"I hate authorities," I practically growl through gritted teeth.
"You were raised in an orphanage, you're allowed to hate authorities," Harper whispers back.
She thoroughly enjoyed how my hands were tied and gives me such an annoyingly smug smile now that I wish I could throw her right back into the lake.
But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Not after watching how devoutly she lets her touch glide over Fawkes. The red fowl's so trustingly sitting on her arm that I fear she might forget about our own pet snakes …
"Tina, if the phoenix could bring you into the chamber …" I think aloud while glaring at the animal, "it can also bring any other person down to –"
"But he won't," she immediately clarifies, walking on as briskly as I do. "You have Dumbledore's word, don't you? He obeys him. Just like that lady basilisk obeys you."
I take a deep breath and remind myself to calm down, completely in vain, however, as the next thought forces itself on to me. "But if the amnesia wasn't planted flawlessly –"
Tina stops at once, putting her hands on her hips. "Tom, don't you insult me! I work with care and flawlessly indeed. Yeah?"
"You mean just like during the twenties in New York, when the Hufflepuff who's now your cherished husband brought a suitcase full of magical creatures –"
"Stop it already," she demands, giving me a lopsided grin for the first time ever. "We had it all under control. People are getting that story fundamentally wrong. And now come on – let's get this over with."
"What's this New York?" MacDuff behind us asks in complete amazement as he starts to walk again. After a glance at Krafft, who shrugs his shoulders, he's not wiser at all.
They were dim-witted even before Tina's Obliviate, but the sight of them now, all with magical handcuffs and those stupidly dull expressions, is even more dissonant given their magical abilities.
But at least my doubts have vanished. The two of them couldn't even spell their own names anymore …
Tina raises her eyebrows and gives me a challenging glance.
"All right, fine," I sigh as we head on for the courtyard before the bridge of the school's aqueduct. "I take it back. Excellent Obliviate…"
"I know," she mumbles with clear triumph written over her features.
With odd routine, we soon ignore the various staring students that are no longer lingering in the Great Hall. They seem – and understandably so – surprised by us passing by with a phoenix, a MACUSA official and two acolytes asking many a question in handcuffs.
"Shut up!" Tina demands, forcing them to follow her more closely with a flick of her wand. "You'll spend the rest of your lives in St. Mungo's. Well deserved …"
"Yet as snake food, they wouldn't have caused financial –"
"But you'd be a murderer!" Harper elbows me. "And Echidna a monster! She's killed construction workers before – why remind her how well we taste?"
"At least that got us bones to mobilise, and she won't eat me," I retort. "She might've also liked the phoenix –"
Fawkes promptly screeches at me, so I just raise my hands in tired defeat.
"Why did you do that?" Harper eventually whispers, worried. "The Inferi?"
"A while ago, you and Edwin suggested that light and darkness might be mutually exclusive. I just wanted to verify it – and that was the opportunity."
"You're scaring me," she admits, "you're actually scaring everyone …"
"Not Fawkes," I remark, pointing at him because he continues to eye me with utmost reproach.
"Well, not to be mean, but …" She shrugs maliciously. "Samhain will make you pay a price again."
"May be … So will you do magic for me again, Harper May?"
"May be … If you're better behaved until then …"
I can't help but sigh. "I tell you something. If only everyone around me pulled themselves together, I wouldn't have to –"
"Wrong answer!" she finds, crossing her arms over her chest. "We'll talk about that later …"
I acknowledge her with a weary nod. "Before or after we revisit the fact that you simply didn't trust me?"
Our eyes meet, and I can see how she's gulping in regret.
"I know … And Tom, I'm sorry," she says under her breath. It almost takes me back to the library, when she apologised for disrespecting Slytherin's intellect as we both reached for the same book …
"Still feeling an urge to talk?" I ask, not even trying to tease too much.
She gives me a guilty smile, shaking her head. "Maybe later on …"
And as we finally reach the crowded aqueduct, half the world seems to have gathered there.
"So we've truly missed the most epic moment of this century and the whole spectacle's already over?" I ask in a huff as we watch quite some people making a pilgrimage along the lake shore from the distance.
