C092 - Undercurrents, Plans & Annoyances

[3rd POV, Nurmengard Castle]

Gellert Grindelwald sat in his cell, impeccably dressed and calmly reading a book. Advanced physic principles regarding something the muggles called 'string theory' after it was discovered by a squib from Italy's Veneziano family with a penchant for Arithmency.

The retired dark lord learned of this book when he looked into the Minister of Magic of Italy after the man managed to lure his favorite 'project' to Italy.

His plans regarding this project might not have panned out, he had quite a few setbacks even, but that only made Gellert more interested. With as much sincerity as the jailed wizard could muster, he tried to tempt Talion into following his plans, adopting his mindset and morals. This delightful little chess game was not yet lost, but only because Talion kept aggressively resetting the board entirely. Everybody else would have long played into his hand. Lost important pieces or were on their way to lose the game entirely.

And yet with Talion, Gellert kept 'losing' because of the simple fact that he wasn't winning. The dark lord had at more than one point even caught himself agreeing with the impetuous brat!

It made messing with the boy all the more fun. Gellert could admit to himself that he wouldn't even mind losing anymore. Talion was closer than anyone to have earned that right.

At the edge of the powerful wizard's consciousness, he noticed that the ward he put into place gave a soft chime. His once-lover came to visit again. Quite soon, too, if he didn't get the date wrong.

Gellert waved his hand lazily to activate the illusion magic ward in his cell. He was still dressed in a freshly washed shirt and was properly bathed, but all Albus Dumbledore would see, for all his keen insights and vast wisdom, was a man in tatters.

How Gellert loved to see that small flash of pain in Albus' eyes every time he came for a visit. Learning those dreadful Sumerian runes that escaped a learned scholar's magical perception just to mess with his once-lover had been worth it.

"Albus, your visit came much sooner than I could have predicted," Gellert said almost lazily, only looking up to drink in the hurt expression of his best friend.

"Gellert," the headmaster breathed out warily. The centennial suddenly squared up a little, asking, "Have you managed to ensnare some of my students through means unknown?"

"Oh? What gave you that impression?" Gellert asked with an intrigued grin.

It seemed it was finally time, the dark lord guessed with inward glee.

Albus brought a hand to his face, sighing, "I… pried a little after overhearing something not meant for anyone's ears."

"Hehaha," Gellert chuckled softly. "Stalking students and then using Legilimency on them? Albus, isn't your reputation already besmirched enough? What if I told someone?"

The headmaster studied the cell for a brief moment before shaking his head. "You shouldn't even be able to communicate with the outside world. I checked the guards myself, their vows are in place, the oaths unbroken. You couldn't have managed to enlist their help."

Gellert smiled to himself. Circumventing the magical oaths those guards took was one of the very first successful plans he pulled off after his voluntary surrender.

"Well, who did you uncover? I can't give too much away by guessing, you know?"

Albus sighed again, answering, "Young Natalie Rosier. I should have known something was amiss seeing who her guardian was until recently."

"Pah, recently? You're getting old, Albus. My dear Vinda died almost a decade ago. I've only seen her tombstone through a picture, one of my biggest regrets," Gellert countered, fully pretending to be upset. Vinda had willingly breathed her last in his arms, after all.

Albus breathed a small sigh of relief as he stared at the ceiling of Gellert's cell. His magic confirmed that the rune hidden up there was still intact. Gellert was forced to tell the truth as long as he was in this room. And Albus could confirm that his friend had not left the cell unknowingly.

"You know we can't let you leave here," Albus softly rebuked. He shook his head, asking, "So then why were you using Young Natalie to influence him?"

Albus knew he didn't need to give his name. Talion was a very frequent topic for the two of them. And Gellert wasn't pretending not to know of his pawns, either.

"You made him sound so very interesting, naturally I wanted to see if he was worthy of my legacy," Gellert answered casually with a wave of his hand, fully knowing what this admission would do to Albus and the immediate future of his reluctant little pawn.

Albus took a deep, steadying breath as his hand found the wall next to his to keep from reeling.

