Don't Let Me Go,
Chapter 20, The Springtime Of His Voodoo
"Could gremlins spy out Delphini, do you think," Blaise asked, turning to Gellert.
The blond's lips curved into a happy smile. "I do love it when we are thinking the same thing at the same time, and yes, they certainly can!" He turned his attention to the gremlin. "So are you up for a bit of work, Scratch," Gellert asked.
The gremlin bounced eagerly from the table where he'd just polished off a large cup of chocolate tea, landing on Gellert's shoulder. "Scratch too idle. Scratch no like that. Scratch ready to work," he rasped eagerly.
"Well there is someone very dangerous that I would like for you to find for me. But as she is very dangerous, more so than any of our former enemies, it is very important that she is not made aware of you," Gellert told the gremlin gravely. There were many reasons he didn't want Delphini getting her hands on his little friend. For one, he was loyal. He appreciated all of his gremlins for what they'd done for him during his own war with the Muggles in those early days. He liked this particular gremlin, his first, quite a lot personally.
The last thing he wanted was for Scratch to fall into Delphini's wicked grip. Who knew what she would do to twist him against what he was or worse! Her magic seemed to involve twisting things against their original intended purpose from what he'd seen thus far. That or simply unraveling their magic. Neither of these things were what he wanted to befall his gremlin. As if that wasn't bad enough, if Delphini discovered gremlins, who knew what she would use that concept for? Certainly it would not be pleasant, and the last thing Gellert wanted was to give the foul girl any sort of advantage.
His own prison, Nurmengard, had been twisted against him in the past, and he wasn't about to see the same done to his gremlins. He had changed the gremlins from wood sprites to tricksters that ran a muck with Muggle technology. He'd done so with their permission, though, and not against their own nature. Wood sprites could be tricky as well as vicious if crossed, after all. As Gellert spoke, Scratch regarded him intently. When Gellert was finished, the gremlin nodded. His expression was solemn and his gaze intense, showing that he was paying complete attention. Gellert proceeded to describe Delphini then. Her looks with that odd silvery blue hair, the sort of odd unsettling magic she worked, or rather the end results, for it was all anyone got to see, and her propensity for hiding while she made her moves. "This is why Blaise and I hoped you could track her down. Your magic is at least as tricky as hers, after all," he concluded.
"Scratch play tricks, alright," the gremlin grinned. "Scratch go look now. Scratch no let bad girl see him."
Gellert nodded, and scooped the gremlin up in his hands, pressing the scaled green creature briefly against his cheek. "Thank you, old friend." It was the closest to a hug one could give a gremlin, if one dared to try such a thing. Scratch chuckled, laying a clawed hand gently against Gellert's face before leaping away and vanishing. He did not return for days! When he did, he was thin with a haggard look to his eyes. "Scratch no find," he rasped regretfully. "Scratch find her trails, he thinks, but they all lead around onto one another like coiled snakes. They never lead to her. Scratch used much of his energy trying to trace her location. He is tired and so hungry!"
"Of course," Gellert said hastily. "Blaise, would you get some sort of Muggle machine for him to eat while I attend to having Bramble make him some actual food. He will need both sorts of nourishment by this point." He knew that Blaise would hate handling the Muggle end of things that Scratch now required, but he did not wish to leave the gremlin's side to do so himself. Not while Scratch looked so poorly. He'd been off serving Gellert again, after all, so Gellert felt the least he could do was attend to him personally.
Blaise nodded, rising at once to don the black slacks and silk shirt that he wore when venturing into any place remotely Muggle where wizard robes would draw too many odd looks. "I shall get him some appliances from that filthy Muggle Primark place." He shuddered, lip curling in disgust even at the thought of the act. Kereston had once dragged them there so that Gellert could see how rapidly the Muggle population had grown during his imprisonment. Both he and Blaise had found the forced Primark experience both harrowing and enraging. Kereston's point had been properly proven, though. Muggles and the odd things they used in daily life had both become excessive. Even worse, Muggles had grown far more crass and they were busily breeding like roaches due to any social values of marriage before children having deteriorated away to basically nothing.
"Thank you," Gellert said, feeling a twinge of sympathy in his stomach at the very idea of venturing into that dreadful store. The fact that Blaise was willing to soil himself in such a way for Scratch's well-being was truly touching. "I love you so much." As he spoke, he rose and drew Blaise hard into his arms, kissing him soundly. Blaise had donned the black slacks by this point, but not the shirt, so Gellert was able to relish the view of Blaise's tanned lean chest muscles. "You are truly beautiful," he murmured against the other wizard's full lips as Blaise hungrily returned his kiss.
