She'd thoroughly enjoyed the expressions on the Malfoy's faces as she'd led them up to the intimidating facade of the prison. It looked even more intimidating in autumn than it had in summer, the russets and golds of the grounds leading up to the base of the rocky cliff the castle was build on contrasted sharply with the black of the tower, making it look even darker than before. The cavernous entrance in the base of the cliff was like an inky maw, lit dimly by the blue flames on either side of the portcullis.
The heavy armoured doors stood open, the rough planes of the dragon scales reflecting the light cruelly. The main staircase led straight up from the doors, disappearing into bluish gloom as it ascended through the cliff to the castle proper. She led them up the stairs, then along the maze of corridors that had been so confusing when she'd first arrived. As they went, she explained that now they'd visited once, they could use one of the many port keys to move more easily through the castle.
She thoroughly enjoyed leading them through the cell blocks and past the lingering dark magic of the experiment rooms. Although they were allies now, Malfoy had still been the one to torture her through the entirety of her school career, so she had to take pleasure in his unease.
After the lower floors of the castle, the upper floors were a blinding difference. Here, the sconces were all filled with bright golden fire that flickered merrily without seeming to create deep shadows. The sounds of the "Nurmengard children" laughing drifted through the lower living levels; music came from behind one of the doors whilst an open door further down the corridor allowed for a view of two girls practicing fire charms. She paused, knocking on the door and sending the two very apologetic students down to the duelling room to practice magic with a scolding for practicing a dangerous charm in a carpeted living area.
The two Malfoys gaped as they were led past many more occupied living areas, seeming to realise for the first time just how many people inhabited the castle. She pointed out the library, cautioned them against entering Grindelwald's personal storage rooms. Finally, they reached the auditorium and she ignored their confused questions as she led them into Grindelwald's private quarters. She didn't need to worry about privacy, due to a strange little ward that Gellert had placed on his rooms at some point – as soon as they were no longer staying in the rooms, they would forget their location and even exactly what was inside.
The appearance of the room managed to draw a gasp from the usually inscrutable Mrs Malfoy, and she quickly hurried to the windows with their spectacular view of the valley. Hermione showed them the dining room and library through the right hand door and was half way across the main room when pain seared across her mind.
She cried out, stumbling forwards as fire exploded behind her eyes. Her vision flickered and someone caught her as she fell. She heard someone calling her name as if from underwater, but couldn't remember any words to reply, or even how to speak. Doors opened and shut as she battled the pain, cooling magic washed across her body but did nothing to ease the pain in her head.
Someone tipped a potion into her mouth, the thick mixture forcing its way down her throat. She screamed, which came out as more of a gurgle, then the potion's effects must have kicked in because everything suddenly went black.
She woke up to coldness and an overwhelming feeling of abandonment and loneliness. The occulumency shields that she'd spent so many hours working on were in tatters, her mind felt like wolverine had taken his claws to it. It didn't even take her a minute to find the nucleus of the disturbance, everything radiated out from her bond with Grindelwald.
Or at least from where the bond had been.
She froze, double and triple checking the empty space but he was unmistakably gone. Tattered threads that had once bound them floated into space, almost as if they were searching for something to latch on to. She left them, knowing that she should probably fix the mess but not confident enough in her occculumency skills to know where to reattach everything. The mind was known to heal itself in time anyway.
She finally stirred, turning in her bed to see that it was dark. The moon shone through the massive windows but the peak of the mountain opposite was gilded in gold rather than silver, so the sun was just starting to rise. Someone sat in the chair by the window, but they stood when she turned and hurried over to the bed. It turned out to be Ginny, and she quickly ran a couple of diagnostic spells but Hermione knocked her wand away, sitting up quickly.
'Where's Harry?' She demanded as soon as the black spots in her vision faded. The witch promised to fetch him, on the condition that Hermione remained in bed. She agreed, despite knowing that she could just summon him with a patronus because she didn't feel up to fighting Ginny at that moment.
Harry must have been in the living areas because he arrived within a minute of Ginny leaving to fetch him. She had pushed herself up so that she was sitting against the headboard and her two friends came to sit at the foot of the bed.
'What happened Hermione?' Harry asked, concern colouring his voice. Hermione took a deep breath to steel herself.
'My bond with Grindelwald broke.' For a minute there was silence as they digested this.
'So he's dead?' Ginny asked but Hermione shook her head.
'Possibly, or someone took his magic, or his soul...' She paused, considering whether to reveal what Dumbledore told her. It was important that her two closest friends knew every possibility though, so she told them that Grindelwald had admitted it was possible for him to break the bond.
For a minute, silence reigned over the room before someone knocked on the door. Harry went to open it and she heard Narcissa taking to him. He returned looking like death had come knocking, his face grey and his white knuckled hand clutching a newspaper. He wordlessly opened the folded document and spread it out on the bed.
A photograph of Grindelwald stared up at her; he was chained and in dirty clothing but unlike the prison photographs of the death eaters, he looked more amused than mad. A massive headline sprawled across the top of the page; Grindelwald escapes from ICW custody; another Dark Wizard at large.
Ginny swore.