Harry Potter is owned by JKR

Trigger Warnings at End of Chapter

Chapter 67

Harry ignored the shouts from the press and put his hand up as camera flashes dazzled his sight.

"No further questions," he said as he stepped down from the podium. Although Robards had essentially thrown him to the wolves, he felt he'd acquitted himself fairly well.

"Mr. Potter, any comment on reports that St. Mungo's is under attack by Bellatrix Lestrange?"

That caught his attention.

"What?" he asked. It was Graham Winfield, Skeeter's associate. Next to him stood another much younger and out of breath Prophet employee.

"It's true," the boy said.

"What the bloody hell?" Harry thought.

The shouting picked up in intensity and followed Harry as he drew his wand and hurried to the lift. Two minutes later, he appeared at the reception area of St. Mungo's to a scene of organised chaos, clearly less panic and more professionalism. Aurors and hospital staff moved about the few patients waiting to be seen, but it certainly didn't seem like an attack was ongoing.

"Potter," someone called, and Harry looked up to see Lieutenant Hawkins jogging towards him, "sorry Potter, this is all my fault, we should have stopped her at the house."

"What in Merlin's name happened?" Harry asked.

"Harry!" Ron shouted as he, Hermione, and Matt rounded the corner.

Hermione ran right up to him and stood on tiptoe to embrace him tightly. He puffed a breath as strands of her hair found their way onto his lips.

"She's gone," she whispered.

"Who, Bellatrix?" he asked.

She nodded and took a shuddering breath and took a step back. Harry wasn't sure if she was upset, relieved, or in shock.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded.

"I'm fine," she replied.

"Good. Now can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?" Harry asked.

"Come on mate, let's get back to headquarters, I'll fill you in on the way," Ron said.

Once in the Atrium, Ron recounted what had happened, how Robards had decided Bellatrix couldn't be left on her own, had sent Hawkins' team and a few others to arrest her, which resulted in Bellatrix coming to look for Hermione.

"And then she apparated, could be anywhere by now," Ron said.

As Ron spoke, disbelief turned to outrage, then to just rage, and Harry was first out of the lift.

"She was fine, and she's one of the best duellists I've ever seen; we need her," he thought, "fucking Robards."

He led the others straight to the Head Auror's office. Katherine, the Head Auror's secretary, held up a hand and opened her mouth, but Harry ignored her and slammed the door open, only to find the office empty.

"He's in with Fawley," Katherine said.

Harry spun on his heel and stormed out of Auror HQ, back to the lift to level one where the DMLE Director's office resided, but paused outside the door when her secretary, Ann Gibbons according to her name plate, motioned for him to wait.

"Lieutenant Potter? She's in with the Head Auror, but she's asked for you next," Ann said, "how did you know?"

"Lucky guess," Harry replied through gritted teeth.

Raised voices bled through the door.

"Any normal person would have complied with DMLE orders and come in for a checkup. She's a danger to society, and this attack proves it," Robards said.

Fawley's response was too muffled to be heard, but it sounded like she was being infuriatingly calm with him. Despite his fury, Harry grinned internally. Nothing ticked Robards off more than responding to his tirades with calm professionalism. Captain Robinson approached from the direction of the lifts. Harry saluted, and the rest of the Aurors followed suit.

"Lieutenants, Gentlemen, Miss Granger," he said, "at ease. She called you here too?"

"Just yourself and Mr. Potter," Ann said, "the rest will have to wait in the hall."

Almost as if on cue, the door opened, and Fawley held it for Robards. He glared at Harry as he passed, and Harry glared right back. He wanted to have words with him for sending a team that practically destroyed Hermione's parents' house, but the walk and wait had served to cool his formerly incandescent rage enough to recognise that this was not the time or place.

"Potter, Robinson," Fawley said.

She wore cream-coloured robes and pearl earrings, and folded her hands on her desk as she sat. Harry closed the door behind him and took the seat next to Robinson.

"As you may or may not have heard, there was an incident at St. Mungo's," Fawley said, "Thank Merlin there were no fatalities, but several of ours are going to be in hospital for at least a day, and the damage to St. Mungo's is substantial. Robards has been suspended, pending investigation. Robinson, you and I will split his duties for the time being. Potter, you're promoted to acting Captain and will take Hawkins' team in addition to your own."

"Acting captain?" Harry repeated.

"You'll be fine, half the bloody Corps is hanging on your every word already," Fawley said with a wave of her hand, "Robinson, any issues?"

"No ma'am," Robinson replied.

"Good. Now, it looks like there were only non-permanent injuries, so Potter, if you get the chance, I want you to assess whether Ms. Black is a danger. Use your judgement on how you approach and engage," Fawley said, "otherwise we will wait-and-see."

Harry nodded.

"Any progress on finding Grindelwald or his followers?" she asked.

"Negative, ma'am," Robinson replied, "we know they're planning something, but since they're almost certainly behind obfuscating wards, it's slow going."

