Chapter 21

Harry didn't fight like Emily. She shouldn't have found that surprising. But for some reason she'd always assumed he'd model himself after her. Perhaps it was nothing more than her own arrogance. He did nothing to start, aside from stepping slowly toward Grindelwald. He let the man throw spells at him as he approached. Each one fizzled away in a mass of purple as it approached Harry.

Grindelwald didn't seem to notice, or care that his attacks were ineffective. Emily watched him as his attention drifted toward Jochen. The other companions had fled. She wondered if she should have been tracking them. It would have probably been the pertinent thing to do, all things considered. But she hadn't thought about it at the time.

Either way the least she figured she could do now was to keep an eye on Jochen and make sure he didn't get any ideas above his station in the next few minutes. Although she doubted Harry would need her help with either of them. His little radiation trick seemed quite handy in a fight.

Still, she had to wonder just what it was doing to his body. If her assumptions were correct, and he'd taken all of the negative energy from the sites and forced it all into himself, well, she couldn't fathom a way in which that was healthy for him.

Yet smaller parts of his story stuck out in her mind. Little details that made her wonder. After he'd done it, he'd freely admitted to losing a fight to a handful of Japanese Aurors. She wouldn't have thought something like that was possible. Even if they'd surprised him he should have been capable of blasting them off and calling it a day. Hell, it was one of the reasons she liked her shockwave attack so much. It was quick and easy to use in a pinch and could take out a group of enemies surrounding her without much effort. But he'd lost. Flat out. And he'd made no excuses for it.

She'd known many men in her time who wouldn't admit to something like that, regardless of what else around them said, did or saw. They'd double down, say that it hadn't happened, or that it only happened because of X, Y or Z. Sometimes A, B and C were included as well.

It grew exhausting to listen to them. To the point where the only way out was to nod and agree with them just so they would stop talking. Which, she found, had the unfortunate side effect of inflating their own egos. Afterall, if someone else agreed with their convoluted excuses then there had to have been some truth in them. And so they would double down again, convinced once more of their own infallibility.

But Harry had only smiled and freely admitted that he'd lost and that the fight wasn't even close. What was it he'd said when she'd pressed him on it? Oh yes, that he hadn't been feeling himself. An excuse, sure, but said with a shrug of his shoulders. It wasn't so much of an excuse as a veiled explanation. The distinction was minor, she knew, but the distinction was there.

He wasn't saying that it was a one time deal, or a lucky shot, or anything. He was admitting that in that instance, he was never going to win that fight. Because of what he was at the time the fight occurred.

It was something that weighed on him. Something that he'd clearly thought about for far longer than was strictly healthy. Dwelling in one's own head after a defeat was never the greatest place to be. But, rather than stew on it. He accepted the outcome.

There was something attractive about a man who was capable of accepting and understanding his limits. And, on top of that, willing to own up to them, and willing to admit to his own faults. She found herself chewing on her lip as she stared at Harry.

At least until she cast a nullifying charm on the gem in her pocket, cursing herself for letting any sort of distraction work into her mind as the fight commenced. She shifted slightly, wondering how powerful the gem had to be to get through basic charms and the fabric of the pocket of her clothing.

She ignored it. Instead turning her attention back to Jochen. He watched her far more closely than she was watching him. He at least seemed to understand what a threat she was. She let power well in her, but didn't do anything more than that.

Part of her wanted to help Harry, but she also wanted to see just how he'd fare by himself. They'd both lost this engagement before. She figured she could at least see if he'd learned anything.

Her mind flashed back to his losing to the Japanese Aurors. The answer was easy enough to understand. She'd been to Japan before. She'd felt the oppressive nature of the magic in her before. She knew how hard it was to even cast the most simple spells just near the area.

And he'd taken all of that into himself. He'd let it ravage himself. Again, she couldn't fathom just what that was doing to him. Yet somehow, he'd fought through all of them, and come out on the other side not only still able to cast spells, but able to use its own power to his advantage.

She wondered how long that had taken. How much he'd had to focus. And just how much power he had to fight through it all to even get to the point where he could do any of it. Part of her was glad she wasn't about to have to throw down against him in a meaningful way.

