The Tale of Azure - Book I: Shades of Green and Blue

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Master of Death

A/N: We are about to find out what was Grindelwald's plan for Azure. Some parts of this chapter are taken from "Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows".

Disclaimer: I do not own "Harry Potter", only my OC's."

Myrtle could not say much about Gellert Grindelwald, except what she had read in the newspapers. The Dark Wizard was a lunatic, simple as that. Her friend was unfortunately acquainted with him because of a certain meeting that had ended up with Azure witnessing the Unforgivables.

That conversation made the petite remember of their small discussion on the Unforgivables with Lexi and Stefan. While some wizards and witches could build a resistance to the Imperius and the Cruciatus, this normally required decades of training.

"Until this day, no one – human - survived the Killing Curse. There's no rebound. You can dodge it if you're fast enough, you can try to throw something heavy at it, but the spell always finds a victim," Azure intoned calmly, her palms on the grass that surrounded them. "The Soul is instantly severed from your body."

Myrtle nodded. The Avada Kedavra was final; the second you are hit with it, you die. To deflect it, you need to send something like a big rock in its direction and the impact will disintegrate the rock. Or you could dodge it like one of those ninja people.

But most people do not think about it when they're facing literal death.

"However...if the target owned the infamous Elder Wand, perhaps the outcome would be different."

She frowned at Azure's words, her ears picking up faintly the chirping of birds. "The Elder Wand?"

"One of the three most powerful objects crafted by Death," Azure replied with a half-smile. "While Muggle-borns grow up hearing Grimm and other storytellers' fairy tales, we have stories such as The Tale of the Three Brothers. It portrays a cunning Death and three brothers who used magic to pass a river where usually people would drown. After Death reveals herself to the brothers and congratulates them for surviving, she promises to grant one single wish to each brother. The three brothers are defined by a particular personality trait: the eldest was ambitious and belligerent so he wished for an invincible wand."

Myrtle's eyes widened in pure fascination as Azure used her wand to conjure a straight vertical line on thin air. "A wand made of elder wood..."

Azure nodded. "Also known as the Stick of Death, it has Thestral tail hair as a core, according to Wandlore."

The horse-like creatures Myrtle had seen pulling the carriers flashed in her head. "I can see them too. Grandpa...died in his bed and I was the last person he saw and spoke to..." She sobbed before sitting upright and removing her glasses, wiping the salty liquid of her eyes.

"The same happened with Uncle Chris," her friend recalled softly, fingering an old key around her neck. "He used to narrate this story to me."

Myrtle nodded sadly and put her glasses on. She let her body falling backwards, her back hitting the soft grass. "What did the other brothers wish for?"

Azure did the same and waved her wand once more, this time adding a circle on top of the line. "The second brother sought to bring deceased loved ones to life, so Death enchanted a small black stone she had picked up from a riverbed and offered it to him. Despite the name, the Resurrection Stone did not resurrect the dead, only spirit-like beings. This brother was defined by his hubris, unlike the first who thrived for power."

"Because to resurrect people is against nature," Myrtle interjected. "In some religions like mine, the resurrection of the dead only concerns the Creator, not the creations." The corners of her lips quirked. "Another thing that our worlds have in common."

"That's right!" Azure beamed at her. "The final brother...he was most of all, a humble man. Not trusting the entity before him, he asked for a means to safely continue his journey without being followed by Death." Their eyes followed the wand's movements as it enclosed the line and the circle in a triangle. The symbol was giving off a reddish glow. "This shape." She pointed to the triangle. "Represents the Cloak of Invisibility, firstly owned by Death and then grudgingly relinquished to the youngest brother. According to the legend, this cloak could hide its owner from everything, Death included. It was also a cloak that never lost its power, whether it was due to age or curses."

The authentic, the first Cloak? Myrtle asked inwardly, recalling Charlus Potter show off his transparent cloak to his friends two years ago. He had said that his brother had asked him to "use it well" because it was a precious heirloom. She was aware that there were special cloaks capable of concealing someone's presence temporarily. But this kind of cloak...had to be one of a kind. "How did they die?"

"The first was killed in his sleep by a fellow wizard who coveted the all-powerful wand that had given him countless victories. He died drunk in power. The second took his own life not too much after using the stone to join his deceased lover. He died for love. And the last one..."

"His death was not violent or tragic," Myrtle deduced. "Death collected the two brothers easily. But the youngest..."

Azure hummed in agreement. "The story ends with the brother – now an aged man - finally removing the cloak, giving it to his son and greeting Death like an old friend. And together, both departed to the afterlife."

"Acceptance...that's why his death was different from his brothers..." Myrtle breathed. "He did not reject Death but the opposite. His death was devoid of regrets."

"To every tale, there is a moral, a hidden lesson," her friend added, soft fingers interlocking with Myrtle's who smiled, basking in the older girl's natural warmth. "In this case, we learn that no one can eternally flee from Death. You and I, all living beings are born to die. But until then, we have to live with the choices we make. From my perspective...the youngest brother was the only one who truly lived."

"These objects...are real?"

"Some believe that they are real and some do not," the older girl answered cryptically, removing her fingers from Myrtle's hand. "Together, the triad is collectively known as 'The Deathly Hallows'; the person who unites them will be known as 'The Master of Death'," she added dryly. "It is not very hard to imagine that the sheer thought of overcoming Death as too much seductive for certain people who would otherwise dismiss the objects as a simple bedtime story."

Her eyes widened behind the spectacles at Azure's rather grim statement. But that would mean... 

"That night when you met Grindelwald, you said he was wearing a necklace with the symbol engraved on our tree's bark. Could it be...that?"

Azure nodded gravely. "After politely introducing himself and telling me he knew I was an Aura Seer – my eyes gave it away instantly –, he tried to use the Imperius on me because Aura Seers and Seers are the only people that can pinpoint any magical signature; while Seers could tell you a rough estimate of the location, Aura Seers instantly see the objects or people and their exact locations in their minds. But..."

"It didn't work," Myrtle completed. Azure's immunity to the Imperius was one of her secrets.

"At that time, I was still too young to know what the symbol around his neck meant...but now I know the truth." Myrtle frowned and faced her friend. "He called himself an unvollständiger Meister des Todes. It's German for 'incomplete Master of Death. This Revolution of his is a means to an end: the gathering of the Hallows."

"And he already has one," Myrtle added fearfully as her friend nodded. "His wand...was not just any wand, was it?"

"I heard its voice just for a moment. It was saying that Grindelwald was greater than his first master," Azure replied. "Grindelwald called it Holunder Walz. Or, as we would say in English, the Elder Wand."

"The Elder Wand," Myrtle repeated slowly. "That's..."

"...too fantastic to believe?" Azure asked rhetorically, hands trembling. "If one exists, the other two are somewhere...all we can do now is to believe that they will never be found by that mass-murderer or his ilk."

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