“I think you need to be a popular dark wizard or witch to be a dark lord…” Fleur pointed out, “Unless Gellert Grindelwald was my grandmother in disguise, it’s very improbable for her to have been a dark lord.”

“Well…” Harry remembered something, “It would very much validate the rumors about Albus Dumbledore and Grindelwald being particularly close.” Harry said with a chuckle.

“What?” Fleur asked confusedly.

“Oh you don’t know,” Harry thought for a moment before saying, “Mum was telling me a fun anecdote about the supposed strongest wizard in the world,” Harry said with a mocking undertone. “At one point during Grindelwald’s reign, rumors started floating that he and Dumbledore were in a romantic relationship together. It was scandalous at the time… Considering that they were both… you know, men. Not to mention on completely opposite sides of good and evil.” Harry said with a laugh.

Fleur coughed at what she just heard and said, “Well, whatever the case, I’m sure that my grandmother wasn’t a dark lord. At least not a public one. I never knew her magical prowess either so she might just be more of a dark magic researcher instead.” Fleur defended her grandmother.

“Whatever you say. But I’m very much in support of my theory.” Harry laughed as Fleur just shook her head.

“Now what do we do?” Fleur asked him with an expectant look toward him.

“Don’t give me that look. I’m not reading a single one of those books. The best we can do is call in Mum. She’s into the research stuff so this knowledge will be right up her alley.” Harry said.

“Nooo…” Fleur whined, “I want us to have our own secret base where no one can ever find us.” She said sadly. Her eyes brightened up as she continued, “And I doubt that shield we came through will let anyone else pass through it.” Her expression morphed into cute puppy eyes by the end.

Harry just laughed as he pulled her into his arms, “Whatever my darling wishes…” He peppered her with kisses. She scrunched her face and squealed as she felt ticklish from his actions, but he only freed her when he was satisfied.

Harry had a happy smile on his face as decided to look around with more focus. Holding Fleur’s hand, he walked up the stairs of the recreational area, wanting to examine the removed furniture.

“Hey, Fleur. That’s a Pensive…” Harry pointed at a basin that was placed in a corner tucked between the armchair and the bar.

“I don’t think there are any memories for us to look at in here…” Fleur said as they both walked to the pensive. There was a perfectly still silvery liquid in the basin that acted as the perfect mirror.

Harry tapped his wand at the side of the pensive and poured some of his magic into the device. Slowly, the silvery liquid started glowing white as taint threads of almost cloudy light started appearing on it as they absently interleaved over it.

“Even though mum has one of her own, the lights never fail to mesmerize me…” Harry said as he admired the ethereal beauty of the activated Pensive’s light. Fleur was the same, though she snapped out of it soon enough and examined the vials that were placed on the shelf above the basin.

“They’re all empty…” She said.

“It’s fine. At least we have our own pensive now…” Harry laughed, “I just need to ask Mum to teach me to extract my memories so we can actually use this thing…”

Fleur couldn’t help but laugh as she said, “You could try to look for the method in a book.”

“I have a better idea. You look for it and then teach me.” Harry countered.

“That sounds so boring,” She complained with a laugh.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Let’s look around the rest of the place.” Harry shook his head and descended from the platform directly toward the altar while thinking of the meticulousness of the design of the room.

The room was a marvel of symmetry, an architectural masterpiece that hinted at the obsessive precision of Fleur's grandmother in crafting her home base. The arrangement was calculated, every piece seeming to have its own designated spot.

Upon entering, the central ritual altar would present itself immediately, a commanding presence that instantly drew the eye. To the left and right, two matching elevated platforms rose, a mirror image of one another. These housed the library and laboratory on the left and the recreational area on the right. Stairs that stood perpendicular to the altar provided access to these areas.

Beyond the altar, the corridor extended, terminating in what appeared to be an orb. It was perfectly identical to what Harry and Fleur had poured their mixed blood on to reveal the secret passage. The way everything in the room was lined up felt almost too perfect, a testament to a desire for control over the environment.

