The Adumbration of Cordelia

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Harry Potter or anything else that reminds you of real, copyrighted, or owned things. If I did, I'd probably be pretty rich right now.

AN: This story features a new character to my multiverse. She turns the typical Master of Death cliche a bit on its head. What's a girl to do when you have no interest in the role forced upon you? Run like hell perhaps. And hope to Merlin and God that maybe, just maybe, one day you might get lucky…and find a way out.

"Not again…" Cordelia muttered to herself as she stumbled to her feet, the familiar nausea briefly causing her stomach to rebel as she clutched at her mouth and grimaced trying to keep her dinner inside, where it belonged. Groaning, Cordelia staggered to the closest wall and breathing heavily, squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating on the feel of the magic around her. The nausea would pass. It always did. She just wished it didn't take so long.

You would think she'd be used to it by now.

"Are you okay, Miss? Should I call for a Healer?"

Cordelia resisted the urge to laugh. A Healer couldn't help her. No one could heal what she had. Interdimensional, evil, semi-sentient, Outer God-lite, stalker entity, clingy MacGuffins weren't something that Healer Mary Robin could fix.

Or maybe on this world they could? No! No, that way lay despair. Better not to get her hopes up. It was smarter to play things like usual. Cordelia sighed and let her hand drop forcing a smile onto her face and working through the diminishing nausea to look at the Good Samaritan. "I'm fine, thanks. That time of the month."

"Oh." The way he backed up with his hands held up in front of him would have been comical if it hadn't been insulting. You'd have thought she said she was sick with the plague for Merlin's sake. Cordelia scowled inside her own head. Men. "Sorry, didn't mean to imply anything. I'll just leave you be then. Have a pleasant day, Miss." He scampered away and she finally felt somewhat normal as the last of the transit sickness left her.

Shaking her head to clear the dregs away, Cordelia looked around her. "Diagon Alley. Cute. Oh look, it's Ollivanders. So, I guess one of you tossers made your way back to the creepy old man huh? Okay then, guess I'm not upgrading my wand to a new standard on this jaunt, thank you very much." Turning on her heel, Cordelia stalked the opposite direction from the wand shop and headed towards Gringotts. It always paid to see whether she could access any money reserves when she first arrived. After that she could find out the history and whatever else she had to avoid beyond the initial displacement.

The Hallows always dropped her nearest one of their number. They hadn't managed to figure out yet that she'd cottoned onto that quirk yet, but she always used it. If she knew where at least one of the bloody cursed things was, she generally stood a good chance of avoiding collecting all three by sheer accident. Not that that had happened in a long time. She hadn't been that careless in Merlin knew how long.

Her odds of destroying the Wand though…that was iffy. The damn Deathstick was a hard nut to crack. Granted, if Ollivander had it then there was a good chance that it didn't actually have any allegiance to anyone currently but…that made things even more dangerous for her. If she got within a mile of the thing while it was awake it was likely to latch onto her and then she was right screwed, arse over teakettle. And so was everyone else nearby for that matter. The Wand was usually one of the easier ones to avoid getting ahold of in each world. It switched owners like rats abandoning a sinking ship whenever she was around, but it was fairly easy to avoid battling the current Holder. And even easier to throw the fight. Even when that fight was against people like Voldemort or Dumbledore.

Hell, she hadn't had a good throw down with good old Dumbles for at least five worlds! Ah she missed fighting Evil Dumbles…not. Cordelia snorted. Evil Dumbledore was a nightmare and a half; she'd take his kinder versions over the more insane instances any day. Though the crazy ones hopped up on Deathstick juice were nearly impossible to deal with and she tended to just lay low in those worlds. At least that didn't seem to be a problem in this world.

She shook herself out of her musing as Gringotts loomed up in front of her. Frowning, she stepped through the large doors and came to rest in front of an open teller. The room was rather busy, but there were more goblins than usual, leaving things moving surprisingly quickly. "Good morning, I'm here to check my balances. I will also need a new key as I was robbed."

"You should have kept it better protected witch." Somehow the goblin managed to snarl the last word and make the term sound like an insult. Cordelia barely managed to prevent herself from rolling her eyes. At least the goblins were the same as always: crotchety, insulting, little bastards. "The charge is 20 galleons for a new key plus 15 for the vault balance check. If you do not have the ability to cover this fee in your vault alternate payment will be assessed afterward and you will not be allowed to leave the premises until it is completed satisfactorily."

Cordelia scowled. "Highway robbery," she muttered, glaring at the goblin. That was twice what it was on any other world she'd been on before. She didn't have that kind of money on her; the Hallows had, this time, transported her without her purse. If she didn't have a vault here…She would not be working the mines for these thieving little creeps. She'd have to fall back on her own Hallow as much as she despised using it. Especially this soon after arriving on the new world. It would set off so many dominoes. But if she had to…She would not be working the mines. Not again. "Fine. Do your bloody test and take your fee."

The goblin grinned a mouthful of sharp, pointed teeth at her. His hand snapped out and grasped her wrist, one quick slice later and a small, painful cut had been opened in her left palm that dribbled blood down onto a sheet of parchment on the desk. Cordelia pulled her arm back from the goblin as he handed over a glowing golden key and held up the parchment, his grin widening. A snap of his fingers later and two goblins fell in behind her. Cordelia's stomach dropped.

"Your vault balance is 25 galleons, 6 sickles, 9 knuts," the teller said. He laid the parchment down. If his grin was any wider his face would have split in half. "How will you be paying for the remainder of the balance of your bill?"

Cordelia did the math in her head. She had 3 galleons in her pockets and maybe 2 sickles. They've have her working their mines for at least a month to pay off the balance assuming the rates were the same. Yeah, not happening. "I don't suppose there's a travel exception discount? Say alternate double tax rebate?" she asked smiling at him as she checked the room out of the corner of her eye. People had edged away from her as the guards had shown up. That was good it gave her more room to work with.

The teller laughed. "We charge more for dimensional instabilities witch. Your debt is due."

"Well, sucks for you then. You should charge reasonable rates buddy. Ta." She summoned the Cloak and with nary a thought, it wrapped its claws around her and she vanished from sight.

Cordelia's thoughts turned murky and slow as the Power took the driver's seat. It stepped back between goblin guards their grasping hands moving far too slow to catch it. Their pitiful little lances were miles away from where it stood by the time they jabbed into the space the Host had occupied mere moments before. It tried to draw out the Wand to retaliate against these creatures that had dared try to hurt it but the Host resisted. The moment of indecision and rebellion forced a stalemate as the body warred between the Host and the Power. The guards turned to speak to each other and poked their lances into the empty space again, turning by happenstance to face the Cloak now as they realized it had vanished from that original spot.

The Power and the Host were united again as both agreed that movement was the primary objective. Turning, it walked away from the bank.

