January 23, 1944
Saturday Morning
As Harry suspected when he broke away from the rest of the Slytherin students alongside Elaine, he was greeted with carnage the likes of which he'd only ever seen in Muggle war books. He was heavily reminded of the Great War and to further narrow down the grizzly sights he saw, the trenches. That wasn't to say the Aurors or their allies had attempted to entrench themselves, more so that the enemy had used many a blast-heavy spell that tossed them aside as if they were weightless. Pieces of people - good people and bad alike - were strewn about with no care whilst flies and rats skittered about to eat those who'd fallen.
He closed his eyes for all of a second or so before he forced himself to reopen them. Harry had to see the sights that Grindelwald had caused regardless of the proof he'd seen time and time again in the newspapers from the continent. It didn't matter, not one bit, for Grindelwald's people and the man himself were on the ropes and all further deaths were pointless save for the ego of one horrible man.
It made Harry angry to the point that he almost felt like he was back in time and face to face with Voldemort. Elaine had been beside him in a dream where that had happened and together, they'd beaten her male self. The fight was close, closer than Grindelwald's would be when they found the man, but they'd won; he hoped that wasn't indicative of the future.
Still got some reading to do in Slytherin's study, Corene's grandma to meet, Elaine's Ministry bid to aid… there's still so much I have to do. It won't end here, we won't let it.
"Isn't that Urban Maxis?" Harry asked quietly when his eyes settled on a fight that was playing out within the town.
Elaine looked over to the source of the noise, he could feel as much with the light breeze that hit him due to their invisible nature. "It looks like you're correct, yes. I can't tell if he's winning, but I'd imagine the Head Auror wouldn't go down easily."
"I thought he got put into some new position?" Harry questioned, the two watching the man dispatch one of Grindelwald's witches before he launched a renewed offensive on a wizard.
"It was a position created by the up-jump McMacson and I'll not recognise any newly-created Ministry posts until I'm the Minister. Our current one is too weak and nervous due to the invasion, he wasn't thinking straight when he allowed the Aurors to reconstruct themselves with additional training and a hefty new fund," Elaine tugged on his hand at the same time she stopped him from tripping over the body of a house-elf. "He can handle himself and should I be wrong, the others will aid him before too much longer. Grindelwald and Dumbledore are our goals, waiting won't aid us."
Harry tossed one last look at the man and wished that he could help before he ultimately made the choice to continue along with Elaine. She was right, he could save the Head Auror or whatever other position he now held, but what if that cost Dumbledore his life? There were too many contradicting statements about where Dumbledore was, how healthy he seemed to be and if he had engaged Grindelwald aside from a short burst of spellfire early on in the attack. It was funny, that, for what Dark Lord of any skill would be that terrified of a man when he was supposed to be the best there was?
Tom was much the same whilst Elaine seemed more fearless, more aggressive and far more affectionate.
"Stop," Elaine hissed suddenly, pressing a hand to his chest and forcing him to go completely still. "Thirty yards, yellow building, second-floor balcony. Grindelwald still has control of this section of the village, we need to be careful that we're not seen."
Harry nodded and lowered himself closer to the ground as Elaine once again resumed their moving. She went slower, her arm was moving all about and her eyes, had he been able to see them were more than likely on the people watching the street. He wanted to do something about those few witches and wizards, their injuries and positions working together to make them prime targets for an attack.
"We should take them out before Aster sends people this way," Harry suggested another few steps later, his mind made up. "They're in a good spot, the building isn't on fire and the barricades they've made will make it very hard if anybody has to fight them. It'd be the smart thing to do."
"They could be bait for you, Aurors or others unknown to Grindelwald - there's a chance that they're laying in wait in the hopes of ambushing others too, I'll agree with that assumption before you say it. I believe it's not worth the risk in the event that the former guess is right, but as I've said, I'll leave it up to you," Elaine didn't seem thrilled with the prospect of fighting the three people on the balcony, but she wasn't pulling him away or making the decision on her lonesome.
"Can we check if anybody else is nearby? There's a spell for that, I remember learning it fairly recently. We could use it on the nearby buildings and if they come up empty, we'll do a cursory look around before dealing with them," Harry looked at the next largest building in the village that was also nearby. "We should start with that one, it has two balconies and it looks nearly as large as the one they're in."