Another part of her was furious with him for going easy on her in their own brief engagement. She'd have to rectify that when they got back to Hogwarts. Well, if they got back to Hogwarts.

But even as she watched the magic swirl around him. And the contamination spread out in unison with it, another thought crossed her mind. She wondered just what all of that was doing to his body. But was that the right question to ask?

Priya and Harry had dug themselves into a metaphorical hole with their research by making a whole lot of assumptions on what they were dealing with rather than taking the time to actually research it more directly.

They'd admitted, perhaps not directly but it was there if one read through the lines, that their research only really succeeded because they had a great deal of power that they could force the problem to end. It wasn't a solution.

But it was the solution they'd done. They'd taken all of it. And they'd powered through it. But to do so it had all been on Harry. She wasn't even sure she'd have been able to do it. The only way for it to succeed required Harry Potter. It wouldn't be something anyone else could emulate. He and Priya had to know what it was doing. He and Priya had to know what it meant. They were both, well, Priya was more intelligent than that.

So she looked at him and wondered what it was doing to Harry. What was it doing to his body, what negative effects was it having on him? She wasn't sure how someone could survive with that in them, but there he was, and not only was he surviving, he was thriving.

Somehow he'd pushed through it all. And somehow he was able to retain his magic despite the corruption flowing so freely through him. Perhaps it had something to do with accepting it and learning to work with it.

No, she chuckled to herself. That wasn't Harry.

It was power. It had to be power. Exactly what they'd cautioned against had to be the only thing that he'd have attempted, and that would have worked. He'd forced himself through all of it. He'd mastered it. With an unfathomable power squashing down on him at every waking moment of his life, he'd pushed through.

He'd pushed through so successfully that the returning Japanese Aurors were lucky to be alive. Even she wouldn't like to have faced the odds he did in that moment without a much better plan. But it hadn't mattered. She wondered if he'd even fully mastered all of that power at that point. Or if he was merely almost back to his normal self.

Whatever he'd done, past his two or three sentences describing it, had scared elite Japanese Aurors enough that their government had immediately caved to Harry's desires. She wondered if he even realized that. Knowing Harry he probably didn't even try to push. He could have gained so much more from them. But instead he'd merely taken exactly what he'd needed and gone on his merry way.

She knew she was asking the wrong questions. She shouldn't be worried about what it was doing to him. In fact, he didn't seem to care. Which probably meant he wasn't going to drop dead. But that wasn't the question that should be asked.

No, she realized. The question worth asking was the inverse of how she'd approached it. It wasn't what the corruption was doing to him. It was what would he be with the corruption removed?

It hadn't been days, weeks or months that he'd dealt with the power pressing back his very nature. It had been years. And through that he'd still managed feats of magic that managed to stun, well, Gellert Grindelwald. And he made it look more or less effortless.

She let her gaze shift over to him. She could see some of his magic venting off of him, a sort of reddish green hue. The tendrils of purple power that swarmed him snatched it up as readily as they did anything else, but some of it lingered. What would happen, she wondered, if it were all finally unleashed?

He'd backed Grindelwald back toward the wall by that point. The man still was only nominally focused on Harry's onslaught. He didn't throw too many spells at Grindelwald, instead he focused on a few here or there as he watched the older man maneuver. It was clear he was trying to get closer to Jochen, although she didn't quite know why. Still, it seemed like something she shouldn't let him do.

She shifted between them, earning a glare from Grindelwald as she blocked his most obvious path toward the exit of the room. Part of her wondered why they didn't just apparate away. Or use a Portkey. They had to have some type of emergency exit. She would have.

But, well, maybe they weren't as paranoid as her. It was a distinct possibility, as she was known for being rather paranoid. And it wasn't like they expected any sort of encounter to occur in the confines of their own base. But that was merely a lack of preparation. They should have known better than to expect anywhere to be safe, no matter the charms they'd put on it.

Then again, she thought as she spared a quick glance between Grindelwald and Jochen, they just had someone appear in the heart of their stronghold, through whatever countermeasures they'd taken to prevent that exact situation. And they clearly had no idea how he did it.

The simple explanation was that their defenses were done in such a way that they were incapable of escaping that way. It was a likely one, too, as it was how she would have set it up, and everyone knew her way was the best way.

