CHAPTER TWELVE

MY STRENGTH ALLUDED ME at turns, and I fought hard to keep my restlessness at bay in the two lessons we had in the day. After the lessons, my training struck me to be impossible to get through, where I had believed it to be the easiest thing in the world. Where I had relied on it to keep my thoughts on a leash, my training was forcing my muscles and had left my brain detached and in full power. 

It was hard not to think of The Elder Wand, of Grindelwald, or my own disloyal wand, and of that mysterious evil wizard who had seen no wrong in torturing Gregorovitch. The wizard who had forced my hand to wipe the old wandmaker's memories clean, of which, the man must've had so many. 

Knowing Grindelwald was alive was.. terrifying. Most of my life since his capture in Nurmengard, I had considered him dead. Mother had told me often that he wouldn't survive the torture chamber he had created by his own hands. Mother had believed him to be dead and I didn't realize how strong that belief had gotten in us overtime. And now, to find out he was still alive, breathing, and calling me? 

I glanced at Viktor Krum, hard at combat practice in the distance as he sparred with a sword against his friend and peer, Zubair Dimitrova. The latter caught me looking as he swayed to duck a blow from the seeker, and offered me a grin of his sparkling teeth against his dark skin, and a glint of his eye from a wink to accompany it. I turned my eyes away, cursing inwardly at being caught looking. 

Viktor Krum hadn't acknowledged me all day, ever since he left my shared dorm looking like a cottage of stone and wood had blown up in his face—which of course it had. I had glanced at him amidst our shared lessons too, but he had had his face steeled ahead, paying attention to anything and everything the Ilvermorny professors had to say in midst of class. I had an intense urge to make him forget everything he knew, or had seen, of me. I could do the latter, with a rune. I could wipe myself out of his memories, but that would not help Gregorovitch summoning him, or him witnessing the memory loss spell and facing the bewildered wandmaker afterwards. Then he would do something stupid, he would tell someone of Gregorovitch's state and everything would go to hell.

I wanted to erase a whole section of his memories, not just me, and that couldn't be done as of yet. It was either erasing all, only me, or none at all. I hadn't learnt the in-between yet, and Viktor Krum would not be the experiment I invested my energy in. 

Focusing back on my flight on the broom as Gabriel Chevrolet and Hogwart's Oliver Wood directed us into the threads of Quidditch beelines in the air. It had been a lengthy debate entirely in itself when Gabriel had been pinned up with the Hogwarts keeper, with the former barely being convinced by Professor Fabien to engage for the sake of Beauxbatons' reputation.

The cold air around me washed through my body and a strange sense of density engulfed my form. Something felt.. dark. As though the candle of normality had been sucked of it's light suddenly. As though the balance of the moment was suddenly out. And this time, it wasn't my head that had interfered to do so to make me feel such a way. 

Slowing my speed on the broom, and not caring if I was left behind as Ilvermorny students and my Beauxbatons peers rushed past hot in Gabriel and Oliver Woods' trails, I sought out the constellations inside me for an answer. I had learnt long ago not to ignore the strange intensity of feeling when it erupted inside me, especially if wasn't borne of my mind or heart. 

Dementors. 

The answer burned bright in my chest and I felt as though I had swallowed fire as food. I took a sharp intake of air as the constellations in me broke away having done what was asked of them. Then my eyes rose anxiously to the darkening horizon. The sun was setting and in its wake, what seemed like puff of black mists, were scattered evenly out in the distance and were enlarging every second. 

Below me, the trainees on the ground had already determined the approach and the identity of the intruders. A brief chaos amongst the students ensued as Ilvermorny's Professor Vane Jamestown's voice was heard, trying to control the students with his words and arms raised. I lowered myself to the ground, and seconds later Gabriel and Oliver Wood had brought their own practice to a halt as students met the ground, stepping over their brooms with anxiety and surprise evident on their faces. 

There were Dementors approaching Ilvermorny. The cold, dark and life sucking guardians of Azkaban. A chill traversed down my back, as the creatures floated near, riding the cold wind of the Greylock mountains like mists of someone's breath. 

