Talk To Me (Albus Dumbledore x OC)

4 - The Erkstag

With Newt in front, the remaining four continued on suspiciously, eying the darkened figure warily but following their friend regardless. Aurora was still grumbling profanities under her breath but immediately shut her mouth when the stature of Albus Dumbledore rounded the pillar to meet them in the shadows of another council building. She did nothing but stare in awe that he had actively left the safety of Hogwarts to join them in Berlin – he hadn't stepped foot anywhere else in a significant number of years. Unfortunately, this meant there must be something more sinister happening that they were currently ignorant to. Without waiting for long, Albus started walking around the edges of the building, the others followed willingly.

"Albus? Wha-"

"Theseus has been taken to the Erkstag," he interrupted, snatching his gloves quickly from Newt's grasp. Aurora's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"No- wha- but the Erkstag shut down years ago," he queried, hurrying to keep up with his ex-professor who was setting a harsh pace.

"Yes, well, it's the Ministry's secret little bed and breakfast now," he claimed, a glint of annoyance playing behind his eyes. "You'll need this to see him, and one of these,"

He was pulling a menagerie of different objects from his hat, having clearly used the same expansion charm Aurora had for her bag, including a plastic, holographic ID card and a piece of paper which seemed to drift in the wind and land against Mr Kowalski's face. Though she was still annoyed, that did ease her expression into a small smile as the muggle kindly returned it to Newt without a word, seemingly unfazed. Lally was too interested in hearing what Dumbledore had to say to take much amusement from the situation.

Albus cut across the group, stunting their steps momentarily, before guiding them to the right and through another doorway disguised as the building's outer wall. Lally had jumped behind Jacob and placed both hands on his shoulders to encourage him forward, despite his resignation and attempted efforts to halt before the entrance. He was whining and groaning in anticipation of the nauseating feeling muggles often suffered with port-key travel, various 'wait's and 'hold up's spoken against this movement.

Just as Aurora was taking a step toward where her friends had disappeared, a dark shadow caught her attention momentarily, briefly crossing at the corner of her eye. Turning her head, she scoured her surroundings critically, eyes catching sight of a dark wisp swirling in the air, not far from where they had just ventured. It seemed to twirl and dance in the sky, moving toward her and then floating away again, almost as if teasing her where she stood. She was now alone and on the wrong side of the wall. As she lifted her foot to advance on this tendril of black ash, entranced by the way it seemed to be summoning her attention, a black, gloved hand reached through the wall and held itself, open and patient, for her to take.

Trapped in a moment of indecisiveness, she sighed in defeat and finally took a hold of the waiting hand, wrapping her fingers around it gently. A strong but insistent pull had her climbing back through the wall and onto the side of which her friends had been waiting. Newt met her with a bewildered expression, as if he wanted to ask what she had been doing, but was also worried he wouldn't appreciate the answer. Dumbledore dropped her hand politely, his gaze also holding a silent question.

"Apologies, I got a little distracted – thought I saw something," she admitted sheepishly with a light shrug.

"What was it?" Jacob asked curiously.

"I'm not so sure, can't say I've ever seen one before," she replied thoughtfully before shaking her head and drawing her attention back to their surroundings.