Elaine remained silent as one second ticked by, then another, then another and finally, after nearly fifteen seconds, she began to pull him towards the building he mentioned. The exhale she let out when she began to do so was a mixture of annoyance and, in his opinion, anxiety. He didn't know Elaine as the type that would feel nervousness or any other form of pressure, but for some reason, that's how he interpreted the noise and he'd gotten quite good at picking out the emotions she was feeling. He called them his Elaine senses and they were most assuredly tingling with the intent to murder.
"..elio," He heard Elaine say, the portion of the word making it clear which spell she'd used. "Empty, we'll go to the second floor and blast them from an elevated position to eliminate a large portion of their cover. Move quickly, the longer we delay our arrival on the field and more importantly, wherever Grindelwald is, the higher the chances are that he's recovered from any damage already taken."
"Dumbledore or McMacson would have given him a run for his money if they're not still actively fighting him," Harry commented, trying to assure her that Grindelwald wouldn't get away and he definitely wouldn't leave the field after putting all of his eggs into one basket.
"If they're actively fighting him then we'll stun them upon our arrival. They won't know who it was and by that time, Grindelwald would prove to be exhausted. Granted, I don't imagine they've fought him even half as long as you think they would but any aid would make our task a great deal easier," Elaine grabbed his arm and lowered her grip until she was practically holding his hand. "Aim at the centre of the smaller woman's chest and use an empowered Bombarda for maximum damage. I'll do the same and with any luck, there'll be nothing left of their entire building, much less their physical state of being."
Harry hesitated, swallowing his saliva. "What if there are others in the building?"
"Then we've got a bargain deal," Elaine shot back without hesitation. "Prisoners won't be held in a random building with a lack of security in every direction and the fact that all three seem wounded, the rightmost one barely standing on his own two feet, I would think that they're stuck here. Any others within their little base would likely be in a state of critical injury, thus making them easy pickings for our victory."
That didn't sit right with Harry, that being the killing of wounded people while they were recovering, but he quashed those feelings. These were the followers of Grindelwald and to still be around at this point in the war, over as it practically was, meant you were a loyalist through and through. Those types of people had their uses, it was true, but those uses didn't extend to the opposite faction; information would be untrustworthy, surrender would be a faux attempt for an honourless victory and ideal-wise, they'd be the purest form of evil after Grindelwald.
"Your mark, or mine?" Harry asked, swallowing down his feelings of right and wrong as he realised he was doing the right thing.
Elaine scoffed from beside him. "Yours. I'll not take more than half a second to follow your action up, less probably. This fully depends on you and your accuracy, though I'm sure with all of our practice, you know how to stick something wherever you'd like."
Of course, Elaine is randy in the middle of a battle, Harry thought, the urge to shake his hand only just beaten. "Go."
That one word was all the preface she needed and all that he would give her before two spells, one from each of their wands, streaked towards the three injured followers of Grindelwald. Elaine and Harry didn't stay in the positions they'd cast from to see if they'd struck successfully, that would've been a horrible idea in the event that they had friends nearby and even if they didn't, covert tasks weren't done all that well when you gave away your position.
Harry jumped down the stairs and cast a cushioning charm right as he landed, preventing the noise and damage of the fall whilst waiting for Elaine to join him. She did so not one second later and then very carefully, they exited the backdoor of the building, intent on taking a quick glance at their work in the hopes of confirming the death of Grindelwald's three stooges. When Harry peaked his head out from between two buildings, his eyes seeking out where he'd previously fired… he blinked.
"I've said it so many times and only now does it seem as if you truly believe me - our bond conveyed your shock, albeit in a manner I suspect was unintentional," Elaine kissed his cheek and how she did so whilst they were invisible, he didn't know. "Unparallelled."
He felt her turn and heard ever so slightly her steps leading further away whilst he remained frozen where he was, his eyes on the building that'd previously stood a good distance away from them. It had been one that he could vaguely recall from his time, painted another colour and serving as a home rather than a shop, but that didn't matter. The three invaders were gone, the paint scheme of the structure was gone and the very building itself as well as the two beside it were gone.
Such power from his and Elaine's combined effort was terrifying and beyond that, something he would have to ensure was never used with ill intent. If it was, if he was corrupted more than he already had probably been, his whole purpose for this expedition back in time by the forceful intervention of Mortem would be all for nought.
Somehow, he didn't expect that she'd allow that to happen and he didn't put it past Elaine for even one moment to attempt a war on a being that could meddle with time.
Another battle had begun by the time he and Elaine had started back on their journey. It was likely the remnants of a regrouped Auror force joined together with the Slytherin students, all of whom would prove incredibly lucky and especially skilful. While that happened and the few followers of Grindelwald's left alive rushed out to meet the new attack head-on, he and Elaine continued their journey through the carnage-filled village.
