Nothing is mine.

Not my best chapter title pun, this one, but there are a couple hundred chapters, so they can't all be perfect!

Nadia Your Defeat.

'Chaaaaaasca?' Astoria shook Chasca's shoulders. 'Come on, it's nearly midday. How are you still falling asleep?'

Bella giggled as Chasca moaned and rubbed her eyes. 'We're going off to play again!'

'Why?' Chasca patted down her gold-threaded hair and yawned. 'Where? What? Who?'

'Nadia Dubrovsky, Fürst-Elect of Polans, supposedly fled east from the hillfort after they lost the battle there,' Astoria said. 'We had Karsten's remaining aurors watching the small magical villages in the area for when she had to resurface and they just sent word.'

'Come on! Come on!' Bella bounced on her feet. 'We didn't get to have any fun last time! They got away!'

We got to watch Marzanna play, Bella. She pouted. But that's not as fun as playing ourselves, Bell!

'Enni,' Daphne murmured, grey mist pouring from her sleeves. 'Find them the moment we arrive. We don't want to spend weeks hunting for her and the Tsarina after Mithras let them slip away.'

A coil of fog snaked around Bella's waist and the hall vanished in a flash of gold, sending her stumbling across frosted cobbles toward a small fountain.

Enni stepped forward and patted Bella on the head. 'Hush, little mad one. I need to listen.'

Bella scowled and pulled her wand out, peering through the windows of the handful of small stone houses in the low valley.

'This one.' Enni levelled the greatsword at the small house on the far side of the fountain.

'Wards, Chasca,' Daphne murmured. 'When we spot Nadia, you snatch her. We'll hold the rest off until we have her, no sense in wasting magical lives if they're not a risk.'

But they're all part of the game, Bell! Bella skipped after Astoria as grey mist gushed from her white sleeves. Like Mithras said, Bella, they count now the ritual is cast and we should beat them all.

She watched Chasca cast a shimmer of wards over the small village and whipped her wand up, firing a pink curse through the window.

'Bella,' Astoria chided. 'We were meant to catch them by surprise.'

'We did!' Bella hurled pink and orange and blue hexes through the window as five aurors scrambled to their feet inside. 'Look how surprised they are!'

Enni laughed and swept her red hair back over her shoulder with her left hand. 'You are not very good at hunting, little Bella.'

Yellow spells flashed back through the window, smashing the head off the statue in the fountain and scorching deep bubbling holes into the cobbles.

'We don't want to hunt, we want to play.'

'Daph?' Astoria poked her sister in the hip as the curses burst against a wall of grey fog before them. 'Shall we flush them out?'

'Enni,' Daphne murmured. 'Find Nadia Dubrovsky so Chasca can get hold of her.'

A savage grin spread across Enni's face and she blurred forward, bursting into pale mist.

'No!' Bella scowled. 'Go find your own game, don't ruin mine.' She swished her wand at the house. 'Ardens flagello.'

A wave of bright pink flame tore through the side of the house, boiling through the stone, and the aurors dived out the windows behind bright silver shield charms. Enni coalesced back together behind the last of them, a short witch with dark hair and blue eyes, and tugged the wand from her fingers, resting the blade of the greatsword on her shoulder.

'Chasca,' Daphne said.

Golden threads of magic lunged past Bella as she swatted blue and green and oranges back at the aurors; they wove themselves into a tight net and swooped around the witch and Enni.

'Inti's Snare!' Chasca cried. 'Oops, I got Enni too. Sorry Enni!'

Astoria snickered. 'Let's get her out of the way before Bella turns her inside out or something.'

Grey fog rushed through the aurors, coiling around the golden web and snatching it back behind Daphne and Astoria.

Enni bared her engraved fangs in a fierce grin from within the golden cage. 'Little Chasca is getting her own back for being woken up too early, is she?'

Chasca beamed and waved a hand, turning the net upside down. 'You're not allowed to wake me up, we agreed on it as a team!'

They're out of the way now, Bell! Bella jumped onto the wall of the fountain and skipped along it, a little thrill racing through her veins. Let's use a fun spell, Bella, they all count for the game.

'This one!' Bella hurled bright lavenders at the four aurors, deflecting their spells back at them. 'We haven't used this colour in ages!'

Grey fog spilt past her.

'No!' Bella cried. 'This is my game!'

'Let the little mad one have her fun,' Enni said. 'She gets bored cooped up in Nurmengard and a caged wolf will bite the hand that feeds if it's not let out from time to time.'

A long sigh escaped Daphne, but the mist drew back.

'Daph thinks it's a waste,' Astoria said.

The first two streaks of lavender burst on the shield of the nearest witch in flashes of white sparks, but the third punched through and struck her in the shoulder.

