Chapter 1
Running
Albus paused to catch his breath at the top of the hill, and, after a moment of indecision, let himself fall to the soft grass. Closing his eyes, he let the sun filter through his eyelids, welcoming the chance to rest his legs. He laid there for a minute, taking in the grass, the air, the sun. He relished the fact that, for the first time in a week, he was able to get away from his family and enjoy some of the August sunlight. He let his mind wander for once as he drifted into a light sleep.
When he woke, he rolled onto his side, eyes still closed, and bumped into something. He jerked his eyes open and found himself staring into two piercing blue eyes.
"Hey," Gellert sighed, "what are you doing up here?"
"Eh," Albus retorted, rolling over. He was not up for talking to Gellert again. Not after what happened last week. Gellert called Albus over to talk some more about their plans for a wizard-run government system over muggles. Gellert seemed to be of the opinion that wizards were, in fact, better than muggles, and therefore didn't need any muggle input in the system whatsoever. This is where Albus disagreed.
"Come on, you know I wouldn't be saying this if I didn't think it was right!" Gellert was trying to convince Albus, but could tell he was getting nowhere fast, because Albus was getting up. "Oh no, you're not getting away that easy," he said, grabbing Albus's shirt and pulling him back down to the ground. "Come on, we're going to talk about this, whether you like it or—" Albus had his knees up against his chest and his palms were pressed to his face, closing his eyes to Gellert.
"Are you okay?" Gellert asked, but he already knew the answer.
"Yeah, I'm fine," snapped Albus.
Gellert put his hand on Albus's shoulder. Slowly, Albus brought his hands down and opened his eyes. For a moment, he looked into the caring eyes of his best friend. Then his eyes flickered to the hand on his shoulder. Gellert quickly withdrew the hand and looked away. After a pause during which neither of them knew what to do, Gellert leaned back, reaching behind to support himself with his arms and sighed.
"I don't know why you're so opposed to this idea. It needs to be done. It's going to help everyone," Gellert tried to reason with Albus, "it's for the greater good."
"I know, Gell," Albus said quietly. "I just don't want to talk about it right now."
"Okay," Gellert replied. The two boys stared at the grass for a little while. Albus watched Gellert pull at the short stalks. They both looked up at the same time. Albus averted his eyes, embarrassed. Gellert held his gaze.
"What?" Albus finally managed to say.
"Oh, nothing," said Gellert, coyly.
"No, really, what are you staring at?"
"Nothing, nothing at all," was all Gellert said. He continued to look at Albus as if he were taking apart the pieces of a puzzle to see how exactly they fit together.
"You're amazing," he mumbled to himself.
"What do you mean, I'm amazing?" asked Albus, who always had an uncanny ability to decipher Gellert's mumbling.
"You're capacity for caring, even though you know what they're capable of doing," Gellert paused here before daring to go on, "even after what they did to your sister." It was barely more than a whisper. It was the first time in a long time either of them had brought up the subject of Ariana. "How do you do it? How can you do it, Al? You sit there and defend muggles!"
"Gell! If only you knew! I…. You don't even…," Albus took a deep breath, "You can't even imagine what I want to do to those people. I never thought myself capable of such things, much less that I would one day have a desire to use every ounce of magic within me to make those people suffer until the day they die. It's like drinking poison. I know that it's killing me, but all I can do is keep drinking it, because I know that they couldn't stop me from bringing their worst nightmares to life. I hate this, Gell. I hate feeling a need to carry out vengeance upon every person who doesn't have magic, because I know what they can do to us. But there's nothing I can do to stop it. Nothing in this world will make me stop hating them for what they have done.
"But I am the one in control of my feelings, and I have to stop them. Don't you understand? It's because I despise them so much that I defend them the way that I do. We can't go letting ourselves pretend like we're the rulers of the universe. Damn it, Gell! We're not gods!"
"I know that!" Gell snapped defensively. "I'm sorry."
"Me too," sighed Albus, "I had better get going. Aberforth and Ariana will expect me back before dark."
"Yeah, I should probably go too, I guess. See you tomorrow?" Gell added hopefully.
"Maybe," said Albus.
"Bye, Al," Gell waved as they walked to their houses, nestled in Godric's Hollow. The sun retreated into the hills, casting red light and dark shadows on the streets of the neighborhood. Albus walked slowly, kicking an acorn down the road as he went. He gingerly walked up the steps to his front door, turning to look back at the way he came and the setting sun. Gell had always confused Albus. They were the best of friends, and Albus would trust his life in Gell's hands, but there was always a seed of doubt that Albus carefully ignored when it came to Gell. The wooden porch creaked beneath his feet.
"Albus, is that you?"
Albus turned back to the door at the sound of Aberforth's voice and entered the house.