He had always known Talion was a dangerous element in his goals for the greater good. But the damage he could do to society, nay, humanity as a whole with Gellert Grindelwald seducing him to the dark side…

"Relax, don't get your knickers all twisted," Gellert said with a laugh once he was done enjoying the growing paranoia of his contemporary. "I never actually succeeded, as you must be aware if you actually roamed around Natalie's mind. The little girl wasn't even able to give him her first time. He was too smart from the start, always keeping her at arm's length. Too bad, too. I taught Natalie an amazing little ritual from Ancient Rome where-"

"Enough!" Albus thundered. He didn't want to hear how he had twisted the minds of impressionable little witches to use something so precious for one of his friend's dastardly schemes.

"Heh, Albus, you already knew all that, didn't you? When I killed Nostradamus' heir to steal his legacy, I gave it to you, after all," Gellert gloated with a smirk, satisfied with the headmaster's outburst.

"I only used the spinning mirrors to learn of Miss Rosier's fate," Albus lied. Gellert knew. The headmaster continued, "She dies early, not at your hands or his. If you cherish her aunt, see to it that she has a better… fate."

"Are you not the headmaster of her school? Why are you asking poor old me to intervene in the life of a teenager several countries over?" The retired Dark Lord asked with a playful grin.

"I know of your role in my loss of the Chief Warlock position by now," Albus exposed with another weary sigh. "Your scheme worked… but it also gave me a lot more free time, Gellert."

"And what do you intend to do with it? Find the remnants of that little boy, Tom?" Gellert asked with openly feigned interest as he brought a hand to his cheek. "Oh wait, you missed yet another one of his pawns. It was Talion, again, who thwarted the little dark lord's plans."

"I knew it wasn't Moody the moment he entered the school," Albus darkly countered. "I planned to confront the imposter without any students present. For their safety."

"Confront? Or use to lure out little Tom from his hiding place?"

Albus lost count of how many times he sighed during this visit. Instead, he wearily asked, "How are you so certain he is hiding somewhere?"

Gellert looked at Albus mockingly, turning his attention back to the book in his lap that looked like a newspaper for Albus through the illusion. A signal that he was done talking.

"If you haven't figured out by now that the stupid cur used Horcruxes to survive, you're much more dull than I would have thought," Gellert mumbled, not answering any other questions.

Only when Albus left did he look up again.

"Talion, Talion, Talion," Gellert sing-songed while shaking his head. A pleased, crooked smile spread on his wrinkled face. "Looks like you're the one to take the full brunt of Albus' finally broken psyche and corroding morals. Fifty-three years with those two Isu artifacts and he finally lost it. Overhearing them in the corridor? Pah! As if Talion was that careless. Albus must have broken into Natalie's mind with mild suspicion alone. Even he wouldn't do that unless he finally lost his marbles!"

— — — — —

[3rd POV, The Forge – caverns below Hogwarts]

"Took you long enough," the hologram of Rowena Ravenclaw said as she appeared on the pedestal near the Isu artifact that housed the consciousness of the two founders.

"Lady Ravenclaw," that infuriating boy greeted with a bow before turning to the second magi-technical apparition in the room and repeating the bow, "Lady Hufflepuff."

"How was Italy, Talion?" Helga asked with a calm smile.

The young wizard had warned them of his absence on his last day of the second school year.

"It went about as well as I suspected," the student said with a shrug before producing three items. "I'd like to enlist your help."

Rowena's form nodded. Directly to the topic, she always appreciated such conversations compared to mindless small-talk.

"Oh my, you found Salazar's locket?"

"Yes, and I don't plan to consume another one of Tom's soul shards. I don't think I'd come out the same trying it again," Talion admitted and watched the locket float over to the anvil that was the core of the Forge.

Rowena's holographic spirit body appeared before it together with a probe from the mechanism above the room's centerpiece.

"Have you decided what you want to use it for? The one-time ritual to bless you and your lineage with a magical ability?"

Talion nodded, proposing, "Parselmagic is very powerful, but my mid-to-long term goals have no need for this ability. Hence, I'd like to become a metamorphmagus."

"Freely change your appearance, hmm?" Helga Hufflepuff asked with a mischievous smirk.

Talion nodded with a calm smile, inwardly listing the many advantages, 'Perfect for assassinations. Great way to blend into crowds. Better aptitude for transfiguration. Possibility of using runic magic through deliberate changes to my skin and bones instead of having to rely on ink. My survivability is pretty much guaranteed if I become a metamorphmagus in addition to being an animagus.'

"Salazar gave this ability to the ancestors of House Black, so we are familiar with the process," Rowena commented as a parchment fluttered into Talion's hands. "Gather these materials and we will set up the ritual for you."

