IV.
Albus didn't leave the house for a week after his mother's funeral. Instead he devoted his time to looking after his sister – his poor, unstable, traumatised sister whom Albus had so cruelly neglected in his annoyance at having his plans disrupted.
As such, it was a number of days before Albus had occasion to meet with Gellert Grindelwald again, and when he did it happened purely by chance. He had gone out in order to replenish his store of potions ingredients, which had been running low for far longer than Albus would have usually let it, and was walking back to his house when he chanced upon the other young wizard.
Gellert was not sitting in his garden that day but was instead sprawled out in the shade of a large oak tree, seemingly both enjoying and completely ignoring the sunshine. He was engrossed in some obscure ancient tome, as he almost always seemed to be whenever Albus saw him, but surprisingly he looked up at Albus and waved to him as he passed, signalling for the other wizard to come and sit beside him.
Albus hesitated, desperately wanting company but worried about whether his sister would be able to cope on her own for much longer. Then again, he told himself, Ariana had Aberforth for watch over her – and besides, he had been out all day, so what difference was another twenty minutes or so going to make?
His mind made up, he joined Gellert under the shade of the oak tree. The other boy put his book down and Albus noted that it was written in some ancient form of runic.
"What's that that you're reading?" Albus asked, genuinely interested in his companion's reading choices.
"Oh, nothing important," Gellert replied a little too nonchalantly. "Just an old Dark Arts text. I've had to hide it from my dear aunt, of course; she's adamant that I'm not to study the Dark Arts until I'm of age, but I don't think she really expects me to pay any attention to such sentiments."
"You're not of age yet?" Albus asked, not entirely sure he'd heard the other boy correctly. He had assumed that Gellert was the same age as he was, perhaps even a year or so older.
"No," Gellert replied. "I'm only sixteen. My birthday's not for another ten months, unfortunately. I'm glad I'm not a muggle though – I've heard that they don't come of age in this country until they're eighteen. Imagine that."
Albus stared at Gellert in shock. He was only sixteen? Why, that meant that he was the same age as Aberforth, yet this fascinating young man was as different to his younger brother as it was possible to get.
"So where do you go to school?" Albus asked when he finally regained the powers of speech. "I've certainly never seen you around Hogwarts."
"I went to Durmstrang," Gellert replied. "Hideous place, Durmstrang. I couldn't stand it and it couldn't stand me, so it's good that I've left now."
Albus raised an eyebrow. "They let you graduate early?" Considering the boy's obvious intelligence that was hardly surprising, but it had certainly never been commonplace at Hogwarts for anyone to finish school before the age of seventeen (unless, of course, they failed all their O. like his brother looked likely to do.)
Gellert seemed to find Albus' question rather hilarious. "Heavens no!" he cried. "They expelled me half-way through my fifth year. That's why I've been travelling round for the past few months and ended up in Godric's Hollow of all places."
Albus stared at the other boy in shock. He had been expelled from Durmstrang? Expelled? From Durmstrang? But it was almost impossible to get expelled from that school from what Albus had heard; even harder than it was to get oneself expelled from Hogwarts – even Aberforth was still attending Hogwarts no matter how many ridiculous, reckless, rash, over-the-top, Gryffindorish things he'd done.
"But… but what about your exams?" Albus asked, for he knew for a fact that Durmstrang, like Hogwarts, required students to take major examinations in their fifth and seventh years.
"Irrelevant," Gellert replied with a smirk. "I found the seventh year exam papers when I was in my second year and decided it would be… interesting if I completed them in every subject and sent them off to the examiners along with the seventh years' work. Professor Vlasceanu – he's the high master there, in case you didn't know –wasn't exactly pleased when he realised what I'd done: though I doubt he would have realised at all had I not achieved the highest marks out of the entire year's entry."
Albus' shock turned into complete disbelief. He had taken the final-year examinations in his second year and achieved higher marks than the seventh years? This Gellert Grindelwald was brilliant, yes, but he was also undeniably arrogant, for Albus himself wouldn't even have dared to do such a thing when he was in his second year.
"So what did you do for the remainder of your time at Durmstrang?" Albus asked.
Gellert shrugged. "I sat round the library being bored and ended up stuck in classes that were far below my level, that's what. And when I decided to study things that were actually of interest to me they decided that my talents weren't welcome at their institute." Gellert momentarily looked as though he was sucking on an acid pop, but his features quickly returned to their normal state – though Albus had already realised that nothing about this Gellert Grindelwald could be called 'normal', certainly not.
Albus frowned, remembering something he had heard a while ago. "But don't they teach you the Dark Arts at Durmstrang?"
"They claim to" Gellert replied, a sneer evident in his voice. "But it's nothing that could really be called dark magic. It's all just simple curses, the sorts of things you throw round at other children in playground duels. And yet they decide to call it 'Dark Magic' because they think it dangerous. Don't they realise that all magic has the potential to be dangerous? It just depends on how one decides to use it." He sighed and shook his head. "You shouldn't really let me start on this now. I'll talk on through the night if you let me – it's just that the branding of magic as either inherently 'dark' or 'light' is something that annoys me greatly. You can come round tomorrow if you wish to discuss this further; we'll have some tea as well, if you wish. I've developed rather a liking for tea since coming here."
Albus almost laughed, momentarily forgetting the seriousness of the discussion they had been having only a few minutes before.
"Yes," he said. "I'd like that very much. But I'm afraid I really ought to be getting home now."
"Potions ingredients to sort out?"
"How could you tell?"
"Well the bags you're carrying are rather a giveaway," Gellert drawled. "Now I'll leave you to your chores and you can leave me to my reading. I'll see you at midday tomorrow, if that's alright with you."
"Of course," Albus replied, picking up his bags and beginning to walk home. No matter how bizarre a discussion he had just had, his mood had lightened considerably as a result of his chance meeting with Gellert Grindelwald that day.