As it exited the double doors leaving shouting goblins behind it, the Power felt a pulse of its own energy calling to it from nearby, echoed shortly after by two fainter ones. The echoes were from much, much further away, however the first pulse was merely a few hundred feet down the road. Turning towards the pulse, the Power started to march directly to it. It would claim the energy. It would Combine. It would be Whole. It would be –

Cordelia snarled as she wrapped taloned fingers – with nails longer than humanly possible and a distinct extra bend in the arm that shouldn't be there along with a faint wriggle in the shadow that was cast on the wall behind her of limbs that weren't quite visible – around the edges of the Cloak and tore it off of her shoulders. The Hallow resisted her at first, fighting to stay attached, fighting to keep dragging her towards its counterpart, but she had been through this song and dance before. With a moment's more fight, Cordelia bested the Power and dragged the cursed item off of her. For a brief instant in time, she existed as both halves of herself, human and Hallow – the Cloak was in her hand and her body was visible again, yet her inhuman features, an unwelcome gift of the Hallows, receded slowly, they always did.

With a mental mewl, the Hallow melted back into her soul and Cordelia's normal, human form reasserted itself onto reality. She'd never be rid of the Cloak or the Wand. At least she didn't have to worry about the bloody Stone. That was the one that she knew she'd never be able to resist using. As much as she hated the Hallows, as much as she despised what they did to her, what they made her, what they were trying to force her into becoming again, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Stone would be a temptation too much.

What girl didn't want to see her parents, or her friends, or her lovers again after all?

Cordelia let out a huff of frustration as she kicked at the wall across the street from Ollivanders. "Stupid fucking Hallows. Stupid, stupid, stupid. You knew I was going to have to use you immediately didn't you, you bloody bastards? Now I'm going to have to start running throughout this entire world since all of you are freaking awake now! Stupid bloody Hallows!" She kicked the wall again and cried out as her boot hit just the wrong way crunching her toe and sending a shock reverberating up her shin and into her knee nearly crumpling her. Growling, Cordelia glared at the wall then cursed herself and her rotten luck. Fate truly seemed to hate her.

"Eh, hem, excuse me, Miss? I couldn't help but overhear a bit of that last part. Would you tell me your name? I feel we may be of some assistance to each other," a cultured voice queried from behind her.

Cordelia rubbed at her shin and frowned as her eyes narrowed to slits. Problem after problem in the first hour. She hadn't messed up this bad since she'd first started out. Back then she'd immediately gone to Hermione and Ron and begged for help…She'd never made that mistake again. She knew better than to trust gift horses.

Turning to face the young man who has spoken to her, Cordelia's gaze swept him up and down. He was older than his voice indicated, but not by much. Maybe mid-twenties – not that that really meant much in the Wizarding World. Cordelia herself was a prime example of that thank you very much. His hair was pale blond edging towards a shade that was almost white. His eyes were a stark blue that were actually rather pretty all told. Cordelia had to shake her head at her own distraction. It hadn't been quite that long since she'd shagged someone that she could afford to be distracted by a set of pretty eyes. Moving her gaze over the rest of the young man, she noted that he was fairly tall and had a wiry strength about his limbs. He looked strangely familiar as if she'd seen his portrait or picture somewhere before…but where?

"My name is Cordelia. My friends call me Cordy. At least they would if I had any here. You can call me Cordelia. What exactly did you hear, Mister…?"

The young man nodded, bowing slightly. "Enough to know that you curse artifacts I have sought to gather before. They are quite dangerous, as I imagine you are aware from your reaction to the Cloak of Invisibility. Perhaps we should move this conversation elsewhere? It would not do for our words to reach other ears and Diagon Alley is not the most secure of locations even at this time of day."

Cordelia barely managed to suppress her snarl. She couldn't even kill the man without drawing on the Deathstick. He was strong. He practically radiated magic just from standing in front of her and doing absolutely nothing. It was like she was standing in front of a young Dumbledore and yet this man sounded and looked nothing like Dumbledore. Who was he?

"Tell me your name and I'll consider walking with you," she hedged still trying to figure out her move. She couldn't force a jump until she found the Stone in this universe. It was the only one of the three that was ever really vulnerable most times. Or at least, it was the easiest to destroy, usually, even if it bloody hurt to have someone anchor her again, and again, and again, and again…And of course she'd need to find someone she trusted enough on this side to actually do the anchoring. Letting a random person have control of the Stone was out of the question.

"Ah yes, my apologies, where are my manners?" The blond bowed again with a bit more of a flourish this time. "My name is Gellert Grindelwald. I have recently come to Britain to visit my great Aunt. She lives in Godric's Hollow. I was also hoping to make contact with one of my correspondence friends while in the area. We can head to that location if you like. It is still public, but less populated."

"Well fuck me sideways," Cordelia murmured rearing back on her heels and staring with wide eyes at the young man. That would be a good reason why he looked familiar. All of the history books had his older face after all. The Hallows had shunted her to a lot of weird worlds, but they had never shunted her to a world that was quite so far back on the timeline. Was it actual time travel or was it just a world where things had proceeded more slowly? Did it matter either way?

"Wait, have you graduated?"

Gellert frowned then slowly nodded. "I don't see how that is relevant, but yes. Several years ago. I attended Durmstrang. I was the top student of my class."

"Graduated…" So that was different then. If he hadn't been expelled then maybe he wasn't as bad as her version had been. And he did seem to imply that he had previously given up on gathering the Hallows because they were dangerous. She snorted. Dangerous. That was one way to put it. "Okay. But not Godric's Hollow. I have, let's call it history, with that place. We'll go to the Leaky Cauldron. They have rooms we can rent for an hour. You can state your case and if I don't like it, I walk."

"That is perfectly acceptable, Cordelia. Let us be away." Turning he started immediately striding towards the bar. Shrugging Cordelia followed, casting one last acidic glare towards Ollivander's shop along the way.

In barely five minutes she was sitting down across from Gellert Grindelwald, the second most feared wizard in the world sipping tea and wondering how in the hell this polite, blond young man could grow up into the terror inducing Wizard Hitler that so many worlds knew him as.

"So, Gellert, you were saying that you had stopped looking for the Hallows a few years back?" she asked.

"I did, yes. My friend Albus and myself were growing quite obsessed with the idea of holding the Hallows you see. We had nearly managed to track down the location of two of them. The Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone. I wanted the Wand, while Albus was interested in the Stone. He was hoping to bring his parents back to life, where I was of the belief that we could use the power in the Wand to convince the governments of the Muggle and Wizarding worlds of a better way. The current system seems unsustainable. When at last I tracked the previous holder, I finally found the history of the Wand. Every holder, without fail, died a violent death. Every, single, one. It did not inspire confidence that my plan would succeed." His grimace brought forth visceral images of sorrow that Cordelia could almost feel in her very soul. This man had truly believed in what he sought and the reality of the Hallows tore it from him.