"What is happening?" Bridgette panted as she neared my side, her eyes, like mine, fixed intently ahead on the nearing ghostly corpses that those creatures were. 

Questions were fogging up fast in my brain, but I knew one thing for sure. This visit was neither expected nor welcomed, at Ilvermorny or America in general. Dementors guarded Azkaban and worked for the Ministry of magic in Britain. Their services did not extend outside of Great Britain. They did not venture out the country, they never have. 

"I don't think I've ever seen Dementors before," I murmured, not knowing what else to say as intrigue threaded through me like a thin pattern, tightening and tightening.

Their forms were wisp-like, and I wondered if they would disintegrate if I touched of them them. I knew they could not. They would hardly be one of the most feared prison guards in the history of the wizarding world if they diffused under the touch of a Beauxbatons witch. 

"C'est tellement fou," Elias' voice reached my ears as he jogged up beside me, and he sounded to be just in a fearful awe as I felt.

"Mes étudiants," Professor Basil's voice came, daunting over the scene in front of us. The dementor approach seemed like someone had taken hold of my time turner and was deliberately slowing each second down until it felt like minutes. 

The professor lowered himself from his flight, his talons clasping onto Elias' shoulder as the latter's short dark hair flew wild in the gusts of the wind brought on by our professor's wings. Gabriel Chevrolet, Jean Dubois and Maximillian Toussaint neared us at the summons, until we stood in a cluster, heads facing the intruder approach over the horizon, waiting for the professor's explanation. 

"They come because of the prison breaks," Professor Basil spoke after a pause as some of the dementors circled around our training ground before slowly changing route to approach the castle in the distance. 

"But the prison breaks have happened in Azkaban," I said, glancing at the professor. His large bead eyes were unmoving, still, just as still as his fur was. He didn't looked alarmed most times, but his clam in every matter was enticing to witness. "Shouldn't these dementors be scouring Britain?" 

Azkaban was in Britain, surely the first place one would look for prison escapees would be in the crevices of Britain. 

"I'm afraid the situation had changed since you last heard that radio in Professor Jebediah Keystone's class." The professor responded, touching his beak to his wing briefly, before his head went back up straight, eyes looking at me. 

"What? You mean there have been prison breaks in the MACUSA prison as well?" Gabriel asked, his dark brows narrowed as he eyes followed the misty corpses in the air. 

MACUSA prison was a set of cells holding detained witches and wizards in the headquarters of the Magical Congress of the United States of America. It had offered detainment to Grindelwald as well, for an entire year. Before I knew him, a few years before I even existed, before he even knew he would have a great-niece fighting to be rid of his memory and hold on her life after all these years. 

"Well, there hasn't been anything on the news about that," Professor Basil's voice brought me out of my thoughts. "But we hear Nurmengard has suffered escapes as well." 

I stilled, my breath caught in my throat as my eyes widened slowly. "But that's all the way in Austria," I swallowed. "That doesn't explain why dementors are here." 

"Dominique," Professor Basil looked at me, eye sharp and narrow. "If you were a captured witch, what would be the first thing to do after escaping?" 

"Hide," I exhaled, my fists tightening at my side. 

"Precisely," The professor nodded, then turned his eyes to the horizon now contaminated with about fifty dementors. "These creatures are here to uncover if any escapee has made his or her way over to America, or to Ilvermorny for that matter." 

"Gosh," Bridgette shivered. "There are so many of them—and, ah—they are getting too close." She jumped to a side, clinging onto Elias' elbow. 

"Stay still, and keep your patronuses on the tips of your tongues," Professor Basil instructed and I bit my lip, looking anxiously at my own silver green wand in my palm. 

Luckily, the dementors were warded away from the training ground by Professor Vane Jamestown's whale patronus, before they traipsed further into the training grounds. A few more students, two or three of Ilvermorny and two of Hogwarts—the twins that had blocked our path earlier with their ginger hair and matching grins, unleashed their own patronuses, despite there being no evident danger of dementors in their vicinity. Zubair Dimitrova of The Durmstrangs snickered and rolled his eyes at an Ilvermorny student who had attempted the same, beside him. 

"So, professor," Maximilian Toussaint started, his voice wavering in the fear he felt as a dementor glanced down over at us while he was being chased away by the whale patronus. The face was a dark hollow of holes and smoke. 

