Burned Into Glory

Mistakes

She didn't mean to read his mind.

Genuinely, she didn't mean to do it. She awoke in his bed, curled up beside him, and she felt the press of his thoughts, swirling in four different languages, pushing against her head. Queenie shut her eyes and tried to ignore what he was thinking in his sleep, but then a vivid dream burst forth and played out like one of the No-Maj silent films that Jacob had taken her to see.

'Gellert.'

A handsome young wizard threaded his arms around the pale, blond Gellert Grindelwald, who put his hands on the boy's waist and murmured softly,

'Albus.'

They kissed then, a long kiss that seemed deep and true, seemed to go on forever until the boy called Albus worked his fingers into Gellert's hair and groaned softly.

Queenie gasped as the dream dissolved in Grindelwald's mind. His eyes slowly blinked open, and she could tell the instant that he turned his face toward her that he knew. He knew she'd watched him dream. She whispered frantically,

"I didn't mean to. It was pushing against my mind."

He sighed, and she felt his Occlumency shields jam up against her. He reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear, and he said rather wistfully,

"That was a very long time ago."

"You seemed very passionate with him," Queenie noted, but Grindelwald shook his head and insisted,

"Things were very one-sided between Albus and me."

Queenie picked at the blanket and sighed, her mind swirling with questions. She finally plucked up the courage to ask,

"What is it like? Two guys together?"

"Very different from two witches together," he smirked, and Queenie wanted to sock him with a pillow. Instead she giggled and asked more seriously,

"Which do you like better, though? Guys or girls?"

"Well, they're very different. It's impossible to compare the experiences." Grindelwald put his hands behind his head, making his arms look lean and sinewy, and Queenie gulped. Grindelwald seemed a bit cocky then as he declared, "Humans come in all sorts of flavours, Queenie. I like yours best of all."

She blushed at that and shook her head a little, sitting up straighter and staring down at where he lay.

"After everything you've done, I must be very dull."

"On the contrary, my dear," he said, dragging his knuckles over her arm. "You are positively delicious."

He just touched her for a moment, making her shiver, and for a while she considered that perhaps all the attention he'd been giving her was just because he thought she was pretty. Lots of boys had thought she was pretty in her life. Maybe this wasn't any different. But then he murmured, staring at his own fingers,

"Even that kiss with Albus was just... means to an end. Touching people, sex, Queenie, has always been means to an end. Satisfaction. Payoff. But I was not lying when I let you into my mind and showed you my truth. The truth about you. About this."

It has never been anything like this, his thoughts had projected at her, and now Queenie's eyes burned as she stared at his serious face. He flicked his eyes up to her - his pale eye and his dark one - and he mumbled aloud,

"It has never been anything like this."

"Oh." Queenie slithered to lie down beside him, worming her way beneath the blankets, and she faced him as she pulled the blanket up around them. She stared at his face then, and she marveled,