She grimaced, then stiffened and slumped to the floor, a trickle of red creeping from the corner of her mouth.

'Got you!' Bella laughed and turned her wand on the other three. 'Different colour time!'

She fired glimmering oranges at them, twirling through the dark blues that came flashing back, batting them away. One tore a line of soft fire through her shin and a second whispered through her hair. The fountain wall crumbled under her feet, spilling her onto the cobbles, but she rolled forward and bounced back to her feet, skipping away from one bolt of blue and deflecting a second back past the elbow of the nearest wizard into the burning house.

Alive, Bell! We're alive again! The soft burn of pain fed a flutter of fire through her veins and quickened her heart. Time to win, Bella.

She ducked a flash of yellow and swished her wand back and forth, firing more fierce oranges at the trio. They tore through their desperate shields and struck the middle wizard in the forehead and chest.

'Got you!'

The veins squirmed beneath his skin, wriggling like fat pink worms in the rain, and ripped their way out of him in a spray of red, lashing through the two witches beside him, burrowing into their faces and writhing through their eyes and noses. All three crumpled onto the cobbles, twitching and jerking as the veins gnawed deeper into their flesh.

'Urgh.' Chasca turned a little green. 'Why do you even know spells like that?'

'To win!' Bella giggled. 'To win the fun way! It's boring if we just use the same old spells all the time!'

A tendril of grey fog wrapped about her waist and in a flash of golden flame, Bella found herself back in Nurmengard's snow-blanketed courtyard.

A vast dark shape coiled across it, its ice-crusted scales gleaming in the sun and dancing with eerie poisonous yellow magic.

'Marzanna!' Bella waved at the dragon. 'Look! Look!'

'Why is the dragon free?' Chasca whispered. 'Didn't Charlie say she was really dangerous?'

'She's dead,' Bella sang. 'She's only dangerous if you try to play with her.'

Marzanna snaked her head up.

'She's moving,' Chasca squeaked. 'She's not dead!'

'It's dead,' Daphne murmured. 'Look at its eyes.'

Marzanna's glassy eyes swept over them, wreathed in a haze of sickly yellow magic, and she settled back down into the snow.

'Grindelwald must have made it into an inferius.' Astoria sniggered. 'Maybe he wants to get it to eat Suleiman or the Duforts.'

'She belongs to Mithras,' Bella said. 'He beat her and then he brought her back to play with him.'

Daphne and Astoria exchanged a long look.

'Let's go into the warm,' Chasca moaned. 'If the dragon isn't going to eat us, I want to go inside out of the horrible cold.'

'Fine. Fine.' Astoria swept up the steps and tugged open the door. 'We only came out here so we could make a dramatic entrance anyway.'

Daphne sighed.

Bella bounded past into the hall.

Mithras stood in the centre of the hall, gesturing outside with his left hand as he spoke to a dark-jacketed Charlie; the golden motes of light flickered through his mask like a swarm of sparks rising from a night-raid fire.

'Hi Mithras!' She waved at him.

'Hello, Bella.' The faintest touch of humour coloured his tone. 'Did you have fun? You seem to have caught someone.'

'We did!' Bella bounced on her feet. 'We caught a Nadia, and Enni, and I beat some aurors!'

Charlie frowned. 'Why is Enni inside Chasca's magic?'

Astoria rolled her eyes. 'Would you all stop? I was trying to make a dramatic team entrance because Daph won't let me make a fun team speech.'

'Why?' Charlie strode toward the door, pulling his wand from within his black jacket.

She grinned. 'We don't get visitors very often and it's fun for me.'

Bella pointed at Mithras.

Astoria sniggered. 'He made his own dramatic entrance. Anyway…' She spread her arms. 'Welcome to Nurmengard, Fürst-Elect Dubrovsky,' Astoria chimed. 'Here we have… Chasca, why are they still upside down?'

Chasca grinned. 'To make Enni feel at home, she's happier hanging upside down like a bat.'

Enni chuckled. 'I'm going to be under your bed tonight, little Chasca.'

'Turn them the right way up, please, Chasca,' Astoria said. 'Poor Nadia's looking rather red in the face. Her head might burst.'

Bella twirled around. 'Burst?'

The net of golden threads vanished and Nadia thudded to the floor, sprawling across the stones. Enni somersaulted off one hand and landed on the balls of her feet upon the bench.

Nadia scrambled to her feet and edged back from Mithras, shooting glances at the wand in Enni's fist, her back and shoulders stiff and tense.

A soft snap rang through the hall.

'Guten Tag, Fürst-Elect Dubrovsky.' Grindelwald descended the steps of the dais, a small smile on his lips. 'Willkommen in Nurmengard. I hope you do not mind if we converse in English, it is the only shared language meiner Walküren.'

