Albus and Gellert were sitting in Albus' room once again. There were surrounded by books they had taken from Bathilda's private library.
Yet again they had made very little progress in their attempts to trace the Hallows back through history, but that did not prevent them from dreaming.
"If you could choose one, and only one of the Hallows, which one would you take?" Gellert asked his friend.
"The cloak," Albus began, and Gellert looked at him disbelievingly.
"Hear me out," Albus requested. "I was going to say, the cloak is the choice which the tale wants us to make."
Then he paused. There was something about Gellert that made Albus tell secrets to him which he did not share with anyone else, not even Elphias. But still, he had only known the other boy for less than three weeks.
"But the Hallow I desire above all others is, as you may have guessed, the stone," Albus said. "According to the story, we should choose the cloak, but it's just that… a story."
"Of course it is," Gellert said. "There is nothing wrong about you wanting the stone. How could it be immoral to give an ill girl her mother back? The story has surely been twisted by people who were scared of the powers of the stone and the wand. The Hallows are no sinister objects, but they're powerful, and people are afraid of the power they give to the wielder."
"When we go after the Hallows together, you can have the stone, as I desire the wand above all," Gellert continued. "And I am convinced it is the right choice to make, and not the cloak."
"Explain," Albus asked his friend.
"The cloak is the coward's choice. The person who chooses the cloak can live his own life in safety, but he is running away, leaving all others around them to their misery. The man who really wants to change the world chooses the wand. With the cloak, I can make the world better for one man. With the wand, I can change it for millions. Don't you agree that the wand is the right choice to make?" Gellert asked.
"I see your point," Albus replied. "But keep in mind that if you decide to change the world by force, many who are innocent are going to suffer as well. And even if you are serving an ultimate greater good, every innocent person who suffers in an injustice. Wouldn't it be better if we had the stone to rectify this?"
"Do you really care about hypothetical, unknown people who might get hurt in the future?" Gellert asked. "Or are you thinking of your mother and father?"
"Of my parents," Albus confessed after a short pause. "You are right. We do not need the stone to fulfill our plans."
"Still, I will try to help you find it," Gellert said.
This promise was enough for Albus, but in later years, Albus remembered this conversation as the point when he should have realized that something was wrong with Gellert. Grindelwald had confessed that he did not care if innocent people stood between him and his ambitions, and Albus would feel it soon enough.