CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

IT WAS A GENTLEMEN'S CLUB perched on what appeared to be the busiest street in London—or perhaps every London street was busy this time of night. Sophisticated chatter of the refined society city men floated and thrummed in the air, different baritones lulled together in a consistent thrum etched with a mixture of stark colognes that made the Halmasti Jinn in my periphery shift in discomfort. A creature long since been kept subdued in a German dwarf family's attic, it was no surprise that life clustered so raw like that startled him so.

Angus had made himself scarce in a way that I could only feel the warmth of his presence behind me as I looked up at the entrance of the club with Elias Dupont standing beside me. I glanced at the boy, taking in his polished navy suit and gelled hair. It had taken me a few minutes to amp up his presentation and mold his features only slightly—courtesy of his discomfort—in a way that he appeared to be naturally a part of the London society of refined men. Though I had no inclination of all that that would entail, I trusted Dupont to hold off the other end of his own accord.

My own appearance had been altered, and I now wore a dark maroon burlesque dress, with my hair done up extravagantly and my silver gem studded heels already digging into the soft flesh of my feet painfully. I hadn't bothered with my features, the act had felt too deranged in a way, so I had only hid my features under a layer of colors and made sure my mark was hidden.
Elias Dupont had made the point that the only way a woman could get into a club of this kind, she would have to look as I did at present.

"What does the death eater look like again?" The boy at my side asked, his tone betraying a hint of anxiety, his eyes fixed on the flashing neon sign on the entrance of the club.

"Twenty four, blonde hair, pale skin," I repeated steadily just as Angus had reported. "If there are more than one who fit this description, Angus will guide us to the correct one."

"That's reassuring," Elias exhaled, not yet warmed up to the idea of a les dorés being on the beck and call.

His discomfort made sense, true to his character Elias had always been an advocate of everything that had ever been taught rightfully. 

With that said, he extended his arm out for me to take and I wrapped my own around it as we made our way inside. The bright lights took us in as the mixture of cologne that was bearable outside, attacked our senses with full force, and so did the baritones of various conversations. I exhaled softly, keeping my breathing steady and pinning a smile to my face as eyes turned towards us from passersby as they either entered or exited.

There was a suited man present at the door—a muggle—his manner precise and eyes staring ahead as he kept a keen notice of every exit and entry. But he didn't bat an eye differently at either Elias or myself, and that alone was consolation enough for my anxiety.

Elias expertly led us inside and into the main hall which was glistening yellow and white, courtesy of the sparkling chandelier dangling in the center of the ceiling overhead and the thousands of crystal light fixtures adorning the room. The hall was adorned with polished oak round tables and chairs as men clustered around them laughing or engaged in a hefty game of cards with sweat upon brows and thick hair fingers jammed into silver and gold rings.

At first sense, a straight eighty percent of the men in attendance, and also the few scantily dressed women tending to them, were muggles. Their auras plain and etched with a non magic stench that made my skin crawl slightly. I had never been in a room with this many muggles before, all my life had been spent in the background of powerful wizards or my own peers. This present feeling was something strange, and unsurprisingly, I did not relish it. 

So immersed was I in inspecting the room that I failed to realize sooner that our presence had also been duly noted. Some of the muggles' had their attention fixed on us, and I accidentally met eyes with an older muggle who's gaze was sly as it bore into mine, a thin tobacco stick in between his lips. I quickly broke the gaze, inhaling to straighten myself.

"Look there," Elias spoke softly, his demeanor calm as pinned his normal smile on his face under the attention we had gathered. "The last table beside that glass window. Is that our man?"

I looked at where he had audibly gestured, and sure enough, saw a man who appeared to be twenty four, with the infamous blonde hair and pale skin. He was not a muggle, for he bore none of that stench, the fact confirming that he was indeed the Barty Crouch Jr we were looking for because there was no other wizard of his description on the premises. We were in the main hall of the establishment, surely a death eater of his stature would not hide himself away. Death eaters wore ridiculous confidence like heavy cologne, it only added to their reckless stupidity and adamant cruelty.

Barty Crouch Jr was sitting at the table, downing a crystal glass of stark red wine as he exchanged words with an older man who looked vaguely familiar, the latter too was a wizard.

"Elias," I whispered, suddenly cautious as my skin tingled with realization.

"Does that other man look familiar to you too?" He whispered back, a reluctance in his tone.

