Chapter Seventeen

April 30th, 1945 - around daybreak



Minerva huddled in a sheltered corner in a building that Albus had informed her had been 'bombed out', though she wasn't entirely certain what he meant by that. She only knew that the building was a ruin and that she was cold. She had not thought to grab a cloak or a scarf before leaving Hogwarts. When had there been time? She rubbed her hands together to warm them and watch Albus pacing a few yards away.

She had made things inadvertently more difficult for him. He now had to consider what would become of her. Minerva was not licensed to apparate. She couldn't return to Hogwarts alone. It was not safe to leave her where they were near the apparition point. Dressed in school robes, she would have difficulty explaining herself if caught by muggles. Most likely she would be shot. Albus could not live with that. He only had two choices: return her to Hogwarts and abandon his mission or take her with him. He knew that she would prefer the latter, but it was dangerous, almost as dangerous as leaving her.

"Minerva, do you really want to come with me?" he asked her quietly, stopping and standing in front of her.

She looked up at him with a very determined expression on her face and said, "Of course I do."

"I suppose there is no use convincing you otherwise. My time is very limited. So I ask you again: are you certain, Minerva?"

"Yes, Albus, I am quite certain. Because of him my parents and countless other witches and wizards are dead. I want to finish what they started. I want to see Grindelwald defeated." she said, clambering to her feet.

"Then I will transfigure you a cloak from some of this debris, and we shall be on our way." Dumbledore told her.


Albus certainly knew his transfigurations, she thought as she pulled the warm gray cloak closer around her shoulders with one hand, holding her wand aloft with the other as she followed her mentor down the street. They stayed in the shadows, trying not to attraction attention to themselves. The morning sky above them was overcast, threatening rain. The ground was already damp with dew and so cold that she fancied that she could feel it through her boots.

Minerva could hear the sound and feel the reverberation of a distant rumbling, like a faraway earthquake or a slightly nearer dragon. There was a quieter sound too, that of the buildings settling, like sand pouring through an hourglass or a breeze through the cedars near her home back in Scotland. Here and there she could hear the slightly louder, though less frequent sound of roofs caving in or buildings collapsing from the strain. There was a plentiful amount of dust and ashes in the air, swirling in the breeze like desert sand and coating their robes. The air itself was heavy despite the cold, and she was not familiar with the smell in it. Slightly sulfurous, she mused, but with hint of other things, none of which were very pleasant.

"What are those sounds?" she asked Albus after a particularly violent rumble.

"Artillery." he replied.

"You mean more muggle weapons?" Minerva inquired.

"As Thibault explained to me, and he is muggle-born, they are giant machines that fire large, exploding objects called shells. The effect is rather like a blasting spell, he says, though I cannot imagine a wizard being able to cast such a spell over so great of a distance." Dumbledore informed her.

"Then those rumbles are the sound of the shells hitting something?"

"Yes, I believe so." he nodded.

Minerva shivered as she realized that they were walking in the direction of those sounds and that they would only become louder and closer.

"Do you know anything about the muggle war? It isn't in the papers so much anymore because of ... our war."

Albus glanced over his shoulder at her and said, "Thibault stays well-informed as he has relatives in the resistance movement. He mentions their war from time to time."

"Does he know if it will be over soon?" she questioned.

"He seems to think so. I must agree with him. Those sounds are that of this city being bombarded. When this place is conquered ... their war will be over." said Dumbledore.

"And here we are in the middle of it." Minerva thought to herself as she followed him down an alley. He seemed to know where he was going, but she did not. "Albus, where are we going exactly?" she asked.

"Grindelwald's lair, of course." answered Dumbledore.

"And where is it?" asked Minerva with a hint of impatience in her voice.

"According to Thibault, it is unfortunately close to the part of the city in which there is fighting, although he insisted that it should be possible to get there without a commotion."

"He knew you would be doing this?"

"No, Thibault doesn't think I have it in me. Won't he be surprised." Albus chuckled.


They had been walking for hours. The distant rumbling sound of exploding shells was far more distinct and joined occasionally by a faint whistling noise that made Minerva cringe. She loathed that sound. She had always imagined the cry of the Banshee having exactly that sound.

But there were far worse things to worry about now. She had glimpsed some of the bodies. Soldiers mostly in uniforms of varying color. Civilians in shoddy muggle clothing. Broken bodies half hidden in piles of rubble and debris. And the soldiers ... none of them were much older than she was. Hardly more than boys. She imagined that some had been in school and had left school because of the war. Dark blood stained the streets here and there. Minerva was horrified.

She stayed very close to Albus as they walked. His eyes were troubled as he looked upon the destruction and carnage around them. He had seen much of the same in France and in border towns, though this city was so much larger that it all seemed unending. Devastation that reached out in every direction to the ends of the earth. It comforted him very little that almost none of it was caused by their war, by the wizarding war.


