Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling. No money is being made.
Written for the Quidditch League – Season 4 Fanfiction Competition – Round 11
Round 11 – I Open At The Close
Remember when I asked you to put together some prompts for your opposition a few weeks ago? Well this is the round where we'll use them, but there's a small twist… of course. The prompts you submitted aren't going to be written by your opponents, they're going to be written by you! That's right, we're turning your prompts back on you.
And that's not all: your story MUST also start and finish with the same word.
Chaser 2: Spell—Ebublio jinx – Pronunciation: ee-BUB-lee-oh
Description: Causes the victim to inflate and explode into hundreds of bubbles; it can only be cast if an ally is using Aqua Eructo on the victim simultaneously.
Seen/Mentioned: Used multiple times in 1994. (Harry Potter wiki – list of spells)
Additional Prompts:
4.(quote) 'I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.' –Pablo Neruda
13.(setting) Durmstrang
15.(word) shatter
Chaser 2 for the Wimbourne Wasps
The Saddest Poem Of All
Beautiful. There was no other word that could describe her. Her long, silky, fire-red hair, her sky blue eyes, and her alabaster skin, were pure perfection. If he were a shallow person, those things alone would have been enough to sway his heart; however, he was not, and instead it was the sharp mind that lurked behind those eyes that truly enthralled him.
Their meeting had been happenstance—their professor had paired them together for a spell-crafting project—and he was very glad for it.
He could not believe that he had been going to the same school as her for six years without ever noticing her. Then again, he had always been so consumed with his own studies—mostly extra-curricular—that he barely noticed anyone. If he were being honest, he had considered all of them beneath him, even the professors. He still considered all of them beneath him. All of them but from her.
"Gellert!"
He turned at the call of his name. His lips twitched when he saw the slight frown marring her flawless features.
"Yes, Adelaide?" His Adelaide, as kind and noble as the meaning of her name indicated. She was truly a worthy match for him.
She narrowed her eyes at him, and his lips twitched once more. Even though she was a powerful witch, there was nothing she could do to harm him. She may be a match for him, but she was not his equal.
"You might not need to pay attention to have perfect scores, Gellert; however, I do." She sighed. "Please, Gellert, let us finish this project."
Gellert almost huffed. "I still do not see why you refuse to present the Ebublio jinx. It is a perfectly fine spell, and it would give us a perfect score. I am sure of it."
"Ebublio Curse, more like it," Adelaide murmured, her blue eyes darkening. "I do not know how you thought up such a dangerous spell." She shook her head.
"It is hardly dangerous."
With a snap, Adelaide shut the book she had been reading. "I saw what it did to those mice." She stood from their secluded table in the library. "Just thinking of something like that being used on a human!" She shook her head again. "I expect better from you, Gellert."
Gellert watched her go, simultaneously angered at her gall and mesmerized by her fire. No one talked to him like that. No one dared. It was one of the reasons why he was so fascinated by her.
Still, he did not understand why she refused to use the jinx. It was hardly as harmful as she made it out to be. It was intended as a joke. He had wanted to create something lighthearted to entertain her. It might seem gruesome, though it truly was not. The jinx only worked for a few minutes, then the bubbles would clump together and reform that which had been jinxed, leaving everything as it had been.
He sighed, leaning back on his chair. He would give her a little time to cool down, and then he would go after her and explain.
As he knew he would, he found her in the sunroom on the fourth floor. Not that there was much sun at Durmstrang—the old castle was kind of dreary—but the spells around the room made it one of the most pleasant rooms in the castle.
Adelaide loved the sun, and Gellert loved the soft smile on her features as the golden tendrils of light played on her skin.
"Adelaide," he murmured, walking into the room, pleased to see that there was no one else present.
She glanced at him, before going back to looking out the window, and he knew that she still was not pleased with him.
"Adelaide," he said again, taking a seat on the armchair beside her, "I did not explain myself well." Her eyes turned to him, and he felt a tendril of hope. "The Ebublio jinx is not harmful. I know," he added quickly when he saw her look, "I know it does not look like it. But believe me, it truly is not harmful. When cast in conjunction with the Aqua Eructo, it does make the victim explode into bubbles; however, it is not a permanent state. The victim ends up reverting back to their original form. It is not meant to be harmful."
He willed her to believe him, to know that he would not lie to her, to trust him. His heart missed a beat when she raised her hand and caressed his cheek, a soft smile on her lips. That smile. No one but him should ever be graced with such a smile from her.
"My dear Gellert," she whispered, "you truly mean it?" Her eyes bore into his. She must have found what she was looking for, since she leaned forward, resting her forehead against his. "I am so glad, Gellert. I knew you could not be as they said." She pulled away, and he missed her warmth immediately. "Come, let us go finish this project." She smiled, getting up from her seat and pulling him along, and he, hopeless fool that he was, could do nothing but follow after his bright sun.
