thing exists inside of us but there has never been any proof of it. Instead, I feel more that our magic flows through our entire body like an endless stream. Think about it, when you cast a spell wandlessly, you feel the magic in your arm and hand, ja?" Harry and Barty nodded. Regulus had heard this all before. "Imagine, for a moment that you could channel your magic from anywhere in your body, say for example to cast a Incendio charm from your mouth, like the breath of a dragon, or add the destructive force of a blasting curse to a kick or punch."

"It cannot be done," Barty said, taking a bite of bacon. "It all sounds good in theory but it cannot be done."

Grindelwald nodded. "You are right, it cannot. Not without further research. I think though, that one day, in the future, there will be ways to do such things, and that everyone, muggle and magical alike, will be able to learn such things, with the right amount of training and dedication." He took another drink. "Ach, it is but an old man's dream. If it ever comes to pass, it will not be in my lifetime, I fear. Anyway, as I was saying before. The problem with the experiments we conducted was that we sought to awaken the markers in the DNA that activated the production of the magical energy with out bodies. What we didn't count on was the sudden explosion of magic from within. So much raw magic produced so suddenly into a body that was neither prepared for nor able to adapt to such raw power. It was like the birth of a star within the flesh and the flesh could not contain it. What I later discovered, near the end of the war, was that the amount of magic we have grows with our bodies over time from birth, and our body adapts to it as it grows, thus it does not harm us as it did those people. I was working on a method to make the production of magic slow drastically until the body was used to it. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish my research."

"So, it cannot be done?" Harry asked, thinking of Hermione and her parents. She had once told him that her parents felt a distance between them and her because she was part of a world that they could never be a part of and were not welcome in due to their lack of magic. It disappointed him that he could not fix this for her.

Grindelwald shrugged. "I will not say that it is impossible, but I will say that it is dangerous. If one were to see early on, within the first few years of life, that a child did not have magic, they could, in theory, activate the genes and the child would not be overly harmed by it. Perhaps uncomfortable for a time, but compared the suffering a child goes through when it cuts its first teeth, it would be a mild irritation at best. The older the subject, the more dangerous it becomes."

Harry frowned. "You never discovered how to make it work for adults then?"

Grindelwald shook his head. "Nein. I did not."

Harry could not hide his disappointment.

"Would it be possible to resume your research?" Barty asked, seeing the look on Harry's face.

Grindelwald chuckled. "I do not think so. I dare not leave this island. It has been almost sixty years since I surrendered to Albus and was thrown in here. I doubt many would recognize me now, but I am not one of them anymore. There is nothing for me out there. Not anymore."

Regulus sat up. He didn't exactly know why Harry was so curious about this process but he trusted Harry and knew that there was a reason for it. "What if I could get you everything you would need for it? Would you do it?" Grindelwald looked pensive and a bit hesitant. "Think about it, if you must. I am offering you the chance to at least make one of your dreams come to fruition."

"Think of the good it could do," Harry added in. "The changes that could be brought with such research refined and tested. You and Albus once said that your revolution was for the Greater Good of humanity, magical and muggle alike. You can make that a reality. I know Albus fought against you, but he never stopped believing in your cause. I know that there are many out there who would embrace this change. To name a few off the top of my head, there's Argus Filch, the caretaker at Hogwarts. He's a squib, and has desperately been trying to learn magic since he was a young man. Wendell and Monica Granger, two muggles, parents to a muggleborn witch, who feel that they can't quite relate to their daughter anymore because she belongs to a world that hates and shuns them. Imagine what you could do for people like them if you were able to finish what you started over seventy years ago. Do it for them. Do it for the Greater Good!"

Grindelwald raised his eyes to meet Harry's, his face serious. "Ich verstehe...I think I am beginning to see what Albus meant." He sighed. "I see much of myself in you, Mr. Potter. Whether that is a good thing or not, only time will tell. All right," he breathed. "I will do it. For the Greater Good, I will do it." He stood. "I do hope that none of you are weak in the stomach, for there are sure to be failures." The others shook their heads. They were killers, and had been for a long time. Not much turned their stomachs anymore. "We will not be able to gather volunteers like before, I am afraid. This means that we shall have to resort to much more...villainous means."