"That is Albus Dumbledore," My whisper broke at the edges, the shock causing me to slightly falter as I quickly spun both of us around, our backs to the scene. "He's under a disguise."

The Hogwarts Headmaster was under no effect of polyjuice potion, for his usual features still poked through his hasty disguise when faced with a wiser and keener eye. And death eaters had no such thing at their disposal. Dumbledore's success had been acquired through some other form, though my mind at present had no ability to track down which. 

"What? What the hell is he doing here? Why is he talking to a death eater?"

"I don't know," I responded, my heart thrumming in my chest. "Could he be doing what we are here to do?"

Had Dumbledore been a step ahead this entire time? Let me play him for a fool? Did he know that I was planning to take his wand? I cut the train of thought short. No, that could not be. This had got to be something else. 

"Surely that is risky," Elias hissed, the tortured smile still on his face as I smiled back, playing along a relaxed image to any attention that might fall on us. "He would have sent someone else. What would the ministry think? It looks bad."

"He is insane," I managed, suddenly angry. "Il ne réfléchit pas correctement. He has The Elder Wand and he is jeopardizing its safety just by being here."

Elias raised a brow. "I thought Agilbert Fontaine had that wand."

"No," I dismissed with a vague gesture, discreetly trying to glance over Dupont's shoulder at the scene. "Elias, we need to stay in the shadows, he shouldn't see us." 

A table at the far opposite was suddenly deserted as a last man swung himself drunkenly up and started getting back into his coat to head out. Elias and I quickly made our way towards that table, seating ourselves just so that his back was to Dumbledore and Barty Crouch Jr's far table and my face was shielded by Elias' form.

I kept my focus discreetly over his shoulder at the scene. As the two wizards talked, a third quickly joined them, and at the sight of the third addition, my body went rigid in shock. The third wizard was no other than Aurelius Dumbledore, his sickly pale form joining the table and the conversation as though he had only excused himself to find the restroom. 

"Dominique," Elias Dupont hummed, keeping his eyes fixed on me as his shoulders twitched, "Terre à toi, will you tell me what is happening?" 

"It's Aurelius," My voice was a hollow whisper from the shock. 

"Who the hell is Aurelius?" The boy managed, barely keeping the irritation at the situation away from his tone. 

"Aurelius Dumbledore is Albus Dumbledore's nephew," I collected myself, reminding myself that Elias was not caught up.

It made my head spin suddenly, thinking of everything he didn't know, and everything that I would much rather have him know at present without the arduous task of telling him myself.

"The Obscurial wizard," Elias whispered in stark realization, and I was thankful suddenly for my friend's own knowledge. 

Aurelius was in fact the only known case of Obscurus in the current wizarding population, a fact that made him somewhat like.. me. I shook the thought away. Aurelius Dumbledore was nothing like me, and he would never be. 

"Alors qu'est-ce que c'est censé être, are nephew and uncle inviting the death eater to tea?" Elias snapped before catching himself and smiling as he remembered where he was, anxiously twisted his head to make sure nobody suspected anything. 

I swallowed. "No, nephew and uncle think they are being lowkey."

Barty Crouch Jr responded to something that Aurelius had said calmly enough, but I saw the constant tapping of the death eater's right foot under the table. I saw the veins jutting out in his wrist as he kept glancing at his watch. I saw the glistening perspiration at the man's neck, and most of all, I saw pairs of other eyes discreetly fixed upon their table. Death eater eyes.

"Gosh, Elias," I quickly looked away, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear anxiously. "The Dumbledores have been set up and they don't know it." 

Elias noticed the other keen eyes too. There were about five more death eaters invested in the gathering of that one table, their irises discreetly keeping track of every moment as they sipped their champagne or dealt their cards in the middle of their gambling games. 

This was it, I realized then. This was how Dumbledore gets killed. This was how he would meet his end. It wouldn't happen at Hogwarts at all, in fact, it would happen miles away from the wizarding school, in an unsuspecting gentlemen's club on a busy London street. It couldn't be just chance that I was here. This was where I would retrieve the Elder Wand before Albus Dumbledore met his demise. The time was now. 

I thought of Viktor Krum then, of his words that he would be here by my side when the time came. Had he even made such a promise to me? I couldn't remember through my thick anxiety. But it wasn't his fault. It wasn't anybody's fault that time hurried like this, like it had a freaking train to catch that no one else could ever board. 