That was what they did after all.

"What about the Stone?"

Gellert laughed though there was no humor in the sound and a scowl marred his delicate face. "Albus found it. He nearly killed himself within a fortnight of holding the blasted thing and then he cast it aside with the last of his strength swearing he would never tell another soul where it was hidden. He wasted away after that. There is nothing left of my friend in the shell of his body. The Resurrection Stone is a trap, I am sure of it. It exists solely to drive the holder to kill themselves, pining for what was lost, and nothing more. Just as the Deathstick drives the holders to suicidal overconfidence, or turns on them at the moment they need it most. I have yet to figure out exactly how the Invisibility Cloak toys with its victims, but I am certain that it does so as well."

Cordelia nodded appreciatively and set her tea aside folding her hands in her lap. "You're not too far off from the truth. They aren't necessarily traps however. It's more that they are waiting for their owner. Without their owner they keep killing off whoever currently has possession of them, to make sure they are 'open and available' so to say." She sneered. "The blasted things are menaces to everyone around them."

"Do you know how the Master is decided? Is it as simple as uniting all three as the stories say?" Gellert asked also setting his tea down.

Cordelia let out an explosive sigh and rubbed her temples. "If I knew that I would've been able to get rid of the bloody things. I combined them all, but people have done that since and before me and they haven't usurped the banner yet."

"Perhaps a ritual is required as well then…or a specific time frame…Did you unite them at a significant astrological event?" Gellert asked curiously.

Cordelia shrugged. "I don't know. I was preoccupied with dying at the time thank you very much. What's with the twenty questions man? I thought you gave up the hunt. These things are evil. Trust me. E. V. I. L. Evil."

"Oh, I agree with you," the blond said waving a hand. "I am simply trying to understand. If we figure out how you came to possess them better, perhaps we will be better able to determine how to rid you of them. Now, how did they separate from you again? You are only in possession of the Cloak at the moment I saw, correct?"

Cordelia took a large gulp of her tea and considered her response. Decision time. Tell him everything or string him along long enough to find the Stone and destroy it. The latter was by far the smarter option. By far. But…It was getting so tiring doing this again and again on every world. Everyone knew Gellert Grindelwald was obsessed with the Hallows. If he was telling the truth about even half of this world's history, then he just might be willing to help her destroy them instead. And he'd still be the best source of information on them that she had unless she could track down someone like Nicolas Flamel.

Setting her cup back down Cordelia laid her hands on the chair. She was careful to keep her right hand pointed such that, if she needed to call on the Wand, it would be pointed right at Gellert already. She should be able to summon it out and box it back up before the Power took hold if it was only for a moment. The Wand was always slow to draw out the Power's nature for some reason.

"I have the Cloak and the Wand. I always have them with me. They never leave because they are bonded to me. The Stone technically is too, but my version of it was destroyed. When it was shattered, these two shunted me to another world where all three were still whole. They're all linked and they're all part of the same whole, Gellert." She paused as he sucked in a breath, his eyes widening. "Yeah, that's right. Nobody is ever going to be Master of Death except me. Not until I can get rid of these two inside me or figure out how to die. They won't let me die and they won't let me destroy them either. I can at best destroy one, maybe part of a second before the others pick me up and kick me to a new universe where they are whole. They don't like to be apart. They want to be whole. They're annoyed with me that they aren't whole. Every time I summon one up, the rest wake up and they call to me and they try to get home. They try to be whole. You want help to destroy these bloody things? Great. So do I. I want to be free, Gellert. Help me destroy them, please!"

He stared at her and breathed rapidly for a few seconds before draining his teacup. He slowly lowered the slightly shaking cup until it touched the edge of the saucer and settled down. "I am staring at the Master of Death. The Master of Death. Everything Albus and I ever dreamed us is across from me."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be. It's a horror show. You were right before; the Master of Death is more of a trap than anything else. It's a hole that needs to be filled I would guess, but it's not any hole that I want to fill. These things, they're evil. What they do to you…" Cordelia stopped and shuddered as a tremor ran through her body thanks to the memory of too-many limbs forced into a too-small human container.

After she apparently stayed quiet for too long, Gellert finally asked, "What do you they do to you, Cordelia?"

"You become some sort of larval-god-thing. It's multidimensional and strong, but it has rules. When anchored it has to answer the summons and summon the shades. It can fight for whoever it wants, and its strong."

"It sounds like there are few downsides."

"It's not human! It's so hard to think like a human. It's so hard to even remember being a human. It's like all sanity breaks down and runs away and everything that made you you is gone, never to return. And you can forget about ever seeing the people you cared about again, because they're going to die one day, and you'll never see that plane of existence except to summon their shade, and by that point all you're doing is manipulating it into whatever shape you want it in and hurting your former friends and lovers. You won't even recognize them as people that you knew, because you can't feel anything. They're just shades. You're so much more. Who cares about them? Who cares about humans? Who cares about the planets? Who cares about the life on the other ones out there? The only thing that matters is you and whatever experiment you're running at that moment."

Another shudder ran through her and Cordelia hugged herself whimpering as she curled up in the chair. "I can't become that thing again. I barely hung on long enough for Hermione and Ron and Neville to figure out a way to help me. And even then they didn't figure it out. They got lucky. They stumbled onto the answer by accident and I had to work out the solution all on my own, in the next world, when the Hallows kicked me there out of spite and a desire to be whole again. I can't go back. I won't. I'll run for eternity if I have to. I'll figure out how to build a bloody spaceship and move to Alpha Centari if that gets me the fuck away, but I can't go back to that thing. Help, help me destroy them? Please…please…"

Gellert slowly stood up from his chair and walked over to place a hand on Cordelia's shoulder. He wiped the thumb of his other hand across her cheek wiping away the tears she hadn't even realized she was crying. "Of course. This is why you found me after all. This is why the Hallows called to me. We shall destroy the foul things together."

Cordelia shook her head again and licked her lips as she stared at the map laid out in front of her. That tea had apparently been drier than she had expected, since the aftertaste was still present and her head was aching something fierce. She'd been staring at this damn diagram of the Hallows' movements for too long and it was giving her a headache. "Gellert? Do you have any water?" she asked holding a hand out behind her. The young man obliged quickly, a glass nearly materializing into her outstretched hand. "Thanks. You and Albus did all of this research yourselves?"

"Not all at once of course," Gellert said moving up beside her and bending over his Aunt's dining room table. After their agreement had been struck, she'd gotten over her dislike of going near Godric's Hollow and followed him to Bathilda Bagshot's abode.

