A/N- I feel this needs explanation. In the film of HBP you see that Dumbledore's wearing a ring on his wedding finger. This led to speculation about how that ring came to be there.

XxXxXx

Albus Dumbledore closed his eyes and listened to the breathing of the man sleeping at his side. It was not the first time that he had ended up in bed with Gellert Grindlewald, and he was sure that it would not be the last. They had been lovers almost from the moment they met, but it was deeper than that. They shared an ideal, a dream, a vision. Dumbledore felt closer to Gellert than to anyone else in the entire world. He loved him. He could admit it, to himself at least. Albus had never been one for lying to himself.

'I love you Gellert,' he breathed to the night and his sleeping lover, feeling comfort in the words, in the acknowledgment that they brought. He turned over, feeling that perhaps he could sleep after admitting to it; maybe he could finally get some rest.

'I love you too Albus,' the reply was so faint that he thought he might have imagined it. He turned back, shocked, and saw Gellert's eyes gleaming in the dark room. He'd heard. And he'd replied. And however much society might call it disgusting, those words were the most beautiful thing in the world to Albus at that moment in time. He grinned, feeling as if his face might split in two from the power of the smile before rolling completely over and enveloping his lover in an embrace.

'Wait,' Gellert stopped him and sat up cautiously, eyes alight with excitement, 'There's something that I want you to have,' He pulled off the ring that he always wore on his right hand, 'This is magical. It was the first object that I ever charmed, a simple sizing charm when I was a child. I want you to have it. It's never going to be official. We're never going to have the vows and the paperwork to say that we love each other, we're never going to be able to announce it to the world like other people do, but, I'd still like you to wear my ring. A ring represents forever, and that's what I want for us, forever together in the bright future that we're building, please say yes Albus.'

Albus took a deep breath to calm his nerves before taking the ring from unresisting fingers and sliding it onto the third finger of his left hand. He admired it as it shrunk slightly to fit his finger better. Evidently the sizing charm had been more than adequate.

'Thank you. This means more to me than I could ever tell you.'

XxXxXx

Decades passed. The ring never left Albus' finger. Not when Ariana died, not when Gellert left, not when the rumours started circulating, not even when the final battle had occurred and Gellert had been locked away in a prison of his own making. He still wore it, as a reminder of everything that they had had, everything that they had lost, and everything that he had come so close to having. He had been asked, when he was younger, but he had never told anyone the true meaning behind the innocuous little ring.

He slid it off spun it between his fingers, watching it glitter in the candlelight. It was so simple, so elegant. It reminded him of every mistake, every painful loss that he had sustained during his life and so he could not remove it. Every time he looked down at his hands the love that he had lost, the love that he still craved, still missed with every fibre of his being stared back at him. It was a constant reminder.

He slid it back onto his wedding finger and smiled ruefully as it shrank to fit again. The sizing charm still worked, even this many years later. It stood as a testament to so many other things that had not changed, and jarringly reminded him of everything that had.

Rubbing his hands together Albus Dumbledore stood, holding his head high and left his office. He and Harry would go tonight to the cave where he suspected Voldemort had hidden a horcrux. He ran his finger over the ring one last time, for courage, for luck and as a reminder of everything he had done wrong.