2 2: Nurmengard Castle

In the eerie cold of the Austrian Alps, two children can be seen sitting around one of the many fireplaces the castle has. The two kids, one boy, and one girl are playing with a children's book, one where most of the images are moving around. While they were messing with the book and giggling with each other, the door to the living room opened.

From there, emerged a seemingly young woman who was pushing a sort of archaic wheelchair, whereas a man with little to no hair, and blank back eyes, was sitting. Behind them came an apparently young house-elf, carrying a tray full of different snacks.

""Mommy!"" happily shouted the four-year-old twins.

The first one to get up was the boy, with short silvery-blond hair, with almost white-blue eyes that seemed to twinkle from time to time. Right behind him, the girl, with jet-black long hair, but with the same eyes as the boy, calmly laid the book on the floor, before getting up and, like the boy, embracing their mother.

"How are my little cuties doing? Mommy missed you very much!" The woman welcomed their hug, before greeting them with a tone full of love.

"We're doing well of course, but how can you miss us if you saw us just this morning?" asked the girl, Lysandra, with a teasing tone normal for children her age.

Isadora looked at her daughter, before chuckling out loud. "Oh my little princess, the love of a mother is insatiable." She then spoke, with a loving smile.

Alaric, seeing that his mother and sister wouldn't stop teasing each other anytime soon, decided to intervene "Mommy, can you teach me the magic they did to make the pictures move in the book please?" With a face that could put the cutest puppies to shame, Alaric asked his mother, emphasizing the 'Mommy', which definitely worked, since before he could react, he already was in his mother's embrace.

"Of course, my little prince, of course. Mommy will do anything you ask! Do you want some tutors? or maybe first..." She then looked at Flint, the recently bought house-elf. "Flint, bring me the best initiation books on transfiguration, dark charms, alchemy, curses, shadow mag..."

While their mother was ordering around the elf, Lysandra looked at their father. He, as always didn't possess any form of expression or emotion on his visage while staring blankly at the fireplace. To her, this was the norm. She used to wonder if every father was like this until her mom told them that a very evil man did that to him.

"Mom, do you think that if I learn a lot of healing magic and spells, I can heal Daddy?" said the girl. Her mother, who was yet to stop listing all the books she wanted Flint to bring, stuttered a bit. She then looked at her daughter, with probably the brightest smile she ever displayed, then looked at Flint again "Bring me also every single book on healing arts and spells."

"Yes, master." After the elf disapparated, Isadora turned to her two kids. "I know you two want to start reading those books, but you will need some tutors first. Magic is not something that, by reading a mere tome or scroll, will make you a master of it. " She then paused, trying to see if the twins understood. "Anyways, that's not why I'm here today when I should be doing Lordship duties. I have a very big surprise for you!"

"I love surprises!" commented Alaric.

"And what might this surprise be?" After Lysandra asked, their mother happily looked at them.

"We're going to see your grandfather!" Shouted Isadora, trying to convey her eagerness to show her father his grandkids.

""We have a grandfather?!""

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"The Nurmengard Castle was originally built by your grandfather as a prison to hold his enemies. He also used it as his base of operations for his... group of friends." Explained Isadora. In front of them was a castle-like building, with the words "For the Greater Good" carved in its doors. Nurmengard was a stone fortress at the edge of a mountain, also in the Austrian Alps. It had a tower with a cone-shaped top, and a watch tower filled with guards to the brim. There was a building connected to the tower, that was slim with windows, where the entrance was. Nurmengard also had a courtyard, which was gated.

"Why are there so many people outside? Isn't this grandfather's house?" asked one of the twins.

"Well, you see Alaric, your grandfather did some... misdeeds, so now he's a prisoner in his home." said their mother nervously. 'They don't need to know the horrible things he did just yet.'

When they reached closer to its entrance, the guards on duty, who knew of their visit, made way for them to enter, opening the doors to the main hallway.

Inside the main building, there was a hallway with a velvet carpet detailed with white lines and also a table. Besides the table, was an immoderate fat man, wearing a blue uniform. Said man just looked at the visitors, and after a nod to the adult woman, he casted a set of analyzing and search spells. He immediately excused himself after, letting Isadora and her two children go forward.

