The relentless rhythm of the train wheels against the steel tracks had become a hypnotic, mocking pulse in Cho Chang's ears. Clack-clack. Run-run. Too-slow. Too-slow.
She sat huddled in the corner of the last carriage, her knees drawn up to her chest, her body wrapped in a travel cloak that had seen better days. The Muggle train was hurtling south through the sprawling industrial wasteland of the Midlands. Rain lashed against the blackened windows, turning the passing lights of distant towns into smeared, weeping streaks of amber.
Cho had not slept in thirty hours. Her magical core felt brittle, scraped hollow by the constant, exhausting expenditure of maintaining the decoy trail. She had Apparated six times in four hours before finally boarding this train in a desperate bid to lose the trackers in the chaotic magical static of a Muggle population center.
She brought the rim of the Styrofoam cup to her lips. The tea was cold, but she needed the caffeine.
Where are you, Lucien?
The thought was a constant, aching bruise. She touched the pocket of her robes where the photo of Harvey rested. She had run to protect him. She had abandoned the cottage to draw the wolves away. But the silence from the North was deafening.
The train began to slow.
Cho stiffened. She checked her watch—a sturdy Muggle timepiece Harvey had given her. It was 3:00 AM. They weren't due at a station.
The screech of brakes was violent. Cho stood up, her wand sliding instantly into her hand. The lights in the carriage flickered and died, plunging the train into darkness.
"Ladies and gentlemen," the conductor's voice crackled, distorted. "We are experiencing a... signal failure."
The voice cut out with a wet, static pop.
Cho knew that sound. It wasn't a signal failure. It was an Anti-Apparition Ward slamming down. They had found her.
She moved to the window. Outside, in the driving rain, figures in dark cloaks moved along the embankment. Flashlight beams—Lumos spells—cut through the rain.
Cho backed away. Panic flared, but she crushed it down. She needed a strategy.
"Wake up!" she shouted to the sleeping businessman nearby. "Get down!"
CRASH.
The glass of the carriage door shattered. A spell tore through the space where Cho's head had been. She dropped to the floor.
"Cho Chang!" a voice roared—Gawain Robards. "Surrender your wand! You are surrounded!"
"I haven't done anything!" Cho yelled back, casting a silent Shield Charm.
"You are a person of interest in a Level One security breach involving the Potter family!" Robards barked.
Cho's eyes hardened. She couldn't let them take her. If they took her, they would use Legilimency. They would find the memories of Harvey. They would find the truth about his impossible origin. And then, everything Harvey had died for—the timeline, the peace—would unravel.
She had to fight.
Cho popped up and cast a Depulso charm at the luggage rack, blocking the door. She sprinted down the aisle toward the rear. She burst through the rear door into the connecting gangway, the wind roaring.
A beam of violet light struck the metal doorframe. Three Aurors had Apparated onto the roof.
"Expelliarmus!"
Cho deflected it. "Confringo!" The coupler exploded, detaching the rear carriage. But one Auror jumped, landing in the gangway with her. He fired a Blasting Curse.
Cho threw up a shield, but the impact blew her backward. She smashed through the external door, tumbling onto the gravel embankment.
She hit the ground hard, rolling in the mud. She scrambled for her wand, but a boot slammed down on her wrist.
Robards stood over her, flanked by four other Aurors.
"It's over, Chang," Robards said. "Where is the boy? Where is the Potter bastard?"
Cho glared at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't lie to me!" Robards shouted. "Granger found the cottage. We know about the potion. Where did you send him?"
"He's a child!" Cho spat.
"He's a weapon!" Robards raised his wand. "Bind her."
Cho closed her eyes. She had failed Harvey. She had failed Lucien.
But the metal never touched her.
A low, resonant thrum cut through the storm. The rain... stopped. Millions of droplets hung suspended in the air, a shimmering liquid dome.
"Atmospheric Stasis," a voice said.
A figure stepped through the curtain of suspended rain. Black robes, silver-blond hair, burning blue eyes.