"Elias," I started then, gathering my composure, my gray irises bearing into my friend's worried brown ones. "The Dumbledores will be attacked tonight. Albus Dumbledore will die, and before that happens, I will be getting The Elder Wand from him." 

Elias Dupont, the ever clever Beauxbatons Bellefeuille, shut his eyes tight as the skin on his forehead rippled. Then he slowly opened his eyes, and they met mine in determination. 

"If he has The Elder Wand, it cannot fall into Voldemort's hands." 

I exhaled a breath at his words, relieved that he understood. How liberating was it to have someone so quickly understand? 

"You should go," I swallowed quickly then. "Angus can take you back. It will get dangerous here and I must have the wand before Voldemort comes. I do not know if he'll come at all but—" 

Elias shook his head, a clear definitive gesture that cut me right off. "I'm going nowhere, mon ami. I came to help didn't I? I don't know how you plan to do this, but I'm staying right here to do what you need done." 

I didn't have time to respond then, or even if I had had it, I wouldn't have known what to say. Aurelius Dumbledore forced a laugh at something Barty Crouch Jr had said, and as he shook his head, his gaze strayed from his own table and landed directly into my own. I saw his eyes widen in surprise, the humor from his face wiped clean as his facial features schooled themselves slowly from their disarray. 

He didn't expose my location, he did not let on the shift to those present on the table with him. But as he broke his gaze to look at the death eater briefly and then glanced back at me, caution flashed through his eyes. A warning. I suppressed the sudden urge to snicker. Who was he to warn caution to me now? After I had caught him and his notable uncle fraternizing so blatantly—regardless of their reasons—with one of Voldemort's death eaters? 

I was grateful to myself then, that I hadn't given in to Aurelius Dumbledore. Grateful that I hadn't let him fool me, that I hadn't let myself fully trust him. I had kept him at the distance and my reluctance had been worth it. The former Credence Barebone had become a shell of a wizard, with loyalties as strewn about as sediment on the ocean floor. Grindelwald would've been disgusted to see him now, so far from the terrifying loyal servant he had once been. 

Breaking away from his gaze, I stood up, pushing my chair back. The scant noise of it alone caught most of the attention of the room, as well as the attentions of both Albus Dumbledore and Barty Crouch Jr. 

"Dominique," Elias urgently hissed, "Que fais-tu? At least brief me on the plan first." 

"Can't," I breathed, summoning my strength. "Because I don't have one at present." 

He made a sound of disbelief, and I met his eyes. "Just stay at the side alright? This is going to be between Albus Dumbledore and me. Stay where I can see you with Angus, please." 

"But what do you intend to do about—" 

I had already whipped out my silver time turner from inside my neckline, twisted a dial and drawn the rune I needed at my side. It pulsated a bright golden and every eye in the hall drew towards it as though the room was full of hungry nifflers and I had put forth a tempting bait. 

I counted to three and before people could comment on what they were seeing, the entire room went still, frozen in time and place. Their eyes remained fixed on the rune at my side, and they remained fixed at the spot even after the rune disappeared. 

The silence was jarring in an overtly calming way. Just moments before the club had felt suffocating with men's voices and their presence in numbers, and now I had frozen it all—halting their ideas and barring their half spoken sentences. 

I exhaled, trying to get my breathing leveled. Time outside the gentlemen's club was still going on as it should be. For as long as I needed, I had forced time to halt in this establishment alone. I wondered then if Time was a being and when it would eventually start getting back at me, hadn't I played with it long enough? But at moments, I could think of no other solution. 

I looked at Elias, frozen in place like all of the other men, his wide eyes fixed on the spot where my rune had been. I leaned forward and drew a smaller rune in front of his face, and a second later the boy in front of me breathed and blinked, movement and consciousness returning to his presence. 

He met my eyes before glancing around in shock.

"Well," Elias swallowed, tugging at his coat tighter around his form. "I suppose that answers how you'll keep others from interfering."  

I nodded, slowly walking over to the Dumbledores and the table they occupied with Barty Crouch Jr. 

My eyes ran over Aurelius' face. There was a fresh glean of perspiration on his forehead, and worry was embedded in his eyes as they remained fixed on the far off seated version of me. I tore my eyes away from him and looked at his uncle. Albus Dumbledore's face betrayed nothing but the utmost calm, and content. It was as though he had fully expected to master anything that had occurred next, despite how tumultuous it was to be. But had he expected to master this? 

