I've uploaded a fic where I'll add the little scenes that I write that don't fit in this fic. The first one is up now.
Hermione woke up on the big day feeling optimistic. A quick glance over at Harry at the breakfast table showed she was certainly alone on that count. He was almost green with nerves and he just fiddled with his toast, despite the full spread of bacon and sausages laid out in front of them.
When Gellert appeared from his preparations, Harry quickly excused himself and dashed to the bathroom. The dark wizard piled his plate high with food and tucked in, casting concerned glances after Harry.
'Is he sick?' He asked, when Harry failed to re-emerge from the bathroom after several minutes. 'We should delay the ritual.'
'No, he's just nervous. He was like this before his first quiddich game.' She answered, although she was just as concerned as he was.
'I have dreamless sleep?' He offered and Hermione nodded. 'It's in my rooms, in the cabinet below the portrait.' He told her and she jumped up.
It was the first time she'd ever been inside his rooms, which was the first doorway in the corridor. The door, usually locked, opened easily and she entered into the most chaotic room she'd ever seen. It wasn't messy by any means; in fact it was almost immaculate but it was crammed full of projects and information. Half finished spells were pasted over the walls, his writing detailing processes and incantations, runic diagrams and magical theories.
One wall was lined with books, all of which looked like they belonged in the deepest, darkest corner of the restricted section. Yet more books were piled under the desks that ran around the other walls and hundreds of delicate brass, glass and bone instruments were crammed across every available surface. There was a pensive in one corner, a cabinet of memories over the top of it. A lot of the vials held two dates, some just one and a description. She realised that these were all visions and had to put considerable effort into resisting the temptation to view the one that currently swirled in the pensieve. It was one of the topics that Grindelwald had covered in his lecture; a seer often got certain messages from a vision that any ungifted user would miss, leaving them chasing the prophesy in circles.
She finally managed to find the portrait behind the door and stopped in shock. Dumbledore smiled back at her from his headmaster's portrait.
'Miss Granger.' He smiled and a part of her sagged in relief that she could finally ask her mentor some burning questions.
'Professor Dumbledore!' She greeted, and his eyes twinkled.
'I believe some form of appreciation is in order?' The old wizard offered, 'I believed my best friend to be beyond saving, but it seems you have managed it.' Hermione looked at him in confusion.
'We were both young men, ambitious and intelligent when we met. Oh his visions and his ideas, they inflamed me. He was already deep in the dark arts by then, and once I saw what he could do with them... We became very close as I finished at Hogwarts and he became darker and more powerful with every time I saw him. If only I had realised then what it would do to him.' The headmaster paused here to gather his emotions.
'One terrible night, my brother Aberforth confronted him. I don't know what drove him to do it but he cast the cruciatus curse on him. I realised then what a terrible mistake I was making and we duelled, my sister died in the crossfire.' Hermione knew most of this from Rita Skeeter's book but she let Dumbledore tell his story anyway.
'I realised then that the cost of the dark arts were too high and resolved to bring about change by educating children; teaching from the beginning that love, acceptance and forgiveness are the most powerful tools. Whilst I focused my energies on the younger generation, Gellert disappeared, I assume to continue his twisted research. Then, in 1920, he suddenly reappeared, decimating several towns. He had followers, and he'd found an obscure artefact that let him share his visions with the masses. He inflamed them as he had inflamed me. I couldn't face him, people begged for me to, but we had sworn a blood oath not to fight one another, until Newt Scamander managed to retrieve it. Even then I hesitated, you see, I never knew which of us had cast the curse that killed my sister and I feared that he would know it had been me.'
'I finally faced him when it became clear that nobody else could stop him, and that he would inflict himself on the world if not stopped. I had hoped to make him see reason, but he was mad with his own dark power. We duelled for several hours and in the end I triumphed, perhaps because I was more rested. I had him then at wand point, I expected him to tell me that I had been the one to kill Ariana, but he said nothing, just looked at me with his twisted eyes and laughed. I was too cowardly to kill him, even to bring him to trial so that they could give him the kiss. I shut him in his own fortress and expected to never see him or this place again.' Dumbledore finished, leaving Hermione more than a little shocked, the Grindelwald that she knew was nothing like the man that Dumbledore described.
'He has changed of course, I believe your influence had a lot to do with him not returning to who he was.' The professor added quickly.
