Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.
-Dorothy Thompson
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"Why does this always happen to us?!" I hiss at him.
"It's you." He replies, eyes hard and darting around from one person to the next. "You attract danger like no one I've ever met. It's utterly exhausting." He scowls, making me sneer at him.
"That is a false accusation. You have no proof." I huff.
"Is this not proof enough." He gives me a cold look, and I take out my wand.
"Do we fight?" I snap, ignoring his accusation, and he purses his lips.
"We have terrible odds." He announces, and I sigh, rolling my eyes.
"No, really?!" I hiss at him. "I thought eleven to two were amazing odds!"
He ignores my panicked outburst, "To what do we owe this pleasure?" Tom demands, voice firm and loud. Grindelwald snickers, moving to walk in front of us.
"I want my daughter back." He raises a brow, making Tom shrug.
"Go get her then. She'd been a pain in my-" I cover his mouth with my hand. Don't you dare my eyes glare at him.
"Listen to the boy, dearie. Although my Aurors and I would adore a fight right now. Killing you two would not benefit me in any manner." He sneers, making me scoff. His mismatched eyes, so like Ariana's, were devoid of the love she usually had for us. I was not handing that precious child away to this monster. I refused.
"You need us, you idiot. You wouldn't kill us." I mock Grindelwald, making him grin at me.
"Yes, but torture remains on the table." He grins, wickedly, and I smile... a cruel, taunting smile. "Give it your best shot." I snarl and raise my wand, meeting the wizard in combat.
"Ohhhhhhh, I like you!!!" He gives an evil giggle. "You'd be a beast working for me." He thinks out loud again.
"I'd never work for someone like you. Someone who treated their own daughter like trash." I snap again. Grindelwald's eyes flare up in anger.
"What did I say about angering your opponent Dumbledore!" Tom hisses at me in a whisper, pushing me backwards as we tried to put as much distance as we could between the Dark wizard and us.
"I don't really care!!! We need to get the attention of the wizards in the town here." I state. "If they see that we'd woken up the town, that'd distract them enough for us to apparate away right?" I ask, whispering, and he purses his lips at my plan.
"They wouldn't expect us to apparate." He whispers back, nodding in agreement.
We were two underage wizards. No one would expect us to know to apparate.
"I LOVE my daughter!" Grindelwald screeches, making me look at him in disgust. "What is her name?" I demand.
Grindelwald stays silent, but the look of utter despising hate doesn't leave his face.
"Exactly," I state.
Grindelwald raises his wand in my face. "I've just decided to kill you." He demands, but Tom sends me a grim look, so I nod in response. As one, we send our wands into the air. "Periculum," I mutter, making a gust of red sparks shoot out from my wand. Tom throws the same spell upwards, and the two charms explode into one another. The sound thunders throughout the town and I barely had time to dodge an incoming spell.
"Reducto!" I yell, using my hand to nonverbally repel another spell headed my way. I blast the Periculum spell from my wand again, sending more red sparks flying upwards.
"Stupefy."
"Stupefy!"
Tom and I blast the spells at the same time, and Grindelwald marches forward but stops when there are screams heard from the town beside us. Wizards had heard our cries for help and were rushing over.
The Aurors were all racing at us now, and my blood freezes over.
Tom glances at me in question, and I shake my head. Not yet.
Waving his hand, Tom surrounds us in a cloud of black fog, temporarily blinding our attackers. "Protego Maxima." I seethe and surround the town in the exceedingly protective incantation before Tom grabs my wrist and apparates us out of there. I see Grindelwald's utterly astounded look before my vision becomes distorted with our apparition.
We sit on the floor, exhausted... well I was exhausted, Tom's just enraged.
"How dare they attack us?!" He booms in that same chilling tone. "The filthy, filthy peasants will WISH they never dared mess with me."
"Tom, shut up." I scoff, slumping on a tree. "We escaped. We are safe. We'll get revenge on the damn psycho when we don't have twenty Aurors attacking us!" I snap at him, making him scoff.
"I could've taken them all."
"As could I."
He glares at me, and I glare right back at him.
"We did it to save the town," I conclude, giving us both an excuse.
"Insufferable fools!" He seethes again, making me groan.
I look around, taking in our surroundings, while Tom was still pacing like a madman. I gape, my heart thudding in my chest. We were in a damn cemetery.... at night. As if being in a cemetery wasn't creepy in itself. We were in one at night. I knew from Abaddon that more than just dead bodies and bones resided in cemeteries.
I see it before it sees me.
"Tom....." I whisper, but he wasn't paying attention to me. "Tom!!!" I snap my voice vibrating in fear. The guy finally turns to give me an annoyed look. "WHAT, Dumbledore! What could possibly be so important that you feel the need to-" I interrupt him.
"Werewolf," I say in fear, pointing to the beast in horror. Tom whips around in shock, a look of dread on his face.
The werewolf in front of us was no mere wolf. It had a hideously shorter snout, tufted tail, and such human-like eyes looking at them made me shudder.
I get up slowly, watching as the beast followed me with its eyes. "Why did you bring us to a cemetery!" I hiss at Tom, who was also watching the werewolf with a disgusted look.
"It was the first location I thought of? Would you like to return to duel Grindelwald?" He seethes, making me nod.
"Yes, actually! Grindelwald would be a blessing compared to this!!!" I demand watching as the werewolf started to circle around us. I try to step back, but the beast lets out a deafening roar. My blood froze.
"Move, Dumbledore!" Tom hisses, shoving me forward and breaking me out of my terrified trance. It rushes at us and pushes me roughly to the side, charging at me. I scream, lifting a hand and shooting a ball of flames at the creature. I distract it enough to get to my feet and race away.
Tom and I are running.
It gallops after us like a horse, gaining on us with the momentum and utter power it held. I send a blast of magic, throwing it behind me. It explodes beside it, allowing me more time to run. I'm pulled to the side suddenly and let out a muffled scream. "Shut up!" Tom snaps, shoving me, into a huge tree, and covering my mouth.
I place a hand on my heart, trying to calm it down, shoving Tom's hand away. We were going to die. This was it.
"Calm down, Val." Abaddon orders in my head. "Werewolves wouldn't dare attack a demon."
"I'm NOT a demon, though... am I !?" I hiss at him in my head.
"Put me in control. Let me teach the mutt a lesson." He chuckles in delight, making me scowl.
"No, Tom is here." I think at him.
Tom puts a finger to his lips, motioning to the werewolf that was prowling around the tree. We instinctively step into the corners of the tree trunk.
"Apparate?" I mouth at Tom, and he nods, pointing at me. I was going to apparate us away.
Just as I reach out to grab his hand, a roar is heard, and the tree we inside began to shake. The damn werewolf was ramming itself into the tree, trying to get at us.
"Concentrate, Dumbledore!" Tom shouts. I jump up, gripping his hand with one arm and his shoulder with my other as Tom sends a spell at the werewolf charging at the tree entrance. "Incarcerous." He shouts, and before I apparate us away, I see the ropes and chains Tom had conjured out of thin air grab onto the werewolf. The wolf cries out in pain and anger.
That's the last thing I hear before I apparate us away.
Courage is knowing what not to fear.
-Plato