Another chapter added in the extras fic. Please enjoy this one.
Harry never came back to breakfast but Hermione was able to slip his dreamless sleep potion into a cup of tea which she delivered to his room. She fingered the glass vial that hung around her neck; it felt odd wearing something of his, almost intimate. She scrubbed that thought from her mind. It was just a way of monitoring him to make sure he didn't break the wand oath.
Unbidden, the image of her turning around to face the little girl entered her mind. There had been a ring on her finger, just as elegant and sophisticated as the rest of her. She forced that thought out of her mind, this was the danger with prophesies for non-seers. She shoved the memory of the vision behind an occlumency barrier and knocked on Harry's door.
She received no answer, so she pushed it open and found him slumped over the chair in front of the window. She smiled, levitating him out and down the hallway. Gellert met her at the doorway and they shut him in a closet which they could levitate downstairs without causing a fuss. Hermione caught the doors as they made their way down in awkward silence.
'I'm sorry, I shouldn't have listened to Professor Dumbledore.' She apologised.
'Just don't call Albus "professor" again. It makes me feel old.' He mumbled, which Hermione took to mean apology accepted.
'Is that his portrait from Hogwarts?' She asked curiously. He nodded.
They shuffled awkwardly around a corner, both having to focus to get around without jolting Harry too badly. The steep stairs in the prison block proved another challenge but once they had the hang of it, it became pretty easy. The inhabitants of Nurmengard were very used to furniture being shifted around by now as people settled in and so nobody found anything unusual and even chipped in to help with the most awkward bits.
They arrived in the experiment room that had been set aside with little trouble and worked together to get Harry situated in the right spot. Hermione pulled out the plastic fairy figurine that had come with the lion and handed it to Grindelwald. The gold glitter on her skirt hadn't survived the night in the potion and it came away over Hermione's hand. She grinned and wiped it across Gellert's face in a lightning fast movement.
He sent her a dangerous glare that would have sent anyone who knew him less running and a cool breeze brushed over her face. She realised too late that he was holding his wand and threw her hands up to her face. They came away covered in a thick film of glitter, she would have retaliated but Harry didn't have long left of his sleep.
What followed was the longest hour of her life as she waited outside the patronus ward for Grindelwald to finish the ritual. It seemed to take twice as long as when Nagini had been the subject and taking the glitter off her face only took half the wait.
She fiddled with the glass vial around her neck, watching as the silver liquid swirled around, she wondered if it was technically a gas or a liquid. It seemed to change state depending on whether it was in an open container or not. It suddenly occurred to her that in the time Gellert had been born, giving jewellery might have an entirely different meaning.
It didn't in the modern day... the thought was completely blown from her mind as Harry suddenly flew out of the door and wrapped her in a tight hug. They laughed together in relief for several minutes and if a couple of tears escaped, Hermione was sure neither of them would care. On an unspoken agreement they snagged Grindelwald into the hug as he tried to sneak past. The dark wizard stood like a board as he was embraced.
The little fairy doll that now held Voldemort's soul sat innocently on the floor as they pulled apart and Hermione turned to face it.
'I think you've earned the honours, Gellert.' She said softly.
'That, and of the three of us, I'm the only one who can cast the curse.' He laughed. A single tongue of fire shot from his wand, forming into a manticore which savaged the fairy. She melted into a black puddle with little resistance, the cursed fire continued to burn in a neat circle, vaporising the only fuel Grindelwald allowed it to touch. Hermione marvelled again at how different a spell it was when Grindelwald cast it as to Crabbe, coldly and irrefutably destructive and the knowledge that it was completely under the control of its caster was somewhat more frightening that the wildfire Crabbe had caused.
He let the curse burn out when there was nothing left of the black puddle and Hermione used a quick cleaning charm to get rid of the scorch marks on the stone.
McGonagall stopped them on their way to the living quarters and asked Grindelwald to come with her to help some students with objects that she didn't recognise. It had turned out during the cleaning that he was quite a hoarder with store rooms filled to the ceiling with gifts, spoils and dark magic. There were hundreds of books and Madam Pince had been overjoyed to be given the task of sorting the books into three separate libraries – one for interesting books (or illegal as everyone other than Grindelwald called them), he'd compromised by using a complex locking system on the door so that students had no chance of ever entering. One for non-fiction that was suitable for student reference and another for fiction.