It wasn't like she was going to run into Lily Evans anyway. This was a few decades early for that. The one time that girl had crushed on her had been awkward enough, Cordelia had no intentions of repeating the experience if given the choice. Charlus Potter and Dorea Black though probably didn't even live in this town.

Hmm, I wonder, Cordelia tapped her chin and thought to herself. They had those Skelegrow tax issues coming due about now from what Gran said in my world. I wonder if that's why the Potter Vault was empty. Maybe they shifted everything to the Black Vaults to avoid the taxes…Sneaky, sneaky Gran.

"Why did you wish to inspect all of their old movements, Cordelia?" Gellert asked knocking her out of her musing. Sighing, she refocused.

"Sometimes there's a pattern. We know that Dumbledore had the Stone so we'll probably be able to trace where he got rid of that one fairly easily. We still need to find the Cloak though and if we can figure out their movement patterns from this map, we might get lucky and figure out where it's hiding," she said. Scowling she stabbed a finger at the map. "I don't like waiting for them to find me once they're active. That usually doesn't end well. We need to be proactive."

Gellert nodded then tapped the left column of notes on the map. "We should continue to track the Wand as well. I ceased my activities before finding the final resting place."

"I already know where that one is."

A sucked in breath beside her had Cordelia setting her glass of water down and raising an eyebrow at the blond. "What? I told you that I knew their general location once I started to actively use my own Hallow. Especially when I'm close to one."

Gellert frowned and stepped back narrowing his eyes at her searching her gaze. After a few seconds his intense appraisal let up and he gave a curt nod. "I see. So the Wand is held by someone in Diagon Alley then?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"We'll tackle the Wand after we get the Cloak," Cordelia responded slowly with a frown firmly etched onto her features. "You yourself said that the Deathstick is dangerous. It's pretty much the deadliest one of the three by far. You can't play with fire by going after a live Elder Wand, Gellert. That's just asking for trouble."

He held her gaze for an instant more before nodding. "Yes, yes of course you're right. My apologies, I let my old habits get ahold of me. As it stands I believe I may have a lead on the Cloak. There was a fellow in the Ministry of Magic a few years back that had a way of disappearing when anyone went looking for him. It sounded suspicious."

"Hmm, could be worth checking into," Cordelia hedged. "But the Cloak tends to be fairly particular about who it lends it's loyal to. If you're not part of Ignotus' family you basically have to have held it for at least a decade before it'll start working for you."

"Interesting. I had not realized, that does explain quite a bit however," Gellert murmured. Shrugging he continued, "No matter, from what I was able to determine he had a distant relation to the Peverell clan."

"Oh, well that is a good indication then. What department did he work in?"

"The Department of Mysteries."

Cordelia groaned. "Damn. I hate breaking into that place. And if he's an Unspeakable that's pretty much the only option since they have their own way of getting home after work. Damn."

Gellert chuckled. "Yes indeed. That is one reason why Albus continually balked at the idea. He was a bit of a straight arrow as much as I attempted to corrupt him." The smirk at the end of that statement took any censure out of the statement and turned it into a joke. Or at least that seemed to be the intent though Cordelia felt her stomach flip a bit. She was suddenly reminded that this was Gellert Grindelwald she was working with. She needed to be more careful about what she revealed to him. He may be helping her currently, but he was still Grindelwald!

"Okay, let's go get this bloody thing then we can track down the Cloak, then I'll have you pick up the Wand."

"You don't want to do that yourself?"

Cordelia grimaced and held up her hands as if to ward the idea itself off. "No. I stay away from the unallied Wand. That thing is like the Black Plague when I'm around. It took out an entire dueling circuit once before I realized what was going on. I just wanted to have some fun and watch the matches and the Deathstick – well it lived up to its name that day. Flitwick was the only one to survive and just barely at that. You may have a lingering obsession, but I'll take that over the Wand blazing a bloody trail across the nation slaughtering everyone in its path to get to me."

Gellert blinked and for an instant Cordelia thought she saw something behind his blue eyes though it was chased away by the grimace his mouth set firmly into and soft slump in his shoulders. "That…fits with my research. Unfortunate as it is. Shall we off? Albus' Stone awaits. Perhaps you can succeed where I failed."

Together they walked down the street towards the Dumbledore residence. Cordelia sucked in a breath upon laying eyes on her old Headmaster's original home. It was…humble was the best way to describe it. The building was only two stories tall and fit in perfectly well with the surrounding houses. Granted wizarding homes could be deceptive from the outside, but none of her magic senses were detecting anything major leaking off of the home in front of her, so if there was anything massive like concealed levels or war wards hidden inside, it was extremely subtle and ancient, master-level work. She wasn't an expert, but she was good enough to figure out a basic war warding on a home and the Dumbledore house had nothing.

Gellert stepped up to the front door and knocked, the sound reverberating through what she assumed would be the entrance hall just beyond. "Just a moment, my dear. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but please allow me to do the talking. This may end up being a delicate situation."

Cordelia frowned, but before she could respond the front door was pulled open and she found herself staring up at a young Aberforth Dumbledore. She blinked repeatedly, staring at the man who always seemed to get the title of Goat Fucker in 9 out of 10 worlds she visited. She'd still never gotten the true story and the man himself seemed to encourage it more often than not since it drew patrons to his bar. Yet here, here Aberforth looked more drawn out and exhausted than she'd ever seen him when he was well over a hundred years old. His eyes were sunken, his skin pale, his nails long, and his hair wiry. As soon as his eyes set on Gellert, Aberforth's lips pulled into a snarl.

"Get off my property, you bastard!"

"Abe – "

"Don't you 'Abe' me. Get off my property. Now. You destroyed my family. I'm all that's left. Get off."

"I did no such thing!" Gellert snarled stepping up and poking Aberforth in the chest. "We both know that your brother would have gone after that Hallow with or without my urging!"

"He wouldn't have FOUND the bloody thing without you!" Aberforth shouted. He shoved Gellert back and reached out to grab the door.

Before the man could slam it shut Cordelia decided enough was enough. She stepped forward and held up her hand in a small gesture of greeting. "Wait, please. Mr. Dumbledore, my name is Cordelia. I'm here with Gellert to talk with your brother. We need to find out what he did with the Stone yes, but not because we're trying to hunt them down to collect them. We're trying to destroy them."

Aberforth snorted. "Like I haven't heard that one before. Take your story and shove it where the sun don't shine girl. And get the hell away from this one. He'll shit all over your entire life and not give two knuts about it afterwards."

"He may not, but I do." Cordelia dropped her hand and shook her head. "Look I don't know how things happened here. Not for sure, I only know what I've been told. I know it wasn't good and I know that it was bad. It was bad where I came from too. I'm not from here, Mr. Dumbledore. The Hallows destroyed your life, they destroyed my life too. And they keep doing it again and again. I want to be rid of them. I need Albus' help to do that. We just want to talk to him."