Regulus nodded, looking unperturbed. "Whatever you need, I will get it."

Grindelwald smiled a smile that would have sent shivers down the spines of the most hardened men. "I need bodies. Lots of bodies."

XXXX

Harry tilted his head as another scream echoed up from the lower section of the Tower. It had been almost two years since he and the others had taken up residence in Nurmengard and while the research was slow-going at first as Grindelwald re-familiarized himself with both the theory and the practice of isolating and activating a genetic marker within the DNA of a person. They had lost several subjects to the process over that time, but each time they lasted longer and longer before dying.

Grindelwald felt that they were close now; very close. A few months, maybe another year at the most.

Outside the walls of Nurmengard, life carried on like usual. The tension in Bulgaria was still poised to go off like a powder keg, with the Ministry barely managing to maintain a fragile peace as relations with the rebel faction known as Sinovete na Nezavisimost, or the Sons of Independence, led by former Death Eater turned political activist Igor Karkaroff and publicly supported by former international Quidditch Star Viktor Krum, whose father founded the group several years back, before being put to death by the ICW for 'treason' after winning the position of Minister in Bulgaria. There had been several small skirmishes and more than a few riots, but war had yet to break out yet. Harry wondered how long that would last.

Beyond that, nothing much had changed. Which was a good thing in the sense that Harry was not ready to make his reappearance in the world of the living. He wanted to, just so he could go home and see his son and Hermione again. He missed them something fierce but he knew that until this whole thing was put to bed he could not return to English soil.

He had been training hard during those two years. He was back to where he had been before he was locked up, physically and in terms of magical strength, to the point he hardly needed his wand anymore. He had adopted a fresh look, so that when he made his return, there would be no mistaking who he was. His beard was gone, his hair was long and to his shoulders, as it had been when he had last been seen before his capture. Gellert said it reminded him of himself at that age, which Harry took as a roundabout way of giving praise to his appearance.

Barty, likewise, was back to his old strength, and while he had yet to go back to his old look of suits and waistcoats, he was sporting a new look as well. He now dressed in dark pants of muggle make that were loose-fitting enough to allow freedom of movement but close-fitting enough to not be cumbersome, black boots, a simple black long-sleeved shirt and a long black leather coat. His hair was not as neat and a bit longer than he used to keep it, but not by much. He didn't shave as diligently but still did so every other day or so.

Both had recovered well from Azkaban, but every now and then Harry saw the madness still lingering in the depths of Barty's eyes, and sometimes it appeared in the form of a sinister smile during combat training. Harry was sure that the same happened to him as well; sometimes he would just feel the urge to go a little further when fighting, but he was able to reign it in rather well.

So far, Gellert had had him dueling mostly against Regulus and Barty, and the blasted Elder Wand had changed hands more times that even it could keep track of – or so Barty exclaimed after losing it to Harry for the third time within a single day – and it currently was back in the possession of Grindelwald himself, who had won it off of Regulus just the day before. By tomorrow, who knew which of them would be the master of it again. No doubt it would take all three brothers to overwhelm the most powerful wizard alive.

Harry was determined to win it back. Not because he really wanted it, but because that was the ultimate goal in training. By the time they had to leave, Gellert had said that Harry needed to be able to win the Wand and not lose it to any of them in single or group combat.

That was why he was where he was now, sitting with his chest to the back of a chair, his shirt removed and his eyes closed. Behind him, sat a man in his thirties with long light brown hair, a thick beard and tattoos all over his body and face.

Marcus Scarrs the Younger was focused on his work, the needle moving across Harry's back and shoulders, jabbing into his flesh every second. It had been painful at first, but over time he had grown numb to the pain as his magic mingled with the ink. Runes covered his arms and chest – along with the Thurisaz scar above his heart, which he had gained from the ritual to restore his arm four years ago – and now most of his back was covered by a tree made entirely of runes. Runes for strength, speed, vitality, clarity, endurance and stamina, boosted magical prowess.

