Electrum had been in Austria for three days, but there was no read on Grindelwald. He was willing to comply with the local laws, but they were making it especially difficult to get anywhere, both literally and in the investigation. Apparation was the only permitted method of magical travel, and it was only permitted under specific circumstances and in specific places. He was aware the casual observer would equate this treatment with what the leading faction in the British Ministry proposed, but at least there they had exceptions for necessity in their regulations, like with Aurors chasing dark wizards. Though he was in the program, neither he nor any of his charges were Aurors, but he reminded himself it was another thing that would be undone as soon as the conference decision went through.

In Austria, there was close to unanimous support for voting positively as soon as the vote was held; the magical government had all but cast its lot. Yet before that takes place, it would be a good idea to let the world know who was really behind the menace being let out of the cage of his own making. Justin Finch-Fletchey, a muggleborn he had managed to recruit at the last minute, had suggested they find some place to go first, and look around there until they had a lead.

It was a better plan than he had initially, and it was one that was the least likely to result from vestigial blood purism. Staying in one place meant they had to choose where, and they decided on Vienna, though Hopkins always seemed jumpier whenever he was in large crowds. Splitting up for a better chance of finding a lead, he waited at what looked like a pub to see if he could overhear anything. His German had always been passable, and if he sat in one place long enough, eventually he would become part of the scenery. Hearing nothing after a few hours, he went to the pre-arranged meeting place. It was a cathedral that could be spotted from a few blocks away. He found them standing among the graves in the little courtyard.

"Jones? Finch-Fletchey?" he asked. The expression the other wizard was wearing told him that he had not found anything. It was an appropriate look of shame.

"There was... an owl for me," the witch started. She produced a letter. "I have no idea how it found you."

"No one would," Electrum said, looking over it. The letter was signed 'a friend' in blood, and he knew there was some sort of Divination or Arithmancy that could determine whose it was.

I had ever considered you to number among the most knowledgeable of the nomenclature. Perhaps your leader was under the impression only Crouch would know this little excursion took place, but you needed approval for an international portkey, and I happen to know the right people to ask. If you seek the source of the scourge of Grindelwald, know that you leave nothing of interest at home. I have happened upon three of the wanted criminals we have sought, and the fourth is presumed to be dead, having been captured by the contemptible Death Eaters. They seem to have no intention of leaving the island, meaning they will be quite trapped when the wards preventing escape are active. The last vestiges of blood purism will be destroyed.

"I assumed it referred to the students who escaped arrest at Hogwarts after accusing Crouch of putting Death Eaters in the school," Jones explained. "I remember that at one point, Leanne assigned Ernie with finding them so that they could be arrested."

"That's correct. Macmillan, however, has since been presumed dead."

"Dead? Why? I know we haven't seen him at school."

"For him to be assigned to anything, and then not make a report for months, we can only assume he has no loyalty or died in the process. If this is a surveillance report from him, it comes too late to count as doing his job." Electrum scowled at the parchment as if it would tell him more. He shook his head. "We'll process the note and find out who sent it. At the moment, we can't be sure whether it was Macmillan or someone claiming to be him, and even if we knew that, we don't know whether or not he's lying."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, though the witch was probably communicating the most with her lips pressed together in a perfectly flat line. I'll have to make it up to her. Finch-Fletchey broke the silence.

"I... saw someone. It was someone I recognized from Hogwarts."

"You should have brought that up before we discussed the letter. Letters don't have feet. Was it a Slytherin?"

"No, but she was a pure blood, I think. Did you ever run into Lavender Brown? She's a Gryffindor, and I was under the impression-"

"No. Your year?"

"Yes, and I was under the impression she had gone to the Irish school. She was one of the ones-"

"What's she doing in Vienna?"

"I don't know, God damn you!" Finch-Fletchey shouted. "Stop interrupting me. It's like I can't possibly have anything of value to say." It looked like the other two were somewhat shocked by his expression, but they said nothing about insubordination.

"Well, you might, you're just not at leave to decide what information is most important. What were you about to say?"

"She was one of the ones who wanted to go after Death Eaters, she and her boyfriend Seamus had something of a following. They might already have something on Grindelwald."

"That, or they might be dark lions. Either way, we need to find her. Where was she?"

"She was staying at the Steigenberger. That's why I wasn't concerned she would be moving before this evening. I've been to Vienna before, you know."

"Then you should be able to lead us straight there."

No further argument was brokered. It was obvious enough to Electrum that Justin was a bit puffed up, and at least part of it was probably because muggleborns were free of suspicion. He also knows he's useful. Anyone who can be trusted is automatically that much more useful.

They made it to the hotel, where he caught some fucker about school age and hit him with a stunner. The other three were essentially forbidden from using magic at all in Austria, but he was of age and it was necessary anyway; he would have done it even if it put him in contention with some legality. He made Hopkins and Finch-Fletchey carry the target to an alley while Jones looked out for anyone else. He thanked her as he followed her to the alley, concealing them with a few muggle-repelling charms.

"Seen him before?"

