HERE WE GO AGAIN (Patreon)

Chapter 23- The Potter Connection

“I am fed up with searching, Gellert,” Endrick grumbled as he stood before the man. “Every angle is a dead end. Everything you have come up with is to no avail.”

Gellert sighed in frustration as he stood and moved towards the open window. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. Endrick’s words had fueled a desire in Gellert to look for the Resurrection Stone. His desire to speak to Albus one last time and admit he was the reason why his sister was dead was growing stronger with each passing day.

Endrick was surprised when he was revealed about the existence of the legendary Deathly Hallows. He had only mentioned the Stone in passing and never expected the thing to be real. Gellert needed to learn about the whereabouts of the stone.

He still remembered the research of the Hallows and their whereabouts with Albus. Great difficulty and years of searching made it possible to find the Elder wand. As soon as he had the wand in his hands, he searched for the rest of the two with increased fervour to get nothing out of it. Moving forward, he gave up any hope of uniting the three. He knew that he would never be able to find the remaining two.

“Do you have nothing you can tell me about?” Endrick questioned as he walked up behind the man. “Any information, small or big, now is the time to remember it, Gellert. We should have something if this search needs to bear fruit.”

Gellert raked his brain for any information he could remember. The Elder Wand was the artefact the eldest of the three brothers possessed. He went on a spree, trying to prove his superiority, only to get killed and the wand taken away and then went on to pass hands frequently—an object with the bloodiest history.

The stone, being the possession of the second brother, was the item he was genuinely interested in. He frowned. The second brother used the stone to bring back his lost love.

Gellert straightened up slightly. “He had a wife.” He said. “The second brother had a wife whom he wanted to recall so that he could meet and talk to her. There is a possibility that the stone would be with a son or daughter of his. Mind you, it is just a possibility.”

“Where do you expect me to find something about a long-lost family line?” Endrick growled. “The Peverell you speak of has been erased from the pages of history. There is zero information regarding the family, and it is just impossible to get any records, not easily, at the least.”

“If that is the case, I have no answer about what we can do,” Gellert replied honestly. “I can’t think of anything else, sorry.”

“What am I doing?” Gellert questioned with a frustrated sigh. “Why am I trying to do something improbable?”

“Closure.” The other man replied, stepping up next to Gellert. “You said it yourself, didn’t you?”

Gellert frowned. He did. He wanted Albus to know that he was the one responsible for the death of his sister. Albus deserved that much and would ensure the man would find out the truth.

“We keep looking,” Gellert muttered. He failed to notice a smirk that adorned the other man’s face. “We will find something.” He said confidently as he left the room.

BREAK—

Tom Riddle was dead. For Gellert, though, it did not come as a surprise. Albus was sure that Potter would end the man. It was ironic that the Potters would be the ones to end three terror reigns. In his time, Charlus Potter was the one; now, Harry Potter was the other.

He was not surprised that Albus’s words proved right once again. He was used to it. The man could see things that many others would fail to. His hindsight was twenty on twenty.

From what he had heard, Potter managed to off the Dark Lord with a disarming charm. Now, that was something he had yet to fathom. How can a Dark lord, who had unleashed hell upon the entirety of Britain, be killed with a simple Expeliarmus? He did know that it was more complex than that. There was no chance that the end would be less dramatic.

Britain was in a celebratory mood ever since the end of a reign of terror and the rise of a new dawn. Things were happening. The Dark Lord’s men were being apprehended and chucked into prison. Everything that the man and his cohorts influenced was being brought down individually. The damage the man inflicted upon the public would take longer than necessary to get back to normal.

Gellert and Endrick, though, were stuck on the same point. They had yet to find any leads. They were as close to any information about the stone as they were three months back. Nothing. There was no information about what happened to Cadmus Peverell or his blood. He was sure he would find any other family with strong ties with Cadmus Peverell. He knew that the man had been married, and he had used this stone to call back his dead wife.

Everything after had led to nothing. There was zero information about the Peverells. It was not surprising, but now, when they had managed to compile their resources regarding the family, it was an achievement that he and Albus had put a name to the Three Brothers from the legends.

He heard Endrick calling his name, and judging by the man's tone, he seemed mad. The man held a book in his hand and frowned as soon as he saw Gellert.

“You have been sending me in circles, you old fool!” He slammed the book on the table, not caring what was on top of it. “Look!” He snapped, pointing over to a paragraph.