"As are you," he replied, pulling back with a regretful sigh. "The sooner we see to this poor gremlin, the sooner we can see to one another," he said, a promise in his suddenly hungry blue gaze as it swept over Gellert's body. Gellert nodded. Turning, he scooped a very tired Scratch from where the gremlin huddled on the desk.
"Let's go downstairs and get you some food. Blaise will be back soon with those Muggle machines for you."
Bramble was quick to rustle the gremlin up something to eat. In under two minutes, Scratch was joyously feasting on left-over roasted chicken and potatoes. Bramble was unable to keep from smiling at the gremlin's gleeful sounds as he made quick work of the meal, shoving handfuls into his mouth with long fingered claws, completely ignoring the small fork Bramble had set out for him. Gellert smiled at the antics of his little friend, still nearly unable to process that Scratch had returned to him. He'd truly stopped expecting anything from his old life, ready and willing to start a new, but the sight of his gremlin certainly warmed his heart. Seeing how well Scratch was fitting into his new life warmed his heart even more.
Blaise made quick work of getting in and out of Muggle Primark, quite sure that he would have horrific nightmares about the place when next he rested his head. He Apparated to Diagon Alley, before casting Disillusionment upon himself. Unseen,he Apparated into a Muggle Alley just behind Primark. Once inside, he was careful not to allow any Muggles to brush against him. For one thing, Muggle filth was disgusting,and for another, he doubted that touching someone that they could not see would go over well with the Muggle masses. Then again, they'd likely just think they'd encountered a ghost, he thought with an inner snicker.
Primark was so crowded with Muggles as well as the objects for which they shopped, that for an instant, he did not know where to begin. Soon enough, he spotted the signs that directed a person to where each department in the store was located. Hunting in each department for something electronic looking that the gremlin may like was daunting and confusing, nearly causing him to wish he'd paid more attention in Muggle studies. Eventually he found a few things, casting his Disillusionment charm on them as well before carrying them out and Apparating back home. Stealing from Muggles gave him no qualms, because they did far worse to one another daily and with historical facts in mind, would do far worse to witches and wizards did they only have the chance. He Apparated back to Diagon Alley before allowing the Disillusionment charms to drop. Once he was visible again, he Apparated back into his own front hall.
"We are in here," Gellert's voice called from the direction of the dining room. "How was it?"
"Disgusting," Blaise groaned as he hurried in the direction of Gellert's voice. As he entered the dining room, he held up the two boxes around which his arms were clasped. "I brought him what I could find fast, because I had to get out of there. I hope these will do." He shuddered, depositing the boxes on the table.
Bramble cringed. "Why did Blaise have to put those on Bramble's clean table? Did Blaise forget that we all eat there?"
"Sorry," Blaise said with a shrug. "It felt rude just putting them on the floor, and I did not know where Scratch would want them." He gave the Gremlin on Gellert's shoulder a frown. "You'd better love me forever for going into Muggle territory just for you," he said. "Now I need a shower!" In truth, the Gremlin had served them well, trying his best to assist with the Delphini problem, and Blaise appreciated that more than words could say. He appreciated it enough, in fact, to sully himself in Muggle territory.
Scratch, who was inspecting the boxes with an eager hungry light glittering in his eyes, turned his gaze to Blaise. Frowning in consideration for a moment, he nodded, then sprang to Blaise's shoulder. "Scratch thank you," he said. "Scratch love you forever like he love Gellert." Blaise's expression softened in a way that made Gellert smile. He just knew those two would get on famously.
"I brought a blender, and some sort of hand held... video game. Before anyone asks, a blender has something to do with food preparation from what I could manage to glean from the writing on its box, and the video game, is... some sort of game that is electrical I suppose. I figured it didn't matter if he was just going to eat them or whatever he does."
"A thing we are both curious about, it seems," Bramble told Blaise as Scratch leapt to the table and avidly reached for the box holding the blender. As everyone watched, he happily tore into it and dragged the odd looking machine out. He made short work of picking it apart after climbing into it to do so. Enthusiastically, he chomped on cords and bits of shiny metal and plastic as he dismantled the blender thing entirely. When he was finished, it was only a mix of jumbled bits on the floor. "So he doesn't need to eat it all," Blaise asked, vaguely confused.