Half of the work had been done by Marcus the Elder, but the old man had died just a few weeks prior and the work was left unfinished. Marcus the Younger saw it as his duty as a son to finish the work his father had started. At least, Harry thought, the old man had gotten his wish to tattoo him before he had died. He had expressed that desire when Harry had visited him in his shop in Knockturn Alley to get his Dark Mark removed, which ended up resulting him Harry losing the entire arm rather than just the Mark.

Both Marcus the Elder and Younger, as well as Wekesa, the African-born third member of their little parlour, were sworn to silence about Harry and the others. As far as anyone knew, they had been on vacation. Wekesa was now back at the shop, covering it while Marcus the Younger was gone, after it was apparent that his skills were not needed in Nurmengard and better put to use on their regular customers.

Harry flinched as the needle jabbed a particularly tender spot and his eyes opened.

"Almost finished," Marcus said, feeling the flinch under his hands as he worked. "Just one last Uruz and you are all done."

Harry nodded, cracking his neck to get out the stiffness from sitting in the same position for so long. They had been at it for four hours straight already that day, as they had done every day for the past week to get the inking process finished. Over the next few days, his magic would imbue the runes with power and in turn they would give him their power. They like focusing points for his magic. He wouldn't be super-humanly fast or strong, but his reflexes would be better, he would move faster, hit harder and last longer – in every sense of the phrase. All in all, it wasn't enough to make him a total powerhouse, but enough to give him an edge in a fight.

"All done," Marcus said, waving his wand over the last rune to heal it and make the ink settle.

Harry stood up and stretched, feeling his magic dance across his back. He turned to Marcus and held out his hand for the other man to shake. "Thank you, Marcus. You do fine work." He didn't need a mirror to know that, he had seen some of the back work the day before and it was top-tier.

Marcus nodded and shook his hand. "Thanks. I just wish the Old Man had been here to see it all completed."

Harry chuckled. "Don't worry. I'll show him when I see him on the other side."

Marcus smirked sadly. "I really wish I could share your easy acceptance and optimism about Death, Harry. I really do."

Harry shrugged. "I've been dead, Marcus. Trust me when I say it is nothing to be afraid of." He clapped the bigger man on the shoulder. "Come on, I'll walk you out. No doubt you want to get back to England."

Marcus nodded and began packing up his needles and ink. "Aye. It's been a long week. Interesting and not at all bad, but still long. I think I'm starting to miss the casual tedium of running the shop. On top of that, my wife is with child. Soon, there'll be another Marcus Scarrs to carry on the legacy."

Harry smiled as he walked down the stairs to the ground floor, passing the room where Gellert was currently working on his experiments. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," Marcus nodded. "Well, it was good seeing you again, Harry. I know I said it when I first came here, but it's good to know that you aren't dead. Hopefully, it won't be too long before I see you back in Knockturn."

With that, he apparated away, leaving Harry standing outside the Tower as a cool breeze blew by, feeling good on his bare skin.

"One can only hope so," Harry mumbled to himself as he turned to walk back into the Tower.

He climbed up a few levels and pushed open a door, the one through which he had heard the screaming earlier. He stepped inside and frowned.

In the center of the room Grindelwald stood with Regulus and Barty. The three of them were looking down at the blackened form of what was once a living person.

"The rate of combustion was much slower than before," Regulus said, looking at a chart in his hand. "A full five minutes longer than the last time. We're getting closer."

Barty smirked and scoffed. "Not that that was a good thing for this bastard," he said, nudging the burnt corpse with a grimace.

Grindelwald's face was a blank slate, showing no outward reaction. "What does that matter? He was a murderer and a rapist. Even if it had worked, I would have still thrown him from the cliffs once my research was complete. He deserved nothing less." He looked up at Regulus. "How long before we can get a fresh specimen?"

Regulus consulted another part of his chart. "I have a meeting in Minsk in two days. They've got a few men lined up for death that my contact there has been able to procure for me."

Grindelwald nodded. "Good, good. We're getting closer, on the edge of a breakthrough, I can feel it." He turned to Harry, his eyes roving over the various runes and knotwork on his body. "You are all finished then?"

Harry nodded. "All done. How are things here?"

Grindelwald looked at the still-smoking body as if it should be obvious. "Things...did not go well on our end."

Barty grinned behind them and nudged the body again. "Yeah, and I've got this burning feeling that things didn't go so well on this bloke's end either."

