Solving Riddles

Hello

Hermione sat in her room in the leaky cauldron, she'd spent her day inside as she'd been doing for the past two days. In fact, she rarely ever stepped outside of the two weeks she'd been on vacation. She hadn't heard from Abraxas or Maximus. She'd written to both of them and the lack of response left her worried and alone.

She let her emptiness close in on her and now she felt nothing but the slight sting of loneliness. She looked outside her window and frowned, it was a cloudy day, the first cloudy day she'd seen in three weeks. Although she'd seldom go outside, she often started out of her window monitoring the foot traffic on the streets below and therefore she always saw the bright weather outdoors. The grey skies spiked her curiosity and so she decided to go out. She got up from her desk and walked over to the ancient coat hanger on the left side of the room and threw on her brown jacket before walking out of the room.

The warm smell of butterbeer hit her as she walked down the stairs, her mouth began to water and she had to stop herself from walking over to the bar and getting one because she knew her resolve to go outside would immediately vanish once she drank the creamy goodness. She braced herself as she prepared herself to step out of the leaky cauldron and into Diagon Alley.

The wind hit her like a slap to the face, the weather surprised her beyond belief there was definitely something going on. She walked down the practically empty streets looking through store windows.

She found herself unable to stop walking, she took a left turn and found herself walking towards knockturn alley. She was unable to stop herself, it was as if something was pulling her towards the vile street. Her fingers brushed lightly against crumbling walls as she walked through the street, she could practically feel the black magic radiating out of the buildings. She halted as she reached Borgin and Burkes, she looked through the grim glass on the door and pressed herself against it. She watched as the shopkeeper handed a cloaked figure a book. It was large and dusty and weighed down the figure's hands as the book was placed into it. She watched intently as they conversed and as money was exchanged between the two, she'd quite forgotten where she was and was startled as the door to the shop was opened and pushed her onto her backside. She stared up at the cloaked figure preparing to apologize when suddenly his hood was blown off by a breeze.

She found herself staring at a face she vaguely recognized, he short, wild blond hair, a scarred face and high cheekbones. Light wrinkles running under his eyes spiked another feeling of familiarity from the man. She snapped herself out of her as he sneered down at her, put on his hood and walked away.

She got back onto her feet and dusted herself off, her mind was still whirling at the man's face. She knew him, she was sure she'd seen his face somewhere. She started walking back to Diagon Alley. She stopped at Flourish and Blotts unable to resist the tempting smell of books and the warm air inside the well-known bookstore.

She walked in and looked around, it seemed to be empty. No one stood behind the counter, she surveyed the empty bookstore and smiled at the familiar shelves, she closed her eyes at the wave of nostalgia that hit her and wiped a glistening tear from her face. She walked over to the "best sellers" section and fingered through the books she could no longer afford, she looked up and on the left side of the bookcase was a poster of a man, very familiar. His white hair waved in the wind as his black robe billowed behind him, above his picture in large black letters "Grindelwald Sighted In Scotland". She stared at it, cocking her head to the side, it felt like a slap to the face when it hit her, the hooded man was Grindelwald, she had just fucking met Grindelwald.

XXX

Alexander checked his pocket watch and sighed. Five more minutes before he left to Maximus', his father would be there in an hour, he could wait but he didn't want to. He had no intention of saying goodbye to the man before he left.

Geiger had ended up staying for a week, making Alexander's life more hell than it already was. He'd forced him into lessons every day, Alexander would always return with no less than ten bruises, the man was an absolute brute. Dorothy, the hag, was pleased to see him hurt, she said the training would strengthen his weak mind. Alexander had one thing to say to that: utter bullshit.

Confined within the walls of his room and with three minutes and thirty seconds left, the wheels in his mind started to turn. Leaving to Maximus could be his one chance at escaping, you see, Alexander knew nothing was f the outside world, pretty much all he'd ever seen were the things his father permitted him to, which, albeit, wasn't much. He'd heard of certain places, his "friends" would go on endlessly about the trips they'd taken, and all he could ever do was nod along to their words.

If he got to Maximus, during the last week of his stay he could just vanish. Merlin knows he knew how to do it, there was nothing stopping him apart from the possibility that he could get caught, and if that happened all hell would break loose.

He checked his watch again, it was time. He got up from his desk chair, picked up his suitcase and prepared himself for the painful feeling of disapparation. And with a loud snap, he was gone.

XXX

Abraxas had found himself lost when he'd gotten home. He found himself constantly thinking of Hermione- and Tom- but mostly of what Tom would do to him if he found out. At the beginning was disgusted at himself for even working with her, and now that he liked her he couldn't comprehend much anymore.

He found himself thinking that blood didn't really matter, but then he'd scold himself of course it matters! They're lesser than us.... He'd trail off in thought, he no longer had reason to believe those words, he found them...irrelevant in a sense.

Of course, he hadn't written her, he'd gotten her letters, he just hadn't an idea of what to reply. Yes, she'd asked about Maximus and if the plan was playing out as it should, but when she'd asked about him he'd frozen. For some reason, he couldn't come to cope with the fact that she actually cared to ask after him. He had a stack of letter drafts in the corner of his room, each unfinished. In total, Abraxas was a mess.

XXX

"Starry skies mean bad things lad, come inside." Tom looked behind him to find the owner of the voice and gave a small smile as he met eyes with Archie West. He was a smiling old man, never seemed to have anything bothering him, annoying. The fact that Archie never seemed to have a care in the world irritated Tom beyond belief, "how?"  he'd think. He'd occasionally snap at the man unintentionally out of annoyance, he'd become even more annoyed when the man didn't react. Over time, though, he'd come to terms with it.

"I'll be right in, Archie." He replies before turning back to lean against the balcony railing. Tom found himself there quite often, whenever he wasn't doing task he'd step out to the balcony and aimlessly stare at the sky.

His time at Grindelwald's manor had been quite rough- but unmistakably remarkable. His mind had been opened to so much that he felt the change within himself, it was undoubtable, he was a new man.

Xxxxxx

Sorry, this was just a filler.