Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Inside the hour, Minerva stood at the edge of Nuremgard's shields. She was all ready streaking toward the entrance to the sewers in her animagus form. She had snuck into the Ministry to pour over the enchantments that were now in place at Nuremgard. Part of her training leading up to the siege of Berlin was to study the blue prints, so she was familiar with the back entrances. When they suspected that a certain Ministry official was being held in the fortress, there had even been a plan for her to enter through the sewers. It was this plan that Minerva was now enacting. The Ministry had clearly overlooked some key security flaws, and the young Auror had every intention of bringing them up when she returned to work. For the time being, she planned to use them to her extreme advantage.

The panic was crackling at the back of her mind the entire time. The questions zipped by as a wispy smoke, threatening to choke her conscious thought. But Minerva forced the brisk mountain air to keep the damnable heat from building into hysteria.

Finally, she reached the floor he was being held on. From this point on, she could not navigate as a cat. She switched back to a woman after ducking under her invisibility cloak. The wards were easily disabled when one knew the enchantments. Minerva was quickly working her way towards the cell door. Quickly setting up a small explosion as a diversion, she dashed round the corner of the corridor that housed her prey. Reaching the door, she grabbed the food-door key from the Disillusioned guard, unlocked the food door, and then the explosion went off. She changed to a cat, and swept into the small flap at the bottom of the door.

The cell was chokingly foul. Minerva, now a human witch, took a moment in the safety of her cloak to take in the situation. There were no windows, only a thin candle burning against the wall, and little breathable air. The former ruler of nearly half the world was chained hand and foot to the far wall. A scurrying along the side walls indicated vermin. The skin and bones body in the corner disregarded them. The shining golden hair caught the greasy light, and the skin seemed to glow with an unhealthy greenish pallor. Defeat did not agree with this former maniacal dictator. Minerva resisted the urge to laugh in satisfaction. After all the pain, all the suffering, he would be forced to sit here in misery for the rest of his pathetic life. Looking back at him, she started: his eyes were staring straight at the space she occupied. Quickly, she got to work, casting Muffliato on both the guards outside. She placed a silencing charm on the cell walls as well. She then stood to throw off the cloak.

"Ha. I knew someone was there." He croaked. His voice had not been used in few weeks. His eyes strained to make out her shape in the flickering light, "Ahhh, I was expecting you…"

"Albus Dumbledore is far too good a man to be brought down by scum like you!" She was drawn up to her full height and power. The room actually stirred and began to burn with an unnatural light. "Before I torture you to insensibility, you will tell me precisely what you have done to my husband and how to stop it!" She drew her wand.

"Tsk, tsk, Scottish Whore, a few manners would get you so much farther with men such as Albus and I." He smirked, "You are too young to understand that gentlemen observe a higher level of courtesy." He remained irreverently seated. He remained dangerously indifferent to the apocalyptic storm of magic building before him. To help him in his concentration, Minerva cast a wandless jinx that kept him from breathing.

"I am not here for your snide remarks, you monster," She snapped her fingers to release the jinx. "What have you done to Albus?"

"You know, I can see why he's taken an interest in you." Grindelwald wheezed, he was leaning against the wall of his cell. "You have power. I had heard… I had heard you were nearly his equal." He sat up a bit straighter. "But you could be so much greater than him. You have a much better sense of self. You will use your power to its fullest. Albus refuses…" She hit him with a Reducto strong enough to knock his head against the wall.

"Albus is a much better person than I could ever be. He is too good for me, and far, far too good for you." The tall, raven-haired witch snapped. "So release your hold on him, give me the counter-curse!"

"Don't you want to know what activated the jinx, what exacerbates it?" He spat at her. Minerva shot a spark of fire from her finger that grazed his neck, singeing it. "You! It was you! Thinking about you or being near you makes the curse work faster." He yelled in desperation.

"You sick, demented piece of filth! GIVE ME THE COUNTERCURSE!" Minerva stuck her right arm, raising it up as Gellert was pulled from the floor, chains and all. He gasped and chocked, clearly being held by the neck. He crumpled back to the floor again.

"Hear me out! Please!" He sobbed, a pathetic rag heap on the floor, "I am trapped in this cell knowing no one will ever listen to me again after you leave. I will give you the countercurse, but you must hear me out first."

"You have fifteen minutes," Minerva thundered, fire hanging dangerously above her clawed fingers.

"I couldn't bear the thought of him with you. Albus Dumbledore was my lover, MINE! First, before all others," Gellert blithered. "I knew he was brilliant and I worshipped every part of him. When he decided to leave me, it broke part of my soul that I could never repair. What we had in Valhalla, my wonderful seclusion, that paradise… we could have had it forever." His hand moved for the first time, gesturing, "Being near him is just this beautiful, enlightening feeling that even with all the lovers I have had, all the escapes I have tried, I have never been able to find anything as perfect. How could you, a girl, ever appreciate that?"

"I love him, and he loves me as well. I might not have as deep a relationship yet as he did with you, but I have years with him. Your actions have driven him away. You destroyed what you had with him. I am working to make sure he can stay with me." Minerva kneeled down to his level, "Please, give me the countercurse!"

"HA! And then when he came, and we found you! I had heard rumors from my people in the Ministry that Albus took a wife. It sickened me. Why would Albus want a woman? And then when you fell into our hands, I knew it had to be you. Your youth, your power. And then when my doctors confirmed you carried his child, I could see his need for you. But it still sickened me. And when we were hiding in Valhalla, it would drive me mad that he could still remember you." He began to crawl toward her, "He forgot everything else. He forgot what I had done, what had been said between us, his family. But for some reason, Minerva Mcgonagall, he kept remembering you. And so, one day, I placed the curse on him. He remembered you less and less, so I knew I had nothing to fear. But then when he fled, when he broke my heart that final time, I had the satisfaction of knowing he would not be with you for very long." He began to chuckle. "You're lucky you carry his child. Even if it is a whore's child, part of him is inside you. I would have given anything to create something so wonderful with him, and yet, it was the only thing that saved you." He was nearly nose-to-nose with her, "And I could still kill that child right now." His hands stretched out.

Instantly, Minerva snapped to her feet and put up a protective shield. But there was no need. Minerva's charm encountered nothing.

"You're powerless!" Minerva shrieked, "Albus leaving really did break your heart, didn't it! You have so very little magic left, it's all being used to fuel that damn curse!" She stood back, "Give me the countercurse." She intoned, her voice rolling deeply. She would not be put off.

Grindelwald whispered softly, musically. Instantly, Minerva held out a vial that she enchanted to capture the words. And then, she was gone. She zipped from the room, leaving the sobbing, broken Grindelwald to his life-long damnation.

*!*!*!*

Once back at the Manor, she ignored all inquiries from the gathered parties of family and healers. Minerva charged up to their room, threw out the Healers and bolted the door.

She uncorked the vial, and the musical whispering floated of her barely breathing husband. He winced with each breath. And then, once the whisper met his cheek, the creases of pain began to fade. He fell into the deep, even breathing of sleep.

Minerva climbed up onto the bed with him, wrapping him gently in her embrace.