"Keep it up. With his assets frozen, he won't be able to operate long, so whatever he's planning, it'll probably happen soon," Fawley said, "dismissed."

They both stood up and saluted, then filed out of the office. Matt had already departed, and Robinson motioned to the others. They all fell in line behind him as he led the way back towards Auror Headquarters.

"What happened?" Ron asked.

"Robards is suspended. Fawley and I are co-Head Aurors. Potter is acting captain. Hawkins, your team is reporting to him now," Robinson said.

"Whoa," Hawkins said, "…what about the flyers? Robards seconded them to my team just before the raid."

"Guess they're reporting to Potter now too," Robinson replied without breaking stride, "finding Grindelwald is priority one, so keep looking and escalate any leads to me immediately. I'm going to inform the rest of the teams."

Robinson stopped at the Head Auror's office to speak with Katherine. Harry paused, then turned to Hawkins.

"How many of your team are injured?" he asked.

"Two," Hawkins replied, "they'll be out of hospital tomorrow night, most likely."

Harry nodded.

"Keep the secondment then, we'll retain the integrity of the existing teams as much as possible," Harry said, "where were you searching before Robards sent you to arrest Bellatrix?"

"Manchester," Hawkins replied.

"Okay, keep going. We'll link back up here at the end of the day. Any emergencies, send me a patronus," Harry said. Hawkins saluted and Harry turned to Hermione and Ron.

"Right. Come on, we need to get to Hogsmeade," he said.

They took the floo directly to the Hogs Head Inn. Harry took a step to keep his balance as he flooed into the dimly lit pub, then stepped out of the way as Ron and Hermione followed. The bar was entirely deserted except for Liz and Matt, who sat at the bar where they could keep an eye on both the door and the floo. Aberforth Dumbledore's large frame turned around to face them as the dishes and cups continued to wash themselves. He nodded to the Golden Trio and motioned them to the back room.

Harry knocked twice on the door, then once more. The seconds dragged, and he looked back at the others with a sheepish grin, then turned to the door and knocked again, louder. The knob twisted and the door cracked open, and a heated discussion bordering on an argument invaded the taproom. Ragnar IV, who had opened the door, glanced at Harry and beyond, then motioned him inside. Amidst the barrels of beer or mead, doors to larders, racks of wine and more potent spirits, a map of Britain had been laid across a table. Charts and notes pinned to boards flanked the table on two sides, while John Dawlish and Kingsley Shacklebolt stood over the table's remaining two sides.

"There's been way too much activity in Barnton for us to ignore Manchester," Dawlish said as he planted his finger on the map.

Harry motioned Ron and Hermione inside and closed the door behind them.

"The Ministry is in London, it's where we've had the most obliviations," Kingsley said, "just because we haven't found anything yet-"

"We've been trying to figure out where Grindelwald is going to make his move," Harry whispered.

Kingsley looked up, as if noticing them for the first time.

"Good, you're here," he said, "we've narrowed it down to three most likely locations: London and Manchester in England, and Dublin in Ireland, but this is like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Hermione walked over to the boards and started reading through the notes and intelligence gathered there.

"London and Manchester I get, but why Dublin?" Harry asked as he looked down at the map.

Ragnar cleared his throat.

"The goblins have known for some time that the leprechauns have been up to something in Ireland, and now your former Minister for Magic," the goblin replied as he gestured to Kingsley, "informs us Grindelwald has been paying them gold for months. It is too much of a coincidence."

"You think he's going to try and ritualize the obliviation cure too then," Hermione said as she studied the notes.

"That's right," Kingsley said, "we figure this is his plan B. Since repeal by legal methods failed, he's going to try and undo the obliviations and cause the magic sustaining the Statute to collapse on itself. We can't figure out where he's going to do it though."

"The ritual will be limited by range, so it'll be somewhere with a lot of muggles," Dawlish said, "Manchester is the second largest city in Britain, and several Death Eater safehouses have been on the outskirts."

"Wasn't he shipping black filament overseas?" Hermione asked.

"The European Ministries have been informed… as for how seriously they took the warnings… that's a different question, but one we can't concern ourselves with right now," Harry replied.

"He's going to sneak right up and stab them in the arse," Dawlish muttered.

"We've done our part, and we can't be everywhere at once," Kingsley said.

"It's going to be all of them," Hermione said quietly without looking up from the charts, "at the same time.

The room fell silent. Dawlish cleared his throat.

"Miss Granger, what makes you say it's going to be all three locations at once?" he asked, "we know his manpower is limited-"

"It doesn't matter, he's going to try," Hermione replied as she turned around to face Harry, "trust me, I just have a feeling."

"With all due respect, Miss Granger," Dawlish said, "people's lives are on the line. Splitting up our forces three ways on the basis of a hunch could prove disastrous."

"Actually, we don't have to split up three ways," Harry said, "Hawkins' team is already searching Manchester and he's now reporting to me. We can let the DMLE take Manchester. I'll take London with the DA as backup, and Kingsley, you take Dublin with the Order as backup. That way the people who are used to working together stay together. We all stay in constant contact, and wherever they show up, we'll converge and capture or disable as many as we can."