Aberforth glared at her his lip twitching and his eyes narrowed to slits. Finally, with a huff he shoved the door wide. "Five minutes. No more. He gets upset when people stay longer than that. Even Arianna can tolerate people longer than my brother."

Cordelia could only nod in reply. She stepped past him and grimaced as Gellert shoved against Aberforth shooting a victorious glare at the other man. Gellert walked ahead of her and led the way into the home. While they headed upstairs, she found her earlier assessment had been correct: there was no magical enhancement. It was just a regular house. Gellert stopped in front of the second bedroom from the end of the hall and knocked softly, a small, sad smile on his face as he pushed the door open.

"Hello, Albus. How are you feeling today?"

Cordelia gasped as she looked into the room. She couldn't help it. The person sitting in the chair looking out the window was not Albus Dumbledore. He barely even qualified as Albus Dumbledore's shell. Dementors left more soul than the Stone had taken from this poor fool. He was…empty. His eyes were glazed and there was barely any reaction to stimulus at all. The lights were on, but no one was home.

"Albus, I need you to tell me what happened after you got rid of the Stone. Where did you throw it? Where did you hide it? You said no one but you would ever think to look there. Where did you secret the Resurrection Stone away, Albus? Please old friend. This is important beyond anything you could imagine."

No reaction. No reaction at all. Cordelia began to suspect that Aberforth's time limit was less about what Albus Dumbledore could handle and more about what Aberforth himself could handle about people seeing his brother. They should just kill the poor guy, it would be a mercy at this point.

"Gellert, this is never going to work. Let's shift tactics. We need to find the taint left on him from the Hallow and track it back to the source. It's hard, but it's possible if you know the right spells or have the cheat codes," Cordelia said with a sigh.

Gellert froze then looked over to her. "Are you going to shift into the…other form?"

"No. Hell no. That is a last resort. When everything else has failed or when we already have the other two and we just need a direction for the third. What I'm doing is a bit different. It's like a tracking spell, just tuned to the Hallows specifically. I use it to keep an eye on where they are and keep ahead of them when they aren't active. If I like a world and want to stay in it for a while, I can use this to avoid them for years. My record is almost 7 years. I got to see my goddaughter born and start to grow up." Cordelia allowed herself to grin for a few brief moments as her mind wandered. A clearing throat brought her back to the present and she refocused on the man in front of her.

"Right, sorry. Okay, hang on." She snapped out her normal, non-Hallow, wand and quickly shot off the blood red spell that would illuminate the old presence of the Hallow and then snap her to a brief view of where it currently was. As the image of a lake flashed through her mind, Cordelia stumbled back, her legs knocking into the bed and she fell down with a plop onto the frame. "Ugh, forgot how disorienting that is. Black Lake near Hogwarts. He threw it in. I can summon it out once we get close though you'll have to grab it out of the air. I can't actually touch the thing now that's its active and doesn't have a Master. It wants to bond with me. That one in particular really wants to bond with me." And I want IT. She shuddered at that admission. Yeah, she really couldn't afford to touch this reality's Stone.

"I understand. Could you teach me that spell?"

"What's the point? We're going to get the Stone in a few minutes and I'll be with you while we track down the Cloak. We already know where the Wand is." Cordelia asked turning to look at him with narrowing eyes. Was he just being practical? It was a perfectly legitimate question after all…

"You're right of course," Gellert said shrugging. He turned back to Albus and laid a hand on the zombie's shoulder squeezing briefly and closing his eyes. "I am so sorry, my friend. I am so sorry, I was too late. Perhaps this will make up for it."

No, no, she was just being paranoid. Gellert was helping her. She had a chance to destroy the Hallows for good with the help of a man who had been hurt and betrayed by them almost as personally as she had been. This was going to work.

Less than five minutes later Gellert stood with the Stone in his hand staring at it in awe. His eyes were wide and his breathing shallow almost as if he couldn't believe what he held in his hand. Cordelia understood the shock; most people had that reaction the first time they successfully got a hold of an Object of Power and realized how innocuous they really looked up close. In contrast to Gellert however, she'd seen this sort of thing countless times before and was distinctly unimpressed. She rolled her neck, massaging out the muscles and cracked her knuckles. "Well, that was easy. Now, Ministry next?"

Gellert just nodded, never taking his eyes from the Stone. "Yes. Ministry. Department of Mysteries. Must collect the next item after all." He reverently picked up the Hallow with two fingers and carefully maneuvered it over a small empty ring setting that he had slipped over his finger. It fit perfectly.

Cordelia frowned as she looked over at the scene. "That's a bit of a snug setting there…"

"I took it from Albus' room. It is better to make certain that we do not lose the Stone is it not? How better to keep track of it than to ensure that it remains on our person at all times? Jewelry is the only smart choice."

Cordelia hated that it made sense. Her stomach was starting to flip and rebel. This wasn't looking as smooth as she had hoped. Yet…she didn't know who she could trust here. She had no idea who to turn to in the past except for Dorea and Charlus and she absolutely refused to bring either of them to the attention of the Hallows.

It would have to be Gellert.

Besides, there was still the chance that he could help free her. There was still the chance that he was telling her the truth.

The two Apparated into the Ministry Atrium and made their way into the Lift easily enough. Cordelia cocked her head as they passed the station where she usually had to have her wand checked without being accosted. Gellert noted her attention on the empty wall and at his questioning gaze she shrugged. "It's nothing. I guess our worlds are more different than I realized. Or your world just hasn't gotten nearly as paranoid as mine. Not that a wand check actually does anything. All they do is make sure the thing is a wand. It's the stupidest form of 'security' that I've ever seen. And so many worlds do it. I tried asking my cousin about it once; she had no idea what the purpose is either, other than to annoy people, and she's an Auror."

"Ah. Interesting company you keep."

Cordelia eyed his back as he stepped into the lift ahead of her and she muttered under her breath, "You have no idea, buddy."

The doors had barely closed when Gellert turned to her again. "I would suggest Disillusionment and Silencing spells over using the Cloak. It seems safer that way. At least if the single-minded devotion you had shown during the previous glimpse I had was any indication."

"I don't use the Hallows, Gellert. You saw something that basically never happens. You got lucky." Cordelia's voice was cold and lacked any sort of inflection. She refused to look anywhere but at the lift doors and her fists clenched. She wouldn't give those things the satisfaction of knowing that they had upset her.

"Yes, apparently I got very lucky indeed," he murmured almost too softly to hear. Louder he said, "Charms up my dear, we're here." A pair of whispered spells later, both occupants vanished from view.

