Nothing is mine.

Okay, so there were a few people who hadn't yet been to Belgium, and Belgium's pretty nice, so everyone should get to visit really. It's expensive in some places though, if anyone's thinking about it, can cost you can arm or a leg... xD

Don't Look Black in Anger

'Meine Walküren.' Grindelwald watched the snow swirl against the frosted panes of the tall window at the hall's end. 'We have worked much evil for our Greater Good, but at last—' he turned from the window and tucked one hand through the silver buttons of his deep purple waistcoat '—at last, true progress now comes into our sight.'

Nobody else knows the secret of the game, Bell! Bella perched upon the end of the table and smiled into her hand. They don't need to know all the rules to play, Bella.

'Suleiman,' Daphne murmured, standing near the door, Astoria at her side.

'Did you convey our instructions to those at the ward lines?' Grindelwald asked. 'This last delicate moment must be carefully balanced or our grip upon necessary evil may slip and let loose far worse horror than needs must.'

'All conveyed,' Astoria chimed. 'Nobody is attacking Beauxbatons until you give the word and Mithras is waiting at the seaside.' She poked her sister in the hip. 'You know what boys like to have at the seaside, Daph? Ice cream!'

A long sigh escaped Daphne.

'Then we are ready to begin.' Grindelwald drew his long thin wand from within his grey jacket and conjured a loop of bright copper chain. 'Mithras's success has thinned the numbers of those choosing to deny our world its solution and drawn the last of Britain's aurors across the sea into Belgium. Neville Longbottom has seen little of this war, distrusted by Amelia Bones and her more ardent followers, but the command from those above him has evidently changed, for contrary to our expectations of him, he has immediately assaulted Ansgar's wards. Ansgar's counterattack against the Duforts went… poorly.'

'He lost?' Bella cocked her head, spilling dark curls over her shoulder. 'Are we going to play there instead?'

Grindelwald measured her with a sombre gleam in his blue eyes. 'De Mendoza has surrounded Beauxbatons, which must surely soon draw the Duforts away, Marie watches Constantinople from a safe distance to keep Suleiman contained there, but Ansgar's defences falter and risk our grip upon the conflict we have sparked slipping. You must take the attack to Neville Longbottom, meine Walküren, but, if no better result can be attained, a few days of breathing space will be enough.'

'Enough for what?' Chasca asked.

'Your father and our other allies amongst the magical nations are ready to move now the conflict tips decisively in our favour.' Grindelwald's small smile held such endless sadness it sent little cold bubbles bursting through Bella's tummy. 'I will go myself to secretly see that their actions meet with success. When I return, we will ensure the dominant force upon the ICW are those who believe in action, in solving problems; there will be no more burying heads in the sand.'

Grindelwald's plan. Bella scrunched up her face. Getting rid of all the boring clay people isn't as good as making them fun, Bell!

'Now?' Chasca blurted. 'Already?'

'Time is no friend to us, Chasca,' he murmured. 'With each day that passes I grow older, and the risk of schism or fresh opposition rises. I will depart tomorrow after I have spoken with Mithras myself, and once more gird myself for great endeavour, a loathsome sacrifice of many of our brothers and sisters across the world to stain these already blood-soaked hands.'

'What if you lose?' Bella asked. 'Do we follow Mithras then?'

Daphne and Astoria exchanged a brief glance.

'You can if you want.' Astoria's pale blue eyes held a glint of mischief.

'Would you like to fight with Mithras, Bella?' Daphne asked. 'You have his mark on your arm.'

It's a game, Bell! She giggled. A game within a game, Bella. They are testing us.

'We just want to play!' Bella bounced to her feet and waved the glowing golden rose on her forearm 'But this is pretty! Even if it doesn't move like the snake did.'

Enni laughed and rested her broad blade on her shoulder. 'This little mad one just likes to fight, I think.'

'To win!' Bella sang. 'Win or die. Feel alive or lose. It's all games.'

Astoria snickered. 'See, Daph?'

Daphne's cool blue eyes swept over Bella. 'She is a starving wild dragon, caring for nothing but her own hunger.'

Bella giggled. 'We're not a dragon. We're crows!'

'Bella will get to fight with us.' A little snigger escaped Astoria. 'Plenty of little games to come.'

