The Reptile Man
The first day at Numengard passed so slowly. In the evening, Grey and Richard ventured beyond their little rooms to explore the castle. Most doors they came across were locked, however, they did discover a small library.
Windowless and cold, they had to illuminate the room with their wands and candles but the four walls were lined, floor to ceiling, with laden bookshelves. A ladder attached to a rail curved around the whole room and there was a dusty table, round and solitary in the centre. They borrowed two chairs from the main sitting room and inspected the many shelves. The majority of the volumes were written in foreign languages but they did find several that they could read.
At dinner time, it was just them and Queenie present and Grey found the whole affair much less daunting. Though he harboured a deep mistrust for the witch, it was very easy to keep his mind more clear while she chattered about such mundane things. Her bubbly nature was a flicker of harmless normality. Together they discussed food, books, America, Hogwarts, and more. Grey, as usual, was subdued in his responses but towards the end of the meal he did loosen up a bit as the topic drifted to Quidditch and Richard became more animated.
Their first night in Numengard was lonely. Parting ways at around ten, Grey buried himself in his bed. A chilly draft was seeping from the window and he could hear the howl of what he hoped was just the wind. The noise was consuming the castle, preventing him from hearing the soothing sounds of occupation that he was so used to. Grey missed the warmth and comfort of Twyla by his side. He hated not being able to know if she was ok.
He hated so much of this.
However, he didn't dwell on it long. Exhausted from his previous sleepless night and the stresses of the day, Grey fell quickly into a troubled sleep. Dreams of thestrals and the flash of green light clung to him all night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morning broke with booming thunder and heavy sheets of sleet. Still not feeling rested, Grey rose, washed and dressed in the clothes he had been provided. They were comfortable, if a little big but he made sure to clean his own clothes with magic and hang them carefully in the wardrobe.
He waited till Richard had also risen and silently trudged downstairs. Much to Grey's relief, Grindelwald was not present at breakfast, and neither was Rosier or Aurelias. As he solemnly ate his cereal, the wizard - Abernathy - surveyed them with almost wild eyes.
"You will be with me this morning." He claimed.
His voice was peculiar and matched his crazed features. He sounded snakelike, with a nasal, raspy tone that slid out of him with unregulated pitch. An unpleasant feeling settled in Grey's stomach as he watched him speak. He was sure he had seen an elongated, forked tongue behind the wizard's yellow teeth.
"What will we be learning?" Richard inquired confidently.
Abernathy's eyes swivelled to Richard and Grey suppressed a shiver at the sharpness of the motion.
"Mr Grindelwald has asked me to introduce the two of you to the unforgivable curses." He hissed.
The prospect made Grey even more uncomfortable.
"Delightful." He mumbled into his coffee, ignoring the cold look he received.
When they'd finished, everyone dispersed, leaving the three the largest room to use as a classroom. Abernathy smirked to himself as he paced in front of the youths. Glancing to his side, Grey noticed that Richard was keeping up his confident facade with his arms lightly crossed. He looked at ease in his white shirt, taught over his crossed biceps. Grey immediately looked away, trying to ignore the heat that rose to his face at the involuntary thought.
"Do either of you know the unforgivable curses?" Their teacher questioned.
This was not a subject they had been taught yet Grey was very familiar with two of them.
"There are three I think," Richard answered boldly.
Abernathy grinned, "Yes, yes - three. Can you name them?"
He sounded excitable like a child asked about their favourite topic.
With a quick glance at Grey, Richard listed the unforgivable curses.
"The killing curse, the Imperius curse and the cruciatus curse."
Grey's stomach twisted at the last one.
"Are you teaching us to resist them?" Grey interjected curtly.
Cackling laughter erupted from the reptile man.
"Resist them? Of course not! I'm going to teach you how to use them, stupid boy."
Instinctually, Grey dug his nails into his palms as he bit back a harsh remark.
"Mr Grindelwald wants you prepared."
"Isn't he worried that we'll use them on him?" Grey snapped back.
Abernathy just smirked, tongue flicking reptile-like through his lips.
"He's confident you won't." He chuckled maliciously.
Grey wasn't satisfied with the answer.
"Which shall we start with, let's see - how about the most fun?" Their teacher continued. "The incantation for the cruciatus curse, either of you knows what it is?"
"Crucio," Grey muttered bitterly.
He ignored the surprised look from Richard and tried not to think about the foul word he'd just uttered.
"Very good, what about the wand movement?"
"There isn't a specific one, you just have to mean it." He growled.