Gellert noticed that the pages pertained to the tale of the Three Brothers. He zeroed in on the paragraph the man was pointing at.

“The middle brother returned to his home where he lived alone. Turning the stone thrice in his hand, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry before her untimely death appeared at once before him, much to his delight.” Gellert dropped his head into his hands. His head began to ache slightly.

“The damn Peverell never married, Gellert!” Endrick hissed. “All this while, we were looking for a connection in an angle that never existed.”

Gellert sighed as he slacked in his chair. This set them back to a large extent. Everything they had looked for was now of no use.

“Just drop it all, Gellert.” He continued. “There is no use of it anymore.”

Gellert focused on the book's pages, drowning out the other man. What did happen to the stone? His eyes caught the next part of the story. The one of Ignotus Peverell.

The last brother who managed to fool death and chose his deadline. The tale of the fabled Invisibility Cloak of the third brother always fascinated Gellert.

The third brother asked for something straightforward and used the same to fool Death. He did not do it to antagonise a natural factor but to live his life to the fullest. It was not something anybody would have expected to possess.

One holds a powerful wand that is said to be unbeatable. A wand that amplifies the strength of a wizard and gives enough power to trounce any opponent. A stone that could bring back the essence of anybody they wished for who passed on. The magnitude of such an artefact was mind-blowing. The knowledge one can gain from those who have been dead for ages: lost and forbidden information that would never be found anywhere else.

Among these was the third brother, who asked for an Invisibility Cloak. He never thought much of that invisibility cloak and what it could do until today when he read what it did.

The Cloak was able to shield a person from death. The third brother supposedly managed to fool death and keep himself away from his grasp for a long time. When he had led a seemingly complete life and decided that he had enough, he walked up to Death and welcomed him.

“Ignotus Peverell?” He muttered with a frown. ‘Where have I seen that name before?’ He raked his brains, figuring out where that name was seen. He closed his eyes and tried to remember where he had seen the name. He had heard the name long before when he and Albus were invested in the Hallows, but he was sure that he knew Ignotus Peverell personally.

“Godric’s Hollow!” He exclaimed as his eyes flew open. He had seen the grave of Ignotus Peverell when Albus had been to see his father’s final resting place after the man’s death.

He gestured for Endrick to follow and vanished, knowing the man could follow. He appeared on the outskirts of the place he had visited long back. He heard the man pop in next to him, and the two continued on the road. Gellert made sure to change his appearance as they continued on the path.

They came across a bronze statue of a man, a woman and a child, which he recognised as the Potters, judging from the various wishes and flowers surrounding the statue's base.

“The Potters?” Endrick questioned, nodding as Gellert hummed his agreement. He spared one final glance at the statue and continued towards his destination.

“Where are we going?” He heard the man question, but he continued without a reply until they arrived at the cemetery.

“The third brother is buried over here,” Gellert replied, walking into the cemetery and looking around for the grave. “I just wanted a confirmation. I might be able to find something.”

He continued in his path, looking for the grave, when he noticed a person some distance away. He would not have given it a second thought if not for the appearance of the man. He was sure nobody was around when he began looking for the spot. He looked around before speaking to Endrick; now, a person appears out of thin air.

He moved closer to the person, all the while keeping an eye out for what he was searching and he recognised the person ahead.

“Is that Potter?” Gellert nodded, motioned for Endrick to follow him, and moved away from the young man. He was having a private moment in front of two graves, which were likely his deceased parents. Gellert didn’t want to intrude and stayed away from his surroundings. The two kept up their search all the while, with Gellert keeping an eye on the young man on the other side of the cemetery.

It was another half an hour later that the young man left, and Gellert sighed. He had taken his time, and it was getting increasingly difficult to pretend they were just here to visit a dead family member.

The two men decided to look on the other side of the plot and reached the spot where the Potters were buried. He was about to move away when something caught his eye. A weathered grave that was on the cusp of falling apart. It was not the old grave but the symbol on it that gave him pause.

The symbol that he had incorporated as his own. The symbol that he had his men banner under. The emblem of Grindelwald, they said. To this day, there is that symbol in Durmstrang that he had etched on the walls when he was a student.

“Ignotus Peverell.” He read the name on the grave and smiled in satisfaction. “Look.” He beckoned Endrick next to him and pointed at the cracked gravestone. Things would have been different if people knew who was inside this grave, what he managed to do, and what his family held. Yet here he was, standing in front of the resting place of a legend, a name forgotten by wizards and witches.

