OS written for the Seven Fics Challenge (word limit: 2,000 words or more), the Hunger Games: Fanfic Style Competition (using the prompts: Word: fantastic; Genre: Angst; Emotion: despair; Pairing: Albus/Gellert; Setting: Hogwarts; Weapon: Sword) and the Harry Potter Spell Competition, for the spell Accio (writing about meeting someone after a long time).
Word count:3,595
Sometimes You Can't Help Breaking Your Heart
"Must we do this Gellert?" Albus' voice was pleading, and his heart ached with despair as he looked around and saw the destruction there. They truly were the last men standing.
"Please Gellert, let go of this mad dream. You must stop this folly!" Albus had never wanted to be a part of this war because he knew that if he did then he'd end up here in the end, in this situation he had hoped with all his heart to avoid. Facing the one who had once meant everything to him.
Of course he hadn't been able to refuse to help when it was asked for. He had realized that Gellert had gone too far but Albus couldn't bring himself to think that his ex-lover was beyond redemption, beyond his help.
"Don't you see Albus? It's not a dream anymore, it's becoming true and it's becoming real! Join me Albus and together we'll shape the world at our image like we wanted to!"
Once, a younger Dumbledore might have let himself fall for this speech. He had already fallen once for the blonde wizard after all and though he wished he could say he didn't have any feelings left for the Dark Lord, he knew he couldn't. Even now, even after the terrible road Gellert's actions had traced for him – and it was even worse than what he had imagined – even after their part in his sister's death, he couldn't hate him.
Once Albus would have taken the dark Lord's hand, because he had honestly believed they could help this world. But it had only been a dream, the kind of dream angry teenagers did. They had shared the same views – views he no longer shared – about Muggles and their own too corrupt government, but most importantly they had been sure they were powerful enough to have the following of other wizards and to be able to change things. They had planned to begin just before Arianna died, before Gellert fled back to Germany and before Albus was brutally forced to grow up and out of those dreams, to take responsibility over what was left of his family – and he knew it would have worked.
He hadn't seen his lover again after that day, but he had heard the rumors, like everyone else, those horrible whispers of a Dark Lord rising in Germany, allying himself with Muggles – and wasn't that saying something about the madness he had fallen in, for him to work with people had always considered inferior? Of course he was gathering his own army too, and using Muggles weapons that wizards didn't know how to fight was exactly his style.
"No man should have power over the whole world. It always ends badly. I know that now, and so should you. Please stop this folly. No one else is there; we could run away and nobody would ever know, would ever find us!"
"You're wrong, we could do this. I can do this!" If Gellert's voice was pleading, the madness Albus could see lurking in his eyes ruined it – had it always been there?
"Just because you can doesn't mean you should! Look around you and see what destruction you created! Do you still believe you're on the right path?"
Albus saw doubt flicker in the younger man's eyes as he looked to the battlefield and saw the bodies of the wizards and magical beings lying on the ruined ground. He thought for a wonderful and short moment that he had gotten his point across to his ex-lover but as he chose to risk a step forward he saw what little doubt fade back into madness as the blue eyes darkened with resolve.
He faltered and stopped moving. With a heavy heart, Albus drew back the wand he had chosen to put away when Grindelwald had made no move to attack him.
"So this is how it will be,"
"Yes, I believe it will. I'm afraid that if you're not with me then you're against me, Albus. You're a threat to my power, and I just can't let this threat stand. This, all of this," the Dark Lord said as he gestured wildly at their surroundings "has to mean something. It meant something to them, and I can't let you endanger it."
Albus sighed as he finally realized he had no other choice.
"I hoped it would never come to this you know. Ever since you ran, ever since I heard those whispers for the first time, I've been hoping it would never come to this."
"I do know. But this doesn't change anything. I'm not joining you and you're not joining me. We can't change who we are after all."
A heavy silence fell around them. Everything that needed to be said had been said but neither was willing to raise his wand first.
"I'm sorry Albus." There truly was remorse in the blue eyes, but Albus knew that it wasn't remorse for what he had done, but more for how it had separated them. He realized, however, that this was the first time he saw Gellert feeling this emotion but that it would probably be the only one too.
