Before it all, Albus Dumbledore would give his first true smile to the beautiful boy with the even more beautiful mind named Gellert Grindelwald.
Before it all, Albus Dumbledore would spend countless hours and sleepless nights pouring over piles of books with Gellert, trying to find a way to make their dream a reality. And they spent nearly as many hours, distracted, debating the finer things like where magic comes from and why wizards invented the wand when the purest form of magic comes without one. They spent all those days developing what they thought was just how to help the Wizarding World, but it was so much bigger than just that. They spent all those days developing the base of the most amazing and unlikely love that could defy death itself, and Albus could do nothing more than get lost in the only person who he had ever seen as his equal. Gellert was who it was all for. He was the one who gave the motivation for Albus to achieve everything he wanted, and it was he who was the perfect partner for Al.
Much before it all, Albus Dumbledore would sit on the roof of a muggle house in a muggle town with Gellert Grindelwald, and he would think to himself that he had never before imagined he could be so happy.
After it all, Gellert Grindelwald would fall to his knees in the lonely solitude one could only find at night and scream to the heavens until he ran out of voice to curse himself with.
After it all, Gellert Grindelwald would cry into the tome The Tales of Beatle the Bard and wonder when Albus was going to finally and come and save him from his self-imposed hell, where he could hardly remember what he looked like in the mirror anymore. He saw Al's beautiful twinkling eyes in every curse he shot, in every last breath he heard one of his victims take, in every moment when he closed his eyes only to be assaulted with pictures more vivid and real than the ones he had just shut out. When did it all get so fucked up? Where did the path disappear to that he and Al had so meticulously and carefully planned out? That's who he was doing this all for, anyways. Albus. Gellert had failed him, and now it was his job to finish the plans that they had started together, but it had been so long since he heard Al's input, that every time he was asked for direction by his followers, all he could hear anymore was his own voice, tonelessly reciting, "It's for the Greater Good," and having no idea what that even meant anymore. When did everything start falling to pieces?
Much after it all, Gellert Grindelwald would look into the face of his only love, and finally find the peace and forgiveness he was so desperately searching for, and close his eyes to die.