Chapter Text
It’s closing hour at the Hog’s Head Inn.
There are barely any customers left. The few stragglers are sent out onto the streets by the inn’s owner, one, Aberforth Dumbledore whose eyes narrow at the pair of gentlemen who are coming up the path to the inn, going against the flow of the patrons that are leaving.
One gentleman has the collar on his coat turned up and a hat pulled low over his face. The other does not even bother to hide despite his nefarious reputation.
Trouble and his brother passing as a Muggle detective are headed right towards him.
“Albus,” Aberforth greets as he pushes the door to the inn open, holding it open for his brother.
“Ab,” Albus greets as he nods to his younger brother, entering the warmth of the Hog’s Head Inn.
“And you,” Aberforth sneers at the second visitor, partially blocking his way, “This inn doesn’t take kindly to criminals, Grindelwald.”
“Ex-criminal,” Gellert corrects, taking a step forward.
“Is that so? That status doesn’t forgive you of your crimes, does it?” Aberforth asks, persisting in his hostility.
“No, it doesn’t but—”
“Ab, please. Gellert’s with me,” Albus intervenes, “You’ve seen the papers haven’t you? He’s under my supervision.”
“Bet you he’ll turn soon as he gets the chance,” Aberforth scoffs as he lets his older brother take care of the trouble on his doorstep.
Albus always did have a soft spot for mysterious things, and that included mysterious boys with mismatched eyes who had ideas for ruling the wizarding world and lording it out over Muggles. From behind the safety of his bar, Aberforth watches as his brother lets Gellert Grindelwald settle into one of his seats in a corner of the inn.
Oh the scandal that would arise when the patrons of his bar hear that the wizarding world’s most notorious has been to visit this very inn. The journalists will be ready to line up for a photo of the famed seat. Publicity for the inn will be on the up and up, especially if he capitalises on the fact that Grindelwald had been here.
Aberforth can already see it, a tiny plaque with an inscription that reads:
Ex-Criminal Gellert Grindelwald’s Seat when visiting Hog’s Head Inn
“That no good troublemaker’s traipsed back into your life I see,” Aberforth mutters when his older brother comes up to the bar, “I can’t believe you broke into MACUSA and didn’t even think to bring me along.”
“Would you really have gone with me if I had told you that we were going to save him?” Albus asks, inclining his head towards Grindelwald.
Aberforth scowls, “Guess not. I don’t suppose he’s going to mind me putting up a plaque right where he’s sitting, will he?” he asks setting down a good stiff drink for his older brother as Albus leans up against the bar.
“What ever for?” Albus asks raising a brow at him as he takes a swig of his drink.
“He might as well bring in some business for me while he’s here. Notoriety is, after all, a form of fame,” Aberforth snarks, noting a flicker of emotion across his brother’s face at that. He won’t push it any further, “What brings you here anyhow?”
“I came to pick up some of my things that I’d left here before the term starts at Hogwarts next week,” Albus replies, “And I also wanted to check in on you and the boy. How is Aurelius doing?”
“I don’t know how I let you talk me into letting him go to Hogwarts,” Aberforth grumbles, “He keeps to himself mostly, but he’s a good boy Credence is. Still likes to go by his old name though, says it feels more natural to him,” he continues, moving to wipe down the bar top now, “I don’t know Albus, what if the school makes him...worse?”
“Credence needs to learn. About magic, about his powers, about himself,” Albus says wrapping his hands about the glass holding his drink, “It’s still not too late, Ab. His magic is too powerful only because he doesn’t yet know how to control it. We will help him. I’ll be sure to watch over him at Hogwarts.”
“And what about his presence there?” Aberforth asks nodding to Gellert whose back is turned towards them, his head slightly bowed as he busies himself with reading the Inn’s menu in the dim candlelight, “Won’t it be counterproductive? The man’s practically tried to use the killing curse on my boy.”
Albus follows his brother’s gaze, “Gellert will not harm him again. You have my word Ab. I have spoken with the Headmaster on this and Credence’s timetable has been altered to ensure the two of them do not share a class.”