'Suleiman might overcome me at his stronghold of Constantinople,' Grindelwald said. 'Or Mithras might, perhaps.' The corner of his mouth curved into a faint sombre smile. 'But after tomorrow, Mithras will take the fight to Constantinople for us.' He held out the copper chain. 'Novimagus awaits, meine Walküren.'

Astoria grabbed one end and held it out, grey mist curling from her sleeves and wrapping around their waists. 'Chasca, watch our backs and hold the wards. Bella. Enni. The two of you are free to fight as you will. Daph and I will cut the head off the gryphon, right, Daph?'

Daphne poked Astoria in the side.

'Fine. Fine.' Astoria sniggered. 'Off we go! For the Greater Good.'

A flash of golden flame spat Bella out under the dead branches of a scorched oak tree. Beyond the pale wood, a broad river split, sweeping past the patch of mud and stones below the oak's bare roots.

'Other way, little mad one.' Enni picked Bella up by the back of her dress and dropped her facing a crumbling mass of ruined red brick and marble buildings.

'Ohhhh.' Bella drew her wand and skipped forward over the worn stones toward a cluster of white tents at the end of the narrow alley. 'Let's go!'

Time to play, Bell!

Red flickered among the tents and the bright winter sun flashed off something silver, stabbing at Bella's eyes.

Time to play, Bella.

Blue curses streaked down the narrow alley, whispering past Bella. She swatted three of them back at the mirrored visor and red hood peering around the red brick corner, clipping the edge of the wall and showering the worn marble with chips of stone and mortar.

Bella ducked into a ruined doorway, poking her head back out and hurling her purples at the flicker of motion at the far end of the alley. They flashed past and tore through the white tents.

'You turn,' she sang, twirling in the doorway. 'I'm sticking out, go on, go on!'

A crackling orange spell hissed past her ear and burst in the rings of grey mist circling Astoria's chest. Bella giggled and leapt back behind the wall as five more hexes streaked through the air and slammed into the charcoal fog swirling around Daphne.

'Enni,' Daphne murmured. 'This is best suited to you. We will distract them here while you pick them off.'

'No!' Bella pouted. 'Don't ruin it!'

'I will start at the far end, little mad one. May the best hunter win.' A savage grin spread across Enni's face and she burst into pale mist, streaming away into the ruins.

Bella leapt out into a barrage of colour, deflecting curses back with the tip of her wand and dancing through the rest. A beam of grey sliced a line of fire across her cheek and the bright hot thrill raced through her veins.

Alive, Bell! We're alive again! Soft pain burnt in her face as she beamed back down in the alley at the trio of mirrored visors peeking from behind the crumbling walls. Let's have fun, Bella.

She unleashed her colours, hurling pinks and greens and blues and purples back; they burst against the blues and oranges flashing toward her, bouncing into the walls and punching smoking holes through the thin red bricks.

A shrill scream tore across the island, hovering above the smoking white tents.

'Enni's winning!' Bella scrunched her face up. 'Everyone keeps trying to win so fast! Enjoy the game before it's over!'

'Back,' a half-familiar voice shouted over the smoke. 'Into the square where we can't be picked off.'

A wall of bright white magic sprang up over the far end of the alley and the faint silhouettes of the aurors fled back from it.

Boring, Bell! Bella skipped forward, whipping yellow spells into the Shield Charm and watching them burst over it in ripples of colour. Make it more fun, Bella. Change the rules.

Grey fog lanced down the alley, shattering the white magic like glass.

A line of nine British aurors stood across the square, the tents swept into a smoking heap at one side; their mirrored visors stared back.

Enni appeared atop one of the fallen columns, her pale face smeared red and her broadsword resting across her shoulders.

'This wasn't the deal,' the half-familiar voice yelled. 'Sally-Anne's dead!'

Bella giggled. 'It's a game, not a deal!' She hopped over the pieces of red brick and mortar and raised her wand. 'Let's play!'

'Is that Bellatrix fucking Lestrange?!'

A loud snap echoed across the square.

'Watch out!' Chasca yelled.

Three pairs of furious sharp grey eyes burnt into Bella from beneath golden curls.

'The sisters, Bell,' Bella breathed.

They can play, Bella. They're Cousin Harry's sisters.