Harry raised a brow while Regulus groaned and rubbed his eye. "I really wish that his sense of humor had been something he left behind in Azkaban," the eldest brother mumbled with a sigh.

Barty rolled his eyes. "Everyone's a critic. Well, I'm gonna mosey on out of here. This audience is looking a bit dead."

Regulus groaned again and Harry shook his head as Barty casually strode out of the door and down the hall toward the stairs leading upward, further into the Tower.

XXXX

Harry looked down at the Elder Wand in his hand, then up at the three men standing about the open, empty room, facing him.

Another two years had passed and Harry was finally at the level where he could face off against Barty and Regulus and put up a good fight. He had been 'king of the Tower', as Barty put it, for a solid month now, winning the past four bouts against the other two brothers. This time, Grindelwald was joining the fight, to truly test how far Harry had come.

During those two years, Gellert had managed to perfect his research and even developed a process that worked on older subjects. He had taught the process to all of them, so that if he died before he got the chance to actually use it the knowledge wouldn't die with him. Harry planned to use it on Hermione's parents as soon as this whole mess was behind them, if they wanted him to, that is.

"You ready, Harry?" Regulus asked, snapping Harry out of his thoughts, drawing his own wand and getting into a stance.

"Just so you know," Barty said before Harry could reply. "The chances of you actually winning this fight are drastically lower than last time. Now, I don't mean to be discouraging, but I, as your big brother, will not think any less of you if want to, say, give up now and surrender the Elder Wand back into my capable hands. How about that?"

Harry chuckled. "Not on your life, Barty."

Barty shrugged. "Ah, well, it was worth a shot. Don't say you weren't warned. Prepare yourself, then!" He brandished his wand. "Liberty or Death!"

Harry raised his brow and Regulus mirrored the motion.

Barty didn't seem to notice and simply settled into his fighting stance.

Harry opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the sudden appearance of a blazing red light that shot forth at him from the direction of the third member of his opponents. He ducked his head away from it and fired back with a cutting curse, which Grindelwald simply batted away before firing one of his own back.

Harry blocked this attack while dodging a curse from Barty and parrying one from Regulus.

The three peppered him with a volley of curses, all of which he either dodged, blocked or parried, not getting a chance to fire back.

Harry did his best to stay where he was, not allowing himself to be pushed back into a corner. If such a thing were to happen it would be the end of him as he would then have nowhere to go and the others could take turns bombarding him until he either made a mistake or ran out of steam.

As for Barty, Gellert and Regulus, they fanned out, with Regulus and Gellert moving to the flanks and Barty facing him straight on.

All spells cast were silent, making it more difficult to judge whether to dodge or block the attacks. Some spells were merely slowed by a shield and not blocked completely. However, having spent so much time dueling them all one on one and in groups, he had gotten pretty good at recognizing spells based on their light or shape.

Stunners were a simple red light that rendered one unconscious, cutting curses were a thin blade of white sharp enough to slice through a body if fired with enough power, Killing Curses were sickly green, Cruciatus Curses were actually clear – and Gellert was horrifyingly efficient at them, as Harry had found out after being on the receiving end of one from him – the Alarte Ascendere spell was a light gold spark that sent the target flying straight up into the air, the arrow-shooting spell was obviously an arrow – Barty had become quite fond of the spell of late – the blasting curse was clear, Carpe Retractum took the form of a red-colored rope, Confringo was a ball of flame that exploded on impact, Deprimo was a pale blue and slammed the target into the ground hard enough to fracture bones, Everte Statum was a flash of white light that would send one flying backward through the air, Expelliarmus was a spark of white-gold that knocked one's wand from their hand, Expulso was clear and created a pressure-based explosion, Flipendo – the knockback jinx – was blue and pushed the target backward, Immobulus was a shimmer of blue that render one immobile – similar to the body-bind, which caused one to stiffen as if bound by invisible ropes, except that the target could not move at all, even to fall down – Incarcerous took the form of ropes, Reducto was a bolt of blue light that was capable of disintegrating an object or breaking it, the Scorching Spell was a ball of flames and the Sectumsempra curse was a series of pale magic blades that sliced into the enemy and was notoriously difficult to counter or heal the wounds from – only Harry used this spell, the others not knowing it.

