Tom does not rest until he tracks down the first cluster of the muggle's forces and tears through every mind they have. Every man, woman and child pitiful enough to be dragged into a war they have no hope of winning.

Gellert rests. Loves to relax, sprawling over living room couches, rolling around the muggle's beds. He enjoys looking at family pictures and finding people he's already met. Isn't it lovely, getting to know them through their coded messages? Isn't it so satisfying to know that these are real people with dreams and hopes and oh-so-very real pain?

Credence breaks off pieces of himself, splinters and fractures, follows the branches of the muggle's separate groups like a flood drowning an anthill. He learns to see through many eyes, keeps track of the leaders, follows them along to meet others, and spreads.

It takes a long time, in between an already heavy schedule. These boys know their time is expensive and they're not wasting it torturing muggles when the muggles can do that themselves.

They break the forces apart – not just the time traveller's but all the loose ends who know of Tom and Gellert, everyone the woman has made contact with in some way, for resources or information.

They erase memories and turn the groups on each other. Whispers of spies, of possession, of scary magic users lingering in their midst. It's easy, with World War 2 blooming into beautiful chaos and everyone already so on edge and confused.

Harry only stalled it by a few months, there was too much building up for one man to hold back the flood any longer, no matter how determined he's been. The unfortunate part is that Harry is still working on reinforcing safety shelters and hospitals. They'll have to end the war early despite all the profit they can make from it because Harry insists running around a warzone is a proper hobby.

In the meantime, they grow ever closer to their target's hidey hole.


Berdine sees them coming.

It's hard not to when they chip away at her people. She loses so many so fast and she tells them to run but these people, her friends, they insist on making a last stand. They know what's at stake, and what these Dark Lords are.

Berdine didn't want this to drag out. She was too soft is the thing. The Dark Lords were already under her watch but she saw little boys barely as tall as her hip and didn't want to become a monster by killing innocents.

But it happened so fast and by the time she realised something had gone wrong, the two were gone. She should have killed them and ended this the first time she set eyes on them. She should have realised people like that are never truly innocent.

Berdine spent the last few years in a panic, scrambling to gather forces, people who would listen and help. She picked some wrong people, she admits, but she was alone and desperate.

By the time she found the Dark Lords, they had a caretaker, and were already submersed in witchcraft. Berdine didn't know much about the magic side of things but her allies did and they were afraid of the Unspeakable.

Things had to be continually pushed back and by the time she could send the order to attack, the Dark Lords were too strong. Their one weakness is something she hesitates to touch.

The caretaker is kind, and that's the worst thing. A genuinely good man, but good men can make mistakes and Berdine can no longer be kind herself.

"Harry," Berdine greets as she steps into the empty room. "We need to talk."

Harry whirls around in shock and at the weight of his step, the wood creaks. This abandoned building, half its side ripped out from bombs, overlooks the still intact bunker underground – made with cheap materials and only standing because of the magic weaved into it.

While his monsters lay waste to Berdine's friends and allies, this man still protects powerless civilians. Harry makes it so difficult.

Harry's expression firms. "I've said all I've had to say."

Berdine closes her eyes. One last time. She'll give him one last chance and if this doesn't work she'll need to use him as a hostage. She opens her eyes. "I grew up under the reign of Albus Dumbledore."

"I know," Harry interrupts. "I…know that they were different…"

"And he was ended by another who led an army, by Gellert Grindelwald who was almost a teenager." Berdine ploughs forward. "The teen was hailed as a hero for all of two weeks before everyone realised he was even worse. I became an adult, had a family, lost my family to two fighting Dark Lords by the names Tom Riddle and Gellert Grindelwald who thought of human lives as mere pawns for their game."

Berdine takes a deep breath. "I joined the resistance and when the physics lab I was guarding was being taken down by Tom Riddle, who had caught onto our plan, I took the chance with an untested machine and came back in time."

"I'm sorry," Harry says quietly, eyes sorrowful. "I...can't imagine how awful that must have been, facing off against my brothers when they're-"

"Brothers?" Berdine cuts in. Opens her mouth but it clicks shut and her gun is up in the next second.

