31st October, 1981.

The rising sun illuminated colourful cloudscape in bright shades of the rainbow. James took on preparing breakfast and Alice was well enough to keep an eye on the children, so Lily could ride out with Armin for the first time. The young thestral stallion carried her to a muggle skiing area, and he would have carried on into Italy, if only his rider would have trusted James with the boys for so long.

"Good horse, Armin," she cooed when Nurmengard was in sight again. "Land. Lands the good stallion, lands. Thank you for the tour, boy." She slipped from the thestral's back without ending the leftover cushioning spell. "Who wants a bite from our own breakfast? Sausage, hmmm?"

The thestral happily neighed. Lily laughed and summoned the treat for him.

Then she spotted fire on the mountain top just outside the wards. "Armin, would you mind just a small round more?"

The stallion didn't mind, he just didn't get the point. Why did his rider get on his back again after landing only two minutes before?

As for Fawkes, Lily had already tried to explain the bird once that he could pass through the wards here, but Dumbledore's bird refused to listen. He delivered the two letters he'd been entrusted with, then he left, leaving behind no more than some plumes and a molten depression in the deep snow.

On Armin's back, the witch looked at the two envelopes. One was for 'My friends abroad' and the other for 'Highest'. She guided the thestral towards the tower's highest window, and levitated the latter envelope in. "Gellert! Mail!"

She wondered, not for the first time, how much cruelty it took to make a prison cell so small, with a single window so narrow. But, like always, she concluded that it's the cell's maker who's now locked in there, so its use was, objectively, justified. Even if she got a liking for the old wizard there.

After landing in the stable for the second time, Armin made it clear that a second round of that sausage was due. Lily laughed, "Men!" and complied before taking their own envelope up to the living area.

They received bad news: Albus had told about Gellert's interpretation to the second death eater he could find, but apparently, he didn't make it back to his master either. As for Peter's whereabouts, he was still just as clueless as the other Marauders. He firmly denied mentioning Peter's betrayal to anyone within the borders, but he feared that Sirius still got to him somehow and killed him for accidentally murdering his parents.

"That's impossible, we would have heard of that," noted James.

"But who tells anyone about anything, these days? You didn't tell about me, either. Not even to Augusta, for which I'm grateful."

"Sirius can be one mad dog but he honestly didn't care about his parents. I could more imagine him bearing a grudge for Wormy's round-up with We Know Who. Which was, in the end, beneficial to us, having driven the death eaters from their headquarters."

"Don't you defend him!" growled Alice. "A traitor is a traitor, period."

"And an idiot who drank Polyjuice, stole Sirius's bike and almost brought Taboo-name on us is an idi..."

"I avenged Frank!"

... And the adults would have continued, had the two boys not joined the debate in their own capacity.

The sun gracefully sank behind the snowy ridges early in the afternoon, and the mountains' shade wrapped Nurmengard in an early darkness. The temperature (not quite tropical even during the day) was rapidly dropping. Meaning that Severus Snape, dressed according to the moderate autumn climate of Britain, apparated into minus five Celsius degrees and knee deep snow. His plan of getting the attention of the inhabitants didn't survive the first contact with harsh reality. Instead, he was forced to start with hasty warming spells on his robe, then, much reluctantly, on that of his still unconscious yearmate. One cannot negotiate for entrance with a hostage already frozen to death, after all.

He released a series of plain white spells, indicating that he came with relatively peaceful intention.

"Two magic users at the Hoher Dachstein," Lily noted immediately. After a swift Homunculus, she could also tell who they were.

"Two death eaters, wonderful," Alice had only bought her new wand two days before, from a local wandmaker, and she was eager to test her new wand in action.

"I'll go and talk to them, but alone," James declared, summoning his broom. "Wardsmistress, don't let them in until you see my green sparks. Red means trouble."

"Anything more complicated, patronus. Don't go outside the wards. Gellert says these could hold a killing curse, but..."

"I won't gut either of them," promised James. He grabbed his coat and flew out of the kitchen window.

"And what shall the two of us do? "Alice asked. "Continue floating plushies for the boys?"

"Doo?" Neville asked, chewing at the neck of a plushie mountain troll.

"Having your wand at the ready for whatever excuse will not hurt." Lily returned to the window, and screamed, "No, no, NO!"

"What?" Alice dropped the toy immediately.

"James said the taboo, I can see the tear in the wards! The voice-taker charm only works within the walls, not on the Dachstein!" She sent a million red sparks, then (focusing on the fact she loved her husband with all his faults) also sent her patronus as well.

"The castle has more spells on it, we're still safe inside," she declared after checking.

"As long as Snakemouth doesn't break them."

