The battle was a mess of people, bright flashing lights and glittering shields. The public surged for the gates, desperate for the protection of the solid walls even without the warding. The invaders closed up behind them and members of both covens took a stand. Star swept down again, talons raking at a red-haired woman and Gellert quickly targeted a wizard that had brought Herr to the ground. The older wizard looked up, saluting them briefly and they wheeled again, throwing up glittering black snow as they surged up and out of spell range.

'Hermione's there!' Berg bellowed. His witch was indeed up and swinging a sword of all things with lethal grace. Star plunged towards them as a spell glanced off some ward about the young witch, and a moment later Gellert's leglocker nailed him straight in the knees. Hermione lashed out with her sword and slammed it decisively across his head. The wizard crumpled, and Gellert whooped as he cast the same jinx at another attacking witch.

When they spun again at the far end of the field a tall, dark haired wizard stood back to back with Hermione, wielding his sword and magic in perfect synchrony with the young witch. A terrifying scythe of darkness sent two flying backwards, then followed up with a misty shield that fizzled silver as a purple curse hit it.

He glanced away as Star squawked in annoyance, and he realised he and Berg were both hanging off the same side, unbalancing the bird and making him labour to fly straight. He quickly swung to the other side and cast several more jinxes, then saw Hermione waving at them frantically. Berg must have spotted her too because a moment later they swooped down and Star picked her up gently in one massive claw.

He shimmied down the straps beneath Star's belly until he hung upside down over Hermione. The young with had her eyes clamped shut tightly and her face was very pale. He wondered briefly if she was afraid of heights? She'd been uncomfortable on a broomstick but loved flying Katana.

Now that he had the chance, he looked her over critically. She had changed, perhaps not as physically as he had, but magically. He had always thought her magic to be hot and bright, adventurous and inquisitive. It was a perfect counter to his own which tended to be more reserved. Now, there was an ancient wildness to her power, whipped by gale winds into a blinding white inferno. Dismissing his misgivings, he called out to her over the rushing wind. This was a happy moment of reunion, not a time to mourn their new unfamiliarity.

She directed them to the camp, seeming more than a little relieved when her feet were once more on the ground. He dropped beside her and before he could stop himself he found he'd wrapped her small form in a tight embrace. She felt tiny in his arms as he lifted her and spun her, taking in the smell of home that clung to her robes in heady clouds and the familiar sound of her laugh.

Then reality set in and he set her down again. He may be home, but everything was still not well. His witch stood strong, her black battle robes painted with humming warding and she briefed them in a smart, matter-of-fact tone as she strapped the massive sword she carried over her back. It was that perhaps that spoke more to the times that had fallen upon them in the boy's absence than her words of siege and prisoners.

The tents had mostly keeled over beneath the immense pressure of wind beneath Star's wings and now scattered in a jumble of canvas, furniture and drunken poles.

It was quiet in the camp, feeling more than a little surreal after the chaos of the battle just beyond the trees. At first it seemed as though there were no guards at the camp at all, then someone stirred beneath the crumpled canvas of one of the tents caught in the downdraft of Star's wings. Quicker than lighting, Hermione whipped around and a bolt of yellow light flew from two extended fingers. The movement grew still and the young witch stalked over leaving Gellert and Berg standing drolly in the middle of the open area between collapsed tents.

'Did she just...?' Berg trailed off, watching as Hermione started trying to heave apart the heavy canvas to get at her quarry.

'Wandlessly.' Gellert confirmed.

'Merlin's saggy stockings.' Berg swore. Gellert was inclined to agree - the focused intent required to make an actual bolt of light with wandless magic... he could hardly imagine even his mother was capable of it.

'Are you going to help of not?' Hermione snapped, glaring up at them from beneath a mess of escaping hair. Chastened, both boys leapt forwards and between them they made quick work of the canvas; dragging it away to reveal a young witch.

'Do either of you know a spell to hold her still?' Hermione demanded. A casual wave of her hand had a crushed chair reassemble itself. Then Hermione dragged the unconscious witch up onto the chair. Gellert didn't know a spell, but he did know how to conjure a rope and a moment later the witch was bound to the chair by a tangle of rope.

