Chapter 26: The Greater Good

Harry could see Albus sitting on his front steps with Grindelwald. They were talking softly to each other, too quiet for Harry to hear from where he stood at the gate. He wondered if he should leave and come walking back without his invisibility cloak. From what it sounded with Cadmus Potter, the Aurors weren't really looking anymore.

But just as he was about to do that, Grindelwald stood up, took out his wand, and showed Albus a very familiar wand.

Harry stared, shocked.

"I thought this was the wand in the story," Grindelwald said in his slight German accent. "It's not. All my evidence led up to Gregorovich's shop. I bought this from him when I needed a new wand."

Harry's eyes widened. How could it not be? It looked, from the distance, to be the exact same one.

"How do you know it's not it?" Albus asked, reaching out for Grindelwald to hand it to him. He let him and Albus studied it closely.

"I have a feeling it's not. Legend has it the core is Thestral hair. Of course, that would be a logical assumption, since Thestral's represent death. This wand has a unicorn hair, and the wood is Ash. It's not it. I thought for certain…"

Harry almost collapsed. So Grindelwald had been to Gregorovich's shop and come up empty handed. Gregorovich must have hid the real Elder wand somewhere else.

"I'm sure Gregorovich has it, though," Grindelwald said, taking the wand from Albus again. "There are only so many wand-makers in the world."

"How did you find out he had it, anyway?" Albus asked. "And why would he sell it to you? Wouldn't you think he'd keep it?"

Grindelwald's eyes widened just slightly. "I found out in a pub. Apparently he'd been bragging about it to someone." He paused just a moment, looking away from Albus. "And my 'bought' I mean snatched."

"You stole-"

"Shh!" Grindelwald said, slamming his hand against Albus's mouth and looking around. "It was for research!"

Albus's eyes were no longer bright. They were narrowed as he looked up at Grindelwald. He had dropped his hand again and sat back down next to Albus.

"Still, Gellert-"

"Shush," he said, shaking his head. "It's not the wand, anyway."

Albus still seemed skeptical, which Harry was glad for.

"I'm positive Gregorovich has it," Gellert said, sighing. Then, he pulled a piece of parchment out of his pocket. "Anyway, This letter you sent me-"

Albus smiled suddenly, his eyes brightening again. "Brilliant, isn't it?"

"'We have been given power and yes, that power gives us the right to rule, but it also gives us responsibilities over the ruled.' Beautifully expressed, Albus," Grindelwald said, grinning widely now. "But, this point right here, 'For the greater good'! It makes my heart burst! You're completely right, Albus. If we want to have control over the Muggles… I mean, why shouldn't we have control?"

Gellert paused for a moment, looking as though he really would burst. Harry stared.

"We're shrouded in secrecy for being feared by them! The way I see it, they're the minority, not us. We have a greater power they have no idea about! Our magic could only be the greater good for all of them. Our pain of being hidden is only for the pleasure of the Muggles! If both magical people and Muggles could co-exist with our magic being the ultimate rule, we'd never have to worry about being in secret again. Oh, it's wonderful. For the Greater Good."

Grindelwald shook his head, looking exasperated at the same time as being happy. "You're completely right. Totally and completely right."

Albus actually looked immensely proud of himself. Harry had never seen him like that, as if he were a child that just got praised for a drawing. Harry didn't know what to think. He'd heard all of this before, but to see how Albus reacted to Grindelwald's praise scared him more than the feelings of betrayal he'd felt when he first read that letter in Rita Skeeter's book.

Harry felt slightly sick to his stomach, though. But just as he was about to walk away, Harry heard a woman call, "Gellert!" from the house next door. Grindelwald frowned.

"Got to go," he said reluctantly. "See you tomorrow?"

"Of course, Gellert," said Albus.

Harry stepped out of the way of the gate as Grindelwald walked toward it. Harry looked up at Albus as Gellert closed the gate and went on his way. Hewas surprised to see him wearing a serene sort of smile that didn't look much unlike the smile Ariana wore in Aberforth's portrait of her.

Once Gellert was out of sight, Albus began to hum happily as he leaned against the front door.

Harry nearly revealed himself as standing there, but Albus looked as if he was much too far off in his thoughts. Harry felt as if he should look away, but after a few minutes, Albus stood up and opened the door, calling out, "Aberforth! I'm going into town! Do you need anything?"

Harry moved out of the way again for Albus to leave the gate. Then he followed him into the village, where he stopped by the General Store. Harry stood off in a corner, watching him talk with the store keeper, a woman apparently named Sylvia.

"Where's your little friend?" she asked him.

He actually blushed slightly as he messed with postcards stacked by the register. "He's away right now. Look, do you have any sherbet lemons? You were out the other day."

"We just got some in today," she said, smiling. Then, she reached under counter. "I knew you'd come by for them."

