A one-shot broken into two it three parts about Gellert's Holidays. One chapter daily. Again, several significant changes from the original. Starts a little dark and depressive a couple months after the family left for France.
New Year's special- A peak into the future
Gellert Grindenwald's Fall time.
He hadn't seen them in a few weeks, but there plans being put in place. He knew that it might be a while before he could see them again, and it just broke his heart.
Lately, he had a hard time reaching his daughter. He was able to see her, although only for seconds. At least, he was her.
He tried to remember back to the first time he found his flower. She must have touched something he gave her and wished very much to see him. Then he felt her and knew that one of his children wasn't dead.
Sometimes he thought that he felt others. Albeit it was probably his imagination, he could swear there were others alive; he hoped it with all his heart. He had been thinking, perhaps their other nature could have saved them. Unfortunately, he wasn't thinking correctly when he found them that terrible day.
During the initial times he made contact, the children were the ones who saw him initially; first Frankie had seen him and then Hermione. Hence the one with the power to link with him wasn't the little witch because she lived elsewhere; hence, Marguerite had something of his that made it possible; and she had left the something behind.
He had been searching for the little ones every place where he detected a possible link, someone with affinity to him and not a hit; thus, the latest conclusion was that he needed to give them something of his. He missed them badly; the solitude was worse than ever now that he knew that all his children had not died, and he still had a family.
On August, he tried to talk to his daughter and was able to see a faint trace of her, an envelope was pushed, but it came out all wrinkled, obviously the entrance was hardly there. It was a long letter and it had five muggle pictures. He was able to see his grandchildren as children and as adults. He had four grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.
They were all beautiful to him, and he thanked the witch who had loved him and given him such a precious treasure; moreover, he had given her so little in return, and not only that, but he had committed the ultimate crime against her own kin. He missed her every day. How he wished he could see her just once again. He wanted to meet her in the afterlife, not unless he was given another chance.
He no longer felt alone, but his bitterness towards Albus was growing, worrying he'd hurt his babies.
The letter was informational and troubling; his grandchildren had gone away and taken the little ones to the continent. They were running away from Albus who was after their adopted son.
At this, a deep anger against Dumbledore rose; in the past, he used to accept whatever came from Albus as a punishment for his crimes, but this, this was too much. Who would punish Albus?, He wanted to know. He was a one man army, but one so powerful that he could hide behind the Light.
For a long time he still held some of the young man's love, he had felt for Albus, but it was being replaced with dislike.
Besides Dumbledore there were other issues; Grant had grown not knowing his powers, and they were away to train.
His grandchild, not trained, could be in great danger; but even more upsetting was his family's fear that Albus would recognize Grant. But for his curly hair, he was Gellert's spitting image. Dear god his grandson was a twin. His heart ached with concern for his grandsons.
The Dark wizard stopped reading the thick manuscript. Albus was a danger to his family. That much was obvious, and he would see them as either a threat or someone to be used.
If Albus was to meet any of his grandchildren, they all would be at risk. Each one of them was a near replica of one that Albus knew. And the one young woman and the little one, looked exactly like her, like one that Albus shouldn't see. At least the coloring and hair were not the same. Well Albus had never seen her as a young woman, yet.
He knew that he could kill Albus, but then he would die of starvation because killing him was one thing, being able to get out his cell was another. Without a wand he wasn't sure if he could break all the wards. He had a rudimentary wand but needed more wo~
He had been able to break the dampers in his area, but it had taken him years, who knew what was outside of his cell. His mind was made up, if Albus would endanger his family, he was as good as dead.
Starving didn't scare him, but dying did. Now, he knew what was inside of him, and that it was real and waiting for him.
The informational part was a discovery they had made. Objects called satellites orbited the earth. They had been sent there by Muggles. At reading this Gellert was surprised. The Muggles had sent men to the moon, he already knew that. Albus had told him. Their machine magic was strong. They had another plan, his grandson also saw doors, but they needed to know exactly where to go. His family was sure that the days he communicated with them one of the satellites must be passing above where he was.
They sent him extra paper, a scroll of some sort, and some writing sticks. They wanted him to keep a tally, for that they had sent him scroll with printed lines, and all he had to do was fill it. They thought that perhaps they could get a location of where he was.
This would require that he tried often. They all sent him their love and promised to send him better things. He missed them. How he wished to be with them.
He wished his life would had been different, why had he taken such a bad road?
His parents were magical, but of the old religion. They practiced magic that came from the North, but they believed in the Creator's son. When he was little, they told him that they were descendants of the one of the Mages; those who came to adore him at his birth. They believed in the Nordic gods, in runes, it was a mix of the new and the old. They also believed that they had come from another realm escaping a world overtaken by the darkness.