Minerva and Albus had been moving through the city without incident for sometime when he stopped and gestured for her to do so as well. She saw a black robed figure pacing before the entrance to a bunker. It appeared as though they had arrived at their destination. And it was being guarded. She inhaled sharply as a second figure joined the first.

"There will probably be more of them nearby." said Dumbledore in a low voice as they moved out of sight of the Dark Wizards and the entrance to the underground keep.

"Do you have a plan?" she asked him.

"We must dispatch the guards quickly and enter the lair."

"Sounds simple enough." said Minerva.

"Know any good curses?"

"I am well-versed enough, I believe." she replied coolly, not betraying the very real nervousness and fear that she felt, as she adjusted her grip on her wand. Minerva admitted to herself that her knowledge of curses was theoretical at best, but she did know some good disarming spells and so forth.

Her heart had never stopped pounding, not since she had apparated with her friend and mentor into this mess. Not even for one solitary minute since the whistling had started overhead. But her determination to help him never wavered. If it meant that she would die from a killing curse in a foreign city far from most of her friends and her home, then so be it. She was prepared. Albus during all their months of discussing the war had prepared her for what was to come, and she felt that he had prepared her quite well, though her hands were trembling just slightly.

"Then there is no reason to linger here. We must join the battle." he told her.

His eyes were like cold blue steel as they left their hiding place to face the sentries of Grindelwald's lair.


The pair had the element of surprise on their side as they approached the bunker. With a single, powerful disarming spell, Albus managed to rob both wizards of their wands and hurl them against the concrete wall behind them. Minerva quickly followed with a speedy petrifying spell to which Albus added magical cords. The professor spun around and sought any sign of other Dark Wizards in the vicinity. There were none. He nodded to his protégé and gestured for her to stand watch while he moved their bound and petrified enemies out of sight.

Minerva wiped the cold sweat from her eyes as she looked around, wand raised and ready. She had expected it to be much worse. They had been lucky. Perhaps luckier than they would ever know. Most of the Dark Wizards who stood watch outside their master's subterranean keep had gone to watch the muggle fighting on the far side of the city. Quidditch had not been played on the continent in almost five years, so watching the muggle war had become something of a vile hobby for many them, especially those who were too young to remember the last conflict or lived in areas too remote to see any of it first hand.

When Albus had moved the fallen Dark Wizards out of plain view he gestured for her to continue her watch while he examined the entrance to the bunker for booby-traps and the like. She glanced at him for time to time as he swept his wand over the opening. He was being careful. Minerva could almost sense his caution. It was ironic to be doing something that was recklessly dangerous so very carefully. But it eased her nerves too. It confirmed his intention to complete the task, to destroy Grindelwald, and to leave alive, and that gave Minerva hope for both of them.

"They must have just taken down the wards. One of them was going in, I believe." Dumbledore muttered to himself incredulously.

"Then we can go inside?" asked Minerva, edging closer to the bunker.

It was too quiet. Other than the occasional far off rumble or slightly nearer whistle and rumble, the area seemed suspiciously silent, and it was beginning to make her nervous again.

"Of course. Grindelwald will be waiting somewhere down there." said Albus, gesturing into the cavernous mouth of the reinforced shelter. "I will lead, and you will watch our backs." he instructed.

Minerva nodded without another word and followed him inside.


The corridors were close and lit by electrical lights. Albus recognized the soft thrum of a generator in the air. Thibault had explained so many things to him, electricity being one of them. Minerva eyed the lights curiously, but did not allow them to distract her as she followed closely behind Dumbledore. The sound of the war being waged in the city above them was muffled by the thick walls. It was extraordinarily quiet and cold. Minerva could see her breath in the air.

Albus glided soundlessly before her, looking to his left and right as they passed by side passages on their way to the innermost chambers of the lair. She stole furtive glances behind them as they trod soundlessly down the sloping and narrow corridor. No one was following them. No one was in their way as they reached an open steel doorway. An eerie orange light, torch light, streamed into the dim hallway. It seemed so out of place there. Wizarding things, magical torches and so forth, never meshed well with muggle things like the electric lighting.

Albus turned to her and whispered softly in Minerva's ear, "Remain here. Let no one pass. Grindelwald awaits."

She could only nod her understanding as he prepared to enter the inner sanctum of the keep to face the Dark Wizard himself.

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A/N: I know. It's a cliffhanger. But I'm having trouble with the next bit. Erg!


MK: Thank you for reviewing!

Child-of-the-Dawn: Thank you!

Isis Malfoy: I'm glad you liked Dumbledore's reaction. Thanks for reviewing!

lama: Thank you for reviewing!

Serenity Raye: I have a lot of trouble determining the rules for apparating/disapparating. I hope the next book lays out a few more rules to help with the speculation. Anyway, I did it this way because I didn't think a port key would work very well. Thank you for reviewing!