Disclaimer: I don't own Rose Granger-Weasley, Newt Scamander or any other character created by J.K. Rowling. My aim is merely to entertain and play around with them a little.
Chapter thirty-five: In which the Alps are very unwelcoming
1928 dawned quietly, without a fuss. Queenie and Jacob, newly married, decided to forego a honeymoon to instead help Tina settle in her new life. Of course, the newest Auror at the Ministry chose to live with her sister, but most of her free time after work was spent at Newt's, in the basement. Rose regularly rolled her eyes when she heard her friend sneak out of the house after the sun had set; surely Tina didn't expect that her long overdue relationship with Newt was secret, did she?
When Rose paid Theseus a visit, now, she would always go and say hi to 'Auror Goldstein', whose desk was situated on the opposite side as her 'brother's'. Being American, she had initially been shunned by the others, but Theseus had apparently made a point of showing how much he respected their new partner; and anything he did rubbed off on the others. He was a War Hero, after all…
Sometime in February, things started shifting again.
Newt and Rose had been pouring over the finished manuscript of their book for the better part of the day, unsure of what parts needed editing and what parts didn't, when there was a hurried knock on the door.
Not many of their friends used the front door, most of them just Apparated inside, so Rose knew that it had to be Nagini. She went to open for the young woman, who was wearing a lovely dark blue coat that accented her jet black hair and dark eyes; and clocked her distress immediately.
"Nagini? What's wrong?" she said, steering her friend to the couch, silently beckoning Newt closer.
The Maledictus was cradling a letter in her hands, crumpled, as if she'd squeezed it instead of its sender. Her eyes were bright, but she did not shed a tear when she announced "I've received a letter from Credence."
Rose gasped; Newt hurried to their side, and sat on the armchair facing them. "What does he say?" he asked, not wasting a second.
Nagini handed the letter to Rose, who didn't waste time either, reading it aloud for her brother to hear.
"Dear Nagini,
I am well. Mister Grindelwald is taking very good care of me. He's offered me a wand, a roof over my head, and answers. I finally know who I am. I can't tell you, though, for Grindelwald thinks that the people I'm linked too could use the information against us.
Nagini, I wish you were here. I wish you had joined me. You still could. I miss you.
I know that you were scared of him, of what he wants to do. But he can help you, he's told me as much. He can help you, he can help us.
Please, send word that you are willing to join me here. He'll send someone to fetch you.
Please.
Love,
'Credence'."
There was a short silence following the end of the letter. Although quite personal at times – it was clear that Credence and Nagini were more than friends, or at the very least felt deeper for each other than just friendship – the letter was more a way to lure the girl into joining Grindelwald's side.
Only one thing bore question.
"Do you think Grindelwald asked Credence to write this?" Rose asked Newt, but he slowly shook his head, obviously deep in thought as he stared at Nagini.
"I don't think so. Sounds like he misses her too much." Then, he swiftly got to his knees, taking Nagini's hand. Rose had been surprised, at first, by the familiarity with which he always treated the Maledictus. Then, she'd understood: Nagini was like one of his creatures; she'd awaken a need for him to understand her, her curse, her abilities, and a need to protect her from harm. To anyone else, it'd have been rather offensive, but not to a touch-starved young woman who craved that sort of protection. "Nagini," he whispered, "you do know there is no way to reverse a blood-curse, don't you?"
She nodded, eyes filled with unshed tears once again. "I know."
"Good." He nodded once, and stood, turning to Rose. "Can you send Dumbledore word? I'll Floo-call Theseus."
Rose nodded back. Obviously. They needed to inform the 'authorities'. There may have been a way to track down Credence's letter, to find out where it'd been sent from. She gently patted Nagini's hand on the couch, and raised her wand, summoning her lioness with a thought of her birthday and the painting she'd been offered.
Instead of gathering at the Scamanders' house, Rose, Newt and Nagini were asked to join the others at the Ministry. Mr Travers welcomed them with a serious look in his grey eyes, and led them to a meeting room on Floor Two, where they found Tina, Theseus and Dumbledore.
Nagini let them read the letter aloud one more time, and Rose didn't miss the calculating gaze the Hogwarts Professor bore throughout.
"You need to answer him," he said as soon as Tina was done reading. All eyes went to him, of course, but he kept his piercing blue eyes on Nagini, unblinking. "You need to answer him, so we can track down your owl."