Their eyes locked together, they slowly and reluctantly raised their wands.
"You changed your wand," Albus noted, surprised. He remembered how much his blonde-haired lover had cherished his wand and so the smile on Gellert's face was surprising - and quite a bit worrying too.
"I found it Albus, I found the Elder Wand!" He said this excitedly and he sounded exactly like the young passionate man Albus had met all these years ago. "You can't stop me now; with this wand I shall be invincible!"
Albus' blood ran cold at these words but he couldn't help but ask if the man had found the Stone too. After all, it was what interested him nowadays.
"No. Unfortunately the others Hallows remain out of my reach. They've been lost to time, but once I rule this world, I will be able to find them. Should you join me, I'm sure we could assemble the three hallows. Imagine what we could do then Albus; think of everything we could accomplish. We could do everything we wanted to!"
He wouldn't say the offer wasn't tempting, but Albus had seen what they could do together. The only thing they would be able to bring was death and pain, losses and suffering. Gathering the Hallows wasn't going to be able to help anyone. He saw now what Gellert never had: the Hallows were cursed. Possessing them only brought more death and suffering, never happiness and satisfaction. Believing they could be mastered was only a child's dream and now he could see how they had already destroyed their lives.
He would forever remember the day Gellert had told him about the Hallows, the day when he should have realized that his friend truly was mad.
Flashback
25 May 1898, Hogwarts
Albus couldn't wait for school to end this year. This was to be his last year at Hogwarts and since this summer he had fantastic plans for what to do after graduating. Meeting with Gellert, who was so brilliant it was a mystery how Durmstrang could have chosen to get rid of him, had been a godsend. The blonde-haired wizard was only a few months younger, but he was just as powerful as Albus, and the young Dumbledore finally felt like he had met his match.
Their ideas completed each other's and Gellert was powerful enough for Albus to know that the both of them truly could change things. After the way Muggles had attacked his young sister when she had never done anything to provoke them, Gellert's ideas to use their magic to rule over them were just what Albus had been looking for.
If Muggles knew the truth about magic, then surely this kind of accident wouldn't happen anymore. Magic was power and Muggles didn't have it. It was very logical to put people with power at the top of a society, so why shouldn't wizards use what nature had given to them to rule over the weaker? Wasn't this how things had always been?
Albus didn't hate Muggles, even after what they had done to his sister. Well, he had for a time, but Gellert had helped him realize that they were not worth his hate. The only thing that could be done was control them, by making them realize there were more powerful being out there than them. After all, it was for the Greater Good. Muggles had to be controlled if the world was to be safe.
Gellert had arrived at the beginning of the summer but then they spent the whole time together, planning and getting to know each other. Of course, one thing leading to another, they had ended up being more than simple friends, more than simple allies in their great project of changing the world.
Their relationship had to stay a secret though. It wasn't that homosexuality was forbidden in the magical world, but it wasn't accepted either, at least not openly. The need to produce heirs to the family was deeply engrained in Wizarding's society but people didn't really care as long as you did whatever you wanted to in your own home.
It was no bother. Keeping it a secret was easy, mainly because no one cared to spend time with them during those holidays and because Albus, having grown up in this village, knew where to hide and where they wouldn't be seen.
He had never expected to become so attached to the blonde wizard though, not in so little time. He guessed the heart really had its reasons that reasons knew nothing of. He hadn't expected for him to return his feelings either, but it made the summer months much more pleasurable though the separation was only harder after this.
Once he graduated nobody would be able to stop them. They had already planned to travel the world a bit, to learn more exotic and useful magic while trying to gather much needed support for their ambitious project to govern this world. They would be glorious and fantastic and nothing else would suffice.
As he was absorbed in his thoughts, Albus didn't notice the boy sneaking up behind him and putting his hand on his eyes.
"Who's there?" Only the familiar sound of the voice stopped Albus from getting his wand and hexing the one who had blocked his sight in such a way. He had heard it somewhere, but where? It couldn't be… No, he wouldn't have…?
