Here be chapter three.

Again, I have to give a big thanks to RikkuAlaias for reviewing!

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Albus stayed in his house for the next couple of days, performing exciting tasks such as making soup for dinner and making sure everyone's clothes were clean. One day, both Aberforth and Ariana fell asleep around one in the afternoon, which was not usual. Albus decided to take advantage of Aberforth's unconscious state and went outside without the risk of being scolded.

Without really meaning to, he arrived at Bathilda's house to find Gellert outside fixing the fence without magic, since there were too many Muggles around and he was underage in the first place so he really was not supposed to. Albus guessed that Bathilda must enforce that ridiculous rule of no magic preformed outside of school by anyone under the age of seventeen. Gellert looked sweaty and frustrated, as if he had no idea what he was doing and he had been doing it for a long time. He also had no shirt on.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?"

"Hi, Albus," Gellert said, not looking up from what he was doing. He was trying to hammer a nail into the white wood. "I'm trying to fix this because she told me to, and to do so without magic."

Albus saw several people staring at him as they walked by. "You know, the people here are really stuck up and it isn't every day a teenager is trying to fix a fence during the afternoon half-naked. I'm sure they all think you're being very improper right now."

"Well, I'm a foreigner; I'm allowed to break the rules because I'm ignorant of them."

"Well, in this country, and in this day and age –"

"Save it, Albus."

"People are staring at you."

"I don't blame them; I'd stare at myself too." He was still trying to get the nail into the wood, but he couldn't even get it started.

"You know, for someone so brilliant," Albus teased, "you'd think you would have realized that you've got the hammer facing the wrong way. Honestly."

Gellert looked at it. "You think I'm doing it the wrong way?" He turned it around. "Hey, I think you're right. This looks better." He tired it the correct way. "Yeah, this is much easier."

Albus scoffed.

"Hey, I'm not a stupid Muggle, remember? Normally, I wouldn't be doing it this way."

"How long have you been doing this?"

"I don't know…. I think for about thirty minutes."

Albus shook his head.

"You could help me, you know," Gellert said.

"How?"

"Hand me the stupid naids, or whatever they are called –"

"Nails."

He smiled. "English isn't my first language, okay? Just hand them over when I ask for them."

Albus crouched down next to him and took a handful of the nails in his left hand. He watched Gellert hammering pathetically badly, which amused him. In no time at all, he felt himself sweating, sitting on the hot ground. It was the beginning of July after all.

"Nail."

Albus handed one to him and Gellert began the long process of putting another one in. He felt his face flushing with the heat, but he also felt like something else was making his face turn red. He blinked and realized he hadn't been looking at the fence or nail or wood, but he was looking at Gellert's body. Mortified, he looked at the ground and didn't look up.

After what felt like an eternity, Gellert finally finished. "Finally," Gellert said, sounding exasperated. "I don't know why she had to insist I do this. Do you want to come into my house and get some water or something?"

"No," Albus lied. "I really should be getting back. I shouldn't have been gone this long in the first place."

Gellert rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'll see you later then. Thanks for the help."

"Bye." Albus set off at a brisk pace, his mind racing. He felt alarmed. Albus had never fancied anyone; he had never found anyone attractive. The phenomenon had simply never happened to him before, all throughout school. Albus had just accepted it, gone along with it, and hadn't worried about it. Now, he was worried about. It had never, ever, crossed his mind that he could be… not straight.

But did he really find Gellert attractive? He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. He didn't want to, but he knew he was almost positive he truly did. He now knew that he was almost certainly homosexual, a freak, abnormal. And he was sure Gellert was not. Of course he wasn't. Hardly anyone was; the chances were extremely slim.

Albus opened his door and retreated up to his room, relieved to see that Aberforth and Ariana hadn't woken. He fell face forward onto his bed and put his pillow over his head, hating himself. He never wanted to see him again.

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Ariana was playing with her food instead of eating it.

"Ariana, eat your food," Aberforth encouraged. She looked at him blankly. "It's good, Ariana, eat it." He took another bite of what he was eating as if hoping she would mimic this.

Albus watched them. She was just like a small child. He remembered the things Gellert had said about Wizards and Muggles living in harmony together. Aberforth was right. Albus was of no real help around here. He couldn't get her to eat like Aberforth could. He wasn't helping Ariana at all. But Albus thought that Ariana would like to have known that he made sure something like this never happened to a witch or wizard again.

