The end of the school year was a relief; he passed his exams with flying colours. Berg also did well, receiving a special commendation on his Foreign Magic exam but faltering a little on his rituals practical when he panicked and mixed up the symbols for air and fire.

His mother was pleased with his results, and apparently Hermione had decimated her classmates in her exams as well. There had been no fights, no treaty violations and best of all, no premonitions of disaster over summer.

He couldn't help but be excited as he saddled Kelpie and led him out to the courtyard where Berg was already waiting. Mareike waved to him as she clattered out of the courtyard and Petrovna nodded from the back of her thestral. He swung up easily, wondering briefly when he'd grown tall enough to reach the stirrup without a step before riding from the courtyard.

Beasts were picking up on their rider's excitement, prancing and flapping their wings beneath the glorious sunshine. Gellert cantered Kelpie along the ridgeline whilst Berg swooped above him, wings rusting Gellert's hair. He released the reins, laying back so that he was flat along Kelpie's rump and looking up into the blue sky.

He was free and they were going to Hexemeer for the first time since his father had gone.

There were already crowds of students and their parents crammed into the small clearing near the portal. Hermione and his mother were unmissable; Katana kept screeching and flapping his silver wings and it looked like the young witch was fighting to keep him from taking flight. He shook his head, laughing.

Then he noticed that Hermione wasn't wearing her crown.

He tired to dismiss it, but suddenly the sun seemed just a little less golden and the wind seemed to blow a little colder. Her crown was her most powerful defensive shield and she was out in public without it when they knew she was a prime target for the revolutionaries.

'Where's your crown?' He demanded as soon as he was close to her. Her brows pulled together.

'Hello to you too, Gellert. I had a wonderful term, thank you and I am really looking forwards to the summer holidays.' She replied dryly. He waved his hand in dismissal, did she not understand how dangerous it was? He could see Alice across the clearing, and she had clearly noticed the lack of crown as well.

'Why aren't you wearing your crown?' He demanded again. Hermione made a noise of derision.

'If you must know, I ended up duelling an undead dark wizard at school and the enchantments on it were broken.' She very deliberately ignored him after that, taking advantage of Katana's massive height and long legs to catch up with Berg.

'Your sister is neither foolish nor weak, Gellert.' His mother said, riding her Granian up next to him. 'You should give her more credit.'

'But... a dark wizard in her school... why didn't she tell me?' He asked. There was a cold, sick feeling in his chest and he felt very unsteady on his beast.

'From what I gathered through the hysterical tears, the dark wizard was possessing one of her teachers. She didn't know until he threatened to kill one of her classmates.' His mother said mildly. 'I'm sure that if the incident had happened more than three days ago, she would have told you all about it by owl.'

'Oh.' He felt rather guilty now but at least the horrible cold feeling was gone. 'She wasn't hurt, was she?'

'I did not see the healer's report, but I know that she accidentally performed an exorcism without any ritual or regents. She would have suffered from a magical exhaustion at least. Her crown seems to have taken the worst of the damage.' His mother shook her head incredulously. 'That's three dark wizards she's duelled before twelve.'

'We need to find something to replace the crown; some other kind of protective ward.' He fretted.

'She'd got Mordred's sword hidden somewhere under that cloak. Between him, Katana and myself, there is very little that could get through to her.' His mother said shortly, 'not to mention her own prodigious power. Whilst your heart is in the right place, your approach is more than a little patronising.'

Hermione and Berg had reached the portal and Gellert and his mother trotted their beasts forwards to catch up.

'Where to?' A very bored teacher asked.

'Hexemere.' His mother informed the teacher sharply. The teacher blinked a couple of times.

'Hagalaz, Ehwaz, Kaunaz, Sowulo.' Hermione reminded, her tone only fractionally more forgiving than his mother's. The teacher fumbled to open the gate with the supplied runes and a moment later they rode through into the open expanse of Hexemeer.

The island had once been his family's summer retreat; it was where his mother and father had courted and where he had supposedly been conceived. They had visited every summer when he was a child, up until his father had begun his rampage and forced his mother and her coven to hunt him down.