"Gellert?"
"What gave it away?" The hands came off and as he turned around Albus saw the expected smirk appear. Ignoring the question in favor of his bewilderment, the Hogwarts' students answered with a question of his own.
"How did you get here? Wait, did you actually sneak into Hogwarts? But… but how?"
"I've got my ways. But I must admit this wasn't exactly the type of welcome I was expecting when I choose to come here to meet you…"
It was Albus' turn to smirk. This he could play with…
"So you have your ways then… And what kind of way are they, if I may enquire about such a thing?"
"Oh you know the usual stuff… A bit of this, a bit of that…"
"You won't tell me right?"
"Well I guess you could say that it depends…"
"Oh, and of what?"
"Well, for one I still haven't got that welcome…" Gellert never had the time to say what other things it depended of because his mouth was suddenly otherwise occupied. As it turned out, there was only so much talking hormonal teenagers could do before succumbing to the temptation of other activities.
"So was there any reason for you to infiltrate Hogwarts or did you just want to see me?" Albus asked a few minutes after their 'welcome'.
The change in Gellert's demeanor was obvious as he dragged Albus deeper under the cover of the trees, casting secrecy and Notice-Me-Not spells like there was no tomorrow. His eyes gleamed with a determined and excited glow and the smile on his lips was one of the happiest Albus had ever seen there.
"I wanted to tell you that I've found a lead for the wand. Of course we'll have to do more research but I think this is really concrete! Albus, things are finally beginning to move!" Gellert's excitement was catching because Albus soon felt excitement run through his veins at these words.
"You did? You mean, you truly did?" He didn't care about behaving like a child at this moment, behaving in a way that his family would probably really disapprove of, because he knew exactly what they could do if they managed to become the Elder Wand's masters. "How in Merlin's name did you manage to do this so quickly?"
"I guess I just knew where to look."
Albus wasn't surprised by this. Actually, not a lot of things could surprise him anymore about Gellert, not after the things he had told him and witnessed this summer. He knew that if someone was to rediscover the Elder Wand it would be his partner. After all, Gellert had to be the most obsessed wizard about this, and there was not a day when he wouldn't talk about it in some way.
Before they met, the auburn haired wizard had thought the Deathly Hallows a mere fairy tale, but Gellert had showed him just how much truth there could be in fairy tales sometimes. He had somehow been able to find enough information in Durmstrang's library – one whose number of books was said to be greater than Hogwarts' – to come to the belief that the items gifted to the Peverell brothers really existed.
Though he probably was the only one – Gellert of course not included – who truly knew how the expelled young man had first discovered about the Hallows' real existence. He had had to ask quite a few times, and had not Gellert trusted him not to tell anyone else, Albus was sure he would still be as ignorant as everyone else.
From what he had understood, Gellert had been working on his History when an old yellowed slip of paper fell from the book he was working on. Albus had even been able to see that piece of paper since Gellert had kept it as proof that he was not crazy and that the Hallows existed. Scribbled in a neat black script were only a few words and symbols, but those words had caught his lover's attention. If most of them were too old to be remembered, a few had stood out as one they had studied in his history class – and they had all been very powerful wizards who suffered from strange and unexplained deaths. There had been no link between them, so why were all these names on the same paper?
After realizing this, it didn't take long for the young wizard to abandon his History work and concentrate and this new mystery instead. It was obvious the paper was old, and the book he had found it in wasn't new either, some names had obviously changed with time (now that he looked at them he thought he knew at least one) but he was confident that once he found what linked all those people and places he would be able to add more and update the list.
He had known the key to do this was to find what the strange symbol scribbled at several places on the page meant. It had been harder than he thought, but the answer laid in one old book about magical lore and its symbols: the Deathly Hallows, gifts from Death to three brothers.