Lily had seen dishevelled shields in Voldemort's wake, but she tried to stay confident. Who knew what a panicked Alice would do? She'd been tortured and controlled by these people.

"There are two layers around us, one on the corridor, and one on each room as well. They'll remain so as long as the rune holder is in one piece, and Gellert never told about it to anyone until we came. Not even his followers."

Harry only understood that the adults around him kept ignoring him, when something clearly was very wrong, so he did the only thing a man his age can do: he started sobbing.

"This area will be a battleground in no time," Alice was sure. The castle itself was in a run-down condition, why would the wards be any stronger than the entrance door had been?

"You cover James's retreat," Lily instructed her. "I'll take the boys out of harm's way."

In all honesty, James hadn't realized he'd spoken the taboo in the heat of the debate, but Snape hadn't either, not until Lily's silver-glowing doe brought it to both their attention.

The fact that a Marauder's Griffindorness had ruined his so thoroughly built-up plan irked Severus Snape beyond measure. His master managed to apparate just a few meters from him, but under the shield he and his hostage couldn't cross.

As for the self-appointed Dark Lord, it took him a while to recognize where Dumbledore's protégées managed to hide for two weeks. He sneered to his servant, "Call the others!"

"Of course, my lord."

Normally, activating a Dark Mark wasn't pleasant, but now at least it allowed some petty revenge. His wasn't the only tattoo at hand...

The last thing Peter Pettigrew remembered was seeking out his fellow death eaters on Dumbledore's orders, and drinking a welcome drink along with one of them to avoid suspicion. The next was lying in snow so deep he couldn't even see from it, aching all over, and Snape palming on the tattoo he'd already regretted.

About a dozen cloaked and masked figures apparated to the mountainside. Surely, more would have come if it wasn't still daytime in Britain. They wouldn't share his glory, Voldemort decided. From under the outermost ward layer (that was where the taboo was spoken) he pointed his bone-coloured wand at the castle, and sent out the most destructive curse he could think of. The spell crashed into the defences, there was a moment of white flame, followed by a thunder... And before its echoes died in the valley, the wards were back up. Only four of the newly arrived death eaters were quick enough to apparate inside before the repowering defence lines lashed out bluish white fire at those still outside the perimeter. Snape was in luck because he didn't have to orient himself, he grabbed his hostage and took him straight to a back door in an abhorrent state of disrepair. Here he was sheltered from the colourful curses raining from two wands just above his head.

After securing the two children, Lily landed her Comet in the middle of Grindelwald's former room. The workdesk was glowing in an eerie shade of icy blue, with miscellaneous characters flashing up in quick succession while some, mostly Cyrillic, letters remained visible constantly. She hoped the defences will hold until help comes.

The lower corridor's wall crumbled, and soon it had an opening big enough for a man to step through it. An eager death eater immediately set foot in there, only to be crashed by the now loose stones. The others hastily cast shield charms on themselves. They had prepared for defences like those of Hogwarts, but these here were much, much nastier. By the time Snape joined them on the upper corridor leading to the former briefing room, they were down to three.

James and Alice waited for them in the briefing room. They heard the steps, the doors banging pen and shut, the almost hissed instructions. They then heard a man's scream before the walls muted it. Alice trembled under the memory of her own pain. Next to her, James bellowed, "Are you seriously trying to blackmail me with a traitor, you snake?"

"Come and fight a woman, if you dare!" growled Alice.

Blue, white, purple and blood-red spells flashed at the briefing room's / playroom's entrance. One masked attacker sent forth a killing curse, and not only did his spell change direction mid-air and crash into a gilded clock, but then, an arm of said clock rose from its face and fired a tiny arrow straight into the death eater's right eye. A different man's scream was muted by the walls before the wizard fell motionless on the floor.

"I think I get that 'rule over death' sign Sirius complained about," James muttered.

Alice threw a griffon-grip hex at another death eater, and was pleased to note that the shield was perfectly penetrable in the other direction. The wounded wizard spent the next whole minute healing the many deep cuts all over his body. She fired a brainstroke curse at the third one, but only managed to slow her motions temporarily.

"That's enough." With a wave of his bone-like wand, Voldemort rolled the tied Pettigrew forward, with his face towards the playroom. "Here's your friend, now let's see if you will make his suffering short." He stepped aside, letting the other three remaining death eater do the cursing instead. Snape, who until now seemed to be academically more interested in the poison on the clock arm's arrow tip, was now eager to comply. Next to him, a witch cackled: she could only be Voldemort's favourite, Bellatrix Lestrange. She cast her own shield charm around the group, a shield strong enough to bounce off James Potter's frantic curses. The third one was yet to be identified. His Cruciatus must have hurt just like those of the other two, by the looks of it.