There were a few schoolyard jinxes and hexes thrown in from time to time, but that was an approach mostly utilized by Barty who liked to throw them out randomly to keep whoever he was fighting on their toes.

Harry blocked one such spell, a leg-locker curse, which he managed to redirected back at Barty, whose legs were suddenly glued together; given that he had taken a wide stance, this was enough to take him to the floor. He went down laughing. Seeing an opening, Harry fired a stunner at Barty, who managed to roll out of the way, then deflected an Expulso from Gellert, which exploded against the wall, showering them with rubble and dust.

During this time, Barty had been able to cast the counter-curse on himself and was back on his feet, pressing the attack once-more.

Harry threw out a series of rapid fire cutting curses at Gellert, who swirled his wand in a circle in front of him, making the spells arch around him to hit harmlessly against the wall behind him. This was an example of Grindelwald using his magic to do things that no spell could do. He merely thought about what he wanted to happen and his magic did it. It worked most of the time.

A fluttering sound was heard and Harry felt a small flare of pain from his ear. He didn't have to look to see that Barty had just barely missed him with a magically fired arrow. Another was hot on the tail of the first and Harry had to duck to avoid it. He fired a knockback jinx at Barty's legs, knocking them from beneath him, making him fall forward onto the ground.

Regulus, who had been hanging back and peppering Harry with minor curses to keep him on his guard, suddenly threw out a blasting curse, which managed to send Harry sailing into the wall, the Elder Wand falling from his hand. Before Regulus could capitalize and stun him, Harry threw a wandless Expelliarmus at Regulus, disarming him and returning his mastery of the Elder Wand, which he then plucked back up from the ground.

The rules were simple. Whoever was the master of the Elder Wand was the target. If the master was disarmed or rendered unconscious, whoever had fired the spell took up the wand and the fight continued until only one fighter was standing, and that was the owner of the Elder Wand. Since Regulus had not managed to knock Harry unconscious, Harry was still in the fight and since Harry had disarmed Regulus, the Wand went back to him, thus he was still the target.

Before Harry could get back to his feet, he felt his stomach drop as he was suddenly thrown straight up in the air. His back struck the ceiling hard and he came back down with equal force.

He groaned and rolled away from where he had landed just before the spot of impacted by three different spells. He had managed to retain his hold on the Elder Wand, but it had been a close thing. Were it not for the magic Runes tattooed on his body, he had no doubt that he would be unconscious now, with several broken bones. As it was, he was in a lot of pain.

He scrambled back to his feet, gritting his teeth against the pain wracking his body, and raised a shield to block the oncoming assault by Barty and Regulus. Grindelwald, he could see, was hanging back, moving behind Barty toward Regulus' side of the room.

Harry dove and rolled to avoid the next attack from his brothers and fired off a cutting curse that caught Regulus in the leg, making him drop to one knee. He tried to take advantage of this by bombarding Regulus with a flurry of spells but Grindelwald stepped in and batted the spells into the ground, countering with a flurry of his own. What made it worse was the knowledge that the old wizard was holding back. He literally could have downed all of them with a single wave of his wand but in the spirit of fair play and training purposes, he didn't use such grand displays of his magic. Harry knew a few of them, and he had taught the old man the Dread Curse that he had used to bring the entire Order of the Phoenix and several Death Eaters to their knees in terror. It was a fair trade.

Harry managed to block them all but there was no room for him to counter-attack as Regulus followed it up with one of his own. Barty joined in afterward and the three fell into a cycle of attack that gave Harry no openings.

He was breathing heavy now, and his heart was hammering away in his chest. He needed to end this or else he'd be overwhelmed in minutes.

He growled and threw himself sideways as Regulus began his attack, the slew of spells passing him by harmlessly, and he raised his wand, firing a single stunner. The jet of red struck Regulus in the chest as the last of his own spells left his wand, sending him to the ground in a heap. He was out of the fight.

Seeing one of them go down, Grindelwald and Barty separated, going in opposing directions. Harry moved toward Grindelwald, who was noticeably slowing. He may have been powerful and fast still for his age, but he didn't have the energy reserves that the others had.

