Chapter 1: Taking action
Dumbledore's little army weren't the only ones taking a stand of protest when it came to the Voldemort situation. There were many dark wizards unwilling to be forced into a life of needless murder and insanity by a madman. Not all dark wizards wished to be led, controlled or told what to do. For a dark faction to begin, however, someone had to take initiative. Enough dark wizards, due to the way they tended to think, were loners or only traveled in small social circles, so that was unlikely until the right person happened along. The right person, in this case, was a man by the name of Wolfgang Adler. He was an intelligent, smooth and classy German half giant. Unlike Hagrid the man was sophisticated, tall yet well proportioned in a perfectly tailored suit, with short red hair and blue eyes. Due to his charming manners and worldly magical education, he inspired and interested people. As his practice was to work under the radar, even those dark wizards who did not wish to take an open stand against Voldemort, felt it safe to stand with him. Three of those wizards were Blaise Zabini and his parents. Term hadn't yet begun at Hogwarts, so though this was a week night Blaise was free to attend the meeting of around eight or so of London's most powerful Voldemort-Free dark wizards.
"Do you know how illegal that is," Severus Snape burst out.
"Does it matter," Wolfgang asked calmly, tone reasonable. "No one is ever going to find out. We will do it here, and to someone who won't be missed...And most important of all for the greater good." The half giant chuckled in a way that made Blaise give a rare dry smile of appreciation for the punned slogan of Grindelwald back in the day. "I have found someone who is old enough to take his place in Nurmengard so no one will even guess that he has escaped when we free him," Wolfgang explained.
Snape almost looked impressed. "Sounds reasonable I suppose," the potions master said carefully. "How did you manage to convince someone to go to prison for life," he wondered, arching dark brows at the dignified half giant.
"I know many German families, some richer than others. The poor ones work for the rich ones. I simply chose a very poor one with a loving grandfather who felt spending his final days in Nurmengard for the assured wealth of his family a worthy trade. I made sure the family is wealthy and they believe he passed in his sleep as they never would've agreed to sending dear old Grandpa off to prison. In truth the man is becoming senile so I did a kindness to all if you ask me. His family believes he had a secret stash of gold as I managed to have him leave a will. So they never knew the pay off was from me." Wolfgang came from a very wealthy family himself, and he never minded putting that wealth to good use in situations like this, which Blaise respected.
"Good thinking," Blaise's mother drawled. "When old people go addled, taking care of them is a literal fright! I once had a friend whose mother went all off her rails, and it nearly killed her dealing with it all!"
"The old man is resting in my guest room, ready to take Grindelwald's place tomorrow. Of course I made sure the two look similar enough to pass," Wolfgang said. At those words, Blaise felt a rare flair of excitement. Oh he could be interested or even enthusiastic about those few rare things he truly enjoyed, but excitement wasn't generally in his range of emotions. It was really going to happen. Though this plan had been in the works for a few weeks, now that it was actually about to finalize, Blaise allowed himself to bask in this rare rush of excitement. Soon he would meet Gellert Grindelwald. The man was the only living enchanter that Blaise felt could actually have anything useful to share with him. Blaise lived for enchanting objects. It was the most fascinating branch of magic and one at which he excelled. It allowed him the room to spread his creative wings and to express his thoughts and ideas, turning them into solid useful concepts that would eventually make him even more money than he already had. If he and Grindelwald were to work together, even better. This entire unusual situation fell into place through a series of things that, when combined much as one would compile elements for a spell or potion, made this freeing of Grindelwald possible. It began with the acquisition of a very rare, and as it happened, important scroll. Wolfgang tended to attend the underground magical auctions that took place all over Europe, and his most recent acquisition was a very old alchemy scroll with several beyond rare potion recipes on it. Old as in around the time of Salazar Slytherin if not before. The scroll was laden with preservation spells and still yellowed around the edges...So impressively old. Just now Snape held it in his hands, studying the instructions and ingredients for the last potion that was listed. This potion was what sparked the entire concept of freeing Grindelwald. A potion of youth. It may have seemed relatively innocent at first glance, but in order to give one person youth, it had to be taken from another via their life force I.E killing them. To make it matter the person had to be young enough to have enough years to give, so at least middle age. Gellert Grindelwald was old enough to require someone young, which Wolfgang would procure via one of Voldemort's Death Eaters. The plan was to capture a follower of Voldemort's and bring him or her back here to Adler manor where the potion could be made in private, away from prying eyes. Wolfgang planned to torture the victim until they were ready to follow instructions just so the pain would stop. The instruction they would be required to follow was simply to breathe into a vial. As by then Snape would've made the potion itself, the liquid would trap the breath, while at the same time draining the Death Eater's life. With this life and youth extracted, the Death Eater would die. When Grindelwald drank the potion, he'd become young again. That's how it worked. Simple, yet far too dark for anyone from the Ministry much less Dumbledore's Army to ever so much as contemplate it. As Wolfgang was already killing Death Eaters to take down Voldemort's ranks of power, this was no crime that wasn't already being committed, so no harm done. Besides, everyone in the room felt that a killing was entirely justified if the one being taken out would do the same to them and others. As this was the case for all of Voldemort's lot, no one was going to lose sleep over what needed to be done. Though the prospect was admittedly fascinating, Blaise didn't relish the unsightly act of watching anyone die even if they were worthy of such. Meeting Grindelwald was an exciting prospect to be certain, but it could wait at least until the body was cleared out. Blaise's own involvement in the freeing of Grindelwald was actually key to its success. Like Grindelwald himself, Blaise's abilities were rather advanced for his age. Blaise planned to set up shop for himself after graduating Hogwarts and traveling a bit. He studied and even made his own enchanted objects so planned to make a name and living for himself doing so. It was one of those objects that made it almost easy to free the German wizard from Nurmengard prison. The object was Blaise's newest experiment, and so powerful that in the wrong hands, could be quite troublesome. For that reason, he planned to decide personally who was allowed to have one when he crafted more in the future. Grindelwald was a very powerful wizard with similar interests, so Blaise was eager to make friends or at least make the attempt. He had few close friends as most people bored him or were too untrustworthy or frequently both.
"You're certain you can get one of Voldemort's followers to come back here with you, Severus," Blaise's mother asked, and Snape nodded tightly. "I told you, Sabra, they trust me because he does."
"Talk about not thinking for oneself," Millicent Bulstrode muttered darkly. "Because no one should trust that face."
Snape looked as if he were considering the option of ignoring her, but shot his least favorite Slytherin a glare instead. "Glass houses, Bulstrode," he drawled.
"Love and harmony. Isn't it what we all live for," Blaise asked the room in general, unable to resist the opportunity to be witty and sarcastic to his own lot.