CHAPTER ELEVEN

MY EARS RANG PAINFULLY as I tried to make sense of my surroundings—as I tried to make sense of my senses. There was weight, over me and underneath me. My body felt like a doll's, thrown aside and twisted in odd angles that incited immense pain as I tried to shift under jabbing points of matter pushing against my skin. My eyes saw darkness and I knew I was buried in rumble. I knew I wasn't dead, but it sure felt like it. Gosh, if being buried alive felt like something, it was this.

"I'm afraid I do not know what you speak of," A voice wafted in my ear, a fragment of a clear conversation happening in the distance.

I stilled. It was the old wandmaker Gregorovitch's voice. He was alright. But who was he speaking to and why hadn't he bothered to look for me in the rubble of his house? Or better yet, who in ten hells, had blown his house apart?

"You test me, wise wandmaker," A thin, piercing voice responded, a sharp tone that was slow yet sliced through air. "You distract me and you stall me."

"I do no such thing," The old man spoke, but the tremor in his voice was evident, and my heart wavered for him.

No further response from the mysterious stranger came, until a sharp whimper sounded in Gregorovitch's voice. The whimper morphed into agonized grunts and my heart constricted. This someone was hurting the wandmaker, and I can't just lie around and listen to it.

I tried to move again, and suddenly, I was grabbed by the back of my elbow. Fingers clamped around the sleeve of my uniform, the warmth seeping into my skin as I was pulled out like a marionette. I winced as stones and harsh edges of wood scraped against my skin at some areas, and I knew my uniform had gone through irreparable damage. Once a dim candle light flooded my vision, did I think to snatch my form away from the hand who had pulled me out. I was disoriented from being thrown back, and my effort was sloppy at best. I fought to focus my eyes on the person who had pulled me out, and under this dim flickering candle light in the distance, I managed to make out the features and a gasp broke through me.

The shaved head, the sand colored skin, the dark eyes and the sculpted face. Viktor Krum's presence in Gregorovitch's now crumbling house was dizzying, altering to my current state of senses in ways that I couldn't count. I stilled in my spot, and he slowly ventured close, a hand raised as though he was dealing with an anxious owl who had become frightened by a crowd of muggles. 

"Are you alright?" He hushed, his thick voice barely above a whisper, eyes swimming with startling concern. 

And then, I realized the depth of the situation. Krum had also been hiding, and overhearing the exact thing that I had been listening to. But why?

"Y—yes," I stammered finding my voice amidst my shock.

"Shh," He put a finger to his lips, slowly motioning behind me.

I turned to look, and found a giant pile of rubble, stone and wood alike, barring our forms from the scene behind. It was from there the voices had been coming. It was there Gregorovitch was dealing with—or rather—being dealt with by the sharp sounding stranger.

Gregorovitch grunted again, the pain clear in the sounds. I shifted, uncomfortable eyes whipping towards Viktor Krum.

"He is being hurt," I whispered. "We have to interfere."

I didn't know how Krum had gotten here, and I didn't know what he wanted by being here, but in the moment, all that mattered for me was the scene behind the massive pile of rubble.

The Durmstrang shook his head, his decision calculated, firm.

"No," He whispered back, "We can't."

My brows furrowed as I looked at him in disbelief. His character was unravelling to me in ways strange and unnerving and I hated every second of deciphering him. He was a sculpture, and in this moment, I realized he was just as unfeeling as one. 

Making up my mind to use my magic without the fear of revealing myself, I made to get up, but Viktor Krum's hand reached out and grabbed my elbow again, yanking me towards him. This time, I crashed onto his chest as he held me in place. I raised my head to meet his eyes, anger throbbing under my skin. I found his eyes only two inches away from mine, and the proximity halted me in place as the anger suddenly vanished, replacing itself with uncertainty inside me. He gazed back into my eyes, his irises unreadable. His body warmth radiated off of him and his hard chest, seeping into me and calming my discomfort in a strange way.

