This themed is for Slytherin House, prompt being Potion(object) - 2,055 words
*Words in bold are direct quotes from Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince.*
They say blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb.
They say Albus Dumbledore was born and remained a great wizard throughout his life.
They are dead wrong.
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore didn't expect Tom to simply leave his Horcrux unprotected. In fact, he came quite ready to face whatever Dark trap his old student had left to guard the sliver of his own soul. However, even his steel resolve quavered a little at the sight of some of the obstacles he and Harry had to overcome.
Inferi? He thought, flinching in revulsion as he drank the fourth goblet of the unknown potion he privately dubbed Living Hell. It certainly induced the matching feelings. I knew you sank low, Tom, but this? And this potion… this curse… Is there anything you hold sacred? Anything you wouldn't taint with your greed?
His magpie-like tendencies were the first sign that made him wary of the admittedly charming boy. The locket he could glimpse lying innocuously at the bottom of the basin was the testament to the fact. If Albus felt like playing the devil's advocate, he would say that out of all things he turned into his anchors, Tom had the most right to the ring and locket. They were his family's heirlooms, after all. Unfortunately, Albus wasn't feeling up for it. The damned potion was stealing his already taxed energy reserves and igniting the pain in his blackened left arm.
Thinking about the left arm naturally led him to the reason why it was him, not Harry, drinking the emerald-colored poison. He stopped counting just how much potion he imbibed. Something told him it wasn't important.
The Gaunt family ring– he discovered the hints of its existence after the Minister himself tried to send him to Azkaban last year and confirmed it just a week before he came to fetch Harry. What he didn't count on was the Resurrection Stone set into the thin golden band. Merlin, the one thing he wanted above all… the one thing he could truly say he wanted not for its power, but for the ability to settle his tortured heart. One apology to Ariana, his mother, his father– one heartfelt apology was all he wanted.
He failed them.
Oh, there was no sugar-coating the truth. He was a horrible son and brother, so self-centered he neglected and nearly abandoned his family in pursuit of his dreams and Gellert.
Gellert…
His charming, devastating friend. He would've once burnt down the world if it would make those ultraviolet eyes shimmer and glint in joy and excitement. Why didn't he realize earlier just what Gellert truly wanted? He was supposed to be smart! How could he not see?!
As if summoned by his thoughts, Gellert glided into his field of vision, as confident and elegant as always, looking like he had not aged a day since he and Albus parted ways in Godric's Hollow. But something was wrong. That smile on his face…
Dumbledore? Can you hear me?
Was that Harry's voice? Albus wasn't sure...
He then realised what struck him as odd. He could not control his own movements. His thoughts were clear, but his body would not obey him. Gellert's smile distorted into a smirk as he waved his wand – the Elder Wand, Albus realized with a jolt – and made him face his worst nightmare.
Can you hear me?
"No," Albus moaned, eyes fixed on Ariana's and Aberforth's bound bodies. "I don't want to see.Don't make me obey you! Let me go! I don't like being controlled! You know that! Why don't you want to stop this nightmare, Gellert?!"
Gellert did not seem moved by his pleading, just like back then.
You...you can't stop...
"You can't stop me now", Gellert answered, his German accent barely noticeable after months spent in Britain and Albus' company. "You did agree to this, didn't you, schatzi?"
"No, "Albus could not understand what was happening. What was Gellert talking about? He never agreed to this! "I don't want Ariana and Aberforth to suffer! I never agreed to this!"
"Maybe not in those exact words," Gellert shrugged without a care in the world, "but sometimes, we have to sacrifice what we love for the Greater Good."
"I don't want to sacrifice Ariana! Or Aberforth! They're my family! Let me go Gellert! Let them go! Let us all go!"
It's alright...
Gellert shook his head, insincerity wafting off him in almost tangible waves. His long golden hair flew about, falling over one half of his face.
"It's alright if you don't want to do it yourself, Albus," the German offered in mock sympathy, twirling the Elder Wand and pointing it at Aberforth, who started screaming. Albus felt his very soul freeze. Crucio.
"Please Gellert! Make it stop, make it stop, make it STOP! I'll do anything, anything!"
Yes… yes, this will make it stop.
"Anything to make it stop, hm?" Gellert's grin could rival the one of the Cheshire Cat, but he did stop torturing Aberforth. "Even get rid of your annoyance of brother? Your sick whelp of a sister? Go ahead Albus. What are two Avada Kedavra's in the grand scheme of things?"
Albus would've taken a step back in horror if he could. "No, no, no, no, I can't, I can't, don't make me, I don't want to..." There were no words for the emotions he was feeling right now. Gellert betrayed him - again.
Nothing's happening to you, you're safe...
"Don't want to - what? Come on, Albus, you were once a Gryffindor - brave and daring, by your own account." Gellert wasn't cutting him any corners, hitting Albus at every weak point. "What happened to that bravery? Are you brave only when nothing's threatening your own safety, Albus? Pathetic." He whirled and wordlessly cast a spell on Ariana. If Aberforth's screams were able to freeze Albus' soul, Ariana's desperate cries of 'Al! Ab!' punctuated by seemingly never-ending screams were enough to shatter it.