But they were either incapable or unwilling to risk themselves against the failing charms as they stayed.

Or, she thought, they were buying time for the others. She scoffed at her own stupidity as the thought flooded into her head.

"They're just stalling for time, Harry," she said.

"I know," Harry responded. He fired another lazy volley of spells at Grindelwald. The German countered them. One minor cutting hex made it through his defenses and he cursed. As soon as the word slipped out the mountain shook once more.

"You're going to get us all killed!" Grindelwald yelled. Harry pressed on, throwing spells at the older man with wild abandon. The sheer quantity of it made it nearly impossible for even Emily to track. And it made aiming as a concept largely irrelevant.

She saw magic splatter against the cavern walls, she saw chunks of stone blast off in any direction as dust kicked up. But through it all she only kept her eyes on Jochen. He didn't move to help his master at all. In fact, his attention still seemed focused elsewhere. His eyes were looking toward her, but there was a certain glaze to them.

The problem, she quickly realized, was that he was clearly doing something else. It seemed stupid to let him do whatever it was. So she slashed her wand out toward him, shooting a rather basic but quick moving blasting hex his way.

It vanished in a flash of silvery light as Grindelwald threw out his hand and shielded Jochen. Again, as his attention faltered, the mountain shook around them once more. Some additional debris fell from the walls where Harry had blasted them. Jochen's eyes flashed back to reality and brought his wand up.

Grindelwald barked something at him in German. It annoyed Emily so she threw more spells at him. Jochen threw up a powerful shield, his eyes widening in terror as she continued to assault the magic. He yelled back in German but his response was largely ignored by his boss, as his attention shifted to Harry and the room shook once more.

"We need to get out of here!" Grindelwald yelled at Harry. Again, Harry didn't manage to look the least bit phased. Instead he shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm in no hurry," Harry responded. Emily had to chuckle. He was managing to be both flippant and infuriating while maintaining an utmost calm. Emily herself even believed that he felt no general dismay over his situation. And that he saw no real threat from the people around him.

"Jochen?" Grindelwald barked. Emily took that as a sign that she needed to send more spells his way. The Killing Curse blasted through his shield. He managed to avoid it, throwing up another shield and attempting to dodge away from her. Jochen; however, was not Grindelwald. And he quickly learned that. She swatted him into a corner. He kept his eyes on her, but even through the beating she gave him, he maintained most of his focus elsewhere.

It was rather disappointing and annoying. Even as the mountain shook once more. She stumbled slightly, cursing herself for not paying attention. But it didn't matter. There was no unexpected assault from Jochen and Grindelwald was otherwise occupied.

She regained her balance and leveled her wand at Jochen. She could end this, she knew. But something about that didn't sit well with her. They weren't fleeing when they should have been. But they were barely fighting back. Harry had to have noticed. But he wasn't doing anything about it.

Well, he was fighting Grindelwald, she supposed. Except it felt far less frantic. And far more methodical than she would have expected. He wasn't wasting any movement. And Grindelwald, for his part, was only offering up a token resistance. Not that his spells were having any effect at all. Harry wasn't even shielding them. He was merely letting his power absorb it all.

She could see frustration on the faces of the Germans. But they weren't doing a whole lot to waylay that feeling. They were merely keeping themselves as alive as they could given the situation. And even seemed to be less affected by the trembling cavern.

She had to resist far more of her base urges than she would have expected. She wanted to kill Jochen. She wanted to look at his smug little face as she ended his life. She wanted him to know how abysmally stupid he was for siding with anyone other than her. She wanted to end his world.

She knew she was capable of doing all of it. And she even knew that, unlike quite a few of her other murders, this one, given from what she'd seen in the area around the mountain hideaway, might even be for the better.

But it was the wrong decision. Grindelwald, to an extent, seemed to only still be there because Jochen still was. If she offed the stupid German before Harry was done with his master, she might give him the excuse he needed to flee. And she didn't want to deal with Harry's annoyed bitching if she cost him the fight.

Instead she focused on keeping him pinned in the corner. He defended, but made no real effort to attack back. Frankly, it was the type of fight she was accustomed to. People who fought her were often so convinced of their own defeat that they didn't bother trying to do anything other than defend themselves.

