Sorry it took so long! It is a long chapter, however, and I am terribly fond of it. I do hope you will be as well!

Differences...are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.

It's four in the morning and almost light out when Albus climbs the fence into his garden, earning himself a disgruntled look from Dormas whose sleep is disturbed by the noise. Albus bribes him with a carrot from the yard before walking with careful steps up the stairs to the kitchen door. He's a little dazed from the evening's event. If nothing else, Grindewald was an intense person to have a conversation with. Albus would come up with one idea and then Grindewald would find pros and cons of it within mere seconds, sometimes before Albus had even thought about them himself. Their conversation had flowed seamlessly all night, the thoughts and ideas more brilliant by the minute, and by the end of the night Albus had felt a surge of power in his chest. A feeling that he could defeat anything he set his mind to, be it change his fate, save the world, or finding the meaning of life. All that would be possible, as long as he had the clarity of mind he got when he spoke to Grindewald. The way their thoughts seem to almost overlap... That he had found the man to be an obnoxious brat just that morning seemed impossible.

The plan i to get inside the house and up to his bed as quietly as possible, so that he won't wake up any of his siblings. He has no such luck, however. There is a light in the kitchen, and Aberforth is sitting in one of the chairs, looking nowhere close to happy.
"Where the hell have you been?" He says getting up from his chair so fast he wobbles a bit as the blood rushes to his head. Albus tries very hard not to look guilty. Before he gets to say his well thought-through answer, however, Aberforth silences him with a hand.
"Never mind. Just tell me why you left me alone to take care of Ariana for eight hours. I even had to cook dinner!" He continues, seething with anger.
"But that's not so difficult!" Albus tries.
"Not without magic! I'm not allowed to use it at home, remember?" Albus sits down heavily on the chair next to Aberforth. He rubs the sleep from his eyes and sighs.
"I forgot," he says weakly. "I'm sorry." Aberforth sits down again, and nods at the apology.
"It is just so... so frightening. I had all these dreams about the future and then they just died when..." He trails off, looking at his hands in the faint morning light. "Do not get me wrong," he continues, " I care about both you and your sister and I wish you the very best. But this house sometimes feels like, like..."
"Like a prison." Aberforth finishes. Albus nods.
"I don't have to go back to Hogwarts in September. I can stay here and help you if you want-"
"No! No, definitely not!" Albus says, switching back to responsible older brother-mode. "Look, I promise I will tell you before I leave next time. It was irresponsible of me. Now we should both get to bed." Aberforth looks like he wants to say something more but Albus walks away. He reprimands himself for complaining like that to his brother. Now that both their parents are dead, Albus is supposed to take care of the family, and be strong for them. He has to keep it together and appear strong. For both of his siblings sake.
He only sleeps a few hours that night, and his dreams are haunted by his father's face, telling him how irresponsible he is, as well as Grindewalds intense blue eyes, staring right through him.

It's raining again. The sound of the water hitting the trees outside Arianas window is heard through the open windows. The wind chime hanging by one of them is playing soft notes in the breeze. Its four weeks since he met Gellert Grindewald, and the man has rarely left his thoughts since. Gellert had shown him a letter almost right away with proof that Ignotious Pevrell had lived most part of his life in Godrics Hollow. He admitted that this, and the fact that the letter hinted on a secret laboratory (where he and his brothers had created the Hallows) located in the town, was what had made him come to Godrics Hollow in the first place. So the last weeks they have been studying old maps in Bathildas huge cellar-archive and trying to find a possible location. And Day by day Albus has found himself more and more in admiration to the younger man. They have developed a very close friendship in a very short time, and it's a friendship of the like Albus has never known. It's not like with Elphias, because there had always been an obvious leadership from Albus part. Elphias, who was neither exceptional at magic nor as bright when it came to logic as Albus, and had therefore come to trust Albus's judgment and knowledge unconditionally. There had been times when Albus had resented him for that. Nowadays it was hard not to resent his old schoolmate since all his letters where about the great things he was seeing on his great journey around the world. It was not fair of Albus to detest him for it, but he did so nonetheless. They didn't exchange letters very often nowadays. No, with Gellert everything was different. They were equal as far as magic was, and their intellects where only different in the way that what one of them could not think of, the other would. When they weren't close together over a parchment in Bathildas cellar or walking around the town looking for hidden doors, they had constant mail correspondence with owls flying from house to house with new thoughts and ideas.

