Chapter 5: The Mark of the Hollows
It was a cold, January night at Hogwarts. All the students had retired to their dormitories; the Professors were patrolling the castle halls. Students were planning which Weasley Wizarding Whizbees product to get out of History of Magic with tomorrow. Peeves was causing trouble and Albus Potter was in the middle of it.
But there was nothing normal about this night.
The trouble started as an unusual calm came over the middle of the lake. The waves stopped, and then began to ripple outward from a central spot. Slowly, a wooden beam pierced the lake and continued to grow until it became visible that it was a mast. Several others appeared around it until, finally, the entire ship was resting on the surface.
Gellert Grindelwald smiled. He had never had the good fortune to see Hogwarts in his first life; it was nice to finally see Albus Dumbledore's famous school in person. It had been easy to slip into his old haunting grounds of Durmstrang and steal the ship used to transport students to the Triwizard Tournament. Then all that was required was a simple spell and the path was opened. Hogwarts was breeched.
He had work to do. He steered the ship toward a distant glow on the shore. This was definitely not here in his first life, but it was the reason he had come now. It was the final resting place of his old friend Albus Dumbledore. But it hadn't been very restful for Dumbledore; it had been broken into less than a year after he had been entombed. And that was exactly what Grindelwald was here to do today.
Foolish man, Dumbledore. He had believed that he could end the Elder Wand. He had believed that if a person managed to take it to his grave, then the wand would cease to be passed from person to person. This was wrong, as Dumbledore's body was finding out: the Elder Wand wanted to be owned. And now, Grindelwald was going to own it again.
The ship came to a gentle stop on the shore next to Dumbledore's tomb and Grindelwald glided off. He approached the tomb, the marble reflecting the moonlight over the lake. His hands paused over the intricate details of the lid, the phoenix designs which encompassed the body of his friend.
His fingers grazed the marble, a tiny scratching noise reaching his ears. He choked back a tear as he read the name engraved on the stone. "I'm sorry, old friend. I truly am. But you know the nature of the weapon, you know it well. That's why you didn't leave it behind either, why you took it at the first chance you got. Why you were looking for them too, and why you made sure it never got into Tom Riddle's hands." He smiled as he pulled out his wand, "Or at least you tried. There is power in this wand, power it has collected from all its previous owners over nearly a millennium. Power I want back!"
Grindelwald waived his wand over the tomb. A triangle appeared on the tomb, then a circle inscribed the triangle, and finally a slash appeared through the heart of both shapes: the mark of the Deathly Hallows. And then the symbol exploded. When the dust cleared, Grindelwald was looking down on a skeleton loosely wrapped in a torn, purple cloth. But he was focusing on the long, knobby wand in the skeleton's hands.
He turned the wand over in his hands, admiring the weapon. He placed his own wand in Dumbledore's hands and boarded the ship. He waved the Elder Wand at the ship's wheel and it began to glide slowly back to the middle of the lake. He could hear voices now, quickly approaching the tomb. He waved the wand again and the wind picked up, pushing the ship at speeds it was never intended to go. He smiled the biggest smile he'd had in 60 years.
"My Precious," he said as the ship returned to Durmstrang.
Harry and Firenze emerged from the forest to complete chaos. Students had emerged from the castle, startled out of bed by the noise. Peeves was having an absolute blast in the hall. Hermione and Ron were just coming out of their hut, the other Professors were running across the grounds to see what Hermione wanted them to do. Students were beginning to fan out over the grounds; prefects were trying and failing to corral them back into the hall.
Harry got off Firenze who rushed over to the huddle of Professors. Harry moved toward the students. A gun-shot sound erupted across the grounds, Harry turned to see Hermione's wand raised in the air.
"Prefects will lead their houses back into the Great Hall," she said, her voice carrying easily across the now silent grounds. I will be in shortly. The professors and I will find out what has happened and report to you. Harry will join us." She smiled and motioned for him to come join Ron and her.
She pulled out a worn piece of parchment as he approached. The map appeared on the paper and she opened it to the grounds. Ron was the first to see it, the black dot in the lake, moving toward the middle. "Look there. But he's dead," Ron said.
"Not anymore," Harry said, "Travers recruited him a couple months ago. Isn't that by the tomb?"
"Yes," Hermione said. "Wands out, let's go!" she yelled and the professors who had stayed behind obeyed, Firenze drawing his bow.
The group ran after Hermione, Harry and Ron as they headed around the lake toward the tomb. They were still several yards away when the wind began to pick up, causing the group to slow down as they fought against it. Only Harry maintained his speed and began to pull away from the group.
He was standing next to the lake shore when the rest of the group arrived. "He sailed away, Durmstrang's ship. He must have stolen it to get here and back unseen."
"How did you get through that wind?" Hermione said between gasps, her side aching.
"What wind?" Harry said.
"What do you mean, 'What wind?'" Hermione asked. "The one that just came on us and slowed us down!"
"He didn't feel it, Hermione." It was Firenze who was standing looking into the tomb. "A wand will not attack its master, and the Elder Wand is gone."
Everyone rushed to the tomb, making way for Harry and Hermione to stand next to Firenze. "Everyone back to the Castle, we will join you shortly." No one argued, they all just left.
"Impressive," Harry said.
"He desecrated Dumbledore's tomb, Harry! What's impressive about that?" Hermione retorted.
"No, I mean their obedience. Ron hasn't learned that yet."
"I'm not leaving you two, we're a team remember?" Ron said. Hermione blushed. Harry smiled. It had been a long time.
"Who was it?" Firenze asked.
"Gellert Grindelwald," Hermione and Harry said at the same time.
"Impossible, he's dead."
Harry told him about Travers.
"It still doesn't explain why he would go after the Elder Wand," Hermione said, waving her wand to repair the tomb. "The Wand is a British legend, something Travers shouldn't know. If Travers is truly in control, why is Grindelwald here?"
"Maybe he's not in control," Ron said, pointing to the lid of the now repaired tomb. There, engraved over the middle of the stone was the symbol of the Deathly Hallows, the symbol which marked a believer.
"The Mark of the Hallows," Firenze said.
"No," Hermione whispered, "Grindelwald's mark. Something Travers would never have ordered him to leave. This is something only Grindelwald would do; he wants us to know HE did this. HE is in control."
"This is not good," Harry said.
"No, it's not," Hermione agreed.
"What do we tell the students," Ron asked.
"The truth," Harry and Firenze said. "The whole truth," Harry added. "They deserve it."
"But will they believe it?" Hermione asked.
"That never stopped Dumbledore," Ron said.
Hermione breathed a deep breath. "You're right," she said. "But you need to talk to Albus and his friends privately," she said to Harry. "If this involves Travers, he deserves to know. And his friends will eventually. After all he is your son."
Harry nodded agreement and the four slowly walked back to the castle.
Albus Potter performed the counter-spell to his camouflage spell, which had hid him from the professors, and ran from the tomb toward the castle. He had to get to the Great Hall quick, considering he had never left.
A/N: "My Precious" is an allusion to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I would be doing a great disservice if I did not give J. R. R. Tolkien his due!