Behind them, Voldemort took a breather. Burning through those outer wards took more out of him than he let show. But if this was the cost of his continued immortality, he still considered it a bargain. Now he only had to get to the two tiny targets.

Potter's Bombarda hit the ceiling just above Bellatrix, and the falling debris distracted her long enough that she pulled her Protego charm closer. Alice Longbottom's Reducto then threw the other death eater into a marble staircase at the other end of the corridor. Lily also arrived back to the briefing room, and hopped off her broom to join the battle. Keeping up the offense was their only was to keep Peter relatively safe, and she was very creative in her wandwork.

"Igor, I need you elsewhere," eventually the dark lord said to the servant by the staircase, as soon as he got back on his feet. "Get some work done on that last ward."

"Oh, so you're Karkaroff," Alice cooed. "A Dark Arts specialist who still prefers to hunt helpless muggles despite his rumoured knowledge," taunted she. "I always thought you were afraid somebody would curse you back."

"Don't let her distract you!" ordered Voldemort.

"It sounds like you suffer from some nostalgia, auror," Bellatrix teased back. "Crucio!" Of course, she was aiming at Pettigrew, but she noted the visible trembling of a target whom her magic couldn't directly reach.

The farther away death eater examined the remaining wards for a short while before he drew a circle on a wall and started writing around it with Cyrillic letters. The circle turned into a manticore's head and it tried to bite off Karkaroff's wand hand, but the wizard's reflexes were quicker than the sluggish wards-securing charm proved to be.

"Get me in there," Voldemort demanded. He added in a whisper, "I'll only have a short opening when they pull their friend inside."

"And then, what?" Lily asked. "In case you haven't noticed, Harry and Neville aren't in this room, you fool."

"Shall I let a mudblood call me that?" Voldemort hissed angrily. Yet he did cast a Revelio hominum, if only to locate where in the room the two children were. "WHERE DID YOU HIDE THEM?" he demanded to know.

Lily lowered her wand. "Just below the roof of the tower. The window is so narrow, they could barely fit through it."

"LILY, I'LL KILL YOU!" now Alice roared.

The green-eyed witch didn't resist Voldemort's scorching blue gaze, his brief, crushing legilimency.

"You spoke the truth," the dark wizard concluded. He summoned the nearest broom (the one Alice had last flown when she bought her new wand) and turned to Pettigrew's three torturers. "The mudblood is reserved for Severus. Kill the other two."

Meanwhile, James also noted, "Lils, you're out of your mind."

"I cold," one of the boys moaned.

Grindelwald fixed his two-coloured gaze on him. "Cold is in January. Stay under that blanket."

"Where mum?" demanded the other.

"Busy. And what did she tell you? Behave for uncle Gellert." (As if he hadn't felt old already!)

"Tis daak. Ucle Gett, must we sleep?"

The aged wizard shook his head. "Don't try to sleep. Just stay under that blanket and don't move until I call you two."

"I feer."

"I cold."

Grindelwald leaned closer, trying his best to look reassuring. That had come easier when he had been half his current age. "Uncle Gellert will keep you safe. What I will least need is Lily coming at me in vengeance, should any harm come to you."

"Where mom?"

"I said, STAY UNDER THAT BLANKET UNTIL I CALL YOU TWO!" The bare walls echoed his bellow.

Then those walls shook under a ward-crashing spell, just like the one with which Voldemort broke into the tower. It was immediately followed by a blast.

Three stories lower the three remaining death eaters also busied themselves with wardbreaking, although their focus was elsewhere. Bellatrix divided her attention between provoking the defenders into a step outside the briefing room and protecting Karkaroff from the curses surrounding said wards. Meanwhile, Karkaroff divided his attention between tearing down the wards and avoiding getting hit by spells that were meant for Bellatrix. On the other side of the protective layers, James was distracted by a witch attempting to strangle his wife. Lily busied herself with throwing selected spells and insults at Snape, accusing him (rightly) of bringing 'your monster of a self appointed dark lord' on her twice.

Finally, Karkaroff pointed his wand at the corner of the door, and victoriously cast, "Morsmordre!"

The long standing, until now invisible ward layer turned darker, then, like a cloud, it seeped up into the evening sky in the shape of a skull, with a snake slithering forth from its mouth.

Lily only had a few seconds to cast some of the simpler defences before the wards were torn off the briefing room.

"So, the last line of defence is a toothless old coot," noted Voldemort as he entered through the hole he blasted into the cell. "I never thought someone with the fame of Gellert Grindelwald would give his life to be a baby-sitter."