Gellert grinned when he walked into his dorm room and found their project scores on his desk. For a moment, he could ignore the flare of annoyance at having someone in his room without his permission—after so many years, he had somewhat gotten used to the professors' methods of delivering their finished work. The curiosity about how they were able to enter his warded room was a little harder to quench than the annoyance, though.
Still, the important thing was that their project had been scored. He needed to find Adelaide and share the result with her. He had barely seen her since they completed their project a week ago, and he missed her warm presence.
He picked up the note their professor had left along with the score sheet, and went to find Adelaide. He knew she was not in the library, since he had come from there just moments before, so the only logical place for her to be would be the sunroom.
He had to contain a grin at the thought of seeing her once more. He did not, of course, grin. He still had a reputation to maintain at his school, and even though Adelaide was his everything, he would not break said reputation for her.
He froze when he stepped into the sunroom. He closed his eyes, praying to gods he had no faith in to make what he had seen be untrue. He opened them once more, only to be greeted with the same horrid image.
Adelaide—his Adelaide—was in the arms of another.
She leaned into the embrace, her arms around his neck.
Gellert flinched when a delicate moan reached his ears.
He took a step back, then another, only to freeze when soft words reached his ears: "I love you."
His blood turned to ice, and he could not, for the life of him, take another step.
Love? She loved him? Him? How dared she? How could she?
Did the words shared in secret between them mean nothing? The soft caresses she gifted him with? The gentle smile that she only had for him?
How could she have given herself to that man, when Gellert had never even been able to taste her lips?
Gellert loved her, loved her! And she loved him, too; he was sure of it. She had to. Then why, why was she doing this to him?
The couple broke apart, and Gellert was still frozen in place, his eyes glued on the embracing pair.
"Gellert!" Adelaide exclaimed, when she saw him by the entrance, and then a warm smile spread on her lips. "I have hardly seen you this week. How are you?"
How was he? How was he?
Gellert started chuckling, a low, deep, raspy, sound that transformed into full-blown laughter. He ignored the uncertain look that appeared on Adelaide's features, or the apprehension that flashed in the unknown male's eyes.
He was fine. Absolutely, perfectly, fine.
"Imperio!" he snapped, wand in hand before either of the other two in the room could react. The male student's eyes glazed over, and Gellert could not help but sneer. Weak, pathetic. What did that deplorable example of a wizard have that Gellert did not?
"Gellert?" Adelaide's soft voice brought his focus back to her, and he ached.
She made him feel so, so small, so weak. No more. He would no longer be deluded by her bright light.
"Aqua Eructo!" was shouted from behind Adelaide at the same time as Gellert intoned, "Ebublio!"
Adelaide's eyes widened moments before she started to inflate, and then, in the next moment, she exploded in a beautiful shower of bubbles.
"Glacius," Gellert said dispassionately. For the blink of an eye, the beautiful bubbles floated in the air, then they plummeted to the floor, shattering on impact.
Gellert stared at broken shards that were the remains of his beautiful Adelaide, eyes never leaving the little pieces, even as the wizard came out of his imperioused stupor and started calling for help. Nor did he look away as professors arrived and dragged him out of the room. Through all of it, Gellert kept his eyes on the shattered remains of his heart.
"Gellert Grindelwald, you are hereby expelled from Durmstrang. It is merely due to the policies of the school, that prohibit the divulging of the happenings inside this institute that you escape prosecution by the law. Any last words before you leave these grounds forevermore?"
Gellert glanced at the tribunal of his professors in front of him. Last words? The corner of his lips twitched.
"I loved her," he whispered, meeting their eyes for the first time since he had been dragged into the room. "Sometimes… she loved me too."
He walked out of the room, not even gracing them with one last glance. Durmstrang had nothing left to offer him; it was time to leave.
Gellert sighed as his great-aunt called him down to meet the neighbors. She had been going on and on about how they were around his age, and that he needed friends his own age instead of all the books he surrounded himself with.
Gellert was far too fond of her to tell her that the neighbors would be so utterly dull that Gellert would be surprised if he were able to maintain a conversation with them.
Still, he was fond of his great-aunt, so he kept his thoughts to himself and went downstairs.
"Gellert." Bathilda smiled at him. "These are our neighbors, Albus and his younger brother Aberforth."
His great-aunt continued talking, but Gellert heard none of it. His eyes were locked on silky, fire-red hair, sky blue eyes, and alabaster skin. If he were a shallow person, those things alone would have been enough to sway his heart; however, he was not, and it was the sharp mind that he could see lurking behind those eyes that truly enthralled him. There was no other word to describe him but beautiful.
A.N.: The amazing threecheersforidiots and Kefalion are some of the best teammates a person can have. Thank you for beta'ing. You're both amazing, and we'll be sleep deprived zombies tomorrow, but we did it :D