Fate and Destiny

Chapter 1

“It's nice to see you again.”

The words were an ice bath, chilling her to the bone despite the warm summer weather. Any attempt to not shiver was futile as Cassie did so anyway.

She placed a leather bookmark between the pages of the book she was reading and sat it on the table beneath the window.
“I don’t want to hear you, I want to talk to you, I don’t even want to see you.” I could see his reflection in the window, his blond hair looking golden in the light. There was a chuckle as she gripped the edge of the wooden table.

“I’m afraid none of those are going to happen,” Gellert said. “Turn around and look at me, Cassie.”
“No.”
“Don’t argue, Cassie,” he said, his voice so soft and gentle. It was as deceiving as it had been when she had first met him. Before she could reply, his hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him. “Still as beautiful as ever.”

She cursed the man in her head, not daring to say any of it out loud. His fingers tucked her fringe behind her ear.
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed, stepping backwards into the table.
“I’ll do as I like anyway,” he said with a shrug.

He stared at her with his piercing blue eyes and then she realised why he was there.
“I won’t tell you,” she said firmly. He sighed and slowly started to walk around the room, lazily looking at the furniture and the oil paintings on the wall. Stopping at the vase of flowers on top of a chest of drawers, he plucked one of the flowers from it. She had been meaning to put more water in the vase. Gellert snapped the stalk, tossing the waste on top of the drawers and headed back over to Cassie.

“I never understood why you stopped wearing those nice clothes. Those pretty dresses too, and you stopped putting a flower in your hair.”
“I grew up.”
He chuckled. “I know why you did it in the first place so don’t lie to me.” She shivered once again as he tucked the flower behind her ear. Her gaze was fixed on the rug instead of him.

“Tell me what I want, Cassie,” he said firmly but not harshly. “I don’t want to hurt you, I’d rather not use imperio or crucio to get that information from you.”
“I won’t tell you,” she said, finally meeting his gaze. “I won’t tell you anything at all.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, don’t force me to.”
“I’m not forcing you to do anything, Gellert.”

“Try not to scream then.” His lips twitched up into a smirk. “Crucio.”

Her teeth sunk into her lips in an attempt to stop herself from screaming. Every nerve in her body burned and her legs gave out from underneath her. Gellert caught her, lowering her to the floor where she writhed in pain.
“I should have silenced you, if I’m honest,” he whispered. The pain continued as she tried to focus on anything that wasn’t the searing pain. He pulled her to him so her head rested on his chest. “Then again, it would be rather contradictory. I am trying to get you to talk and tell me about the Deathly Hallows.

“Please,” was her muffled plea as tears streamed down her cheeks.
“I’ll stop if you tell me everything you know about the Deathly Hallows.” She just squirmed and squeezed her eyes shut, not knowing how long she would be able to stand the pain for. “Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”

The pain stopped and she trembled, taking deep breaths as she tried to regain some form of composure and dignity. His arms remained holding her and he wasn’t letting go.
“Talk.” His voice was commanding and she looked down.
“Gregorovitch has the wand,” she said, her voice breaking as she spoke. “I think the other two are family heirlooms, I’ve been trying to figure out which families.”

From what she could guess, they were pureblood families. The wand was a rumour but she didn’t know if it was true or false. It could easily have been a rumour started by Gregorovitch for some sort of fame.

“I know about the wand,” he said. Cassie wasn’t surprised at that. “Which families?”
“Purebloods,” she replied. “I’ve been trying to trace their family trees. The Black family keep extensive records but I can’t get my hands on them.” He hummed as he finally let go of her. She wasn’t sure on whether to move or not but eventually decided that she needed to stand.
“Do you think they have one of them?”
“If so, it would be the ring but I can’t say either way,” she said honestly as she turned to see him standing up. “We know the Peverells died out, it’s just finding out who their descendants were.”
“Thank you.”

Her arms were covered in goosebumps and she shivered yet again.
“Have you talked to Albus lately?” he asked. Cassie shook her head, knowing that Albus had never talked to him since. “What about Aberforth?”
“He never liked me too much anyway,” she said. And Aberforth had refused to talk to Cassie after the argument between the brothers and Gellert. Whatever had happened resulted in Ariana’s death and Cassie was glad she hadn’t been there.
“I didn’t expect you to talk to them if I’m honest.”

Cassie sighed as she looked at the man who had once been one of her closest friends.
“What happened to you, Gellert?” she asked, taking a careful step towards him. “You weren’t like this.”
“I just started to achieve my dreams. Aberforth thought we were stupid and foolish for what we did but he was wrong.”
“You don’t have any of the Hallows,” said Cassie. Sometimes she even questioned their existence. But then he pulled out something almost unbelievable.

“The Elder Wand,” he said, holding it out proudly to her.
“Oh my god, Gellert…” she trailed off, walking over to look at the most powerful wand ever created. “How?”
“Gregorovitch.”
“You killed him?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. She wouldn’t have been surprised with what happened with Ariana and the Elder Wand’s bloody history. It also meant the rumours were true.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “You only have to disarm the owner.”

She picked it up from his hand, staring at it in awe. It was beautiful.
“It’s wonderful, Gellert,” Cassie whispered as he took it back.
“It is, it’s powerful too.” Cassie frowned as she looked at the wand in his hand. That wand made him the most powerful wizard in the world. But it could easily be taken away with one person disarming him. She almost wished she could do wandless magic, it wouldn’t matter if he heard her. But she couldn’t.

“Join me.” Cassie froze.
“No, I can’t, Gellert,” she said, shaking her head. She stepped back. “You’re not my friend, you haven’t been for years, this is impressive but you just used the Cruciatus curse on me.”
“You are my friend.”
“You disappeared!” Cassie yelled. “Ariana died and you disappeared and Albus wouldn’t talk to me.”
“I didn’t kill her,” he said calmly.
“Then why did you run?”

Gellert didn’t respond and looked away.
“You could have sent letters or visited or something, you knew where I was,” she said. It had hurt, losing the two people she had grown so close too. He said nothing. “Get out.”
“Cassie, please. I want to make it so we don’t have to hide. I won’t let the Muggles bully people like you and Ariana. It hurt her and I know it hurt you too, even if you pretend it didn’t.”
“Gellert…” she sighed. He had tortured her, how could she help him? It took all of her self control not to slap him. “If you wanted my help, you shouldn’t have tortured me and maybe I’d care about what you’re doing if I was actually involved instead of being left out for the last ten years!”

Gellert stared at her for a moment before turning and leaving without saying another word. Cassie collapsed to the floor, on the soft rug she was thankful for, feeling tears well up in her eyes.