Hermione woke the witch with a press of her delicate fingers to the woman's temple. The witch stirred, then her eyes opened wide when she realised her situation. She thrashed against the ropes and toppled the chair. Her fall was broken by a pile of canvas, so it couldn't have hurt too much but Gellert imagined it still would have been unnerving.

'What do you want?' The woman finally bit out, eyes darting wildly between the three children. Her eyes zeroed on the wand in Gellert's hand. 'What are you going to do to me?'

'I just want directions, that's all.' Hermione replied, gesturing for Gellert to lower his wand. He obliged, suspecting that Hermione was more than capable of casting a wandless shielding charm if necessary.

'I won't tell you anything. Don't think I don't know who you are! Tyrants, the lot of you.' The older witch hissed. Perhaps she intended to spit, but it came out as more of a dribble with the woman bound and sideways on the floor.

'Don't worry, you don't need to tell me.' Hermione whispered quietly. There was a moment of intense silence, then the young witch added, 'we're only after the prisoners.'

'Wonderful. Check the tent over there.' Hermione announced abruptly, striding in the direction she'd indicated. Gellert and Berg hurried to catch up with her, sharing a concerned look.

'Did you just perform legilimency?' Berg demanded suddenly, grabbing onto Hermione's sleeve and dragging her to a halt. The young witch stumbled against the sudden resistance, then turned to face them both with a smug grin.

'No.' Hermione replied. 'Come on, have neither of you ever read a detective story? There must be a wizarding equivalent?'

Berg released her and the young witch stormed off and started heaving aside swathes of canvas. Gellert went to follow her but Berg held him back with a firm grip on his sleeve.

'Gellert, can you sense the darkness in her?' He whispered uncertainly. Gellert hesitated because he had indeed sensed a darkness in Hermione's magic. It was so foreign and easily overshadowed by the brightness of her white fire magic that he had glossed over it in his first inspection, but now that Berg seemed to have noticed it too, it stood out blatantly.

'You don't think... no, mother never would have let her.' He hesitated because the evidence stared him straight in the face.

'Frau Fleiss is a dark witch, but she's allowed to be a dark witch.' Pointed out Berg hesitantly. 'You don't think that actually was legilimency though?'

'I've never heard of a "detective", maybe its some kind of tracking magic?' Gellert suggested, trying to find any excuse to deny the negative light that now shone on his sister.

Hermione called to them in frustration and the two boys joined her quickly, before she could notice their suspicions. Together, they dragged the canvas doorway open, then crawled inside. What followed felt like hours of hot, sweaty work with a constant view of creamy canvas and rough carpet beneath his hands and knees. He could hear Berg cursing somewhere to his right and Hermione up ahead. Her loud sigh of relief suggested she'd reached somewhere somewhat self supporting. He surged forwards and found her in a hollow where a support pole had fallen over two tables. She was sweaty faced and her tight braid had fallen out so her hair fuzzed around her head like a dark halo and errant strands drifted skywards to plaster against the roof. His own light golden hair was going the same and he awkwardly tried to flatten it against his head. Berg burst into the space a moment later, crowding Hermione under a desk and forcing Gellert to press up against her.

'Why on earth did neither of you think to just put the stupid tent back up again?' The boy hissed. Hermione and Gellert just looked at him blankly. 'Erecto.' He jabbed his wand at the piece of wood over his head and with a whoof, the air around them cleared suddenly as the tent sprung back into place. They all breathed a sigh of relief, then crawled out to have a look at their surroundings.

Gellert had never actually used a tent before, so he had very little to compare it to. It seemed to be more of a storage space than anything, with sacks of flour and potatoes against one wall and two barrels next to them. The desk they were crouched under held a ledger, now mostly obscured by a smashed ink bottle. The other desk was currently empty with the books that had been on it scattered across the floor. Hermione was already striding off in the direction of a curtain at the far end of the room and the two boys hurried after her quickly.