Albus grinned widely and then reached into his pocket for money. But to Harry's amazement, she said, "No, take them. Count it as an early birthday present."

"Oh, I couldn't-"

"Please, I insist," she said.

Albus looked as if he'd just been told he was Minister of Magic. "You're too kind. Thank you."

He leaned over the counter to kiss her cheek and took the bag of candiese tapped his fingers on the counter for a moment. "Sylvia?"

"Hm?" she asked, looking up from a sheet of paper.

"I was wondering-"

The bell over the door chimed. Albus looked up in disappointment when he saw the man coming in from outside.

"Nevermind," Albus said. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Albus."

Albus seemed to sulk out of the store, but instead of going around to other shops, he began walking back toward his house. When he sat outside underneath the tree in the front, Harry knew this would be a good time to reveal himself.

He opened the gate and Albus immediately looked up.

"Albus, it's me," Harry said.

"Harry?" he asked. Harry pulled the cloak off him and stuffed it in his pocket. Albus smiled and then gestured for Harry to sit down next to him. He instead sat further away, near bushes that could hide him from view of the street, but he could still see Albus perfectly well.

"Where were you?" Albus asked him, holding the bag of sherbet lemons out to Harry. He refused like he always had.

"Professor Merrythought," Harry said. "We were cleaning up her office."

"What did you do to have to have that as a punishment?" Albus asked, chuckling.

"I wish I knew," Harry said. "Er, what have you been up to?"

He sighed and looked up to Bathilda's house before looking down at his candies again. "I've been chatting with Gellert Grindelwald. He's been good company."

"Oh," Harry said as if it didn't bother him even though it did. He decided it was best to not talk about that. "I heard all O's on your N.E.W.T."

He grinned proudly. "I did. Twelve total. Did Professor Merrythought tell you or did I tell you?"

It took Harry a moment to figure out what he meant by if he told him the results himself, but then, of course, he remembered. "Actually, I heard to from Phineas Black a few days ago."

Albus raised his eyebrows. "You saw him? Harry, you know the Ministry's after you!"

"It didn't sound much like it," Harry said. Then, he told Albus all that he had overheard.

Albus listened patiently, and once he finished, he stared at an area just over Harry's shoulder.

"I still wouldn't recommend being seen," Albus said. "Cadmus sounds nice, but he can be ruthless at the same time."

"I figured that," Harry said. "He thinks I made up my name."

"Are you sure you didn't make it up?" Albus asked in amusement. Harry laughed. "Is there something you wish to tell me?"

Harry stopped laughing abruptly. He stared straight at Dumbledore, remembering the few times Dumbledore had asked him that in the future.

"What?" Albus asked, confused.

"Nothing," Harry said, shaking his head. "I promise my real name is Harry Potter."

"What's your middle name?" Albus asked.

"James," he said.

"How do I know your name isn't Harry James and you just added the Potter later?" Albus asked. Harry knew he was joking and he laughed without responding.

"Do you want to meet Gellert?" Albus went on after a few minutes pause. "I mean, I know you've already met him. He mentioned that."

Harry hesitated. Did he want to get involved with Grindelwald and Albus? That could only mean a disaster later.

"Er…" Harry said.

"I know he can be a little-

"Albus, did you get those- Potter?"

Albus and Harry both jerked there heads up at the door to see Aberforth standing there. Ariana peeked her head out from under his arm.

"I thought you went back to, you know, the future," Aberforth said, staring.

"Not yet," he said calmly.

Aberforth continued to stare until Ariana pulled at his shirt. "Abe, please."

"What does she want?" Albus asked, standing up.

Aberforth rolled his eyes. "She found a mouse in the garden this morning. She keeps wanting to go back to look for it."

"You can't have a mouse, Ariana," Albus said gently, coming forward.

"Why?" she asked, frowning. Harry watched her. She looked vastly different than she had when she was in one of her magical outbursts. Here, she looked much younger than fourteen and seemed very sweet. She looked exactly like the portrait in The Hog's Head, even down to the dress she was wearing.

"It could be ill. You don't want that, do you?"

She shook her head slowly, then hid halfway between the door frame, with one eye peering at Albus.

He tried to usher them inside, and once he managed that, he said, "Harry, do you want to come in?"

Harry hesitated, but stood anyway. He followed Albus into their living room, then up the stairs.

Aberforth and Ariana were already sitting across from each other on his bed, playing with Chocolate Frog cards. Ariana laughed at one of them and showed Aberforth.

Albus sat down on the bed opposite Aberforth's and gestured to Harry to sit at the desk chair. He watched the two play with the cards for a moment.

"Potter," Aberforth said, glancing up at him. "Tell me. Does he-" he pointed at Albus off-handedly, "Get his very own Chocolate Frog card?"

