"How are we to be involved," Cassius asked.
Grindelwald shrugged. "I'm still working that bit out where you and Lyra are concerned, but I have stronger inclinations for the tasks of Wulfric and his lady."
"I'm in it?" Graven squawked. "I mean, what's it all got to do with me? This isn't supposed to be a goblin thing." Then not quite under her breath, she added, "I am way too fucking high for this."
"If I am correct, you could be descended from the first goblin king, King Ragnuk. My guess is that Wulfric is descended from Godric Gryffindor, perhaps from both parents."
Graven let out a sigh as she blinked blearily at Grindelwald. "So Wulfric and I are supposed to right the past wrongs done to the goblins by old Gryffindor over the stupid sword?"
Gellert flashed her an amused grin. "And here you were thinking you were too high," he chastised. "Though I do recommend not being so high for a while, as you shall likely be working with some very complex magic on a regular basis very soon."
"Motherfucker," Graven groaned, her shoulders slumping in dejection.
"Oh, not being high isn't that bad, really," Gellert told her with an offhand shrug. "And if it makes you feel any better, you've already righted the wrongs between Gryffindor and the goblin king with your relationship alone. What I need the two of you to do now is to kill Delphini for me."
"Oh, is that all?" Graven drawled.
Gellert grinned. "Yep, that's it. Only a small inconvenience really."
"So what was the deal with Gryffindor's sword and the goblins anyway?" Rabastan wanted to know. "Didn't Gryffindor commission the sword to be made by the king, but the king liked it so much after he made it he wanted to keep it?"
Gellert nodded. "Something like that."
"Well, fucking why didn't Gryffindor just let the goblin make him another, and avoid a war?" Rabastan complained.
Gellert nodded. "Indeed, that would've been the logical thing to do."
"I always thought Gryffindor didn't want anyone else to have a sword as powerful as his, so he wouldn't go for that," Graven speculated. "Otherwise what was to stop the king from just making another sword for himself after giving Godric's to him?"
"Perhaps they had no more of one of the necessary components used to make it," Wulfric suggested. "Either way, even if you're right, what can Graven and I do as their descendants now," he asked Grindelwald.
"Dude, I could be royal," Graven murmured with a high, bemused smile.
"How, when there aren't kings anymore," Lyra asked, and Graven shot her a frown.
"Way to ruin my self-glorification moment."
Lyra's lips twitched. "Sorry. Carry on."
"Never mind now, you've already fucking ruined it," Graven complained. "So how are we supposed to kill Delphini for you," she asked, returning her focus to Gellert.
"I just need you to make a sword for your man to use on her," he replied casually.
"You JUST need me to make a sword when I have no fucking idea how to do that," Graven said flatly. "Like… I've never fucked with metal before. I have no inclination, thus likely no talent for it. Aren't people supposed to feel particularly drawn to a skill if they have it?"
Gellert shrugged. "It can work that way, yes, but it doesn't have to. I've discovered myself to be quite good at several things I never had a specific interest in. There was a need and once I put my mind to it, great things happened."
"Be still your ego," Bellatrix said, chuckling.
"Never," Gellert declared with a proud smile. "My ego has earned every bit of the pride that swells it."
"Okay, that somehow sounds perverted," Rabastan tittered.
"It's actually perverse, and yes it does," Lyra said, grinning at her uncle.
"Perverse and perverted," Rodolphus commented with a laugh.
"My husband, the peacemaker," Bellatrix said, smiling at Rod.
"So you really want me to try making a sword," Graven asked incredulously.
"That would be nice, yes," Grindelwald said.
"Why can't I just use the sword of Gryffindor," Wulfric asked. "Presuming that I could even kill her, of course."
"You probably can use Gryffindor's sword, but if she makes one just for you, it may be more powerful for you specifically," Grindelwald answered. "Besides, if possible I would like it to have extra protections in it that the sword of Gryffindor likely lacks."
"What sort of protection," Graven asked.
"Something that stops the unraveling of magic, if you can manage it," Gellert said thoughtfully. "In fact, if you can make the sword solidify any magic she tries to unravel, so it is even stronger instead, that would be optimal."
"And I'm supposed to know how to do that?" Graven demanded incredulously.
"It is my hope that the skills you require will come to you when you begin," Gellert said. "Just give it a go and see what happens."
"And you want it to destroy Horcruxes like the sword of Gryffindor does," Graven asked.
Gellert nodded. "Definitely."
She sighed. "I'll have to study the sword for a while to figure all that out."
"I can get it from my dad any time," Wulfric said. "He likes you, and he'll be fine with you studying it for as long as you need, I'm sure."
"And I shall send you one of the pendants I make that unravels magic so that you can study how to do the opposite with the anti-unraveling," Blaise spoke up. "You may even keep it."
"Thanks," Graven drawled.
"Those take a bit to make and as such are rather expensive so...you are welcome," Blaise replied with a dry smile.
"We'll get one to you as well, Wulfric," Gellert added. "We want our little descendants of destiny to remain safe, after all."
"Descendants of destiny?" Graven repeated with a frown. "I'd like to tell you to stop with the bullshit flattery if only the words didn't make me shiver with dread."
Gellert nodded. "As they should. With power comes many headaches, but you'll get through it."
