9 Chapter Eight: The Alley

ALBUS

Albus rubbed his eyes as the History or Magic professor, Professor Binns, talked in a monotone voice about famous wizards. Albus yawned as he tried to fight sleep. Something nudged him in the elbow and Albus widened his eyes and saw Gellert Grindelwald. He smiled, " How boring do you think this class is?" Grindelwald's eyes widened playfully, "Horribly boring." The boys shared a laugh which somehow echoed throughout the classroom. Professor Binns squinted through his glasses as he scanned the classroom then continued on with the lecture.

Albus leaned over to whisper in his ear: "Do you want to go to the Shrieking Shack tonight?" Grindelwald's eyes narrowed dangerously, "Let's do it," he whispered back. The booming sound of bells marked the end of class and the drowsy students awoke and stumbled out of the history classroom to the Great Hall where dinner awaited the students. Albus and Grindelwald broke away from the group and headed towards the Slytherin common room.

Albus raced Grindelwald down the stone steps all the way to the lowest floor where the Slytherin room was. Grindelwald raced past him, but slipped on the last few steps and wobbled unsteadily, trying not to fall into the water covering the floor. Albus almost crashed into Grindelwald, who started to fall towards the water. Albus lurched and grabbed Grindelwald by the hand before he fell into the deep water. "I gotcha!" Albus said, pulling Grindelwald's body towards his. The boys shared a look in which Albus found himself lost in Grindelwald's eyes. Grindelwald gave him a smirk and then turned to face the water.

It covered the entire hallway. "That was a close call," Albus said as he looked at Grindelwald and then the water covering the floor. "Where did it come from?" Grindelwald asked as he bent down to observe it better. Suddenly the caretaker, a grumpy man with a long, crooked nose, and practically no hair, came around the corner of the stairs. He gasped at the water then looked angrily at the boys. "You two!" the caretaker said as he took out his wand. Grindelwald slipped his wand out of his sleeve and pointed it at the man. Before Albus knew what was happening, the caretaker's eyes went a hazy blue and Grindelwald grabbed Albus' hand. 'Come on!" He said, pulling him towards the stairs. Albus took one last look at the caretaker before running up the stairs with Grindelwald. "Where did all this water come from?" He could hear the caretaker say behind them.

"What was...that...what spell did...you use?" Albus said while running with him. All he could see was Grindelwald smirking. Albus hadn't seen many fourth years casting spells without using words. In fact, he had seldom seen any at all. Perhaps he had underestimated Gellert. They both jumped the last few steps and ran past the Great Hall and up the moving staircases. "HEY!" They heard behind them. "It's the caretaker!" Albus said and cursed aloud. Grindelwald mumbled something under his breath that sounded like "I can't believe..." The staircase they were on suddenly lurched and the boys clung the the stone railing as the staircase moved sideways. Albus knew exactly where they were and when it connected with another one, Albus and Grindelwald continued up another set of stairs, periodically looking back for the caretaker. Where is he? Albus thought as he ran up the last few steps to the next staircase.

In an instant, the caretaker had apparated onto the staircase the boys were on. Grindelwald wobbled, but clung to the railing as the staircase moved. Albus wasn't so lucky. Just as he got the the next step of the staircase, it started to move and he fell face first onto the cold, stone steps. He heard Grindelwald gasp out his name and Albus stumbled into the railing as he tried to stand. The caretaker had a nasty look on his face as he eye-balled the two boys. Grindelwald pulled out his wand again, but through a haze, Albus grabbed something from inside his pocket he had gotten at Hogsmeade and threw it in the air.

He lurched up the steps to grab ahold of Grindelwald's arm and yanked him forward. Grindelwald shot a look at Albus as if amazed before matching his pace as they raced up the stairs. The boys bolted past the caretaker as he fumbled with his wand to blast the object. Behind them, Albus could hear a loud "POP!" and smirked knowing his plan had worked. He had gotten a stink bomb at Hogsmeade and he planned to use it on his potion's professor, but the caretaker was as good as any in Hogwarts.

The boys finally made it up the last few steps and hopped off the moving staircase. The caretaker looked wildly for the boys, his face cherry red as he spun around. Grindelwald and Albus knocked into each other as they hurriedly jogged down a hallway and out of sight from the caretaker. Around the corner they slowed down to a walk, breathing heavily from their staircase workout. "Hurry!" Grindelwald whispered as they could hear footsteps behind them. They both shoved each other into a door and fumbled to get the door handle to open. "Just turn.. the knob..." " Turn the... open the.. Albus!" "Grindelwald!" The boys got the door open and hurried inside, making sure to shut the door as quietly as one could after having such an adrenaline rush.

