Departure
Prologue: Departure
The glass of the mirror is cold as Albus‘ fingertips touch it. It has been a long time since he last visited this room.
Almost, just almost, he had left those memories behind. Had almost forgotten about the white-haired man in the mirror’s reflection he saw now. But alas, he couldn’t escape his past forever.
Throughout the last years Albus read the name he so desired to forget more and more. In newspapers and pleading letters, in headlines and on investigation papers.
„Oh Gellert, why are you haunting me still?“, he whispers into the empty room. There is no answer. The Mirror of Erised can only show your desires, not let them speak. Mirror-Gellert only stares at him with his differently coloured eyes. Albus laughs, „Perhaps I deserve this.“
With a flick of his wrist a long piece of fabric rises from the floor and drapes itself over the mirror, covering the face he loves but desperately wishes to despise.
~ ° ~
„Oh, we were closer than brothers“, Albus replies. He smiles, but his eyes only express pain and regret, as he watches the floating illusion of the young Gellert Grindelwald morph into his older sefl. The man he is now. A terrorist, searched all across the world, but still holding his heart in a tight grip. His smile fades.
„Will you fight him?“, Travis, head of the british magical law enforcement, asks once more. Now his voice is agitated, but of course that doesn’t change Albus‘ answer. „I can’t.“
~ ° ~
Later, back in his room, he stares at his cuffed wrists in disbelief. He always knew that the ministry feared him because of his power. But to put surveillance on him like this and stop him from teaching… That is a new level of distrust.
Honestly, he is a little hurt. Especially because he had expected Theseus to support and protect him, but the ambitious young man had only watched as Albus‘ wrists were put in magical cuffs, that reported each and every one of his spells to the ministry.
However, none of this matters now. Albus cannot fight Gellert, And he cannot protect his nephew from him either, which pains him a much greater deal. But he also can’t just sit around and wait for Newt to save the world for him.
Albus jumps up from his sofa and swings his wand. Immediately his belongings start flying into his suitcase and his enchanted gloves grab his hat and his coat from the rack to clothe him for his upcoming travels.
A few minutes later he knocks on Minerva’s door. „Albus, what..?“ „Good evening Minerva“, he interrupts her. „Sorry to disturb you at such a late hour.“
The young witch looks him up and down, then notices the suitcase and her eyebrows furrow. „You’re going to Paris, aren’t you?“, she asks calmly. It sounds less like a question and more like a realisation. Albus simply nods.
„But I thought you can’t fight him.“ „I can’t.“
Minerva looks more worried than ever.
„Do you trust me?“, he asks. His heart skips a beat as he awaits her answer. He knows what this must look like and he would understand her. But he would prefer not to lose his friend.
„Of course I trust you, Albus. Just be careful, alright?“
It is his first genuine smile of the day. And it is 11p.m. Then, in a sudden outburst of emotions, Minerva rushes forward and hugs him. She jumps back just a second later, as if she was shocked by her own actions.
Before she can apologise, Albus thanks her, now smiling even brighter. „I will be careful. Don’t worry. Could you tell every interested person I went home to Godric’s Hollow to recover from my suspension?“
With a sad smile Minerva nods. She is the most reliable person Albus knows.
„What would I do without you?“ For a long moment he places his hand on her shoulder and just smiles at her. Then Albus turns around and is gone.