After a week of searching, paying hundreds of Euros to a simple carriage driver scouring all the mountains within reach, Cassius finally found it.
The Alps had yielded their hidden secret.
A morning hike, seemingly ordinary, had led him along a narrow ridge where the snow seemed too even, too untouched.
He'd pressed forward, the air thickening, his skin prickling with ward-static.
And then, with a soundless ripple, the mountain revealed its hidden wound.
Nurmengard.
A fortress carved of black stone, jagged as if grown from the bones of the mountain itself.
Its towers clawed skyward, narrow windows glinting like cold eyes.
Barbed gates loomed before him, iron twisted with enchantments that hissed faintly against his senses.
Cassius stared upward, lips curling.
"So. The cage of kings."
He tugged his cloak closer, truding on further upwards towards the discovered fortress, as Noctis circled high overhead following her masters solo journey to find his destiny.
The outer guards noticed him at once as he approached.
A child, alone, with the sharp gaze of someone who didn't belong.
They shifted their stances hand dropping to their wands, suspicious, but didn't bar his way immediately, since there were no signs of this being transfiguration, or even polyjuice for that matter.
Perhaps they were too startled, or due to being born into an age of peace here in continental europe simpy didnt have the training those who were their predecessor who were trained for war had.
One, older, stepped forward.
"Boy," he barked in harsh geman, "this is not a place for wandering. Where are your parents?"
Cassius blinked up at him with wide, guileless eyes.
His voice, when it came, was soft, almost shy.
"I'm here to meet someone."
The words were vague enough to seed assumption, but his broken german informed them that he truly was a visitor and not a local.
The guard frowned, muttered something in German to his comrades, then snorted. "Family, then. Hmph. Strange place for a reunion, but… go on."
He gestured with his hand, stepping aside.
Cassius hid his smirk until he was past the gate.
Fools.
Always underestimating the harmless mask of childhood.
They clearly had reached a conclusion in their minds that Cassius was the son or similar to one of the guards, having lost his guardians with his next of kin being present here so by magical law he must go and live with that person.
Inside, the fortress was no less oppressive.
Stone corridors coiled upward like a serpent, walls lined with runes designed to sap magic and stifle Apparition.
The occasional torch guttered with enchanted flame, casting long shadows that danced like restless phantoms.
The guards' eyes followed him, wary but bemused.
What threat could a four-year-old pose?
He was waved through each checkpoint with little more than a perfunctory question, and the same innocent reply:
"I'm here to meet someone."
Each time, it worked.
Each time, adults shrugged and dismissed him.
Cassius walked lightly, every step feeding the swell of triumph in his chest.
The world truly is blind.
All it takes to breach its walls is to wear the right mask.
He ascended.
Floor after floor, stairwell after stairwell.
The fortress was built for intimidation—long halls, ceilings too high for comfort, echoes that made every footstep sound like pursuit.
Dungeons deep to hold his enemies he himself couldnt be brought to end.
The air grew colder the higher he climbed, the weight of wards pressing harder against his skin.
Cassius traced a sigil etched into the wall with his fingers, layer after layer of defences to keep their prisoner here, though they would mean next to nothing to grindelwald should he actually want to leave.
At one landing, two guards actually stopped him.
"Boy," one said gruffly, "who are you here to see?"
Cassius tilted his head, letting innocence soften his features.
"Someone very important."
The men exchanged baffled glances.
Then, with a muttered curse, they waved him on.
He bit back laughter as he climbed.
Important.
They have no idea.
Finally, the stairway ended at a heavy iron door bound with silver runes.
Beyond it, Cassius knew, lay the highest chamber of the fortress—the solitary cage of Gellert Grindelwald.
Dumbledore's triumph.
The world's forgotten relic.
Cassius' future teacher.
He stood before the door, heart pounding in a way that had nothing to do with fear.
It was anticipation, raw and electric.
This was it.
The moment when his path diverged from every other wizardling in Britain.
While children played with toy wands and dreamed of Hogwarts letters, Cassius stood at the threshold of history, the second challenge before him, convincing this great wizarding icon to take him on as a student and possibly joining his cause to bring about a great change to the wizarding world.
Providing himself more than ample training pre-hogwarts but also getting someone with experience performing a revolution to help him further his own cause, and guide his silent revolution to have a greater effect, all while dodging the involvement of powerful forces like Dumbledore or Voldemort.
He raised a fist.
Paused.
Considered.
The thought of Dumbledore and Grindelwald together, lovers once upon a time, flickered across his mind unbidden.
His nose wrinkled.
"Brrr. Thought Banished."
Focus.
He pressed his knuckles against the iron.
Knocked.
Three slow, deliberate raps that echoed through the tower like a drumbeat.
The sound carried, heavy with promise.
Somewhere within, Cassius imagined an old man stirring, eyes opening in the dark, realizing he had a visitor.
The sound of the knocks echoing in the chamber he stood, a moment passed and nothing, so again he knocked putting more force in as perhaps his initial light knocks failed to transmit through the thick iron door?
But from under the door there was light, and within that light moving shadows could be seen.
Something or someone was stirring on the otherside.
Seeing this Cassius's heart began to beat ever faster, he was about to meet a magical indigo child!
His tutor, possibly greatest ally for events to come.
One who should appreciate what he's trying to accomplish and who might understand the position Cassius himself finds himself within.
'Click'
The moment has come, the thick iron door started to open!