The books brought a lot of weird things with them.
Candles blowing out, objects falling randomly. Even her waking up on the floor in the middle of the night.
She knew the books had something to do with it, and her own talking book wasn't planning to help as it still didn't want to even open.
Fila sat cross-legged in a quiet alcove tucked behind one of the older staircases, the kind of forgotten corner where even the portraits rarely bothered to gossip. A single torch flickered on the wall above her, casting long shadows across the stone floor. She had a small pile of jerky on a napkin beside her (stolen from dinner), and the two mysterious books resting in her lap like sleeping dragons.
The first one, the "kids coloring book," as she'd taken to calling it, lay open on her knees. Its pages were thick and slightly warped, filled with colorful illustrations that looked almost playful at first glance: animals, flowers, smiling students walking through sunlit courtyards. But the longer she stared, the more the drawings seemed to shift when she wasn't looking directly at them. A cheerful deer in one picture now had sharp antlers and glowing red eyes. A group of laughing students in another had turned their heads to stare straight out of the page.
She flipped to the page she'd seen earlier, the one with the underlined line in old Norse.
"The school was meant to protect, not conquer."
Beneath it, a new line had appeared since she last looked. The ink was fresh, as if written just moments ago.
"But the conqueror came anyway."
Fila shivered. She traced the words with a finger, feeling a faint tingle of old magic. The book felt alive in a way that made her skin crawl, but also strangely familiar, like her own talking book but older. Angrier.
She turned another page. This one showed a woman who looked very much like the founder, Nerida Vulchanova, standing in front of the school as it once was. But behind her, a shadow stretched long and dark, shaped like a man with a pointed beard.
Fila frowned. "Harfang Munter," she muttered to herself. The man who took over after Nerida's mysterious death.
A soft rustle made her look up. Aleksei was leaning against the wall a few feet away, arms crossed, watching her with that familiar half-smile.
"Talking to books again?" he asked quietly. "Should I be jealous?"
Fila let out a small laugh, relieved to see him. "Only if the books start answering back with better advice than 'wait and see.' Come sit. This one's creepy."
He pushed off the wall and dropped down beside her, close enough that their knees brushed. He glanced at the open page, eyes narrowing at the shadow behind Nerida.
"Looks like the official history skipped a few details," he said. "You think the ghost is her? Trying to warn you about something Munter did?"
"Or what he started." Fila flipped another page. This one showed the school in darkness, students training with real weapons, shadows creeping along the walls like living things. "The book keeps changing. Like it wants me to see the truth."
Aleksei was quiet for a moment, then reached over and gently closed the book. His hand lingered on the cover.
"You don't have to do this right now," he said softly. "It's late. You've barely slept since the ghost showed up. We can look more tomorrow. Together."
Fila looked at him. In the dim torchlight, his face was serious but warm, the kind of steady presence that made the castle feel a little less cold. She realized, not for the first time, how glad she was he'd followed her that night.
"Nope." She just said and looked back down at the book, slightly flushed now.
Aleksei let out a quiet laugh, the sound low and fond. "Of course not. Why rest when there are creepy changing books to read at midnight?"
He didn't move away though. Instead, he shifted a little closer so he could see the pages better, his shoulder pressing lightly against hers. Fila didn't mind. The warmth was nice in the chilly corridor.
She opened the book again. The illustration of Nerida had changed once more. This time the shadow behind her was clearer, almost forming the shape of a man reaching out with long, clawed fingers. The text beneath it had shifted too, now written in a language she could actually understand, as if the book had decided to be helpful.
"The conqueror brought strength, but he stole the heart. The school forgot its roots. The echo waits for one who remembers."
Aleksei was quiet for a long moment, his usual serious expression deepening. "Your grandfather studied here. Maybe the ghost is connected to that time. Or maybe it's Nerida herself, trying to show you what went wrong when Munter took over."
Fila flipped another page. This one showed the school as it looked now, dark and imposing, with students training under a stormy sky. But in the corner of the drawing, a small figure with a blindfold stood among glowing flowers, facing the shadows.
She blinked. "Is that… me?"
Aleksei leaned in closer, his breath warm against her ear. "Looks like it. The book's definitely paying attention to you."
Fila closed the book with a soft thud, her heart beating a little faster. "This is getting weirder by the second. First the ghost, now a magical coloring book that draws me into its pictures. What's next, Bob showing up in the illustrations?"
But she couldn't hold herself back and opened it once more, this time a picture of a long imposing hallway. dark and barley lit with only a single torch lit.
She stared at it, a chill running down her spine. The hallway looked exactly like the one where she had first seen the ghost. The same cold stone walls, the same faint frost creeping along the edges of the floor. In the center of the drawing stood a small figure with a blindfold and familiar wild hair, facing the darkness.
