Bellatrix and Rodolphus managed to get dressed and stagger downstairs where Lyra was already at the breakfast table slumped miserably over a cup of coffee, clutching her head.
"This is your fault," Bellatrix growled at her daughter as she took a seat across from her. "Thanks to you and your uncle we're going to have a bloody miserable day!" She glared around, noticing that said Uncle was not yet present. "If Rabastan isn't down here in five minutes I am going up stairs to Crucio him awake," Bellatrix promised. "We all have to go into the bloody Ministry today, and that's about the last thing I want to do. Whatever they'll have us doing will involve a lot of complex magic, I'm sure, and right now I can barely cast a curse."
"Sorry," Lyra said. "That is probably going to suck for you."
"Oh, no…for all of us," Bellatrix promised, smiling triumphantly at her daughter. "You are coming with us. I want Grindelwald to meet you. He will be interested in your mental abilities."
"Sounds great," Lyra said in a falsely cheerful tone. The smile she gave her mother was strained as she clutched her cup of coffee. "I won't be so impressive when I'm not feeling well, though, so tomorrow would be better."
Bellatrix smirked. "I agree, but we have to go in today. Therefore, you get to go in too, because it's your fault we feel rubbish right now! If you recall, I was against getting wrecked."
"You were just worried about Delphini! You weren't thinking about work, so you're being unfair."
"Ask me if I care," Bellatrix dared. Rabastan came stumbling in then, and Lyra turned to him. "Yea, you avoided my psycho mom waking you with a Crucio," she said, and Rabastan shuddered.
"She's in one of those moods then?" he muttered, slumping into a chair.
"Bloody right I am, because it's your fault and Lyra's fault that we're up having to go to work hungover. Where we will certainly be performing a lot of complex magic to deal with one catastrophe or other."
Rabastan groaned. "Aren't you a ray of fucking sunshine?"
"I'll show you sunshine," Bellatrix growled, reaching into her corset for her wand.
"Now, now, you know we don't have time to play, love," Rodolphus said, leaning to kiss Bella's cheek as he reached for the coffee pot.
After downing two eggs and a slice of toast for breakfast, along with three strong cups of coffee and a headache-away potion, Bellatrix was feeling a bit better…mostly. They got to the Ministry fifteen minutes later than Rod's promised hour, but at least they got there. They Apparated directly into Auror Headquarters. Grindelwald was in the middle of addressing the Aurors. He stood at the head of the room, gesturing with his wand for illustration as he spoke. When the Lestranges appeared, he completed his sentence, and turned to them.
"Here is a perfect example," he said grandly, pointing at the Lestranges as though they were an exhibit he wanted everyone to get a good look at. Bellatrix bit back a sigh. She knew this was going to be a hellish day!
"They are quite good at dueling. They put terror into the hearts of brave men with their very names! Not me, of course," he added, laughing blue eyes regarding them with amusement. Bellatrix stared back suspiciously, wondering what the fuck he was playing at.
Grindelwald gave her a cheeky wink before turning back to the group. "In short, they're big bad fighters, but I could take them all alone, without any effort whatsoever." He flashed a grin. "I don't expect you to be me, because let's face it...who could be?" He tossed his blonde hair, and Bellatrix rolled her eyes and sighed. It was going to be a long day indeed.
Grindelwald paused for a moment. In that brief silence, the laughter left his face, and he regarded the group of Aurors with an almost grim expression. "You don't have to be me, but if you wish to have the highest chance of surviving the current madness, you may want to get as close to being me as you can when it comes to combat."
"How are we supposed to do that," an Auror asked from the crowd, doubt clear in his voice.
"I thought I'd try to teach those of you who can learn a few tricks," Grindelwald said. "Before that, though, I'd like you to watch me duel these three. I want to show you what they're doing wrong so that you can understand what you should not be doing."
And now Bellatrix was offended! They may not be bloody Grindelwald, but they were good enough to make grown men shit and piss themselves, so they hardly deserved the honor of being Grindelwald's example of bad fighting!
"Don't sulk," he chided Bellatrix with a chuckle. "Just because I can beat all three of you with my wand hand tied behind my back doesn't mean you aren't better than everyone else here."
Bellatrix was mildly mollified by that admission, but the fact he wanted to wipe the floor with them to prove a point to a bunch of bloody Aurors still galled.
"Alright, then, all of you against me. Go!" Gellert called, laughing. Rodolphus and Rabastan struck first while Bellatrix watched. Grindelwald's wand swept from side to side at lightning speed, hurling spells that caused whatever Rabastan and Rodolphus attempted to slide off.