It was stupid, really, she was going to kill them regardless of how much energy they wasted with shields or dodging. But a lucky spell or a momentary lapse in concentration from her could totally change the tide of a battle. But what was the old quote? Never interrupt an enemy while they made mistakes? It seemed apt.

Still, it was one of the reasons she enjoyed James Potter so much. He'd at least fought her. Never very successfully, mind you, but his son had unknowingly inherited his attitude of the best defense is a good offense.

But with Jochen it was different. She could tell his mind was elsewhere. And it annoyed her to not be the center of his attention. And not in the way the stupid gem in her pocket wanted it to be.

She had to fight the urge to dismember him. Which was problematic, and not only because she really wanted to dismember him. But because it allowed him some modicum of focus on whatever he was doing. Which her goal was to disrupt.

A blast of rock from the nearby wall startled her out of her own mind. Jochen's eyes flashed as it exploded near him. She turned her head slightly to see Harry throwing more spells out toward Grindelwald.

The German wasn't even fighting back now. His eyes were wide with a mix of terror and fury as he countered what spells he could and avoided what ones he couldn't. Harry continued to press to him, and Grindelwald continued to maneuver away. But he was doing everything in his power to stay away from Jochen as well.

The purple tendrils flared off and smashed into the wall behind Grindelwald as Harry moved. They left minor indents in the rock and Grindelwald's eyes flashed with even more alarm.

But, like Jochen, she could sense that he was elsewhere. One tendril clipped his shoulder and in the instant his concentration buckled, the mountain shook once more. This time it was far more violent than the previous times. Some of the rock on the ceiling fell down around them.

"You idiot," Grindelwald yelled as the mountain continued to shake. Jochen's eyes widened in fear as his focus wavered as well.

"Still not bothered," Harry shrugged. His lips curled up into a smirk and he was doing a terrible job of hiding his own excitement.

"It's done!" Jochen yelled, his eyes coming back into focus. He looked toward Grindelwald but Emily decided that was as good a time as any to press her own assault. She let loose a flurry of cutting hexes, all designed to shatter shields. Jochen countered a handful of them but more broke through and ripped through his body.

He coughed out blood as his eyes widened once more. Sheer terror evident on his face. But before she could finish him Grindelwald flashed between them. He threw a small stone toward Jochen. As soon as it hit him his body started to swirl away. Emily started an anti-portkey chant but she knew she was far too late and Jochen vanished in an instant.

Grindelwald turned toward Harry as the cavern continued to shake beneath their feet. He fired a barrage of magic toward Harry, fire mixing with pure arcane power shooting around the cavern.

Like before, Harry let it come straight at him. It vanished a few feet away from him. Harry fired his own spells right back through it. The tendrils continued to assault Grindelwald as his magic pressed him onward.

More of the roof started to come down around them. Harry seemed oblivious to it as he pressed on. A large rock nearly splattered him across the floor of the cavern. She moved closer to him, focusing a shield on keeping the rocks from squashing both of them.

Grindelwald redirected his spells upwards, forcing more of the cavern down around them. Harry didn't bother defending it. She didn't know if he was being incredibly reckless, if he thought his own magic would do it automatically, or if he had that much faith in her.

She'd have rather helped him with the grandpa. But, she supposed preventing him from being squashed did constitute a form of helping. Even if it wasn't the type of help she was hoping to provide.

It wasn't something she had to worry about for much longer, though. Grindelwald continued to pour power into destroying the area until a much larger chunk of the ceiling fell toward them. Followed momentarily by the walls flying to close in on them. Harry took care of the walls as she did with the ceiling. But a massive blast of power followed. She stumbled against it as the very ground continued to shake.

Harry only stood there. He fired more magic toward Grindelwald as the mountain shook more and more with each passing moment. Emily peered downward and saw the ground beginning to crack beneath them.

"As fun as this has been," Grindelwald said, digging out another small stone from his robes. "I rather not die buried beneath a mountain. Good luck trying to get out with what you let me do. I'd have thought you'd know better, Harry Potter. Always fight like you want to put the enemy down."