"Speaking of all that," Bellatrix said. "I was thinking about the 'three groups of three that make nine' mentioned in the prophecy. If the three couples are six, who are the other three?"
"Well, my guess is it's a power of three thing. So whoever the couples work best with," Gellert said.
"For you and Rod, it should be Rabastan. For Regulus and Kreacher, it's Kereston, and for me and Blaise, it's Bramble."
"But not for any sort of kinky threesome shit, right, cause I don't fuck my brother and sis-in-law," Rabastan said.
Gellert's lips twitched. "Gods, no! It's about a magical working relationship, my twisted henchman."
"So it's power of love with just the six of you, and power of three in groups of three when it's the nine," Rabastan asked.
"That's it!" Grindelwald said, as if the younger Lestrange had just won a grand prize. "It will likely depend on the magic we're working at the time. Three is a very powerful number, and right now we need all the power we can get."
"Speaking of, are we going to study the love room, or did we just meet here to talk about prophecies all night?" Bellatrix demanded.
"A single prophecy, and yes, we are going to study the love room right now, Strange Bella," Grindelwald replied.
"We're off home, then," Wulfric said.
"That means home, and not out drinking all night," Bellatrix called to Lyra as the four young people walked away together.
"What was that she said? I couldn't quite hear her," Lyra said, glancing at Graven with arched brows.
"Lyra," Bellatrix began angrily and her daughter laughed.
"Yes, yes, got it."
The four Apparated away with a crack, and Bellatrix glared momentarily after them.
"She'll go home and be good," Rabastan assured. "She wouldn't have acknowledged she heard you otherwise."
The six of them walked to the love room, and Bellatrix peered around in interest. The walls were lined with glass cases that held all manner of strange objects. There were some jars containing hearts floating in clear liquid.
The liquid had what looked to be ice chips floating about in it. There were even larger jars that held what appeared to be a single heart and a single brain. The heart and brain were connected by a thread of green light. Other cases held sets of wedding rings and one held two wands.
"The matching objects belonged to couples with remarkable relationships," Bellatrix guessed, and Gellert nodded. "That's right."
"The brain and heart connections are to study love and if or how it dwells in the heart and mind," she guessed again.
The blonde nodded. "This has been the attempt for over a century, so I am told, though it has not been very successful even for the best of Healers thus far. Kereston was hoping I could make more progress, but, unfortunately, nothing in this room has been useful in the least to my studies."
She turned her attention to a large green marble fountain that dominated the center of the room. It bubbled with a potion that appeared as liquid moonlight. "How the hell is a love potion going to do anything useful? That isn't real," Bellatrix exclaimed.
Gellert nodded. "I agree, but for those unlike us who don't have their own obsessive, psychotic love connection, studying its effects is the best they can do."
"It won't really work for the sort of magic we need, though," she said scathingly. "If they believe it will, they've wasted a lot of time on stupidity and empty efforts. Potter's mum couldn't have saved him if her love was inspired by something like Amortentia. It can't work if it isn't real, no matter how it makes a person feel. Such true magical connections can't be forced."
Gellert nodded. "If it could, I would've given everyone in the Ministry a dose and sent them against Delphini," he said with a dry smile. "For those studying the means love can make one go to, though, it is helpful. For understanding alone rather than practical use, in other words."
"So what are we studying specifically," Rodolphus asked.
"Anything that draws your interest. If nothing does, we can work with casting spells as couples, then studying the magical imprint against those cast by people who aren't couples. The magical signatures are something we don't have in this room as of yet, and they could be useful," Gellert said.
"So I cast a spell with Bella, and then for a non-couple spell, Rabastan could cast one with you," Rodolphus asked.
Gellert nodded. "The type of spell being cast is also relevant for this experiment. Today I would like to work on shield charms for defensive maneuvers. We brought sponges that absorb magic at which to cast the spells. They will do their job and absorb the magic, and then we will have the spell forever preserved to study."
"They're sponges from the Baltic Sea, of a specific magical breed to absorb magic cast at them," Blaise explained.
Moving to a slab-like shelf of marble in the far corner of the room, Zabini lifted down a case made of what looked to be ice. As he did not shiver, Bellatrix assumed it was not cold to the touch.
"The magic can't be retrieved or reused once the sponge absorbs it, but for our needs, that's actually good. It means the spells we cast at each sponge will be preserved forever, or at least as long as the sponge is," he explained.
"For reasons of study, we only want to cast one spell at each sponge," Grindelwald said.
Zabini folded back the lid of the case and handed each person a flat rectangle of greenish, gray spongy material. Bellatrix held hers gently. It was damp and cool but not unpleasantly so.
"One person holds the sponge while two others cast at it in unison," Grindelwald explained. "If errors are made, don't worry. We have plenty of sponges."
"Kreacher, would you and Regulus like to go first while Bellatrix holds the sponge," he asked, turning to the elf.
Kreacher turned away from a case which held one of the connected hearts and brains. "Yes, Kreacher is ready. Kreacher wasn't able to sense anything from the hearts or brains. Not love, not life, no sort of residue, nothing at all. Kreacher thinks whoever thought up this room got it all wrong."
"Surely someone long dead doing their best," Rabastan theorized.