Albus stared ahead of him, not really seeing anything. Was it possible? Why shouldn't it be? Was it over idealistic? Yes, it was… but so what?

Ariana suddenly brought her eyebrows together as if something was bothering her. She shook her head a few times, stopped, and then her expression cleared. Albus hated looking at her. As much as he cared about her, he couldn't stand being around her, because he felt there was nothing he could ever do to help her. She was out of his and the world's reach. But if the world changed – if he changed the world for her, because of her, maybe things would be set right. Right now, what had happened to her was an injustice and it was terrible. But just maybe, he could use what happened to her as a driving force in his life and make something good come out of her tragedy. He closed his eyes for a second. His thoughts were confusing him, but he could not stop thinking.

He knew that he had thought to himself that he never wanted to see Gellert again. But it was getting harder and harder for him to resist the urge to do so. It was impossible to talk to Aberforth or Ariana. Aberforth was always mad at him for some reason or another and he knew absolutely nothing about ideas. The only real communication he could get with Ariana would be asking her questions and waiting for a reply. Occasionally, she would say that she wanted something. That was it. He was able to talk to Gellert better than he had been able to talk to anyone, even his friend Elphias. Elphias had been a good friend, he was loyal, but he was also hard to talk to a lot of the time because he didn't understand where Albus was coming from half the time.

After dinner, he set off for Gellert's house, only to run into him near the graveyard.

"Hey, Albus," Gellert said. "I haven't seen you for a while."

Albus nodded slightly and then got straight to the point. "Were you serious?"

"About what?"

"About overthrowing the Statute of Secrecy."

"Yes, of course," Gellert said slowly.

"I want to help you. I want to help you do it."

Gellert grinned. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Gellert nodded at the ground for a second. Then he looked up at Albus intently and Albus felt his heart skip a beat. "Do you want to do it for your sister?"

Albus looked downward. "Yes. Well, but not just for her. For me as well. I want to do something with my life."

"Excellent," Gellert said enthusiastically. "Here sit down, we might be here a while." Gellert sat down on the grass and leaned against the graveyard fence. Albus followed suit. Once they both had gotten comfortable, Gellert continued. "Well, I think that the best way to ensure our success would be to get the Deathly Hallows. Remember we were talking about them the first day we met?"

Albus thought. "I know they're extremely powerful – the wand is said to be unbeatable, the cloak lasts forever and it never fails to conceal those under it, and the stone can bring back the dead, which no other magic can do. But how could this help us?"

"Well," Gellert said with a mischievous look in his eyes, "once someone possesses all three, it is said that person becomes the Master of Death."

Albus raised his eyebrows. "You mean the person would be immortal?"

"What else could it mean?"

Albus still remained skeptical. "How could this help us though?"

Gellert smiled at him and Albus felt his heart thud again. "You know why. I thought you were supposed to be smart?"

Albus laughed for a second, really laughed, which was something he hadn't done in a long time. "Maybe I'm not. Explain."

"Liar," Gellert said gently. "I read what you wrote in Transfiguration Today, the day after I first met you. It was brilliant. You just want to hear me explain what I'm thinking out loud."

Albus smiled.

Gellert smiled back. "We're going to have people fighting against us, Albus. It's going to be dangerous. Has it ever been safe to change the world? No. People who influence the world are killed a lot. The wand will bring us power to get the job done. The cloak can be extremely useful in traveling. And if we complete the set, well, then we get the security the three combined has to offer – should the worst happen."

Albus was silent for a moment. If the stone really worked, and they really did obtain it, he would be able to bring back his father and his mother…. No more worrying about Aberforth and Ariana, and he would be able to apologize for his past negative behavior. He had refused to come home last Christmas. He was so unthankful for what he had then….

"You really want to do this, right?" Gellert asked carefully. "You have to really want it."

Jerked from his thinking, Albus said, "What? Oh, yeah…." He nodded. "Definitely. I was just thinking, that's all."

"Well, if we're going to make this a reality, we've got to start looking for the Hallows. Of course, we've also got to get started anyway, because there's a chance we'll never unite them – or even get any at all. We've got to start going around the world, making speeches, gaining support and stuff…. You're not shy are you?" Gellert teased.

Albus grinned. "I am not the best conversationalist, but I'm not afraid of telling people what I think."

"Good. You do seem introverted though."

"That's probably because I am."

"I'm extroverted."

"Really? I would have never guessed," Albus said sarcastically.

Gellert laughed. "At least you have a sense of humor. So many people just don't."