Nurmengard was going to be difficult to break into, though it wasn't impossible, with Harry remaining under his invisibility cloak, with the resurrection stone on a chain around his neck, and the Elder wand in his second holster.

Tonks would be disguising herself as one of the guards, the cousin of Zacharias Smith, and would be able to help the Vipers if needed, otherwise she would just study the guard patterns and generally gather information.

There was still much preparation to be done, though with Voldemort in Antarctica it gave them some much needed breathing room. The Vipers knew they couldn't rely on the Ministry anymore, as Thicknesse was fully in Voldemort's pocket.

There were still those who held out hope that Harry would be returning to fight the war, with parties thrown in his support being raided and those responsible were arrested for insurgency.

The war hadn't yet begun, so why did it feel like Voldemort has already won?

Harry knew that this wouldn't be an easy feat but he was determined to defeat the Dark Lord.

/^_^/

"What do you think is the right answer?" Rowena Ravenclaw asked Dudley that night, after he questioned whether or not freeing Grindelwald was a good idea.

"He could attack us and go on a rampage, causing carnage on a different scale to Voldemort. However he could be very helpful in the fight to come."

Rowena looked at Dudley for a moment, before walking over to the window to observe the Hogwarts grounds, at least how they appeared in her time.

"Why do we always meet in this room?" Rowena asked him, confusing Dudley.

"Because we are limited to this one room?"

"Are we? Or do you just think we are?"

"I'm guessing you're going to tell me that we aren't."

"Correct, however if you wish to wander the school, then you may never return. Think of a room and we shall end up there."

"The room will be exactly as it was when you roamed these halls?" Dudley asked for clarification.

"Also correct."

"I have an idea." Dudley responded, with Rowena assuming that he would choose his common room or the grounds. "In my first year I stumbled into a room that was nearly empty, save for a piece of parchment that led me to the Diadem, I would very much like to see it as it was."

The room melted away from them and another materialised around them, though it hardly resembled the room he had stumbled into with Hermione many years ago.

"Salazar's office? I confess that I didn't expect this to be where my instructions ended up. I haven't been in this room for a long time, none of us have." Rowena said sadly.

"Was it locked?"

"No, at least it wasn't locked by any spells or incantations, what kept us out was regret. Did you know that he was killed by the father of one of the Muggle-born students he fought so hard to refuse into the school. Even if it never happened again, the fact that he met the very end he sought to avoid for us all is one I shall never forget."

"I didn't know that, what was he like?" Dudley questioned, curious to know what personality such a feared and respected wizard would have.

"He was kind, surprisingly, he and Goodrich were like brothers, very much like you and Harry, and they stood together in everything. He would always take time out of his day to talk to his students, he would even offer advice to the Muggle-born students, though he would never be quite as nice to them as the Purebloods. I miss them all."

Dudley knew exactly what to do in that moment, being used to having to console his mother when Vernon died, he walked over to Rowena and pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry." Dudley whispered, letting Rowena cry on his shoulder at the loss of her greatest friends.

/^_^-/

"We have been at Hogwarts for a month now and that bastard Carrow needs to be removed from the school." Elias rallied the Elemental students, his face almost unrecognisable beneath the bruises and cuts from today's "lesson". "He wants to weaken our resolve and turn us against each other, to make those who have been under the Cruciatus Curse hate those who cast it, but we must not let him divide us. We have been united as a school for the last couple of years, and we will continue to be united in the face of this attack on our way of life, this unity is our strongest weapon against those who would stand on us."

There was a long silence following Elias' words, his anger at the treatment of the students of Hogwarts, as well as himself, had consumed him for a moment and briefly left him unable to speak.

"Do you mean You-Know-Who?" Cormac McLaggen asked the enraged boy, respecting the younger Fire Elemental for his determination.

"His name is Tom Riddle, or Voldemort, his father was a muggle and his mother was so inbred that she could only cast the most basic of spells. He deserves no respect or fear, he will be dragged into the light and he will be extinguished. Our first fight is with Carrow, we have to get rid of him, there is no alternative."

The Elementals banded together and devised a plan, regardless of House or age, everyone would have a part to play.

Hogwarts wouldn't go down that easily.

/_-^_^_-/

A single wolf howled in the distance and an army howled back, the moon was not yet full but the air was filled with the same sense of danger and uncertainty that a full moon brought with it.

It had been decades since he had last stepped outside and even longer since he had been able to enjoy such an experience, yet he knew the day was near.

Clairvoyance was a gift and a curse, especially now that it failed him, the image of a raven-haired, green-eyed, and deeply conflicted young man had haunted him for seventeen years and had remained the same for most of that, only recently revealing that he would find his freedom at the boy's hands.

Still he waited, howling back at the wolves to pass the time.