Harry looked around at the slow nods around the table.

"There's just one more thing; I need to be the one to face Grindelwald," Harry said, "so if you find him, don't try to fight him. Call me."

Dawlish shook his head and opened his mouth to speak.

"Not alone," Hermione said as she beat him to the punch, "you can't fight him alone."

"Ron will be with me," Harry said, "Grindelwald told me I'm needed for the future, so he won't kill me. He could have killed Ron last Halloween, but he specifically kept him alive. Anyone else though, I expect he'll kill them if they get in his way, or worse, use them as hostages to get me and Ron to back off. The entire wizarding world could be at stake here, so we have to stop him now, and Ron and I have the best chance of that since he'll be pulling his punches against us."

"Most of the people he has with him are recent graduates or Ministry employees," Dawlish said, "any of us should be able to make short work of them. The wild cards are Augustus Rookwood, Alecto Carrow, and obviously the man himself. Anyone who encounters them should call for immediate backup."

Harry nodded, along with the others around the room.

"Alright, it's settled then," Kingsley said, "John and I will head to Dublin along with Aberforth and some of the old Order members."

"The goblins will not depart London, but we will assist here if called upon," Ragnar said.

"And I've already informed the DA to be on standby," Harry said, "best of luck to us all."

Dawlish, Kingsley, and Ragnar left the back room, leaving Hermione with Harry and Ron. For a second, it felt almost like old times.

"I wish Bella was here," she thought.

Harry opened a cabinet and pulled out another map, then spread it out on the table atop of the map of Britain.

"The city of London," Hermione thought as the thin paper settled on the table, with all its myriad streets and parks and waterways, "and somewhere, Grindelwald is hiding, preparing a ritual to undo Ministry obliviations on a massive scale."

"Right, where do we think he's going to try to do it?" Harry asked.

The three of them huddled around the table and studied the map.

"It would be someplace significant, somewhere visible, where he could make a statement," Hermione thought.

"The Ministry maybe?" Ron said.

"Maybe, but there's already a lot of security there," Harry said, "I don't think we could add anything, so it's probably best to ignore it for now."

Then, it came to her, much the same way as she'd realised Grindelwald would attempt a ritual at all of the locations. A lurch in her gut, the remnants of the compulsion he'd placed on her, convinced her the best place to enact the ritual would be in the exact centre of London.

"Trafalgar Square," she said. It took a moment to find it on the map, then she stabbed her finger down on the paper.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked.

Hermione paused, then nodded.

"That's where I'd do it if I were him," she replied.

Harry paused for a few seconds as if mulling her assertion.

"Alright, give me and Ron a few minutes to change into muggle clothes, then we'll meet at the Ministry," Harry said, "it's only a five-minute walk from there."

Ten minutes later, with Ron and Hermione under rudimentary glamours, just enough to disguise their appearance, and Harry beneath the invisibility cloak, they gathered in a large open area next to the wide stone steps near the National Gallery Museum. A pale sun peeked intermittently through an otherwise overcast sky, and the chill late-autumn wind tugged at her hair. Plinths dotted the area, and the four bronze lions sat guard around the central pillar with the statue of Admiral Nelson at the top. Farther away, the likeness of King Charles I sat on horseback. Muggle tourists milled about snapping photographs in front of the pools and the lions, and a school group passed by, headed towards the museum. It brought Hermione back to her own primary education, when she'd taken a field trip to this exact spot.

"What are we looking for?" Ron whispered.

"Anything hidden," Harry's disembodied voice whispered, "it'll have to be a ritual circle, probably cold iron. We just have to find it. Spread out, and meet back here in ten minutes."

Ron went one way while Hermione went another. She stopped by the statue of King George IV on horseback, quietly cast a few revealing spells, then moved on to the miniature police station, and all the ground between, with the same result. She met Ron on the far side of the pools and he shrugged at her.

"Nothing," he said.

"Me either," she said. They returned to the base of the steps.

"I guess you didn't find anything either," Harry said, "maybe this is just a wild kneazle-"

But he stopped short at the same instant Hermione gasped; a sudden urgency, the certainty something significant was about to happen.

"Shit," Ron said, "that's a ritual activating."

The smell of peanut butter clogged Hermione's thoughts, and the sensation of butterfly wings tickled the back of her throat.

"It's the potion," she said, "it's happening. Now. Right now."

She looked around, but aside from muggles looking around in confusion, there was no indication that a ritual was happening anywhere.

"Where the bloody hell is it?" Harry asked, frustration creeping into his voice.

A blue-white swallow appeared in the air near the steps, and Hermione's mouth dropped open.

"Potter," Lieutenant Jenkins said, "Hawkins and I have engaged Snatchers at Manchester Cathedral, request backup."