He'd always loved it here; the island was unplottable, somewhere in the Baltic Sea. The island was just large enough to allow a comfortable ride around the perimeter, along the powdery sand of the beaches where lazy seals lounged in the sun. There was nothing else on the island apart from their property - a sprawling collection of whitewashed cottages that were huddled around the base of a towering lighthouse on the north end of the isle where the land abruptly swept upwards like a breaking wave. It was built on craggy cliffs which overlooked a bay full of savage rocks and the shattered hulls of muggle ships, cleverly disguising a quidditch pitch between the pincer-like arms of land.

Hermione took off as soon as their beast's hooves touched the sandy soil, surging up into the air with a snap of Katana's mighty wingspan. Clearly, he wouldn't be apologising to her until she'd exhausted her beast, then tended to him. Hopefully her anger would wash away rather than building with time.

Berg followed only a moment afterwards, soaring across the isle to investigate the ritual circle. His mother took off a beat later, her Granian headed straight for the houses. Gellert was left alone to ride across the ground, picking along the slightly overgrown track.

Even if he did have a flying beast, he didn't think he would be able to fly right now; the buoyancy of that morning had morphed into a leaden weight. Already, Hermione was angry with him, he'd failed to protect her from a dark wizard in her school, his mother disapproved of his behaviour and even Kelpie was miserable because he'd had to leave Durmstrang and it's resident Mer village.

He turned Kelpie's head, allowing him to clamber up the banks and nudged him into a canter. Even the wind whipping through his hair and the powerful surging of the beast beneath him couldn't improve his mood.

They reached the beach in moments, Kelpie adapting easily to the sand as Gellert steered him towards the harder surface of the shallows. He'd done this every morning as a child, cantering his pony through the surf with his mother and father on their own beasts ahead of him, throwing up spray and clods of sand and spoiling their robes even as they laughed with the joy of freedom.

If anything the memory made him feel worse and now that he had Kelpie's ground-swallowing stride beneath him, they were fast approaching the end of the beach. He reigned in his beast and dismounted, dropping Kelpie's reins and trudging through the soft sand to where a pile of small stones littered the beach. He picked one up, weighed it in his hand then hurled it at a larger rock. The two ricocheted apart, one landing with a slop slightly further down the beach whilst the other struck him in the ankle, right where his shoe ended. He cursed, picking up the rock again and hurling it down the beach where it hit a much larger rock. The smaller stone punched through the rock with a sound like a thunderclap and Gellert huffed in irritated disbelief.

'Accidental magic, Gellert?' Hermione's voice called from the dune above.

He spun on his heel, almost toppling as the sand collapsed beneath his foot, to see her looking down at him. Her arms were crossed, her long riding cloak snapping around her like dark fire. Katana stood at her shoulder, draconic head snaking around her shoulder as he nuzzled her pockets in search of treats.

He couldn't imagine a better witch.

'Hermione!' He found himself gasping and stumbling up the dune towards her, feet slipping on the sand as his hands snatched at loosely rooted sea grasses. Finally, painfully, he was at her level, looking at her wind blown hair and cool eyes. 'I'm sorry Hermione. I shouldn't have doubted your ability to protect yourself, I should have let you explain everything.'

'It's okay, Gellert.' She finally said, her magic wrapping around his in as tight a hug as her physical one. 'You were worried about me. I should have explained what had happened earlier, perhaps send a message through the floo.'

Then, after a moment more of awkward eye contact where neither could quite decide what to do, Gellert stepped forwards and wrapped her into a hug of his own.

'I really missed you.' He admitted. 'School is full of such imbeciles.'

'Imbeciles. I like that word, sounds like something my potions master would say.' Hermione giggled. 'I had to deal with lots of imbeciles too - mostly that cow of a headmaster.'

'What's happened now?' Gellert asked, falling back into the familiar territory of complaining about their teachers.

'He awarded house points!' She hissed. 'Come on, lets do that riding in the sea thing that you were doing a moment ago, otherwise I'll make a second hole in that rock over there.'

He gave her a leg up onto Katana, noticing that whilst he was now tall enough to mount Kelpie unassisted, the fractionally taller Longma would still be beyond his reach. Hermione descended the dune in a single large bound and Gellert skidded after her, filling his shoes with sand as he went. He solved the situation by tearing them off before he sprung up onto Kelpie's back, knocking his chin against his knee several times as he tried to pull off his socks whilst trotting after her.

'So... house points? I thought those were a good thing?' He asked as he slowed his beast to a walk beside her.