And, in a moment, he vanished into a swirl of energy much like Jochen had moments before. Emily cursed and looked around as the mountain began to shake even more violently. She made to apparate away but as soon as she tried it felt like hundreds of needles penetrated her skin.

She dropped the spell immediately. She could have tried to force her way through the magic but even with her own skill the odds didn't favor her as much as she'd have liked. She brought her gaze over to Harry figuring she should let her panic match his own.

He displayed none. Instead he looked annoyed. She wondered if he was going to somehow blame all of this on her. That seemed like the kind of dumb thing that Harry Potter would do.

Instead he sighed.

"Took him long enough," he said after a moment. "I thought he'd never leave."

"What are you talking about?" Emilly responded, hoping that the terror of being inside a collapsing mountain wasn't too evident.

"I thought he'd flee faster after I broke all of his wards. But he had the decency to wait for his people to clear completely out, holding onto the last bits of it as he did. Honestly rather impressed he pulled it off. But he had some help from the other one," Harry said. His voice betrayed no emotion. He didn't seem to be the least bit upset about his current situation.

"Jochen," she said.

"Bless you?" he countered.

"That's his name," Emily said.

"Oh. Well he helped," Harry said. "Mostly kept track of the others in the mountain. I don't care about their names."

"I hate to seem like a sourpuss, but please tell me you brought a portkey," she said.

"You're wearing one," Harry countered. Her eyes flashed to the silver watch on her wrist. She nodded, a momentary sense of relief rushing through her.

"Right," she said. She unclasped the watch and slid it into her left hand, her hand wrapping tightly around it as the activation phrase came to the front of her mind. She offered her right hand to him.

"Don't bother," he said. Of course, she thought, he had his own watch. But he wasn't making any motion toward using it.

"How are you getting out then?" she asked.

"My own?" he shrugged. He held up a hand above him and another chunk of the ceiling stopped inches from them. He threw it straight upward where it reaffixed itself to the roof.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she tucked the watch into her pocket. Genuine confusion was slowly washing away the fear. She had to remind herself that if Harry wasn't nervous then there was absolutely no reason for her to be nervous. Or at least that was what she was telling herself.

It took her a moment to actually register that she was afraid of dying. That wasn't right. She had no qualms about dying. Hell, she spent most nights wishing for it on the off chance that there was such a thing as the afterlife and that she might be able to see Martin again. Even if she had to pry him away from Margaret.

Well, she could share, if necessary. She wondered if she'd get to keep the stupid gem.

But even the thought of seeing Martin wasn't quite enough. She didn't want to be dead. Not at the moment. Not when there was something she might be able to help with. Not when there was still a chance to make a difference. And not when his last command to her still rang in her head.

Make the world a better place? She spent years trying. So long that she half wondered if she even knew what that meant. She'd certainly failed at it enough. Her intentions and her actions hadn't always matched. And even now, she wasn't sure what action she should take. Or where she could come down on the entire situation.

But she was sure of one thing. She was in position to actually succeed in that goal, no matter how minor. And she couldn't let herself die without at least trying to keep that final promise to Martin Price.

That thought sent a far too familiar pang through her chest. She shook it away and turned her focus back to Harry. He was eyeing her out of the corner of his eyes, almost as if he could sense she was completely lost in thought.

"Waiting," he said, another large chunk of wall floated up from the ground and affixed itself back into the mountain.

"Wait," she blinked at the debris cleaning itself. "You got in?"

"He wasn't the only one stalling," Harry smirked. His eyes flashed upwards for a moment and then quickly to his side. A large white ball was forming in the middle of the room. Emily instinctively raised a shield as she saw it. But it only took her a moment to realize the futility of that.

The magic welling inside of it was nothing she'd ever felt before. In only moments it was welling to a point she couldn't possibly defend against. Her mind reeled with how it was possible.

The solution came quickly. The charms on the area must have siphoned a little bit of magic from everyone inside the cave and stored it. Minor amounts would hardly be noticeable to anyone on a daily basis. And it could be charged by an outside source whenever they wanted to add anything more to it.

The final step of their defenses must have been to take the excess magic and channel it for a destructive purpose. One that would clearly rid themselves of anything pesky like, say, evidence of what they were doing.

