There had not been visitors in quite some time.
The Vitez, Rupnik, who was usually around somewhere had disappeared, most likely on some other misguided mission from Grindelwald. His old friend, dark wizard that he was, liked having him around in the form of a portrait as a vain sort of challenge to himself; he would prove the rightness of what he did to himself and those in his immediate surrounding by resisting the argument of his own proverbial Jiminy Cricket. It was a mistake to leave my portrait with Gellert. Perhaps if I had less pressing matters to attend, I would have rewritten my old will.
That document, written at a time when he could reasonably predict his own death, in the late nineteen seventies, left most of his wealth to the school, which he had not thought would be reduced to rubble a year after he left it, but then, there had been quite a lot he had not foreseen. It was no great shock; long gone were the days when he believed he knew everything. One wonders how much I could possibly claim to know these days, considering I have passed on, and this painting was made of a memory of me.
As he understood it, the magic of the portrait was limited to not only the knowledge of its creator, but of what could be captured by any artist, no matter how knowledgeable or skilled. Things like voice and appearance were easy, even a personality could be observed, but no man knew his soul. It is not a wonder that I do not see this representation as myself, but only for what it is. What I truly am, or even a more accurate representation, I would not want to hang anywhere in Hogwarts.
It was fortunate that he had managed to communicate with Minerva for a time, and not until Hogwarts was destroyed did the Ministry lawyers come through the ruin and send his portrait to Grindelwald's cell, though the process was quite controversial. He had spent about three weeks over the summer in the office of Bartimaeus Crouch, though unlike his predecessor he was not being brought in for advice.
"I am afraid I do not know where the last remnant of the books of dark magic has gone after it left our esteemed library, Minister," he had explained. "When Mister Goldstein, Smith, and Harper, along with the late Miss Weasley, saw fit to discontinue their enrollment, they absconded with quite the collection amid the confusion of battle."
"Perhaps it would have been more prudent to destroy the collection when we suggested it."
"I think rather differently on the subject. As much as it disheartens me when students feel the need to leave, that they took such measures to preserve the knowledge is the only reason it continues to exist. It appears that as much as I thought the school to be a safe place, it appears a castle mainly serves to protect the inhabitants from outside threats, and is only a bastion to those willing to defend it. I warn you, Minister, being somewhat better than the alternative, while noteworthy, will not motivate other wizards to risk their lives." He sighed. "As little as I wanted to keep account of students liking me, the teachers, the school, it seemed the only students who particularly respected any combination thereof considered me an enemy."
"There were exceptions," Crouch responded without looking up from his work, almost certainly thinking of those who had accused him of doing what had most likely been his son's actions.
"Exceptions is precisely the term I would use, Barty, though the best people always are. I did not have nearly the perfectly loyal army Cornelius feared, as you knew, but did not state to the public."
"True enough, irrelevant though it is today," he dismissed. "Weasley, I need to see the next candidate." Percival was not there; he was calling into the next room.
"The prospective Department Head for Magical Transportation, sir?"
"No, he pointlessly resigned in protest, accomplishing nothing. I spoke of the witch I removed for blood purist leanings, in the Department of the Interior."
"Leanings, sir?"
"She was Selwyn's cousin. Perhaps I should have used the term 'connection'. I believe her replacement is one Ed Owen?"
"Barty, Mundungus Fletcher called that wizard a liar and a reprobate," the portrait admonished. "Perhaps the past is as irrelevant as you claim-"
"Firstly, I have conducted a full background check of Owen. I know where every member of his family sleeps at night, and I know everything he has ever done. There is not a trace of either blood purism or dark magic in his memory or his heritage, making him an exceptional candidate to clean out the Ministry in terms of character. What remains to be seen is whether or not he has the ability."
"What was your second point?" the picture asked after a pause.
"Unlike Cornelius, I have no intention of asking your advice, alive or as a specter." Crouch waved his wand and the wizard came in.
After that, it seemed the Minister saw fit to leave him with no memory until the portrait left the office, for the purpose of being taken to Grindelwald's cell. There was talk in the new government of doing away with the officiation of wills, the better for the public to collect the funds from the dead, but it was a low priority and really only something they would introduce once the wands were all collected, or at least registered and warded. The representation of Albus Dumbledore assumed that he could be targeted by memory charms, something that might never have even been attempted on portraits of Headmasters in the past, when he took into account how much they seemed to like talking about their time in his seat.
When he arrived at Nurmengard, it happened to be the first time any version of himself had seen the place, and he had to say that though the style annoyed him, and clawed at his preference for subtlety and sensibility, the design was very much Gellert. He was taken to the cell as expected, but his old friend had surprisingly little to say to him after all the years that had passed, probably seeing him as only a painting and not the real Albus, but that was at least fair. They spoke only briefly, after which time the living ignored the dead, as though he were not there at all, and it was easier than expected to put up with the disregard. Perhaps I was not too cruel to my predecessors after all.