"It is better than individually stupefying everyone I guess," Elias murmured distantly before stalking up to my side as I glanced briefly at the death eater, his face or expression held no interest to me. 

"You cannot attack him in this state," The boy spoke up again, gesturing towards Albus Dumbledore. "To win the allegiance of The Elder Wand you need to rightfully defeat the previous owner." 

"I know," I managed to exhale. "I just—I wish I could cheat for once." 

Elias scoffed. "You don't cheat, Dominique. You never have." 

The blatant observation struck annoyance through me. How could someone else be sure of me when I was no longer sure of myself? No one had any right to assume things of me.

"Stand back," I let out softly before nearing Albus Dumbledore and drawing a rune in front of his face, the same one I had used for Elias. On Dumbledore, the rune glowed a soft blue before the wizard regained consciousness and the rune vanished. 

The old wizard coughed, as though I had caught him at an odd moment with air stuck in his throat. He dry heaved once, before righting himself and his eyes meeting mine. I hated the disguise he was in, and I desperately wanted him to face me with his real self. 

"Change yourself back, Headmaster Dumbledore," I managed, keeping my voice in control. 

The wizard eyed me with his fake brown eyes as though I was a book on his desk he had never really noticed, and that notion alone made my fury stand taller. 

The wizard took out his wand—The Elder Wand—and tapped the tip of it to his chest, murmuring a spell I didn't really care to decipher. 

Then seconds later he stood before us in his authentic form, his papery skin, his long white beard pouring down his chest and his half moon spectacles reflecting his small light eyes through. His eyes scrutinized my form calmly, before moving onto Elias' presence and then taking in all the frozen figures in our periphery. 

"I take it you will not inquire as to my intentions with Mr Barty Crouch Jr," The headmaster of Hogwarts spoke then, his tone as leveled as I had always known. 

"I do not have the time to," I confessed, watching the wizard's eyes land on the silver time turner dangling from my neck. 

Perhaps he recognized it as Grindelwald's. Perhaps he knew more of me then he had always let on.  

"Say," Elias interrupted then, a sudden urgency in his voice as he shifted to speaking English too. "I, on the other hand, do have the time to." 

"Did you not conspire with Headmaster Agilbert Fontaine to send us to recover the remaining deathly hallows from the crevices of Hogwarts and return them to safety? Why then did we find you jeopardizing the safety of the most important hallow, by being willfully in the presence of a death eater?" 

"I have had the wand for years," Dumbledore responded calmly. "I have kept it safe for years."

"And yes," The wizard continued, his eyes rounding up on me. "I did conspire to have Agilbert send you all here. Do you think that I do not know where things are in my own castle?" 

"You hid the remaining hallows," My voice was a shocked whisper. "You made us play a game." 

"I know the predictions, Miss Lavigne, and I know how true they are. I needed you to be here and I must admit I saw no other way to convince Agilbert of it." 

My hands fisted at my sides at his use of the name. "Say my real name, do not pretend like you don't know it." 

The old wizard's small eyes narrowed. "I will, now that I have your permission to use it. I would never aspire to needlessly injure." 

I could feel Elias shift in confusion at my side, but I had no time to acknowledge anything he would be thinking—or would find out.

"Call it anything you want, but I know I am going to die today, and I know this wand of mine needs to be in safe hands after that happens." 

"What?" The boy at my side let out, and Dumbledore narrowed his eyes further on me, clearly understanding that I had picked and chosen what to share with whom and what to not.

 "Duel with me, and win The Elder Wand's allegiance," The headmaster added after a pause, reserve and content flashing in his papery face. "It is only a heuristic who can keep this wand safe now from the dark lord." 

I didn't say anything then, words not forming on my tongue as I started to step away, putting obligated distance between myself and Albus Dumbledore. 

"I only hope, that you spare me of the treatment that you gave your great uncle afterwards. I only ask that." 

An ache sharpened in my eyes at his words as my mind was brought tunneling back to Gellert Grindelwald and his strewn up form in his cell in Nurmengard. His blood on my hands, the message on the wall. Az én kis pillangóm.

Elias Dupont backed out of the way, and I found myself looking around to find Angus' presence. I wanted him to be there and the anxiety in my stomach unraveled slightly as I sensed his form beside Elias. He would be there if I called for him, that fact alone was a slight comfort. 

