Percival Graves looked on in horror as Grindelwald retracted his wand from where it had rested a moment ago on Grave’s temple. It wasn't just his eyes that followed the wand. Attached to the tip was a long silvery string, a string which if Grindelwald was to be believed contained all of Grave’s memories. At first Grave’s had only offered skepticism when Grindelwald claimed to have learned from an old friend how to extract all of Grave’s memories. He knew of pensieves but he had never heard of a wizard powerful enough to sustain an entire lifetime of memories, especially not when extracting said memories from an unwilling participant, and definitely not when the unwilling participant is one of the powerful occlumens in the northeast.
Grindelwald chuckled darkly as he plucked the memories from the edge of his wand and put them into the waiting dish. He did it so casually that if Graves didn't know better he’d think Grindelwald was plucking away a pesky spider web and not stealing a lifetime's worth of state secrets. This small movement served to simultaneously anger and terrify Graves. Then again that had been the nature of his relationship with Grindelwald ever since his capture. All of the back and forth the indignation and the horror was culminating in this moment.
Grindelwald had prattled on about the child and the prophecy and had told Graves about how he was going to use the boy, his boy, to find it. Of course he didn’t know that yet, but once Grindelwald had those memories he would know everything that Graves had ever lived through. He would finally be able to become him and now that he had Percival Graves’s whole life story in a vial he had no need for the man himself.
Percival at least took solace in the fact that once Grindelwald killed him it was only a matter of time before Seraphina realized something was amiss. Besides being the President and The Director of Magical Law Enforcement, Sera and Percival were best friends, they were family to each other and as such they had set a complicated series of enchantments so that if one died the other would immediately feel their loss.
There was still hope. No one but a select few wizards knew that such enchantments existed let alone that he and Seraphina shared one. As long as Grindelwald killed Graves without looking at the memories then he wouldn’t realize his mistake until it was too late and his charade would be over before it started. So why did the bone chilling gaze he turned on Graves make his stomach churn?
“Oh don't worry Percy,” Cooed Grindelwald “I wouldn't dare kill you. After all I can't risk someone knowing that a dead man walks the streets of New York now can I?”
‘Shit.’ thought Graves. ‘That's why.’
Graves cleared his throat and tried his best for confused and oblivious. “What are you talking about?”
“The enchantment that you and the president share. You didn't think I would recognize it on someone else Percy. There are very few Wizards like us.”
This time Percival couldn't hide his surprise not only had Grindelwald been able to sense the enchantment which was supposed to be imperceptible but he was implying that he carried such an enchantment too.
“You're bluffing Gellert. Casting those spells would require both wizards involved to have a measure of power and devotion that you couldn't possibly possess alone,”
“Come, come Percy surely you don't think me so unlovable.”
Percival’s head was reeling. Grindelwald was saying that not only did he love someone enough to cast the spells but that the wizard in turn loved him back and possessed a tremendous amount of magical power, perhaps it was even the same wizard who had taught him how to extract Grave’s memories. Grave’s hoped so in spite of himself after all one super powerful ally on Grindelwald’s side was clearly more than enough.
“So what do you plan to do with me then?” Graves wished he didn’t sound so cornered and desperate. He tried again for defiant but missed the mark ending up sounding almost like a petulant child “You can’t keep me here forever!”
“Of course not” Grindelwald’s smile widened. “Yes, Percy the fact that I cannot kill you does put me in a bit of a predicament. I must admit it rather takes the fun out of things as well. But fear not I have one last bit of rare magic to use.”
Graves felt himself yanked to his feet by the binding charms places on him and dragged back into Grindelwald’s personal space to where he was staring into those cruel mismatched eyes and manic grin. “This is goodbye Percy.” Percival felt his hand being pried away from his body and towards an object that Grindelwald must have produced from somewhere on his person while talking. It levitated above his palm and beneath Grave’s now outstretched hand neither man touching it. It was a strange dark colored medallion which Percival guessed to be some kind of portkey, but the magic that he could feel coursing off of the object in waves made very cell of his being stand on alert and was stronger than any portkey he had ever felt.
He swallowed and tried one last time to be the defiant Percival he had always been despite the fact that he had no idea what the hell was actually about to happen. “Where could possibly be sending me that MACUSA won't find me.”
As his hand betrayed him and closed around the small medallion Graves heard Grindelwald say “To a place where there are no happy endings.”
“What the actual-” before Graves could finish that thought the whole world disappeared and he began the wildest ride of his life.
In Grave’s experience when one normally uses a portkey they experience a strong tugging sensation from just behind the navel and maybe felt a bit dizzy but this had to be ten times more painful and strange. At first it felt as if his entire body was being compressed and torn apart piece by tiny excruciating piece and then put back together again while the rest of his senses went into overload. After an indeterminate amount of time all of the pain and sensations just stopped. Graves felt numb it was as if he were simply floating weightless surrounded by complete and utter darkness it took him a while to even believe that his eyes had been open. His throat felt raw as though he had been screaming for days.
This peace only lasted momentarily. He detected a source of light,a small pinprick in the distance no sooner did his eyes focus on it than he felt the one sensation that he was still conspicuously missing come back with a vengeance: Gravity. He began to fall towards the pinprick of light, he didn’t fall for long but when it was over he connected with something hard.
With some difficulty he maneuvered his torso up so that he could see what he had landed on. It appeared to be a manhole cover. It was still dark save for the light coming through the holes but he could hear muffled sounds coming from the other side of the cover. After a moment of deliberation Graves did the only logical thing and he pushed down on, it or rather up would be a more apt description. He emerged from under the cover onto a street unlike any he had ever seen in his lifetime.