Gellert skidded to a halt just past the curtain, almost bowling Hermione over where she'd frozen in the doorway. He peered over her shoulder and his eyes widened at the gruesome sight of the three figures hanging from posts driven into the ground. Two women and a man, unrecognisable because of the bruising of their faces and bloodied from head to foot. Two posts held chains that were ominously empty.

A moment later, Hermione was retching against the tent wall - she may be magically powerful, but she hadn't been exposed to the harsh reality that Gellert and Berg had been over the past few months. He rubbed gentle circles on her back and held the young witch's hair out of the way whilst Berg put his new healing skills to the test. At his urging, Hermione decided she'd be better off making sure nobody came back from the battle to surprise them and headed back outside. Gellert turned back to the three figures hanging from the posts, bracing himself.

'How are they?' He asked, coming up behind Berg. The other boy had lowered the first of the woman to the ground and was casting a rapid series of spells which made various parts of the witch's body glow.

'Not good. I think we need to just get them back to the real healers as quickly as we can.' Berg replied. 'Transfigure me some stretchers or something.'

Gellert obliged, quickly changing the empty posts to flat boards. He helped Berg move the witch onto it, conjured a blanket, then used a levitation charm to take the witch outside. As Berg did his best to stabilise the remaining two, Gellert helped Hermione climb up onto Star's back which was a long process as he quickly discovered she really didn't like heights (how had he not known that?)

Finally, Berg emerged with the last of the patients and a moment later Star looped his talons with remarkable delicacy through the complex and over engineered carrying harness that Hermione had made whilst she was waiting for them. He took off with a confident beat of his wings, lurching them upwards in a familiar movement. Berg's head appeared over the bird's wing joint a moment later and he gave them a thumbs up to let them know that the patients were all carried securely.

'We should burn the camp.' Hermione decided suddenly.

'What?' Gellert demanded.

'We should burn the camp - get rid of their supplies.' For a moment Gellert just goggled at her, then he shrugged slightly.

'We can try, but I imagine they'd have fireproofed their tents.'

'Then we'll flood it. The more we can ruin, the harder it will be to recover.'

'Flood it? Do you even know how much water we'd need to conjure for that?' He laughed incredulously but stopped when he found himself slightly unnerved by Hermione's serene smile. The young witch shut her eyes and stretched out her hands to either side of her. He had no idea what she was doing and just watched mystified until she blinked one eye open.

'Join me?' She asked, glancing at Berg as well. The two boys reached out and joined hands, sitting uncomfortably side by side across Star's wing joints.

Hermione wielded Berg's magic awkwardly, the warm solidness of his magic so different to her own but she managed to send it out alongside his and hers. She cast no spell, simply dispersing their magic across a massive area. He could feel everything around them - the magic which sustained Star, the three weakened wixen he carried below them, the wind as it swirled their magic in invisible eddies and currents. She used everything they were willing to expend leaving all three of them weakened, then drawing on... something else. The fourth magic joined theirs; the ancient magic that he had first felt during the ritual in all its glory.

Then, Hermione's magic guided theirs to do something, something complex and foreign. It shaped it in a way he'd never seen before except in ancient sorcery. The temperature plummeted and the sky suddenly darkened. Berg's eyes snapped open and he gawped in awe as grey clouds formed quickly. A cold, powerful wind blustered against them and sent Hermione's hair whipping around their faces. The two boys didn't mind, awestruck by the powerful enchantment Hermione had wrought with no words and no spells, not even a wand. Within seconds rain began to lash at them, but still the sky darkened. The rain grew thicker and heavier, obscuring the hills and eventually even the ground beneath them. Their flight grew rougher as Star began to battle against the elements and the wind that was now howling around them. Even as the boys hunched down into their cloaks to warm up, Hermione sat serene and exposed and directed their magic. Thunder growled and lighting split the dark sky, momentarily illuminating the silhouette of the castle below them. Star quickly descended as another flash of lighting smashed into the ground. It was only when Star landed with a thick squelch of mud that Hermione finally opened her eyes and looked up. Water ran down her pale face in rivulets and her hair hung in sodden rat's tails down her back.

