Chapter 5

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Chapter 5 – Dinner Party

"Did a few of your students go to work for Grindelwald?" Elijah asked. He'd finally pulled his chair to the same table as the other two were seated at. Albus took that as a sign that Elijah finally understood they were on the same side -- a realization that had taken the younger man far too long to reach in Albus' opinion, though he did not remark at all.

"Obviously," Nicholas answered for him. "Some of the earliest witnesses for the ministry came out of the class of '43."

"I knew that two were quite young, but I guess I had not realized they were that young. The McGonagall girl always seems much older. She also has a way of making me feel like a petulant little boy," Elijah remarked. Nicholas laughed.

"Yes, Minerva had the most unfortunate luck of having been drawn into Grindelwald's office. Minerva was a very promising student and could probably have worked in any department within the ministry if only she'd asked for a recommendation from myself or practically any other teacher. She was determined to make her own way though. It was she who put together what she was witnessing first, mind you – always her mind is processing. I doubt she will be so easily fooled again," Albus commented. Minerva McGonagall was all that he'd said. He could imagine her as headmaster at Hogwarts in the distant future, if not the Minister of Magic. To date she was the only student who had ever beaten him at chess.

"Minerva had overheard several of the Slytherins in her graduating year talking about the offer that Grindelwald had made. She dispatched an owl asking if he might still be seeking workers and for information on the application procedure. Horace Slughorn provided references for several students, and I believe that turned out to be the extent of the process," Albus said.

"Minerva, along with Howard Dawlish, Darren Carpenter, Nathan Madson, and Gregory Smith all went to work for the man during the summer holidays and each of them were hopeful that it would help them build working connections with the ministry. Only Carpenter and Smith continued to work with Grindelwald after two month's time, and some say the boys were brainwashed," Nicholas revealed.

"Hold on," Elijah interrupted. "Did you say two months? We only interviewed these witnesses a few weeks ago."

"Ahh, he's catching on," Nicholas stated, nodding slowly. Had this been a normal evening, that would have made Albus laugh. But perched precariously as he was between coping and collapsing in grief, he could not find even an echo of his usual sense of humor. Albus watched comprehension dawn on Elijah and he wrung his hands as if he didn't quite know what to do now that his perfectly ordered world had been sent askew. His belief system had not allowed for the possibility that the ministry officials could ignore a threat of this magnitude for so long.

It seemed a bad idea to let him dwell on it at this point, so Albus picked up the thread of his story. "We entered the summer holidays. Grindelwald had offered what looked like a positive opportunity to several young people, I began to attend my regular summer duties – acting as liaison to muggle-borns and organizing book lists for Headmaster Dippet – and I barely saw Lorelei or her sister for two weeks. I did run into Grindelwald at the ministry a couple of times, but he barely acknowledged me, and so I mostly steered clear of him."

"One morning I received an invitation to dine at Lorelei's home. I accepted, not imaging that she meant to introduce me to her entire family, or that I might not be the only guest. Her parents were, in fact, having a dinner party that evening," Albus explained. He could remember knocking at their fine Manchester home and being ushered in by a house elf with an odd, triangular nose and a plate of hors d'oeuvres. He politely introduced himself to her and asked how her evening was. The small creature had stared at him in shock and promptly dropped the tray. It had been the beginning of a comedy of errors that seemed to spin out of control with every passing moment.

"I'm so sorry," Albus had said. He'd then pulled out his wand and cleaned up the mess. "I do hope those weren't the last of your tartlets," he'd added, smiling slightly.

The house elf had stared with her eyes abnormally wide, even by an elf's standards. "House elves is not supposed to be talking to guests, Albus Dumbledore," she squeaked. "House elves is to clean up their own messes and welcome the guests."

"One could argue it was as much my mess as it was yours," he responded kindly. "I was merely doing my part."

The house elf had blinked twice as if she were trying to assure herself he was real.

"Lolly, whatever are you doing?" a woman demanded. She was beautiful with auburn ringlets and hazel eyes. She was dressed in elegant mint green robes with sparkling emeralds at her throat and dangling from her ears.

"I'm afraid I can be a bit clumsy," Albus had interjected. "Her plate of tartlets became the casualty. I was just attempting to apologize." Lolly began to mouth wordlessly, leaving her to resemble a fish out of water, gasping for air. Feeling it was best not to let her correct his story, Albus held out a hand to the woman. "Professor Albus Percival Wolfric Bryan Dumbledore, at your service, though I would be most pleased if you would call me Albus."

The woman took in his long beard and hair, and her expression morphed to disbelief and then horror, though at the time he'd been too dense to imagine why. She coughed slightly and struggled to compose herself. "You're – you're Lorelei's guest then," she stated. He had nodded slightly and smiled, half wondering if he was wearing a few of the fallen tartlets. But her next words explained what should have been painfully obvious in the first place. "My daughter is in the other room."

Albus Dumbledore was a name that was fairly well known by the turn of the century. It seemed nearly impossible for him to imagine she had not guessed he was a gentleman of years, but somehow that fact had been missed on the lady of the house until she'd come face to face with him. He had been slightly shaken himself. He was probably a couple years older than Lorelei's mother, a fact that cast an unseemly light on his fascination with Lorelei. He briefly considered making a hasty escape, but knew that Lorelei had been expecting him and that he'd already announced himself in such a way that there was no chance of turning back.