They disliked all the Muggles because all the harm they had done to magical beings, and for daring to kill the one, the one who could have saved them all, taking them back to their world. Nevertheless, they lived peacefully amongst them.
When he started his affair with the Dark, they had sent him to his aunt. They blamed it on friends he had met at Durmstrang, but the truth was that he was the one corrupting the others. It started when he was very young.
His parents went to their own version of the old religion ceremonies, and with their powerful magic they took soul-ghouls out of people. They told him one of them had gotten into him, but only for hours, however, it must have left something inside. It left the love for the dark, for the power it brought, along with the bigotry, and the hatred he had practiced all his life.
He knew the ghoul story to be true. His parents had said he had been throwing up snakes with no eyes before they had extracted the thing out of him. To his great disappointment, his parents only practiced very little magic, and he had already started his life on the Dark side. After their beloved son nearly died, they eased their practices. They had two more children to think about. And afterwards they did regular magic but never in an excess.
No sense in regret, it wouldn't help him. He needed to find a way to take Albus' attention away from his family.
Albus should never have access to their power, or the power of his new adopted great grandson. Or even worse, he might want to kill them, or bring them to this hell place with him. The thought terrified him, and the lack of being able to see them made it altogether worse.
He had been thinking and wanted to ask Serpens who was Margie's beau. If she had a child, and gave to someone to hide from him, he had to know. He wanted to find all his family before Albus did.
All this month he had been having nightmares. They were mostly of finding his family dead, all his babies spread all over the house, and his beautiful wife dead and other nightmares were of the Greyback's massacre, the terrible meaning of his actions was now ever present, now that his babies' futures were at skate.
Yes, the horrible massacre was one of the worse crimes he ever committed. He didn't have the right to kill children; what pain he had caused, he didn't want to think about, and he was powerless against the old ghosts that would be coming.
If there were sin, that was one the most heinous one he ever committed. He hoped the ghosts could forgive him; he didn't want to face them again. Strange how he had forgotten. Hdidn't even remember talking to the Muggles, last remembered was crying when he found his family. Then after the massacre when Albus caught him; now, he remembered his crime like in a nightmare.
The reason he killed them had been anger and jealousy. He had found out the shifters could live up very long lives, and never age much.
Not the werewolves, but their purebloods. They were powerful wizards. This filled him with anger and jealousy, and yes, his bigotry erupted with fury.
He forgot, entirely, that they had come to this plane at the same time his family arrived. They were closer to demigods than any of them.
He had asked them to grant him their gift, and they refused. They explained to him if he ever changed his ways, it would be considered.
He knew they could grant their gift on whoever they wanted to, and that was the reason the ones that could have given to him had been blocked. He was looking for support in fighting the war he had started, and inevitably they couldn't turn him down, he was sure of that. He had been wrong.
His appeal was rejected upon being presented to their council; appeals from the ones on his side went unheard. Lord Greyback explained that they were already hated enough, there were always rogue wolves that would bite humans to live in packs, and they didn't need more hatred.
They wanted to live their lives in peace, to run wild and to hunt in their lands.
He blamed the Greybacks for not supporting him. He had asked before for them to send several males to protect his family, but he had been denied onsite protection.
They had many families they needed to protect. And instead, the council had offered his family a place in their lands, and he had turned it down. Even after they threatened to take his family away for endangering his children.
They gave him an ultimatum, told him to stop the war at once. Everyone was the same, and magic was magic.
Moreover, they asked him to change his ways to avert tragedies beyond his comprehension, they were seers, but he didn't believe. He didn't, instead, he redoubled his war efforts.
After finding his family dead, he had gone mad… He stopped thinking someone was coming in.
Someone or something was coming, maybe his family was sending something? He had the letter ready inside the book he was reading. He sat on his cot and made sure books, pictures were all hidden; he wrapped the old blanket around his shoulders and sat to wait.
It was Albus; the disappointment must have been all over his face.
"Not happy to see me? I thought to be charitable and visit the ones behind bars." Albus greeted.
"Save your charity for others. Albus, I want to find out who killed my family. You were a friend once, and I am in need of your services." He saw Albus flinch.
"You fight for justice and surely you would want to assist me with this. My wife was a gentlewoman, and did you know that I never told you the biggest secret about her? If you only knew, you would never be able to sleep again. If you killed them, I pity you, because I will tell you her secret, and you will forever feel the horror of your actions."
Gellert had his eyes fixed on Albus, who didn't know he was being watched.
The look in Albus' eyes, and his expression told him truths that he didn't want to know. A knife went through Grindenwald's heart, and he had to control the desire to double in pain. For the first time ever he realized that Albus had a hand in their killings. He wanted to scream, he wanted to kill him, but he still hoped to be wrong. He knew that he wasn't. Let him come for more.
A/N next chapter tomorrow. So Albus has done more?