'What's wrong?' Gellert asked, his tongue twisting around the English words in what he assumed was a horrendous accent. Hermione glanced up, her new Durmstrang fur cloak falling back a little so that he could see her melancholy eyes.

'It's not right that your mother is out fighting and we're stuck here.' She lamented, glancing back out the slitted window as if she could see past the thickly swirling snow. It was well into the morning but the school was so far north and nestled between towering mountains so they would only really get two hours of ominous red glow in the sky at noon. As it was, the remainder of the castle was just pinpricks of light against grey-black.

'Of course it is. You're twelve and I'm thirteen. We're meant to be in school for another four years at least - five for you.'

'That's ridiculous.' Hermione scoffed. 'I have learned nothing in school that I couldn't outside and at least I didn't waste time learning lists of magic words. I could be out there, using my Sect to make a difference.'

'You could be.' Gellert acknowledged. 'You're a powerful witchling, but you are still a witchling like the rest of us. It's mother's job to fight now, and once you have reached majority it will be yours.'

'You're such a hypocrite.' Hermione accused, 'you followed Alice into Dumortier's camp without telling anyone in your first year. We fought then, why can't we fight now?'

'Because that was life or death, this is not.' He replied patiently.

'It is for the Dolohovs and the rest of Russia.'

'It is.' Gellert acknowledged, 'but Russia is the Baba Yaga's responsibility, not ours. If we die fighting there, who will protect Germany?'

Hermione sniffed, turning back to the window and shutting him out. He wondered if she could see things in the snow, like he saw things in his dreams. He couldn't see why snow would be so interesting otherwise.

'What brought this on anyway?' He asked after a moment. She shrugged.

'I'm bored. I think when I'm bored.'

'Bored...' Gellert said in disbelief. 'I thought you loved books.'

'I do.' Hermione insisted. 'But I've had enough research. I want to go out and do something with the information, not sit here and stew.'

'Okay.' Gellert gestured for her to move aside and she complied, shuffling up against the cold wall so that he could join her on the window seat. 'Okay, lets do something then.'

Hermione's head whipped around so fast that her hair lashed his face. He spluttered, blinking furiously and picking the brown strands from his eyes. His dramatic distaste earned him a smile at least.

'What?' She asked.

'One of the things we researched - a really powerful wand. I think I know where to find it.'

'What? How?' She demanded. Gellert glanced cautiously up and down the staircase but it was deserted. Nobody would overhear their quiet conversation in a foreign language.

'I used it. Livius Lucan used it and I stole it off him. I threw it into the woods.' He whispered furtively. 'I'm sure it's it - it was really long with these really distinctive bobbles along it and it felt... powerful and dark when I used it. You said Frau Fleiss said it was a really powerful disintegration curse and I didn't even know what I was casting.'

'Maybe.' Hermione pondered sceptically.

'It can't hurt to check, besides it's only a day out. You can open the portal and if we take Katana, we'll be back before dinner.'

'Lady Grindelwald left me here because she thought it was too dangerous even inside the wards at Fort Stark.' Hermione pointed out. Gellert raised a challenging eyebrow and Hermione huffed. 'Fine, but I'm getting a warmer cloak.'

Half an hour later he met Hermione in the stables. She handed him his broom-gloves and he slipped them on gratefully, relishing the powerful warming charms that they carried. He'd saddled Katana himself to avoid alerting the elves to any imminent adventures, then he'd bribed Kelpie into silence with an offering of an entire stinking bucket of fish.

He took a moment to arrange Hermione's skirts for her, tucking them around her calves in an attempt to keep her warm - witches' clothes weren't exactly practical. Eventually, Hermione told him to get a move on and took Katana's bridle, leading him down the maze of the stables to the doors.

The stones around the door were heated by a powerful warming charm to prevent the snow blocking them shut and the courtyard itself had been trampled down to an icy mess by the frequent passage of elves as they exercised the many beasts. Unwilling to risk riding Katana over the rough terrain, Gellert let Hermione help him up behind her and they took off right from the heated stone threshold.