The bullets pierce straight through Harry as little explosions of black dust. Harry's body scatters into ash and reforms into Credence, now a fourteen year old boy, still lanky and not looking quite normal enough.

"I really am sorry," Credence insists, boney shoulders curling in. "I mean, even now they get to be a bit much."

Berdine curses and drops her gun to fumble through her pockets, quickly backing up. She pulls out a round vial and hurls it but a spell hits it halfway and the thing disintegrates.

The room shimmers, the illusion peeling back and Gellert is sitting there on a conjured chair, one leg slung over the other and a cheery smile on his face. Taller now with broader shoulders, Gellert looks too much like the man Berdine had met in the past.

"You should have stayed in your own time," Gellert chuckles. "You would have had a better chance with me and brother dearest fighting against each other."

The pocket watch in her hand disintegrates before she can use the portkey, and the other vials shatter in her pockets. Berdine screams, the glass cutting right through her, and collapses from the potions bubbling into her wounds. They're specially made for something like Credence or wizards like Gellert and Tom, but they still burn enough she's writhing on the ground and it makes Gellert laugh.

"Pathetic," Gellert muses. "And when you arrived you panicked, you just ran around telling everyone, didn't you? Tattled to every major government about magic - the Unspeakable had a lot to say about the paperwork that came with obliviating all the British muggles." Gellert pauses, tilting his head. "Did you tell those muggles to spy on us or was that happenstance?"

"What?" Berdine pants, teeth gritted from the pain, hands clawing at the ground as she tries to get up. She looks around, trying to stall. "No, I mainly contracted wizards to spy."

"Oh, so the neighbours were just bad luck," Gellert muses, thinking back on it. "Them and the entire squadron trying to break through our wards that the Unspeakable slaughtered."

Tom comes walking in through the door, features sharper, eyes darker. Tom's shadow is dragging half a mangled corpse, what used to be Berdine's right-hand man. His only personal crime was to meet Harry on the rooftop of a French military base a few years ago and talk bad about the boys.

"The rest are dead," Tom states.

"The rest?" Berdine gasps and she stands. Shakily, but she stands. "The...all of them? Some-some did nothing to you! Most of them were just family members of the resistance." She has so few left, she made sure they were hidden. Surely not the children…

Tom looks down at Berdine. "Why is she still alive?"

"I was wondering if she had any other compatriots," Gellert explains.

"We already verified the witches and wizards sent after us in Knocturn were all hired mercenaries," Tom points out. "And we just took care of everyone calling themselves the Living Hallows, I doubt she has anyone left with her mediocre leadership skills."

"By the way." Gellert raises an eyebrow at Berdine. "Kind of upsetting that you'd mock our family heirlooms."

The pain and the trembling in her limbs send Berdine dropping to a knee. She bows her head but it's not anything close to giving up. "My friends, my people, they died honourable deaths for trying to stop monsters like you." She lifts her head, a scowl on her face. "And there are so many more waiting to take you down."

"That's what I'm most upset about," Tom begins, crossing his arms. "Oh, you made attempts but Harry changed the timeline so much your ambushes didn't work, not even on a barely influenced Albus. Then when you got desperate, you started spreading the word about us, hoping someone would take over for you. It was sloppy work and I'm quite offended you were the best the world could throw at us. Surely we deserve a better enemy than you."

"Isn't that Harry?" Credence asks. "Because I think he won."

Tom looks at Credence. Credence pretends to be distracted by the view outside the broken wall.

Gellert tsks. "Okay, well I suppose we should read her mind and finish up here."

"I scanned that one," Tom says with a gesture to the messy smear beside him.

"She could have had other plans she hid from the rest."

"You give her too much credit," Tom scoffs.

"I'm just being thorough!"

"We have to meet Harry in an hour and we still need to clean up the paper trail these idiots left."

Berdine surges to her feet in a burst of strength, takes two running steps and launches herself off the crumbling edge of the building to escape.

Credence drags her back in and eats a leg.

"My sincerest apologies," Gellert laughs over the screaming. "But really now, you didn't actually think you were ever a threat to us, did you?"