Every street seemed as if it had a body or ten, the various buildings they went through were much the same, only with the causes of death worse than a good deal of those who died by the killing curse or other internally-focused spells. Regardless of the cause, each one made his anger rise for it meant he'd failed that person. Each and every one of them would likely still be alive at this point in time if it weren't for him.
Grindelwald would never have attacked and as for Dumbledore, the illness that plagued him, Harry suspected it wouldn't be nearly as prevalent. He wasn't sure why he thought that way, but he did.
"The forest is on fire," Elaine remarked, her comment incredibly casual as she directed his head towards the massive flames rising over the tops of buildings. "Stray spells, I believe. Grindelwald isn't as fond of traditional destruction as most of his followers are - this way, at the far edge of the lake."
Harry saw it too, but it had been Elaine who was speaking. There, at the far side of the lake furthest from Hogsmeade and on a muddy bit of beach, was the crackling of spells at such an intensity Harry doubted he'd ever see such a show again… until he and Elaine joined the fray. It had to be Grindelwald, one of them definitely was, but the nearly dozen spells a second didn't seem possible for two people, more so the work of four or five very skilled casters.
"What if it's Dumbledore facing off against Grindelwald and his two best lieutenants? We haven't seen any sign of them, not their bodies one way or the other," Harry wasn't nervous at the prospect of fighting the two women, one of whom was a relative of Aster's, but he didn't like the odds of taking them on at the same time as Grindelwald.
Skilled as he and Elaine were, at the end of the day, they were still Hogwarts students with less than a quarter of Grindewald's combat experience, combined. It was largely their wand-bonding that would see them through the fight on account of the tenfold increase in power and while for your average witch or wizard, that was an insane amount, it was twice so for him and Elaine. Grindelwald, alone, would have a hard time overcoming such raw strength.
"We'll do what you did in Hogsmeade all those weeks ago," Elaine said, her vicious smile pictured in the forefront of his mind. "We sneak up close to them, kill them before they have a chance to discover us and attack Grindelwald - we'd wait for Dumbledore to be subdued, the exact moment, when their guard would be down or focused on him alone."
"What makes you think they won't just kill him?" Harry asked curiously as they finally exited Hogsmeade at the other end of the village, the sounds of fighting intensifying behind them as they trudged onwards. "Dumbledore might want to capture Grindelwald alive so that he pays for his cr-" an explosion louder than Harry had heard since the opening of the initial battle sounded near the front of Hogsmeade, the dirt and debris from it spread so far that it stung he and Elaine both before she cast some sort of wind charm strong enough to send it away from them.
"Faster," Elaine said simply, dragging him closer and at a much quicker pace away from Hogsmeade.
Harry hoped and prayed, begged and pleaded, that whatever the spell had hit hadn't been any of those he was close to. He'd been here for two Christmasses, months upon months and in that time he'd many more friends than in his original timeline. It was great, he was happy and he'd finally begun to change things for the better… he didn't need his friends to die, for complications to arise from their passing and for the anger that always seemed within him to fester because of it.
"We'll need to go back and help them once we're finished with Grindelwald," Harry said firmly, hating every step he took away from Hogsmeade; he felt like he was abandoning all of them, Corene and Reinhard especially.
At least Aster had the safety of being far away whilst he commanded movements, but Harry wasn't sure how his friend would handle leading people in a real war. Chess pieces were entirely different to people when they were destroyed right before your eyes as a direct result of your actions. When everything was over, Harry would make sure Aster was alright.
"Grindelwald shouldn't take very long if we manoeuvre correctly, his followers will barely prove a challenge and all of them will be killed for our greater good. I'll find it all too enjoyable to use his own phrase against him when I speak of our victory, especially how he pleaded for his life in his final moments," Elaine's hand shook when she finished speaking, but it wasn't nervousness or a twitch, it was a shutter of joy that manifested in time with her joyous sounding words.
He was worried when she acted more bloodthirsty and horrible than was usual, he was more worried when he didn't find her words all that repulsive. He should've hated the very thought of massacring his followers after he was killed and at the very least he should've felt some level of unease when she spoke about cutting him down.
Harry felt nothing of the sort for Grindelwald or those who followed after him and as they trudged ever onward, the sounds of combat and the lights therein getting closer, he was all too ready to deal with the man who'd made his life far too troublesome this past month.