“So this was the third brother?” Endrick questioned. At Gellert’s nod, he continued. “So…?” He looked around. “What are we doing here?”

Gellert missed it initially, but he noticed a bouquet placed at the foot of the grave. He failed to understand who it could have been, but his only explanation was Potter. He observed a similar set of bouquets placed under two more graves.

“We were looking in the wrong place, Gellert.” Endrick deduced, looking at the two graves closely.

“It turns out that we finally found the missing link.”

“The Peverells might be erased from the pages of history, but not the Potters.”

BREAK-

Three days and hundreds of books later, they concluded they were back where they started. The Potters were related to Ignotus Peverell. Not Cadmus Peverell. The stone continued to be elusive, and despite trying hard to find anything that links the Potters to the second brother, they came up with nothing.

Gellert was in a dilemma. He knew by now that the love of Cadmus Peverell that he wanted to marry was dead. The first brother was never found for years, and he died childless. Ignotus Peverell was the only man among the three who continued his bloodline through the Potter family. The daughter of Ignotus, Iolanthe, was married to Hardwin Potter, which signifies the end of the Peverell family as the last living blood was merged with the Potter family.

The Elder Wand was missing. What happened to the wand after Albus’s death, he had no idea. Either Tom Riddle had obtained the wand, or it would remain missing forever. That leaves the stone and the cloak. The Potters were the only ones likely to possess the cloak and the stone.

The cloak was of no matter to Gellert. He wanted the stone and only for a few minutes at the most. One conversation with Albus, and he would be more than happy. The issue was how to procure the stone. He could not go up to Potter and ask for the stone. If the Potters did know about what the stone meant, there was no way they would ever disclose it to an outsider. Come to think of it, he doubted if Harry Potter even knew about the stone.

“I don’t see any other way,” Endrick muttered. “What are we supposed to do? Go and ask for a best-kept secret?”

Gellert was silent as he thought of any possible way to procure the stone, but he came up short.

He shook his head. “No.” He whispered. “I see no possible way to get the stone. It is a waste of time.”

“It’s time to let bygones be bygones. Albus is dead. There is nothing that I can do to change that. We are running around in circles, and I am tired of it.”

“Whenever we think of something, we run around in loops to return to being helpless. I don’t know why I am entertaining this. There is no point of it.”

Endrick stared at Gellert for a few moments and shook his head. “It is not like you, Gellert.” He muttered. “So soon to give up? What happened to the man mad enough to make decisions that amazed us during the war?”

“That man is dead!” Gellert roared, his hands slamming down on the table. His breath was bated as he glared balefully at the man. “That man died half a century ago, Burton. He died when he was thrown into Nurmengard.”

“You think I was sitting in that cell without any option? Do you think I was sitting there, unable to escape?”

“I wanted to stay there, Burton.” He chuckled humourlessly. “You will never understand what was going through my head. It is better that way. Any other man apart from me in my place would not have been sane enough after a year at Nurmengard, not to mention the last few months before everything fell apart.”

“We end this,” Gellert said, looking back at the man. “Go and live peacefully, Endrick.” His eyes softened. “This life of ours is at the end of its journey. There is little that we can do anymore. We have done everything we can; it’s time to sit back and finish the ride.”

“It was a miracle that you escaped without any issues, but be happy you got out. I very much hope your life was good enough. Go home, Endrick.”

The two men remained silent, staring away from each other before Endrick relented. “What about you?” Gellert shrugged as he faced the man. “Nurmengard has been my home for the past fifty years. There is little that I want that is outside. I will go back.”

“So this is goodbye, then?” Gellert nodded. “It is.” He paused. “Although there is one last stop.”

Endrick nodded. “Need company?” Gellert shrugged. “I don’t see any reason not to. Come on.”

Endrick let the man move ahead as he stayed back, his eyes watching as Gellert stepped out of their hideout and disappeared without a sound. “I don’t think this a goodbye, Gellert.” He said to nobody in particular. “Not by a long shot.”

Endrick reached into his pocket and pulled out a parchment crumpled heavily. His gaze never wavered for a moment as his jaw tightened in anger.

“Your life might be finished, Gellert, but not mine. Unfinished businesses must not remain incomplete. Mine has been pending for over fifty-odd years. It is time to give back what Charlus Potter so graciously gifted.”

TBC—-------