"No! NO! Stop it, Gellert! It's my fault, it's all my fault, please make it stop, I know I did wrong, oh please make it stop and I'll never, ever again think about stopping you! Just please, PLEASE let them go! Torture me instead!"
This will make it stop.
"Ah, and there it is," Gellert smirked and stopped the pain, ending Ariana's screams. "The noble, self-sacrificing Albus Dumbledore. But why would I indulge your martyr impulses, Albus? Torturing you isn't what makes you tick. You know what you have to make this stop."
He raised the wand to cast Cruciatus again, but Albus finally managed to break the bonds constraining him. He jumped his former best friend and managed to knock off his aim, sending the torture curse flying wild.
"Don't hurt them, don't hurt them, please, please, it's my fault, hurt me instead..." Albus pleaded on his knees, uncaring of the decorum or sensibility. Rationally, he knew pleading with Gellert never went anywhere, but he couldn't help himself. He was still his friend, and he couldn't purposefully harm him any more than he could harm Ariana and Aberforth.
...you'll be alright.
Gellert sighed in a manner reminiscent of a parent trying to get his bratty four-year-old to understand taking sweets from strangers is not good.
"So stubborn," he chided, lowering himself to look Albus in the eye. "But then again, it is one of your more charming personality traits. You wouldn't really get anywhere without it, would you? Oh well. There are always other ways of getting rid of this particular obstacle. Putting a memory wipe on you, for example. You wouldn't even know you had a brother and sister. Blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb, after all."
That chilled Albus to the bone.
"Please, please, please, no," he begged, shaking with dread of losing the memories of his family. "Not that, not that, I'll do anything, just let me remember them!"
Gellert tutted and pushed Albus to the floor as he stood up. Twirling the Elder Wand in his hands again, he paced around his fallen friend.
"What am I going to do with you, Albus?" he asked idly, rhetorically. "You don't want to kill those pests, you won't let me Obliviate you… do you even want this to stop?" He stopped as he mulled over the idea. "I had never taken you as a masochist… then again, people change." He shrugged and pointed his wand at Albus.
"Legilimens!"
Albus gasped in horror. No! Gellert had all the power and absolutely no subtlety when it came to mind arts. What was he -?!
Fire tore through his mind, incinerating his defenses and seeking every positive memory he had of his family, trying to burn them out of his consciousness, literally trying to thicken the bond between him and Grindelwald. No!
"No more, please, no more!" Albus screamed as he writhed on the shockingly cold floor, desperately trying to throw Gellert out. His brain felt like it was liquefying, and every rational thought had deserted him. The only thought that remained was: Please Gellert, stop!
We're nearly there...
The fire receded for a moment, allowing Albus to shore the tattered remains of his mind's shields before Gellert attacked again. This time, it was even worse: the fire strongly reminded him of Fiendfyre, and it attacked every single memory he regretted over the years, showing it in excruciating detail, with Gellert's mocking laughter in the background.
Ariana's death flashed in front of his eyes, then his duel with Gellert, Tom slowly sinking into darkest of Dark Arts, the deaths of the McKinnons, the Bones', Gideon and Fabian Prewett, Benjy Fenwick, Dorcas Meadowes, and James and Lily Potter; the attack on Alice and Frank Longbottom, Pandora Lovegood's accident, Harry Potter...
"Had you followed me, you wouldn't have felt this… Was the family, water of the womb, worth it?"
"I want to die!" Albus could not keep it in any longer. The thought that had plagued him for over hundred years, ever since he saw Ariana's broken body on the ground. "I want to die! Make it stop, make it stop, I want to die!"
"Oh Albus," Gellert snickered, stopping with the assault on his old friend's mind for a moment. "You plead for your death so prettily, but I don't think you truly want me to do it. I am your friend, aren't I?"
No you're not. The thought surprised even Albus with its vehemence. Is he not? He asked himself tentatively, feeling as if teetering on the edge of the chasm. This was not something he could take back.
He is NOT!
Albus took a deep breath in, feeling light-hearted for the first time in all those years. Gellert is not his friend anymore. It seems water of the womb is worth it, in the end.
"KILL ME!" he screamed at Gellert, viciously glad he made the blonde flinch.
It'll be over… all over!
For the first time Albus consciously recognised the whispery voice he at first thought were Gellert's thoughts. It was Harry. His loyal student was trying to help him, even after he revealed just how responsible he was for everything that happened to the boy.
Rennervate!
Gellert, Ariana, and Aberforth faded, and Harry Potter's green, worry-filled eyes replaced them.
Suddenly, he wished he could explain it all to the boy he had unconsciously styled as his grandson. He wished he had time to tell him about Aberforth, Ariana, and Gellert, about his mad chase for the Deathly Hallows, his maneuvering that ensured Harry would have to face death at Tom's hand. He wished he had time to tell Harry just how much he loved him, how much he wished Harry truly was his blood.
This, however, was not the time. He would have to hope the clues he had left were going to be enough. Now, he had to return to Hogwarts and meet with Severus. His time was nearly up. But first…
"Water," he croaked, and Harry's eyes shone in urgency and worry, like his sister's once did. The sight strengthened his resolve, created by his discovery.
Gellert is not a friend. Harry is family.
He can finally die peacefully now. He has no regrets.