Huge chapter!
Hermione read the first of her pile of morning newspapers with a feeling that could only be described as smug. The front page of the prophet was taken up by a massive photo of the residents of Nurmengard. The "Nurmengard children" stood in the front row, the ex-Hogwarts students behind them with arms slung around each other. The few adults from the order stood in the wings and bang in the middle stood Hermione and Grindelwald. The clip in the photo captured the moment that one of the students made a joke and everyone laughed.
"The Heroes of Nurmengard: standing up against oppression." Read the caption. Their story took up the first five pages.
The American paper had a photo of just Hermione, Grindelwald and Harry in front of the fireplace in the meeting room. Again, they were all smiling but Gellert's sleeves were rolled up to show the remaining scarring from his many imprisonments. This one had several smaller captions claiming that there was an exclusive interview with Grindelwald and Hermione and one lonely announcement about flesh eating slug repellent. The larger caption read "The price of saving the world."
She couldn't read the articles in the foreign paper but they all bore similar photographs; the Egyptian one had them in front of the gates, the French had just the castle and the German had the group photo again.
Her plan was working, she decided. The contacts that the Malfoys and Kingsley had provided to international media had all replied to Hermione's offer of an interview and almost all of them had agreed to her conditions. Within a week, everyone in the world would know how Grindelwald had voluntarily saved everyone from Voldemort whilst the ICW stood by. They'd know that he'd been incarcerated in an inhumane cell despite being willing to return to his previous prison.
Hermione smiled up at Gellert as he arrived through the dining room doors. He was slightly sweaty and leaned a worn staff up against the wall but his expression was positive so he must have had some success. He dropped into the seat opposite her, his usual breakfast of cold meats popping into existence on his plate. He snagged the German paper from the pile and Hermione watched smugly as he froze. She saw him reread the caption several times over, then toss the paper aside and grab the French one.
She hadn't realised he knew French but he spent several minutes flicking through it, so he must have.
'Hermione, you are amazing.' He said, putting the paper down.
'It's not really my idea. They use propaganda to influence politics all the time in the muggle world. I'm surprised wizards do it so little.' She admitted and he looked over her appraisingly. 'By the end of the week the whole world will think you're a hero, if not that then someone desperately trying to atone for his sins. Next week, the ICW will be the bad guys who failed to act about Voldemort, Narcissa and Draco will be interviewed on Friday. By the end of the month, they politicians will be forced to leave us alone or risk losing their elections.' She plotted as she buttered her croissant.
Grindelwald was staring open mouthed at her, then he quickly shut it as the door opened and composed his face again. The young Slytherin froze in the doorway as he realised just who was sitting at the table with Hermione. Grindelwald looked up at him with his usual dark expression and flicked his hand, sending a chair scooting out from under the table so that Draco could sit. Malfoy jumped and scurried around to take the seat.
Hermione caught the amused glint in Grindelwald's expression as he looked up from the paper.
'So you are Mr. Malfoy.' The dark wizard said contemplatively. 'Hermione has told me about your... friendship... at school.' His fingers brushed the elder wand on the table.
Admirably, Draco managed to get out an appropriate reply about how he hoped they would work more closely together in the future.
Gellert's scrutiny didn't leave him even as the dark wizard poured himself another cup of tea. He wandlessly floated the pot over to Draco who watched it approach as if considering whether to dive for cover. Hermione watched, trying to stifle her amusement as Malfoy reluctantly poured himself a drink and drank it without sugar or milk, clearly too nervous to ask Grindelwald to pass him the jug and bowl.
'Gellert, pass him the sugar, you've left him squirming long enough.' Hermione finally laughed and Grindelwald lowered the paper, letting Malfoy see his amusement for the first time. Her dropped the paper and passed the sugar and the milk to the relieved looking but still very pale boy.
'Draco, he's just winding you up. Gellert was actually the one to suggest that I speak to your family.' She informed him and he relaxed slightly. She supposed one could never relax having breakfast with another dark wizard after the last one that he'd lived with.
Hermione then spent the remainder of the meal trying to make him relax which Gellert took great delight in making difficult for her. Draco flinched every time the dark wizard picked up his wand, so Grindelwald did everything with magic, even folding up his napkin after the meal.
They believed that they had perfected the ritual the night before once the journalists had left. Everyone in the castle had been briefed on their part and would all be arriving at the entrance to the ward room that morning. As usual, Grindelwald was completely relaxed. He always was when they were about to perform an advanced, dangerous piece of magic. Hermione however could feel nerves already tingling through her. This would be the first time she had actually participated in one of their developed rituals, in fact, every resident of the castle would be participating. Slytherin had been certain that having additional people to help would have made the process easier and they'd decided to take the risk.
Gellert would be directing the ritual, with Hermione acting as a link. The students had spent the whole last two days studying joint magic under the careful tuition of McGonagall and Flitwick and they would link to Hermione via their respective teachers. Harry would link to her with their year mates whom he'd instructed the day before and Remus had volunteered to be Hermione's link to the adults in the castle. The idea was to harness the collective power of everyone present and use their numbers to harmlessly dissipate the energy that escaped from the ley line whilst they performed the link.
Of course, Slytherin had never been able to test his theory as the Europeans had never managed to develop the technique of linking staff magic. The same restrictions didn't apply to using a wand, so they'd decided to test the theory.
Slytherin had used an animal sacrifice to break open the ley line so that he could perform the link. Then blood magic to make the join and had almost killed himself using his own energy to heal the ley line again. Grindelwald seemed to already have an intimate understanding of energies but Hermione had still argued when he decided to use the ICW owl to begin the ritual. It hadn't mattered how many times he'd explained that using a magical creature meant that they wouldn't have to use such a large animal. She'd still have preferred a sheep or a cow, somehow they seemed easier to kill.