"Grindelwald can't be that sloppy," Emily scoffed. Harry shrugged his shoulders and watched the white ball grow. In moments it was already twice the size of a football and growing rapidly. She could feel power flaring off of it as Harry kept his focus on it. She took some solace in the fact that as it grew, his shoulders tensed.

"He wasn't," Harry said. "It wasn't until a tendril hit him that he slipped up enough for a small crack. One that he closed almost immediately. But I'm clever and talented and I made the most of it."

"So you can stop it?" Emily asked. It continued to grow. She found herself stepping away from it on instinct. Putting Harry between it and her seemed like the most logical course of action. She peered around him and watched it continue.

"No," he admitted. "Not a chance. Not like this. Not with you still only partially what you could be. Not without a great deal of help."

"So then why are we still here?" she asked, ignoring his jab. She could still feel the power welling from the orb. It was enough to make her dizzy. She kept her eyes focused on it and debated simply activating the portkey and leaving Harry to fend for himself.

"You can leave," Harry said as his focus shifted wholly to the orb. He took a deep breath and the purple magic flared off of him.

"You know I'm not going to do that. Besides, Priya would kill me," Emily said.

"The way she's going I think she's more likely to flirt with you," Harry scoffed. Emily raised her brows at him.

"What?"

"Don't ask," Harry said.

"Too late," Emily countered.

"She's brought up some interesting ideas as a way to tease me," Harry shrugged. "It's nothing."

"And I feature in them?" Emily asked. She couldn't help it. She laughed. Not because she found it absurd. She probably did. But the gem still pulsing in her pocket seemed to be impairing her judgment to a degree.

Well, that's the excuse for the fact that part of her brain didn't find it to be as repulsive of an idea as she should have.

"Not directly," Harry said.

"I don't know if I should be disappointed or not," Emily said.

"Talk to her about it," Harry said.

"Wait. Are you talking to her again?"

"I don't know that we ever weren't," Harry started.

"You ran away from the country she was in," Emily countered.

"Fine. Yes. We're talking again. Technically we're engaged again," Harry said.

"Congratulations," Emily smiled. Then frowned. Then glared at him. She wasn't disappointed by that news. In fact, it was fairly obvious he loved the Indian healer. But the fact that she was happy about it felt odd to her. She was not one to express happiness for other people.

"Thank you," he said. His eyes stayed focused on the ever glowing orb. She peered around him and felt the awkward silence start to fill the room. She decided to end it before it could become too unbearable.

"So how did that happen?" she asked.

"Do you really want to have this conversation right now?" Harry asked. His jaw was set tightly and his focus was clearly on the orb.

"Seems like we're going to explode in a few moments. So there might not be a whole lot of other opportunities. Hopefully it's at least an entertaining story," Emily said.

"Well, there's sex in it," Harry offered.

"Starting on the right track then," Emily said.

"Didn't you criticize me for that earlier?" Harry asked.

"Time and a place for everything, Harry," Emily shrugged.

"Fair enough. I need you to stop talking now," he said.

"What?" she spat back, annoyed at the implication that she was the chatty one. That was so absurd. She was the one who crossed her arms over her chest and glared. It was the proper form of communication afterall.

"Please?" he asked. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. But she couldn't be quite as petulant as even she hoped and she gave him a curt nod, acknowledging that she was listening to him, at least for the moment.

When he was confident enough that she wouldn't interrupt he turned to fully face the glowing orb as it continued to expand. He closed his eyes and waited. She watched his shoulders tense with each passing moment until the orb started to split down the middle, the sides expanding outward like a bean being crushed.

She felt the magic well from inside, she could feel the primal force of it all pressing back against her, ready to explode. She closed her eyes for a moment, but decided she'd rather face whatever managed to fell her and fixed her gaze on the orb.

In the same instant the orb fractured and magic spilled out around them, exploding with a force that pushed her back before she even managed to shield herself. Harry let out a scream and thrust his left arm out toward it. All of the purple corruption burst from him and surrounded the orb, encasing it much like vines engulfing a fence.

The energy from the orb dissipated slowly. Emily realized she'd raised her arms to shield her face and slowly lowered them as she watched Harry focus on the orb. The Tendrils engulfed it, almost encompassing the entire thing. The purple magic flashed against the pale light of the orb as he continued to focus his hand on it. His jaw was shut tightly, jutting out slightly as he focused. The muscles of his arm strained with each passing moment.