"I guess so," Harper sighs, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm used to being late, but it must be frustrating for you …"
"Where are Dumbledore and Grindelwald?" Tina asks, searching for their faces – and finding a wholly different one. "Queenie," she breathes, immediately tearing up. And her sister also freezes once she notices us.
Then everything happens rather quickly.
They rush towards each other and land in a hearty embrace, as if they'd –
"They haven't seen each other for years, it's … touching," Harper whispers next to me.
Once again I realise morally glorified emotionalities mean nothing to me.
"Don't you think?" Harper nevertheless asks in a naive attempt to coerce empathy from me.
"Lovely," I simply hum while more and more students turn to look at the two women, shrilly reassuring each other, apologising and crying.
When I hear sniffling next to me and see Harper's tears glistening, I simply can't help but grin. "No handkerchief? Maybe that red feather ball can dry your tears …"
"You can be so nasty, Tom," Harper complains, wiping her face with one of her sleeve before reaching for my hand again, all startled.
It immediately makes me look up, too, all the way to the end of the viaduct, where the crowd parts.
As if by magic – because Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, followed by only one Rottweiler, are heading towards the castle in absurd harmony, strolling side by side.
Even from a distance, the invisible handcuffs of the one and the relief and hubris of the other are clearly visible to the trained eye.
"Are they aiming for the courtyard?" Harper whispers, intuitively inching closer to me.
"Bet they'll drink one last Firewhisky in the castle, for the sake of good old days –"
"Firewhisky?" MacDuff slurs from behind us. "What's that?"
I press my lips together and wanly look at Harper.
"I'd almost forgotten they're here," she says, no less annoyed. She pats the bird and says, "Fawkes is keeping an eye on them while Tina's busy, isn't he?"
Fawkes seems to nod.
The animal might be even more intelligent than the two now …
"They are heading for the castle indeed," Harper then whispers, watching as Dumbledore and Grindelwald approach.
Neither of them is rushing, I think that to myself briefly at their bizarre sight. They're taking their time. They almost float. Sublime and proud – in contrast to of the Minister of Magic and our principal directly behind them. Spencer-Moon and Dippet seem hopelessly out of place in the direct shadow of truly essential players of our time. But the world will forgive them, since they share their awkward bewilderment with Hogwarts' entire faculty, officials from the Ministry and MACUSA and residents from Hogsmeade. They all just follow Dumbledore and Grindelwald, as do the last acolytes that will soon be led to Azkaban.
Like a funeral procession it seems, guided by men whose mutual love and hate are shining markers of this era.
The closer they get, the better Tina seems to recall her duties. With Queenie, and now also Vivian and Nagini in tow, she hurries back to us and her prisoners a few moments before the viaduct pilgrimage finally reaches us.
"Let's go back to the courtyard," I tell the group of ladies before even one of them can begin yet another touching session of hugs and tears in front of the patio to celebrate the day …
"Yes, let's," Harper mumbles until the others get moving, too. "Away from him … I don't want to see his dark eye nor his light one ever again."
"He'll want to talk to me," I predict.
"A last sermon?" She gulps. "But then it'd be official, in a way."
We both eventually come to a halt behind one of the pillars of the patio as I ask, "Official?"
She shrugs her shoulders as though it were obvious. "The whole school's doubtful whether your alleged dragon-pox after Easter was really the reason for your three-week absence from class. You briefly spoke Parsel in the Great Hall today … The gossip will be insane from now on. And if Grindelwald and you decide to chat a bit before he's taken away, the last of the last will have their theory …"
I let her words sink in for a moment, but anyway I slice it, I always come to the same conclusion. "I couldn't care less."
"You're so stubborn, Riddle," Harper pouts, "you're honestly driving me crazy today!"
"Tom?" Vivian suddenly whispers as she leaves Tina and Queenie to themselves. And I see yet another face full of guilt. "Tom, I'm sure you're angry I didn't warn you about the chamber, huh?" She's examining my features with genuine concern and adds, "They threatened to hurt Gini in the most horrible –"
"I'm not sentimental, Vivian," I assure her, "I never was."