“Good, I don’t want him hurting the boy any more than he has already done,” Aberforth replies and then shakes his head as he stands in front of his brother once more fixing Albus with a hard stare, “What you are doing is madness Albus,” Aberforth warns, “You know that Muggle saying? Leopards don’t change their spots and you’ve got one right there. You’re tempting fate is what you’re doing. Grindelwald is practitioner of the Dark Arts.”
“And he is soon to be a professor in Defence Against the Dark Arts,” Albus replies calmly, taking another swig of his drink, “His knowledge on the subject should far surpass mine. Perhaps he might even be a better professor than I am.”
“Impossible. You think you can keep him under control?” Aberforth asks, arms folded across his chest.
“Don’t start. He’s been doing great so far Ab.”
“That’s because your classes haven’t started yet and the Aurors are still there, wait till they leave after three months and then see what happens.”
Albus sighs finishing his drink in one last gulp as he sets the glass down on the counter top, “He’s different this time. He wants to change. I know it,” he says, voice full of conviction.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Aberforth retorts, “Go on then, head upstairs. I’ve packed your things in a corner of my room and be quiet, the boy’s already fast asleep. I don’t want you waking him.”
As soon as Albus has headed towards the back rooms in search of the stairs up to the second floor, Aberforth watches as the ex-criminal rises from his seat and stalks across the room.
“Aberforth,” Gellert greets coming to the bar.
“Grindelwald,” Aberforth growls, already on the offensive.
Aberforth knows the man, Gellert Grindelwald, the one who had lived with them in the summer of 1899. This is the man who had been his brother’s entire world at one point in time and had probably never left that coveted spot. This is the same young man who had spent his nights with Albus and Ariana in front of the fireplace in the family home at Godric’s Hollow, playing cards, or talking and reading together.
After Ariana’s death, Grindelwald disappeared entirely from their lives.
That disappearance crushed Albus entirely and forced his older brother into a clockwork regime of work at Hogwarts and nothing more. Strangely it is through this same man that Aberforth and his brother had reconciled their frosty ties as siblings most recently. And now he’s standing here thick as thieves with Albus once more as if nothing had ever happened.
Albus might be quick to forgive him but Aberforth isn’t like his brother.
“What do you want?” Aberforth asks, keeping a steady gaze on the well-dressed man across the bar as he keeps busy, directing the mugs into the sink to be washed before he dries them.
“Easy, I’m not here to start trouble,” Gellert assures him.
“You’d best not be. Or my brother’s reputation would be down the drain in seconds for backing the wrong damned man once again,” Aberforth continues as he forcefully wipes down the glasses, striving to keep his hands busy lest he find them around Grindelwald’s neck, throttling the latter at least till he passed out.
“I promised your brother that I will be on my best behaviour,” Gellert begins, “I know Albus took a big risk, breaking me out of the Death Cells. You can rest assured that I don’t intend to undo any of his work.”
Aberforth narrows his eyes at Gellert, “Still got your silver-tongue, I see. I forget how you’re always so good with your words, Grindelwald. You may have Albus wrapped around your little finger but you don’t fool me,” he continues his voice low as he sets the glass down and plants his hands against the counter, menacing enough as he glares at Gellert, “You’ll slip up again and when you do, I’ll be the one left here to clean up the mess you’ve made. I won’t let my brother go through that again. He pushed himself to his limits and beyond just to forget you once you disappeared, did you know that?”
“No,” Gellert answers truthfully meeting Aberforth’s steady gaze, “I did not know that.”
“Yeah? Of course you wouldn’t,” Aberforth scoffs, “You ran away and left my brother in pieces. He was so intent on filling every hour of every day with something that I never saw him about the house any more. So we sold it, moved to Hogsmeade in a bid to forget you. But it didn’t work, I heard him calling your name in his sleep every night. You broke him Grindelwald and you’ll break him again. It’s only a matter of time.”
Aberforth sees a flicker of emotion across Gellert’s face, there and then gone in a flash. Good. He wants his words to hurt. He hopes they dig into this man’s heart and keeps him up at night.