They waited for the footsteps to pass before breathing a sigh of relief. The room was dusty, shadowed, and smelled of mold. "What room is this?" Albus said as he picked up a round, golden object then put it down as it started it spread wings. Maybe it was a room where old quidditch equipment is stored, Albus thought as he picked up a dusty broom, but looking at the room more, he saw an open crate of books and a bundle of scrolls which made him think that the room was used for storage.

Albus turned towards Grindelwald who seemed interested in the floor where there were two different sizes of footprints." I wasn't sure we'd make it past the caretaker for a moment there." Albus said, not yet noticing the footprints. Grindelwald pointed at the dusty wood floor and followed the mysterious steps to a tall cabinet. Albus came up by him, observing the various footprints. "Someone's been here," Albus said, scanning the seemingly desolate room. "Recently,: he said as he bent down to observe one of the footprints. "What's in there?" Grindelwald said, pointing to a cabinet nearby. Albus looked skeptically at Grindelwald then at the cabinet.

Albus swore he could hear someone whisper "What was that? Albus?" Grindelwald said, slipping his wand out of his sleeve, as if he expected some kind of monster to jump out and attack them at any second. Albus shook his head and shrugged then pointed to the cabinet. As if Grindelwald could read his mind, he took a step toward the cabinet and reached his hand out to pull the handle. There was a loud "CR...EA...K!" as Grindelwald slowly opened the cabinet door. He pointed his wand into the darkness, but he let out a sigh after few moments. "What is it!?" Albus said as he came to stand by him. "Nothing..." "What!" Albus whispered, keeping in mind that the caretaker could still be looking for them. "Lumos." The cabinet was filled with a bright light, but it seemed barren. There was nothing there, but towards the bottom of the cabinet, there was a silver-colored scarf...

NAMORA

Namora pushed open the cabinet door and gawked. "Queenie? Where in the bloody boggarts are we?" Queenie cringed at Namora's comment, but stepped out to get a better look. They were in an alley between two shops on a cobblestone street and there was a street lamp that was going dim. It was dark outside and wizards hobbled by angrily, some wore all black, some seemed to have glowing eyes, and others had scrappy robes." I'd hate to think...that we just might be in Knockturn Alley Namora." "Oh no," Namora said as she saw a creepy, hunched over witch limp by them with a bag that was dripping red liquid. Queenie held a hand up to her mouth to keep from gagging and Namora looked away disgustingly. "What was in the bag?" Queenie shook her head, "I'd rather not say..."

Namora shivered, "We need to get back Queenie. We shouldn't be here," Namora said urgently, then turned to open and the cabinet's door. "Knockturn Alley isn't for Hogwarts students. There are bad people here." "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now, now. Knockturn Alley isn't all that bad," A skinny man said and smiled, shining teeth that looked like shrunken skulls. Namora gulped, and Queenie took Namora's hand and squeezed it tightly.

"We should get going," Namora mumbled, trying to ignore him as she turned to leave with Queenie. Something appeared in front of them. It was the old witch they had seen earlier. She had a hungry look on her face and her nails were bloody. Queenie let out a sequel of terror as the man, the old witch, and two more cloaked figures surrounded them.

Namora pulled out her wand, holding it threateningly out in front of her as she tried to act as frightening as possible to them. "Stupify!" Namora yelled as she pointed her wand at the old witch. She flew backwards and crashed into some trash cans. The skinny man with the skull teeth cringed at them, pulling out an equally scary wand. It looked as if were made of bones. "Watch out Namora!" Queenie said as one of the cloaked figures fired a hex at them. Queenie and Namora dodged the hex, each of them darting opposite ways.

She landed on the street hard, scraping her knees as she did. Namora's eyes darted between the skull man and the other cloaked figure as they looked between Namora and Queenie. Queenie nodded towards the cloaked figure. Namora nodded, knowing she had read the figure's mind., but she was a little too late. "Stupi..." "Everte Statum!" Namora gasped for air as she was thrown out onto the street like a ragdoll. Namora groaned painfully and lifted her head up enough to see the two cloaked figures approaching her friend.