Harry took a right and moved to the end of the corridor that housed the familiar orb within a structure encased within the wall. Fleur on the other hand decided to examine the altar for a bit.

“So this is where it disappeared…” Harry said as he examined the orb. This orb was what had sucked the mixture of his and Fleur’s blood before the passage was revealed. Harry examined it for a bit and noticed a faint mental connection with the orb.

‘Is this a bounded item? Like dad’s sword?’ He thought as he unceremoniously extended his hand toward it and grabbed it.

He thought something would happen when he touched it, but nothing actually happened, ‘I’ll think about it later…’ He thought as he thought about shrinking the orb. He pointed his wand at it to cast the shrinking charm on it, but the orb got smaller before he could even cast the spell. It had responded to his thoughts.

“Convenient…” He thought as he put it in his pocket which still had plenty of space. He had both his pockets charmed with the Extension spell which made carrying things immensely easy.

He walked back to Fleur who was kneeling on the ground while examining the runes on the lowest step. Harry knelt beside her and asked, “Any luck?”

“Nothing. This is completely unfamiliar.” She told him, “We’ll have to read those books…” She said with dread.

Harry ignored her and examined the alter, “Did you try pressing that button?” He asked her while pointing at an easily visible button at the center of the entire circular platform.

“I don’t trust this platform enough to actually get on it.” She said to him.

“Fair enough.” Harry said as he pulled the orb out of his pocket, “This is going to be useful then, I guess…” He said as the orb grew back into its normal size.

“I feel a connection with this…” Fleur said.

“Yeah, it’s probably a bonded artifact. I just have no idea what it does.” Harry shrugged as he used his wand to cast the levitating charm on the orb and made it levitate.

“You’re using a potentially powerful artifact that might be extremely useful as a paperweight?” She asked unamusedly.

“Of course. If it gets destroyed, no loss to us. We have no clue what to do with it anyway.” Harry said as if it was a perfectly logical thing.

“But, we can figure it…” Fleur’s words died in her throat as Harry had already pressed the button using his sphere, “You have like zero patience…” She said with an annoyed tone.

Harry laughed as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer while waiting for something to happen. A few moments after the button was pressed, a circular hole formed on the altar right below the orb. It was still levitating up since Harry hadn’t dispelled the levitation charm.

“It formed a home for the orb, I guess…” Harry said.

“Might as well go all in at this point,” Fleur didn’t care anymore. Harry just dispelled the charm and allowed the orb to freefall into the hole.

It perfectly fit inside the hole and in that instant, the entire room started shaking.

“More dust…” Harry whined with annoyance, “Haven’t we dealt with enough dust?”

“This place is completely spotless, ‘Arry. I don’t think there’s going to be any dust.” Fleur pointed out with a laugh before leaning her head on his shoulder.

As the room continued shaking, Harry noticed something forming on the wall from which he took the orb. Its platform melted back into the wall and some carvings started appearing on that wall, reaching close to the ceiling.

“More unknown runes?” Harry guessed.

“Doesn’t seem like it… They almost seem like the strokes of a brush forming some sort of painting…” Fleur noticed the intricacies of the appearing carvings.

As the shaking died down, the mural was fully formed.

“Is that…” Harry looked at it speechlessly.

“Yep…” Fleur nodded with equal speechlessness.

That mural’s background was the exact same as the ritual alter, including the halfway protruding orb from the center. There were two people depicted on the mural engaged in an intimate embrace. Even though it wasn’t clear, Harry was sure that the mural wanted him and Fleur to have sex on the altar.

“I’m thinking we were wrong about your grandmother being a dark mage and she was just a typical Veela who knew a whole lot about your heritage…” Harry said dryly.

“I’m so tempted to have sex on that alter…” Fleur said with an aroused undertone.