'Take your aurors back to the shore,' the centremost of the three ordered. 'This fight—'

'Is ours by right,' the rightmost finished. 'You will be in our way.'

The British aurors disapparated with a loud crack.

'We can't remember which of you is which!' Bella huffed and pointed her wand at the rightmost sister. 'Which one are you?'

Enni laughed. 'Does it matter, little mad one? I'm sure they all taste the same.'

'Maybe Bella wants to keep score.' Astoria snickered. 'We're still all tied, right, Daph? Nobody's really won yet.'

'I am Celine.' Celine's gaze swept across them, sharp as flint. 'Where are the other two of you, Walküren?'

'They lost!' Bella bounced on the balls of her feet, the thrill racing through her veins like liquid flame. 'Win or die, nearly cousin Celine!'

Little gold sparks bled from the tip of the centremost sister's wand. 'You are no family of ours,' she hissed, a furious storm looming in her grey eyes. 'But we will take our vengeance for those that were. Le sang demande du sang.'

'Sister,' the leftmost murmured. 'Do not be reckless. We waited this long for them to come to us again…'

'Blood demands blood, sister,' Celine said.

'There is no need for caution, Colette.' Isobel's wand flashed up. 'While one of us lives…'

'None of us can die,' they whispered.

A bolt of gold ripped past Bella's hip and burst like a thunderclap, tossing her forward into the wall. Pain flared through her shoulder, settling into a soft burn, melting into the hot thrill bubbling through her blood.

'That's more like it!' She leapt to her feet as Enni lunged in a blur of white robes and a flash of steel.

Two bolts of golden light tore Enni from the air, smashing her back into the wall with a dull crunch; her blade bounced away across the square as she crumpled to the ground.

Will Cousin Harry be angry if we beat his sisters? Bella paused, her wand outstretched. He said everyone counts now the game has begun, Bella.

She giggled and hurled her colours at the three sisters, crackling reds and glimmering purples streaking through the air like falling stars and bursting in fierce flashes of hissing sparks. Astoria and Daphne appeared on the far side of the square with a loud crack, their grey fog striking at the Duforts' backs like a snake.

It burst against a wall of golden light like midnight waves upon Atlantis's white beach and shrank back. A lash of blue flame sliced through it, snaring Enni by the ankle, sweeping her through Bella's spells and hammering her into a marble column. Enni bared her engraved fangs, spitting blood down her front as her ribs grated and shifted back into place beneath her blood-stained white robes.

'Sister,' one of the three murmured behind the golden light.

Isobel stepped forward through her sisters' shield, firing thin lances of gold through each of Enni's limbs, pinning her to the pale stone. Daphne drew her wand from her sleeve, shattering the column beneath Enni with a flick of her wrist and transfiguring the shards into a swarm of buzzing stone locusts. Bella hurled her pinks through the cloud of insects at Isobel as they streamed forward over Enni's jerking, twitching limbs.

Celine and Colette appeared beside Isobel with a snap, bending the wall of golden light about them like a ribbon, crushing the locusts to dust and grinding Enni into the marble ground, snapping and crunching her bones like dead dry twigs beneath Bella's feet.

They're better, Bell! Bella's colours broke on their magic in small wisps of pink light. They're much better than before!

Isobel stepped through the shield, bending and lifting Enni's blade from the ground with both hands; she stomped one foot on Enni's cheek, forcing her face into the stone, and raised the blade above her head,

Enni's going to lose, Bell.

Grey fog snagged Enni by the foot and ripped her free in a spray of crimson, leaving her severed left arm stuck beneath the line of golden magic.

'Chasca!' Astoria called. 'These three are a bit of a handful!'

Bella skipped around the side, firing orange curses into the shimmering ribbon of golden light and watching them splutter out on it in spurts of bright sparks.

'Inti's snare!' Chasca yelled.

Golden ropes snapped around Isobel and Enni's broadsword clattered to the ground, ringing on the marble. Daphne thrust her wand at the ground, sweeping a thin wall of stone up between Isobel and her sisters, and Astoria fired a string of poisonous blue spells at Isobel. She parried the first three down into the marble, but the fourth ripped a deep gash across her neck and the fifth whistled through her hair at Bella.