Annoyed at the fact she couldn't make out what he was doing, Bellatrix stepped forward. "Crucio," she hissed. Grindelwald hadn't mentioned limits, after all. She wasn't trying to kill him, because he was Grindelwald, and as such useful, but in her book anything else went. Rodolphus and Rabastan were jumping on the Crucio train with Bellatrix when they all three began to slide backward, seemingly pushed by a wall of air. Bellatrix gritted her teeth as she struggled to remain on her feet.
"Come on," Grindelwald taunted, a mildly frustrated scowl on his face as he glared at them. "That's all you've got? Are you sure you're the Lestranges everyone knows and fears, or did Voldemort manage to break you, after all?"
With a scream of rage, Bellatrix hurled herself forward, wand flashing as she threw the worst hexes she knew, only to be pushed back by the same wall of air. Rodolphus threw his own hexes with the same lack of results. For his part, Rabastan attempted to dismantle whatever shield Grindelwald was using to push them away, but the effort only got him pushed harder.
All their attempts failed, yet they continued to attack. "Alright," Grindelwald called. "I'm bored. Stop. Lower your wands." They did, and he smiled. "Now I want one of you at a time."
"Why?" Bellatrix demanded.
"To demonstrate another aspect of what one should not do if they hope to be nearly as good as I am," Gellert replied with a smirk.
Glaring, Bellatrix stepped forward.
"Romeo, Crackle, come and fight her with me," Gellert invited. The Head Auror and an elf stepped up to flank Grindelwald to either side, and Romeo Valdez gave Bellatrix a nod of greeting.
"We sent Aurors to check up on you in case...Delphini had attacked your place or something."
Bellatrix nodded. "Sorry about that. My daughter and stupid brother-in-law wanted to get drunk and play a getting to know one another game last night, and we didn't wake as planned."
Romeo grinned. "I suppose that's understandable...once."
"Alright, Bellatrix, you are to duel all three of us at once," Grindelwald called out. "And go!"
The elf and Head Auror were good, but Bellatrix felt she could hold her own for a bit at least. Grindelwald, on the other hand, was another matter. Apparently he had another point to prove, however, because this time, he was fighting normally rather than in his usual Grindelwald style.
"Do you know what you're doing wrong, Bellatrix," he asked after several minutes. Bellatrix frowned. She was actually beginning to enjoy herself and holding off all three of them due to Grindelwald obviously not trying very hard.
"I was having fun, and holding my own, but you've ruined it now, so go on... What am I doing so wrong," she asked, sparks flying as her hex met his blocking charm.
The four-way duel continued as he answered, no one missing a beat. "Simple," he said, giving a satisfied smirk. "You are attending to all three of us as individuals. That is more difficult. You are good, though, so you will hold your own. This method shall tire you far too fast, though. You could probably continue to handle it if two more joined me, but again you will tire soon enough. The way to avoid this is to handle everyone's attacks with one spell at a time rather than one for each of theirs. With this method you use far less magic."
"It really is far easier." The comment came from Blaise Zabini. He approached with a cup of coffee in either hand. Extending one to Gellert, he kissed the blonde on the cheek.
"Thanks," Gellert said, gaze softening briefly as his eyes met those of his partner.
"Rest for a moment," he told Bellatrix. Romeo and the elf retreated, rejoining the other Aurors.
"Blaise is the only other wizard who can match me," Gellert said, addressing the entire group once again. "I always saw his strength and potential just in the way he worked enchantments, but he was never confident that his dueling skills could come anywhere close to mine."
"I mean I was good, but as you've all seen more than once, there is good, and then there is Gellert," Blaise said. "Then I discovered that I was going about it all the wrong way in my mind. By that, I mean, I thought I'd have to duel a ton of people individually, yet all at once... Rather like Bellatrix was just doing. I believed Gellert could hold off forty Aurors by having super speed and knowing how to transfigure spells in the air. I can work with that, to a degree, but the general concept of holding my own against more than five or so was mentally overwhelming. When he showed me a few tricks that allowed me to do one thing that held several spells at bay, it was far easier."
"Of course, none of you will be as good as he is, but if you learn half of what he could, you should survive," Gellert said with a smirk. "Today I will teach you a few simple blocks, shields, and dispersion spells that will handle several dozen attackers at once if you cast them around you in a wall shape, which I will also show you."