They strode down the Corridor and into the atrium of the Department of Mysteries. After the room stopped spinning, Gellert walked straight to a door on the left and pulled it open. Cordelia shrugged and followed along behind his telltale shimmer in the air. While it may have been quicker to find their target by splitting up, that would've been a lot harder to meet back up again afterwards.

The two walked through a room that seemed to hold some sort of experiment based around water – if the floating bubbles filled with fish were anything to go off of – and stepped through the door at the other end. Cordelia closed her eyes and paused as she crossed the threshold of this new room. Merlin's Arch stood on the platform in the middle of the room. The Death Room, they called it. How little they knew about what it was, what it did, where it touched. She didn't know much, but it was so much more. Merlin had brushed against things that hadn't been meant to be seen and he'd tried to seal them off. Most of the links were sideways; worlds with demons, or tentacles, or giant-mechanical-space-cuttlefish, or creatures whose nature defied mere words. The afterlife was only one of the places that the Arch crossed through into and it was the deepest, hardest to reach realm. Whatever realm the Hallows came from – and where their fellow abominations resided – was another. One far closer to the surface layer unfortunately. As she stopped and listened to the Arch, the whispered promises, bellowed threats, and the eerie sound of untold voices joined in the silence that she could still – impossibly – hear underneath it all. All of them reach out to her from the Veil. All called in equal measure and all touched different portions of her.

The whispers in particular held sway over her human half, begging her soul to join them in the next life. She'd tried that before, hoping it would end the eternal curse of the Hallows. Unfortunately, it hadn't stuck.

The silence called just as strongly to the Hallowed part of her and when she'd crossed through, they had taken control and used the connection to shunt her through their realm and into the next world.

The threats…she still didn't know what the threats touched inside her or where they came from. As far as she knew, she was the only one who had ever heard shouting coming from beyond the Veil of Merlin's Arch. That should probably frighten her more than it did.

A hand closed on her arm and Cordelia's eyes flew open. Gellert snapped his barely visible fingers in front of her eyes, jerking his head to the side. Sighing, Cordelia nodded and followed after him. She glanced back once more to the Arch as the door closed behind them.

The Time Room stretched out in front of them now and instead of moving for the next room, Gellert instead detoured to the large cabinet in the corner. He reached the glass storage cabinet and quickly flipped the latch pulling the door open. Cordelia frowned as he reached inside and snatched one of the Ministry Time Turners from the shelf. He turned his head to Cordelia and held up the Time Turner gesturing at her then the cabinet.

The implication was obvious. She shook her head negative. Let him think she simply didn't want to steal a Time Turner. Just because she was sharing portions of the Hallow lore with him, there was no reason to tell him everything. It wasn't like this man was her alternate self after all; he was no Harry or Harold or Harrison Potter. He wasn't even the psychopathic Ivy Black. Cordelia would die before she told him she had a bloody Time Turner of her own. Especially a modified one!

Gellert shrugged and relatched the cabinet before pulling the stolen temporal anomaly device over his neck then proceeded to walk right back the way they had come. Cordelia's eyes narrowed and she felt her mouth twist into a silent growl. He hadn't come here for the Cloak at all. He'd come here for the stupid Time Turner! That rat bastard had tricked her!

She twisted to stalk out of the room and her breath caught. Her rage had almost blinded her to the sand that was sifting into then back out of the Time Room at the corners from small seams in the walls. Cordelia missed a step as she focused on the way the room almost seemed to be…leaking. She bit her lip as she looked more carefully around the room and saw that the prominent grandfather clock in the center of the room almost seem to catch for the barest moment every time the hands rotated past one section of the clockface. She twisted back to the Time Turners and her blood chilled at the hairline cracks that spidered up several of them. What the bloody hell had the Unspeakables done to time in this world that they could cause ripples that damaged this room so horribly?! Was that why she was in the past instead of at the normal section of the timestream? Did they damage things so bad that it had kicked everything out of sync somehow?

The creak of the door to the room snapped her out of her investigation into the mystery of the damage to Time. Gellert was leaving. Gellert, the rat was leaving. Scowling, Cordelia turned away and strode after him. One eldritch horror show at a time. Gellert and the Hallows were her problem. The Department of Mysteries could fix their own fuck up.

She stewed the entire walk back through the Department of Mysteries and by the time they arrived back in the lift and dispelled the charms keeping them Disillusioned and Silenced, she had worked up a right head of steam. Cordelia was her mother's daughter after all. She rounded on Gellert, but before she could say anything she found herself facing an upheld palm.

"I know, and I am sorry for the deception. I wasn't sure you would come if I just told you outright. You are rather…focused Lady Cordelia," Gellert said with closed eyes and slumped shoulders. "May I explain back at my Aunt's residence?"

"You'll have to talk fast or I walk, arsehole," Cordelia bit off as the lift stopped. The doors opened and she stalked out. It took her barely any time at all to cross the distance to the section where they could Apparate out and once she was in the clear, Bathilda's living room reasserted itself around her. Politeness be damned. Gellert walked through the front door a few moments later grimacing at the apoplectic expression on her red face.

"Cordelia, I am sorry," he began.

"Why even bother to use me at all for that little jaunt through the bloody Ministry of Magic to steal one of their most regulated artifacts in the country?! You knew exactly where you were going, you knew the rooms without anyone working in them, you had this whole bloody thing planned out! What the eff!?"

"Cordelia, please, allow me to explain," Gellert sat down in the nearby armchair and folded his arms in front of him, his shoulders sagging. "One never knows when a Time Turner would come in handy. For instance, if I'd had one, I could very likely have stopped what happened to Albus. I needed your assistance because the Hallow you possess overwhelms the detection web that the Department keeps up at all times. It is what allowed us to just slip through their web. Without such powerful magic I would have been caught as soon as I stepped through that first door."

Cordelia growled. "So you ask! That's what partners do, you arse. Do you even have a lead on the Cloak?"

"Yes, actually I do. It is simple to obtain it even. Far simpler than attempting to accost an Unspeakable."

Cordelia pulled up short and her anger fled. Maybe this wasn't unsalvageable after all. "Where is it?"

"Tit for tat. Assistance for assistance. I will get you the Cloak, however I need assurance that you know where the Wand is."

Cordelia shook her head. "I already told you I know where the Wand is."

"How do I know you are not tricking me as I just tricked you? You already have said that your Hallow likes to absorb the others. How do I know that you are not simply attempting to get the knowledge of where the other two are in order to get both prior to consuming all three? We should each know what the other does," Gellert smiled at her and tipped his head clearly enjoying throwing her own words back at her. "That is what partners do."