Lysander Grindelwald.
"Who are you?" Robards demanded.
Lysander smiled. "I am Lysander."
"Back off!" Robards fired a stunner. The spell hit the rain wall and dissolved.
"You are disturbing the peace," Lysander said softly. He raised one finger. "Pluvia Glacialis."
The rain turned to ice needles. The Aurors screamed as the barrage pinned them to the ground, encasing them in pillars of freezing slush.
Silence returned.
Lysander walked over to Cho. "Cho Chang," he said. "The keeper of the secret."
Cho stared up at him. "You... you're a Grindelwald."
"I believe you have someone that belongs to the future," Lysander said, extending a hand.
Cho scrambled back. "Where is he? Where is Lucien?"
"Safe," Lysander said. "Safe, warm, and learning. Hermione Granger went North, Cho. She followed the magic. She is chasing ghosts at the lighthouse right now. But soon, she will come for you again."
He looked down at her. "The Ministry knows you are a traitor. Harry Potter's friends believe you are a liar. You have nowhere left to run."
"What do you want with him?" Cho hissed.
"He is Potter's son," Lysander said, his voice dropping to a whisper that cut through the storm.
Cho froze. "How... how do you know that?"
"Because Dumbledore told me," Lysander revealed. "Before he died. He told me of the man called Harvey. He told me of the child who should not exist."
He leaned closer. "You think you were hiding him to save the world. But Dumbledore knew the anomaly was important. Lucien is not a mistake, Cho. He is a correction. And I am the only one who can teach him how to survive the power he inherited from a father who was never meant to be."
Cho looked into his eyes. He knew. He knew about Harvey.
"Why?" she whispered.
"Because the world is stagnant," Lysander said. "We need something new. And your son is the storm."
He looked at the frozen Aurors. "We must go. I can take you to the Aerie. A place outside of time. A place where he can become what he was meant to be."
Cho looked at the frozen Ministry men. She thought of Hermione. She thought of Harvey and his desperate plea.
She took Lysander's hand.
He pulled her up and tore the air open, revealing a vortex of grey mist. They stepped through, vanishing from the rainy embankment.
The Aerie.
They stood on a high stone terrace in the Alps, the sun setting below them.
"Look," Lysander said, pointing through a large window into the warm fortress.
Cho saw Ira Riddle reading by the fire. And standing in the center of the room was Lucien. He looked different. Stronger. He was controlling three orbs of light with his fingers, laughing.
Cho sobbed, her hand covering her mouth. He was alive.
"He believes you abandoned him," Lysander said softly.
Cho whipped her head around. "What?"
"I had to tell him," Lysander said coldley. "To unlock his power, he needed to break the bond. He needed anger. He believes you drugged him out of fear. He believes his father abandoned him to protect a reputation."
"You... you monster," Cho hissed. "I did it to save him!"
"I know," Lysander said. "And one day, he will know too. But not today. Today, he needs fuel."
He blocked her path. "You cannot go to him. You are a distraction. If you go in there now, he will revert. You must watch from the shadows."
"So I just watch him hate me?" Cho demanded, tears streaming.
"You watch," Lysander agreed. "And when he is strong enough... then you can give him the letter from Harvey."
Cho froze. "How do you know about the letter?"
"Dumbledore knew everything, Cho. Even the things Harvey wrote before he forgot."
He gestured to a lonely tower connected by a bridge. "Your quarters are there. You will be safe. But you must remain unseen."
Cho looked at the window. Lucien extinguished the lights with a flick of his wrist. He looked powerful. But he looked lonely.
She touched the pocket where Harvey's photo lay. Protect him,Harvey had said. Don't let the world break him.
"I will stay," Cho whispered, broken. "But if you hurt him... I will kill you, Grindelwald."
Lysander bowed. "I would expect nothing less from the woman who loved a ghost."
He stepped aside. Cho Chang walked toward the lonely tower, entering a new prison to save the boy she loved more than truth itself.