It'll all be over soon and then, finally, I can focus everything on Elaine and the good that's begun to come out of her.
Harry and Elaine had made it nearly three-quarters of the way to their destination when they stopped, Elaine's hand pressed right up against his chest. Had she not done just that, he would've stepped on a glowing rune directly in his path. He wasn't sure what it did, but he could guarantee that whatever it was, it wasn't friendly.
"Traps and alarms," Elaine said. "I'll disable them, but it'll take a fair bit of time that we may not have. Whoever is fighting Grindelwald, assuming he's over here as we have, is at an incredible disadvantage if the ground all the way over here has been stocked with runes such as these."
Harry agreed silently, nodding his head even if he knew she couldn't see it. Dumbledore, McMacson, or whoever was fighting Grindelwald or his followers all the way out here had to be on their back feet. It seemed planned out that the fight is done here in a landscape where Grindelwald had plenty of time to boobytrap and with the Ministry always corrupt or inept, Harry wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if this had all gone according to some insider plan.
That was another reason that he truly wanted to aid Elaine in taking over the Ministry. They were corrupt, driven by greed and ruled by the same group of people regardless of their official stances when they ran for office. He could change that with her and some means that she used would likely be horrible, but they would prove good in the long run. They had to if she didn't want to risk their relationship.
"No!" Harry suddenly whisper-yelled, halting Elaine in the middle of her work on the wards. "Right, at the base of the large tree with the low-hanging, rotting branch. Do you see… it?"
Harry had wanted to say him or her, but he couldn't tell what the thing was. All he knew was that whatever the thing was, it was looking all around at the various positions where wards or traps were. Grindelwald had a house-elf, a person transfigured or a creature Harry was unfamiliar with watching everything that went on in this little muddy field. It was smart and unless he'd spotted the thing, it would've worked out in Grindelwald's favour.
"I do," Elaine finally said, her scowl evident in her voice.
"What is it?" Harry asked. "Do we stun it?"
"I imagine it has some form of protection, so no, we won't attempt to launch any type of spell at it. As for the creature itself, I'm at a loss for what it could be. All I know is that it's watching our current position and that makes where we currently are a bad place to be with no easy path forward. I'd very much despite giving up our stealthy advance and our only other path leads us into the currently burning woods," Elaine trailed off, clearing entering her thoughts for an idea as to how they should progress forward.
For Harry, the answer was obvious, albeit undesirable. "The water. We could swim the rest of the way unless you think he's done something in there too."
Elaine huffed, he could see her nose turned up at the thought despite their invisibility. "There's an easy way to check if he's place wards, creatures or general charms on the water. If I were him, I would've left that as the last thing I did on account of the creatures that naturally lurk in its depths and the fact that you'd hear as well as see anybody approaching at quite some distance."
"There's got to be a spell we could use to get around being spotted and if there isn't, our only real option is to attack. We can't take all that long, you know that the same as I do," Harry said, pushing Elaine to act now rather than wait; it was curious that he was the impulsive one for a change and really, he could see why she acted rash.
Sometimes, it was just necessary.
"I'll check the water and if it's too dangerous or if I prove unsure as to its level of safety, then yes, our only real option is to attack unless we attempt to fly over all of their preparations - it's a tempting thought, though I'm uncertain as to how our invisibility would hold up… I imagine not very well," Elaine was speaking slowly and thinking deeply, her words and actions entirely foreign after years of getting to know her as a charming, always correct and aggressive witch.
Voldemort would've been far more dangerous if he was more like Elaine, begs the thought of why the two are so different, doesn't it?
Harry shook his head and kept his eyes focused on the creature while Elaine went about doing her work.
"It's safe enough," Elaine eventually said, perhaps ten minutes later and after many an arm-wave or incantation whispered. "You will need to follow my exact path, or else our risk of capture or injury will climb exponentially. I trust you can do that?"
Harry nodded once, his eyes still on the creature that was scanning the surrounding area. "I'll stay on your arse. Can you tell me what is present before we go in? I'd like to be prepared if you'll allow me as much."
"Two wards, multiple traps of a type that I'm unfamiliar with. This won't be entirely too easy, but it'll be possible. I'll lead the way, I'll cast the necessary spells and you will do everything that I say the exact moment that I say it. Don't panic and don't thrash about in the water," Elaine finished speaking and grabbed his hand, pulling on it until they were right at the edge of the water. "Enter quietly, drag your feet. I'll put up illusionary magic so that whatever it is you spotted has a harder time doing its task. I fear we'll spook Grindelwald away if it finds us nearby."