Harry smiled, glancing at Albus, who turned a light pink and looked toward his bookshelf at the foot of his bed.

"Yeah, he does," Harry said. "His card was the very first card I'd ever gotten."

Albus's eyebrows narrowed. "You remember your first card?"

"I was raised by my Muggle aunt and uncle. So, yeah."

He still looked skeptical. "You're pulling my leg. About the card, I mean. You can't have gotten me for your very first card."

Harry shook his head. "No. I'm serious."

Then, seeming to conclude that Harry wasn't lying, he smirked. "See, Abe? I do become worthy enough for a card."

Aberforth rolled his eyes. "What does his card say? 'Current Minister of Magic, Albus Dumbledore is considered by many to be the most dim-witted Wizard of all time ever elected into office. His hobbies include irritating his brother and humming at the most inopportune times'?"

"Not exactly," Harry said.

"I resent that," Albus said. He paused for a moment, though, looking up at the ceiling. "But, really, what does it say?"

"Can't tell you."

He sighed, then reached across the short gap in between their beds to grab a stack of the cards from Aberforth to look through. "Harry, will you meet Gellert?"

Harry held in a groan. Why was he insisting? But, eventually, he nodded. The worst that could happen would that they wouldn't get along. That wouldn't be a huge impossibility, anyway.

"Oh, God," Aberforth said gruffly.

"Shush," Albus said.

After Harry left that night and Aberforth had already fallen asleep, Albus lay awake, staring up at the dark ceiling.

Albus felt glad Harry wasn't angry with him. All his worrying had been for nothing.

Though, he did wonder vaguely if it was grief that caused him to want so much company. He didn't want to be left alone, or else he felt like he'd go mad. He craved all the time to be around someone, to talk to someone.

Even now, he felt antsy. Though he could hear Aberforth's snores, he still felt an urge to talk.

During the nights, he began thinking too much of his mother. He could see her laughing and she her reading to him and see her talking to his father. He missed her, he honestly did. Aberforth might not think he did, but he wanted her back. Who wouldn't want their mothers?

He rolled onto his side and stared at the stack of books he'd been looking through just before bed. He wanted to read more, but he couldn't without waking Aberforth.

Slowly, he rolled out of bed, picked up the books and parchment, and went down in the kitchen.

He lit his wand so he could see what he was writing.

'Dear Gellert,' he wrote. "I believe it is only fair to assume that Muggles-"

He kept writing. It must have taken him an hour before he sent it off with Fawkes to give to Gellert. He stood in front of the open window for a long time, staring into the glass, which he could see his reflection.

His hair had fallen over his face, so he pushed it back behind his shoulder and studied the rest of his face. He hadn't gotten a good look at himself for days. His eyes seemed less solemn than they had a number of days before, after his mother died. He didn't think he looked as happy has he had before, when he had finished Hogwarts, but that could only be expected after everything that happened since.

When Fawkes swooped back in through the window, he had a note tied to his leg. He took it, his heart beating fast, to see what Gellert had written.

Smiling after he read it, he went back to the table to write in respond to his plans about the Greater Good. Oh, he was so excited about this! He couldn't help but write an overly long draft and send it off with Fawkes again.

It was only when Ariana woke up screaming that Albus moved from the kitchen. He stood at her door, watching Aberforth calm her, wishing he could do something to help. Aberforth wouldn't let him near her, though.

But, he knew deeply that he didn't know how to calm her. Somehow, Aberforth was much more nurturing than he was.

If only Albus could help her. If only she didn't have to hid because of her condition.

His eyes widened just as Aberforth lulled her back to sleep. He pushed passed Albus, but Albus couldn't move.

What if Gellert and he could help her? What if the Greater Good could help bring her out of hiding. She was magical, wasn't she? She didn't have to hide…

In sudden inspiration, he practically ran downstairs to write yet another to Gellert.

"As our research of the Greater Good suggests," he wrote fast, his handwriting more of a scrawl than his normal script. "The benefit of Wizardkind to dominate over said Muggles would raise us to higher platform than ever before. I must say my sister, who suffered a terrible accident years ago by the hands of Muggles, would also benefit from this. When those two Muggle boys attacked her, my father was furious and thrown into Azkaban. If the Muggles had known about magic, none of that would have happened. We would have been dominant over them, and therefore, they're pleasure of hurting a girl with abilities more significant than their non-magical abilities would never have been questioned.

"Her pain would have never been realized and she would have never had to go into hiding because she displayed a bit of magic. I should say this is why we should not be oppressed. We have the higher power, one that should only be understood by Muggles. We need not be questioned and feared because our 'abnormalities' are strange to them. They should know we have a power they do not know of."

He knew Aberforth would be extremely angry with him, but his thoughts were much too good to pass up.

The next morning, Albus awoke at the table, having fallen asleep there. He wondered for a moment what had woken him, but he then heard another knock on the front door.

