A little note to clarify, perhaps the breaks between chapters have been too long - Happiness is caused by endorphins, dopamine and serotonin, which in certain medical conditions we can actually develop an insensitivity to. So, while it is possible to reduce the frequency and intensity of those positive emotions, they can still be produced. The attachment theory is a different matter - we learn attachment when we are children and dependent on out parents, love develops from there. If you fail to receive that early conditioning, it can be very difficult to learn it later in life.

The other method to love is through emotional attraction - the production of the aformentioned hormones. We find someone we like, we develop an emotional attraction and produce all those happy hormones. The body rather likes the hormones, so we develop an attachment and the attachment grows to become love.

So, Grindelwald in this fic feels emotions in the same way as any of us, perhaps slightly numbed but otherwise normal. What he misses is that ability to form a deep and meaningful connection with someone, perhaps due to childhood issues (which is very common in sociopaths). Now consider when you feel sad - often when someone around you is hurt, when you feel happy - perhaps when someone meaningful to you has done something. If you had none of those connections, you would never have those emotions.

In that extent, it is very easy for Dumbledore to misinterpret Grindelwald's symptoms as complete lack of emotion, particularly if one had just lost their love interest after he had just killed their sister.

In the same theme, just because Gellert has not had a meaningful connection with someone before, does not mean those skills can't be developed in later life.

Hopefully this has made the situation clearer. Emotion and attachment are messy, nonsensical and confusing but they play an important part in this story.

Albus stood in his office, staring down at the students departing for Hogsmeade. Two in particular, departing late. Perhaps they had been on some errand or other after breakfast because they had been among the first to leave. He watched as Gellert opened the door and helped Miss Granger climb in. He couldn't tell from here if they were talking, but he could hardly expect otherwise. Grindelwald was far to skilled a wizard to risk casting an eavesdropping charm.

The carriage waited for a few moments to see if any other students appeared. When they didn't it whisked off to Hogsmeade, carrying the two subjects of Albus' interest away.

He turned back to his desk which was for once rather empty of paperwork. As he took a seat in the chair, he pushed aside the latest educational decree and instead pulled out a folder from the bottom drawer of his desk. It had a blue tab in the corner, which meant "Grindelwald" in his filing system.

Inside the folder, was a stack of papers. He spread them out and tapped one with his old-new wand. As usual, the magic felt almost unfamiliar as it spread through the conduit and into the paper, revealing the words that were scrawled over each page.

He'd added nothing to the list since Christmas – when he'd found out Gellert was in rather frequent contact with Lucius Malfoy. Albus had no idea when, where or even how he'd managed to sway the dedicated Lord. Perhaps he hadn't.

He hadn't had this disadvantage last time; the same disadvantage that the rest of the world had struggled with when Gellert was first at large. Back then he had known exactly what Grindelwald had been trying to achieve and had even been part of the preliminary planning. Now, he truly had no idea.

He'd witnessed first-hand the relationship between Hermione and Gellert, and had wondered if perhaps the dark wizard had genuinely come to call her his friend. He seemed to have little interest in Harry beyond his friendship with Hermione, which disproved the unfortunate theory that he was using her to get to the Boy-Who-Lived. Nor had Grindelwald made any attempt to get to the cloak, despite seemingly being aware of its presence.

His chest ached with a long faded pain as he considered the young witch achieving that which he had so avidly desired at her age. He found himself wondering if he had done anything right, what quality did she have that he did not? Was it solely her gender? She was as intelligent as he had been then, perhaps a little wiser and without seeing her pushed it was difficult to tell how powerful she was exactly. Perhaps it was her gender, maybe that she was muggleborn? It hadn't been difficult to learn what Gellert had been up to once he had a location to search. The dark wizard had been living in an almost muggle home, and according to the neighbours spent much of his time over at the Granger's house.

Grindelwald in a muggle home. He almost couldn't believe it.

Yet all of this gave no clue as to what he was up to now. His frequent contact with Lucius Malfoy was concerning to say the least, even more concerning was that he had employed Crouch's old elf. That opened up a world of possibilities for the dark wizard and made tracking him very difficulty. Albus was aware that he had been leaving the grounds with reasonable regularity, off on who knows what mission.

The vow bound him to help Albus, so whatever he was doing couldn't be directly against his efforts. At least Gellert did seem to be rather free with his advice; the scolding he'd been given in the middle of the great hall at breakfast a couple of weeks ago had been embarrassing to say the least. Once the dark wizard had laid out the consequences of his actions in short, clipped words, as though he were talking to a child, it had been a rather blatant mistake. He never had been good at chess, although backgammon used many of the same principles so perhaps that wasn't the issue.

An owl fluttered through the window, alighting on his desk. He took the letter from it with a sigh – Kingsley's owl never brought good news these days.

"Albus,

One of your unfortunate brother's lot seems to have told my uncle about the mischief we got up to at the party. Perhaps we should call off the prank for a while?

Kingsley."

All code words – his unfortunate brother was Voldemort, Kingsley's uncle was the Minister and in this case the remainder of the message was quite clear. The ministry had become aware of the order had guarding the prophesy and had somehow made it impossible for them to continue the mission. He would have no choice but to withdraw and hope that the unspeakables were up to the challenge of keeping it safe. Prophesies were power, Gellert had taught him that and it wasn't a lesson he would soon forget.

This war was already beginning to go as well as the last one; Lupin had reported that every werewolf pack he had visited so far had already joined Voldmort or had no interest in fighting either way, Hagrid's mission to the giants had been an utter failure. Not to mention the brother the half-giant had brought home who, should he ever be discovered, would leave Albus in an even more precarious position than he already was. With this latest collapse, the only real assets he still had were Severus and Harry.

So the question of whether he risked losing Harry gained all the more importance. Miss Granger's influence on the boy was far greater than his own, so should Hermione fall victim to Gellert's manipulations... perhaps she needed a little extra coaching; occlumency in the least and he should perhaps consider letting the young witch in on a few more secrets. He forced himself to remember that she was intelligent enough to make her own decisions, so long as she was given all the tools to remain independent when she made them. He needed to ensure that she also had his side of the story to work with, so that she was not as easily taken in by Gellert's silver tongue as he had been.

Yes, occlumency and some truths.