He was already waiting in the ward room when she arrived with the rest of the residents, leading them down one of the few corridors that they'd never seen. The blue fire burned brightly around the room as the dark wizard finished etching the slightly changed runes with his wand. She called out to him and he looked up, manipulating the fire so that they could all step across safely. The owl was almost unrecognisable from this side of the room, merely a dark shape on the altar.
Once they were all assembled, Grindelwald gave everyone a final briefing, describing the process in detail. Several people looked uncomfortable at the mention of a sacrifice, even an animal one. It was very, very dark magic but he assured them that it was the caster, not his links whose soul bore the damage.
It was a sign of how much they'd begun to trust him that nobody protested as he went on to describe how he would be using the current power stockpile in the wards to make the seal and then he reached the crucial part. It was vitally important that everyone monitor their own remaining energy and cut the link when they could no longer continue, otherwise they risked being drained completely.
A sense of anticipation filled the air as he finished and everyone moved to take their positions. If they succeeded today it would be one of the greatest single magical acts in modern history.
Grindelwald stepped up to the altar, Hermione coming up behind him and placing her hand on his shoulder. She felt her four links take the step behind her, four hands touching her back. She reached for her magic and used the sensation of touch to guide it towards those she linked to. Grindelwald was the easiest to find, his dark magic clashing and roaring like thunder beneath her hand. Harry was next, his magic warm and solid behind her, then McGonagall whose magic swirled and slithered in silvery tendrils. Flitwick by contrast was a flame, errant and excitable flickers reaching towards her. Lupin was the hardest to find, despite his touch. He seemed almost vague and misty, an abstract impression rather than a concentrated ball. She got vague impressions of the others linking up down the line, suddenly feeling like her head was very busy.
She opened her eyes to see Grindelwald waiting, his wand resting under his hand on the altar and a cruel black knife twirling in the other. He spun the knife one way, fingers nimbly twirling around the blade, then it froze with black and red gems glittering in the blue lights, before spinning back the other way. He continued this fidgeting as they waited for the final connections to be made.
He must have been keeping a closer watch than Hermione on who was linked, because he was already lifting his wand when McGonagall finally announced that her last student was ready.
Hermione closed her eyes and concentrated on Grindelwald's magic as he seemed to throw his essence downwards, reaching out for something below them. She could faintly hear him chanting but she felt like her body was miles away as she was dragged downwards with him. Slowly, she became aware of what looked like a glowing strand of silk passing from her left to her right. Even as she watched, she became more aware of it, the strand almost seeming to grow the longer that she focused on it. After several seconds, she noticed a second line, this one much fainter, crossing the first at just less than a right angle.
She heard gasps from those joined to her as the strand grew to fill her awareness, roaring louder in her head than the sounds in the real world. The second stream seemed to merge with the larger one, then split off again on the other side, and Hermione followed Grindelwald as he lead them to the join. She felt when he killed the animal, their connection wavering slightly as he jerked his body. She felt the damage to his soul as inky crevasses shot through his essence, then suddenly bright, pure energy flooded him and knew it was the power of the owl's sacrifice.
Grindelwald didn't waste a moment, the new energy had barely registered in Hermione's mind before he'd launched it at the glowing lines. There was a blinding flash as the magical forces collided, then pure energy roared through her from Grindelwald.
It was agony and joy, pleasure and fear all at once, it scorched through her body, burning her inside even as it healed her. It was a never ending force, humming and vibrating with power, neither dark nor light but just the purest rendition of magic. The fraction of a second before the four linked to her absorbed some of the rush was almost unbearable and it was all that she could do to maintain her grip on Grindelwald's magic.
The drop in the strength of the flow left her feeling cold and empty as it was diffused through the crowd, even though she knew what she was channelling now was more than she'd ever be likely to touch again. With her awareness regained, she felt for the link between her and the old wards and severed the connection. Gellert seized the loose end and held it, linking and modifying the enchantments as they'd decided the evening before.
Then, for want of a better word, he plugged it in to the torrent of the ley line. The wards were like strands of spider silk, curling away from the power of the larger magical force and she felt Grindelwald drawing power from an inky reservoir. She felt queasy as he drew that polluted magic down and used it to twine the wards and the ley line together. Then without delay, as if afraid the two would jump apart again, he began patching up the ley line. She remembered with a jolt to draw on those around her as her own energy was drained; the sudden rush of backup power was freely offered.
Grindelwald got the tear patched up quickly, which reduced the energy escaping and dissipating through them all which made everything significantly easier. The first people began to cut themselves off as they ran too low on energy, then there came the first substantial drop as McGonagall cut herself off. Flitwick followed close behind and the draw on her own essence became more intense. Gellert hadn't even reached half way as he repaired the ley line with its new addition.
They remaining links lasted a little while longer before Lupin cut himself off, then Harry had to leave as well when the strain became too much for him. Then Hermione opened her own energy well, feeling Grindelwald doing the same with his own formidable strength. He twined their magic together, layering the contrasting strands across the remaining space as she was forced to draw deeper and deeper.
Hermione fell to her knees and Grindelwald laid the final strand, too exhausted to hold herself up anymore. She opened her eyes and stared, amazed at the changes in the room. Pinkish-gold light blazed from the runes in the floor, reflecting their pattern against a ceiling that had never been visible before. The blue flames around the walls seemed dim, despite burning higher than it every had before. A tired cheer went up as Grindelwald finally stepped away from the alter and with only slightly more elegance than Hermione, took a seat on the steps.
She surveyed the residents proudly, all of whom bore identical expressions of weary pride. They had, after all, just made their home one of the safest, if not the safest place in the world.