And there, just at the edge of the torchlight, the ghostly shape of what looked like Karkaroff stood watching.
Fila swallowed. "Aleksei… look."
He leaned in again, his shoulder pressing more firmly against hers now. "That's the corridor. The one where it first appeared." His voice was low, serious. "The book's showing you what's coming. Or what it wants you to see."
She turned the page slowly. The next illustration was the same hallway, but now the ghostly figure was closer, one translucent hand outstretched. Beneath it, new words had appeared in elegant, flowing script:
"Come alone."
Fila looked at Aleksei who had the exact same expression of what the fuck.
"Don't even think about it Fila, I'm coming with you." He said. But he knew better, she would go without him. And just as he even thought about it, a loud crack echoed in the hall. Leaving him there alone.
In the other side of the castle, a could of leaves and flower petals erupted and Fila popped out of thin air.
"Alright I'm here, show me." She said and stretch out her arms as if a miracle would appear.
Yet nothing happened, not even a cold gust of wind. She frowned, something should happen when a book even tells her to come here. and yet only she and the ominous symbol on the wall…
Her book suddenly shook a little under her right arm, and she opened it. it was the Nerida Vulchanova book.
Fila opened it without much thought, shaking and self-writing books had become the new normal for her after all. the pages were old, brittle and even stained with something deep.
A painted picture, of a lone child standing in the hallway. Fila looked around, the girl stood right where she herself stood. On her right she had the symbol, which Fila also had.
"Playing tricks on me?" she said to the book.
The book started erasing the right side of the girl, and redrew it so the girl pointed at the symbol now.
"You want me to touch it?" Fila asked and looked to the symbol. She had never understood the intention of this, it still felt so out of place. Maybe she would get an answer to this finally.
With a careful hand, she reached and gently graced the symbol of the deathly hallows. It glowed, a soft glue glow with her touch of emitting a soft green it blended together. And then it went dark.
Fila raised an eyebrow, this couldn't have been it? she thought and then clinking behind the symbol could be heard. It sounded like locks or gears turning.
*click, click click*
This went of for some time until final a loud clunk echoed softly into the corridor. Aleksei who had walked slowly towards the corridor had finally arrived.
And when he did a part of the wall had started opening like a normal door.
Fila and Aleksei both looked at each other, and then both of the leaned to look into the hidden room.
Dark, filled with cobwebs, smelled like mold and enclosed. It probably hadn't been opened for a very long time.
"your not thinking about…" he didn't even get to finish when Fila had already started going into the room. He sighed and soon followed after her. "How do you even see in here, its dark."
Fila stopped and turned to him, waved her hand Infront of her won face.
"Oh you see, and I don't." she said. "Having eyes isn't always as good as not having them."
She stated and resumed her walk into the room.
"Sorry, I keep forgetting." He apologized. Fila had heard this many time, many don't see Fila as blind since her won magic sight makes her able to see almost like a normal person.
The walk into the room, or corridor more like. There were several doors, all the same as the others around the school but much older.
Fila opened the first door. It opened with a loud creak.
"A classroom?" she said while stepping in, and sure enough desks and a big board just like a normal classroom. It still had some writing on the board, but in old Swedish it looked like.
Fila stepped further into the room, the old floorboards creaking under her boots. The air was thick with dust and the faint scent of aged parchment. She ran her fingers along one of the desks, feeling the carved initials of students long gone.
"Looks like a classroom from when the school was first built," she murmured.
"Yeah, it looks ancient. Wouldn't be surprised if it really is the first part of the school." Aleksei said further away in the room.
They looked around the room, found some old parchments but nothing else. The rest of the rooms had similar things. Potions classroom, small library, even a small meeting room around a round table.
The last door stood strangely against the others, taller and with more details.
Aleksei froze suddenly in the hallway, Fila turned and looked at him. "Aleksei? You good?" she asked, but he didn't answer he just stood there.
But behind him stood someone, or rather something that made her understand what had just happened. The ghost she had seen stood a bit further behind him and pointed towards the door.
Fila looked at the ghost and Aleksei, "If you hurt him, I'm going after you. Kapish?" she said trying to warn a ghost of all things.
But the ghost didn't even react and just kept pointing towards the door.
Fila swallowed hard, then stepped forward, wand raised. The tall door groaned open under her touch, revealing a room that felt completely different from the others. It was larger, more personal. A four-poster bed stood against the far wall, its curtains faded and tattered. Bookshelves lined one side, filled with worn volumes and dried herbs hanging from the ceiling. A desk sat near a small window, covered in old parchments and quills that looked like they hadn't been touched in centuries.
She stepped with cautious steps into the room. The door had slammed shut behind her, knocking settled dust into the air.
