Old Dog - Grindeldore

Chapter IV: Trained.

Gellert still did not dare to open the book in his hands. After getting the lost clothes of the sturdier students, in the lost and found room he came across a leather-covered book. He picked it up to take a look at it without thinking, Albus told him he could take it with him. He accepted that he could be a wizard and have magic, though he was hesitant to say it out loud because of how silly it sounded, but being one and understanding a wizarding book were two different things.

He decided to take it with him just out of curiosity and because Albus recommended it. Then, back in the cottage, they sat down to have a snack together. When they finished, they both sat in the living room as when Gellert started questioning Albus. He held the book in his hands as Albus picked up the same one from the morning.

He was about to open it to read when he noticed that Albus just sat in the armchair across from him but got back up. He walked back towards the kitchen and lost sight of him for a few minutes. He felt something was wrong. He put the book aside as he rubbed his hands on his pants, starting to sweat from restlessness.

He looked down at his hands and wondered how many times the sweat from his nervousness had actually been from that and not a product of the poison. Night was beginning to loom through the canopy of trees around the lake, he could see the castle come alive with a few lights in the reflection of the window. It was late in the day and Gellert had not consumed a single pill. On his worst day, the kind where Maurice would throw everything he did wrong in his face, he would take ten or twelve pills. He could not imagine all the damage the poison was doing to him and the urgency with which he resorted to them.

"This is for you", he looked up to receive a steaming mug from Albus. Inside, mud bubbled from the heat. "It's a potion that will make your body better. It tastes...", he hesitated to continue, and Gellert looked at him expectantly, "somewhat strong, but you must drink all of it".

He put his nose to the steam in the cup, withdrawing instantly because of the bad smell. He was about to say something, to refuse to drink it, when Albus was already level with his face and brought their lips together in an unexpected kiss. The brown beard caressed his cheek. The cupped hand moved aside, leaving room for the other to seek to caress the chestnut face, staying halfway to wander up Albus' thigh, just short of his gluteus.

Albus did manage to caress Gellert's face with both hands before pulling away and saying, "I hope this improves the taste". Gellert wanted more and tried to move closer, but was rebuffed by a gentle hand. "I must go out, I have to go to the castle. You should take some rest because tomorrow school starts."

He was so pleased with Albus' touch still on his lips that he said nothing more. He simply watched him dress his robes, fix his hair a little and disappear. He rested on the couch as he drank the mud which, though rancid, did not take away the taste of a ray of sunshine as Albus was.

He flew back and forth the point on which Gellert focused his gaze. Where had so many people come from? Children, teenagers, and young adults were milling about the school's portals, all dressed in robes where the only distinctive feature was the embroidery of a crest. Most of them greeted Albus effusively. Only the little ones did not stop before him. They must have been the first years, as he had said the day before. Though he doubted too much that anyone couldn't tell that Albus was an important person, because with every step he took, it seemed that the earth shook beneath that bearing of a confident and powerful enough in magic to be a teacher man.

Gellert was forty-five, he did not doubt that Albus was even younger, but the bearing of the two was different. The chestnut was full-cheeked but not overly so, his hands were short, thick-fingered and she had noticed in his lower belly a small belly that protruded from time to time from under his coat. In contrast, he was taller but thin. His hands were marked with veins on the back of his hands, just before his fingers. Sick as he was, he was certain to give off a somber, even gloomy aura. It was then that he wondered how a man like Albus had accepted his bold caresses, even venturing himself first into actual contact in that first kiss, of which there was no second so far.