The patronus dispersed into nothingness. Hermione glanced to Ron, who wore a the same open-mouthed astonishment. The two of them turned slowly to look out into the square, and while a few muggles were looking more or less in their direction, none of them seemed to have the flabbergasted expression one would expect at seeing a magical talking bird appear out of mid-air.

"Maybe we got lucky and nobody saw it?" Hermione thought.

"Cathedral…" Harry muttered, "Hermione, is there a cathedral around here anywhere?"

"Is there a-" Hermione sputtered, "Harry James Potter, you had the same exact schooling I did. How can you not know St. Martin in the Fields is right there?"

She pointed to one of the most famous cathedrals in Britain, on the far side of the square. Harry apparently ignored the jibe as the sound of his running trainers took off up the steps.

"Come on!" he said.

Ron and Hermione chased after him, ducked around tourists and schoolchildren, then cars as they dodged across the road to the sound of irate horns. Harry abruptly stopped and Ron ran into his invisible form with an oof, but Hermione saw what had caught his attention. Just past the pillared entrance of the church, a large round glass structure advertised London's hidden café in the crypt below. Signs proclaiming it currently closed for maintenance and out of order dotted the area. The light for the button to call the lift lit up, and it rose to the surface.

"Out of order my arse, come on," Harry's voice said as the doors opened. Hermione and Ron looked at one another, then stepped past the signs and into the lift. The doors closed, sealing them in, and the small glass cylinder slowly started descending below the street.

"Ron, call the DA. Expecto Patronum," Harry said, and his radiance of his stag forced Hermione to squint her eyes, "find Robinson, tell him a ritual has gone off at Trafalgar Square, and we are on the trail to find the second one before it's completed, and won't be able to back up Jenkins and Hawkins in Manchester."

The message shot away, and Harry repeated the charm as Ron's terrier also lit up the lift.

"Find Ragnar, tell him we're about to engage at Trafalgar square, if you have a way into the crypt beneath St. Martin in the Fields, we sure could use the help," Harry said.

A lynx appeared, Kingsley's patronus.

"Ritual has activated at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Engaged Ministry Outreach employees and foreign workers defending the site," the former Minister's voice said.

"Bloody hell, when it rains it pours," Ron said.

"Both of you disillusion yourselves, who knows what's waiting for us down there," Harry said. Hermione twirled her wand about herself to conceal her form from view. The glass elevator descended into the crypt converted into a café and gift shop. Curved arches and stonework rose up as they continued dropping lower. Despite all the harrowing adventures they'd been through, with a fight looming in front of her once again, sweat slicked her hand, and she rubbed it on her jeans to dry it so her wand wouldn't slip. The doors opened to reveal two former Hogwarts students, Julie Parks and Michael Knowles, both of them Gryffindor prefects from Ginny's year, flanking the lift doors with their wands held up, confused and wary expressions on their faces. A red beam shot out and struck Knowles in the gut, and Parks had barely moved her wand when a second appeared and stunned her as well.

"Nice one," Harry said as the bodies started levitating, "take their wands."

Ron picked up Michael's, and Hermione retrieved Julie's.

"Hello? Is someone there?" someone called weakly.

With the two unconscious prefects dropped off to the side of the lift, Hermione followed Harry's barely audible steps to the next chamber of the converted crypt. The tables and chairs of the café had been stacked against the wall, and some kind of apparatus had been set up. A thin man, stripped to the waist, was strapped to a long wooden table. Glowing silver runes marked the floor beneath the table, and pulsed steadily, as if in time with a heartbeat.

"Blood wards," Hermione thought as she recognised the runes.

Around the table, supported by what looked like repurposed music sheet stands, a ring of cold iron at least six metres in diameter encircled the body. Something didn't seem right about the man, and with sudden horror, the image clicked in her brain. He had no arms; his shoulders ended in ragged stumps. A silver dagger lay on a small table nearby.

"A ritual knife, this is soul magic," Hermione thought, "horrible magic, on the same level as a horcrux… the ritual is powered by the life force released from the murder of an individual."

And yet, she couldn't help but be curious about it.

"Augustus Rookwood," Harry whispered.

"Who's there?" Rookwood asked.

"It's Harry Potter," Harry said quietly.

Rookwood gasped a few times, then looked around.

"Potter! You're with him?" he asked, "you're here to finish me off?"

"No, we're here to stop him," Harry said.

Rookwood moaned and twisted on the table, whether from physical pain or fear, it wasn't clear.

"He's mad, Potter, he thinks he can see the future!" he said, "I've seen his mind, I've seen his visions! He's going to kill everyone!"

A chill ran up Hermione's spine. That certainly didn't sound like the Winthrop she knew, but if pushed to a corner, who knew what he was capable of?

"We're going to get you out of here," Harry said.

