Justifies the Means

“Lower it. Slowly… slowly… there!”

A dull thud, and the great granite block landed in place. Many more blocks just like it were lined up for positioning, each attended to by a group of wizards on brooms.

Yuri Krum checked the blueprints, while careful to keep balance on his Volksbesen. A hundred yard fall off his broomstick would hinder the construction. “Block A11342… yes, that goes over there,” he confirmed to the group of wizards waiting with the next black granite piece. They slowly levitated and dropped the stone into position, and the next group immediately moved in to do the same with their piece.

Block by block, the great black spire stabbed higher and higher towards the sky. It was a massive, imposing structure, even in its incomplete state - three sides of smooth, polished stone pierced with mere slits of windows for the dank rooms within. A thick wall with the ground plan of a triangle enclosed the tower’s base, and inscribed within the compound was a bisected circular path of large flagstones.

And it was all the result of Yuri Krum’s hard work. He had every reason to be proud of the great complex he was close to finishing, but such a feeling eluded him.

“Good work, gentlemen. It’s looking marvellous…” he said absently. Higher and higher the tower grew.

“Hauptkommandant Krum!” someone called. The voice was urgent.

He turned to the speaker, a young Defence Crewwitch assigned to patrol the construction site. “Yes, what is it?” Yuri asked.

She pointed a dragon skin-gloved finger in the direction of the forest. “It’s the Chancellor. He’s coming to visit.”

Yuri pulled out a set of Omnioculars from his belt holster and looked in the designated direction. True to her word, a man in crimson robes was flying towards the complex. As usual, the Zaubererreich Kanzler travelled unescorted.

“Thank you, Kateřina. I will attend to the Chancellor. You may return to your patrol.”

The ZVK agent saluted and flew away. Yuri Krum tucked away his Omnioculars, steadied his grip on the Volksbesen’s shaft, and went out to meet the Chancellor at the perimeter.

“Ah, Yuri!” Grindelwald called from his broom. His youthful energy, blond mane, and red robe gave him the air of a man aflame. “How goes the construction?”

Yuri Krum made a sweeping gesture of the hand, presenting the complex nearing completion. “Very well, sir. We are ahead of schedule - the perimeter wall is completely finished, and the keep is rising at better than a storey per day.”

Chancellor Grindelwald gazed at the tower and a grin appeared on his face. “Good. Very good, Yuri. May I inspect the facility?”

He needn’t have asked. Nevertheless, Yuri acquiesced his leader’s request, and the two of them alighted on the rampart above the fortress gateway. The Chancellor paced back and forth, closely examining the stonework. He even stamped his foot a few times, and the only noise was the soft tap of boot on solid, unyielding stone.

“Yuri, you continue to amaze me,” the Chancellor complimented, impressed. “I’m glad I found the right wizard to build this facility. When will you be ready to receive the first prisoners?”

The Bulgarian looked at the ground and considered his answer. “Well… the cells of levels one through fifteen have already been outfitted. We can commence operations as soon as tomorrow, if you want.”

Grindelwald grinned like a child opening Christmas presents. “That is an excellent idea, Yuri,” he said with gusto, causing the Hauptkommandant to feel slightly ill at ease. “We shall do just that, and perhaps you can have your first batch of reactionaries from the temporary camp to help in construction.”

Yuri cleared his throat. “A good suggestion, sir, but I believe it would be wiser to stay with the original plan.”

The Chancellor considered that for only a moment. “Very well. It is your project, after all, and again, you are doing a brilliant job. If you can get this facility fully operational by the end of the month - which I have no doubt you are capable of doing - I think you’d deserve a promotion.”

Yuri Krum tried to smile. His work had earned him the Chancellor’s favour - something that everyone in the Revolutionary Vanguard jockeyed to obtain - but he could not find much satisfaction in such a boost to his career prospects. “Thank you, sir,” he replied.

The Chancellor looked at Yuri keenly. “Something on your mind?” he inquired, accurately reading his expression.

“No, not at all,” Yuri insisted.

Grindelwald was not convinced, judging by the way his eyebrows were raised. “Please. I trust your judgement, Yuri. What is it?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Please, I insist.”

Yuri sighed. “Is this the right thing?” he asked.

“Is what the right thing?” Grindelwald’s expression was calm and level.

“This,” Yuri said, waving his hand in the direction of the black tower. “This facility. How is it that our greatest monument to the Revolution is a prison?”