'I can speak English,' Nadia said. 'What do you want from me?'

Mithras vanished with a quiet snap and Nadia let out a little sigh, some of the tension melting from her.

'Is Mithras scary, Nadia?' Astoria snickered. 'Don't worry, he can't sneak up on you in the dark with that mask on; it's too bright and shiny.'

'Dementors are scary,' Nadia retorted. 'A wizard who can slaughter them so easily is not merely scary.'

'Dementors can't be killed,' Daphne murmured. 'They are not truly living.'

Bella giggled. 'But you can destroy floating skeletons if you really want to!'

'I know what I saw, witch,' Nadia spat. 'The whole swarm of them shredded in a swirl of gold as easily as I might get rid of a handful of flies.'

'Magic has no limits but those we impose upon it,' Grindelwald said. 'Mithras is a wizard of extraordinary power and a valuable ally to our cause.'

'For now.' Astoria grinned. 'Daph doesn't trust him, do you, Daph?'

Daphne poked her sister in the side with one finger.

'Right. Right.'

Grindelwald extended his hand. 'Enni, if you would be so kind as to return Nadia her wand.'

Enni tossed the wand back and Nadia snatched at it, fumbling it into her stomach and clutching it tight.

'My home is not so hospitable as it once was, I fear,' Grindelwald said. 'But you need not remain here for long. All I ask of you is an oath.'

A magical oath, Bell! Bella cocked her head. An enchantment of the soul, Bella, remember what Voldemort said?

'No.' Nadia shook her head. 'I'm not fighting for you.'

'Allow yourself, at least, the chance to hear my words before you spurn them,' Grindelwald remonstrated. 'I offer you a choice.'

Nadia growled.

'Swear to serve my cause and you may return to Polans to uphold your duties as Fürst-Elect, to be unbothered by myself or this struggle for the time being.'

'Nein, niemals.' Nadia shook her head. 'Your cause is genocide and terror. I want nothing to do with it.'

'If you do not swear, someone else will have to uphold the Statute of Secrecy across Polans. Tsarina Bugrov, perhaps, might trade her bond for such a reward...'

'I'm not swearing to serve you, Grindelwald.' Nadia stuck her wand into the pocket of her dark red robes. 'Do what you must.'

'You are swearing only to serve my cause,' Grindelwald said. 'The betterment of the wizarding world, its salvation, at the smallest price that must be paid. Is providing that solution so terrible a purpose?'

'I know the solution you want.'

No she doesn't Bell! She doesn't! Bella hid her giggle behind her hand. No she doesn't, Bella, it's a secret.

'It is not the solution that I want, Nadia Dubrovsky, it is the only one that remains.' Grindelwald's face grew sombre. 'Rather than convince the muggles that we were no different to them, rather than show them that most of us simply meant them no harm, rather than teach ourselves that they are no different to us, our ancestors let muggles' trust in magic crumble and built us all a cage of secrecy to hide from their fear. There were many chances throughout history for us to break the bars more easily than we can now, but we did not. We hid. We pushed the problem on our children, on our children's children, and then they did the same. And now there is no time left to bury our heads in the sand, but the bars have grown thick and strong and we have grown weak. Two worlds cannot share one space, not when each is striving to leave its brother. The collision is inevitable and human nature dictates the consequences. All that is left is to make sure our world wins.'

Nadia raised her chin, her blue eyes fierce. 'If it is our time to go, then we should depart with dignity.'

'There is no honour in failure, no pride in slavery and no dignity in being smothered beneath the muggle sprawl. Would they consent to disappear, had fortune made us the more numerous? I do not think they would; it is simply not in our nature to go quietly into the night.' Grindelwald tucked his hand through the silver buttons of his waistcoat. 'My cause needs nothing of you, Nadia Dubrovsky, but that you do what you have always done for Polans and what the ICW would expect. If I were to come and ask for more, I would no longer be in service to it myself, and should I ever stray so far, I would hope you all find the strength to tear me down and raise one more worthy in my stead.'

'I don't believe you. Your cause puts you at war with all the world. You will take every wand from Polans to fight for them!'

But it's all games! And we're all playing! It's all the same!

'Not so much of the world as you perhaps might wish,' Grindelwald murmured. 'But which to you seems worse? An oath to my cause and the hope that another brings me down, or languishing here alone, leaving Polans's magical communities untended? All it takes to shatter that statute signed in Rome is one foolish action…'

Nadia growled and clenched her fists. 'Fine. I'll swear your oath. Give me the words.'

'Fear not, Nadia.' A small smile spread across Grindelwald's lips. 'It may all not turn out to be so terrible as you expect.'

It's great! Bella buried her smile in her hand. Mithras is going to give all the boring muggles the chance to play with us!

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linktr . ee / mjbradley