"You will tell me what happened to it," The thin and sharp peculiar voice hissed once the old wandmaker's agonized grunts ceased. "Or you die by my hand."

I broke eye contact, turning over my shoulder to face the voices. 

"It—it was stolen from me," Gregorovitch cried, and I suppressed a gasp as he continued. "I do not know who took it or where it is now."

"Grindelwald stole The Elder Wand."

"Find out where The Elder Wand is and acquire it girl. Or else it will fall into the wrong hands."

The wandmaker's words repeated themselves in my head. He was talking of The Elder Wand, and this strange, and cruel wizard was looking for it. The wrong hands Gregorovitch spoke of were tight on the trail and the old man didn't want them to succeed. That was why he wasn't naming Grindelwald, because Grindelwald would make the wand easier to find. And Gregorovitch didn't want it to be found by anyone else but me. But why? How could he so brazenly assume that my hands weren't the wrong ones too? 

With my failing wand owing its loyalty to a dark wizard, my blood relation to the said wizard, and my burning mark that incited bursts of hot violent anger to thread through me and blind me, how could an old wandmaker assume my hands would not be tainted too? 

"You lie," The cruel wizard insisted, and then without another word, he muttered a spell I couldn't make out and burst of dim light erupted from behind the wall of rumble. 

"Bastard," Krum hissed in anger, "Fucker's going to search Gregorovitch's memories." 

I stilled. No, this wizard can't know what Gregorovitch knows. The wandmaker didn't want it to be so. 

Closing my eyes shut, and without thinking more of it, I acted. I brought up everything I felt of the old wandmaker and his mortal presence. Putting two fingers together I drew the rune that reminded me of his form and his energy, and then I erased it and everything inside the wandmaker, keeping the shell safe and intact, keeping the hull of the ship of his life save and intact. 

Krum shifted against me and when I opened my eyes, his eyes were fixed on me in blatant shock and horror. It looked out of place on his features. It looked as though the sculpt of his facial form had been left too long out in the sun. The expression looked like it didn't belong on his face. When was the last time something had truly horrified him? 

I looked at my hands, just in time to see the two gleaming finger tips fade into skin and nails. My eyes met Krum's and I parted my lips to speak, though I didn't know to say what. Just then, a piercing scream tore through the ear and I whipped my head to look over my shoulder. It was the wizard, tortured at finding out an empty slate where he had hoped to find fruit. I had wiped Gregorovitch's memory clean. 

A thud sounded—a body hitting the ground. Then, another burst of light erupted from behind the wall of rumble and a gust of wind, until neither of the two things were seen of felt anymore. Silence replaced the scene, with a soft grunt from the old wandmaker. The wizard seeking The Elder Wand was gone. 

Separating from Viktor Krum, I got up on my shaking legs and instantly felt bursts of pain tear at me through odd angles. The Durmstrang got up behind me, his mouth bound shut as he followed me. I hurried to the wall of rubble and pushed at it, collapsing it to then step over and approach Gregorovitch's lying form on the ground. 

He was bleeding at the forehead, and his escaping blood was streaked with dirt like the rest of his face. His eye lids fluttered as he moaned in pain. I crouched down beside him. 

"Mr Gregorovitch," I spoke softly, "Can you hear me?" 

The wandmaker's eyes snapped open, and his light irises focused on me and then on Viktor Krum's form bending over his body. There was no recognition in his eyes, just a plain blankness that I had seen in the eyes of the old woman who had told me the name of my magic years ago, before I had put her to temporary sleep. 

"Gregorovitch," Krum muttered next, eyes fixed in concern at the wandmaker. "Are you alright? I'll get you help, you will be fine." 

I glanced at the Durmstrang. He looked as though he was more familiar with the wandmaker than I was. He looked as though he'd been around the old man many times before. The Bulgarian seeker made towards the shattered door and I cried out, "Stop!" 

He halted, slowly turning around to look at me. His eyes were narrowed, and this time, he had resentment coating his irises. 

