Serpentine

The blood - the blood was what disturbed her more than anything. What sort of monster could have done such a terrible thing? Was there really any human in their right mind that would have chosen to do this rather than just use the Killing Curse? It was faster, more efficient, and it was, overall, more conspicuous. There was only one word that could describe such a terrible thing: wrong. Just wrong. Morena wasn't sure what to make of it. There was a man she knew of that might have done it, but it seemed impossible. She lived in Ireland, and he hadn't been known to have ventured away from Bulgaria, not yet as it was.

Even if he had, what quarrel did he have with her family? The Serrans weren't bothersome of anyone. They were pureblood, and they took pride in it, but they managed to control themselves much better than the likes of the Gaunts or the Blacks or the Malfoys in Britain. They lived in a humble little house in the Irish country-side. They did their own farming and never bothered any Muggle or wizard in the area, as they were the only beings in the area. Her family was well-to-do, but her father was a filthy cheapskate that refused to spend his money on anything. The Malfoys were living in a mansion in Britain, while she was stuck in a dingy farmhouse in the middle of bloody nowhere. Where had being nice gotten her family?

Well, it had apparently gotten them dead.

Indeed, after one final grueling year at a school of students who thought she was nothing more than a piece of dirt, Morena Serran was Apparated home by her Aunt Murrain. She had been left outside the front door, only to walk inside her house and discover this gruesome scene on her own. The bodies must have been there for a while, as there were flies buzzing about the carcasses and the blood was dried on their clothes and the floor. The smell was absolutely rancid. As an only child, Morena had no younger siblings that could have been massacred.

Judging by the looks of pure horror and pain upon their faces, this gruesome crime against nature had been what killed them. Their attacker hadn't killed them before doing this; he had simply torn them to shreds. Morena shook the thought from her head before any mental pictures could be formulated as she examined her parents' lifeless bodies with mild curiosity. Why wasn't she frightened? She was most certainly disturbed, but only in the sense of nauseated. It didn't scare her to see her parent's lying dead at her feet. Perhaps it had to do with the constant abuse she had endured growing up. Her mother had never laid a hand upon her and her father had only hit her once - it was her mother she had watched get beaten to a state near death many times in her fifteen years of life. Her first thought when she looked upon the scene was her father had done this to her mother and then to himself, but that made little to no sense. No person could... do this to themselves.

Morena found it hard to believe any person could do this to another, but it was easier to believe than the idea of an extremely gruesome suicide.

A sudden clatter came from the next room. Morena jumped at what sounded like a pot falling on the floor and the sounds of swearing muffled by the closed door. She carefully assessed the situation: the wooden floors were old, and certain floorboards groaned when imposed with any sort of weight. There was hardly any time to rack her memory as to which boards would creak loudly when stepped on. She could see only one way out of her own certain death. That was to run.

She started for the door. Though it stood directly behind her, she froze as soon as she turned. It wasn't of her own accord, obviously - had she been physically capable, she would have been out the door faster than a flash of lightning. However, her legs seized. They didn't feel frozen as in a leg-lock jinx; her joints merely felt stiff in her knees and at the tops of her thighs.

"I'll let you lose if you swear you won't run."

"And if I do?" Morena shot back, despite being in no position to shoot anything at anyone.

"You've seen your parents already, I'm sure. I would suggest you comply."

She gulped, feeling her heart speed up by a few paces. The fear was beginning to sink in now. The sight of her parents didn't scare her in the least, and that may have disturbed her more than even the blood framing their unmoving corpses. Whoever was standing behind her did scare her. His accent was close to Romanian or something similar. Bulgaria bordered Romania. The accent was slight - it could have even only been her imagination running wild. However, she knew of no one else, not one single person that could have done such a thing.

Slowly, she nodded in agreement. "I won't run."

"Or walk. I don't pay heed to technicalities. You try to escape, you die."

"I swear," she said. "I won't try to escape."

"Fine." She felt something hit the back of her legs, what she guessed was a counter-curse, and she could feel her joints loosen immediately. "Would you mind turning around for me?"