"Thank you," Talion said with another small bow.

Ritual magic was as good as outlawed. Finding good books on it was hard and he didn't want to use up his remaining limited time to browse the Black library for a subject that didn't truly interest him.

Though, he was still going to copy the books for later use. There would come a time where he was done with his education and short-term goals relating to Voldemort and his posse.

Sirius hadn't entered the library once, according to Kreacher. Clearly Talion's theft of knowledge would not be revealed in this generation. Copying books in the sheer audacious volume that the young wizard had started doing would have resulted in an immediate ban, maybe even a feud, if House Black still had a lord who cared.

"Personally, I used the locket for Helena to grant her vast magical potential," Rowena added as if in deep thought. "Silly girl wasted it all…"

Helga looked at her friend with a deadpan before looking back at Talion.

"Ignore her," she said with a wave of her hand. "She's a little sour that Helena has still not passed on, choosing to remain in her ghostly state to come talk to us every so often."

Talion only nodded.

"If you are curious, I used the locket to boost my lineage's fertility," Helga idly added as her gaze fell down toward her inviting hips. "You must know that magicals notoriously lack in progeny. With early child deaths as rampant as it was in our time even with magic's involvement, I wanted to spare my descendants the heartache of trying for a child and never getting the blessing or seeing their line end in the crib."

That was about as selfless of an act as Talion would have attributed to the benevolent founder.

"Don't tell them, but I am quite certain the Prewett's are of my blood," Helga mused as she tapped her chin in deep thought. "Glad my blessing is still in place, but I don't feel any particular fondness for those remaining. It may sound callous, but a millenia is too long to still care about blood."

Helena and the sorting hat had brought down any and all family trees they could find or remember for the two founders to study. Molly Prewett, last of her blood, was therefore from Helga Hufflepuff's lineage.

Who would have thought, Talion pondered with a small frown.

That made all those Weasley brats technically heirs to Hufflepuff… huh.

"I see," Talion muttered absentmindedly. If she didn't care about blood, supposedly, why did they care that the three of them 'shared' a connection through their Isu bloodlines?

Was it truly as they stated during their first meeting? That Talion's fate was linked to theirs and that their continued existence as spirits inside the Piece of Eden would help Talion save wizardkind?

That was a little too overwhelming… too grand.

"Now, what else have you brought with you?"

Talion held up a mirror, ergonomically formed to fit perfectly into his grasp without a chance of slipping out. With a twist of his fingers, the flat item split, producing the same mirror a second time just a little more flat.

"I learned enchanting. Quite easily, I might add, thanks to the memories I dream of from the life of Heimdall," Talion explained. "With muggles advancing rapidly, I want to join in the race and ensure that magicals aren't left behind."

He threw one of the mirrors over, the hologram of Hufflepuff flexing its will to make it float.

"This is a prototype for ranged communication based on the Potter's two-way mirror," he added patiently as the runes lit up on both mirror surfaces.

A runic dial appeared on it.

"A two-way mirror is enough for lovers, friends and a mother trying to reach her offspring. But western muggles are able to reach everybody they want in the civilized world. The spots on the world map without this communication method are shrinking every single day. Other regions are quickly catching up or already have, I can't say for certain."

Grasping Talion's intent, Hufflepuff muttered, "Each mirror will receive a unique identity, allowing for others to reach it as long as they are aware of it."

Talion nodded in confirmation. He had essentially tried to create a magical phone.

"The floo already allows for such communication," the matronly founder challenged as she kept studying the item in front of her.

The craftsmanship, considering it came from someone who was still a student, was more than decent. The enchantments had quite a few possibilities for improvement, though.

"The floo is restricted to a fireplace. One connected to the floo network," Talion said, shaking his head. "Muggles have figured out how to reach people anywhere in the world with the use of satellites. The first commercially available satellite phone came out this year after a decade in development and prior exclusive use in the military."

Hufflepuff nodded absentmindedly. They had noticed the satellites in the night sky as they checked the constellations for divination purposes.

"What do you need help with?" Helga asked, not yet ready to simply implement everything she knew she could improve immediately.

"This prototype is clunky. And I have no idea how to create a network that will support all mirrors connected to it. The needed arithmancy is beyond me. I have five mirrors and they can call each other as intended. But more than one call at a time results in the original call getting cancelled."