Gellert shrugged. "I wasn't really sure how it would work at first. Gremlins sustain themselves more on food, but they do feed on the energy of dismantling Muggle products. They do not need to ingest the entire product, though. They appear satisfied by only taking a few bites as they tear whatever it is apart or simply disable it and allow Muggles to injure or kill themselves trying to make it work." He smiled.
"So he will not wish to eat the rest later," Bramble asked. When Gellert and Scratch both shook their heads, Bramble waved at the jumble of Muggle rubbish on the floor and table, causing it to vanish. "Bramble will not have messes in his dining room."
For his part, Scratch was looking far better. Lazily he moved to the second box. Rather than destroying the video game thing that rested inside, he began to happily play with it. The game lit up. Then bright colors and images began flashing across the small screen on its front. Scratch made happy sounds as he eagerly caused the images on the game's screen to move by rapidly pressing buttons on the side of said game. Blaise found himself oddly mesmerized by the screen's flashing colors and moving images of odd creatures.
"Are you going to eat it," he asked after a few minutes and the gremlin shook his head.
"No. Scratch going to play with it. He keep."
Blaise chuckled, shaking his head in mock exasperation. Still, he could not keep his gaze from straying to the flashing images on the little screen in Scratch's hands. Something about the way the game jumped from image to image when Scratch pressed the buttons plucked at his mind. "It's like..."
"What?" Gellert asked, leaning toward him. "What is it?"
"Well, it reminds me of a camera," Blaise said. "I think we can use it to help us to track Delphini."
The thinly disguised excitement in Blaise's voice at the idea sent a surge of excitement through Gellert even though he did not fully understand where Blaise was going with this.
"Scratch's game!" The gremlin protested before Gellert could ask for more of an explanation.
Blaise chuckled. "No. I don't want Scratch's game. It just gave me an idea."
"Good!" Scratch grinned, focus happily returning to his new toy.
Blaise turned to Gellert, answering the blond's silent question. "The way the images on the game move remind me of pictures. I think if we got pictures of Delphini somehow, I could use them to hurt or weaken her. Like a voodoo doll concept, but a picture!"
"Ah," Gellert breathed out softly. How had they not thought of that before? Especially after the voodoo drama between the Zabini parents. As if reading Gellert's thoughts, Blaise added, "I got the idea because of Dad's interests, you know." Gellert nodded, chuckling.
"I thought as much." Geo Zabini had wanted to pose as a voodoo priest during his sixth husband incarnation, but Sabra Zabini had put her elegant foot down, claiming not to want shrunken heads or chicken bones in her esteemed manor. If one could judge by his at least once monthly complaining about it, Geo had never gotten over not getting to pretend to be a voodoo priest. "I'm going to do it for Dad," Blaise laughed.
"He'll be so proud!" Gellert managed through his own laughter. "Especially if we use it to bring Delphini down! Are you going to actually stick pins into the photos?"
Blaise nodded. "Yes!" He sighed, leaning back in his chair, a nearly petulant frown briefly crossing his sculpted features. "Getting the damned photos is going to be the most difficult part,though. She's so evasive that a bloody gremlin can't even catch her, after all."
"Scratch sorry,"the gremlin muttered sadly without looking up from his new Muggle toy.
"It's alright," Blaise assured, reaching to gently pat the little creature's shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. She is just more evil than any of us has had to comprehend, so she evades too easily."
"K," Scratch said.
Gellert grinned, mischief suddenly dancing in his eyes. "We shall simply have to do something brilliant to draw her out! I think we can handle it."
"First I want to get cameras to all the Aurors," Blaise said. "So that when we do draw her out, and they're called onto the scene for a battle, they can snap a few pictures. If they can at least get three, I think we shall be set."
They had a plan! Gellert was flying high on sudden exhilaration. At long last, and after far too many decades unfairly shut away in his own prison, he was about to do what he'd always believed he was meant to do. He was going to defend the wizarding world from the worst evil he had yet to see. Once he'd believed this evil would be created by Muggle hands, and perhaps some day it would be, but right now the worst evil was one of Voldemort's creation. Something without a soul could never produce anything with one either. Lacking a soul, Delphini lacked certain forms of understanding. With this in mind, Gellert knew that with the best tricks and planning he and Blaise would take her down.
(Dear Reader,
Thank you for taking this journey with us. To read of Delphini's epic downfall, check out our full length novel, our Cursed Child part two, Bad Romance! If you'd like to read more of Blaise and Gellert's early years, check out In The Dark, also uploaded here.)