Not particularly keen on being slaughtered, Morena turned slowly around, holding her hands up to show she had no intentions of reaching for her wand. It was in her trunk, anyway, which she now felt was really a horrible idea. Rather than look up at her assailant, Morena chose to keep her eyes low to the floor. She was afraid to see if her theory was correct as to whom this man was. His voice sounded as though it belonged to a man of the correct age, one in his late twenties to early thirties. However, she wasn't entirely sure, nor did she want to be sure.

"The last of the Serran family," she heard the man say. She heard footsteps now, slow heavy ones that seemed to be coming in her direction. "Morena, isn't it?" She nodded. "And you're still in school. It's a real pity how these things come to happen, don't you think?"

"You killed them," said Morena through gritted teeth.

"They chose not to listen and were planning on calling in Aurors. I couldn't have that happening. My mission is much too important for any of the Ministry of Magic's cronies to be tossing me in prison when I've barely even begun it."

He seemed to be walking away now - she assumed he was pacing around the bodies of her parents. She was of half a mind to attack him, but she knew better. The odds of her winning were low, and she was mostly resentful of his detachment from the situation. He spoke as though he had done this - as though he had slaughtered Albin and Shelley Serran - for some great reason that Morena couldn't understand. Morena saw no reason that could justify this sort of killing.

"Your parents." The footsteps stopped now, directly in front of her. "I warned them that they wouldn't be let off easy." Could he read minds? How had he known she had been wondering what reason he could have had for such inhuman methods? "When one knows his death will be either extremely painful or extremely mortifying, then he is more likely to at least listen. When they know it will be both, it's almost a given that they will listen and obey. Needless to say, you father at least was an exception. Shelley was more than willing to listen, but Albin was stubborn. Once I had gotten rid of one distraction, your mother wasn't particularly set on listening any longer. She was going to Apparate to the Ministry of Magic. I couldn't do anything else but this."

"You didn't have to tear them to pieces," said Morena quietly, clenching her fists to keep herself calm. She heard a chuckle as an answer.

"Weren't you listening? Their deaths had to be painful and mortifying."

"Why did you kill them in the first place?"

"They refused to listen. Must you make me repeat myself again and again?"

"Why are you here? What in the name of Merlin did my family do to you?"

Morena finally looked up, and she flinched as she did so. However, she stood her ground. He matched the exact description of the greatest danger to the wizarding world in years. His hair was blond, curly, and shoulder-length, and looked as though it hadn't been washed in at least a few days. His eyes were dark blue and so permanently wide that they were nearly hypnotizing, but in a way that made him look insane in the worst sense of the word. He was tall and rather thin, close to frail, but still extremely intimidating somehow.

This was Gellert Grindelwald.

"They did nothing," he said with a rather amused laugh. Morena looked back at the floor, afraid to look at him for some reason she couldn't explain. "Had they done anything to smite me in the least, I wouldn't have bothered coming here. I will tell you exactly what my purpose for being here is as soon as I ask you a few questions."

"If you did this to my parents, I can see why they didn't want to listen," said Morena, gathering all of her courage to glower up at the man standing in front of her. "There's no point listening to a person say the same things over and over."

"I agree, but we won't get anywhere if you keep interrupting me." He said this in an almost kind manner, and this surprised Morena. She didn't allow her glare to falter, however. "Please follow me. May I remind you what will happen if you don't?" He waved a hand in the direction of her parents before turning around and walking casually to the door of the kitchen. Stopping at the door to look behind him, he spoke. "I may have an unlimited amount of time, but I would prefer that you move your legs a bit faster."

With a continued glare, she walked to the door as well. "I'd prefer my parents to be alive. We don't always get what we want, do we?" She wasn't sure whether this was the full truth or not, however. In a way, she thought she might be better off with her parents dead.

"Indeed we don't," he said. "I wanted them to pay attention to what I had to say, and I didn't want to be forced to kill them. Unfortunately, as you can see, I didn't get what I wanted."