'They are, and my house was winning by one hundred points. Then, he awarded points for stopping the dark wizard! Ron got fifty for sacrificing himself to get us through one of the sets of defences, then Neville got fifty as well for rescuing him, then I only got fifty even though I actually duelled the dark wizard. Then, he gave Harry sixty... he got more points than me just for hiding behind a pillar and using my sword to smash a mirror.'

'That is unfair.' Gellert agreed.

'So, conveniently, Gryffindor get one hundred and sixty points, whilst my house - whom he hates of course - only gets fifty, despite it being me who rescued them from the devil's snare, me who figured out which potions would get us through the fire, me who duelled a dark wizard and me who almost killed myself performing an exorcism.'

She was sobbing and he couldn't tell if she was furious, sad or in some kind of delayed shock; perhaps a combination of all three. He couldn't hug her from different mounts, but he could reach his magic out and coax in into wrapping around her in a strange imitation. He was rewarded by a slight upward turn in the corners of her mouth.

'I know that's awful and unfair, but it's just school. You are Hermione of Gorlois and they will tremble at your name, the headmaster will be but a chapter.'

Victory. Hermione smiled.

'True.' She conceded.

'Let's go and stable the beasts. I want to show you the caves.'

'Caves?' Hermione asked eagerly.

'Yes, come on, race you?'

'Oh, you're on.' Hermione vowed. Katana leapt skywards in a storm of wet sand and water and Gellert spun Kelpie on his heel, sending him surging down the beach towards the closest track. Hermione would win of course; not only was her beast blindingly fast, she could also fly straight there whilst Gellert had to take a long, circuitous route. He didn't really mind though, he always relished moving fast on his beast, bent low over his dark neck and feeling the pull and surge of muscles beneath his legs.

Predictably, he arrived several minutes after Hermione and Berg landed a moment later having seen them both darting towards the buildings.

'What's going on?' He demanded, swinging of his hippogriff.

'Gellert's showing me the caves.' Hermione answered, already struggling to pull off Katana's saddle.

'That sounds amazing! Here, Hermione, let me.'

'I can do it!'

'Of course you can, but that doesn't make it polite for me to stand and watch.' Berg brushed her aside and managed to lift off the saddle. Hermione huffed irritably but thanked him all the same, then led Katana into the stables and picked out an empty stall for him - one that had a window looking out over the sea. Gellert pulled off his own saddle, leaving it outside to be washed of salt and followed her, stabling his beast next to hers.

'I need to change out of this cloak and dress.' Hermione decided, inspecting the damp hem of her formal clothing and Gellert nodded.

'Me too, and I'll grab us some broomsticks too. Have you been shown to your rooms?'

'Not yet.'

Gellert summoned her elf for her, asking directions to where they would be staying. Flighty babbled away happily to Hermione in English as they walked, talking so quickly that Gellert could only catch every couple of words. He was reasonably sure that Hermione was being given a rundown of the cooking and laundry facilities on the island, although why she tolerated such mundane chatter from her elf he would never understand.

They were led to one of the cottages; whitewashed walls almost glowed in the sunlight in sharp contrast to the dark slate roof and tarred wooden door. The elf swung the door open, bowing deeply to let them in.

The main room of the cottage was large and light, the ceiling charmed to be transparent in one direction. One wall had been painted with a stunning seascape, little painted waves lapping at the windowsills and wind-blown grass rippling like silver streamers. The opposite wall held bookshelves and a couple more paintings, one of a lazy water dragon draped over rocks and another of a sunset sailing ship. There was no fireplace, but the the sky blue upholstered chairs were arranged around a second, double door which he knew led out to the shaded deck. Lined up next to the double door were a selection of wicker chairs which were suitable for the outside and a hook to hold a sun hat, parasol and towel. He could already imagine Hermione's scoff when she realised what the folded lace umbrella was meant to be for.

Another door led them into her bedroom - this one had an entire wall enchanted to provide a panoramic view of the cliffs and the glittering sea beyond. It was hung with blue curtains, that could be drawn across to block out the light. The bed was made up in matching colours, and there was a large writing desk which looked out through the magical window. The real window had been thrown open to allow a fresh sea breeze to billow through, rustling the tapestry of a sea goddess on the far wall and the curtains which concealed what Gellert knew to be a luxurious bathroom from his own rooms.

'Do we all get a cottage to ourselves?' Hermione asked after a moment and Gellert nodded.

'There's five accomodation houses and four public houses; one has a music and a games room, one for us to have our summer classes in, a dining room and a library. There's a grotto too, built into the cliffs that stays nice and cool, and the caves themselves which is where the elves work.'