Even the warming charms and the multiple layers of fur couldn't hope to hold up to the brutal bluster of icy air that accompanied Katana's flight. He buried his face into Hermione's thick fur cloak and wrapped his arms around her middle to stop himself sliding backwards over Katana's rump. He did not envy her holding onto the reins or trying to steer her beast through the swirling darkness of the arctic winter morning.

He quickly remembered how much he hated flying. The rapid pump of wings, the fragile form beneath them and the constant sway and surge which made him feel very queasy. Star hadn't been bad - slower and more steady and his broomstick was smooth and enchanted to stop him falling off. Katana was lethal.

It was easy to forget just how fast Katana was when pushed - Longma could fly faster than even Thestrals, even though they usually flew slower. They were landing in the portal clearing before he'd even had a chance to start wondering how to talk Hermione into turning back around.

'So...' Gellert said after a moment, staring at the mound of snow in the centre of the clearing.

'Let's levitate it away. We don't want anyone knowing we've had the portal open, if we don't melt it we can just levitate it back when we get home this evening.' Hermione pulled out her wand and waved it with a textbook swish and flick. Gellert scrambled to help with the heavy load, digging his wand out from under two jumpers and a coat.

Moving the snow was quick but exhausting but Hermione was soon opening up the portal. Once more, Gellert thought that he really ought to get someone to teach him the spell.

A crack split the air, loud enough that snow scattered from the trees. Gellert had a shield charm up before he'd even fully registered the sound and Hermione dove sideways behind the mound of snow.

'Now now...' A familiar voice purred, tone as cold as the air. 'Sneaking about when the school is in lockdown - opening the portal... awfully suspicious.'

'Alice.' Hermione growled, climbing back up. Her hand was fisted around her wand and her hood had fallen off, letting her hair frizz around her head furiously.

'Upstart bitch.' Alice spat, her scarred face twisting with her fury.

'Backstabbing traitor. Petty, murderous oath breaker.' Hermione retaliated, taking half a step forwards and raising her wand into the ready position. Gellert half expected the name calling to continue, but Alice just spun her own wand casually between her fingers and began to pace sideways. Gellert followed her with his eyes but didn't shift his own body or release his shield charm.

'I like to think that I'm ambitious; I was destined to have the world at my feet, but you stole it from me. You can hardly expect me to settle for nothing now?' Alice paused in her pacing.

'You were hardly going to get nothing.' Gellert scoffed. 'You were still heir to the Tunninger family, there was still a place for you in the coven and you could have had any wizard you wanted to marry.'

'I do not need a husband or a coven - I am a powerful and progressive witch. The world will be at my feet once again and I will have placed it there, rather than coasting on inherited glory...'

'Touch him and I'll kill you.' Hermione threatened and Gellert startled, noticing too late that Alice's pacing had been angling for a clear shot at Katana past the portal. Alice could hurt him, he realised; the treaty didn't extend to mounts and it would legally cost her no more than the value of a Longma but if Hermione struck at Alice, it would be essentially a declaration of war.

'Hermione!' He said urgently, not quite sure what he wanted her to do but wishing she understood everything running through his mind.

'Hermione!' Alice mocked, levelling her wand at Katana.

For a moment there was tense silence. Snow drifted to the ground, buzzing against the half finished portal opening behind Hermione. Katana shifted his wings, unaware of the danger as he tangled his antlers in the low foliage whilst nuzzling for grass.

Then there was a dazzling flash of light and motion. Hermione's shield burned like fire between Alice and Katana and the false matriarch struck, but not at the beast. Instead, her wand flicked sideways and a bolt of purple light shot across the clearing, slamming into Hermione's unprotected chest and tossing her back like a rag doll through the portal. Gellert snapped his wand at Alice, crimson light slamming against her hastily erected shield and distracting her for just long enough for him to dive through the portal after Hermione.

His sister was hurt and he'd be damned if he didn't follow her to wherever this unfinished enchantment led.