He walked through the already opened door at this, and Morena followed him to the small, round kitchen table. She chose to sit across from him, all though she wanted to sit nowhere near him.

"Morena," he began, "you're a Slytherin, aren't you? At Hogwarts."

"Yes."

"And you've been working on becoming an Animagus ever since your first year."

Morena's eyes widened involuntarily, and she couldn't seem to get them to return to their natural size. Her voice also seemed to be making an escape attempt as she spoke in an anything-but-calm voice. "H- how did you -?"

"I know a little about a lot of things. Now, tell me. Didn't you finally accomplish that goal in the beginning of your fifth year?" Morena nodded. "And what is your Animagus form?"

"A... a snake..."

"Ah, yes," he said, sounding rather satisfied with this. "That will work perfectly."

"For what?"

"Not yet. You're eighteen now, correct?"

"Yes," she said. "And I'm not going to work for you," she added quickly. "I could Apparate out of here right now and you wouldn't have a bloody clue as to where I went."

"I've put a block on the house. If you Apparate from here, you'll be splinched into two halves. Go ahead and try if you don't believe me."

Morena instantly shook her head no. She had never been splinched before, and while she had learned the spell to set splinched body parts right, she still didn't want to suffer her top half being separated from her bottom, or her left side from her right. Grindelwald had quite obviously taken every necessary precaution to make sure that Morena couldn't escape - but why?

"Now, as I was saying," he continued in a rather laid-back manner. "Firstly, I've failed to introduce myself. I already know you are Morena Serran. I am Gellert Grindelwald."

"Wonderful to meet you," said Morena sardonically. "Get on with it."

"Do you really feel as though you're in a position to be ordering me?"

"You obviously need me for something, so yes I do."

And at this, he laughed. "Smart girl," he said. "Now, how are you as far as manipulation goes? That is what I'll need you for mostly. Your personality is up to par, probably greater than - you didn't show much emotion other than disgust at the sight of the mangled remains of your own parents, and disgust of that sort can't be considered an emotion; it is just a natural human reaction to those who aren't entirely deranged. The sight honestly disgusts me, so I believe we're on equal footing."

"Equal footing!" Morena scoffed. "You're a bleedin' murderer! I'm not, how is that equal footing?"

"It isn't. I'm speaking strictly in terms of intelligence."

"I'm smart enough not to go 'round killing people who don't listen to me."

"But you are smart. That's important. You also come from a long line of purebloods, and you can transform into a snake."

"Your point?"

"Morfin Gaunt would be my point. I'm going to need your help retrieving something from him - his father, rather, at the moment, but I imagine it will belong to Morfin soon enough. Marvolo Gaunt is growing old, and it's only a matter of time before he is sent to Azkaban for attacking the wrong person. The Gaunts are the last known heirs of Slytherin, and they are also the only known Parselmouths. Morfin Gaunt is twenty, not entirely there, in manner of speaking - he's quite a sociopath, in fact. He gets along with snakes better than he does people. They can understand him, he can understand them, and he can control them. If they don't obey him, he generally kills them. You're human at heart, so you would know to obey."

"How do you know I'd understand Parseltongue in my Animagus form?"

"If you can speak to other snakes in your Animagus form, you will have no trouble understanding Parseltongue."

Well, so much for that idea. It seemed to Morena that there wasn't going to be any getting out of this. Morfin Gaunt had gone to Hogwarts for two years, but had been expelled for setting a cage of snakes loose on a Gryffindor class after instructing them all to bite anyone they could hang onto. To say he wasn't entirely there was a complete understatement. The man was a complete nut job.

"What is it you need from the Gaunt family?" asked Morena resignedly. Grindelwald smiled.

"I see we're making progress. I seek the Deathly Hallows. There is a wand that is more powerful than any other wand in the world, an invisibility cloak that will never fade, and a stone that allows you to bring anyone back from the dead so only you can see them. I wouldn't tell you any of this if I didn't trust you - I know you're smart enough not to go against me. Marvolo Gaunt owns one of these - the stone. He doesn't know what it is; he thinks the ring the stone is inlayed into contains the Peverell coat of arms upon it. In so many words, he is correct in thinking that." Grindelwald pulled his wand from his pocket. "Are you familiar with The Tales of Beedle the Bard?"