The students had finally finished clearing the junk and unenchanted furniture out of storage and were now facing the daunting challenge of figuring what else was safe and what needed to be locked away next to Grindelwald's "interesting library".
Harry and Hermione continued on upwards alone, usually Harry stopped off at the Weasley's to spend the evening with Ginny so she was surprised when he continued into the living quarters with her and joined her on the couches in front of the large windows.
'We need to do something to thank him.' Harry said as soon as they were seated.
'I already intend to ensure that he is considerably more comfortable than before.' Hermione told him, 'He has also offered accommodation to anyone who wishes to remain in the castle after the war, an offer that I am fully intending to take him up on. I for one will be visiting him regularly.'
'No, Hermione.' He insisted, 'I mean that we should push for his freedom.'
'There's no way! The Wizengamot might do it but he'd still be wanted for major crimes in the rest of the world.' She'd read enough for her essays during history of magic that he had a longer list of crimes than Dumbledore had good deeds.
'Actually, I was thinking we could go straight to the ICW. I did some research on international wizarding law, trying to figure out if we'd get in trouble for living here.' He explained, lifting a thick book from one of the sidetables. Her jaw fell open as he adjusted his glasses and flicked through the pages, pulling a scrap of parchment with notes and numbers towards him.
'Are we doing something wrong?' She asked, amazed as the usually sport-obsessed boy browsed a book even she would consider heavy reading.
'Well no, Gellert knew what he was doing at least. According to muggle law, the whole valley officially falls under the Grünerbaum estate, the official owner of which is Grindelwald. As his assets were never actually seized, he does still legally own Nurmengard.' Hermione just stared at him slack jawed, she knew he was intelligent but she had no idea he was this driven. 'This is where he was really intelligent though – Nurmengard is not actually in Austria, its 200m into Lichtenstein, the only country to not fall under international wizarding law due to a dispute on trolls during the 1600's.' He finished, opening another book and casting a little charm that Hermione had never even heard of to translate a passage into English.
'Harry, this is incredible.' She said pulling Harry's copious research towards her. She'd assumed he'd been spending every spare minute with Ginny but she realised now that he'd been doing his own research without telling either of them.
'Now, Grindelwald has never actually committed a crime in Lichtenstein, whose magical population went extinct in 1780. In fact, most laws still in effect revolve around theft of land and not disturbing the trolls – it's actually specified that killing a foreign national is permissible. So technically, Gellert is free so long as he remains in Lichtenstein.' Harry said as he adjusted his glasses on his nose. Hermione considered that he really wouldn't have looked that out of place in court at that moment if he'd been wearing a suit.
'But you want to push for more than that?' Hermione guessed and Harry nodded, pushing the thick book that he was referencing towards her. He'd magically highlighted a passage, which Hermione read through quickly.
'So you want the Ministry of Magic to submit an appeal for a pardon?' Hermione concluded after reading it and Harry nodded emphatically.
'Yes, see here, "A government may submit an appeal for an international pardon if they believe that a convicted witch or wizard in their custody has provided a great service to the betterment of the wizarding population on an international level."'
'So we need evidence that You-Know-Who intended to make international movements.' Hermione concluded and Harry nodded.
'There must be something somewhere in the ministry.' He said hopefully. 'Or we could get one of the death eaters to confess.'
'Sure, but we mustn't let Gellert know we're looking into this. Just in case it doesn't come to anything. Let's put all this stuff in your room, he doesn't feel as comfortable around you so you'll probably get more warning if he decides to come in.' She decided, using slips of parchment to bookmark the pages Harry had open and neatly piling them up.
'Hermione, he's a gentleman from the beginning of the 20th century. He gets uncomfortable when you show your ankles, he'd never come into a girl's room without express invitation and he'd certainly never go into your bathroom.' Harry laughed, carrying their research materials into her bathroom and storing them in the cabinet under the sink.