The unintentional Crimes of Grindelwald

Chapter 25 - Young, dumb and broke(n)

Hello everybody! Hope you enjoy my story and I'd appreciate reviews!

xoxo Leviosa

Chapter 25

"Gellert?", Albus asked. Silence. He looked around, no one in front of his house, no one in his garden. Only a letter on his window, a letter he read last night. But Gellert Grindelwald was nowhere to be seen, even though he promised to meet him the next day. It was early in the morning, and nobody else in this house was awake. Aberforth slept as long as Ariana and made her breakfast when she woke. Aberforth was at her side, day and night, no matter how hard her life was, he was there for her. And so he had the morning for himself. Albus listened again, to make sure that he wouldn't wake Ariana or his brother, and then he slowly walked down the stairs to the living room of the Dumbledores, with caution he took his jacket, which was almost magical, no thunderstorm could destroy it, and went outside, in the sunshine. A few times, he shouted Gellerts name. But of course, if he was sleeping, he wouldn't hear him. So he carefully knocked at the door of the Bagshots. Nobody heard him. Bathilda Bagshot had the deepest sleep in the whole galaxy, and so he rang the door bell. Still, everything was quiet. Gellert couldn't sleep. At least not much, and he was able to wake up if just a little noise interrupted his dreams. They both were more of night beings, more productive in the night than in the day. It would be a surprise that Gellert was sleeping right now, but atleast Albus did not have to worry anymore. But the silence scared him. It was only a week after Gellert had introduced himself, not more than three weeks until Albus birthday. Was Gellert just a bit tired because of their discussions? Never. Explanations couldn't make him feel better. He didn't know why he was so overprotective, his brain told him that his friend was just finally getting sleep. Ha, his heart said. As if you were just friends. Albus didn't know why he had these inner monologues, but they didn't help him in any way. He did not know how long he was standing there, until he reacted like every Gryffindor who had a brain and a wand: he opened the window to Gellerts room and climbed in. His room wasn't quite different from Als: a lot of books, a desk, but somehow he could see that it was Gellerts room. Not just because it was totally messy, Gellert hated all rules and every sense of order, but because the books were laying on the floor, every one of them had a book mark in them, next to the books were pencils. He had the strange habit to mark sentences he liked best. Albus thought it would be vandalism to move any of the books — chaos was holy to Gellert — so he carefully jumped over them. You've got a wand, you have magic inside you, and everything you do is jump over things, his brain was disappointed. "Gellert!", he shouted.
"Albus?", the shadow of a whisper came from under the huge bed. He looked under it, and really it was the same unique white blonde hair, the silver eye.
"What are you doing under your own bed? It is because you can't sleep?", he asked. "No, Al, it's not. It's nothing", he said calmly. "Then why don't you come out of there?", Albus asked, worried. "It's complicated. Just come back in an hour", Gellert stated. Suddenly, it made click in Albus brain. Gellert wasn't just whispering that quiet because he wanted to, not because he normally did so. It was because his voice was low, tears had stolen it to him. That he had cried wasn't as terrifying as the realization that Gellert didn't try to persuade him to something, that he wasn't using the charming words he normally did. He was at the edge, too weak to follow any of his normal habits. Albus wasn't ready to go, he wouldn't leave him here, crying. He was one of the only people that really cared about Gellert Grindelwald, he couldn't let him drown in his own tears here. Gellert needed him more than ever. Determined to not do anything what Gellert was saying, he crawled under the bed, next to the person that mattered to him most.

"I'm not going to leave until you tell me what happened", he said. Instead of an answer, Gellert turned away, which wasn't easy because there was just enough space for the two boys. "You don't want to know. And I don't want you to see me like this. I should be strong, Albus. I should control it before it controls me. But it can't. I am not able to, I am not strong enough", he tried to repress his sobbing, his face in the direction of the wall, the back in Albus direction. Gellert waited a second, as if he wanted Albus to run away, because he was crying. "You're the strongest person I know", Albus murmured, as he put his hand on Gellerts back, in hope that he could calm him down.