"Do we just go on with the Huntlock, while dementors traipse around here? How long will they even stay? Will we be checked? Escapees can transfigure themselves into students can't they? For better protection?" 

Professor Basil made a sound that sounded like a short laugh, before he looked at the inquiring student with his sharp bead eyes. 

"It is uncertain how long they will stay, yes we must go on even with their presence, and no, a dementor will not get close to a registered student," The professor replied. "As for everything else, you do not have to worry." 

I shut my eyes tight, willing the conversation around me away as I focused on the panic inside my chest. 

'But we hear Nurmengard has suffered escapes as well.' 

Had one of those escapees been Grindelwald? He can't, can he? Dumbledore must've made the dark wizard's captivity secure. He wouldn't just leave him there if he hadn't made sure escape wasn't possible. Dumbledore couldn't make such a mistake can he? But what even did I know of Albus Dumbledore? Only that he was surely part of the reason someone like Voldemort had existed in the wizarding world, and that he used to know my great uncle in his youth before he went against him and ultimately landed him in Nurmengard. But what kind of redemption was that, when Voldemort came after Grindelwald? 

"Return to the castle, students," Professor Basil's voice came, firm, in my ear. "You have dinner at the Grand Hall, and then you will get your due rest. Training for today is done." 

I breathed a sigh of relief, and it matched the collective sighs of my peers. Though, none of our reasons matched. We dispersed together then, as Professor Basil launched himself off of Elias' shoulder but instead of heading fast to the castle on his wings, stayed close by as a precaution for us in case of any dementor detour.

Students ditched brooms for transport in fear of running into dementors as the night was descending. Others, Ilvermorny and Hogwarts students in specific, were apparated with the help with Professor Vane Jamestown. Leaving only The Durmstrangs and Beauxbatons, walking, on our way to the castle. 

Bridgette turned to glance at the Durmstrangs right beside us as we stepped over boulders and kept up our pace. Professor Basil preferred for us to walk to and from the training grounds, regardless of our objections. He claimed it was a from of training in itself, and the Durmstrangs? There was no doubt in me that they preferred walking regardless of their professor offering an alternative way. 

My mind however, was more occupied than the size of boulders I was having to dodge past in our way to the Ilvermorny castle. The dementors had cleared out from above the training ground and were now scattered above the sharp form of the castle turrets, high in the sky. They looked liked wispy black stars from here, except dark and dull. I wondered if they would even be distinguished once the night fully settled in. I wondered if they would blend so seamlessly that their presence won't be seen or felt until they started sucking the light out of you. 

I looked to the sky. I needed to know if Grindelwald had escaped Nurmengard. But wouldn't it have been dire knowledge if he had? Wouldn't every newspaper or radio station being broadcasted over the air have covered it? Professor Basil certainly hadn't mentioned it, and though he was clueless about my connection to the dark wizard, he wouldn't remain oblivious to such a fact as an escape like that. 

I couldn't ask Madame Maxime. She had forbidden me to speak of my great uncle when she had taken me in for my first year at Beauxbatons. If I started now, it would arise suspicion in her. She would understand that I hadn't let my connection with the dark wizard go, and she would understand that I carry it with me still. I don't know what she would do with me then. 

I had to find out about Grindelwald's whereabouts on my own. If he hadn't escaped, he would still be at Nurmengard. And if he had.. I had to go to him either way, hadn't I? I had to go and drill him on the location of The Elder Wand, before that visitor at Gregorovitch's house did. Besides, I was being invited, called. 

I stilled suddenly as my wand felt hot against my skin. I had been clutching it tight as per Professor Basil's order, I had expecto patronum on the tip of my tongue too. But the sudden warmth of the wand scattered my thoughts like a deck of cards again. It was doing it again. Behaving as though it was in someone else's control. 

