Gellert Grindelwald (hallowedsummer) wrote in lockewood, @ 2011-01-05 14:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | gellert grindelwald, zacharias smith |
Who: Gellert Grindelwald & Zacharias Smith
Where: In front of Zach's house, and then beneath the Lockewood jail
When: 10pm
What: Gellert's experiment continues in its human trials phase. Only this time, he needs a new subject.
Rating: PG
Status: Complete
Cedric was trying to kill him. That was the only excuse for... this. Zach shouldn’t have needed to sneak out of bed in the middle of the night to get away from Cedric’s raging...
Anyway, it wasn’t the middle of the night yet. Cedric was brushing his teeth and Zach had decided to take the opportunity to go outside for a bracing breath of fresh air, bare feet in the snow. He wished he smoked; it would make the perfect excuse for his frequent retreats into the cold.
He was watching his breath puff out into white clouds and rubbing warmth back into his arms, trudging through the snow. Just a few more minutes, he told himself, already starting to shiver. And next time, he was wearing shoes.
Gellert had been following Zacharias Smith for some time now. He seemed the ideal candidate. Abrasive, a bit of a loner (until recently, anyway, but that was hardly an insurmountable obstacle), and -- perhaps most importantly -- he had no connection with Gellert whatsoever. Certainly, he had been a member of Gellert’s tribunal, but they had never exchanged many words, and never been seen together.
Everything was in order. Gellert could go in tomorrow, after Zacharias’s new roommate went to work, and clear out all of his things. This could be made to look like Skeeter had stolen him away. When he returned him (and he would return him, eventually, because he had to be able to observe side effects in a real world environment), he could wipe his memories, make it appear as if he had simply returned to Lockewood once more.
The plan was not flawless, but no plan ever was -- and Gellert considered himself an expert at handling unforseen changes in circumstance.
He did not allow himself to be seen. Gellert simply lifted his wand in the shadows, training it on the figure standing but a few metres away. “Imperio.”
--
Zach took in a breath and sighed, his head falling to the side on the pillow. It didn’t seem to be particularly light out yet, so he made no move to hurry out of bed or even to open his eyes. It didn’t occur to him, yet, that the bed wasn’t as comfortable as it should have been; he was a little groggy and he knew from experience that opening his eyes would awaken his senses and that he’d have a hard time falling back asleep. It’d be easy if he just kept them closed and worked on attaining that goal right away.
He sighed again and went to move his hand to Cedric’s arm, just to make sure that the man was still there, only to hear one of the most unusual sounds. It was... tinkling. A light, metallic sound he never usually heard when he moved his arm, and the curiosity was enough to make Zach open one eye, frown, and then open the other, the better to stare at the chain on his wrist. How hadn’t he felt that? How hadn’t that woken him?
And since when did Cedric chain him to a bed? Intrigued by that concept, Zach turned again to Cedric’s usual location, only to find... a wall.
A wall? Zach started and sat up, his other arm going up to palm this wall, this... stone wall that didn’t belong. Where was Cedric? Suddenly feeling very watched, like a rat in a maze those evil psychologists used, Zach looked behind him.
It was Grindelwald. It was Grindelwald, standing a few feet away, his hands held calmly behind his back, in the middle of a huge room. No windows. A door way over there. Walls, and ceiling and floor made of the same stone, the only light in the room a glowing, levitating orb in the center of the room. Zach gulped.
“What is this?” he asked shakily, his heart rate picking up speed and his breaths following suit. “What is this? What do you want?”
“Hello, Mr. Smith,” Gellert said, his lips curving into a smile at last. “I hope you will forgive me, for knocking you out, but I could not afford for you to remember how we got here.” The Imperius might be incredibly effective for getting Smith from his house to the jail, but it was no Memory Charm. Smith would still have been able to recall the spells used to unlace the wards surrounding the cell block renovations. And while Gellert suspected such magic was beyond Smith’s ability, it never hurt to be cautious.
Gellert stepped closer, unclasping his hands from behind his back. “I need you to help me with something. A little … experiment.” His grin widened. “Of course, before we begin, I do need to obtain your informed consent.” He laughed, the sound echoing slightly off the stone walls -- because it was brilliantly ironic, was it not? Smith, consenting to losing his ability to consent. Still, ethics were ethics, and Albus would have insisted upon it.