"You don't need to call anyone," I swallowed, turning away to look at the wandmaker. "He's just had his memory searched. He just needs rest—" I broke off. 

What I had done on Gregorovitch wasn't Obliviate, it was no simple memory erase charm done with a wand. If I wanted others to think that, I needed to let the energy of it seep and diffuse out first, so that it will come close to even being associated with the Obliviate charm. Heuristics left an aura, and that aura was dangerous to be left around. That aura would reveal my presence, reveal my secret, reveal that there was a form of magic assumed to be dead still floating around. It would get every Government of Magic all over the wizarding world on my trail.

"W-who are you?" Gregorovitch sighed, trying to get up. I helped him, and he sat up, rubbing his temple slowly. "And what are you doing in my house?" 

Viktor Krum's furrowed brows deepened. With confusion on his face, he neared the wandmaker. 

"Gregorovitch," He started, "Its me, Krum. You called me." 

I stilled. Gregorovitch called him here? When? He couldn't have been summoning the Bulgarian seeker whilst we talked of The Elder Wand, could he? 

"I'm sorry boy," The wandmaker pursed his lips, looking at Viktor in mild disapproval. "I don't associate with Durmstrangs, so I can't fathom calling one over for tea." 

"You are here for tea, are you not?" The old man raised at brow, then he turned towards me. "And you too, girl?" 

I pulled my hands to my lap and looked at Viktor, to find him looking at me with accusation. He knew I did something. He saw me do something, for heaven's sake. 

"His memory is gone," I stated, my voice small. The guilt was starting to creep up like a spider up my spine. "He won't remember us." 

"What?" The Durmstrang snapped with ferocity. "You fucked up his memory? Why?" 

Why, and not how. Perhaps Krum avoided questions with answers he wouldn't understand. 

"If I hadn't, that wizard would've found out," I began slowly, still on the dirty floor on my knees. My sky blue uniform resembled a significant brown now, and I wished I had brought my blue hat along to disguise the dusty mess my dark hair must be at present. 

I didn't know how far Krum's familiarity with the wandmaker went. Could Gregorovitch have told him of The Elder Wand? I didn't know how to ask. 

"Found out what?" Viktor uttered, voice loud as he glared at me. Clearly, he had not been told. 

I didn't say anything and slowly got up on my feet from beside Gregorovitch's clueless form as the latter rubbed the dirt out of his messy white hair and muttered about having just cleaned his house. Then I began to look around in the rubble for my wand. I touched at my neck to find my silver time turner still there, and my small crossbody bag still on me. 

I heard angry footsteps crunch wood and gravel beside me and just after, my elbow was harshly grabbed for like the fifth time by the same person.

"Lavigne," Krum snarled, yanking me close, "Found out about what? What was Gregorovitch hiding?" 

"If he wanted you to know," I met his glare with ferocity of my own, "He would've told you." 

The Durmstrang's jaw tightened visibly, then slowly, he let go of my arm. 

"Gregorovitch asked me to come," He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. "He told me you were here." 

I blinked, looking at him, waiting for more. 

"He said—," The seeker broke off, running a hand over his shaved head. "He said to help you in your task, or whatever the fuck that means." 

I released a breath. Gregorovitch wanted me to find out about the whereabouts of The Elder Wand and acquire it, but why in ten hells would I need the help of Viktor Krum to do so? He was a thick headed wizard concerned with his fame and matters I couldn't care less about. He hated Grindelwald, so why would he agree to seek the dark wizard out? Viktor Krum was useless to me. 

"His message was unclear," Krum continued, "So I apparated here myself to ask him what he meant, but instead walked into a fucking mess with your skirt peeking out from underneath the rubble." 

I knew what happened after that so I turned away, my eyes continuing the search for my wand. I hoped it wasn't broken. It was useless unbroken too, considering the division of its loyalties, but I needed it to get to Grindelwald, to find The Elder Wand. I stilled. Was I really going to do it? Was I really going to risk everything in search of wand I didn't even know existed up until two hours ago?  