The Chancellor scrutinised the steadily rising spire, then looked Yuri in the eyes. “There are greater monuments than those made of stone,” he noted.

The Bulgarian nodded, acknowledging the statement’s truth - he had seen it for himself. The deeds of the people, in accordance with Chancellor Grindelwald’s vision, were the greatest testaments of the Wizarding Revolution. The Second Zaubererreich was admired all around the wizarding world for its prosperity and the decisiveness of its government. Most renowned of all was the lack of civil strife and crime, for in the Zauberreich there was harmony between all facets of magical society, a peaceful coexistence that only two years ago would have been deemed impossible. Foreign observers wondered what was the secret to this model of order and peace.

Yuri Krum knew the secret. He was building it.

“What does Nurmengard speak of our movement, sir?” he inquired soberly. “Is it just that our Revolution, a movement of liberation, should be upheld by this instrument of oppression?”

With unnerving certainty, Grindelwald simply answered, “Yes.”

Yuri’s face was impassive, but the Chancellor saw right through it. He elaborated, “Yuri, the redemption of wizardkind cannot be achieved without sacrifice. The Reclamation cannot be without sacrifice, and neither can the bringing of peace to this world. It is not pleasant, but it must be done.”

“Permission to speak freely?”

Grindelwald laughed - it sounded like a bark. “You already are.”

Yuri’s cheeks flushed and he cleared his throat. “Well, sir, why is it necessary? Please explain. Surely there is a better way than this.”

There was a pause. Grindelwald gazed at the tower, apparently thinking pensively. “Do you think that if there was a better way, I wouldn’t have taken it?”

The Bulgarian hadn’t considered that. Before he could answer, the Chancellor continued, “Do you think I hadn’t considered that possibility? I assure you, Yuri, I have. We are not the only ones to pursue our noble goals - wizards have done so for centuries, in fact, as do some contemporaries in other lands. Yet for all that idealism, the world has remained trapped. For all those half-measures, nothing has changed. Wizardkind is chained to this rotten system, because those people are weak. They do not have the courage to do what must be done. He is too afraid of getting his precious hands dirty!”

He spat the last sentence venomously, and offered no explanation on the identity of ‘he’. Then, suddenly turning on the Hauptkommandant of Nurmengard - “Are you weak, Yuri?”

Yuri was taken aback by the directness of Grindelwald’s query. “N-no,” he replied, stumbling slightly. He recovered, and with more resolution - “No, I am not.”

Grindelwald’s eyes were narrowed, and wordlessly said, You better not! Then, a little more relaxed, “Good. I’m sure your work here will prove that.”

It was a thinly veiled threat, Yuri realised. The Chancellor would be monitoring him.

“We cannot be weak, Yuri. Wizardkind cannot afford to be weak. If we are to have the future we dream of, we must have the strength and courage to bring it about, by any means necessary. Any means. If the imprisoning and disposing of hundreds is what must be done to liberate our people and bring peace and order to the world, then that is what we must do. And it must be done. All more humane alternatives have failed.”

“A world free of strife and oppression is worth any price, Yuri. No matter by what means we achieve it, we are justified, and history will absolve us,” he concluded.

The Chancellor said nothing further, and turned his attention to watching the construction. He departed on his broomstick several minutes later, leaving Yuri in his thoughts.

---

“Maaarch! Two columns, and keep in step!”

The prisoners staggered into line, tripping over their mismatched shoes and the mud. It was raining, but that was only a concern for the poor souls being shepherded down the path. They didn’t have heated, impermeable coats, like the guards.

“Schneller!” one wizard shouted. “The faster you move, the sooner you get to shelter!”

Irony at its finest, Yuri mused. The cells in Nurmengard certainly had roofs to go over their heads, but did it constitute shelter? Yuri had to wonder whether the prisoners would be better off left outside in the rain.

He was heading the column of prisoners, and occasionally looked back. The guards were enjoying themselves - they had found a use for Beater’s Bats apart from whacking Bludgers.

The gate slowly emerged out of the wet gloom - first as a faint shadow, then as solid black wall. For the first time, from his vantage point on the ground instead of in the air, Yuri appreciated how massive his creation was. The outer curtain wall was a respectable three storeys high, but its sheer bulk was what made it imposing. The entrance was more of a wall with a hole in it than an actual gatehouse with bulwarks to either side.