Harry agreed with her there. If Grindelwald finished his fight soon and was alerted to their attempt to reach him, he'd likely leave if he was overly exhausted or injured. On the other hand, he could come out to hunt them down should his health be fine and his magic more than well off.
"I'll do everything correctly - let's go get him," Harry pushed himself right up against Elaine and exhaled slowly when he felt a wave of her magic wash over him.
Whatever it was made him feel lighter, almost as if his mind was clouded and when he followed her into the water he saw that it ceased it from rippling even to his eyes. He wasn't sure why she'd put the illusion on him too, not unless this spell was something different, but he reckoned her magic was still leaps and bounds ahead of his if she could do this silently.
She kept teaching me combat spell after combat spell or ones that I could use to defend against them, it never dawned on me that she was leaving everything else out, Harry thought, feeling more stupid than ever when he realised just what she'd been doing for him. Here I was thinking even now that she could eventually make herself into my enemy… Merlin, I'm a stupid bloke sometimes.
"Don't press your foot down firmly on anything you feel that's sharp or spike-like. Your blood in this water would do horrible things for our current state and anything spike-like is more than likely a trap that's filled with poison. Neither would be very beneficial for us, least of all the last one," Elaine whispered, her voice casual, almost teasing, now that they were moving in the water towards their enemy.
"How can you be so calm right now?" Harry asked, curious and more than a bit on edge thanks to the current circumstances. "Isn't this making you the least bit nervous? Maybe that's not the right word, but we're only a step or two away from being right and properly fuc-"
Elaine scoffed, her nose raised - he could see it in his mind if not with his eyes thanks to their current concealment. "Grindelwald has more experience in magic than I do on account of his age, but I'm smarter than him and more magically powerful. I'll learn faster, adapt better, react quicker and to top it all off, I'm far more charismatic and beautiful than him. Nothing that he currently has within his mind or on his person worries me and should you persist in asking me if there is anything that worries me, it's you."
"Me?" Harry asked, furrowing his brows at her; he didn't feel like she had to be worried about him. It wasn't like she knew that he'd planned on imprisoning her for a little over a year, nor his initial darker thought of murdering her in cold blood all those months ago. It was simply impossible and if she did know, he felt like that would have already been a conversation.
"Your safety is my greatest concern, but I know this fight will be over quickly once we're with him. We're unbeatable regardless of the wand he has and unless there's two of him or a person with a second Elder Wand, we'll be fine," Elaine exhaled the same as him, only hers was audibly languid and relaxed. "So you're aware ahead of time, I plan on taking a memento or two from his corpse once we've killed him. You're welcome to do the same, I find that I have a special purpose for them and under my guidance, so too will you."
Elaine's words sounded far too sinister for his liking, but the thought of looting Grindelwald with the potential to pay some of his hatred back was incredibly enticing. The images of bodies were all too fresh in Harry's mind and their cries for revenge would never leave him. All of those people, Aurors and civilians alike, would be avenged by the death of Grindelwald's goons and the man himself.
"What about those women, the two Lieutenants that were reaping absolute havoc? Nobody's seen them since the opening part of the battle and we both know it's those two that're likely nearby. What're we going to do if we have to fight them first?" Harry asked with his wand hand clenching and unclenching at the prospect of a rematch against that very powerful, annoying and slightly creepy woman.
"I imagine we'll kill them too, especially the one that dared to attack you. Her face would make an excellent wall decoration if I do say so myself, which I do. Now, why don't you do me a favour, my darling, and focus on the ground we currently find ourselves walking upon? I'm aware of your confidence and it's rightly earned, but this is too risky and your life is the singular item in this world that I'll not gamble on," Elaine's words turned sterner, as did her voice, and so he wisely chose to stay silent with a renewed focus on the floor of the lake.
It wasn't that he thought she was right, he knew he'd be fine, but he just wanted to speak with Mortem a bit. Well, it'd be a pretty one-sided conversation but at least he could ask some questions in the hopes of getting roundabout answers the next time she decided to pull him into her… dream? Land? Plane? Merlin that was a confusing thought, but he didn't rightly care all that much where it was so long as it was real and he wasn't going loopy in Saint Mungo's right beside Professor… Harry blinked away a minor panic attack when he realised he no longer remember the man's name.