Queenie gasped and pulled out her wand as she looked at her two pursuers. She held her wand out shakily in front of her. "Stay...stay back..." she said as they both walked towards her. "Please, please, please, don't let this happen, please..." "BOMBARDA MAXIMA!"

Queenie was thrown back into a stone wall and shielded her eyes as there was a blinding flash of red and orange light and the men were thrown violently backwards. Queenie uncovered her eyes slowly and gasped at the burnt up alley way. She could hardly recognize it. There was blood and uprooted stones and holes everywhere. There was even a large hole in one side of a building that looked into a shop. But the smell was inevitable, burnt flesh and ash filled her nostrils and she coughed violently.

Queenie looked up and saw Namora. She was standing in front of the wreckage, her wand drawn and her robes burned. "Namora..." Queenie said half astonished, half horrified. She felt faint from being thrown and she wobbled unsteadily, but strong arms suddenly lifted Queenie, it was someone familiar, Albus Dumbledore....

GELLERT

"A scarf?" Gellert said as he picked it up. "No, I, I know this scarf...I know who wears this kind of scarf... there is only one person who wears this kind of scarf..."Albus said, as if he was in a daze. "What is so special about this," he pointed at the scarf, "This silver scarf. "It belongs to a...friend..."

"Appare Vestigium!" Gellert whispered the charm and a swirl of gold illuminated the dusty room. Golden footprints started to appear and the boys jumped back as the footprints made a trail toward the cabinet. Grindelwald squinted as two figures were revealed in the golden swirls. "I know these two," Gellert said recognizing both of them immediately. "The one one the left with the blackthorn wand, that's Namora," He said, remembering the girl that had run into him on the stairs and who had also spied on them in the Shrieking Shack. "The other one, I think, is a Ilvermorny student by the name of Queenie Goldstein." "Why are they hiding in the cabinet?" Albus said, "What were they hiding from?" Gellert looked at him doubtfully. "I believe it was us," he said grimly. He turned towards Albus and saw terror in his eyes for the first time.

Gellert seemed intrigued though. "What were they both doing here?" Albus coughed, "Girl stuff...?" They both looked at each other, Gellert raised his eyebrow and Albus shrugged. "Girls," They said at the same time the went back to focusing at the cabinet. "What kind of cabinet is this?" Gellert asked as he studied the wood and the inside. "I think what we should be wondering is... where did they go?" Albus said in return. "Maybe we'll find out if we..." Gellert started as he stepped into the cabinet. "...step inside." "Come on Albus," Gellert said, holding his hand out. Albus shook his head as if this was a bad idea which Gellert knew, it surely was, but grabbed his hand anyways.

They stood in the dark and Albus sighed as he stuffed the scarf into his robe. "I can't see anything," Albus said. "Push it open," he told him and Gellert opened the door and a gruesome sight greeted them. Ash and destruction was all around them. "There, that's Queenie," Albus said. "Find Namora, Grindelwald..." Albus said as he jumped over a hole and stepped over a large pile of rocks heading towards a girl with strawberry-blond hair.

Gellert scanned the area and slowly walked through smoke towards a shadow of a figure. He looked sideways and saw a man half buried in a pile of rocks, blood dripped from his fingertips. Gellert squatted down by him, noticing something clenched in his other hand. He forced the hand open and took out a piece of crumpled paper. He scanned over it and furrowed his brows as he did. It said: "Make her disappear." and with initials at the bottom reading A. R. He stood up, turned his back from the body, stuffed the paper into his robe and continued toward the shadow of a figure in the ash. He'd figure out what the note meant later.

He found the girl standing, her robes burnt and her wand hanging from her hand. He studied her for a moment before coming up to her. He now saw what she was looking at, the body of a cloaked figure, a young woman lying on her back, her green eyes lifeless as she looked past the sky. He looked sideways at her wondering if she would notice him, but she just stood there, emotionless. His first impression of the girl was different from the one he was getting now. Right now, the girl seemed intriguing to him and Gellert wanted to learn more about her.

There was a scream down the street as wizards and witches started to gather. "We need to go Grindelwald!" Albus said urgently, with Queenie standing beside him. Gellert took the girl's hand and led her towards the cabinet. "Hey you, stop there!" A deep voice said. "Hurry!" Albus said and they somehow squeezed in together and shut the cabinet door as wizards and witches flooded the alley...