A Ride.

Holding a newspaper while studying the news about the various incidents happening around the wizarding world, a strange old man with heterochromatic eyes sat inside his otherwise fully furnished cell in silence.

The pages of the newspaper were flipped slowly, one page at a time, as the man made sure to scour every bit of information available.

He frowned whenever he saw mention of information about Albus Dumbledore, or even the British Minister of Magic.

One of the articles, however, caught his attention-

'The French Ministry Of Magic Trembles In Fear, The Acolytes Are Here!'

"Are you really going to walk the path of disaster Albus? Even after I've warned you so much regarding it…? Not my problem anymore if you want to choose death." The man whispered with a frown.

He folded the paper close and then sat facing the large, ornate, stone glassless window carved into the wall of his stone room.

The window gave him a clear view of the large mountain that he had once used someone else to destroy.

His frown remained prominent as he watched the scared mountain while thinking about various things that were happening in the wizarding world.

A sharp *bang* broke him out of his thoughts as he was forced to look at the bars that had been installed where an ornate door used to be, turning the elegant room into a prison that he could not leave.

At least not willingly according to the world.

A man with a thin wand stood on the other side, looking at him with slight anger and disgust.

The sight elated the old man very much, bringing a soft smile to his face.

"Are you here already Thomas? I thought it'd take you a few more days to arrive here…how's your mother? I foresaw her dying this week…are you on bad terms with her? Don't you want to be by her side in her last moments?"

Thomas looked at the old man with anger and was about to curse at him but a thin hand on his shoulder stopped him from speaking.

A stern woman appeared from behind Thomas as she looked at the old man with scrutiny. Her gaze was as sharp as an eagle as she analysed everything about the old man who was smiling while looking at them.

"Not going to say anything Vera?" The old man spoke with obvious joy in his tone.

"What have you done Grindlewald?"

"Oh? Me? What could I have done? I haven't moved from this place in the last five decades! Don't you kno-"

"Don't lie to us Grindlewald! The acolytes or whatever remains of your legacy, those fanatic groups have started moving again! Information about their revival is spreading everywhere. Either you tell us what we want to know, or we'll make sure you aren't left in a state to do much of anything else."

"Oh?!" Grindlewald's eyes suddenly gained a tint of excitement as he heard those words. "I wonder what you'll try this time…the Cruciatus Curse didn't do much the last time…perhaps you'll try using Fiendfyre this time?"

The woman looked at Grindlewald with a sharp glare before speaking in a stern tone.

"This is your last warning Grindlewald. Try anything and it won't be you who'll suffer this time. It'll be your Acolytes. They will all be treated worse than Death Eaters once they are caught."

Grindelwald's smile deepened.

A maddening glint emerged in his eyes as he spoke cryptically.

"Are you sure about that?"

The woman glared at him for a few seconds before turning away and leaving Grindlewald to suffer alone in his small cell.

Thomas followed the woman after sending a short glare Grindelwald's way.

Loki sat down in his compartment on the train and closed his eyes to sort out his thoughts as the train started to chug towards Hogsmeade.

'A method to trap Grindelwald in my trap...'

'I just have to trick Grindlewald into thinking that Dumbledore is going to be in danger.'

'Voldemort perhaps? Maybe I can get Grindelwald and Voldemort to fight against each other?'

'Given their close relationship it'll probably cause him to come after whoever is trying to kill Dumbledore, right?'

'It'll probably be difficult to convince Grindelwald that Voldemort is a threat to Dumbledore though...'

'Maybe I can try manipulating the situation such that Grindelwald thinks that Voldemort is going to interfere in Dumbledore advancement ritual?'

'I mean after all, I'm pretty sure that Voldemort will surely do something to stop Dumbledore from advancing…maybe I can fan the flames so that Voldemort becomes a bigger threat than expected?'

'Then I can just kill whoever survives in between Grindelwald and Voldemort?'

'....I should be able to do it as long as I'm able to provide Voldemort with some genuine information regarding Dumbledore's advancement ritual…but what's Dumbledore's advancement ritual?'

'I know what the apotheosis ritual is…but how will Dumbledore perform it?'