'That was incredible.' Berg muttered, also looking up at the sky. It seemed he'd momentarily forgotten the three casualties that now lay in the mud, so Gellert scrambled down himself and sprinted in the direction of the castle.

The castle was chaos - wet civilians still streamed through the open doors and into the massive entry hall. Two members of the Russian coven were directing them one way for those who were injured and another for those who were not. Occasionally a roar of activity would accompany a recovered casualty as they were carried into the hall. Another crack of thunder split the air and the windows flashed with lighting.

Gellert pushed through the queue to the coven members and informed them of the three recovered prisoners. A team of healers was dispatched to retrieve them whilst Gellert hurried after an elf, answering what was apparently orders that he report to the ward room as soon as he arrived.

He could count on one hand the number of times he'd been down that particular corridor but this time it was almost unrecognisable. The stone statues had been blown to dust and shards and now coated every surface. The iron doors which were usually barred across the entrance were warped and twisted and hung sideways on their hinges and the ward stone itself had been reduced to a scatter of glittering shards. His mother knelt in the debris, three of the coven with her and the quartet chanted in a constant stream. When he stepped through the door, Herr Lintzen hobbled forwards from the wall and seamlessly changed with his mother, taking up her chant and spot in the ring. His mother wiped a dusty hand across her dirty skin and crossed the room in two steps. A moment later he was wrapped in her arms whilst she murmured again and again how happy she was to have him back.

He stood awkwardly for a moment, trying to remember if he'd ever been held like this by her before, then she released him and took a step back to look him over - that he was more accustomed to. The tears that glistened in dark trails down her cheeks were definitely new though.

'You look well. I was worried.' She finally said, seeming to have regained control of herself.

'I am now. I was gravely injured but have recovered.'

'I will hear the full story tonight, for now it is good to know that you are alive and well.'

'Duty first. What is happening?' He agreed, glancing once more at the chanting mages as he was led away up the corridor a horn distance.

'Dumortier had followers among those living under our protection. Whilst we were all distracted by the duel, they mounted an assault on the ward stone. We're doing our best to maintain a basic ward over the castle now but it is a large footprint.'

'Can we make it smaller? House everyone in the castle?' Gellert asked and Lady Grindelwald grimaced.

'We can, but it will be very tight. We'll be short of food in days. They must have someone in the ministry too; the floo network has been shut down and with the portal destroyed, we're trapped.'

'What do you need me to do?'

'We need everyone who studied warding at school, we'll roster them in and see if we can train up everyone with ritual experience. The methods are similar, then perhaps we can see if the high priestess can assist.'

'High Priestess?' It was a title that sounded familiar and important but he couldn't recall ever hearing it assigned to someone. His mother practically glowed with pride at his question.

'Hermione, High Priestess of Gorlois.' Almost every word glowed as she spoke and even though none of them meant anything to him, Gellert found himself smiling too. It definitely sounded impressive.

'Why would she be able to help?' He finally asked. Last he had heard, Hermione had been focusing every minute on training for duelling. He doubted she would have found any time to study warding beyond even what the coven knew.

'I was hoping she might be able to see if her Sect knew anything. Have you met Mordred yet?'

Unexpectedly, jealousy heated his blood at the turn of the conversation. He didn't know exactly what a Sect meant but he burned with jealousy at even this mention of another wizard being the first to create any sort of bond with her before him. He was family and he was meant to be her coven second. He remembered the tall, dark haired wizard he'd seen fighting with her before he'd picked her up. He'd been swinging a sword like the one she now carried. He'd been taller than Hermione, certainly an adult but not by much but possessed a wiry build.

'I'm sure you will. He's a strange young man; I have yet to establish if he's shy, or just doesn't consider anyone other than Hermione worth speaking to.' Gellert disliked this other man more with every word that passed his mother's lips. He bowed to her as he always did at the end of one of their meetings and excused himself with a promise to find witches and wizards to help maintain the warding.