Then it hit me. Perhaps, my wand could lead me to Grindelwald if he had escaped Nurmengard. It could lead me to him, just like it could be controlled by him. It was loyal to him, and a wand always found it's owner. Maybe even if there were two of them. I just had to find out if he escaped first, the logistics of my wand will be seen to after. But how would I cope? How would I cope knowing Grindelwald escaped, if he did. How could I go back to living as I was? It was not possible to go on. It was possible that things would be the same for me. He would come for me even if I didn't go to him, even he had escaped. I had his mark on my skin, a mark that was, like my wand, not in my control. 

I breathed out, my heart pounding wildly in my chest in sudden realization. All of the times the mark on my skin had burned.. had it been another way of calling me? Had it been his way of getting my attention? I wanted to carve it out of my skin more than ever. I felt sick, disgusted. Like a marionette with someone else holding most of my strings. 

We reached the castle entrance and everyone made towards the Grand Hall were dinner was ongoing. I had no appetite, so I walked past the entrance to the hall and found myself in a dark hallway, I took a few turns. My mind was occupied, and with a start I realized I was headed towards the east wing, to our allotted dorms, but I had never taken this way before. I didn't even know if this way would lead me to the east wing. I was ready to turn back, but then, I spotted the still figure of Albus Dumbledore, standing taut in the middle of the dark hallway. 

I stilled and halted in my steps. His eyes were fixed on me, and the moon light, breaking in through a glass window at his side, was falling on him and making his half moon spectacles glint slightly. His long white beard also caught the sunlight, and gleamed against his light blue silk robes. 

I couldn't turn back now, so I kept walking. Should I talk to him? or should I just walk past him? Hadn't the one thing on my mind since coming here been to converse with him? But then, I didn't have The Elder Wand on my mind, then I didn't have Grindelwald's summons and Gregorovitch's task in my mind. Now, all those things held priority. Now, I had no time to sit and speak to this wizard about Grindelwald and why he might've marked me. Now, I strangely did not feel content sharing this information with him. Why should I, when I was headed to Grindelwald anyway? I might as well ask the wizard who marked me for answers than someone else. 

"I see you are not dining in the hall," Albus Dumbledore spoke as I neared, and just when I was about to pass by. 

I stopped and steered myself to face him. His voice was thick, whimsical, as though he was in a daze. The kind of daze Bridgette and Elias engaged in with Gabriel in hidden corridors in Beauxbatons sometimes. The plant's smell was always thick on them when they emerged, and a sheen would always cover their eyes. Dumbledore looked like he had just smoked that plant. 

"Yes, professor, I find I have no appetite," I managed, almost forgetting to switch to English. 

"Did the dementors scare you?" He inquired, lifting the edge of his lips. "And chase your appetite away?" 

I smiled a forced smile. He was trying to be polite, but it felt awfully demeaning suddenly. Perhaps, he talked to every Hogwarts student this way. Perhaps every Hogwarts student responded in tribal fear in the face of any stimuli. 

"No," I spoke, "But they do intrigue me." 

The Hogwarts headmaster raised a brow, as though I had given an answer he was not expecting. And that irritated me further. Did I look like dementors had chased my appetite away and I was going to stuff my face in a pillow in my dorm and sob about it? 

"You are Dominique Marie Lavigne," Albus Dumbledore straightened up, his eyes letting go of that friendly sparkle a little. "Madame Maxime speaks fondly of you." 

I stilled, she couldn't have told him about my connection to Grindelwald can she? But then again, she was the first one who was bent on hiding the fact. Why would she?

"I'm grateful to her," I let out, managing a smile. 

"Be careful, Miss Lavigne," He uttered then, a thoughtful look on his face. "Wizards and witches who find dementors intriguing are not particularly immune to danger." 

I raised my brows, the smile still on my face. "Interesting hypothesis professor. I will keep that in mind. Now, if you will excuse me. I'm very tired after training." 

"Of course," He smiled, stepping aside. 

With one last look at him, I began walking away, knowing full well I didn't know the way to the east wing from here. I felt his eyes on me as I walked, and for some reason, no footsteps of him departing. Was he just standing there looking at me go? Cautiously, I turned over my shoulder and my eyes met his. Hissing, I turned away and cursed inwardly. 

A turn neared and I quickly took it, sighing in relief to be out of his view point. Why was he so—

Suddenly, my arm grabbed viciously and my back was slammed against the hard hallway wall. My eyes met the dark ebony ones of the Bulgarian seeker Viktor Krum. My brows furrowed as I gasped in disbelief, his fingers still tight around my elbow. 