"It's against the law to do that, Dumbledore," Travers countered, the more pronounced edge of his Scottish accent making it clear he was displeased.
"Not if she uses a private owl instead of a postal one, am I wrong?"
Travers didn't answer. Which answered in its own way.
Newt shook his head. "You won't use Lylah this time, Albus. It's too dangerous. They may know we have put a tracking spell on her."
Rose could see that Dumbledore was about to insist, so she interrupted his trail of thoughts. "What if we track the letter instead of the owl?"
Tina smirked, visibly proud of her cunning idea.
Travers looked at Theseus, who shrugged, gears turning. "Can be done. But they'll no doubt know it's been charmed as soon as it arrives."
"Won't matter, since it will have arrived," Rose pushed the matter. "And that way, Nagini can use a public owl."
Travers seemed to think about it for a moment, and shared a glance with Dumbledore, whose pursed lips twitched into a smirk a moment later. With his Irish lilt seeping through, he said "Yet another proof that Miss Rose Scamander is much more than a pretty face."
She'd have rolled her eyes, but instead, she blushed, because Theseus' eyes had found hers as soon as his former teacher had said those words, as if he wholeheartedly agreed.
"Miss Nagini," Travers said at long last, "would you mind writing your answer here and now, so that we can send it as soon as possible?"
The dark-haired girl shrunk in on herself, eyes darting from one person to the other. "I c-can, but…will you stay in the room?"
It might have sounded suspicious, as Travers' eyes narrowed, but Rose understood, so she explained for the battle-worn Aurors in presence. "You'd wish for some privacy, I understand. They'll still need to make sure you are not leaving him information that could compromise us. Do you mind if one of us stays?"
Nagini stared at her, then glared at Travers, having understood that there was mistrust in that room. Then she nodded. "Tina, do you mind?" After all, the brunette had had a hand in saving her back in Paris, not to mention she'd helped Credence in New-York; and she'd been one of Nagini's favourite people ever since.
Tina nodded, and the rest of them filed out of the room quietly.
Travers turned to Rose as soon as they were back in the corridor. "Brilliant thinking back there, Miss Rose. Thank you."
She smirked. "We women do have some brains to our name, you know."
He rolled his eyes. "Madeleine makes it painfully obvious every darned day of my life." She chuckled, and he turned to the meeting-room's door before looking back at Theseus. "Can you handle this?"
"Of course, Sir," the Auror said, the edge of something in his voice, as if he was displeased his boss would ever insinuate that he couldn't handle something as simple as a tracking spell on a letter.
Travers didn't notice, or ignored it, and he signalled Dumbledore to follow him. Both wizards left the three Scamanders behind without a word more.
It took the postal owl two days to carry the charmed letter to its intended recipient. Two days during which the whole Auror Department was in red-alert, ready to bolt as soon as the final destination of the letter was known. Two days during which Albus Dumbledore left Hogwarts to wait it out at the Ministry.
Two days at the end of which Mr Travers announced something that Rose had started to suspect without being able to talk about it. "They're in the Alps. Austria."
Rose managed a croaked whisper, one that thankfully passed unnoticed. "Nurmengard." The famed fortress that had held Grindelwald from his defeat at Dumbledore's hand until his death during the Second Wizarding War. But wasn't it a prison?
Travers didn't stop to let her think further on that, as he started barking orders left and right. "McMillan, Wilson, Jones, Daly, Goldstein, Scamander, you're with me. Dumbledore, Scamander, Scamander, Miss Nagini, stay behind at all times." He clocked someone's obvious displeasure, and ended it with a stern "You should already be thankful I'm letting civilians tag along at all. Don't question my orders."
The aforementioned Aurors filed away to their desks to gather whatever they'd need for the journey and possible confrontation, but as Theseus passed his boss, he stopped him with a hand on his arm.
"Scamander, if he's there, do not engage him."
Theseus' glare could have frozen a Graphorn stampede, but he nodded sharply. Rose, in a daze, understood that he wanted to confront Grindelwald. To avenge Leta. She gritted her teeth, suddenly overcome with the need to hurt the Dark Wizard herself. To make him pay. To make him suffer.
"Come to think of it," Travers continued, eyes now on Rose and Newt, who'd tensed up as well, "none of the Scamanders are to engage Grindelwald if he shows his face. Understood?"