He could see his face, his blonde hair, but the man's name eluded him. The more he thought about it, there were others that he could no longer remember too. People that had been in Gryffindor but not on his Quidditch team or close to him. Many of the others that had been sorted alongside him, like the blonde witch with a fit body and blue eyes that went into Slytherin. The more that he thought about it, the more he failed to recall them or their names, their personalities remained as did their reaction towards him, but the most important bits were gone.
It was liberating in a weird sense, but really, it was something that made him feel deep and internal sorrow. What else or who else would he forget next?
Grindelwald or his followers had done far more work than Harry had thought. One minute of walking along the shore turned into five, then it turned into ten minutes with them walking a good twenty metres further into the lake and that ten minutes most recently had turned into nearly twenty, all the while that fight raged on with growing intensity. Whoever it was that was fighting ahead of them, they were all incredibly gifted wizards and witches.
Harry wouldn't deprive them of that, not even Grindelwald. Like Voldemort in his timeline, Grindelwald was incredibly talented, horribly smart and deadly, well, deadly. If the man had decided to use his charisma and abilities to work in tandem with Dumbledore to better the Wizarding world at large, there were so many changes that could've happened. It was likely that Magical Society as a whole would have grown in strength, technology and population. The last of the three growths would have largely been where Grindelwald focused based on his anti-Muggle rhetoric.
It was stupid to enslave or murder them all. That would never work, it wasn't even feasible, but Harry had come around to the idea of Muggles not deserving to know about Magical society and beyond that, he understood that they truly were a threat. You didn't see wizards and witches going around with Nuclear bombs, thousands of planes or fires that would burn for weeks on end. It was only ever the Muggles and all that they contributed was better electrical technology, which came with the aforementioned affinity and love of destruction.
They had to be guided and if that failed, the Magical world would need a counter-balance or way away from them.
"It's thinning out, they likely didn't suspect anybody would make it to our cu- stop, do not move," Elaine swallowed and began to cast a spell under her breath, Harry could hear her voice trembling ever so slightly as she did so.
He wasn't aware of why that was until he saw it a good twenty or thirty metres further into the lake. That was a good distance for most horrible, deadly and outright terrifying creatures, especially in the water, but not a Giant Squid. He wasn't sure what it would do and evidently, neither was Elaine if her reaction was anything to go off of.
"It shouldn't see us, I've done my best in hoping it'll work, at the very least. Move slowly, stay close to me, and tread as carefully as possible, lest it comes for us," Elaine whispered, her voice now tense and without any edge to it.
Harry made to speak an affirmation, but he was interrupted with another particularly large bang from Hogsmeade. It was another one of those horrible, loud, highly destructive blasts that he'd seen earlier on their trip. Again, he hoped that it was the remnants of Grindelwald's forces being dealt with, but there was no way he could be certain of that until the battle was over. He'd have to be alive for that too, but the odds of that were pretty high based on his train of thought.
Mortem won't kill me if Elaine survives and I know for a fact that Elaine will survive, Harry had made that his mission and for more than one reason.
"That creature is peaking where we were, it's a couple of hundred metres away now… do you think it's found our tracks?" Harry asked, trying his best and failing to maintain a coolness of voice. "I didn't cover our tracks all that well, what if it reports that we're here?"
"It won't find us, I aided your efforts and beyond that, it'll likely assume we were killed when we went into the water. Haven't you seen those two bodies floating nearly one hundred metres from us? If it's as stupid as non-humans typically are, those bodies are ours," Elaine made to speak, but then, it finally happened.
When it did, Harry had thought it would be different. He expected it to be violent and loud, angry maybe, with loads of yelling, but there wasn't any of that. Instead, Elaine threw up a shield as silently as possible and with minimal motion, but even that would likely draw attention to them thanks to the sensitivity of sea creatures.
"Go!" Elaine whisper-yelled, pulling at him and keeping her shield raised as they pressed on with as quick a pace as they could. "Shield right, there's another sprinting towards us - be ready to transfigure cover, she'll throw killing curses, unlike this other one."
Harry wasn't sure how she knew that much less why these two were over here as the fight in the distance seemed closer and still ongoing, albeit finally beginning to taper off.
"If it isn't the cute, single and oh so very unfortunate Heir Harry Peverell," Said a woman in a condescending, bitchy, horrible voice that reminded him entirely of an older version of Pansy Parkinson. "Is this the girlfriend then? She looks like your sister, but I suppose that's par for the course with you lot, isn't it?"
The woman spoke like she was British, but she had the occasional weird infliction of another accent. It wasn't like the woman he had fought nor was the other woman, though he'd yet to hear how she spoke.