"I know that, but … I'm sorry, Tommy."
She looks at me as though I still was the kid who used to sit at Jim's counter – and I can't help but smile.
She nods in relief, then disgust distorts her features because her gaze falls on MacDuff and Krafft. I know she'd love to spit at their feet right now. "You are such a disgrace to any honourable man!"
"What does that mean?" one asks the other, Vivian just glares back at me in irritation.
"They're really no good for anything now," I enlighten her while also Tina and Queenie draw a little closer towards the walls of the courtyard pillars. "Where did you leave Edwin, by the way?" I ask them, and Harper listens up as well.
Vivian sighs. "He ran into old Slughorn. They've known each other forever, so they've got a lot of catching up to do. The two chatterboxes have probably long since moved on to the Three Broomsticks because there's nothing more to see here …"
"I wouldn't say that," Queenie whispers as she reverently glances towards the viaduct, where Grindelwald and Dumbledore are still approaching the courtyard side by side. "They've negotiated with the authorities to have one last moment together before Gellert …" She falls silent.
"Before what?"
She swallows before she answers me. "Before Gellert is imprisoned for life in Nurmengard. The castle was originally designed as a prison – isn't that ironic?"
"Indeed," I quietly agree, then a thought crosses my mind. "Has anyone mentioned to you that I almost killed your sister earlier? That would've also been ironic in the light of your tearful reunion –"
"Oh Tom, please," she whispers, shaking her head well disturbed. "Listen, dear, you're terribly impulsive and I mean well when I say you need to work on that."
"No, I suggest everyone stays out of my business."
"You yourself involved us in your business, though," Nagini adds, shrugging meekly as I look back at her. "But I'm glad it all turned out well. Since you'll be all I have later on …"
I immediately shake my head. "We'll break that curse. Somehow. You'll see."
Her eyes begin to glitter wistfully as more familiar faces join us at that very moment, and completely out of breath.
"Is Echidna alright?" Rouvenia is quick to ask.
Avery seems overwhelmed. "Who the hell is Echidna? A new Knight?"
I all but nod at Rou and she – and Hagrid behind her – immediately breathe a sigh of relief.
"Tell me, who is –"
"I'll explain later, Avery," Rouvenia whispers with a warm smile.
"Speaking of Knights," I pick up on this with nothing but appropriate irritation. "Have you all come to your senses or will you blindly take action to play revolution again when the next best opportunity comes up?"
"People in glass houses," Rouvenia retorts with a wink. "You of all people should know that things can go wrong."
I just wave it off as I now also notice Leonora rushing towards us, heavily breathing. Elliott and Eric are right behind her, not at all exhausted but in exemplary physical condition thanks to their constant Quidditch practice.
"Where do you all come from?" Harper asks.
"We took the shortcut up, like Slughorn and Tom earlier," Elliott explains with a grin. "After all, we wanted to see Grindelwald being led into the school, too."
"They'll reach the courtyard any minute," Eric says, watching just that closely with me as everyone else does. We're leaning against the mighty pillars until Dumbledore and Grindelwald finally enter the school grounds at the end of the viaduct.
The Dark Lord is visibly drained from the duel of the century – as is his opponent – but there's something entirely new about the gaze of the man I met in the forests of Albania.
Sober peace.
Where before there was post-factual madness, now a certain calmness seems to have settled over him.
"He's even creepier than in the Daily Prophet pictures," Dean whispers in awe, making me notice how he's suddenly moved far too close to Harper for my liking.
"You should've seen him on Reformation Day," I mumble to him with quite some satisfaction while his jaw drops.
He tries to get Harper to explain, but I'm already refocusing on the procession.
Eric next to me crosses his arms, thinking out loud, "Who the hell is he looking out for?"
I keep watching them with him – until Grindelwald's and my eyes finally meet, despite the crowd of students all around us.
"Me," I say, ignoring Harper's hand on my shoulder trying to hold me back.
I make my way through the crowd, in the middle of which Grindelwald has long since paused to wait, forcing everyone after him to stop as well.