Fate and Destiny

Chapter 7

“I think that went rather well,” said Gellert as he sat down on Cassie’s sofa. Cassie smiled slightly before sitting down next to him.
“I suppose it did,” she said. “I should have gone before now, shouldn’t I?”
“It doesn’t matter now,” he said. “But I am glad to have you by my side again.”
“I think I’m glad too,” she said honestly. While she didn’t agree with all his methods, sometimes violence proved necessary to force people to listen.

They sat there for a while and then Cassie turned to him.
“You know, you never said why you were expelled,” she said. Gellert furrowed his brow. “Why were you?”
“I didn’t tell you?” he asked. Cassie shook her head. “Experiments that they deemed too dark.”

“What sort of experiments?” she asked. He had been seventeen when she had met him but he was clever, those experiments could have been anything. He didn’t answer. “Gellert?” He sighed.
“I was investigating Inferi as well as some other things,” he said quietly. “My experiments almost killed several other students and the headmaster decided that it was too far for him to ignore any more.”

“How did you almost kill them?” she asked. Cassie needed to know but she wasn’t surprised at it, Gellert had always been a little on the dark side of magic. And Albus had been too until the duel between them.
“I had been experimenting with various spells, ways of making traps with them amongst other things. They got in the way,” he said. She wasn’t sure if Gellert meant the other students had accidentally stumbled in the way, if they had gone to confront him over something, or if he had set it up for them.
“I see,” she said quietly.

Durmstrang had been far more lenient than Hogwarts had ever been. They hadn’t even snapped his wand which Hogwarts usually did.
“I had to sit through this whole meeting with my parents on how it wasn’t acceptable behaviour and all of that. They weren’t too happy with me, to say the least,” he explained. Cassie hummed. He had said he was with his great-aunt Bathilda because his parents had been upset with him. “My parents convinced them that I was misguided, that expulsion would be all I needed to see my mistake. I’d already taken my exams, not that I really need them.”

“Did you see it as a mistake?”
“Partly yes, partly no,” he said. The atmosphere had become more solemn and serious but Cassie needed these answers. “I shouldn’t have tried to do that in school, I should have waited until I had more experience, more knowledge. My mistake was when other students got involved, they shouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“And why was it partly not a mistake?”
“Well, not being in school gave me a lot of extra time, and I got to meet you, and Albus. And I don’t regret any of that and it only happened because I was expelled,” he said. Cassie had the urge to smile, though she wasn’t quite sure why. “And some of my best plans and ideas came from that time. I had the ambition and some of the plans but Albus helped a lot, and so did you.”

“Did you mean to hurt them, to hurt those students?” she asked quietly.
“No,” he said. Then he shrugged. “Though I did discover my traps didn’t work, which was probably for the best in all ways really.” Cassie couldn’t imagine what would have happened to him should he have actually killed fellow students. What would the equivalent of Azkaban be for him?

“I plan on making a base, a sort of castle or tower or… something of that sort. I can make it a secure base of operations, perhaps I can use it for other things too,” he said. He looked excited at the idea. “And I want you to stay there with me.”
“What?” she asked, furrowing her brow. “I… Gellert, I can’t. I have a house here and, well, it’ll be strange if I just move out of nowhere.”
“Tell people you’re going to America or Australia or something,” he said. He held her hands, and like usually they were warmer than hers were. “Cassie, please.”
“I need to think about it.”

Hesitantly, Gellert nodded and stood up.
“I will think about it,” Cassie said, standing up. “I will, Gellert.” He seemed sad but she did have to think about it, she couldn’t make a decision about something so important in a few seconds or minutes.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. Cassie smiled and pulled him into a hug. “I feel special, you never hug many people.”
“You are special, so you get hugs,” she said. “It’s getting late, I need to sleep.”
“And I should go, goodnight, Cassie.”
She smiled. “Goodnight, Gellert.”