"Where's the other girl?" He yelled back to them, forgetting his position as they got to within ten metres of the beach, spell-fire still raining down on them. "Is she dead already?"
No response was given save for the smirk and snort from Elaine. She was happy with his viciousness and made it known, which filled him with another sense of weirdness. He'd made her proud with his rather horrible remark, but he didn't care; the woman deserved it if she were dead and the other two that were currently attacking he and Elaine with nearly no progress, they would be next.
"You've failed to break our shields, you've not even cracked them with all of your strength and experience combined," Elaine chastised the older women, her tone as if she were speaking to younger children or classmates even as another spell sailed over her head and dropped a few strands of hair into her face. "I thought you were two considered some of his strongest followers? Yaxley had said as much, but all I see are two brutes with hatred in their hearts and skills that reside solely in their knees."
That was what did it. Elaine's comment was decidedly more rude and aggressive than his, which perfectly fit her personality. Unfortunately, while he appreciated it and nearly laughed as she did, he instead chose to dive out of the way after pushing her. If he hadn't done so, a spell would have impacted right behind them, one with enough power that their legs would have been damaged regardless of their frontal and sideways-facing shields.
It was a smart move to split them up from one another, but it had been done too late. He was on the beach now and Elaine was only a metre or two away from him. For all extensive purposes, they were together, their wands could be used in tandem with one another to ensure their power increase was had and best of all, in his mind, he was out of the grasp of the Giant Squid. It wasn't like the damned thing could come on land after them, now was it?
"Your friend is dead, slag," Hissed the woman that had previously spoken whilst the other continued to silently, near-emotionlessly cast at him and Elaine with spells that did nought but hit their shields. "He was killed, my friend over there saw it and now our master fights your saviour, an old Deputy Headmaster with bones more brittle than your nan. I hope he'll let me play with you once he comes over and your boyfriend? Mmmm, I'll rea-"
The woman didn't get to finish her sentence, she hadn't even seen the spell coming that struck her in the side and the other one finally lowered her wand, bowing her head to the pair of them with a smile being the first he saw of the older woman. She wasn't remotely familiar, but he'd give her one thing, she was incredibly fast even if her tactic of shooting spells at their shields had done absolutely nothing.
"Why are you here?" Elaine demanded, one hand on her hip as she stalked towards the older woman. "This wasn't your assignment, you were supposed to ensure he remained in position while the other woman came over here so we could dispatch her. She was mine. "
Harry walked over and placed a hand on Elaine's shoulder. "Wait, Elaine - who is this, why did she just kill her friend and what's this about an assignment? You didn't tell me you had a spy in Grindelwald's camp - we were supposed to share everything, don't you remember?"
He was peeved, more than that, but there weren't enough words to describe how angry he was even in the midst of battle. She'd lied to him again and this woman, he didn't even know who she was, so he definitely didn't feel comfortable talking to her about anything. Not in the slightest.
"Take off your disguise," Elaine commented off-handedly, waving her hand at the 'older' woman as she began to pace, her eyes now on the battle that lay only a hundred or so metres away from them and on the other side of a thick patch of trees. "You've messed up worse than I could've imagined. That relationship you've built has weakened your strongest advantage."
When the woman finally looked up after drinking something, her body convulsing for those few seconds, he could make out who it was that had aided them and he was… shocked. It didn't make sense, though the speed did in hindsight. Still, she had said she'd be safe, that she wasn't a good fighter, but that had quite evidently been a lie.
"Corene? Why, Elaine - she was supposed to be safe, she's your cousin - first cousin - and all that talk about having a talk once the battle was over, doesn't that mean something to you?" Harry switched his focus from one girl to the other, blinking and shaking his head all the while.
He'd been lied to yet again and that alone was more annoying, more anger-inducing than he thought it would have been.
There's a war going on right now, I'll deal with them both later, but I won't forget about this. Corene should've told me, I deserved to know and after everything, I thought we were on the same side… I'll have to rethink that, but later, Harry huffed and ran a hand through his hair a half dozen times to relieve his stress before he shook his head.
'Don't answer," he said to the two girls who were still staring at him, Elaine's mouth closing before she'd responded to his questions. "I don't care, you won't tell me the truth and we don't have time for circles to be formed with your words. We'll have a conversation later, one that you'll both push away for quite some time, I suspect, but we'll have it. Now let's go, Grindelwald has to be dealt with and we know from that woman that he's right over there."
