Forbidden Blushing

Good Old Jealousy

Albus was filling in for a teacher today it had been a while since he had taught seventh years. Of course, this meant that his extra baggage had to come along too, Grindelwald stood in the corner as usual examining all the students. This class seemed to be transfiguration, Albus noticed many of the out-of-place objects laying around. There was a lack of chairs so many students had to sit on the ground, some of the students couldn't reverse some of the spells performed, accounting for the lack of chairs.

"Good morning class I am Professor Dumbledore and in the corner is my co-teacher Grindelwald. I am sure you have some assignment you should be working on, if you do not find something to do come to me and I will assign you something."

Many of the students checked their bags and then came up to Albus empty-handed, "I finished the parchment due today sir." A boy of average height came up to Albus, he had brown mousy hair and glasses. He spoke quietly obviously trying not to be noticed by other students, Albus noticed this and made an announcement.

"It has appeared to me that many of you have finished the parchment, if you have completed the assignment please find a partner and read your work out loud. Many of my student's work that I read sounds like garbage and I don't understand any of it. Reading your work out loud puts it into your voice and makes it more personalized. You will never learn how to write better if you don't read your work out loud. Partners feel free to help the other person if they have not finished and please don't take any of their criticism personally." Albus really didn't feel like teaching today he wanted the students to be on their own since they were old enough.

There was an odd number of students so one of them had to partner with Grindelwald. Albus overheard one of the annotations Grindelwald made and tried to stifle a laugh. " What's your name oh never mind it's at the bottom, Chris. What kind of name is that? You need a strong name, Did you even try to tell me how many minutes it took you because I think I could write a better one in 2 minutes try again." Grindelwald was obviously annoyed that he had to interact with someone, nevertheless, with a name like Chris.

Albus checked on some of the partners and he was finishing up with one, he got up and started to walk towards another group. The two boys were sitting against the cabinet with no space between their shoulders with their knees touching. One of the boys was reading their paper out loud. Albus immediately recognized one of the boys the mousy-headed one was looking at his partner reading the boy with a big smile on his face; cheeks red. Albus had never seen gay students before, he suspected there were gay people in the school. He looked around the room to see if anyone else could see the boys or if it was just him. Dumbledore found Grindelwald stopped dead in his sentence staring at the boys, this scene took all of his attention away from Chris and onto the students. His eyes were locked and his mouth in a firm line, Grindelwald having been in prison still had to assimilate back into the world. Albus thought this might have been the first time he had seen anything other than a straight relationship in a very long time.

Dumbledore continued to walk toward the boys and squat down to their level. The boys jerked apart like they were once glued together, both red in the face.

"Hi, Profesor" Both of the boys breathed.
Albus fixed some of their grammar errors and was on his way, the class ended right after.

All of the students started to pile out except for the mousy-haired boy and his blonde partner, "Boys could you stay please I have a few questions." Said Grindelwald looking very confused and out of sorts.

The brown-haired boy and his partner sat at one of the only desks and chairs available, "What did you want to ask us, sir?"

"Sorry for making you guys stay, does Hogwarts allow gay relationships? I'm sorry I just saw you guys and I wasn't sure because it was like you were trying to hide it and I'm not going to report you or anything if it's not allowed but I'm just intrigued I haven't seen it in a while and I don't know what to say." Grindelwald started to ramble on.

This got Albus's attention he had his back turned to look out the window and watch the students pile out onto the grass near the lake. Why was Grindelwald asking students about their gay relationships?

"Hogwarts doesn't have any rules against openly gay relationships but most of the students find our relationship disgusting, so as long as we stay in the right areas with the right people we're fine." The blond boy finally spoke.

"So I guess Hogwarts is one of the only places in the world right now where you can be safe, in a way people are always going to hate us but the rules here are protecting you." Grindelwald let out a sigh.

This was the first time Albus heard Grindelwald admit to being gay, when they were together many years ago he would never admit it. Grindelwald would always ramble on about how he follows his feelings, not a label. This was the first time Albus had seen him change in a while he didn't really know what to say but he was definitely impressed.

The boys left for lunch and it was just Albus and Gellert alone in a transfiguration classroom with few chairs and desks.

"Why did you ask those students about their gay relationship, are you looking for a boyfriend soon, anyone caught your eye? Albus laughed so hard that his lungs started to hurt.

"Maybe." Grindelwald never lost eye contact.