"What are you doing?" I cried, and my voice echoed in the silence of the hallway before he quickly brought his palm to my lips and pressed at my mouth, shutting me up. 

"Keep your voice down, Lavigne," He hissed, "Lest someone should hear." 

Then, intense eyes fixed on me, he removed his palm from my face. 

"He knows doesn't he? He fucking knows," Krum started then, his hold tightening on my elbow. 

"What," I let out, "Who—what are you talking about?" 

"Don't—" Krum growled angrily, refusing to let me take a long route to something he figured was pretty short and direct in between us. "Dumbledore knows of Gregorovitch doesn't he? He knows we left Ilvermorny, he knows what the fuck you did to the old man." 

"Let go," I whispered angrily, snatching my elbow away from him. "What are you saying, have you gone mad? Dumbledore knows nothing."

"No," Krum shook his head, eyes of steel. "He does, I know he does. He found out some way. Why would he be waiting in the hallway for you like that then?"  

I scoffed in disbelief. "Your Dumbledore thinks the dementors outside scared me. He knows nothing about me." 

"And besides, he has no way of knowing of Gregorovitch unless the old wandmaker himself contacts him. Just to refresh your memory, Gregorovitch presently has no idea who Albus Dumbledore even is, and I have restricted his contact with the outside world should wizards and witches around him find out he has lost his memory." 

Viktor Krum blinked, the intensity in eyes vanishing a little as his face clouded in thought. 

"You are paranoid and scared," I spoke. "Gregorovitch was a fool to summon you. He was a fool to have you even partially privy to—" 

"To what?" The Bulgarian seeker snapped, anger coursing through his face at being called a fool, or paranoid or even scared. "You still won't fucking tell me what you're after." 

"What Gregorovitch has sent me after," I corrected him, though I knew it had become a lie now. I had all of my own prospects in line with getting The Elder Wand. I had my own purposes to pursue that wand now. 

"All the more reason to tell me," He spat, "The old wandmaker would've wanted me to know. He would've told me, had it not been for you wiping his head clean." 

"Well," I uttered. "We will never know now, will we?" 

Viktor Krum's jaw tightened in fury, and he lifted a hand to punch the wall beside my head with force. I didn't flinch, but the passionate want inside of him to know what I was hiding was still startling to me. Why couldn't he just forget it and move about his business? Why can't he just let me be? 

"The dementors," He started then, bringing his hands to himself and running them over his shaved head.

"They are looking for Azkaban and MACUSA escapees," I offered simply. 

"Yes," He nodded, his eyes falling into mine again. "What if the wizard who visited Gregorovitch was one of the escapees?" 

I blinked. I hadn't considered that possibility out loud. 

"If that wizard had come straight out of Azkaban or Nurmengard, then whatever he is looking for," Krum's eyes hardened into mine. "Whatever Gregorovitch told you of and you are hiding, it could be crucial. It could be destructive, and it could mean the disbalance of the wizarding world." 

"And if one of the escapees is looking for it," I swallowed, "That would mean more could, or would look for it too." 

"Exactly," He nodded, his eyes glinting in the darkness. 

"And with Gregorovitch wiped clean," His jaw tightened again, "No one else but you have the information. If anyone is looking, they are going to be looking for you too. They won't get to whatever that thing is, without you." 

My head hurt suddenly as the density of the situation settled inside me. I had really made myself the only person who knew how to get to The Elder Wand. By removing Gregorovitch from the equation, Viktor Krum was right, only I remained with the knowledge that The Elder Wand had been stolen by my great uncle years ago, and it was Grindelwald who held it's true location now. Had it been selfishness, to remove Gregorovitch like that? They would never get to The Elder Wand without me, and I didn't want them to get to it.

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

I glanced around to make sure no one else was in the hallway, then I met Viktor Krum's eyes.

"I've got to find it before anyone else does. I've got to do it soon." 

***

A/N:
Working on this book is so therapeutic for some reason lol. Anyways, I'm excited for where the story is heading. I hope you like this chapter!