One might think that such security wasn't worthy of the most secure prison after Azkaban, with the way the guards seemed to work. The thing is, Nurmengard's security didn't rely on guards or magical beasts such as Dementors. What composed its security was the set of enchantments and charms made by Gellert Grindelwald himself, that, even after almost 60 years, stayed strong enough to keep the man himself incarcerated.

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Walking through the narrow stairs that led to the topmost cell, one could see that little to no natural light entered the place. The damp smell caused your nostrils to almost close, and the fact that there was no ventilation didn't help. The higher you got, the less and less warming charms you could feel, and the cold chilly air seeped into your bones.

Finally, the family reached a steel-gray door with what appeared to be a small basin in it. After a drop of blood from Isadora, the door slowly creaked open, revealing another room that was separated into two halves by dark cell bars. Beyond those bars, laid an old man clothed in black-stripped rags, which showed that he was a prisoner here. Beyond those bars, Gellert Grindelwald was looking at his visitors with a rarely shown warm expression.

The man was but a shadow of his former self, with his once silver-blonde hair nowhere to be seen, his white-blue eyes lacked a glow that was native to them, and his skin was rugged and wrinkled, like that of an old carpet.

"Father." muttered Isadora.

"Little Dora" teased her father, father which she hadn't seen in years.

"I've told you a million times to not call me that!" the seemingly angry Isadora shouted. Even so, were one to look closely at her expression, one would see the small smile she had on her face.

After looking at each other for a while, the father and daughter duo hugged each other through the cold cell bars. No words were spoken, but a lot of feelings were conveyed.

After separating, the woman brought the two nervous kids forward. While Alaric, who heard of his grandfather's feat of enchanting this prison, looked at him with awe, Lysandra, on the other hand, pondered what could've their grandfather done to be made a prisoner in his own fortress.

Meanwhile, Gellert was looking at the two children. His eyes wandered around each of the kid's faces, taking in their features. Before he could continue a small voice echoed in the room.

"Hmm...hello..." muttured Alaric. "Oh...yeah, hello." greeted Lysandra as well, as if her brother had broken her thoughts.

"Well, I think your mother told you two enough to know who I am, but still..." He then kneeled, so that he would be at the kid's height "I'm Gellert Grindelwald, your grandfather, a pleasure."

"Uh... nice to meet you g-grandfather!" stuttered Alaric, still not used to the word, looking intently at his grandfather, trying to understand his emotions.

"Same." Added Lysandra.

"No need to be so nervous around me. I'm..."

While Gellert talked to the kids, trying to make them loosen up, he felt a small mental probe, brushing past his occlumency defenses. His eyes then paused in Alaric, while a wide grin appeared on his face.

"Isadora my dear, you didn't tell me that little Alaric was a natural legilimens. Not only that but also a natural occlumens." He said, after sending a small mental spell, a spell that was blocked unintentionally by Alaric's mental defenses.

He then sent the same legillimens probe to Lysandra. "A shame, little Lysandra isn't a natural legilimens, but at least a natural occlumens."

Isadora was flabbergasted "Merlin's beard... you're telling me they're both natural in the mind arts?" As she tried to think of an answer, her mind went back to the time her father had told her about the Qilin he had sacrificed.

Before she could speak, however, Gellert said himself " Yes, they probably inherited some of the seer's blood I acquired after sacrificing that Qilin, which in turn made them gifted in the mind arts. Still, I thought it wouldn't become a trait after you didn't get it. But who would've thought that both of your children would gain it..."

"Are there going to be any side effects??" Isadora's mother's side started to kick in.

"If you consider them being extremely lucky and some visions here and there as side effects, then yes, there are some side effects" Joked Gellert.

The family continued to talk throughout the evening, mostly Gellert and Isadora, while Alaric and Lysandra listened. To Alaric, Gellert told some stories about his magical feats, which in turn made the kid even more eager to go back home and study. To Lysandra, he shared some experiences he also had in the healing field, something that distracted her from the fact that no one told them why their grandfather was in jail.

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After returning home, the twins instantly dove into the mountain of books that had formed in the main living room of the castle.

Their mother happily looked at this. 'I just hope this happy life can continue. Maybe now that Voldemort is dead, they won't have to grow up with the threat of looming death always beside them. And one day...' She then looked back at her husband's disfigured face. 'One day we'll heal you, and you'll be able to walk by our side.'