"At least my followers knew my name," the inmate stepped to the middle of his cell. Since he didn't have more than a few meters in each dimension, this was what he was going to use to his advantage. He knew what would happen, he had Seen it happen, and he couldn't wait. That bone-coloured wand pointed directly at him, and he was eager to go along with what happened next. "Does a dark lord even care," he asked, "what your people compare you to?"

In the half-light, nobody could see which child moved. It could either be Harry or Neville. Perhaps both.

Seeing the motion from the corner of his eye, Voldemort instinctively turned his wand there. And this mistake was all that Grindelwald was waiting for.

He needed only one step, the cell was so small, and in the next moment Voldemort's wand was torn from his fingers. The last spell he cast with it, a killing curse, crashed harmlessly into the remaining wall.

Only a second later that same wand was used for a bone-removing hex, first cast on its former master's right shoulder, and immediately after, on both his knees. The next was a simple, but hard to detect slice of the vocal cords.

The victorious dark wizard stepped to the hole in his cell. The charms preventing his escape were still there, but not for long now.

The wards of his castle had been twisted into a Dark Mark floating above him; it was time to completely undo them. The tension of thirty-six years lashed out of the bone-like wand in a bright bolt of lightning, first it burnt into the floating skull before its energy changed direction and hit an old workdesk's polished wood.

There was nothing that could now hold him back.

When the entirety of Nurmengard's ward system collapsed, the fight in the briefing room's entrance got even more intense. Three death eaters were fighting the three defenders – nobody noticed that the seventh figure got out of their way.

Pettigrew was the only one without a wand here, but he had a convenient shape and a rat's instincts to aid his escape. First he took cover under a broken, empty bookshelf, then he scurried up in the cover of the back plane. Each and every bone in his body hurt, but this was the time when a rat has to do what a rat has to do. There was a death eater in front of him, casting curses in the opposite direction, unaware of the animagus behind her.

Up high, Armin watched in delight as his mistress's formerly locked-in talking partner cast various hexes at the unarmed intruder. He didn't know who either wizards were, or why they destroyed the charms protecting the calm of his home, he also didn't know why the older wizard hadn't left earlier. But he recognized destructive intent, the newcomer's will to harm his mistress's child; and most certainly, the other child's mother didn't give him that broom he was seen flying. The young bone-stallion closed his wings and dove into the cell, now that the hatch in it was big enough for him.

The who boys were unhurt by the wooden, inside wall of the tower. The intruder, a middle-aged wizard, was slithering on the floor in the debris. Only the original inhabitant, about twice the age of the other adult, looked up at him. An old, bony hand ran through his back, maybe checking the remnant of the cushioning spell on his back.

Bellatrix was about to cast a gut-out curse at James when something furry and pawy landed on her back, then squeezed itself down her robe. Angered, she threw a generic parasite-remover on herself, which forced Wormtail back into his human body. At once, there was a fully grown wizard in the witch's robe. The fabric was torn, they both fell over, and Peter (although in his human form) tried to hide under the bookshelf once again.

"He bit me!" she bellowed.

"Well done!" Lily didn't hesitate to use the distraction to her advantage, and cast a perfectly aimed Reducto at the partially undressed Warrior. Peter collected her wand from the corridor's middle.

Now that his former opponent was taken care of, James looked around to find the next death eater. Severus Snape was his obvious choice.

"What takes the Order so long?" mused Lily. It was only a matter of time before the remaining death eaters, all those who couldn't get in the first round, would realize that their path was clear.

"Did you call them?" Alice asked while spinning Karkaroff around his longitudinal axis several times.

"You didn't?" asked back Lily. She watched as James's well practiced Scourgify hit Severus, and this time, she didn't bother to intervene.

Seeing his opponent was currently overwhelmed with a bucketful of soapy foam, it was James Potter who cast the patronus. "Nurmengard is under siege. It's now or never."

Where the taboo had been spoken, on the mountainside now in complete shadow, four rested death eaters appeared.

"Where do you reckon our master might be?"

"I think he went that way."

The crack of their disapparation still echoed in the valley when a motorbike with two passengers arrived to the scene.

"Just how could Lily agree to coming here, in the first place?"

"It was her idea!"

"Well, that explains..."

"Hold tight, Moony! New death eaters on our left!"

In the headmaster's office at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was talking about N. E. W. T. requirements with the Defence teacher of the year, when Professor Minerva McGonagall stormed in.

"Albus, have you heard it? James Potter is in Nurmengard!"

"He is."

"Albus! We must go there!"

"Minnie, dear, I guess you're right."

They apparated together from the balcony of the office. Upon landing, they've both seen a thestral and its equally skeletal rider flying over a distant mountain range.

Loud pops signalled the arrival of fighters from both sides.