"Well, well, someone is rather familiar." Abernathy cackled.
"Grey?"
He didn't acknowledge Richard's concerned word. Instead, he glared at the reptile man.
"Shall we try it?" He hissed with suppressed anticipation.
Grey's hands trembled at his words.
"Who'd like to go first?"
He didn't want Richard to feel this.
"I will," Grey sighed, stepping forward.
Dread pummeled through his veins as Abernathy raised his wand.
"Hold on, you're not actually going to perform them on-"
But Richard's question was answered as Abernathy spat the curse at Grey.
Immediately wracked with the familiar pain of a thousand white hot knives, Grey collapsed to the floor.
He screamed he was being shredded all over again.
Desperately pulling his legs to his chest, he was back at the orphanage.
Back in the basement, screaming, begging for release.
Yet it didn't stop.
He wanted to die.
Just let the matron kill him.
"Stop!" Someone shrieked, high and shrill.
"He's felt it before, just stop!"
The reptile man ignored her plea.
The knives were skinning him, Grey was sure.
There were pounding feet on the floor around him and more yells.
The pain vanished. Grey was left empty, curled up and shaking. His throat was raw from screaming. Strong arms encircled his body, cradling him to a warm chest. A face moved above him, hazed by his tensing muscles.
"It's alright, it's over now." A deep soothing voice enveloped him like a blanket.
The face sharpened.
Grey flinched away from the concerned visage of Grindelwald, but he was being held too firmly to escape. The dark wizard lifted him and gently carried him to one of the emerald sofas. Grey was unnerved by the tenderness in which he was laid on the soft cushions.
"Remember Grey, it's just pain," Grindelwald murmured gently, crouching beside him.
Grey felt frozen at his words.
It's just pain. The exact phrase he'd admitted to Dumbledore before learning how wrong he'd been.
It's just pain.
Movement returned to his limbs and he shuffled back from Grindelwald, eyes darting around the room. He found Richard, standing rigid with a tearstained face beside Queenie.
The reptile man lay unconscious on the ground.
"I apologise," continued Grindelwald, "I did not instruct him to use the curses on you. Abernathy is a tad unhinged."
"He's a maniac." Grey snarled.
They were the first words he'd willingly spoken to his captor.
"Perhaps," Grindelwald surmised calmly, "But we all possess the capability for madness. One could argue it's our purest form. How do you feel?"
"Like I've just been tortured." he spat back.
To his horror, Grindelwald chuckled softly.
"It's curious how a little pain unlocks a bit of your personality."
Grey was stunned at his words. Seeing this, Grindelwald smirked, rising to his feet.
"I think I shall instruct you this morning if you'd follow me."
Reluctantly, Grey obeyed, silently passing the horrified spectators. He briefly locked eyes with Richard as he walked by, and tried to convey in just a look that he was ok.
The Slytherin's face was pale. He did not give any indication that he understood.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grindelwald's office was on the second floor of the castle. The room itself was no larger than his bedroom yet its furnishings made it feel much more imposing. A faded tapestry hung loosely across the left wall and muted depictions of thestrals feeding off the stitched remains of a battle deep within a pine forest, moved disjointedly upon it.
Opposite the door stood a smart mahogany desk, laden with papers. Behind it was a large window providing the room with ample an ample light source and bookshelves occupied the left wall.
Grindelwald sat in his chair, causing his features to become silhouetted by the window. He gestured calmly for Grey to take the parallel seat. Still in shock from his experience, Grey didn't argue, taking the offered seat without hesitation. But once seated, he eyed the dark wizard with caution. He almost expected the man to spontaneously combust at any moment. To ground himself, he dug his nails into his palms again.
"Apologies again for my colleague's behaviour," Grindelwald remarked casually as he shifted some of the papers on his desk.
Grey didn't say a word. The dark wizard's mismatched eyes flicked to his.
"I want to speak a bit about your past visions and your past in general, is that alright?"
Grey remained silent, not allowing himself to be tricked by the man's gentle words.
"Come now Grey, don't retreat back into yourself now. I wish to talk." Grindelwald chided in a light tone.
Grey beheld the dark wizard's smirk with restrained disgust.
"I'm worried if I say anything you don't like, you'll hurt my friend."
"How about this, anything you say in this room, will not affect anyone beyond it?" Grindelwald returned.
But Grey was unconvinced.
"You don't trust me, that is wise. But I have already told you that I won't hurt you."
"But you explicitly stated that you are not opposed to harming Richard," He snapped back.
A smile crept across Grindelwald's face.