The wand could help me, if its power was as immense as the stories claimed it to be. It could help me fix my wand, fix myself. It could help me sever my connection with my great uncle, it could help me get rid of the symbol etched in my skin that marked me out as a criminal associated with Grindelwald. When I was not, I had never been. I could change everything with The Elder Wand. 

"That wizard is looking for something isn't he?" Viktor Krum called from where he stood. "Something that Gregorovitch knew how to find—something you know how to find." 

I didn't say anything, eyes spotting wand like shapes as I set small pieces of rubble apart with the tip of my foot. 

"And I'm supposed to help you find it," He continued as though talking to himself now. "So you have to tell me what it is." 

I saw a bit of silver peak out from underneath a stone, and instantly bent down to retrieve it. It was my wand, unbroken, in one piece. I breathed a sigh of relief. 

"You have to tell me what it is!" Viktor Krum shouted from where he stood, when he received no answer from me. 

"Goodness, boy," Gregorovitch uttered, startled. "You do need a cup of tea. Just find something to sit on while I find where the kettle has blown off to." 

"I have to tell you nothing," I retorted, stepping stones and wood to approach him, bending to tuck my wand safely in my knee length sock. "I do not need your help in anything, Viktor Krum. What I do need you to do right now is to disapparate and rid me of your presence, so that I can hear myself think." 

He scoffed, frustration melting away into an amused irritation. "You think I will just go away and forget about this after what I saw you do?" 

I stilled. I had forgotten he had seen that. My vulnerability reflected on my face and Krum glowered in satisfaction. 

"What are you? Some kind of blood witch?" 

It was my turn to scoff then. Blood witches were a weak excuse in the realm of magic. Magic was not done with making blood oaths, sacrificing lambs or drinking blood. It was the kind of belief that kept small witching tribes far in the north going. The civilized wizarding world should believe in none of that bullshit. Heuristics was as far from blood magic as magic could go. Heuristics was older, efficient, and did not take years to show its effects. Unlike a wand or a pinch of blood, Heuristics relied on nothing.

"You will tell me what you are," Viktor Krum hissed when I hadn't responded, his patience wearing thin. 

I peered at him, tilting my head slightly. "Si étrange tu es, so many questions you have." 

He pursed his lips, ferocity in his eyes, but didn't say anything. 

"You saw what I can do," I started. "And I can do more. So don't you dare think of threatening me with what you think you know." 

He blinked, thrown off guard as his resolve scattered slightly. Then he pulled himself back together, anthracite eyes meeting mine again. 

"You are going find it aren't you?" Krum asked, voice stiff. "You are going to find what that wizard was looking for." 

"Gregorovitch wants me to," I replied simply, my eyes finding the old wandmaker as he gathered porcelain pieces of his tea cups and saucers from off the ground into the makeshift hull of the front of his robes. 

"Or at least, he wanted me to." 

"And he wanted me to help you," The Durmstrang pressed, resolve taking over his features.  

"I don't need your help," I uttered, frustrated. "Why can't you get that?" 

"Gregorovitch was my friend!" The seeker fumed, the skin at his face pinching red. "I knew him since I was a kid. He made my wand for fuck's sake. He visited my family for Christmases and he was a brother to my grandfather. And just because you've wiped his memory, don't expect me not to carry out what he asked me to do."  

I cried out in exasperation, gripping my head and spinning away from his presence. I wanted nothing else in the moment but for him to go away and leave me alone. My head felt so dense, I couldn't think straight with his form so near me and his constant claims. 

"This Gregorovitch sure sounds interesting," The old wandmaker hard at work over his battered stove, spoke up. "By the way you two are fighting over him." 

Viktor Krum nodded slowly behind me. "He was, he is." 

Once my frustration cleared, I glanced at my time turner, urgency seeping into me as my breath hitched. 

"We have to get back," I swallowed a lump in my throat, then spun to face the Durmstrang behind me. "How long has it been since you've come here?" 

