Thanks to those who let me know that the upload was bad. Here is the (hopefully) fixed chapter.
Pretender
/prɪˈtɛndə/
noun
A person who claims or aspires to a title of position.
Hermione was starting to realise Gellert slept very little. He was up before dawn again, which woke Hermione because she was a light sleeper. She watched as he moved around, cleaning his teeth – which was unusual because she'd never imagined infamous dark wizards as the kind of people to use a toothbrush, and combing his hair into spikes.
Hermione woke up a little while later when a coffee landed infront of her. Another landed in front of Harry, a saucer knocking him in the ear a couple of times. She sat up in her camp cot, gratefully taking a sip of the warm drink. Grindelwald was back in his armchair, reading Hermione's worn copy of Hogwarts: a history.
'Porridge?' He asked, without looking up from his book. She agreed, and the mumble from Harry's cot sounded positive. Again, without looking up from his book, Grindelwald flicked his fingers and summoned ingredients from the bag, setting them to cook with a complex twist of his hand.
He was well known for his wandless magic of course but it was fascinating to observe how he performed daily tasks with it. He looked up briefly to check the consistency before wandlessly distributing the porridge into bowls and floating it over to them. Hermione considered trying to wandlessly summon a spoon for herself but thought better of embarrassing herself. Then again, he wouldn't know that she'd been trying if it didn't work.
She put down her cup, subtly opening her hand and concentrating on a spoon.
'Hand gesture is very important Miss. Granger.' The older wizard said. She jumped, certain that he hadn't even looked up. 'Your intent is strong enough and you certainly have the power. Hand gesture and the incantation help to focus and direct your magic.'
Embarrassed, she tried again, waving her hand as if it were her wand, loudly and clearly pronouncing the incantation. The spoon made it half way to her before falling on the filthy cave floor. She moaned and used her wand to summon a new spoon from her bag. Gellert was politely reading his book again and didn't comment on her failure, his face was very carefully blank.
They all donned a set of heavy black hooded robes which were incredibly uncomfortable to wear and inconvenient to move in but would hopefully help to hide their identities at the Hog's Head. She keenly remembered the last time that she'd visited and they'd stood out for not wearing anything concealing.
Hermione took her turn doing the dishes when Harry was finally up. Grindelwald began retrieving his spiders as Harry packed up the furniture, banished the chairs and transfigured the table back into a stick.
Hermione did the dishes just outside the cave, conjuring a couple of birds to eat and leftovers on the ground. As she did, she took a moment to revel in how cooking with magic never left burned pans.
She returned to the cave in time to see Grindelwald stripping away the last of her wards, something Hermione hadn't even known it was possible to do if you weren't the caster. Somehow he'd managed to not even trigger any of the warning systems she had in place.
Once they were finished, Hermione cast a quick spell to erase their footsteps. Gellert then cast a quick one over the top which he claimed would remove their magical signatures from the area. Harry passed her the beaded bag and they joined hands before disappearing with a crack.
They reappeared in front of the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade. It was one of the few shops not yet abandoned, which gave the town a ghostly feeling. Although there were people in the street, they hurried along, dressed in black robes with their head down. Harry dragged them both through the pub door and into the darkened interior.
The place was bustling. All manner of creatures sat around the tables; vampires, hags and every other dark being that now thrived under the rule of Voldemort. Fortunately, nobody spared them a glance as they wove between patrons, careful not to touch anyone.
They drew up to the bar and waited in the queue to be served when Grindelwald tapped Hermione on the shoulder furiously.
'You failed to tell me this passage is guarded by Albus' brother.' He growled in her ear. It took Hermione a couple of seconds to recognise why that was a problem; it was often difficult to connect the young man travelling with them to the villain of her books.
'Oh no, you killed Ariana didn't you?' She realised, but by then it was too late because Aberforth was already turning to serve them. Grindelwald sank backwards as Harry stepped up to the bar.
'We wondered if we could speak to the portrait?' Harry murmured. Aberforth nodded and let himself out from behind the bar. The trio followed him and passed through the door he held open. Any hopes they might have had of this going smoothly was dashed as soon as Aberforth laid eyes on Grindelwald. He recognised the dark wizard immediately and whipped his wand out as if to disarm him. Gellert whipped through the door, letting it slam shut and Aberforth's spell splashed harmlessly against the wood. He cast another which flashed against Grindelwald's shield, followed by several more. To his credit, Gellert took the attack without retaliating once, retreating back until his back hit the wall at the far side of the room.
Seeing that Aberforth's onslaught was nowhere near stopping, Hermione quickly disarmed him. Then, to make things fair, she disarmed Grindelwald too. The dark wizard pushed back his hood to look at her with a disgruntled expression.
'How dare you!' Aberforth growled, 'You step foot on my property after what you did to us.'
'I didn't know you were here.'
'You should be festering in prison for the rest of your artificial, tortured life for what you did to my sister, for what you did to Albus.' The bartender continued.
'I've changed, I wanted to speak with him, to apologise.'
'There is no apology! He loved you, not as a brother, and you tore his heart and killed his sister. The fool listened to your honeyed lies and believed you but you betrayed him. Then you tore him apart again when you forced him to shut you in a cell in your own putrid prison.'
Grindelwald seemed shocked into silence.
'I thought he hated me.' He finally whispered. 'When he broke the pact, I thought he never wanted anything to do with me again. I wanted to apologise to him but he never visited.'
'He's dead now.' Aberforth scowled, brutally twisting the knife in his devastated opponent.
'I know, Hermione came to Nurmengard, I asked to avenge him.'
'Then she is a fool, to be tricked by your silver tongue.'
'I swore my wand to her. She may take my magic and return me to Nurmengard if she feels fit, but I must avenge Albus.'
'If you'd not betrayed him, you would know Albus didn't believe in revenge. He was a champion of love and forgiveness.'
'He was a bastion of light that I never deserved.'
'No, you didn't.'
Hermione didn't understand exactly what had happened during the discussion, they had traded words almost too fast for her to follow but they seemed to have reached some kind of agreement because Aberforth strode over to the portrait above the fireplace and spoke to his sister. Grindelwald smoothed his charismatic mask back over his features and straightened up again.