"There you are." He chuckled.
Grey dug his nails so deeply into his palms that he felt them break the skin.
"So," The man exclaimed, leaning back in his chair with his hands folded in his lap, "Where shall we start?"
Not eager to spill his personal secrets to Grindelwald, the answer was easy for Grey to choose.
"My visions."
"Ok, I have been wondering, when did they first manifest? How many have you had?" He questioned.
Grey readied himself to put his best falsifying skills to the test. He knew he would have to tell truths to bolster his lies.
"I experienced headaches three months prior to my first vision. These headaches started last July and happened roughly twice a week." He listed mechanically, not wishing to give Grindelwald the pleasure of an insight into his feelings, " I have had five visions, not counting dreams."
"Only five?" Grindelwald interjected.
"I'm sorry to disappoint."
"But you say you experienced headaches twice a week?"
Grey cursed himself for not altering that part.
"Perhaps I am not the all-powerful seer you've been looking for?" He quipped.
Yet Grindelwald just laughed at his statement.
"Oh, I am confident you are Grey. I assume you have just been suppressing your gifts." He added causally.
Grey clenched his teeth.
"What were your visions about?" He continued.
"Unimportant things, Quidditch results, three out of five. In my most recent one, I saw what you did to the couple in Hogsmeade." Grey recited.
He tried his best to disregard the slight prideful look that flickered behind Grindelwald's eyes.
"You've told me about four of the five. What was the last one?"
Grey tensed as the memories resurfaced.
"I foresaw the Hogwarts poltergeist pushing a vanishing cabinet out of a window." He lied, but even he could hear the slight tension in his tone.
"You're lying to me," Grindelwald observed with slight amusement.
"No, I'm-"
"Yes, you are. What really happened?" The man inquired, still lightly.
Through gritted teeth, Grey replied, "I watched my friend fall to his death down a flight of stairs."
The amusement faded rapidly from Grindelwald's face.
"I'm sorry Grey, that must have been incredibly painful." He remarked solemnly.
Grey scoffed, eyeing the embroidered thestrals as they attacked the corpse of an ogre in the tapestry. It wasn't like Grindelwald cared. It was just pain. Right?
"Has anyone been helping you through the visions, and the trauma?" inquired Grindelwald.
Grey was impressed by how real his tone of concern sounded.
"A professor of mine, was aware and suspicious of my abilities while they initially manifested. When I started having visions, he volunteered to look after me." He explained.
Thinking of Dumbledore just hurt now, all the kindness he had dismissed for so long.
"Who was he?"
"Albus Dumbledore."
Grey watched as Grindelwald's expression darkened significantly. His features took on a distant quality, reminiscent of the expression Grey had seen Dumbledore wear several times. But Grindelwald's also held a note of resentment.
"I see," He growled, "No doubt you idolise the man."
Grey got the sense he was treading on unstable ground.
"Not idolise, no," He began cautiously, "But I am grateful for the kindness and care he has shown me. He is a wise man." He added.
Grindelwald chuckled darkly to himself.
"Cunning would be a better word," He mused.
Confusion stirred in Grey. Something was trying to connect in his mind but he couldn't quite put the pieces together in the right way.
"Did you know him?" He dared to ask.
To his relief, Grindelwald did not seem to get angrier.
"Better than most," He sneered.
An uncomfortable feeling stirred again in Grey's stomach. Dumbledore had never given any indication that he had known Grindelwald. Then again, the dark wizard could be lying.
Then the realisation connected in his mind. Dumbledore had said, twice, that he had a friend with prophetic abilities. And Grindelwald was a seer. They were roughly the same age.
"Were you friends?" Retorted Grey with pressed horror.
"Not what you'd expect?" Grindelwald chuckled bitterly.
Utter disbelief filled Grey.
"I'm sure it will surprise you to know that your precious Dumbledore is not the wise, caring man he has led you to think," The man continued.
But Grey didn't want to believe it. Albus Dumbledore, who pleaded with him to be honest, and cared for him when he was at his lowest, Grey couldn't fathom him being anything other than such. Grindelwald smirked at his horrified expression.
"I understand, this must be difficult to comprehend." He said, pulling something from a drawer in his desk.
He handed a small, unframed photograph across the table to Grey. Studying the moving figure, Grey could identify one of the young men to be an adolescent Grindelwald from the heterochromia and he could not deny the second figure to be a younger Dumbledore.
With slightly trembling hands, he slid the photograph back across the table. Grindelwald glanced at it with tainted fondness before placing it back in its drawer.