Neither Rose nor Newt answered. He was not their boss, after all…
The trip to Austria was a weird one. First, the Portkey Department had had to produce an emergency Portkey leading to the coordinates left by Nagini's letter, then another, since the party was a relatively large one. Then, when the group landed in the middle of the mountains, they were faced with a disturbing sight.
Nurmengard fortress had been built on the edge of an impregnable mountain. Its black stone walls defied all that would dare set foot close enough to enter, and the solitary, almost lavender towers that spiked through the sky was as sharp as a dragon tooth.
But the most horrifying thing about the place, despite the cold cruelty that emanated from the very air, was the gate, and the words that had been woven into the steel. 'For the Greater Good'.
Rose felt a lump form in her throat and a powerful wave of hatred wash over her when she realised what it reminded her of. "Auschwitz," she hissed. It reminded her of the cursed words that the Nazi had placed at the entrance of their own prison. Or will place, for none in attendance understood what she had said. Needless to say, the correlation between Nurmengard and the Polish death camp was now making her more enraged than ever.
The Aurors moved first, checking the gate for jinxes, curses or wards. Finding nothing of the sort, the group stepped forward, over a thin bridge battered by winds that threatened to push them into the abyss below. Wands raised high, they all charmed their feet to stick to the bridge's stone, and Newt did the same to Nagini's.
Several wards had been placed at the front door, however. Dumbledore pushed past the Aurors, raised his wand, and wordlessly broke them. Rose was struck by the power the wizard exuded at that moment. She'd never been fully aware of why Albus Dumbledore had been so famous for the best part of 150 years, but now she understood. Nobody else could have broken spells placed there by the Elder Wand without breaking a sweat.
The castle's inside was as cold and uninviting as the outside. Winds blew in the corridors, seeping into bones, chilling the soul. No candle, no torch lit the hallways leading to various empty rooms. It looked entirely abandoned, as if it had been for years.
Auror McMillan was the first to think of casting a 'Hominum Revelio', and was swift in announcing the presence of thirty-four people, scattered around the place, all alone in small rooms.
"Scatter around," Travers hissed, gesturing to his Aurors and the people he'd called 'tourists'. "McMillan, take Dumbledore with you. Goldstein, Miss Nagini is your responsibility. Daly, take Mr Scamander. Wilson, Jones, with me. Scamander, you're with your sister."
The groups chose different directions to follow, and silently split. Rose saw that Newt was not really comfortable with having to tag along with someone he didn't know, but with one shared glance and a smile with Tina, he did follow Jackson Daly down a flight of stairs.
"Do you feel up to checking the tower?" Theseus asked in a whisper as they ascended a flight of stairs so large it put Hogwarts' own to shame.
Rose, wand raised, lips pursed and heart beating with the adrenaline, nodded. "Lead the way, Auror Scamander."
He did.
It soon became quite clear that Nurmengard had been effectively abandoned by Grindelwald and his followers. The rooms they found in the tower – they and Dumbledore and McMillan, who'd gone ahead of them – were all empty, safe for furniture and burnt paper. The lack of dust, though, told them that the castle had been occupied recently. Very recently.
"I think Nagini's letter might have brought them to leave in a hurry," Theseus said as they inspected what must have been a bedroom once upon a time, but that was empty except for a desk and an empty bookshelf.
Rose nodded, inspecting a wall that appeared lighter, cleaner than the others. "I'm afraid you are right. Mr Travers won't be pleased."
"I'm not either," he hissed.
When Rose lifted her hand to the wall, and was stopped by a wall of shimmering golden magic, though, it seemed as though they had found something interesting at long last.
Dumbledore and McMillan, having finished their own round, entered the room, and the Professor clocked Rose immediately. He came to stand by her, raising his own wand to the shield, muttering complex spells before he sighed. "Another blood spell. He will never learn…"
McMillan left the room to go find the others, and Theseus got closer, brow set. "What does it want us to do?"
"To provide some of our blood, no doubt," Dumbledore said with surprising calm considering what he was suggesting.
"He cast a similar spell where he'd hidden Graves away," Rose muttered before turning her cousin's namesake. "What if it's not a coincidence? What if-"
"He knew somehow you'd be there and find this?" Dumbledore's eyes glistened with interest. "Why?"
"I don't know…" She turned back to the shield, unsure of what to do. What is a message addressed to her? Or just really a coincidence, an indication that Grindelwald favoured blood magic?
Theseus raised his wand, silently cutting his palm. He didn't hiss at all, just placed his now blood-soaked hand on the shield. It shimmered golden, but didn't drop.