"You're too late," a young woman's voice said. Inside the blood wards, next to Rookwood's bound form, the silver dagger rose up into the air all on its own, and a dark spray fizzled off blonde Daisy Vane, the symbol of the Deathly Hallows emblazoned on her robes above her left breast, and a triumphant grin on her face. A pair of spells deflected off the ward and zinged against the walls, but there was no way Harry or Ron could break through in time. The dagger fell, but stopped and quivered a few inches above Rookwood's neck. The crippled Death Eater and former Unspeakable stared at the gleaming blade as Vane attempted to force it down, but the power of his desperate, wordless magic kept it at bay.

"For how long though?" Hermione thought.

"I can break through this," she said as she knelt by the edge of the wards and inspected the runes on the floor. She started waving her wand in a diagnostic to try and determine the best way to dismantle the wards.

"How long?" Harry asked.

"Longer if you interrupt me," Hermione said without looking up.

Harry stepped away, and out of the corner of her eye, she heard and saw more patronus glows. She refocused on her work and tried to ignore Ron shifting from foot to foot next to her. It seemed the wards were designed to kill anyone who was aligned against a particular individual.

"It must be Grindelwald," she thought, "damn, it could take hours to break through this, if I even can."

She stood up and looked at the silent struggle between the Death Eater and the Hogwarts Head Girl with both hands and all her weight on the dagger at his throat. The complete and utter devotion in her eyes reminded Hermione a little too much of Bellatrix. The dagger slipped another inch lower, now only a few hairs above Rookwood's neck.

"The wards will kill anyone who touches them, anyone who is against him," Hermione said.

"Should we blow up the ground?" Ron asked, "or the ceiling?"

Hermione shook her head and gathered her courage.

"I don't disagree with him," she thought, "the Statute does need to fall, but this isn't the way to do it. I'm on his side, but there's a better way. This plan has to fail so we can enact a better one to achieve his goals. Our goals."

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and lifted her foot.

"Hermione!" Ron shouted.

"It's for the greater good," Hermione thought. Her foot hit stone on the other side of the ward and her eyes snapped open to make contact with Daisy Vane's blue orbs. Hermione's wand flashed.

"Expelliarmus," she thought, and the dagger flew to land with a ringing clang outside of the wards.

"Evanesco," Ron said, and the blade vanished.

"NO!" Vane said, and Hermione smirked, only to find herself facing the glowing tip of the blonde's wand.

"Hogwarts duelling champion," Hermione thought, and they both exploded into action, with Vane trying to slow Hermione down and finish off Rookwood, and Hermione trying to simultaneously protect herself and the helpless Death Eater.

"Diffindo," Hermione thought, and sliced through all of the straps binding Rookwood down, but he either couldn't, or wouldn't move.

Her vision tunnelled, and all she could see was Vane, her next jinx, her next step. They were nearly evenly matched, until suddenly Hermione's arms and legs locked.

"No!" she thought, "what happened, she didn't hit me!"

She waited for the killing blow, but then the realisation came: Vane was similarly immobilised.

"Revelio," Grindelwald said, and a dark spray fizzled off both him and Ron, "Now now, I can't have my two most promising disciples coming to blows. Step aside, and allow me to do the honours."

A silver knife, identical to the previous one, reappeared on the table, as both Vane and Hermione lifted a few inches into the air. Grindelwald walked carefully towards the ward, but before he could reach it, Hermione caught a whisper of movement out of the corner of her eye.

"Sectumsempra!" Harry shouted, but Grindelwald was ready, and deflected the curse back at the source. Hermione dropped to the ground and found her arms and legs could move again. She chanced a quick glance to the side, and found no blood on the ground where Harry had dove.

"I warned you stay away, Potter," Grindelwald said.

"I have been told I'm a slow learner," Harry's voice replied.

A furious duel erupted between Harry, Ron, and Grindelwald, but Hermione had her own problem to worry about, as she ducked a banishing curse from Daisy. They were evenly matched, but then Hermione's hip clipped the corner of the table as she dodged, and that threw her off balance just enough for Vane to disarm her. Her wand clattered to the side, and Hermione ducked beneath the table as a follow up hex sailed over her head. She crawled to keep the table between her and her adversary.

"He was always talking about you," Vane said, "how you and Black reminded him so much of himself in his younger days. He favoured you to the point of absurdity, even though I was right there, but now I'll show him."

She had put herself between Hermione and her wand, but Hermione pulled out the one they'd recovered from Julie Parks.

"There's no way you'll be able to beat her with someone else's wand though, not after you lost using your own," she thought.

"After this, he'll see he was wrong, and he'll see that I'm the better choice," Vane said.

A sickening thunk echoed through the table, and with a slightly nauseous sensation at the ensuing gurgle, Hermione realised she'd just killed Rookwood.

"But he's not quite dead yet," she thought.

She aimed the wand up at the ring of cold iron surrounding the table, and called up the memory of the unbound transfiguration she'd used on herself. Without any arithmantic calculations, who knew what the ring would turn into, but whatever the result, it would almost certainly disrupt the delicate soul magic ritual currently building. The runes on the dark metal glowed blue as Rookwood bled out and suffocated, but the portion of cold iron Hermione raced to transfigure turned cherry red, then glowing yellow, then white hot as globs of it dripped onto the floor. With a titanic crack that nearly blew out her eardrums, an explosion ripped through the crypt and threw Daisy Vane to the ground. When Hermione came to her senses, she quickly aimed her wand at Vane's prone form.