If he had thought the night would get easier, he was mistaken. Eleanor Figg led the way to the conservatory, where many guests were already gathered. His gaze immediately fixed on Lorelei, who was, at that moment, the center of attention, telling some story with much gesturing and tripping about. "Professor Dumbledore!" Arabella exclaimed from behind him. She rushed toward him and hugged him tightly as if he were a lifelong friend she'd not seen in ages, though the separation had actually been much shorter.

It was then that he also noticed Grindelwald in the room. The two locked gazes and merely nodded, but it caused yet another realization to cross Albus' thoughts. Wilhelm Grindelwald was a couple years his senior, while Arabella was Lorelei's youngest sibling. The age spread between the sisters was around sixteen years, accommodating for the four brothers in between. Arabella had stated that her father liked Grindelwald as a suitor for her. That made the look Eleanor had fixed on Albus seem even stranger, though he was sure he'd been correct in his assessment of its meaning.

Lorelei finished with her story and finally spotted him. She very nearly launched herself at him, a fact that renewed his awkwardness. The emotional pendulum that spun him from confidence to self-consciousness continued to swing thus throughout the evening, leaving him at some moments sure he had every right to be there, while suspecting at other moments that he'd simply lost his sanity.

Eventually they had sat down to eat at a long table in a dining room with huge chandeliers and the largest hearth he'd ever seen in a private home. He'd found himself seated across the large table from Lorelei, sandwiched between the Minister of Magic, and the First Undersecretary to the Minister, who seemed to be attempting to converse around him without encouraging him to join in the discussion. He'd just begun to wonder if anyone would notice if he turned himself invisible so that he could take his leave, when Tavin Figg shouted down to him, "So Dumbledore, I understand you are next in line for Headmaster at Hogwarts."

He inclined his head politely. "Though Headmaster Dippet assures me he is not yet ready to give up his fine office," he responded. "He told me that if the students did not give me white hair, the wait would." Several of the guests laughed at the touch of humor. Lorelei watched him, squinting her eyes slightly. He raised his eyebrows at her in question.

"I'm trying to picture you white-haired," she replied far louder than was necessary. He stole a glance at her mother and saw her mouth set in a hard, thin line.

Might as well be hanged for a dragon as an egg, he had thought. "Allow me," he told Lorelei. He then pointed his wand at his hair and flicked it slightly, changing his hair color briefly with a simple spell. There was another slight wave of laughter. "You'll forgive my vanity, but I believe I prefer not to show you a lack of hair."

Lorelei grinned and shot a sideways glance at her mother. In that second, he realized she was aware of Eleanor's displeasure, but either derived some perverse amusement from it, or else just didn't care. "I think you look very distinguished either way," Lorelei responded before sipping from her goblet.

Eleanor, however, seemed sour for the rest of the meal, and when the guests were invited to listen to a string quartet they'd hired for entertainment that evening, the lady of the house glowered at him steadily until he decided it was best to take his leave. However, when he indicated this intention to Lorelei, she chewed her lip for a moment and implored him, "Could you stay long enough to walk with me in the garden?"

He'd nodded, though a part of him thought it might not be the best idea. Once outside with only Lorelei for company, many of his misgivings went forgotten. They walked hand in hand toward a large fountain where a few gnomes were chasing each other and splashing about. "If father saw those things, he'd have kneazles," she remarked. Albus chuckled slightly, wondering how to begin the conversation that seemed inevitable. The moments stretched. "Mother's behavior has you in knots, doesn't it?" Lorelei observed.

"You have an amazing propensity for understatements," he replied. "I admit that sometimes I forget my age – it becomes nothing more than a statistic to one's self identity and an unimportant one until faced with a protective parent who is, by the way, younger than I am."

"Well I just don't care," Lorelei returned in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Perhaps you should," he countered. "I am old enough to be your father.

"Yes, but I already have a father and I'm not in the market for another. Can you think of no other role for yourself?"

"I can, yes, but that is not the point. It would be more appropriate to ask, 'Should I allow myself to think of another role when there is such an age difference between us?'." He sighed, wondering how many months it would be before the thought of letting her go didn't make him ache.

"Just like a man to complicate matters of the heart with his head," she quipped sarcastically, poking him in the forehead with her index finger. "We are a wizard and witch, Albus, destined to live twice as long as muggles, and yet we tie ourselves to their notions of appropriate age spreads as if their rules were concrete. It's a laughable thought that my mother should subscribe to such nonsense, when, on nearly every other subject, she considers herself so far superior to muggles as not to bother with them at all."

He couldn't help but smile at her. "You put up a convincing argument," he said, "and yet I find myself wondering why you would, when there must be a hundred men your age pounding at your door. You have a way about you, Lorelei. I doubt you've ever gone anywhere unnoticed. Whatever makes me more interesting than any one of the younger men who are drawn to you?"

"I'm surprised at you, Albus, don't you know? I was completely enamored with you from the moment you asked my sister if she liked to dance as much as I do. All of my family treats her as an outsider and I always saw her brilliance in spite of them. I once told myself that I'd know the man for me by how he treated my Arabella. Now here you stand, wondering why I should be so taken with you." She stopped and blushed slightly, then smiled. "Goodness, Albus, I thought you were smart," she teased.

"I am far too old to constantly be left feeling like this," he confided.

"Like what?"

"A sweaty palmed teenager on my first date."

"Ohh." She laughed lightly and leaned in to kiss him. But hardly had their lips met when the solitude was interrupted by two consecutive pops of wizards apparating. Wilhelm Grindelwald appeared in the garden with a man wearing a Nazi uniform.

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