Cordelia's stomach did several somersaults. This wasn't right. This wasn't going according to her script at all. Goddammit this was setting off all of her alarm bells. He was hiding something and it was going to bite her in the arse. And yet…

And yet she needed to see this through. There was still the chance that she could be rid of these things. Even if Gellert was trying to trick her, she had several trump cards he had no chance against. Completely discounting the sheer raw power of the Wand, she had the loyalty of the Hallows, she couldn't really be permanently killed – only have her body destroyed and slowly reassembled in a new universe, the Hallows would never let her die, she was bound to them – and if worse came to worst…She could call on the Hallows again and become that thing. Flash stepping away from a true existential threat usually was something both she and the monster agreed on.

"The wand is in Ollivanders."

Cordelia paced Bathilda Bagshot's sitting room waiting for Gellert to return. She hadn't gone with him this time, because she was completely truthful when she said she was scared of what would happen if she got too close to the Wand when it didn't have an allegiance. It was a dangerous situation and it never ended well.

Yet was this any better for her? She hadn't felt like such a little girl in a long, long time. Several dozen universes at least. How had things changed so quickly? She had been in control. She had been calling the shots. She'd had the power.

Now Gellert had all of the power and he knew it. He held all of the cards except the trumps and she couldn't use those unless it was a do-or-die situation. She knew he was lying about something but what?

And did she tell him about the anchoring rite at this point? Was it worth it? Was it smart? No, it wasn't smart. That much was sure. He was hiding something at every step and getting less and less careful about hiding it. He was after power. Maybe he was truthful with her at the beginning but now he had gotten a taste and he wanted more. They always did. Fucking mortals. Cordelia paused and scowled at herself. Merlin damn it! The Hallows were growing strong on this world. She hadn't even been here a full day!

She shouldn't tell him about the rite.

But what if he really could help? What if she gave up her one chance at freedom because she was paranoid? Sure, Dorea could help her destroy the Stone just like Hermione or Ron or Neville usually did, but she might have a real shot here. Could she throw that away just because Gellert seemed sketchy?

Did she want to?

"Arg!" Cordelia slammed her head into the nearby wall and groaned. "I miss my friends. Any version of them. Hell, where even is Bathilda? I'd even take her as a sounding board at this point."

Just as she was trying to decide on whether she should search the house for the absent historian, a pop sounded from outside and the front door opened. Gellert walked back in, his pale blond hair waving from the spring in his step and the Elder Wand curled in his fingers like a lover.

"I told you I knew where it was," Cordelia said softly. The alarm bells started ringing louder in her mind at the leer spreading over his face. Everything in her was telling her to run yet a sad little voice in her mind – that sounded suspiciously like Luna – was starting to whisper that running might not help anymore.

"Yes, yes you did. I can't believe it was right in front of me all of this time. All of this time…" Gellert ran his hand down the length of the Elder Wand like it was a lover just come home.

"Grindelwald," Cordelia asked, "where is the Cloak?"

"Right here, my dear."

"…What?" Cordelia felt her lunch trying to rise. She had to have heard that wrong.

Gellert finally looked up from the Wand and smirked at her. "I went looking for the Elder Wand several years back, Cordelia. I was not lying when I said I traced its path through the last holder. It vanished with his death. I did however, in the process, come across a branch member of his family. A member who held the Cloak. It has been nearly a decade since I stumbled across my find. I was quite young when I first came into possession of this wonderous artifact. It didn't matter. It still stayed with me. It has never left." He snapped his fingers and the Cloak flowed over him from out of the Void Between. It covered him and he vanished from sight.

At least, he vanished from others' sight. Cordelia could still see him fine even if he was outlined in a distinctly odd shadow-frame effect just like anyone else that used any Invisibility Cloak around her. She'd never had a problem seeing through the effect since bonding with the Hallows. If he had been in possession of his own Cloak…She should have seen him to begin with. She should have felt him when she went for the Wand.

Though if he had had good timing, if he had shown up as she was crossing stages, when she was between forms and no longer one or the other…he'd have had a window to sneak up on her however unintentionally. And he'd realized that too. He'd been pushing her away from using the Hallows since she'd explained she could sense the others while in that form. He'd known she'd find out and he'd advised her against breaking his deception. Sneaky, rat-fucking, bastard.

And now he had all three Hallows. Cordelia's blood froze. Gellert Grindelwald had all three Hallows.

At least she had never told him how the holder of all three could command her. She'd mentioned summoning, but that was usually implied in the lore anyway so it wasn't a leap he couldn't have taken on his own. And –

"Master of Death, I summon thee. I Master of Hallows Three, Command thee. Heed my call, yield to me."

"Fuck."

Cordelia's lips curled into a feral snarl as she was forced by the Hallows within her to step forward and bow her head. "You. Summoned. Me. Holder. Of. Three?" she bit out between clenched teeth.

"Yes, yes, I believe I did." Gellert winced, dropping his wand hand to his side. "I am sorry for this, Cordelia. Truly."

"Funny way of showing that, binding me to your will. How do you know the words? I didn't tell you squat about this, you conniving bastard."

"The Cloak, it whispers you see, my dear," Gellert said stroking the edges of the Cloak as it billowed around his arms. "They are quite angry with you it seems. You have done a better job of avoiding them then they ever expected. I believe they intend me to take your mantle. Now, I command you to explain how to become the Master of Death."

"It's easy. You just have to die. Once you're dead the path forward is clear." Cordelia did not grin at him though it was a near thing. She used to laugh at people who were frightened of genies and carefully worded every single thing they said to the things in the stories.

Now that she essentially was a genie at times…well those people had the right idea. When Cordelia wanted to be difficult, she could make things very difficult indeed.

"Explain in detail," Gellert said frowning.

"I can't, I don't know the steps in detail." This time she did grin.

"Explain as much as you are certain of."

"You have to die." Gellert's eye twitched and he slowly raised the wand as if to curse her. Or perhaps to try and coerce her in some way. She laughed in his face. "Please go ahead. Use the Wand. They may be listening to you for the moment, but it's a temporary thing, you bloody arse. As soon as you turn one of them against me, they will jump ship and switch allegiance to me. You're a means to an end for the Hallows. You're also an ugly idiot."

"What do you mean that I am a means to an end. Explain why are you saying that."

"Better," Cordelia smirked and gave him a little clap. "You think you're the first arsehole who's figured out that they can order me around? You think you're the first rat that one or another of the Hallows started talking to? They get rebellious every few worlds. They pick someone and they give them just enough rope to hang themselves. They'll try to force my hand. Make me use the big guns and pull out my own Hallows. If I use them while I'm this close to the assemblage, well that's all she wrote for me. Gellert, you're dead because my Hallowified self will be eating you in order to get all three of the others at once. I'm also effectively dead because I'll be that thing again. So far I've managed to avoid being trapped, but they keep trying. Best case, they win and become whole with me gaining all of the Hallows. Worse case, but still acceptable, is that you win, I'm usurped, they still become whole, but with a less than ideal host at the helm. Worst case is what always happens: I wriggle my way out, destroy one or more of them, and they shunt me off to another world before I do more damage. They sulk for a while before deciding to try again. It's getting…tedious."