Harry set off in the direction of the battle, uncaring if the other two were following after him. He knew what he had to do and he would see it through without a second thought. Somebody had to do their job correctly and without any secondary plans or falsehoods. If that somebody had to be him today, then that's what would have to happen.
When he drew closer to the battlefield, he first saw the many signs of how intense it had truly been. There were holes in the earth that looked like they were caused by Muggle bombs that you'd see them test out on the television or in their war films. Bodies were occasionally strewn about like decorations, some of them far more gruesome-looking than others - Aurors with golden robes and followers of Grindelwald with fancy clothing were those that lay dead.
It would get worse in patches and better in others. Regardless, there were no survivors wherever they looked. In spots, bits of cover had been hastily constructed and easily destroyed, trees were ridden of their branches and leaves, and animals had been cooked alive thanks to the fast-moving fire. It was carnage, truly and utterly so and it was unending as he slowed his face on his way to Grindelwald, Dumbledore and whoever else was still in the fight if anybody.
No, there had to be others. Harry could see quite distinctly now that there were two fights happening at the end of the path and one, a left one, was barely noticeable when compared to the one on the right. The spells of the latter were much brighter, larger and far more destructive while some of the left were barely streaks of light that barely shined through the forest; it was obvious where the two masters of this conflict were fighting.
"Corene's staying back and watching our back," Harry said quickly and before either of the two girls could say anything. "We'll go save Professor Dumbledore, then we'll save the others. Corene, that other woman is really gone, right?"
Corene nodded once at his words, then a second time. "I will stay here so as to avoid hurting your efforts against Grindelwald and yes, the woman you fought in Hogsmeade previously has been killed. It was not entirely by my hand, but I played a small part, as was convenient at the time."
Harry nodded and nearly thanked her for killing another person before he thought better of it and ended up shaking his head once. It was weird, everything about today was weird and horrible, but it was finally almost over. That couldn't come soon enough, really.
"She could come with us, another wand wouldn't be wasted - she could aid the others too, it doesn't look like they'll suspect anybody else out here," Elaine paused and turned her attention to Corene even as she continued forwards at a leisure pace in the direction of Dumbledore and Grindelwald. "The Gold-robe Aurors and the specially dressed followers of Grindelwald, they're the better of each side. It'll be close and you'll need to save whoever is left to earn favour for our cause."
"Elaine, Corene really should stay back. You said it yourself, these are the best of the best on each side and whoever's left is the best of that lot. What could she really do against any of them? What could we do if we didn't have each other?" Harry shook his head and put his foot down. "Stay here, but if you absolutely want to get involved, attack them from behind and dart away again. Don't directly engage them, you can listen to me this time instead of having some second agenda, alright?"
Corene looked between him and Elaine, her eyes flickering repeatedly in a moment he recognised as the most divisive she'd yet faced between them. Ultimately, eventually, she decided to dip her head albeit slowly as she responded. "I will do as you say."
It was still a bit awkward of her to say it like that, but ah well, at least she listened. He couldn't be annoyed with her for doing that even if he could be annoyed with her for being stupid and throwing herself in harms way.
"Good," he said quickly, nearly exhaling in relief. "Come on, Elaine. We have a Dark Lord to kill and people to save."
He meant more than just Professor Dumbledore. The sooner they killed Grindelwald, the sooner his forces that yet remained, disintegrated. It was incredibly possible that he could end up saving many a life of those that he knew. When he thought of Aster, Reinhard or Ash and that other pretty cool bloke, it was a no-brainer. Even Daphne and Malfoy didn't deserve to die horribly as many other people had within the past twenty-four hours.
"It'll be interesting," Elaine said quietly, grinning at him as she pulled his hand and led them towards the now visible break in the trees ahead.
"What's that?" Harry asked, curious as he palmed his wand and readied himself for the upcoming onslaught.
Elaine pressed one cold, wet and vaguely bloody hand to his cheek as she took a second to gaze into his eyes. "It'll be interesting to see how you feel in the morning when you've had time to register and realise all that's happened. Your mind has seen much, I know that but this is different," Elaine leaned forward to press a soft, chaste kiss to his lips. "When the time comes, just know that I'll be ready and waiting to aid you in any form of recovery that's deemed necessary. You deserve that after today."
Harry nodded and swallowed a rather large lump that'd formed in his throat. Dumbledore was visible now, the old man thinner and exhausted-looking as he conjured a magnificent water phoenix to combat a blue-fire Lion.
He looked over to Elaine as they emerged. "I love you."