Greater than Good (Grindeldore 1899)

Chapter 5. One of Many Nights

That night, Albus couldn't fall asleep. For hours, the empty serenity of the night that his body craved was filled by the sound of Gellert's words and the view of his smile replaying in his mind. He kept thinking about everything that the young stranger (who he hoped would become a friend soon) said and every movement he made. About how truly little he was taught at Hogwarts and what he would've liked to be taught. About how many books he doesn't yet know about but is already eager to read. How they will help him reach his full potential that Gellert was so sure everyone ought to aspire to reach. Then he thought about what kind of books the handsome stranger brought with him from wherever he came. On theory or on practice? History or discussion? Old or new? One's book collection can tell a lot about them.

Albus's own collection consisted of countless books on magic theory and philosophy. Advanced alchemy. Books on spells of various uses. A good number of them were signed by the author. When young Albus's book wishlist grew exponentially from that which is required at Hogwarts, his mother couldn't afford it all. By that point, though, he's already gotten quite a few awards and medals for his achievements. He was already writing to the authors of the books he read from the Hogwarts library with follow-up questions. Many of them answered with great interest as to how someone so young was already so advanced. And that's how it began. He would write to authors of the books he wanted, list all his related achievements, talk about his real or exaggerated interest in the subject, explain his financial situation and ask politely for a copy because it would mean so much to him. It worked for a good while. Until the competitions he won became more serious and so did the prizes and this scheme became obsolete. He could now afford the books he wanted. Although it started from a place of poverty, Albus was proud of his collection of personalised author notes and treasured them a little more than his other books. He hoped that one day he'll be the one that young students look up to and who was ready to help an eager young prodigy in need to learn and advance.

After an almost sleepless night (one of the many nights he's going to spend thinking about Gellert), Albus woke up in the morning with only one thought - how to see Gellert's little library He thought about writing a note and sending it by the owl to enquire about visiting. Out of the blue, this early in the morning and a little excessive when they lived so close to one another. So he decided he'd better just show up as Gellert told him to. But he'd wait for a more sane and appropriate time than 7 o'clock on a Sunday.

He sat at his desk, researching sleep charms. One would've come in handy last night. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any, in particular, the ones you could use on oneself rather than an action spell (defence/attack spell). Another goal entered his imaginary list of ideas - to create a sleeping spell that could be for personal use.

When Ariana came into the room unannounced, she found Albus at his desk, completely covered by the piles of books he took out of his shelves to search through. He was wearing his reading glasses. They were little round things, and they sat so low on his nose that you could almost miss them if not the upper part of the thin metal frame veiling his irises. The glasses were not fully necessary as Albus could read without them well enough. But they made it easier on the eyes when he did heaps of reading, and he liked the aesthetics.

"Good morning, Albus," she hovered by the door for a moment before going in to hug him from the back. "Abe said that he doesn't want to cook and that it's your turn to," she reported, pushing her chin into Albus's shoulder  "Will you make something? I'm hungry."

So he took Ariana by the hand and went for the kitchen, thinking over the few breakfast spells he knew. He stopped for a moment by the top of the stairs to look through a tiny crack in the door to Aberforth's room. He was dressing in his farm clothes, preparing to go to the goats. Albus didn't say good morning. He walked past quietly and let Aberforth be.

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Author's note:

Heyy, sorry to have taken this long. My hyper interest has ended so I was less motivated to spend my every free moment writing it. This chapter didn't really end how I was planning to when I started writing it but I kinda like it anyway.

If anyone's mad about the "how little he truly little he was taught at Hogwarts" line, dw, this is not Hogwarts slander. in my headcanon, Albus took part in sort of pushing the way magic was taught at Hogwarts in a new direction. Sometime between 1901 or smth and becoming a headmaster.

And sorry if the title gave you a wrong idea ab what this chapter will be about. ig it's kind of accidental clickbait lol