He stood, stretched, and then went to answer it.

And there was Harry, standing there nervously, and looking over Albus's shoulder as if expecting to see Gellert already there.

"He's not here yet," Albus said, pushing his hair over his shoulder again. "Why don't you come in?"

"Er, okay," Harry said.

Harry watched Albus as he stacked the letters from the night before, and one Albus gestured he should sit, he did.

"Been up late?" Harry asked him as he sat down as well.

Albus hesitated slightly, looking toward the ceiling. "Well, yes. I was corresponding with Gellert."

"Right," Harry said.

Albus studied Harry for a moment, trying to read his facial expression. He seemed rather neutral and seemed to be looking toward the window.

Albus wondered how much Harry knew about Gellert, but for some reason, when he opened his mouth to speak, not a single sound came out. Maybe he knew exactly what Harry would say, but he just didn't want to know the truth. He didn't want to admit anything to himself.

Albus liked Gellert. He was as intelligent as him, with brilliant ideas, but at the same time, something in his mischievous smile threw him off. He trusted Gellert, but everytime he said something to him, he had a nervous feeling, like he was scared that Gellert would berate him and think him dumb.

"I think-" Harry said, finally looking toward Albus.

But Harry was cut off because the front door opened. Albus leaned on two legs of his chair to look around the kitchen door. And there was Gellert, walking toward the kitchen.

"Albus, I-"

He stopped abruptly, seeing Harry opposite Albus.

He stared, but it didn't take long for a smirk to reach his face. "Oh. Hello. I know you. You're the Defense Against the Dark Art's assistant."

Harry nodded. "Er, nice to meet you," Harry said apprehensively. "I'm Harry."

"Gellert," he said, holding his hand out for Harry to shake. Harry took it, but Albus could sense he would have rather not.

Gellert took a seat down next to Albus and stared at Harry. Albus looked toward the ceiling again, waiting for one of them to talk.

"Is it true you were expelled from Durmstrang?" Harry asked.

Albus jerked his head down to look between them. "Expelled?" Albus asked, shocked. "You sad you left!"

Gellert remained just as neutral as Harry had seemed earlier. "Expelled is a strong word…" he said calmly, though Albus could hear a slight edge in his voice. "I didn't need school. I left willingly. They didn't kick me out against my will."

"But they still… expelled you?" Albus asked. "Why?"

Gellert rolled his eyes and waved it off like it was nothing. "You know those things I was telling you? How people didn't like me much because I liked to study magic they didn't much like… Well, of course, I was met with resistance. There was a small accident and, honestly, it doesn't matter much."

Albus did remember him telling him about his time at Durmstrang, how he liked to practice spells- though, when Albus thought about it, he'd never told him the spells he had been experimenting with- and sometimes they didn't go as well as planned. He'd blasted a hole in the wall of a classroom once and apparently once got in a duel that caused on student to be sent to the school nurse.

He always assured Albus that they were small incidents.

But one that caused explosion?

Albus looked toward Harry, but with his arms crossed, so Albus couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"Why didn't you just say you were expelled?" Albus asked.

He shrugged. He didn't answer for a few seconds. "Because you've already graduated. I didn't want you to see me as lesser for being expelled."

"Oh," Albus said, frowning slightly. "I would never think like that. Harry, you never finished school, did you?"

"No," Harry said, clearly uncomfortable.

"Were you expelled? Oh, no, you said you were homeschooled."

"I never got through my testing," Harry said. Albus knew he was lying, but he didn't say anything else about that.

For a while, all three of them sat in silence.

This wasn't going well at all. Albus didn't know what to say. What could they talk to Harry about, anyway? What could both his friends relate to?

Eventually, Harry stood up, saying, "I have to go back to work. Nice to meet you again, Gellert."

Then he disapparated right in the middle of the kitchen.

"Interesting fellow," Gellert said. "He had more to say on the train."

Albus sighed, feeling slightly embarrassed. Why had even suggested putting them through that?

Gellert saved his shame, though. He pulled out the letters Albus sent.

And together, that morning, they went through them.

A/N: I just took a test a couple days ago in my Ethics class, one that dealt with Utilitarianism. I was studying with my Art History friend for the test (studying with, as in, she was basically reteaching me the material)… the only reason why I suddenly understood it was because I applied it to Dumbledore and Grindelwald. I mean, I'm still like Uh… with it. My strong point is definitely not complex ethical theories. But it was still fun to be able to actually apply Harry Potter to classwork!

Harry and Gellert will meet again, I promise, and they will have more to say to each other!

I also changed my mind with the wand. I couldn't stand the mistake I'd made earlier with it. It was stressing me out too much. I should probably plan better. Oh well.

Thanks again for the reviews and favorites and everything! You're all being so kind.