This duel could go both ways, and I hadn't really accepted that fact alone before. Albus Dumbledore was clever and powerful but he knew he was going to die. But was I going to die too? Has anybody seen that?

A sudden awkwardness coursed through me then, as I whipped out my wand and uttered the first spell I could think of, a powerful bright silver light emerging from the tip of my wand and connecting instantly with a stark violet of Dumbledore's own doing. The force of the clash made me stumble a little backwards, but I quickly regained myself, forcing the pressure of my own wand magic. My entire arm ached with the effort of it and I knew I could use my free hand to draw a rune and instantly take Albus Dumbledore's life away, but I couldn't bring myself to. 

I wanted to give him a fighting chance. This was a duel and I wanted him to hold up his own for just a while if not till the end. Grindelwald hadn't, and did not powerful wizards, regardless of how evil they were or were not, deserve a fighting chance? 

I was weaker with my wand. I had learned the defense spells on wands as much as my peers had, as much as my seventh year education at Beauxbatons had instilled. But my heuristics? I had taught myself most all of its desperate limits, without a curriculum to bind me. I could finish this duel in seconds, but I couldn't quell this empathy stabbing me at the back of my heart. 

Dumbledore let out a groan as he increased his force and I saw the violet from his wand burn closer and closer to me, taking over the silver of my own wand magic inch by inch. 

"Finish this!" The headmaster yelled, his voice taking over my remaining senses. "Finish this, Miss Grindelwald. You do not have much time." 

I drew a rune with my free hand then, and it sent Albus Dumbledore hurtling away as our connection broke and his form slammed against the nearest wall, crashing against the light fixture and disabling the lights of the entire room, he fell to the ground as the room plunged in semi darkness, only lighted by the moon pouring in through  the high windows. He let out a painful grunt, slowly shifting. 

"I will not kill you," I stammered, my heart pounding in my chest. "You are not to be killed by me." 

"That sort of thing is never set in stone," The headmaster slowly righted himself. Blood seeped from his head injury and the starkness of it fell into the whites of his eyes and down to his beard, drenching his gray hair entirely. 

"It wasn't set in stone for your great uncle. His method of meeting death was his preference. Surely that is a gift." 

"Is the great Albus Dumbledore afraid of meeting death at the hands of Voldemort?" I managed the words, each syllable feeling heavier than the other. Grindelwald had been. Afraid, fearful to be killed by a powerful wizard. Perhaps he thought no one would know if I was the one who did it, perhaps he thought that way his reputation could be saved. 

"I am not," His response was calm. "Some say I am the reason he exists. So why would I be?" 

I drew another rune, and with my other hand gestured at the old wizard and lifted his blood covered form in the air, slamming him forcefully against the wall and holding him in place. He coughed out blood violently. 

"It is not a weakness, Miss Grindelwald, to wish to die by the hand of someone you love instead of someone who you hate," He spoke out the words, blood trickling out from his mouth in a stream. "Your great uncle would've been proud to die at your hand, I believe. He had been proud enough to live by your side when you were an infant." 

Az én kis pillangóm, I heard the words echo in my head in my great uncle's voice. 

"I did not, at the age that I was, believe that a man could love a mere child so. It seemed to me, that everything Gellert did had been done for you. He was twisted indeed, but his love for you knew no bounds. It was the only thing that humanized him, made me foolishly forgive him for mistake upon mistake, until I realized that I shouldn't." 

I let go and Albus Dumbledore fell hard to the ground, his head smashing against the floor. I thought that it was over, that I had killed him without meaning to. I had only wanted to stop him talking, for his words were painful. But then he grunted and shifted, and I exhaled a breath of relief. I approached him, and my stomach constricted at the sight of him. The old wizard's left arm had twisted in such a way that half of it had thrust clean through his stomach, his elbow joint sticking out in front like a dart on a target. 

"I have defeated you," I choked out the words, tears threatening to fall. "Where is the wand?" 

The Hogwarts headmaster groaned as he shifted again, the other bloodied hand trembling as it reached somewhere in his robe and pulled out the wand, throwing it towards my feet. I hadn't realized when he had tucked it inside. His aim had been guess work, for the wizard's eyes were shut tight and he couldn't see. 

I bent down to pick up the dark wood wand, and it felt cool in my grip. It felt like an accessory wizards had bled over. It felt like a curse and hatred for it struck at the core of my being. All this pain and suffering, for a stick that Death had made out of spite. 