Call it payback for the years that Albus suffered after Gellert left him.
“I am...sorry,” Gellert apologises, his voice coming out soft, “There is nothing more I can say.”
“Sorry doesn’t mean a thing, not coming from people like you. You’ll say sorry but still keep hurting people. You mark my words,” Aberforth says in a harsh whisper as he hears the floorboards at the head of the staircase creaking, “This time, you can look forward to duelling with me if anything happens to Albus.”
Hogsmeade is all quiet now with most of the shops closed as Albus and Gellert walk through the streets, headed for the stop where the carriages picked passengers up to ferry them up to Hogwarts.
Albus notices the way Gellert seems quieter now on the walk back towards the carriage stop. In fact, his love hadn’t even met his eyes when he offered to help him carry some of his things.
“Everything alright?” Albus asks, glancing at Gellert.
“Of course,” Gellert assures him with a quick flicker of a smile.
Albus frowns at that. There’s something bothering Gellert. Distraction laced those two words when he spoke and his eyes possess a faraway look as they stood waiting for the carriage.
“I have some of my materials from back when I first started out as a professor at Hogwarts,” Albus says, “You won’t get to teach the classes just yet, so you’ll be an assistant of sorts. But you can have a look through them before the classes start just in case you were wondering about the curriculum or anything of that sort.”
Gellert hums his acknowledgement, his eyes glancing over Albus looking, but not really seeing.
“The carriage is here,” he comments nodding behind Albus to the invisibly drawn black carriage headed towards them that bore the crest of Hogwarts upon the doors.
After loading the trunk in the back with Albus’s things, Gellert hands Albus into the carriage before climbing on too and settling across from Albus in the plush upholstered seat.
Albus raises a brow at that gesture but Gellert only offers another small smile in answer.
On the journey in to Hogsmeade, they had sat side by side. It seems almost as though Gellert is intent on keeping him at a distance now by choosing to sit across from him in the carriage and Albus does not like that one bit. So he quickly changes seats, settling down beside Gellert just as the carriage rattles off.
Gellert doesn’t chase Albus away. How can he when all he craves for is the intimacy that they share?
The ride up to Hogwarts will take an hour at most and as the carriage rumbles on, he feels Albus’s arm pressing up against his as his lover shifts closer towards him. It is a familiar warmth that makes his heart ache.
In his mind all Gellert can think of are Aberforth’s words and the hurt that he has caused Albus.
Aberforth is right, Albus is putting everything on the line for him by doing this. His once cautious lover had thrown said caution to the wind and done the unthinkable of breaking into MACUSA and invading the Death Cell all to save him. It’s incredibly amazing to think that this is the very same Albus who had always — more often than not — done things by the book.
It makes Gellert question if he is really deserving of this at all.
Gellert shifts slightly now, watching Albus from the corner of his eyes in open appreciation. His lover’s relaxed form, head leant back against the wall of the carriage. His eyes closed, long eyelashes kissing the tops of his cheekbones. His eyes linger upon the gentle curve of his lover’s lips, recalling their softness when they kissed him.
“I can feel your eyes on me, Gellert,” Albus says, as he cracks an eye open, catching his lover in the act of gazing at him. It makes him smile just a little as he turns to meet Gellert’s gaze fully, “Won’t you tell me what’s on your mind?” he asks.
“It’s nothing important,” Gellert replies with a tender smile, “I was just thinking how very lucky I am to be here with you.”
“Then don't look so sad, will you?” Albus encourages nudging Gellert with his shoulder.
How can he not? Especially after Aberforth’s words. Gellert’s mind had been sent into a state of doubt. He would have pushed that doubt down and let it fester and infect his thoughts were it not for Albus’s searching eyes, looking up at him in the dim light that filtered in through the window’s of the carriage.
“Do you regret saving me Albus?” Gellert asks, hearing the hesitation in his voice as he speaks the question that had been plaguing him since his talk with Aberforth.
“What? No,” Albus whispers, “Gellert, no. Why would I ever regret saving you?” Albus asks, “Is that what you’ve been thinking about all this while?”