"We were very close," He uttered quietly, "I knew his family, his brother and sister. His parents were dead so he had to run the family."
Grey found it peculiar, to hear about Dumbledore's family.
"I was staying with my aunt on their street," Grindelwald continued softly, "And Albus, he hated being torn from his career, forced to care for an ill sister and unruly brother."
Grey frowned at his words. It felt like he was hearing about an entirely different man.
"Not what you'd expected?" Grindelwald smirked, noting his expression.
"I think you're lying to me," Grey muttered.
But Grindelwald just chuckled.
"Why would I lie to you, Grey? I have no reason to. It's not as if you will be seeing Dumbledore again. I just wish for you to be properly informed."
"Then tell me how this man you are describing became the professor I know today," Grey demanded.
The dark wizard smiled.
"With pleasure. When Albus and I met we instantly connected," Grindelwald continued casually, "Two ambitious young men, fascinated by the deeper strands of magic and the belief that wizards are naturally more advanced than the non-magical population."
"Dumbledore was anti-muggle?" Grey interrupted with shock.
"Of course," Smiled Grindelwald, "He felt that they were beneath us. We grew closer and began to plan to go travelling together, leaving Aberforth, Dumbledore's younger brother, to care for his sister. Arianna had always preferred him anyway. Yet, when Aberforth discovered our plans, he tried to stop us. One night he confronted the two of us and do you know what your professor did? He began a duel with his little brother. Albus held nothing back during this altercation, I tried to stop him but to no avail. We were so distracted that we didn't hear Arianna coming down the stairs. At the moment of her descent, Albus had cast the killing curse at his brother, but it hit Arianna instead."
Grey was silent, utterly flabbergasted by what he was hearing. As an experienced liar, he was struggling to find fault in Grindelwald's telling of events but he still didn't want to believe it.
"The man you know is a shell of grief and regret, desperately trying to make up for his evil deeds. But Dumbledore's actions are imprinted on his soul and as I endeavour to complete my goals, once our shared vision, I remember that day. I try to complete my tasks with thought and preparation, unlike Dumbledore."
As he finished, Grey watched the dark wizard duck his head, subtly brushing a few tears from his face. He didn't know what to say. The information he had been given was overwhelming and it frightened him that he believed what Grindelwald was telling him.
"I am sorry to have to unravel these deceptions for you Grey, but I cannot stand when people pretend to be something they are not." He muttered.
Grey nodded, unable to comprehend much beyond what he had just learnt.
"I believe it is your turn to tell me about your life," Grindelwald remarked.
"What do you want to know? I've told you about my visions, isn't that all you care about?"
He hadn't meant for the words to come out so harshly. Much to his relief, Grindelwald only smiled.
"As I said, your abilities are only one of the reasons I brought you here. Regardless of the others, I like to understand those I work with. You grew up in Willows Orphanage, am I correct - near Godrics Hollow?"
Nodding, Grey wished the man was not so interested.
"What was it like?" Prompted Grindelwald.
"Uneventful, uninteresting," Grey retorted shortly.
"Who ran it?"
It seemed that Grindelwald wasn't keen on his simple responses.
"There were a few nurses. The head matron was Amelia Nott. The nurses came and went frequently."
"How did they treat you?"
Grey tensed once more.
"Cruelly," He responded simply.
Something, maybe anger, flickered in Grindelwald's eyes.
"They used the cruciatus curse as a punishment." The man stated with a grave expression.
"How-"
"Queenie told me that you had felt the pain before."
Grey bowed his head, picking at the cuts on his hands.
"I'm sorry, Grey," Grindelwald sighed.
He shrugged, "Wasn't your fault."
There was silence.
Glancing at the dark wizard, Grey noticed his features furrowed in thought. The man rose, unclasping something from around his neck and rounding the desk. Anxious, grey stood also.
"I want you to have this," He muttered.
In his hand, Grey saw a cord with the familiar triangular symbol attached to it.
"This particular charm was given to me by my father when I was about your age," Grindelwald murmured.
He reached out, fastening it gently around Grey's neck. He laid a hand over the symbol that now rested on the boy's chest. Grey was surprised that he'd part with something of such sentimental value. Tenderly, Grindelwald grasped the side of his face again. Though he initially flinched, Grey did not shy away from his touch, though he wasn't sure why.
"Everything will be clear soon," Grindelwald pledged, "I promise."
He moved away, back to his seat.
"You may go," He sighed.
As Grey left, he realised there was sadness in his tone.