"Stupefy," Hermione thought, hitting her in the leg, just in case.

Blood dripped from the table and pooled on the floor; Augustus Rookwood was very dead. Hermione retrieved her wand and Daisy's, then stumbled her way back to the lift. She emerged onto the ground level into a scene of absolute chaos. The trees lining the square burned with purple fire. Multicoloured bolts of magic zipped around the square, and terrified muggles ran in all directions, some of them comically with their hands held over their heads.

"Bloody hell, if the rituals don't destroy the Statute, this certainly has a chance to," she thought.

All across Trafalgar Square, on the steps and using the plinths for cover, the students from the special extra DADA classes at Hogwarts duelled members of Dumbledore's Army. Her eyes widened as she realised the real reason for the mass panic; all four gigantic bronze lions had come to life, and were currently rampaging about the square as members of the DA tried to subdue them. Hermione ran across the street, against the fleeing muggles, towards the entrance of the National Gallery Museum, where Harry and Ron duelled Gellert Grindelwald on a wide-open stone courtyard.

"Where's my wand, Potter?" Grindelwald asked as he calmly deflected another flurry of spells from Harry and Ron, and even managed to deflect several towards one or the other.

Harry panted as he tried to think up a witty response, but a loud crack echoed across the square.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Harry instinctively leapt back, but the Killing Curse wasn't meant for him. The green bolt lit up the façade of the Museum as it lanced out towards Grindelwald, but at the last instant, the ground leaped up to block it. The curse exploded as it impacted the stone, and a shower of rocks rained from the sky and clattered to the ground. Aberforth Dumbledore stood at the railing of Trafalgar Square, pure rage in his blue eyes.

"No! Stay back!" Harry shouted, but a sharp pain shot through his skull as a rock glanced off his head, and he fell to one knee as his vision went double.

"You're out of your depth Potter, there's a lot of history with this kraut cocksucker," Aberforth growled.

Without another word, he launched into a furious attack on Grindelwald, who side-stepped and parried easily. With his bell rung as it was, Harry struggled to get to his feet, but even then, he knew Aberforth didn't stand a chance. Harry's first spell was on his lips, but Grindelwald had already battered down Aberforth's defences.

"You're not half the man your brother was," Grindelwald said, and with a snap of his wand, he disarmed Aberforth and sent the thin wizard sailing over the railing. Aberforth twisted in the air and for a second it looked as if he might be able to land safely, but Grindelwald had flung him directly towards one of the bronze lions. Harry's eyes widened as it tamped down its paws and leapt to catch Aberforth in mid-air, smashing his body with metal jaws before crashing down and cracking the stones of the square with the impact.

"No," Harry breathed.

He raised his wand again. Grindelwald wasn't even winded, his form still perfect, his trump card, the time turner, still hung from its glittering golden chain around his neck.

"Do not mourn. He was near the end of his life, and it was his decision to make," Grindelwald said.

"How the hell does anyone fight someone like this?" he thought, and then the answer came to him, "they didn't. They tried and lost, every single one, until Dumbledore beat him."

"Come on Potter, we've done this dance before, we know how it ends," Grindelwald said, "Even if you were Dumbledore's equal, there's no substitute for experience, and I have decades on you. Give me my wand, willingly, and no one else needs to die."

"Except Merlin knows how many when you remove the Statute," Harry said as Ron slowly stepped to the side to try to flank their adversary.

"I would save each and every one of them if I could," Grindelwald replied, "you know this. You know this because we are the same."

Grindelwald went on the attack, spells flying from the tip of the wand with each whip and quiver of the pliant wood. Harry was hit with at least three glancing blows and his left arm locked and refused to move; he hoped none would prove fatal as a wave of nausea rolled over him. In a moment of inspiration as he swallowed to avoid heaving, the answer came, the way Dumbledore had defeated Grindelwald, but then he spotted Hermione near the cathedral. Her gaze was fixed at a spot above their heads. Instinctively, Harry glanced up and realised an instant later he shouldn't have, as Grindelwald mimicked his action. He probably inadvertently saved Grindelwald's life as a long, grey object fell from above and the Dark wizard managed to put up a hasty shield. Almost in slow motion, Harry's mind swam around and connected the shape of the object with a meaning: Erumpent horn. His eyes widened.

"Protego!" he thought. The horn was too close to Grindelwald for him to make the correct wand motion to conjure up the most effective shield, and the resulting shockwave blasted a hole in the ground and knocked Grindelwald away from Harry, directly towards Hermione. Harry himself was thrown away, even through his full protego shield. Dark spray fizzled off Shawn Davis as he followed up with a blistering barrage of hexes and curses at the still tumbling Grindelwald, and Matt Wilson and Liz Moore appeared on brooms above them and also pressed the attack.