"I think he's a Gryffindor. Firstie by the looks of it."

"Well, then he's no business here. Rennervate. Tell us your name." The kid was panicking, but at least he refrained from making noise. "We're Hufflepuffs."

"Then... then you should know what we're doing here has to be done."

"Can't very well leave you to it, then, can we? What's your name?"

"I'm Jimmy Peakes."

"That's good, who else is here? We think we've seen Lavender Brown. Is she your leader?" The boy shook his head.

"Cormac is." He looked around before saying anything again. Not a lot of trust between them. "He sort of stole her from Seamus." Electrum could not have wanted more to release a pained sigh, but he stifled it. More important questions to ask.

"Is he of age?"

"He's a year on."

"Why are the three of you here?" It was Jones. He decided to let the question pass.

"It's not just three of us. Romilda wanted to come too. We've got a couple from the Irish school as well." The name was not familiar, but there was no point in pursuing the matter. "We're here to join Grindelwald against the blood purists."

"He's fighting the blood purists?" Hopkins asked.

"No. Shut up. Grindelwald has killed scores of innocent people and was labeled as a threat by the current government. He has no stated antagonism with the Death Eaters or their leader."

"Says you," Peakes responded, feeling rebellious all of a sudden. "You're just not willing to do whatever it takes. The Slytherins were all calling him a bad guy, Cormac heard it himself." Electrum was in no particular mood to argue with a child, or anyone acting like one. The accusation, however, would not stand.

"We are quite willing to do what it takes to defeat Voldemort; we have already done it. When the resolution goes through-"

"It won't go through without Grindelwald!" the boy argued. "The blood purists in continental governments wouldn't have even discussed it if it weren't for-"

"Silencio. There. Now we can have a productive discussion. The conference at Ys was decided before Grindelwald was released. Delegates who were unsure about the decision went back to their homelands to hear their voices, and with the attacks he has already conducted, they are now expected to return and cast the deciding vote." He had heard about the attacks not long after getting to Austria. One was in Hungary, which was previously opposed to the decision, and the other struck in Poland, where over a hundred government officials were poisoned at a banquet. There was no time to wait for the courts to assemble and determine who could have committed that crime; courts were a deliberate delaying tactic of blood purists to help their friends get away with crimes.

"They've confirmed that they're here to help him," Finch-Fletchey decided. "We should get the others."

"Everyone is aware of that," Electrum responded. "Now that we have the truth out of one of them, however, we can return to our mission of finding out whether the Death Eaters broke into Nurmengard or not." He doubted the dark wizard could have escaped on his own, even if he did design the prison, because it stood to reason he would have done that a long time ago, and he could think of no former supporters wandering around. In all the time he had been on the continent, he had run into virtually no expression of favor for Grindelwald, though it was possible his home country just hated him the most of all.

"He probably doesn't know anything," Jones suggested. "We should get the others to see if they have an idea about Grindelwald's whereabouts, or if we're lucky they already know who did it himself."

"That's brilliant," he evaluated, keeping any sort of surprise out of his voice. "Cormac would be the most likely to know. We'll capture him and find out what he knows already." He turned back to Peakes. "You're going to be difficult."

"As difficult as I can be! You're helping the blood purists by going after their sworn enemy. The Slytherins always said-"

"Isn't it obvious by now that they were lying? They only ever lie, and there's some reason to believe they were the ones who let him out. A number of them went to Durmstrang after Hogwarts fell, and that's enough of a connection to at least start the investigation."

The boy only stared back, and Electrum sighed. He's not going to get it. He was never part of any of our discussions.

"We'll have the room number out of him," Hopkins said. "We promise he'll be in good enough shape when we're done." He looked them back and forth. It was not as if it would take long to break a first-year, and he doubted they knew too many dangerous spells. He reminded himself that the national law forbid them from using magic.

"I'll keep a look out; tell you if I see anything." Almost everyone nodded as he passed through the alley, watching the people as they passed by. If any of them noticed, it was staying on the right side of the law not to say anything, because that would only call more attention to what they were doing.

He caught sight of suspicious movement and cast a few spells behind him with a flick of his wand. Keeping muggles away had hardly been his specialty, but it was part of Auror training, which he wanted to complete at some point. It looked like the person he was pursuing was a witch, though there was every reason to suspect a trick. There was Polyjuice, there were charms that could change the outward appearance, and it was somewhat less suspicious to masquerade as a witch. It was no secret the majority of Death Eaters were wizards.

He followed her into a narrow alley of shops and stalls, realizing they had crossed into the magical part of Vienna, which was perfectly secure, though only a witch or wizard could get in. He was not quite certain about squibs, but he was not quite certain he had seen one anywhere in Austria. The witch ahead of him ducked into an apothecary. Something about her looked familiar, but at this distance he could not tell friend from foe, and even up close there were still tricks that would probably work. There had been no reason for him to learn Legilimency, as it was banned in the Ministry and generally illegal except when necessary, so he would have no way of knowing who it was anyway. I'll just have to keep following her. I should be able to tell if she's some kind of blood purist or muggle-baiter at some point.