Morena sniggered. "I hardly had the time to be reading fairy tales when I was little. My father had me fetching eggs from the chickens the moment I was old enough to carry them."

"Fairy tales, you say," said Grindelwald nonchalantly, tapping the tip of his wand against the table. "'The Tale of The Three Brothers' is far from that. Some aspects of it were likely to have been made up, but that was for the sake of using the story to entertain. The story talks of three brothers. Antioch Peverell was the eldest, and definitely the most foolish. Cadmus Peverell was the second eldest, and was a bit smarter than Antioch. Ignotus was the third and youngest and wisest. They all came across Death one day, from whom they received three items.

"Antioch Peverell asked for the strongest wand ever made. Cadmus asked for something that he could use to bring the dead back to life. Ignotus asked for a cloak of invisibility that would never falter or fade. They all got what they asked for.

"Antioch bragged about his all-powerful wand so much that he was killed and the wand was stolen by the murderer, giving this wand - the Elder Wand - the nickname 'the deathstick'. Death came for him first.

"Cadmus received a stone that would allow him to bring the dead back to life, the Resurrection Stone. However, he realized that the stone only worked to bring a person halfway between the realm of the living and the dead, so the dead would indeed live, but they would never be alive. He used the stone to resurrect a girl he wished to marry, and killed himself to join her as he realized she would be forever miserable if she stayed in the mortal word, where she no longer belonged. He was Death's next victim of the Peverells.

"Ignotus lived a long life. He hid from Death beneath his cloak for years and years, and it is said that he welcomed Death with open arms when he finally took the cloak off after living a long and happy life. Before his death, he gave the cloak to his son.

"All three items are the Deathly Hallows. The cloak." With a few sudden swishes of his wand, Grindelwald drew a red, glittering triangle in the air. "The stone." He drew a circle next, inside the triangle. "The wand." He drew a line from the top point of the triangle down to the center of its base. "The Deathly Hallows. The owner of all three items could be considered a master of Death." He waved his wand through the symbol floating in the air, and it slowly dissipated and faded. "Marvolo Gaunt, an ancestor of not only Salazar Slytherin, but also of Cadmus Peverell, is the owner of the stone. It is inlayed into a heavy gold ring of his, which he will give his son when he dies. It's obvious he won't last much longer. You will get the ring from Morfin, but you will need to get on his good side immediately. What person could he possibly get along with better than one that can transform into one of the creatures he looks at as his friends?"

Morena smiled. "You're going to kill me if I say no, aren't you?"

"I'm sure the answer to that question is obvious."

It was strange, the things she found humor in - she couldn't help but laugh a little. She could take the views of the muggle American, Patrick Henry, that she had heard of in her Muggle Studies class: "Give me liberty or give me death." She could take her own views: "I don't bloody want to die, but I don't want to step or slither within ten feet of Morfin Gaunt." Either way, she was in a hole. She could either die a terrible death to avoid helping Grindelwald get these items or she could join him and live a life that she didn't want to live. The only way to liberty was to die. Which was worse, immense physical pain or nerve-racking emotional suffering? To her, after only a moment of thought, the choice was perfectly obvious - she wasn't ready to die.

"My parents drove me insane while they were alive," said Morena. "What damage could a little more loss of sanity do to me? I'd prefer to stay alive, and I expect you'll be caught eventually as it is. I'll join you, but when you're on trial, I'm going to testify against you."

"Then we have an accord. You will work for me without complaint, but betray me the moment I am caught," said Grindelwald. "If I'm not caught, you suffer. If I am, then I do. That seems to be a fair arrangement. I do expect you to understand that any sense of freedom you have had in the past ends now," he added. "You will work for me and do as I say without question."

Morena smiled slightly. "Then it seems my life isn't going to change very much."