Regarding them, they were mostly unimpressive. Some were in charge during good times and some in bad, but rarely had there been any great improvement brought about by any of them. Quietly he supposed that was one of the merits, or perhaps one of the detractors of hiring exclusively the very old to the position. They reminded him every so often, surely in their opinion not too often, that he had one of the longest terms out of any of them, but that was because of the Philosopher's Stone. While it was in his possession, he had extracted some of the Elixir to extend his lifespan that he could at least survive the war, though it seemed the war had either started back up again, or never finished in the first place. I can still remember the night I thought it was all over.
"Oh, you're still here?" Rupnik asked, rousing him from his memories.
"I take it you are back from Iceland?" he asked, answering the obvious question with another. "I suppose I have moved around more than most paintings, but I can be reasonably confident that I am not moving again."
"I met one of your old students."
"A Death Eater, perhaps? I confess, the only time I got to know a student was when he or she transgressed. I never enjoyed lecturing teenagers on disciplinary matters, but it was better than having to expel Mr. Rosier for violating a witch and then boasting about it."
"No, we hardly have concern for them. Sooner or later they will abandon their leader in favor of our own, and will resume his hiding, wherever it was he was supposed to be dead."
"If you intend to take his followers from him, some are more difficult than others, and I would advise you to take the ones who are the most loyal to him, not those who only support him because they feel he is winning. There may not be many of them left"
"We know that. When our master defeats him, there will be no one else they want to serve more."
"A bold prediction," he observed, speaking no more on the concept for the safety of the innocent and the mostly so.
"You've figured out the great secret, haven't you?" Rupnik asked.
"Perhaps I have. More than anything else, it was always a wonder why Severus Snape decided to take a teaching position at Hogwarts. I suppose I offered, but I never thought he would accept..."
"I have other matters to attend. I'll have you watch the prisoner."
"Prisoner? Do you intend to reopen Nurmengard as a prison?" It seemed like a confident thing for Grindelwald to do, since there was serious doubt he could live with the irony if he were forced back into it. The only thing that seemed more doubtful was that any of his enemies would choose to take him prisoner rather than killing him. "Who is this prisoner?"
"He's one of your old students, calls himself Electrum. We told you about picking up one of the ones holding Weasley captive; couldn't get him to say anything about the British Ministry. I figure a few days in here might loosen his tongue."
The Vitez left the room, probably going back to Iceland, where he understood the dark wizard and his associates had made a sort of secret base. A young wizard entered the cell, needing no one to force him in. He sat down facing the bars without making a sound.
"You seem rather confident you will be rescued," the picture said. "I would think you would look around for any vulnerability in the cell. I confess, even I did."
"I don't think you would have found anything," the younger wizard said. "For the record, I am not completely confident in my release. Hestia is plenty skilled, but it is not worth the risk to her life to break me out of here, especially when release is more probable. Continental authorities will deal with Grindelwald and his prison will be defunct."
"Perhaps they would, but I very much doubt Voldemort would grant them the opportunity."
"Voldemort released him. Why would he come back to kill Grindelwald right after that?"
"Oh, not immediately after. I suspect whatever purpose of letting the hero of his school days out of prison has already served its purpose, but I understand that there are more immediate threats around him. Aside from that, the Heir of Slytherin might be in danger, and he may need to see to that."
"The Heir of Syltherin? Evan? Where is he?"
"From the conversations I have been fortunate enough to overhear, one of Grindelwald's old loyalists at Durmstrang, probably a teacher, Evan, a young wizard named Erik Crabbe, and a witch have assigned themselves to a mission. Word from McLaggen is that their new plan is to lead the remainder of your friends to an old house in Albania where Nott was imprisoned by the Death Eaters with his son. Their original plan was to curse your associates in the back, but if the Heir is going there himself for unspecified reasons, they decided it was better to let him kill them, else die in the attempt, and then clean up whatever remained."
"Neither this self-appointed Heir nor any admirers of your old friend are going to defeat Hestia."
"I am afraid that, being an heir, Evan, as he likely wishes to be called, is not self-appointed at all. He had all this thrust upon him at the latest when he was a year old, and has probably been trained with dark magic since not long after that. It does not surprise me at all that he can talk to snakes." The old warlock in the picture shook his head. "Regarding Hestia, unless you refer to Hestia Carrow, a very unfortunate young witch, I suppose I lose nothing by telling you she was one of mine the whole time."
"What do you have to gain by lying here?"
"What indeed. My greatest concern is that to aid in protecting Neville Longbottom, I gave her James Potter's invisibility cloak, and if she dies in battle, it may well fall into the entirely wrong hands." Some would disagree, of course.
Electrum had taken to pacing the cell.
"Firstly, it's impossible that she'll lose."
"I suppose she does have the numbers advantage. As all things that have not come to pass, it remains to be seen. Thank you for assuring me with a modicum of hope."
"Secondly, it's impossible she ever worked for you. Crouch did background checks on each one of us, even Megan."
"I am not surprised. Barty and Dolores, may she rest in peace, were always cautious of anyone who graduated from Hogwarts. Hestia, he would find, has been friends with the right people including Enid Bagnold, though you may know her as Ebony, since she was a little girl, and as far as I can tell, she believes in much the same ideology of only two sides existing, one being Voldemort and the other being 'anti-Voldemort'. At the same time, I have seen since her school days that she possesses great character. She is unfailingly honest and true, she believes in protecting the innocent, and she is capable of standing up to her friends. For this reason, I have trusted her with every secret she wished to know as she worked with Augusta Longbottom on the Secret Order."