Bella deflected it into Isobel's back, punching a smoking hole through her ribs. Blood spurted through Isobel's fingers as she clutched her neck, drenching her blue robes and golden hair, and wisps of grey curled from the seared edges of her robes about the wound through her chest.

'Well, that's one of you weirdos down,' Astoria chimed. 'Thank you, Chasca.'

No, they have a trump card, don't they, Bell?! Bella giggled into her fingers, holding her breath as Isobel swayed and slipped to her knees. They do, Bella. They do.

Celine and Colette apparated, appearing either side of their sister.

'One… down?' A fierce red-soaked smile spread across Isobel's face as the blood gushed down her neck, her grey eyes distant and wild. 'Maman… on your life… I swear… we are… three and one…. forever… and while one… of us lives—' her wound melted closed beneath her hand, little wisps of golden light bleeding through her fingers, and her eyes sharpened to steel razors '—none of us can die.'

'Playing together forever!' Bella sang, hurling her colours at the three; the thrill blazed in her blood, bright and hot as the sun, trembling like fire with every beat of her heart. 'Let's play! Let's play!'

Maybe they can beat us, Bell! She laughed as Celine swept her spells away with a ripple of the golden light and the grey fog crashed back off Colette's shield. Win or die, Bella.

Isobel twisted on her heel, firing a spear of burning golden magic through Enni's stomach as she rose, lifting her broad blade in her remaining hand, and pinned her to the wall like one of Aunt Wally's butterflies to the bottom of the glass box. Isobel conjured a lash of blue flame, immolating Enni's severed arm with a flick of her wrist and whipping it through Bella's barrage of colours at Chasca's neck.

'Inti's cloak!' Chasca cried, wrapping herself in a cocoon of golden threads.

The lash of blue flame coiled around her and burst into smoke, but Isobel slashed her wand and a flash of gold smashed into Chasca's cocoon, hurling her back into the wall.

Bella threw all her greens at Isobel, pushing her arm as fast as she could, dancing through the streaks of blue slicing back through the air at her, and beyond Isobel, Celine and Colette twisted the golden ribbon shield around Daphne and Astoria, folding it over them in a dome of shimmering light, wrapping it tighter and tighter as lances of charcoal fog broke against it and shrank back into a thick ball.

A loud pop rang in Bella's ears; she smacked into the table in Nurmengard's hall in a flash of pain.

Here!? Fire flashed through her and a ripple of crackling violet magic splintered the benches and table, hurling slivers of wood into the walls and shattering the windows in showers of glass.

'We were playing!' A shriek of fury tore from her throat. 'We were so alive again!'

'We might all have died if we'd stayed, Bella,' Daphne murmured. 'You might not care for anything else, but it would have been a waste.'

Bella screwed her face up into a scowl and stuck her wand away, stomping on the chess pieces tottering around in the splinters. Chasca's golden threads faded out as she clambered to her feet in the wreckage and beside her, Enni rolled onto her back, the gaping hole in her stomach creeping closed beneath the fingers of her remaining arm.

Astoria snickered. 'Do you need a hand, Enni?'

A long sigh escaped Daphne.

Enni hissed and bared her fangs from the floor.

'We made a bit of a fist of that,' Astoria chimed. 'On one hand, the Duforts did not fight like that before, but on the other…' She sniggered down at Enni, her pale blue eyes full of mischief. 'Well, I just can't quite put my finger on it, but we just didn't seem to have the upper hand like before.'

Daphne poked her in the hip.

'Fine. Fine.' Astoria's grin faded. 'Daph and I will go tell Grindelwald how we were beaten so hand-somely. If Mithras manages to overcome Suleiman, we'll let him tangle with those three weirdos.'

Cousin Harry will beat them, Bell! Bella kicked bits of wood across the room and poked the soft throbbing sting in her cheek with one finger. Or maybe they'll join us, Bella. They're nearly family, and family is meant to fight together.

AN: The linktree! Come to Discord, find all my other stuff, support me if you want read all my original novels, web serials and short stories (if you're reading this hoping I'd just write something more like the standard trad published fantasy stuff, then this really is the place to go, fanfic is my experimenting playground more than anything) or read all the rough draft chapters for my ongoing fanfics, I'm a fair way ahead for some stories now too.

linktr . ee / mjbradley