"Now's our chance!" Harry shouted, even though he couldn't hear his own voice. He tried to run but he lost his balance and fell painfully to one knee.

Grindelwald was already on his feet, and with a wave of his wand, disenchanted one of the brooms, and Matt fell out of the sky but used a wordless arresto momentum to keep himself from splattering on the flagstones. One of the bronze lions leapt up and landed on the ground with a crash, right next to Shawn. The would-be Auror tried to defend himself, but the metal feline was too quick, and swatted him away with one paw and an audible crack of breaking bone. As Shawn spun through the air, a second lion prepared to pounce and crush his body just as it had done with Abeforth, but, ever wily, Davis used his twisting motion to apparate away with a loud crack, and the lion's jaws clanged together on nothing but air. Harry dragged himself back to his feet to see Liz, still on her broom, distracting the lion as Ron and Matt attacked it from the front. In flashes between its twisting and turning body, Harry spotted Grindelwald pointing his wand at his own chest.

"Healing himself? No, something's wrong," he thought. Grindelwald's hair had turned fully white, and portions of it had grown down to his shoulders while other patches retreated into his skull. The stones beneath him had crumbled to dust, and were currently in the process of reforming, and the traffic light behind him blinked and counted numbers repeatedly, until the entire pole rusted and fell over.

"The time turner broke!" Harry thought, "he must be transfiguring himself to keep from dying of old age!"

If he died of old age, there would be no coming back via Aevum. Harry made to move towards him, but Grindelwald's gaze snapped up at him, and then the Dark wizard turned and apparated.

"Fuck!" Harry thought.

Between the four of them, himself, Ron, Matt, and Liz, they ended up transfiguring the stones beneath the lion into mud, and then immobilising and then melting the metal creature until it didn't move anymore. Harry's heart dropped into his feet as he spied Hermione's unconscious form near the road. He limped to her side as apprehension filled him.

"Please…" he thought.

"Rennervate," he said as his heart pounded. She gasped and sat up and he let out a breath he didn't even realise he'd been holding.

"Harry!" she said, "Is-"

"Come on, it's not over yet," he replied.

He grabbed her warm hand and pulled her to her feet, then hobbled to the railing as the battle continued to rage below. The fires on the trees had burnt themselves out, most of the former students had been disarmed and stunned, and only one of the lions remained. From where he stood atop the platform in front of the museum though, movement at the apex of the largest pillar caught his attention. Strapped to the statue of whoever the historical figure was, Harry spotted someone, he couldn't be sure, but it certainly looked an awful lot like Alecto Carrow. With a crack, Grindelwald appeared in the centre of the square, along with a perfect circle of dark metal.

"Shit," Harry thought as Grindelwald levitated the cold iron ritual circle up towards the top of the pillar.

"There!" Harry shouted. Liz angled her broom across Trafalgar square, but stones flew up from the ground and smashed her and the broom until she wobbled and crash landed into one of the pools. Harry hopped down the steps; he was battered, but he wasn't beaten yet.

"Come on Harry, he's beat to shit too, we can take him," Ron said as he joined him. The two half-hobbled, half ran towards Grindelwald as he continued to cast, moving the ring into the position around Carrow. A stone leapt from the ground and Harry leaped, but it took Ron's legs out, and he went down.

"Fucker!" he yelled. Harry passed a soaking wet Liz Moore and then he stood in front of the Dark wizard again. His hair was golden again, but a bloody bruise had formed on Grindelwald's cheek, and one of his eyes had swollen shut. Despite that, he still looked better than Harry felt.

On the far side of the pillar, some thirty metres distant, Harry spotted Neville and Seamus disillusion themselves.

"I need to buy them some time," Harry thought.

"Stop this, please," Harry said, and he put every ounce of his willpower into his words.

Grindelwald paused for a second.

"No," he said, with a small smile, "Those cords are tightening around Alecto's neck. It's only a matter of time now."

"Stupefy!" Neville and Seamus shouted at the same time as they let their disillusion spray away, and Grindelwald somehow deflected both spells directly back at them, miraculously hitting them both with their own spells.

Harry cast as well, not at the Dark wizard, but at the pillar, transfiguring the stone into mud. The whole structure dropped several feet as dark muddy water squirted onto the stones, then it tottered, like a child's tower of blocks. Grindelwald turned to catch it wandlessly with his off hand while his wand remained firmly fixed on Harry.

"Now!" Harry thought.

"Maybe the future we succeed without overturning the Statute is the one where you don't exist!" Harry shouted.

Grindelwald's mouth dropped open, and Harry cast silently in that split-second of shock.

"Expelliarmus!" he thought, and the Dark wizard Grindelwald's wand leapt through the air, spun end over end, and with his left arm useless, Harry caught it next to his own wand.

"Mine," Harry thought.