An experiment? His consent? Zach shifted away from Grindelwald, pressing his back to the wall and hating it for being there, preventing him from getting any further. His knees instinctively clasped together and pressed against his chest, his arms wrapped around them protectively.
What the bloody hell was going on? Consent? For what? An experiment, a stupid, fucking little voice told him, but that didn’t exactly tell him for what, which was a very important question.
“I don’t- No.” His pulse was visible on his neck, blood pumping just a little too fast, just a little too hard, and Zach had to lick his lips if he didn’t want to feel as though they’d be stuck together, dried with fear. “I’m not informed, I can’t- No. What-... What is the experiment for? I can’t give you my informed consent if I’m not bloody informed what we’re experimenting for, can I? And I know I didn’t give my consent to being bloody kidnapped, so I’m thinking you don’t give much of a shit about consent, so can I please be sent home now? I want to go home, I don’t want to be part of your twisted experiment. So that’s a no on your consent, sir, I don’t want in, informed or no.”
He’d been rambling long enough, and decided to unwrap his arm from his legs to present his chained wrist to the madman. “Let me go, right now.” Which might have held more influence if he hadn’t been in curled up with fear, his back against a wall, as he spoke.
Gellert simply laughed again and moved a little bit closer, his hand slipping to his pocket to draw out his wand. The elderberry clusters engraved into the handle pressed perfectly against his palm, as if sculpted for his very fingers, as if the Wand had been made for him. As if through all those years, the Wand had only ever had one Master … one true Master ….
He ignored Smith’s protests. It was all part of the game. A game Smith would play, willingly or not. “You are asked to participate in a research study by Gellert Grindelwald, as affiliated with the Chancellor’s office of Wizarding Cabinet, Federal Republic of Germany. You have been asked to participate in this study because you are healthy, and because no one will care if you go missing. Your participation in this study is entirely voluntary, except for when it’s not.” Gellert sat down on the bed next to Smith, keeping his wand idly trained on the boy, in case he should try something stupid. Informed consent, he understood, was a relatively recent addition to the ethics of magical research. Gellert found the entire notion wholly entertaining. “You should listen carefully to the following information, and ask questions about anything that you do not understand:
“This study was designed to evaluate and to expand the effectiveness of a new version of the Imperius Curse. Specifically, using this method, we hope to learn improved ways of subjugating political dissenters and controlling potentially useful pawns, as well as better ways of inflicting the maximum amount of physical and psychological pain on an individual by using their own mind.” Gellert twirled the Wand between his fingers. “By participating in this study, you understand that you will be subjected to Dark magic, that the curses used in this procedure are deemed Unforgivable by the International Confederation of Wizards, and that there is a small but present risk of lethality. You understand that you will be Obliviated before being allowed to exit the participation room for observation, and that once you have served your use, you may be terminated. The duration of the study is … well, however long I decide is necessary.” Still holding Smith’s gaze, Gellert leaned forward, just slightly. “Do I have your verbal consent?”
Zach would’ve liked to interrupt a total of fourteen times, and all those words ran into each other on their way out of his mouth, resulting a garbled “ahgbngnf” and shake of the head to the negative. Subjugating political dissenters? Controlling potentially useful pawns? Inflicting the maximum amount of pain?? It didn’t much matter beyond that point, did it? Who gave a shit about lethality - well, besides the obvious him - when all the rest of that shit was going on? Potter had been right.
Potter had been right!
POTTER HAD BEEN RIGHT!!
He wanted to run, but his eyes were focused on the tip of that wand, and there was also that whole chain issue, so running was out of the question. Zach’s gaze flickered up to Grindelwald’s face, which he contemplated punching in. It occurred to him that the idea might have been visible on his face, and Zach gulped audibly.
“No,” he whispered, pretty sure that it was going to be the last word he ever uttered. “No, I don’t consent.” Cedric was going to miss him, though, he reminded himself. He hoped.
Gellert let out a soft, almost inaudible sigh. “Oh, well,” he said, shrugging his shoulders almost casually. He pushed himself up from the bed, standing once more. “I had hoped that you would consent, Mr. Smith. It would have afforded me no small amount of amusement.”
He turned back to face Smith once more, his free hand tracing along the length of the Wand, trailing toward its tip. “Honestly, though … you’ll meet the same end either way.” He pointed the Wand at Smith once more and took in a slow breath that seemed to lift the veil from his eyes, bringing the room into sharper focus.
”Imperio.”