"Are you implying the Order of the Phoenix never disbanded?"
"Indeed. There were some members who were not informed that it continued, but essentially, yes, the Order never disbanded because of the suspicious circumstances surrounding the supposed death of Voldemort. My old friend Elphias Doge searched the whole world over for anything that could be considered a sign that our enemy was still out there, as many of us suspected. It was not just for the Ministry that the end of the war did not really feel like the end." I only hope they managed to protect young Neville.
Electrum said nothing for what seemed like a whole minute, perhaps more. He had stopped pacing, perhaps because it caught up to him that pacing wasted energy. That was something of which I had to remind myself every so often. I do not look forward to waiting in here until we are equally old and grey, though that may well happen. Hestia has higher priorities than his rescue, and Voldemort taking over this prison is a matter of when, not if. He did not for nothing release Grindelwald, and not without plots underneath plots to kill him.
It was not as if Tom thought of hopelessly convoluted plans; his designs were always simple enough to work, and since he had never needed anyone, he essentially achieved his goals alone while having his allies defend him, whether directly or in a broader sense. To put it in Quidditch terms, there was one Seeker and six Beaters.
"Why did the dark wizards free Weasley and keep me prisoner?" the younger wizard asked at length. "Are they on his side?"
"Regrettably, the Order is hardly a side of its own. I would think they want him and others like him to join their side, or what will become it. Grindelwald is quite confident in his ability to win over many of the Death Eaters, by his proof that the loss of Secrecy would not be too terrible for wizards, though I have my reservations on the subject and as much concern for what will become of the muggles. Though he has not said this, I would imagine he intends to influence magical governments that have opposed the Statute, or even its implementation."
"Whether Secrecy is good or bad for wizards, it is the law, and the presumption that the muggleborn would side with their parents as opposed to the wizarding world is harmful to them, not that it would be surprising-"
"Perhaps they do not let on, but the muggles have as many problems with the way they treat each other," the portrait said, interrupting his old student. It appeared Electrum was one of the many he did not know, and if he had seen the young wizard before, his face may have changed. "I would expect that even those from loving homes who were mistreated by the blood purists would still have a hard time turning against the world of magic. It is a truly wonderful thing, if not something that makes us any better or worse."
There was another pause. Perhaps the younger wizard did not care to hear the trifling comments of a portrait, else there were other things that occupied his mind. If he begins to realize his circumstance, perhaps he will seek a way out of his cell. Continental authorities have no authority to go after Grindelwald where he is, and have not begun the extensive checks of loyalties in their own ranks. When the magical law enforcement personnel are reviewed, even the Vitez of Austria will first be checked for blood purist leanings. It will not be for far too long that they are asked if they support Grindelwald, and Voldemort has made sure of that. With his repeated acts of terror, as well as apparently killing everyone going after him, he and his followers have made themselves a greater threat, and a greater priority.
"I still have my wand. One of the lackeys made some comment about not separating a wizard from his wand."
"Yes, Grindelwald was quite confident that even with a wand, no one could escape his prison. Ambitious, perhaps, but I suppose it avoids running into problems with wizards who are just as skilled without wands."
"Is everything just a foolish demonstration of power for him?"
"I would not go so far. The prison he built demonstrates that he thought decades ahead of where he needed to be. I know this only from what he told me, but apparently he also instituted several reforms in Durmstrang once he had enough of a following. He very much intended to bend the entire world to his will, though in his lifetime he only expected to influence most of Europe." Alas, I may have given him too much of the Elixir in my younger days. It seems he will live long enough to be killed by Voldemort.
It was a misconception that age was irrelevant to wizards of a certain caliber. The best part of no longer having a body was no longer having the aches and pains that came with senescence, though he knew there were potions for that. In his case as in that of Grindelwald, their long lives had been due to drinking Elixir of life, the first gradually to keep people from realizing, the second all at once to make himself a young man again. Voldemort, he suspected, used every enchantment, charm, and curse he knew on his own body to keep himself alive at all costs. With the Stone, though, that would be irrelevant. As much as I am sure his followers have used it to produce gold, he most likely has enough Elixir in secret caches throughout the world that if he were ever reduced to a shade again, he would be able to recover.
"Well, if I have to be in prison, I'm not going to be in here with a monument to the failure that you were."
"What is it you believe I was trying to do?"
"If you were trying to preserve blood purism and dark magic, you did a good job of that. If you were trying to make sure that Voldemort still had allies for when he came back, you did a good job of that." Electrum seemed to think for a moment. "If you were trying to be a fence sitter and adhere to some pointless moral code until it killed everyone, you did a good job of that."
"My legacy is even worse than you know," the portrait said. "I should truly count myself lucky you do not realize I was once not unlike yourself. I remember I rather loved the phrase 'for the greater good' in my younger days."
"Pity," the younger wizard said, raising his wand.
"Ah. I take it our conversation is at an end. Good bye."
"Incendio."