If I could add his hours into the hours I remember before the blast, I could go back to the precise time I had left Ilvermorny. 

"An hour and a half," He responded, eyes falling to the silver time turner at my neck. He must have noticed it on me before too. 

"And how did you get here? You can't apparate or disapparate within Ilvermorny." The question simply floated out of me as I figured out the logistics of the dials and turns that would be required right now. 

"You can if use a professor's wand," The Durmstrang shrugged. "You don't need to use that," He added as I took the pendant in my hand. 

"No," I glanced at him. "It has been three hours since I left. My absence must've been noted, and I can't afford to get into trouble with Madame Maxime at present." 

"If you want to go without me rewinding the time, you can go now but your hour and a half with remain unaccounted for. Besides, I don't suppose you brought along the wand you used." 

"You'll fuck up the time," Viktor Krum hissed. "You rewind it and we were never here, that wizard gets the knowledge out of Gregorovitch and if he doesn't like it, he leaves the old man for the dead." 

I shook my head. "This time turner works how I want it to. The things I want to remain as they were, in the time I've messed with, will remain as they are." 

"We will still come here," I continued, turning the dials and rotating the circular bands. Then I drew a different rune in the air and it sparkled in silver. "I will still stop that wizard from getting the information out of Gregorovitch. But he will still have to go through the pain of being searched." 

"And what about him? Afterwards?" Krum pressed, "He just wanders about making tea in a house blown apart, with no memory?" 

I looked at the wandmaker as the old man hummed to himself a merry tune that sounded like a German folk song I had heard very long ago, opening half broken cabinets in his kitchen area looking for something. 

"He'll find his way until I return to him," I spoke slowly. "I will give him his memory back, when I'm sure he won't be harmed again for carrying it." 

And with that, I turned the circle bands of the time turner one last time. Everything started shifting around us, furniture started being put back together as the roof fixed itself and the rubble all around us depleted quickly. Gregorovitch's form vanished and the time was rewinded to the exact moment I had paused it back in Ilvermorny. The old wandmaker's house was once again pristine and quaint, with a few candles burning on a nearby desk. He was probably somewhere in the house, oblivious to everything that would come next. 

Viktor looked around, satisfied before his eyes met mine and I already had my new rune drawn in the air before me. I had added an extension to it, knowing that I was taking the Durmstrang back with me. Then, with the intention set, I flew us through the darkness. Opening my eyes, I found my feet firm on the floor of my dorm at Ilvermorny. Bridgette was sleeping, snoring softly in the other bed. 

"Oh," A voice caught my attention and I whipped my head to my side to find the dust covered form of Viktor Krum looking ridiculously out of place in our pristine Ilvermorny Beauxbatons dorm. 

I looked at my own dirty, dust covered hands and self. I looked no more fitting than he did. 

"Go," I hissed towards him, anxiety rushing inside me. 

His eyes widened as he settled onto the depth of the situation of being found in my dorm, with both of us looking like this. 

Quickly, he hurried over to the entrance and unlocked the door before slipping outside, one last undecipherable look thrown at me. With that look, he made sure I knew that today wasn't the end of it. He made sure that I knew he would interfere again, because of the task Gregorovitch gave him and the value he held for that old wandmaker, because of his intense curiosity to know what I was and what I wanted. Little did he know that the answers to his questions would make him want to do more than just purge my mind for drawing a symbol on a parchment. 

Ridding my thoughts of Viktor Krum, I stripped and stepped inside the bathroom shower, washing off the dust and dirt from the rubble. The hot water hit my skin and the cuts I had acquired on my body during my endeavor stung briefly, but soon I didn't feel them anymore. A single question now burned in my mind, now that I was able to think properly. Who was that thin voiced wizard with the piercing scream who was torturing Gregorovitch? And why was he after The Elder Wand? 

***

A/N: 
Writing this chapter was so fun lol. Anyways, I hope you liked this one! Please vote and let me know what you think.