It could have only taken a few seconds, but it felt much longer as she observed. His left arm started to shake rather violently as he held it against the orb. But the magic spilling from it faded and the room slowly returned to normal. Harry hesitated, but after a couple of moments lowered his arm as the purple tendrils continued to circle around the orb.

"I thought you couldn't stop it," Emily said.

"I can't," Harry responded. "I'd give us fifteen minutes."

"Until?" she asked.

"Until it breaks," Harry said. "Avery is waiting out front. Go get him."

"You do it," she scoffed on instinct, hating the thought of taking orders from Harry Potter.

"I can't," he bit off in obvious annoyance. He gave a brief nod to the orb in the middle of the room. Emily frowned.

"Right," she said, trying to stifle the fact that she felt like an absolute moron. "How intact are the defenses?"

"You should be able to apparate without obliterating yourself," he responded. She took it as enough of a vote of confidence and apparated to the entrance. It only took her a minute to bring down the door and let Avery in. They jogged back to the chamber with Harry. Emily was rather annoyed to find herself more winded than the middle-aged man by the time they returned.

"What did you do?" Avery asked as he saw the glowing orb for the first time. He recognized the purple tendrils. She figured he would, but a part of her was not sure how much he'd shared with the other man.

"Followed through on a hunch," Harry said.

"Did you kill Grindelwald?"

"No. I wasn't sure that was a good idea."

"Why not?"

"The defenses may have instantly exploded if they were linked to his health. It's how I would have set it up. No one would be beating me in my hideout and living to tell the tale. Wasn't sure I could survive it. Wasn't sure Emily could survive it. And wasn't sure you could survive it even from outside the mountain," Harry admitted.

"Fumiko would have been quite cross with you," Avery said.

"And we don't want that," Harry said.

"You could have triggered that apparating into it," Emily scoffed.

"Nah," Harry shrugged. "If you needed help there had to be more to it than that. And he'd want to get his people out."

"That was a massive risk," Emily said.

"Yes," Harry agreed. "But it worked out. And now I have two witnesses."

"What exactly is that?" Avery asked.

"Aside from a massive amount of stored magical power? Well, honestly, it might not be anything more than that. But it proves a theory," Harry said.

"You think this is what they did in France?" Avery asked, raising his brows as he examined the orb.

"No idea. But it's close enough. It's generating enough power to have the same effect. Grindelwald was here. And I have a witness," Harry said.

"I don't think Iphigenia Darnell will stand up to much scrutiny," Emily said.

"Please, Fidge will be fine," Harry said.

"Gina," Emily countered.

"Gina it is," Harry responded. His eyes were still focused on the orb before him.

"What do you want us to do?" Avery asked.

"Ransack the place and see if you can find anything useful," Harry said. "We have about eight minutes before we should clear out."

"Got it," Avery said. He looked around the room.

"There's bookshelves in the next room. Take any of them that seem remotely interesting. Get a sample of the water as well. I'm going to go see if they left anything upstairs," Emily said. Avery nodded and moved with her outside of the chamber.

She didn't pay attention to him as he rushed off to the bookshelf. Instead she made her way back up into the living areas and rushed through each room. It was probably a longshot but she wanted to see if anyone left any personal affects or anything that would help give them a better clue to the identities of Grindelwald's crew.

Nothing specific stuck out. Most of the rooms only contained the same basic furnishings that she'd found in hers. A few had some clothing items, but she debuted she'd gain anything from a spare sweater or a pair of trainers.

She did shrink one of the blankets and tuck it into her pocket, but that was more for personal reasons than anything related to an investigation. She timed six minutes in her head and then came rushing back to the inner chamber.

Harry still stood near the center, his eyes were drooping and his left arm was shaking uncontrollably as he fought back against the power of the font.

"Find anything?" he asked.

"Lots of notes, lots of random books, took some of the water as Emily said," Avery answered. He stumbled over her name but she didn't feel it was worth commenting on. Harry's left arm lowered and the mountain started to shake again.

"I've got some stuff and I think I know what they were doing here," Emily said. "But I'll need to review it."