Für Das Größere Wohl, the inscription above the pointed arch read. ‘For the Greater Good.’

Yuri hoped it was.

The column of tired, ragged prisoners marched through the gate, leaving streaks of mud on the slick flagstones. After a brief respite from the rain, they emerged again into the wet - some prisoners even hesitated at the exit, but some barks from the escorts got them moving.

It was self evident that Grindelwald thought big. He had grand, sweeping plans for both the Muggle and wizarding worlds. Should his design for a prison be any different?

However, the word ‘prison’ could not adequately describe Nurmengard. It was a fortress, more than anything else - a vast one that shrunk the individual to insignificance, one that swallowed even the column of two hundred with its vastness. The grounds within the triangle could comfortably fit a few Quidditch stadiums.

“Form two rows, line abreast!” a guard shouted. The prisoners knew better than to disobey. They assembled into a body of two hundred, facing the tower. The number of prisoners almost matched the number of students at Durmstrang, and the insignificance of such a large number aside the great fortress was astonishing.

Yuri noticed that a number of the prisoners were short and carried themselves in a very different way - goblins, undoubtedly.

“Welcome to Nurmengard,” boomed from above. Everyone looked up, and Yuri could just make out a black speck on the very top of the tower.

“Do you know why you are here?” Gellert Grindelwald’s voice echoed. It was like being spoken to by a god. “You chose to be here. It was your choice to suffer this punishment.

“The Zaubererreich stands for progress. It stands for advancing all wizardkind, for wizardkind will go forwards, and never backwards! YOU chose to impede that progress! YOU chose to delay the inevitable, eternal liberation of magical people. You chose to foil the Wizarding Revolution!

“Your efforts were in vain! The Zaubererreich will continue to go forwards and make a better world for all, without you. The Zaubererreich has no need for people who oppose what it means to be a wizard and human being. For this treachery, you are here. For this treachery, you will suffer!

“Look around you,” Grindelwald ordered, but the prisoners were too numb to comply. “I said look around you! Look at your fellow prisoners!”

Feeble heads looked up and examined one another.

“There are two hundred of you. Two hundred Pure-bloods, Half-Bloods, Muggle-borns, vampires, werewolves, squibs, and goblins. Two hundred enemies of the Revolution! And only one hundred will survive! Only half of you will leave these walls!”

Even through the blurring, pounding rain, Yuri could see a collective shudder amongst the prisoners.

“The decision of who lives and who dies is not ours to make. IT IS YOURS! You will make yourselves worthy of sparing. Do you want to return to your lives? Then you must renounce your evil ways, and to prove your sincerity, you must work!

“Today begins your re-education; your re-education through labour! You will work. You will toil. But through this work, you will reform your ways, and reform your ways you must. You have the choice to return to your lives. Through hard labour, you can save yourselves, and rejoin the great society we are making. Do you want to escape this place? Then work! Work will set you free!

“You have betrayed your magical brethren, but you have this one last chance to atone for your crimes. Do not let this chance go to waste!

“That is all. You will now be taken to your cells.”

Grindelwald ended his speech, and now it was left up to Yuri to carry on. He extracted from his pocket a parchment applied with some very powerful water repelling charms, and amplified his voice with his wand. It was nothing like the echoing boom of the Chancellor.

“When I call your name, you will step forward and be escorted to your cell!” He consulted the list, but was rendered temporarily mute by the ink letters and numbers staring back at him.

He recovered his voice. “Prisoner… number 0001A!”

A figure came forward, to be escorted by a guard. As 0001A passed, Yuri couldn’t see a face, or tell whether the figure was male, female, or even human.

“Number 0002R!”

It seemed to last hours. One at a time, the assembled prisoners trickled away, to be swallowed by the massive tower. Finally, after what felt like an age, all two hundred had been led into their solitary cells.

He turned to the remaining guards. “You are dismissed. Let’s get out of this wet.”

They cheered, mounted brooms, and flew off to their barracks with what Yuri thought was inappropriate gusto. They had dry, heated rooms to look forward to, but the two hundred they had just escorted had no such luxury.

The tower showed no signs of life - it was dank, grim, and forbidding. The windows were mere slits, and none of the cells had lighting. He felt a chill travel up his spine, but it had nothing to do with the cold and the rain.

Chancellor Grindelwald said these measures were necessary to create Utopia. He said that the end justifies the means.

Yuri Krum decided to contemplate that as he walked back to his office.