"Now, go!" The dying wizard on the ground shouted, his face turned away. "Take it before he comes." 

I backed up hastily, before quickly turning to be greeted with a sight that felt as though my own stomach had been boned through. 

The dark lord Voldemort was standing there, his pale dead carcass of a face bore on me in all its gory glory. The black, shapeless robe he wore flared about him, torn and uneven at the edges. His bony, dark nailed hand was holding up a thin wand, and above that wand hovered the coiled form of Elias Dupont. 

Elias was not moving, his body only coiled tight in fetal position, his eyes shut. He wasn't dead, I could feel his presence. But I couldn't feel Angus anywhere. 

"So this is the heuristic wizard I have been seeking," The voice was heavy and almost serpent like, laced with venom like a snake's tongue was ought to be. 

"A girl who just defeated Albus Dumbledore," Voldemort turned his eyes to the Hogwarts headmaster's writhing form on the ground. "What a duel to witness." 

"No!" Dumbledore shouted then as he mustered up his strength and realized what was happening, his senses torn apart by the state he was in. "Leave the girl be!" 

"Oh, I haven't bothered her yet," The dark lord's tone took an amused turn, as he met my eyes again. His eyes, which I had assumed to be hollow, were very deep set. Pupils set in so deep that they would disappear in the shadows if his lids closed over them, the whites of his small eyes were almost yellow. 

"Have I?" He asked gently, before glancing at Elias' form hovering over his wand. "Now, do not tell me such a great heuristic sorceress has a soft spot for this boy?" 

There was a certain vicious elegance in the dark wizard's form and the manner in which his words were spoken. Where Grindelwald had been demanding, Voldemort displayed a certain calm cruelty—as though he knew he would get whatever he wanted in the end.

"Having soft spots for anyone does not make a great sorcerer, surely you learned that?" 

"Let my friend go," I managed, putting pressure on my words, The Elder Wand tight in my grasp. 

Was this it? Would I have to use it on Voldemort seconds after acquiring it? Or was this where I failed Gregorovitch, Grindelwald and Dumbledore and let the wand be taken by this evil wizard? 

Voldemort frowned, shaking his head slightly. "I see, you have much to learn, young beauty." 

"So many bridges taken and aid sought from unlikely creatures at best, for such a dubious specimen," The dark wizard spoke, his eyes fixated on me and his tone reminiscent of a light breeze—as though he was merely convincing himself.

I thought of the brutally scarred Halmasti at Ilvermorny, and my fists tightened at my sides, I had to loosen my right one, fearing I would break The Elder Wand in my grasp.

"I am willing to be patient with you, for you gave me quite a chase. I don't relish challenges often times, but the thrill and fury of the ones you gave recently, had been quite rejuvenating." 

"Truly?" I mustered up my courage. "Because you look more than deceased in your present state." 

The dark wizard's expression firmed, his dark eyes bearing into mine as I sensed the fury swimming in them. Then, before he could say anything else, a loud shout interrupted the dense silence. 

"Stupefy!" 

Voldemort's form was thrown away from my sight as wooden tables to my right crashed into each other with the force the wizard's body was thrown with. 

Elias fell to the ground, instantly brought out of his stupor as he stirred and his eyes widened at the sight of me. He stammered something I couldn't hear because my own attention fixed upon Aurelius Dumbledore, as he stood breathing heavily, his wand pointed to Voldemort's crashing form. 

Albus Dumbledore must have brought him back from the wrap of time I had put him in, in between our duel. But why?

"Dominique, go!" Aurelius yelled, eyes fixed on me. "Take your friend and go. Keep The Elder Wand safe." 

He threw another spell at Voldemort's grunting form, before receiving one of the dark wizard's own blows. Aurelius hurtled backwards, slamming against a display of intricate glass as it all shattered around him. I only saw it in glimpses, for I had grabbed Elias and sprinted out of the club, a rune ready at my side that took both of us careening away as the ground beneath our feet vanished and London pulsated away in our peripheries.

And all that time, the only thing I could think was that I could've ended it. I had The Elder Wand and Voldemort was right in front of me. I could've finished it, but fear was my weakness and I still had a long way to go before I countered it entirely. 

***

A/N:
hello! long time no see? It was theraputic working on this chapter after a long break. I got into law school meanwhile haha so it all worked out fine i guess. <3