'I love it.' Hermione announced. 'Give me a moment to change and we can go and see these caves.'

Gellert obliged, hurrying to his own set of rooms to change out of his own formal clothing. His rooms were almost identical, with the exception of the artwork and the sliver of cliff top that curled around into the left hand side of his panoramic view. He ignored all of this, shrugging of his soaking wet clothes and changing quickly into shorts and a light, billowing shirt. His elf shoved a straw hat into his hands as he left, scolding words about sunburn echoing behind him as he jogged back over to Hermione's

Hermione took a little longer to change, as all women did when they had to worry about petticoats and overskirts. Eventually she emerged in a very Grecian pale grey dress that flowed down to her feet and made her look very adult. She wore a wide brimmed white sun hat, but predictably had forgone the parasol. Berg joined them a moment later, dressed very similarly to Gellert and they headed over to the broom shed to grab broomsticks.

Gellert really disliked flying, almost as much as Hermione who was almost comical in her hatred of what she called 'magic wedgie sticks.' He had no idea what a wedgie was, but she spoke it with enough scorn that he could guess it wasn't a good thing. Unfortunately, broomsticks were the only way down to the cove at the base of the cliffs.

They flew down as quickly as possible, touching down on the rocky beach softly and leaving their brooms up against the cliff. It was quite loud down at the bottom of the cliffs - the gentle rush of waves against pebbles echoed against the cliffs and the wind, despite being gentle, whistled strangely.

'Look, this wreck must have been recent!' Berg held up a cracked clay jar, still full of sticky jam.

'Really recent.' Hermione agreed, crunching across the rocks to pick up a sodden book. 'You don't think there'll be... bodies here do you?' She asked nervously, glancing around as if expecting to see a leering skeleton at any moment.

'No.' Berg said, sounding faint. Gellert followed his trembling, raised arm towards the furthest and largest cave. Seven gaunt figures were huddled just inside the entrance, unmistakably alive and watching them.

'Hide the broomsticks.' Hermione ordered quickly. 'Muggles associate them with witches, and don't use your wand.'

Three of the muggles split off, emerging from the cave and began crossing the beach towards them. They carried large knives, but they were sheathed and he noticed that the ones inside the cave carried the long muggle wands that he'd seen in his dreams. The leader wore a dark blue and gold jacket which matched trousers that had perhaps once been neat. The two men to either side of him were rougher with grubby brown trousers and stained shirts. Gellert sent a tendril of magic, concealing their brooms as more bits of debris, then readied himself to cast a magical shield to defend against the curses that he knew those muggle wands could cast as Hermione stepped forwards to meet the muggles.

'Mi'lady.' The leader greeted. He spoke English, slowly and loudly as if he had no idea what country he had washed up in. 'I am Captain Granger, of the Moira.'

The man must be a relative of hers, they shared the same name and language and Hermione clearly knew the name, even if the muggle didn't recognise her.

'Oh.' Hermione uttered quietly. 'Gellert, we need to speak to your mother, urgently.' She turned to him quickly.

'I know.' Gellert said sombrely.

'Do you speak English?' Hermione's relative asked, 'Français?'

'English.' Hermione replied faintly. 'I do speak English. Forgive me, I did not expect to see you here.'

'Of course, Mi'lady. Do you have a name?' The man bowed lowly, and Hermione bit her lip.

'My name is Hermione. My companions are Gellert and Berg.'

'Do you have food and water? We are low on supplies and we have several injured.'

'I can speak to my matriarch.' Was all Hermione said, remarkably collected considering it was one of her relatives that she'd discovered shipwrecked on the beach. Berg shared a significant look with Gellert behind her back; this was certain to get messy because the statute of secrecy made it very clear that they could not magically assist the muggles, but it was very unlikely Hermione would leave them here.

'Perhaps I could meet with her?' The captain suggested and Hermione shook her head.

'Flighty. Take us home.' She ordered imperiously. Gellert's eyes widened in surprise, then Hermione took a firm hold on his wrist and they were torn through the magical plane, reappearing just outside Lady Grindelwald's cottage.

'Hermione!' Berg moaned in dismay. 'The statute of secrecy.'

'I know. I need to speak with Lady Grindelwald, alone.' Then she dropped their hands and pushed through the door to his mother's rooms.