He had now been looking for almost four years and Albus couldn't believe it had taken that much and yet so little time to find a trail. The wand hadn't really been heard of for a while after all, so it was understandable, though once Gellert – and later Albus – knew what to look for, they almost immediately found dozen of references in most books. It was the blonde wizard's turn to make a list, but he kept it with him, making the symbol of the objects he yearned for his own. Albus knew why: Gellert wanted to show to those who knew about the Hallows that he planned to become the Master of Death. It was also a convenient sign to use if they ever needed to rally people to their cause.
"Any sign of the other Hallows?" The both of them agreed that the Elder wand would be the most useful item to have so it was the one they focused the most on. But that didn't mean Gellert wasn't interested in knowing what Albus might have found on the Stone and Cloak – since they would go after them too anyway – in his search, just like Albus was interested in knowing what Gellert might have found on his search for the Elder Wand.
"Not really. The Peverells apparently are the ancestors of quite a number of today's families, so finding the ones in which the Hallows may have stayed is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I'm afraid finding them will rely on luck more than anything else at this rate, because either they were never used, the family kept them a secret or they just were lost to time," Albus explained sheepishly.
That they might have been lost wasn't a surprise: who knew how many precious and unique magics had been lost in a no longer active vault or destroyed in one of the numerous wars wizards had faced throughout time?
Gellert frowned for a moment, but he obviously came to the same conclusion as Albus had. "I had noticed that too. It is very much unfortunate, but I believe that as long as we get the wand, we will be able to acquire the others easily."
The auburn haired wizard mused over this for a few seconds but he found that he agreed. Anyway, it wasn't like there was anything else he could do.
"I think you're right on this. Maybe where we'll find the Wand will give us clue on where to look for the Cloak and Stone. Who knows, we may just be that lucky?"
"Then we'll know this summer."
"Yes."
They sat quietly against the tree, neither of them exactly wanting to start another conversation. Finally, Albus was the one to break the silence.
"So, when will you leave?"
Gellert didn't answer immediately and for a moment Albus actually believed he had fallen asleep.
"It depends."
"Of what?"
"Well, of how well you are at convincing me to stay…"
End Flashback
Albus sighed again. These days had been great - what wouldn't he give to see Gellert's mischievous smile directed at him again – and no matter how much he now regretted his actions of that time, he would forever treasure the memories.
"You forgot the fate of all the Wand's wielders. They all were defeated and you're not different. No Dark Lord's reign lasted forever. If I don't stop you then someone else will."
He watched the blue eyes he had loved darken with rage and ignore the pleading his own were trying to convey.
"No one will ever stop me!"
"You're wrong," Albus stated softly, though his voice could be heard just as clearly as Gellert's previous scream.
The battle that followed would have been one for History books, had there been anyone else than the two combatants to witness it. Spells were flying almost too quickly for the eyes to perceive, but it wasn't only that. Animated objects, conjured or transformed animals fought to reach one fighter or another, earth rose to block spells and fire took form to attack as swiftly as it could.
Nobody would ever know just how close Albus Dumbledore came to dying that day, how close he had been to losing the duel and the war. Only a short moment of hesitation of Grindelwald's part allowed him to escape death by sword and to subsequently win. No one would ever know just how ashamed this victory made him feel, and how the sharp glint of betrayal he had seen in Gellert's eyes before he began to laugh madly had shattered his heart.
He had defeated the enemy, so why did it feel like he had lost? Why was his throat so tight as he held the man who had destroyed so many lives – his own included – at wandpoint?
"I love you." The words left his mouth without his notice, and it only seemed to reinforce Gellert's laugh.
"Kill me."
"I can't. I'll… I'll find another way. I could, yes I could lock you up. Put you in prison, where you will be able to atone for your sins."
"I'll escape."
"No you won't. You created the perfect prison, remember, and right now it's empty, waiting for prisoners to fill it."
"You wouldn't?"
"I would. And I won't apologize for sparing your life."
"You should. I wouldn't have."
"But you did. I owe you for this, and this is me repaying my debt," Albus replied calmly.
Gellert didn't say another word until he was locked up in a cell he had created.
"You'll visit?"
"Yes." No.
"See you then."
Gellert kept grinning a bitter smile until Albus had left. He would be alone for many years to come.