Albus watched the young witch leave his office with his best kindly expression. It would do no good to let her see how concerned he was, or perhaps he would have done better if he had shown his concern. Gellert hadn't played to the same tune with her as him, she seemed to have adopted his almost Moody-esque paranoia. He hadn't missed the silver sheen to her eyes as he poured her tea and although she was less than subtle about wanting to examine it, she hadn't missed the lie detector either.
She knew more than she let on, he hadn't dared to test her Occlumency shields because he knew Gellert would have given her something to protect her mind and he doubted the dark wizard had intended the device as something to act merely as a deterrent. Instead he had closely observed every action and even picked up clues from her clothes. She wore more warded amulets than most would ever see in their lives, practically humming with protective magic. A small fortune had gone into those, and that along with the many other expensive, new garments she wore suggested a number of Gellert new allies saw her as someone important.
He picked up the lie detector, adjusting one of the many dials. Perhaps he would need to talk to Gellert in person; at worst he would refuse to answer.
Fawkes disappeared in a flash with his request, and Albus settled back to complete the budget to be submitted to the ministry by the New Year.
The flare of the floo almost made him leap from his seat. He had expected Grindelwald to ignore the invitation, certainly not to respond quite so quickly.
The dark wizard raised a single eyebrow as he looked at the desk, belatedly Albus realised he had forgotten to clear away the tea set.
'Our agreement was that you wouldn't meet with her in private.' The tone was light, casual. Albus knew better; those icy eyes burned with fury.
'She returned from Christmas hand in arm with Mr. Malfoy, I was concerned as to her welfare. A reliable contact of mine informed me that the boy has been given a task by Voldemort.'
'True, he had been.' Albus didn't miss the past tense. Evidently Gellert believed that either the task was completed, or that the boy was no longer trying to achieve it. Had the Malfoy family fled Voldemort? Perhaps to Gellert's side, which would explain how Granger and Malfoy came to be walking together. That was truly concerning; if he had swayed such a staunch supporter, who knew how many others had followed suit.
The picture being painted began to make him feel awfully unprepared. He wasn't unaware of Voldemort's manoeuvring in the ministry either, as little as he knew of the details.
'How is your research progressing?' The dark wizard had picked up King Arthur and was flipping through the pages.
'I believe the holy grail and Helga Hufflepuff's cup might be one and the same. Hufflepuff's line is difficult to trace as it does skip a couple of squib generations, which I believe would have been ignored by the hereditary system at the time.' He directed Gellert to a page which depicted a golden chalice. The wizard shrugged and dropped the book back to the table.
'Either way, I doubt it matters where Voldemort retrieved it from, what matters is where it is now.'
'I suspect, in the hands of one of his followers.'
'Ah, because Lucius was given the Diary.'
'Yes, and he was by no means Voldemort's greatest supporter.'
'One of the ones who went to Azkaban then. Any of the Lestranges, Crouch? No, his father was law enforcement. Dolohov, Yaxley, Rookwood? Actually, his job would have made him unreliable. Avery perhaps, Crabbe and Goyle are too stupid, better hope it's not Rosier or the Lees….' There were many possibilities.
'The Lestranges.' Albus said decisively. Bellatrix had been Apparate away by Voldemort himself after their duel at the ministry. He must value her somewhat, which made her an obvious choice.
'It's not at the manor, she wasn't concerned enough when I burned it to the ground.'
'At another property, or carried on her person…' Albus pondered.
'Not on her person, they would have confiscated it when she was arrested. What about Gringotts, until recently it was meant to be the safest place to hide something.' Gellert suggested. 'Goblins are susceptible to the imperius.'
'You intend to break into the bank by imperiusing a goblin. I'm sure they've already thought of that one.'
'Enough avadas should do the trick once we're in.'
'Or you could use those ministry connections I'm sure you've fostered and get a search warrant. Alastor would be more than happy to retrieve it for us.' He felt rather smug at this suggestion, having one upped the other wizard for once.
'Very well. But if you ever speak to Hermione alone again… I'm sure you're aware that I can cause you enough pain that you'd wished you were dead, all without anyone knowing otherwise.'
The Dark wizard left with a flourish, and Albus realised he had actually gained very little new knowledge about his plans, although a solid plan to hopefully retrieve another horcrux could hardly be sneered at. He wondered where the other Horcruxes had ended up, Gellert had taken them, he assumed to be destroyed, but Albus suddenly had a terrible image of Gellert using the Horcruxes to blackmail Voldemort himself into submission. It would work no doubt, Gellert possessed the death stick and had decades more experience under his belt. Where would that leave the world?
He needed to make sure that Gellert was actually destroying the Horcruxes.
He also needed to make sure Hermione stayed safe throughout this war, and that Gellert was suppressed after it somehow, and that his students stayed safe, and Harry survived, and that Voldemort was permanently defeated… and that he found some way to heal his rapidly growing toe nails without having to visit the school nurse – admitting that he fell for Gellert's trick was not acceptable.