Grindelwald has a reunion with Dumbledore's portrait.

Set between chapters 18 and 19.

Gellert crept into his room with a silencing charm on his feet, shutting the door as softly as he could behind him. Hermione and Harry both slept in their rooms and he knew that Hermione was a very light sleeper, so he always tried to make as little noise as possible at night. Besides, he knew she would ask awkward questions about why he was covered in earth – she would hate it if she knew he'd visited several graveyards around the continent to charge up the wards.

He couldn't believe that she actually wanted to live here and the request had sent a rush of happiness searing through her with the intensity of the most powerful dark magics. He'd expected her request to come to nothing, but that evening he'd had a vision of her standing on the balcony outside in fifteen years time. He'd had others since – a wedding in the grounds, the castle blanketed in climbing flowers and knew that Nurmengard would almost certainly be inhabited for at least a couple of years.

Of course, he'd then spent the next half hour worrying over how he could keep the fortress safe in a way that she wouldn't disapprove of too much. The best conclusion that he'd been able to come to was using the same bone magic that currently held the wards intact – hence he'd had to round up several hundred dead bodies.

His body thrummed with dark magic as he finally reached his bed and he lay back to enjoy the power that he had craved whilst in his cell. He looked up, then noticed that for the first time that Albus' portrait was inhabited. The old wizard was snoozing in his frame and as he usually made a rapid exit when Gellert appeared, he must have slept through the dark wizard creeping into his room.

'Albus?' He asked tentatively, and the wizard in the portrait jerked awake. The old wizard flinched when he saw who was addressing him, confirming Gellert's theory that the he'd been avoiding him. 'I can't believe you're here.' Gellert approached so that he was standing in front of the frame, casting a silencing charm on the door so that he wouldn't wake the two young soliders across the corridor. Dumbledore looked like he'd rather be anywhere but here.

'So you escaped.' The light wizard finally said, lifting his eyes to look at his old friend.

'Al... I... I don't...' He didn't know what to say, the hatred and suspicion in Albus' eyes like a knife to the heart. He frowned in frustration, noticing his accent become stronger with his nerves, if only Albus spoke his home tongue, Gellert was sure the words would come easier then. He looked back up at the portrait, expecting angry words and accusations. Instead, the old man just surveyed him calmly.

'You've changed since I saw you last.' The professor said calmly.

'I've had many years to think.' He finally answered, fairly certain that Albus would consider his change a positive one. He nervously wondered if Albus would consider that acts he had just committed to be too similar to the version of him that he'd hated.

'But not enough to realise the error of your ways.' Albus said sadly, 'I should have been brave enough to finish things when I had the chance.'

'No!' He denied fiercely. 'I am not here forever.' Suddenly he remembered that he had his own bone to pick with the older wizard in front of him. 'You though! What were you thinking sending those three on such a dangerous mission with such little preparation? They're barely even of age!' Now Dumbledore looked confused, then realisation dawned, followed by fear.

'You know about Harry's mission then.' The professor said sadly, 'Then all really is lost.'

'Of course it's not; if anything it's saved. I'll be performing the ritual tomorrow to transfer the horcrux in the boy to another host which we can destroy. Whatever plan you may have had to deal with that little hiccup – you certainly hadn't informed them of it.' It felt good to finally vent his fury on Albus for his misguidance of the young wizard. The light wizard just looked flabbergasted.

'You mean to say that you're working with Harry?' He asked, disbelief colouring his tone.

'Of course, I'm surprised they did as well as they did with what little guidance you gave them. You didn't even tell them how to destroy a horcrux! They had to figure that out on their own, she had one paragraph on the topic! Just one!'

'She is a very intelligent girl...'

'Not when it comes to that kind of magic, she's a muggle born – she doesn't even have access to the research materials that cover those topics. You know full well that you only find books on those subjects in old manors. Besides, you know how sick it made you when I talked about dark magic, what would it have done to her to actively research it?' He paused briefly to take a deep, calming breath before the darkness still pulsing through him lashed out at the portrait.

'And so you had a sudden change of heart and escaped just to help them?' Albus asked sarcastically into the silence.

'No, I realised that you were right about five years after you locked me up without magic, once I was less influenced by the darkness. Hermione came to me for help and I agreed because to just stand back would be letting everything you loved and died for be destroyed. I owe you too much already.'

'I never believed it possible.' Albus murmured quietly, 'you were so drawn to the dark arts, I thought you were too far gone, even by the time I first met you.'

'Oh, I think I am not "saved" as you put it. I imagine if Hermione were to wake up now she'd quickly become violently ill.' He joked, pulling up a chair so that he could talk with his old friend more comfortably. It was true, his aura practically roared with darkness after performing so much bone magic in one go and he doubted the effects would even fully fade by the morning.

'Dare I ask what you've been up to?' His friend asked and Gellert allowed a happy smile to cross his face.

'Nurmengard is alive again Albus. You'd hardly believe it is the same place.'

'You're in your castle?' He asked, seemingly interested.

'The whole of the resistance is in my castle. Nurmengard; the last bastion of hope.' He joked, waving his hand as if describing a logo. Albus frowned, so Gellert explained how first Hogwarts, then Grimmauld Place had fallen.

'There are almost two hundred and fifty people here, Albus, most of them children. Yesterday, Hermione asked me if I would mind if people stayed after the war!' He laughed, then noticed the shell shocked expression on Albus' face. 'Of course, she wants a garden so I had to extend the muggle-repelling charm down the mountain a fair way and I've charged the wards to last for over a hundred years. I had a vision a couple of nights ago, Albus. I saw someone having a wedding here, in the grounds in front of the castle.'

'The light suits you, Gellert. I've never seen you so happy.' Albus ventured and he temporarily managed to force the grin off his face before it reappeared of its own volition and he began excitedly sharing all his news with his old friend. The conversation flowed easily, lasting until Gellert heard Hermione and Harry beginning to stir in their rooms.