No sound, not even a gust of wind or the usual creaking of the castle.
Fila stepped closer to the bed, and in a ripped part of the drawn curtain she saw something she didn't expect in here. a skeleton.
The bones were old, yellowed with time, but still intact, dressed in the remnants of what must have once been elegant robes. A silver necklace with a small flower pendant rested on the chest.
Fila stopped dead. "Don't tell me…"
"Sad isn't it?" a women voice cut the silence.
Fila almost jumped to the ceiling, a loose spell shot out from her wand hitting the wall.
She looked at the source, a ghost this time. the normal kind emitting a gentle blue glow.
The spectral woman stood near the bed, tall and regal, with sharp features and long, flowing hair that moved as if stirred by an unseen wind.
It wore the exact same dress as the skeleton, and looked exactly like the women in the book.
"Sad, isn't it?" Nerida repeated, her voice soft and echoing like wind through pine trees. "To die alone in the place you built with hope, only to watch it twist into something cold and sharp."
Fila lowered her wand slowly, her heart still hammering. "You are Nerida." She murmured softly.
She seemed to let out a quiet sigh, "Yes, I am. And you are Ophelia, the heir of Grindelwald. and a distant memory of a ones great family." She said while still looking at the bed.
Distant memory? "What do you mean, what memory. And why lead me here?" Fila asked.
Nerida's ghostly form drifted slightly, turning to face her fully. Her eyes, glowing with that gentle blue light, held centuries of sorrow and quiet determination.
But she smiled, a gentle and warm smile she could never have felt or see in any other shape or form. This wasn't just a friendly smile, this is the kind of smile you get from someone who is connected deeper than strangers.
"Sit, lets talk. We have a lot to go through, and your friend is safe. I made him go back to his common room." She said and a ghost chair appeared that she sat down in.
Fila looked at the old chair at the desk, it creaked a lot when she sat down in it.
"You probably have a lot of questions, so please. Ask them." she said gently. Nerida sat in her chair, she felt so alive but at the same time her skeleton laid there on the bed.
Knowing where to even begin was a challenge in it self. "Alright, let's start with why I'm here. why want me to come here."
Nerida nodded, "Good question. I brought you here for several reasons. One is to give you something that you need to give to someone later, and two is to meet a member of the family." She just said.
Fila blinked, "Family? Grindelwald?"
She chuckled, Nerida looked out of the window by the desk. "Well sort of, the Grindelwald name is just a cover in truth." She began, she seemed calm. "Vulchanova as you know, is the family name I have. Grindelwald is what the family renamed themselves after my death. My family became hunted after my death, so much so that they changed name and went into a sort of hiding. And that's the reason you barley hear of anything about Grindelwald, it safer to just be quiet."
Fila sat frozen in the creaky chair, her mind racing. "So… I'm not just Gellert's granddaughter. I'm… yours too? In a way?"
Nerida turned back to her, that gentle, warm smile returning. "Well yes and no, I think you are from one of my sisters or maybe my brother. I never had children, but we are related certainly."
Fila sat frozen in the creaky chair, her mind racing to catch up. "So… the Grindelwald line… it's really the Vulchanova line in hiding?"
Nerida nodded slowly, her ghostly form shimmering slightly. "After my death, Munter made sure anyone connected to me was seen as a threat. My siblings scattered, changed their names, and tried to survive. The name Grindelwald came later, when one branch of the family decided strength and fear were the only ways to protect themselves."
Fila blinked, she wasn't to sure if she understood everything. A whole new family had just opened up, well it wasn't new. Its still the same she had always been with, but just a new name. But should she really trust something like this? it had some connection as her grandfather had made the symbol here, so did he know about this?
"Did Grand… Gellert know of this, or even you?" Fila asked as she thought about the possibilities.
But Nerida just nodded, "Yes, I was the one who told him to make the symbol. Its purpose was to guide you here. why I choose just that symbol? It was important to your grandfather, and so it would fit and not raise any suspicions in any other way."
It all fitted in, but Fila still held doubts about a lot of this. but why would Nerida lie? She's a ghost now, with nothing else but to remain here forever and ever.
"What is the deathly hallows?" Fila had asked this because she wanted to know the root of her grandfather's obsession with the tale of it. He had long wondered and researched the subject about the deathly hallows, even doing experiments that would eventually lead to his expulsion from even the most brutal school there is.
Nerida's ghostly form shimmered with quiet amusement, her blue glow softening the dim corners of the ancient room. She drifted a little closer to the desk, her translucent fingers tracing the air above an old inkwell as if remembering the feel of writing.