Grindelwald looked at his empty hand, then at Harry, and started laughing hysterically, and Harry stunned him into unconsciousness. The cold iron ring immediately dropped to the ground with a heavy and ringing clang, and the pillar followed right behind. The toppling stone structure took Alecto Carrow with it and smashed her pudgy body into the stones.

"Fuck," Harry muttered at her deformed head and leaking fluids. There was no way she survived that, not that Harry really cared. He limped over to Grindelwald and bound him up with magical ropes, then patted him down until he found what he was looking for: a small cracked rock with the symbol of the Deathly Hallows carved into it, the Resurrection Stone.

"Yours, all of them," a high cold voice whispered to him.

Harry tucked it into his pouch, then cast a pair of rennervate charms on Seamus and Neville both.

"Thanks," Harry said as they sat up and looked around blearily, "we got 'im."

He hobbled back to Grindelwald's form and propped him up into a sitting position, then turned on the spot and… nothing happened.

"What the hell?" he muttered as Ron and Hermione approached, followed closely by Matt and Liz.

"Hey, three cheers for Harry Potter," Matt said, "hip hip!"

"Huzzah!" came the bedraggled response.

Harry held up a hand.

"Did you put up wards?" Harry asked, "I want to get him out of here but I can't apparate."

"Me either. Me either," came the response from several quarters.

Matt shook his head.

"No, we didn't," Matt said.

"Wands up, this isn't over yet," Harry said. He had no idea who had put an anti-apparition ward up, but it couldn't be good, "Grindelwald has to stay alive. One minute to get patched up, and then we're going to walk him to the Ministry entrance."

Liz did her best to heal the injured as best she could, while Harry sat down and tried to catch his breath.

"Expecto Patronum," he said, "find Fawley, Grindelwald captured at Trafalgar Square, send obliviators."

"Well done, Potter," Grindelwald said quietly as the patronus shot off towards the Ministry.

The Dark wizard had a serene expression on his face as he stared down at the flagstones.

"Though, I fear this may doom us all," he added.

"Oi, question for you," Ron said as he nudged Grindelwald's boot with his own, "I've been dying to know, why didn't you kill me last Halloween, at the cottage?"

Grindelwald sighed deeply.

"Always why. Why-why-why-why-why," he said, then paused. Harry thought he might not respond, but then he continued, "I don't always know the why, but somehow, if you die, Harry Potter takes the Hallows in his possession and retreats from the world. Forever."

Harry shook his head.

"I'd never do that," he said.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the door to the small police station in Trafalgar square slammed open, and a host of goblins came pouring out, all of them wearing polished silvery plate armour and wielding medieval weapons. Within seconds they had formed a line, and with a roar, they charged the exhausted wizards.

"Stop them!" Harry shouted. Spells zipped towards the goblins, but orichalcum infused metal deflected every single one, and the short and stocky goblin warriors barrelled through the wizards and shoved them aside. Harry tried his best to brace himself, but the ease at which he was knocked onto his arse was reminiscent of when he'd tried to tackle Dudley for the first and last time in his life. Matt had better luck, but three goblins swarmed him and grappled about his legs until he went down, and then one of them stood on his chest and held an actual polearm to his neck. A pair of goblins held Harry's arms, and the rest of the DA, including Ron and Hermione, were similarly restrained.

One of the goblins who hefted a heavy, double-bladed axe, removed his helmet to reveal a familiar, raised purple scar marring his left eyebrow.

"Ugluk the Bold?" Harry asked, "what do you think you're doing? Where's Ragnar?"

"Do not concern yourself with the internal affairs of goblins," Ugluk snarled, "I am exacting the blood debt owed under goblin law."

Harry's eyes widened.

"But-" he said, but Ugluk wasn't looking at him anymore. The goblin noble walked right past him to the helpless Grindelwald, who regarded the approaching goblin with a neutral expression.

"Gellert Grindelwald, you used a time turner to steal orichalcum from Gringotts, do you deny it?" Ugluk asked.

"I do not," Grindelwald replied quietly.

"Then, for the crime of stealing this precious commodity from the goblin nation, I, Ugluk the Bold, hereby sentence you to death," Ugluk said.

Harry released the magical ropes binding the Dark wizard, but he made no move, except to make eye contact with the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry knew Gellert Grindelwald, one of the most powerful and resourceful wizards of the last century, had to have a trick up his sleeve; he could avoid the blow if he wanted, he could escape, but he didn't. He made no move except to hold Harry's gaze and smile at the last second as the axe fell and split his face in half. Blood gushed onto the stones amidst gasps as the body twitched and Ugluk spit on the corpse.

"No," Harry whispered, "do you realise what you've done?"

"What you should have," Ugluk said as he turned and held up the blood-stained axe, "now the entire world will know it was the goblins who solved your problem for you. Consider yourself fortunate you did not meet the same fate, Harry Potter."

With that, the goblins released them and marched back to the small police station, leaving Harry and the rest to pick up the pieces as the obliviators started to arrive.

Chapter 67 Trigger Warnings: Gore, Character Death