"I'm sure Priya will just love to help with that too," Harry said. She couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. But the thought of peering over notes with Priya Patel and, ugh, probably Hermione Granger, did not sit well with her. She did not need their help to figure out what a bunch of incompetent continentals were doing.

"How are we getting out?" she asked, figuring the best course of action was to change the subject.

"Portkeys," Harry said. He peered down at his wrist and frowned. "Someone will have to help me with mine."

"I got it," Emily said. She walked over toward him and peered at his left wrist. It only took her a moment to unclasp it and place it into his right hand. He nodded at her as his hand clasped around the watch. She looked at Avery, he already had his in his hand. She fished her own, well, Priya's watch, out of her pocket and held it in her right hand.

"You two go first," Harry said. Emily narrowed her eyes at him. She didn't see much of a reason to leave him behind. But she had to remind herself she wasn't the one in charge at the moment. And she'd never left an engagement before her Death Eaters. And, frankly, his leaving would trigger the final explosion. There was no reason for him to leave before it was clear the others were safely away.

She watched as Avery activated his watch. His body swirled into a whirlpool of magic as he was pulled away. She'd never actually asked where the Portkey's went. Part of her wondered if she'd wind up back in Japan or if they'd updated it since the move. She didn't think Harry would be stupid enough to keep his emergency get away button out of date. But she'd been wrong about him before.

Her fingers twitched against the button as Harry watched Avery leave. But she didn't press it. A different idea flashed into her head. He'd wanted witnesses, he'd said. And they had no idea just what would happen once Harry let go of the power contained in the room.

She affixed the watch to her wrist and apparated out of the mountain before Harry had a chance to notice she hadn't Portkeyed with Avery.

Emily appeared in the sky a few hundred meters away from the mountain. She disillusioned herself and floated slowly away from it, toward the village she'd stopped the rapist at.

Her eyes focused on the mountain. It visibly shook as she watched. If anyone Muggles saw it they must have been terrified. She wondered what they'd assume. She assumed some type of natural disaster like an earthquake or a volcano.

She didn't have to watch it for very long. The power in the air grew with each passing second as the mountain continued to shake. She threw her arms out and focused, letting magic spread out from her. It surrounded the town, shimmering in the sunlight if anyone would bother to look at it.

Moments later the mountain exploded. It happened as she was checking the radius on the shield and to her dismay she almost missed it. It happened in an instant.

The mountain cracked. It was almost cartoonish as a deafening sound of earth splitting rang through the mountains. And then it simply exploded in a haze of dust. Debris flew up into the air, jetting out in every single direction.

Emily braced herself and watched the cloud approach her shield. She put as much of her power as she could spare into it and held it as rock after rock impacted on her magic. Each impact felt similar to being struck in the stomach.

She nearly dropped the shield as the first shockwave hit all around it. But she wasn't that weak. She couldn't let herself be that weak. She held it, bracing against the pain and the impacts as she willed herself to be stronger.

It didn't last long. Her arms shook as she dropped the shield. Surely officials would wonder when they came to inspect the incident just why a small mountain town managed to avoid even the dust from the explosion. But those people had suffered enough.

That wasn't why she did it. At least that's what she told herself. The citizens might hold a clue she'd need if her hunch about Grindelwald's activities was correct. They could still be useful to her.

She closed her eyes as the shield dissipated. It had taken far more magic than she'd anticipated. She found her mind slowing as she started to drift downward, falling toward the hard Earth below.

It only took her a second to realize how embarrassing it would be for that to be her end. She forced herself awake and brought her hand to her wrist as she fell. She had more than enough time to activate the Portkey.

The world flashed around her, mountains, clouds, sky all vanishing in an instant as she plummeted downward. When she finally hit the ground it was in the middle of the Quidditch pitch at Hogwarts. The scent of the grass filled her nostrils as she closed her eyes and let her body take a moment to recover.

Someone else, she figured, could worry about getting her inside.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing I do appreciate all the feedback I receive. If you wish to support me further you can do so on PAT RE ON at Te7writes. There are currently two more chapters of CTS live there as well as the first five chapters of my next Harry/Daphne fanfic.

Thanks again!