"Blue is the best. It makes the flowers look alive."
"Hm?" Albus looks up from where he was polishing his glasses. He only needed them for reading but he liked to keep them clean and with him at all times just in case.
"You aren't listening again, brother. But that's okay. There's a dragon on its way."
Ariana is reading Albus's copy of The Tales Of Beedle The Bard That Gellert had given him for his birthday the week before. It had been lying on his pillow beside him when he woke up that day, without any inclination as to how it had ended up there. The only reason he knew it was from Gellert was the small symbol drawn on the title page. The triangle with the line through the circle, the symbol that was etched into Pevrells tomb, and as it had turned out, the symbol of the Deathly Hallows themselves.
"Dragon?" He asks Ariana, who simply points to the window. A shimmer of light approaches from the distance, and as it comes closer Albus sees that it is a patronus, in the shape of a dragon the size of a cat. It flies in and lands on the windowsill, just in front of Albus. Immediately it starts to speak, in Grindewalds voice.
"Found something. Meet me at the church." Then the patronus dissolves, and Albus finds his heart beating fast at the excitement. After showing Gellert his trick with giving the patronus a voice he had made him promise not to use it unless it was very urgent. Excitement pounding in his head, he hurries out the door, running past Aberforth on his way out the door. "Where are you going?" he calls after him. "Out." Albus answers, his head too filled with anticipation to care.
"But what about dinner?"
"I'll get back before that!"
"Youre going to see Grindewald again, aren't you?" But Albus doesn't answer. Aberforth never liked Gellert, and Albus could never understand why. They had fought a lot about that lately… But that didn't matter. What mattered was that Gellert had found something and it might be huge. Perhaps the laboratory itself. He rounds the corner of the street in two steps, finding Gellert waiting for him at the gates of the church. The look on the taller man's face confirmed that this was no small discovery.
"Come. Look." He says, and points to one of the stone pillars holding up the church roof in front of the door. Close to the base of the leftmost one had a small inscription on it. It was the Deathly Hallows symbol, etched over a few small words. For those who seek the truth. And a small arrow pointing towards the street.
"There's more!" Grindewald says, dragging Albus by his waistcoat along the road. In one of the older houses opposite to the church, a small metal platter is embedded in the foundation. It has the symbol and another arrow, and a small text that says 200m.
"Come on, come on!" They run side by side down the street, ignoring the people who they almost run into and their angry yells as they pick up the things they've dropped. But Gellert and Albus just laugh, running from house to house finding arrow after arrow and exchanging excited shouts whenever they see them. Their chase takes them from the center of the village all the way out to the poorer parts in the west, down by the small lake where all the kids went to swim during the summer. The arrows made a sudden turn then, and pointed to a milestone by a small greening. On the back of the stone the symbol is again, but instead of an arrow there is a text that says Downstairs, behind you.
They both turn around so fast that Gellert has to put his hand on Albus's shoulder to keep himself upright, staring at the place the text had referred to.
"..Hell no." Gellert said, anger clear on his features. He removes his hand, and Albus doesn't allow himself to feel the sense of loss when he could no longer feel the body heat of the other man on his shoulder.

A few years ago the muggles had elected a new Mayor of Godrics hollow, a man who had come all the way from London and who had many new ideas about the industrial revolution of Great Britain. He had made the decision to tear down a lot of the old buildings in the city, in order to build several new factories, like the one that now stood right in front of the two young wizards.
"Those bastards. I will not stand for this." Gellert says, his voice filled with barely contained rage as he turns and stomps off.
"Gellert! Gellert what are you doing." Albus scrambles to keep up.
"I'm going to show those muggles exactly what they have done, when they decided to destroy the most important place in the wizarding world's history."
"They didn't know, Gellert. They had no Idea it was there. Besides you can't just waltz into the Mayor's office. And what are you going to do, kill him?"
"MAYBE I WILL!" He bellows, turning around and staring right into Albus face. His intense eyes, that Albus had seen Joyous, mischievous, determined, bored or even tired, had never looked like this.
"They aren't much like people anyway, are they? Just stupid stupid humans who don't give a shit about others, who pollutes our air with their factories and their machines so we can scarcely breath, build their fancy buildings and roads so that decent wizards have to move from their family homes, and whenever they see something they see real magic they try to destroy it with their gunpowder and their sharp steel. You of all people should know this, Albus!" He has drawn his wand, and his very posture seems glowing with rage and magic, as he shakes Albus by the shoulders.
"You cannot mean that!" Albus says, incredulous at the sudden change in his friends demeanor.
"They may be ignorant but they are humans as well! They cannot be held accountable, we are the ones who keep our world secret from them!" And at that, Gellert finally relaxes his posture slightly.
"You are right. Maybe it is us, the Wizards, who are at fault here. But I cannot feel much sympathy for the people who made us loose all hope of ever finding the Deathly hallows."
"Don't say that, my friend. Hope is not completely lost. Not yet." Gellert looks up at that, hope gleaming in his eyes.
"Downstairs, remember? I snuck into that factory last summer and they haven't built any cellar, and the old foundation remains underneath the new one. It might still be there." Gellert lets out an exasperated laugh at that, putting his hands on Albus's shoulders.
"Thank you Albus. You always were the bright side of our duo. Yes, there might still be hope." He smiles, the dangerous flare in his eyes completely gone now, replaced by something almost affectionate.

"Maybe I should simply keep you around always, my friend, so that I will always hear the bright side no matter how dark the world seems. Now come, we have a break-in to plan!"

We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.