Gellert nods silently averting his eyes now and feeling stupid for even entertaining such a thought.
“Saving you was by far the best decision that I’ve made in awhile,” Albus admits, waiting for Gellert to meet his eyes once more, “I will never regret saving you Gellert, never. No matter what anyone says. Do you understand?”
The earnest tone in his lover’s voice bring a prickle to the ex-criminal’s eyes as he nods mutedly again.
Albus smiles feeling callused fingers creep into the palm of his hand, comforting in their gentle swirling patterns that play over the the thin sliver of raised flesh. The scar from their blood pact.
“Aren’t you afraid that...I might break you again Albus?” Gellert asks, his voice soft as his fingers trace the scar.
Albus stops Gellert’s wandering fingers, holding them, intertwining their fingers together.
“Ab’s been poisoning your mind with his words again. What did he say to you while I was gone?” Albus asks, and Gellert can hear the danger hidden beneath that calm tone.
“Don’t be angry with Aberforth,” Gellert says, thumb stroking the back of Albus’s hand, “It’s nothing that I haven’t already been thinking about,” he confesses, “It’s just...it felt different to hear the words said aloud.”
“He doesn’t know you,” Albus argues, his tone resolute.
“But he knows you,” Gellert retorts gently tugging on his lover’s hand so that he can look into Albus’s eyes.
“I am...afraid Albus,” Gellert continues, “I am afraid of what the future holds. I am afraid of hurting you again.”
Albus opens his mouth to say otherwise but Gellert stops him, “And don’t tell me that I haven’t hurt you because I know that I have,” he insists, “What if it happens again? What if your faith in me is just misplaced? What if you have been too forgiving?”
“Gellert, Gellert, hush,” Albus whispers soothing his lover’s frantic thoughts as he cradles Gellert’s face between his hands, gazing into his eyes as he speaks, “Listen to me. I know it won’t happen again because I believe that you want to change. I believe that you want to be a better person now, so it won’t happen again. I won’t let it,” Albus finishes resolutely.
“You never fail to amaze me, Albus,” Gellert whispers in awe as he leans in to press his forehead to his lover’s, grounding himself back in the moment.
“Better?” Albus asks brushing his nose against Gellert’s and hearing his lover’s husky laugh and hum of approval.
“With your patience, guide me,” Gellert murmurs, stealing a kiss from Albus.
“Teach me.”
Another kiss.
“Love me,” he sighs against Albus’s lips in a final kiss, lingering this time in its’ duration.
When Gellert pulls back, he grins for he has left Albus with his eyes closed, a dreamy look on his features. His eyelids flutter open and blue eyes warm and tender meet with his.
Gellert’s heart swells with a warmth and a certain sense of wonder at how the Great Albus Dumbledore is his to love, his to kiss and his to lay eyes upon in such intimate moments.
This is the man with the power to convince the Ministry to release him into Correctional Rehabilitation. The one who even managed to wrangle a job as a professor at Hogwarts for him.
This is the same man who looks up at him now, speechless from a kiss, eyes tender and overflowing with love for him. The only person who loves him no matter what.
Gellert swears upon this very moment that he will make Albus proud.
This time, he will get it right.
The carriage leaves the two wizards at the path that winds through the forest, leading up to Hogwarts. The school towers over them in the distance, rising out of the mist, a daunting silhouette against the pale light of the moon.
Gellert takes a deep breath of the cool night air.
The possibilities are endless and the road that lies ahead to the end of his probation is no doubt going to be a long, ardours task of undoing everything he has done in his past. He will have to tear down his reputation as a criminal and build it up all over again. There will be no running this time. He will have to stick it out, easier said than done when you are an ex-criminal about to become a Professor in a school full of dozens of young children.
‘They’ll be scared out of their minds,’ Gellert thinks.
He will be Hogwarts’ most famed and feared Professor before the term has even begun.
“Do you think they’ll like me?” Gellert asks, as they head up the path together.
“They?”
Gellert shrugs, “The students, the other professors, everyone who isn’t you?”