Hufflepuff nodded once more. She had identified the problem before Talion finished his explanation of what it is he threw over.

"But the arithmancy is not beyond two of the smartest witches to ever walk this Earth, whose consciousness rests inside what I can only call a nigh-divine super-computer."

Helga smirked at the attempted flattery.

"Hand over the other mirrors and keep one of them," Rowena chimed in after having overheard the entire conversation.

Talion immediately did as he was told.

"How much computational power do you think magicals will accept with this invention?" The more logical of the two founders asked as she appeared next to Helga.

"If we wrap it in magic, quite a lot of it," Talion quipped with a small grin.

Rowena only nodded. She had plans to improve the design. The founder of House Ravenclaw was certain that Helga would be able to perfect the enchants with her own calculations and ideas for functions that went beyond simple voice and picture transmission.

"Give us until the end of the year. We will have a satisfactory result ready for you."

Talion bowed once more.

"The Horcrux soul piece is inside the forge now," Rowena idly commented. "No worries, it is thoroughly contained. Most of my attention is on Riddle's mind now."

The young wizard had a thousand things he wanted to comment on but remained quiet. There was no way he could discourage these two from doing anything. So he smartly remained still. There was no need to waste more good will than necessary.

"Now, what is the last item you brought for us?" Helga asked, changing the topic entirely.

Talion gingerly held up the third item he intended to show these two.

"In Italy, I believe I found a Piece of Eden in the hands of modern day Templars."

— — —

[1st POV of Talion Macnair, first of his name, third child of the prophecy, fifth in last year's history exam at Stati Magia, seventh Lord of House Gamp who does not bear the Gamp family name]

"Do stay behind for a moment, Talion," Slughorn said with a sickening smile during the end of the third week of school.

"Yes, professor?" I asked once I watched the last student vacate the Potions class room.

"Poppy mentioned over tea the other day, that you not only make the ink for your runic tattoos on your own – you even managed to create a balm to heal magi-alchemic burns?"

Narrowing my eyes for a short moment, I nodded.

It was true, after all. I didn't invent anything new, but I spent some time changing existing recipes a little. Professor DiMatteo, potion master in his own right, had helped immensely as well.

"Delightful! My contacts at the Italian Ministry had been kind enough to send me your exam results in Potions and Alchemy, you know," he proudly declared. "It took until this weekend for me to get them, my apologies. I did not mean to be tardy."

I tilted my head a little. Him prying into my exam results was never even on my radar, why would I excuse him taking three weeks to do it?

"Now, I don't know if you know, but I do dabble in Alchemy myself," the fat elderly wizard said in a conspiratorial whisper. "I'd like to help you with your studies. Maybe even improve upon the ink creation process or even help you fine-tune the recipe?"

"Professor DiMatteo and I spent a whole year to make sure there are no wasted ingredients or steps in the Roman recipe," I tried to deflect with my most sincere apologetic smile I could muster. "I don't mean to insult your expertise, but I believe that without involving Professor Vector we wouldn't get very far improving what I consider to be an already 'fine-tuned' recipe. Even the little improvements we made came through hard work and quite a lot of wasted effort. The Romans knew what they were doing, after all."

"Septima will be delighted to hear that!" Slughorn exclaimed with a wide grin as he patted my shoulder and ignored my attempt at refusal. "Rest assured, even if she isn't immediately on board, I can get her there. I do believe she still owes me a favor from her time as a student, you know."

I left the class room with a small roll of my eyes.

After failing to involve himself in the arrest of Barty Crouch Junior in any meaningful capacity, Slughorn used any chance available to him to meddle with my life. He had even offered to take me as an apprentice.

I knew that he just wanted to be mentioned in the footnotes of what he believed to be an outstanding student. To be able to claim that he helped get me 'there', wherever that would be in the future.

I decided to just throw him a bone. Slughorn might be delusional, but he was influential. I couldn't deny him that. And I didn't want to make him an enemy just because he overstayed his welcome or pried a little too much. Otherwise I'd have made him an enemy in my second year when he taught me potions and tried to scheme against me for the headmaster.

A small gesture, as long as he wouldn't try to take the whole arm after I'd offer a hand. He was worth at least that much.

'Let's just hope he isn't going to try involving Dumbledore,' I thought as I made my way toward the Great Hall for lunch.