'He's wand sworn to me, he knows that I'd stop him before he could try.' Hermione disagreed.
'A word of caution, Miss. Granger; Gellert has pushed areas of magic that no wizard has touched before him. I imagine such a simple bond wouldn't hold him very long at all if he did not wish it to.' He looked at her solemnly and she realised that the older wizard spoke the truth. Now that she looked, she realised one of the largest areas of research in the room was on bonds between wizards.
Furious that he'd tricked her, she yanked the doors on the cabinet open and rifled aggressively through the potions. Of course he would stay with them until Harry had Voldemort out of the way, then he'd break the bond and Britain would be ripe for the taking. She'd been stupid to believe she could control a wizard that had managed to fool half the world.
She stormed back into the dining room and slammed the potion down on the table. Grindelwald looked up at her with a puzzled expression.
'You're planning to break the wand oath.' She snarled at him. She forced herself not to be taken in by the confusion he plastered across his face.
'I wasn't... why would you think that?' He was a brilliant actor, she noted. She wondered if his slight accent made it easier or harder.
'I saw the research on bonds in your room. When were you going to do it? Let Harry clear up the You-Know-Who mess first?' She tried to keep her voice down, hoping that Harry wouldn't hear her and become even more stressed. She'd gotten them into this mess and she'd have to get them out.
'I... That was before my duel with Albus.' He stuttered, completely caught off guard. 'I was trying to find out if he could break the blood bond.'
'So you can break it?' She demanded, eyes narrowed.
'If I looked into it, I've never even considered it.' He answered completely honestly. She narrowed her eyes at him. 'Every spell can be broken.' He told her, which made sense if one had the knowledge and power. Grindelwald certainly had both.
'How do I know you're not going to try and take over the world again?'
Grindelwald sat back and pondered her.
'When I see the distant future, I only see possibilities. The closer I get to the time of the vision, the more accurate what I see becomes. It's a sense that you have as a seer and its why those who hear or see our visions that don't have the gift often spend years chasing them.' He told her. She'd heard this in his lecture to the Hogwarts students, and he'd told her this before in one of their first real conversations.
'I can show you something that I saw a few weeks ago but you must understand that it's only a possibility.' He stood up stiffly and headed towards his room. Hermione followed him as he went over to the pensieve, he took her hand and touched the swirling liquid. She shut her eyes as the world swirled around her, opening them again when she heard the crackle of the fire. Grindelwald sat in his usual chair, a book open on his lap. They were reading quietly, Hermione turning the pages of the reference book with a rapid rustle of parchment. Suddenly, a second image overlaid over the top of the scene in the room. She tried to brush it away but the real Grindelwald whispered in her ear to focus on the new image.
She did and suddenly she was looking at an excited little girl. She had Harry's green eyes but was otherwise a spitting image of Ginny and she ran up to a witch that stood on the balcony, doors thrown open wide behind her. The older witch wore fashionable blue robes, her hair in an elegant twist on her head. She turned around as the younger version of Ginny approached and with a start Hermione recognised herself. She looked older, maybe late thirties, and far more sophisticated than she'd ever imagined herself.
'What is it Lily?' The older her asked, bending down to the young girl's level.
'A letter from Albus, Auntie Hermione, he says he'd arrived at school safely.' The girl answered, thrusting a letter towards her aunt. The older Hermione's face spread into a stunning smile as she took the letter and read it.
'Shall we go and tell Uncle Gellert before your parents arrive to pick you up?' The witch asked, taking the little girl's hand and leading her back inside.
The scene faded back to the living room where Grindelwald was staring into the fire, then the world swirled around them and they were back in his bedroom.
'Was that the future? Ginny and Harry's child?' She asked in awe, wondering what else he'd seen about their futures and not told them.
'It is still a possible future. Still a long way away, as you could see. If one of us made a decision that would destroy that possibility – for example if I were to take over Europe, and by extension kill you and Harry because you'd fight me every step of the way, the vision would change. He held up a vial that looked like a black memory, and she realised it was the same effect that happened to the unsolved prophesies in the department of mysteries.
He lifted the vision from the pensieve, and siphoned it into a miniscule glass vial on a gold chain. She was surprised when he draped the chain over her neck, letting the silver vial fall onto her chest.
'You'll know to come and find me if this changes, I won't even have time to draw out the ritual before you're here to find out whether I'm planning to kill you or whether it's just Ginny and Harry having an argument.'