'Will Gehrman Sparrow be involved in it?'

'My point of revealing Gehrman Sparrow to Walburga was to act as a buffer in between her and Dumbledore so that she won't be the main focus of 'His' plans.'

'But-'

There was a soft knock on the door, causing Loki to open his eyes and look through it using spirit vision.

'Ah…Astoria…'

Loki stood up and opened the door with some hesitance but didn't let Astoria feel any of his troubled mood.

"How are you here Tory? Grown tired of your friends?" Loki asked with a smile as soon as he opened the door.

Astoria rolled her eyes and pushed Loki to enter the compartment and sit down on the right side.

Loki closed the door and sat down on the left side while looking at Astoria who looked sleep-deprived and tired.

"Those girls…they can't stop discussing about Daph. They keep bringing up things that keep reminding me of her."

Loki didn't know how to respond to this and so he chose to remain silent for a few seconds before trying to distract Astoria from the topic.

"Are you excited for this year?"

Astoria quickly shook her head.

"Care to let me know what about it is troubling you?"

Astoria kept looking at the window for a few seconds before speaking, "It just feels like something is missing. Like I can touch her but she's not here. Like she's by my side but she's missing. For whatever reason."

Loki frowned at the description, not because he felt that his attempt at distracting Astoria had been wasted or even because he felt that Astoria was lying.

Those thoughts didn't even enter his mind.

No, what did cause him to frown was a different idea.

'She can feel her?'

Loki quickly activated his spirit vision to scan Astoria from head to toe.

But apart from her deeply depressed mental state, he couldn't find anything strange about Astoria.

Not even her spirit thread indicated any form of tampering or manipulation.

'Is she lying?

'Or hallucinating it? Loss of control?'

'...no Tory wouldn't have told me if the feeling wasn't truly bothering her in some way.'

"Since when?"

Astoria looked at Loki with slightly widened eyes. "You believe me!?"

Loki kept frowning but nodded.

"I don't know what it's like to lose a close one. But I can imagine…and my imagination definitely isn't as strong as what you're feeling…so I hope to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Ehh….so logical…? I thought you didn't have brains…." Astoria tried joking, but her terribly tired state left Loki feeling more pity than joyousness to express in the form of laughter.

"But now that I think about it...isn't that just a slightly more complicated way of telling me that I'm lying…?" Astoria asked with her brows raised and Loki quickly shook his head.

"No. That's why I'm asking you since when all this started. Can you pinpoint the time when you started feeling like this?"

Astoria frowned and went to look back out the glass window in their compartment. Wondering how she should answer or even what she should say.

She looked like she was trying hard to place the feeling she was having in a time frame, but was clearly failing to do it.

"I don't know…it's something like- like it's been with me all along- ever since…ever since she's been gone…even before I heard the news…I'm not sure…"

Loki frowned even more at that but didn't offer any advice.

Astoria looked at Loki because of his silence and was a little surprised when she found him thinking deeply about her little problem.

"You really believe me?"

Loki didn't say anything directly, instead he said something else.

"I don't know why you're feeling like that. But I'll make sure to try and figure something out."

Astoria nodded and finally smiled, it was more her facial muscles relaxing into a smile but Loki found it a little heartening so he quickly pinched her cheeks.

"AgguuuuuuggggghhhH!!! What are you doing with my cheeks!? I'm heiress Greengrass!" Astoria complained.

They suddenly matched eyes and burst out laughing.

"Seriously? Heiress Greengrass?" Loki teased.

Astoria blushed and then shook her head before saying something else that surprised Loki.

"Did you know the Malfoys sent me a letter for a marriage proposal!?"

"Oh!? Really!?" Loki asked, immediately interested in gossip.

The rest of the train ride passed smoothly, with Astoria bragging about how she rejected the proposal with a snarky reply, but since her mother caught her stuffing her reply into the official response she was grounded to the mansion for the rest of the summer.

But she did say that when her mother read the letter she secretly, accidentally, slipped it into the envelope.

The cart lady of the train also *knocked* on their door but they were too absorbed in their gossip to pay any attention.

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