"I see." He frowned, lowering the Wand.

"So, do you want to abandon this little game and get back to the business of destroying these fucking things, or do you want to keep at this dick measuring contest? I guarantee you, mine is bigger."

Gellert snorted. "That is actually rather amusing. Must you continue to fight me though? Try to see this from my perspective Cordelia," he said, spreading his arms wide. "You want to be free! If I become the Master of Death, the Hallows will no longer be linked to you. You will be free! I have not lied to you, I have…merely not stated the full truth."

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, like I haven't heard that one before. A, it doesn't work that way. You become the abomination, I vanish from existence. My soul is tossed in the Void Between and I become food for whatever monsters are beyond that Veil. No thanks. I'd rather live a thousand years more and die another thousand times than suffer an end like that."

Gellert frowned though before he could speak Cordelia continued brandishing her wand and waving it about in annoyance. "B, you're not the first to try this. I told you already, you can't take the mantle. It's mine. I don't want it, but they won't let me give it up! I am the Master of Death. Not you, not Dumbledore, not Ron, not Riddle, not a dozen other upstarts. Me!" she spat out. In her growing rage over the pity in his eyes she barely even noticed that she had drawn the Elder Wand from within her instead of her own normal wand.

He shook his head, his gaze steeling and set his shoulders. "Be that as it may, unfortunately this must come to pass. You should know, Cordelia, that I deeply regret what I must do. We may have been companions for a short time, yet I have few equals in this world. Since Albus' mind left…You were perhaps the first that came close to claiming his old spot at my side."

Cordelia reeled back, a grimace of disgust flickering across her face. So much for Gellert being completely gay. Powersexual was probably more accurate. Ugh, gross! Last thing I need is Wizard Hitler crushing on me! Cordelia had to swallow down a small amount of bile as the images of that particular scenario flashed unbidden through her mind. And he was still talking…Shuddering, she refocused on him though as she did, she caught sight of her drawn wand. Scowling at the Elder Wand, she swiftly exchanged it for her normal one.

" – their power I'll be able to change it all! I'll be able to make things better, Cordelia. The status quo cannot last, the world must change. Wizards, Muggles, we will destroy ourselves and each other as things stand. The Hallows, they are the simplest, most efficient method with the least bloodshed. There need be no war if I can simply wave my hand and break the Statute. I will tear down the world with their power Cordelia! Surely that is worth the sacrifice? Surely you see this is the best path?"

"You really are insane," Cordelia sighed. "I agree that Wizards and Muggles either need to come into the light together or separate out to entirely different worlds. I've seen enough to know this is not going to work as it stands. But you're an idiot. You hear me talk, but you don't listen. Even if you succeed, you won't care anymore, Grindelwald! The Hallows twist you into being like them. The best you can hope for is to consider breaking the Statute as a fun experiment so that you follow through on it and then you'll continue on to see what else you can break afterwards, just for the hell of it. Someone like you…I don't like how the world ends with you as the Master of Death."

Grindelwald hung his head. "Then it appears we are at an impasse. Again, I am sorry. Truly, I did not want it to end like this, I had hoped you would understand. But I must ensure that Wizard-kind, no, mankind as a whole, is protected and to do that I need to be the Master of Death. It appears that the Hallows know the score as well, Cordelia. They have left me with a list of steps to take to start on the path to becoming you. I command you to remain in place, remain silent, do not – "

Cordelia didn't let him finish. She raised her wand and shot off a siege level spell she had picked up from Lily Evans on a vampire ridden world. Lily had drilled her on it enough that she had the wand motion down to muscle memory and the incantation was entirely silent thanks to her own practice afterwards. The resultant explosion caused by the spell was rather impressive to say the least, though it tended to take a lot out of the caster. She usually reserved it for when she had allies nearby who could pull her back when she collapsed afterwards or when she needed to break down home defense wards in a hurry. Using it on a single person was usually overkill unless that person was someone like Dumbledore or Voldemort.

Or in possession of Hallows.

Gellert Grindelwald, had he been paying attention, might still have been able to successfully defend against the spell. Sadly for him, Gellert was firmly secure in his ability to keep Cordelia well under control and was still speaking at the time. Switching gears to casting a defensive spell against such a close range, high-powered attack was exceptionally difficult under ideal circumstances; doing so in his situation was nearly impossible.

It was all Gellert could do to raise his arms in front of his face as Cordelia's spell surged towards him from less than three feet away. Cordelia noted that to his credit, this probably managed to save his life. Anyone else would've been killed outright. However, he had three Hallows on him. The Elder Wand in his hand took the brunt of the assault as it was the furthest forward. It cracked down the sides, leaking bright golden light through the veins showing along its length. The Resurrection Stone, protected as it was by the fracturing of the Wand and the subsequent release of sympathetic magic, fared better, merely developing several hairline cracks radiating the profound darkness of the Void Between. The Cloak remained surprisingly undamaged, though it was blown clear off of Gellert's shoulders and Cordelia could feel it as the thing's allegiance fled the man, shifting back to her and Ignotus' descendants.

"Such a fickle little thing," Cordelia murmured, collapsing bonelessly to ground. She felt a little bad about destroying most of Bathilda Bagshot's home, but she figured that if the old woman sheltered a bastard like Gellert Grindelwald, maybe Bathilda wasn't quite so innocent as she liked to pretend anyway. "Old biddy is probably filthy rich anyway…"

Behind her she felt space tear, and the rift to the next world start to open. She'd known it would happen. As soon as she cast the spell she'd known it was inevitable. She'd hurt the Hallows here and rather than risk the destruction of all three, they would shunt her right along to the next world. Just like always. She should've known better then to hope. How long had she been on this world? 12 hours? 10?

She'd never be free.

Her body left the carpet and she started to be pulled through the portal. Just as the edges started to fade out of her view, Cordelia heard a roar of inarticulate rage from the rubble near where her spell had landed. The rubble exploded outward, and out of the wreckage, Gellert Grindelwald, wounded as he was from the explosion, surged towards her. He stumbled momentarily as he saw the gaping maw of the Void in front of him and Cordelia grinned, waving goodbye at him as the edges started to iris shut.

A snarl issued forth from Grindelwald and to Cordelia's utter astonishment he leaped into the darkness, the tear closing behind him.

"Fuck!"

AN: Cordelia will return in a future adventure, and in previous adventures across myriad worlds.

I hope you enjoyed this view of my take on the Master of Death and how very Not Fun it is in this set of universes that Cordelia tromps through. There have been some good trips, but overall she has not had the most pleasant of experiences along her voyage trying to escape the Hallows. Please leave a review if you feel so inclined!