When she left the shop, he was reading a local newspaper, watching her go down the alley, not the way she came. He had not been able to see her buy anything, which suggested she had other purposes. Following her around the corner before stopping and leaning against a phone booth, she went into a total of two more shops for a suspiciously long time, again without buying anything. She has to be meeting someone. It's possible she's meeting multiple people, or she's just going to multiple businesses to disguise her intentions. If she walked half a mile to get to one place, then half a mile back without buying something, she would have to know that the casual observer would suspect something important happened in that one place.

He watched her come out of a third place when he recognized her appearance. Hestia Jones- Ebony trusts her, and I'm meant to trust her as well, but it could be someone else in disguise. It seemed likely she would buy something if for no other reason than to disguise her purposes, but even as he followed her around another corner, she did not. I have to get back to the others soon. They'll go back to the meeting place, but they should know why I walked off.

Following her around a narrower corner into an alley, he was surprised to find he did not see her, and assumed she got ahead of him. She could also be in any one of these doors, though I think these are loan offices- she's making a damn good effort to cover her tracks. There was a wand to the back of his neck.

"How did you get around me?"

"I've an invisibility cloak." She put her wand away. "Remember me an Auror who would say 'Constant Vigilance' at a time like this, I do."

"Is that why you led me on a snipe hunt going to every different store around and not buying anything?" The witch only raised an eyebrow. "Never mind. What is it that you're doing here? You can't be looking for Grindelwald the same reason we are." If I don't turn back now, Hopkins and Finch-Fletchey will be racing each other to do something stupid.

"More or less. I've word I need to get into Nurmengard."

"That's still not a reason, but I would guess you cannot tell me. If it helps, Crouch assigned me on a mission to determine the cause of the break-in. My team has run into a former Hogwarts student who seems to be trying to join the enemy."

"Slytherin?" she asked, walking after him. He had not noticed, but she had taken him far from where he saw her initially.

"Gryffindors. Apparently they think Grindelwald is the enemy of the Death Eaters because their kids have referred to him as being better left in prison for years."

"I suppose, but if he is not with them, that makes him their enemy."

"He's not with us, and that makes him our enemy," Electrum countered. I've been ordered to go after him. Why is she making things difficult?

Eventually they were back on the main street and they went back to the meeting place, finding only Jones there. He did his best to contain his anger. It appeared she was looking around, but not in his direction.

"Where are Hopkins and Finch-Fletchey?" he asked. Her brow did not un-furrow as he approached.

"It's terrible- I thought we had everything out of him and I wanted to let Peakes lead us to the others- Justin said no and Hopkins said you'd say no, but he was fine with it as long as I said I'd suggested it- the short version is he got away from us somehow and they told me to go back here to tell you."

"They're looking for him, then?" Hestia asked. The other Jones nodded. He forbid himself from wondering if they were related.

"They said that they'd leave me to explain everything because, well, they think you like me and if they did it you'd be asking them why they weren't looking."

"Megan, he doesn't act any differently around you if he likes you or not," the adult witch explained. "Anyway, where are they looking?"

In moments they were off again. From the sound of it, the little fucker had some Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, which should really be banned, since Death Eaters had used it to evade Aurors before, and there were no effective responses to it. Light charms gave the user light, but apparently did little to illuminate the runner, since he and his surroundings would be shrouded in darkness, which was somehow more than just the absence of light. The hope with the plan had been that he would run to the hotel room where his friends were staying, since he would find allies there, but apparently he had no intention of leading them back.

We can't just ask at the desk. If they have a single braincell between them, they had to have confunded the receptionist when they picked up the keys, which they probably used for a discount. It was odd to him what wizards thought was okay to do to muggles. Generally they were like animals, to where you could not just gut them with magic and make blood go everywhere, because people did not want to see that, but it was incorrect to say they had rights. Muggle-baiters like Grindelwald and those he inspired really only ran into problems by flirting with Secrecy; he was absolutely sure that if they had killed people but kept it quiet, it would have been fine.

Hestia suggested asking at the hotel, which they did, to find that there were no rooms being rented to teenagers or groups of teenagers, which was harder than he thought it would be to ask in German. Eventually deciding to search the place, they summoned various magical artefacts the Gryffindors might have on them in the hopes that one flying in their direction, or any sounds they made, would give them an idea of where they were. Electrum had doubted this would work, since it was likely there were other wizards staying at the same hotel, and even if they could summon a wand or a broomstick, they could only hope they would hear swearing or something.

"It's really annoying that Megan can't help us." The thought crossed his mind that the adult witch was a bit more old-fashioned.

"Well, it'd be better to get used to that. Crouch introduced another emergency measure at the Wizengamot to further restrict underage magic. What's left of the opposition is telling anyone who will listen that he's trying to turn to a Chinese system, despite his insistence that it would only go so far as to resemble Austria."

"Can't imagine what good that would do." It seemed like they were going to have to give up the search, at least for the night. They would most likely find Hopkins and Finch-Fletchey at the meeting place, where they could receive a proper lecture about risk-taking.