“I suppose it will take time for them to attune to the idea that you are anything other than whatever they have seen of you previously in the news,” Albus begins cautiously, “All they see is what the Ministry wants them to see. They don’t know the other side of you Gellert, so you have to be the one to show them just how caring you can be. Show them the boy that I fell in love with. The boy who was a dreamer, the one who inspired me. The storyteller with such an eloquence for words,” Albus says with a smile, “The one hidden inside you still.”
“And you think that will be enough?”
Albus nods, “You need only be your genuine self.”
“Hmm...I’m afraid that might go against the Hogwarts’ book of conduct for professors,” Gellert replies, “Honestly I’ve never thought of myself as a Professor, Albus.”
“Neither did I,” Albus replies as they reach the courtyard of Hogwarts, the home he has had for awhile now, “After you left, I accepted Headmaster Black’s offer to become a professor here at Hogwarts. I devoted my attentions to the children hoping to forget you but It didn’t work,” Albus says with a little laugh, “I couldn’t forget you.”
“At first I used to see you everywhere,” Albus begins as they fall into step headed towards the professor’s quarters, “I saw you in the pranks that the Slytherin House children played but in their ambitions to become the best too. I saw you in the bookishness and quick-wit of the Ravenclaw House students in my class during a quick-fire quiz. I saw you in the loyalty of a Hufflepuff student, unwilling to speak the name of their friend for fear of getting them into trouble. And every time a Gryffindor House child spoke up in defence of their friend, I saw their bravery and was reminded of you and how you always used to defend me.”
“I suppose they reminded me of all the good things about you,” Albus says as he glanced at Gellert who has been quietly listening all this while, “They made me see that at the very heart of it all, you were still the person I fell in love with. They healed me in a way too these children, made me more confident in my thoughts and beliefs.”
“You see, they saw things so differently that there was always something new whenever I taught them. The First-Years especially were a handful but the best experience by far. They had a sense of innocence that they approached the world with. Their arguments were always short-lived, somehow they would forget that they had even been arguing the next day,” Albus says with a chuckle, “But I digress, the point is, I believe that perhaps, in time, they might heal you too.”
Gellert shakes his head with a sigh, “You’re different Albus, you’re really something else altogether. I don’t have to be in the classroom to know that you’re able to connect with them, the children. I mean really, truly connect with them. That is why they adore you. But me? Well...” he scoffs, “They’ll go running in the other direction the moment they see me.”
“There’s no running in the hallways at Hogwarts, so you’re wrong on that count at least,” Albus says hoping to lighten the mood just a little.
Gellert chuckles, shaking his head as he smiles just a little. There’s no point in giving up before he’s even begun. Albus’s efforts would be down the drain in seconds if that happened and the disappointment in his lover’s eyes would be too hard to bear.
“Do you think that I’ll make a good professor then?” Gellert asks as they approach the stairway that leads up to Albus’s office now.
“Good professors are subjective. In the same way that bad professors are too. It all depends really,” Albus replies as he lifts his wand to the gold and wooden plaque that reads:
Professor Albus Dumbledore
Defence Against the Dark Arts, Head
“Albus,” Gellert warns, “You know what I mean.”
“There will always be flaws in each and every one of us,” Albus replies, uttering a soft incantation to clear the plaque now, “Some professors loose their patience easily, others spin entire stories before getting to the point,” he continues as he uses his wand to carve a new set of words into the gold and wooden plaque.
“But there hasn’t been a professor who’s an ex-criminal before, now has there?” Gellert intervenes.
Albus smiles softly hooking his arm through Gellert’s as he stands back, drawing his love to his side now, “No, there hasn’t. I suppose you will be the first.”
Gellert eyes the plaque which now reads:
Professor Albus Dumbledore
&
Professor Gellert Grindelwald
Defence Against the Dark Arts
Somehow, just seeing their names together like this just fills Gellert with strength and makes him smile.
“We’ll start slow, alright?” Albus says as he leads his love up their spiral staircase to what will now be their shared office chambers, “Just one step at a time, together.”
- TBC -