Rose, on the other hand, hissed as she hurried to him, cooping his injured hand in hers, glaring at it as if it had personally offended her. "What did you do that for?"
"I gave it blood," Theseus answered, visibly torn between anger and surprise at her reaction. "It didn't work anyway…"
"My dear Theseus, you failed to understand Gellert's intentions…" Dumbledore sighed, and waited until Rose had cast the healing charm on her 'brother's' hand before he dropped a piercing gaze to her. "Miss Rose? May it be that only your blood can open this?"
Theseus hissed again, hand still cradled in Rose's. "It's out of the question!"
"Theseus," she gently called, drawing his gaze to her. "It's alright." She turned to Dumbledore again, brow furrowed. "Are you certain that giving him my blood won't trigger something else?"
"Certain. It's a simple blood ward." He seemed impressed that she had even thought of the possible consequences of this.
She nodded, and slowly raised her own wand to cut her palm, as she had done a year prior to save a MACUSA official who should have died.
The shield dropped in a shimmer of red.
The part of the wall that had been warded vanished along with the spell, revealing a hidden circular room all three of them entered with guarded expressions and raised wands. Theseus kept Rose close, but there wasn't any threat in sight. The room was empty, as had been the rest of the fortress.
"What in the name of Merlin-?"
Rose turned to see Travers, the rest of his Aurors and Newt enter the room as well, eyes darting to the walls and what had been pinned there for all to see.
Drawing of her face; timelines; pages upon pages of information about her, where she lived, who she spent time with, what she did, what she could do. The room was a shrine to Grindelwald's obsession with her.
He'd meant for them to find it, it was now clear. He'd meant for her to know that he would not stop until he had her.
Rose slowly moved closer to a photograph she remembered very well: it had been taken on the day of Queenie and Jacob's wedding. It was a 'family' picture, with Tina, Newt, Theseus and herself gathered around the happy couple.
Pinned right under it was a note written in an elegant penmanship. 'Watching you, Miss Rose.'
She tore it off the wall, and blasted it into the ground, leaving a scorch mark on the wood.
"Miss Rose," Travers said after a moment, voice clipped, lips pursed, eyes dark, "I think you and I need to have a conversation."
She turned to the Head Auror, head held high, fire raging in her veins as she imagined what she'd do to Grindelwald if he was standing right in front of her. Damn be her Hippocrates oath, she'd obliterate him.
"Let's go back to the Ministry," he continued, and Rose realised that everyone – Tina and Nagini having reappeared at the back – was staring at her and no longer at the room's contents.
Rose shook her head. "No, Mr Travers, let's do it here and now. Let's get it over with. Ask away."
Newt tore away from the group, coming to stand by her, facing the others in a stance that meant he would be on her side no matter what. With a surge of affection towards her brother, she grabbed his left hand and steeled herself.
"Why is it that Gellert Grindelwald has a…room filled with information about you? What are you to him?"
Rose knew that any suspicious answer she gave would mean a full interrogation back at the Ministry. She knew Travers could invoke the right to use Veritaserum given the importance of the matter. So she decided, neither for the first nor the last time, to spin a lie with a little truth.
"My parents, my biological parents, that is, knew a lot about Grindelwald. They were…my mother, mostly, invested in what he's done, what he wants to do. They wanted to bring him down, and knew something that could. He seems to believe that they gave the information to me. When we met in Paris, he wanted to sway me to his side, to use what he thought I knew to his advantage, but I refused. I refused, Mr Travers. I will never join his side. I'd rather die than forsake my mother's blood!"
From the corner of her eye, she saw Dumbledore's satisfied smirk; and Theseus' set jaw as his grey-green eyes once again darted around the room, as if his glare alone could set everything on fire.
Travers stared at her silently, his expression closed off, his wand raised. But when he whirled it, it was to destroy the evidence scattered around, and not to arrest her.
"Auror Scamander," he barked, eyes still set on Rose, "your sister will need to be protected. See to it that your brother's house is warded and that someone stands guard at all times."
Theseus, a determined look on his face, nodded without a word.
"Miss Rose," Travers finished, serious and severe, "I will ask that you don't leave your house alone, ever. Always make sure there is someone with you. And if you need to go somewhere unaccompanied, notify us so we can send a guard incognito. McMillan," he hissed then, exiting the room with his men, back into the bulk of the castle.
Newt squeezed Rose's hand, and didn't let go until they were back in London…