Harry got in close, making sure to guard his back against Barty, and tried to stun the old man. Alas, Grindelwald was still quite the skilled duelist and parried the attack, which sailed back at Harry at lightning speed. Harry barely managed to move out of the way as the jet of light flew passed him and struck dangerously close to Barty, who yelped out an indignant "oi!" and threw a scowl at them, which was drastically less effective than his spells.

Harry danced out of the way as Grindelwald went on the offensive, several balls of fire spewing forth from his wand. They exploded against the walls and floor, leaving the acrid scent of smoke behind.

One of the things that made these fights so difficult and intense was the lack of any cover. There were no chairs, no tables, nothing to hide behind, so one had to rely on their own speed and skill to keep them in the fight as opposed to being able to duck behind something and engage in a pitched battle. In a pitched battle it was all about timing and luck, which Harry didn't really believe in, not much involving skill, whereas an open battle like this removed that element from the playing field and instead forced the combatants to employ their full spectrum of skills, from footwork to timing, to planning. It was a chess game, essentially. A chess game in which all of the pieces were combined into four men in an ever-shifting combination.

It was at this point in the fight that Harry began to think strategically.

With an opponent on either side of him, they had to careful lest he dodge and they hit their ally instead. On the other hand, Harry had to be careful not to lose sight of either of them. He fired a curse at Grindelwald, who dodged to the side, a second curse followed only for Grindelwald to dodge to the opposite side, a third curse saw him go back the other way. He ducked under a spell from Barty and fired a fourth spell at Grindelwald, who, true to Harry's deduction, dodged back to way he had before and right into the path of Harry's stunner, which caught him full in the stomach. He had just a moment to look disappointed in himself before he crumpled to the floor unconscious. OK, maybe Harry would consider possibility of this thing they called 'luck', because he hadn't expected that to actually work. Or maybe Gellert, like the rest of them, was still human and made mistakes from time to time. Harry was banking on the latter, rather than some cheap, imaginary notion like luck.

Harry rolled out of the way of a curse from Barty and stood back to his feet to face his brother and final opponent.

"Well, well," Barty laughed. "Looky, looky, here. Isn't this all too familiar. Me against you, again!"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Barty, we fight each other all the time, it's not like this is something we've been building towards. Though, you didn't last as long last time. As I remember it, you were the first to go down last week, not Regulus."

Barty grumbled something under his breath that sounded like "No flare for drama, this one," before firing off a spell, hoping to catch Harry off guard. Harry dodged the blue light and his Barty with a Deprimo, which slammed Barty straight down to the floor. He had little chance to admire his work because he was suddenly sailing through the air for a second time. Luckily, he didn't hit the ceiling again and managed to slow his fall so that he only had the wind knocked out of him this time.

He rolled to the side as Barty fired three back-to-back stunners, each one barely missing him.

Carpe Retractum, Harry thought, pointing his wand at Barty's legs. A red rope of magic lanced out and wrapped around Barty's ankles. Barty looked down and groaned, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me," before his legs were yanked out from under him and he fell hard to the ground. Harry flicked his wand up and to the side and Barty was now the one sailing through the air, though not directly up, more in a high arch. Somehow, Barty had the presence of mind to fire a stunner while upside down and cartwheeling toward the floor. It went a bit wide but still, it was impressive. What was even more so was that he had a chance to say "oh, bollocks" before hitting the floor.

Harry advanced on Barty as he landed, taking advantage of his momentarily stunned state – not magically stunned, just plain old regular stunned – to hit him with a disarming jinx. Barty's wand flew away from him to clatter onto the floor. A stunner followed, which Barty barely managed to avoid. He was able to wandlessly bat the second stunner away but the third caught him in the shoulder, sending him to the floor unconscious.

Harry was breathing fast and heavy now, knees bent and his hands resting on them, head hung low, his hair hanging limp and damp with sweat. His shirt was clinging to his body uncomfortably and his arms felt heavy from all of the movement they had been undergoing.

He laughed, seeing all three of his opponents down on the floor, beaten. He had never fought all three of them at once before, so he was high with elation at his victory.