"The Deathly Hallows," she said, her voice carrying the weight of centuries. "A tale older than even this school. Three brothers, three gifts from Death itself. The Elder Wand for power. The Resurrection Stone for mastery over death. The Cloak of Invisibility for escape. Your grandfather… he became obsessed with them. He saw them as the key to ending the suffering of our kind, to making wizards safe from the muggle world forever. He believed that with the Hallows, he could create a new order. A world where fear of muggles would never again drive us into hiding."
Fila leaned forward in the creaky chair, her blindfold catching the faint blue light from Nerida's form. "And you? You told him to use the symbol here. Why? Was it just to guide me… or did you believe in it too?"
Nerida's smile turned bittersweet. "I believed in what it represented at its core. Not conquest, but balance. The Hallows are not weapons. They are mirrors. They show what a person truly desires. Power. Life. Freedom. Gellert wanted all three, and it consumed him. But the symbol… it was never meant to be a call to arms. It was a warning. And a promise. That one day, someone from our bloodline would stand where the conqueror stood and choose differently."
This was just too much, everything she thought she knew just got thrown out of the window and stomped by a bear.
"Too much for you?" Nerida smiled and asked. "That's okay, it's a lot. And much you don't even need to know. But the important parts are all past now, and you know more about your family." She said and drifted to the bed.
"But why didn't the family name change back, its been long enough?" Fila asked while watching the ghost of Nerida.
Nerida drifted into the bed and leaned down to the skeleton, "Well, it wasn't needed is what I have understood it as. You can see I don't really venture outside the school. But I hear and puzzle things together." In the bed she reached down and took the necklace that her won skeleton wore. "My mother gave me this when I was very young, she told me that one day I would meet the flower on it." she said and rubbed the flower etched necklace, it didn't remove the dust as her finger just went right through it. but she somehow could lift it.
Fila sat and look as the ghost hovered closer to her, "I think she meant you by that, the Flower of Ilvermorny as they say." She said and smiled. She held out her hand, the necklace resting peacefully.
With some hesitation she reached out and grabbed it, she felt the cold feeling from the ghost standing before her. But the necklace felt warm and almost happy about being here.
"Its just a necklace, but I think you should have it." Nerida said and smiled once again. "There is more things here that it think you should have, like this family tree that I've made." A roll floated onto the desk, and some more things like books, pens, quills and even a jar of some herb.
She just kept giving more and more. Could Fila even carry all this back she thought as a mountain of things had formed on the desk.
"And that should be the last." Nerida said and dropped a box of jewelry on the desk.
Fila blinked at the mountain of everything, the room even seemed a lot more empty now.
"Please tell me you have a expansion tool?" Nerida said and looked at the girl.
She didn't smile back and Nerida sighed, "Hopeless youth. Everyone should have one of these… wait they are illegal. That's why, well here you are I don't think you care about laws and stuff." Nerida said and dropped a ring into the palm of Fila's hand.
Fila stared at the ring in her palm for a moment, the green gem catching the faint blue light from Nerida's ghostly form. It felt surprisingly light, almost weightless, yet she could sense the ancient magic humming within it like a living thing. With a hesitant breath, she slipped it onto her right middle finger. It fit perfectly, as if it had been waiting for her all along.
The moment it settled on her skin, the mountain of items on the desk began to shimmer. One by one, they lifted gently into the air and flowed toward the ring in a swirling vortex of parchment, herbs, jewelry, and books. Fila watched in quiet awe as the entire pile disappeared into the gem, leaving the desk bare once more.
"Expansion charm," Nerida explained with a soft chuckle. "One of my own creations, actually. Much more practical than those silly bags people carry around. And far less noticeable. The ring will only respond to you and those you trust completely. No one else can access what's inside."
"Why do I have this kind of ancient magic?" Fila blurted out, the question had been tugging at her mind for some time now. And this could be the best time.
Nerida just shrugged. "No clue." What? That's it, no special thing or something about the family. "Magic just chooses a person, there some think its about the faith of said person or destiny. In my research I found its just random. But it's nice to see someone use it so… differently."
She now stood at the end of the bed where her remains still laid.
Fila felt bad, she couldn't imagine seeing her own dead remains like this knowing she was murdered.
"What happened to Munter?" Fila asked.
Nerida looked back at her, "He lived on, sadly. I couldn't do anything about it." the skeleton turned to dust right before her eyes, and the glow from Nerida got brighter. "My time here is done, Ophelia Vulchanova. As you are truly. I now give you the right to carry this name if you would like to do so. I think you have many more questions for me, but the time has come to an end."
Fila stood frozen, the weight of the words pressing against her like a warm hand on her shoulder. The necklace pulsed once, gently, as if acknowledging the moment. She opened her mouth to speak, to ask a hundred more questions, but Nerida was already fading fast, her outline growing translucent and soft around the edges.
"Goodbye little bloom, it was nice talking to you." she said finally with that same warm smile as she faded into nothing.