Without a sound an Elf appeared before him and bowed.

"Oh," Harry panted, "Hallo, Hannes, was ist los?"

"Herr Harry Potter, es ist ein Mann hier, der Sie sehen möchte."

Harry cocked his head. "Wer ist er?"

The little Elf shrugged and shook his head. "Ich weiß es nicht."

Harry frowned and stood up straight. "Danke, Hannes. Ich werde in einer Minute da sein. Du kannst gehen."

The little Elf bowed again and vanished without a sound.

Harry took several deep, slow breaths to calm his heart and clear his head before stumbling over to Barty and bringing him back to consciousness. While Barty groaned and muttered curses under his breath, Harry went about reviving Regulus and Gellert as well.

Grindelwald climbed slowly back to his feet, grumbling about how he wasn't as young as he used to be. He looked at Harry, who still held the Elder Wand and nodded. "You did well, but not good enough." Harry didn't protest, knowing that there was a reason for his words. "Regulus was able to disarm you. You managed to do the same right back but still. You need to keep training until you can take us all on without losing the Wand once. You've beaten the two of them," he pointed at a stretching Regulus and a still-on-the-ground Barty, "flawlessly three times, and you almost managed it against us all this time, but you aren't quite there yet." He sighed as Harry nodded. "Still," he went on, "where you are now, you could have gone toe-to-toe with Albus and I in our prime and held your own. You might not have been able to win as easily but you would have done well, I think."

Harry nodded. He didn't agree, given that Grindelwald had been holding back during this fight, but he was too tired to argue, and too curious about what Hannes had just told him. Now that that was done, he could tell them that there was someone in the Tower. "Hannes came to me while you were all unconscious. There's someone here."

The atmosphere in the room became tense. No one could enter the Tower unless the Elves let them in. Whoever was down there was not expected and thus would be made to wait outside until it was decided whether or not to allow them in.

Grindelwald closed his eyes for a moment. Harry didn't know how he did it, and the old man wouldn't explain it to him, but Grindelwald seemed to have a way that he could see the area around the Tower through magic. "It is a man with red hair in a short ponytail, bearded. Looks to be in his forties, maybe."

Harry looked at Regulus. "Sounds like Malcolm."

Regulus nodded and looked at Grindelwald. "If it is him, he is a friend. If it is not, we can always kill him."

Grindelwald smiled with his eyes still closed. "Lass ihn herein." He opened his eyes. "Come, let us greet our guest."

He led the way, Harry and Regulus right behind him. Barty dragged himself to his feet with a groan and picked up his wand before jogging after them to catch up.

They reached the first landing, the one from Grindelwald had ambushed them from upon their arrival. They looked down and a small sigh of relief escaped from Regulus. Harry wasn't so trusting of appearances. "What were the very first words you spoke to me?"

Malcolm looked up at them, his eyes still not fully adjusted to the lighting in the Tower, which was much lower and dimmer than outside, especially in the entrance chamber. "I guessed the question you had for me. 'Why I helped you escape?' was the question and my first words to you."

Harry nodded to Grindelwald and they all stepped out onto the stairs. "What brings you here?" Grindelwald asked, since it was his Tower and he was the host.

Malcolm sighed. "The time has come. We're needed in Bulgaria. War has been declared. Our revolution has begun."

"Well, it's about bloody time!" Barty exclaimed. "I was beginning to think they'd never do it. All those riots and fights and no war? Finally!"

Harry let those words settle in his mind, and even as Regulus and Barty started asking questions, he couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face. Finally. Finally, the time had come when he could do what he had been freed to do.

Then, after that, he could finally, finally, go home.

The time had finally come.

XXXX

A/N: Another chapter down. All right. Things are going be heating up soon with Harry and the team going into a war zone. We'll meet Karkaroff and Krum, as well as a few other familiar faces from the books and movies. Things will start to go in a slightly darker direction from here on out, but it won't be all doom and gloom, just more likely to encounter dark situations.

Leave me some feedback on what you think. Did I go too far? Not far enough? Just right? Let me know. I love reading your reviews, they help me tremendously. I've been noticing a lack of them lately. I don't always have time to reply to them, but I do try.

Until next time.