Chapter 2
Albus was snapped out of his trance of the other by a hand waving in his face, he looks over to Bathilda “I’m sorry Ms.Bagshot, who is this?” He kept glancing at the other until he noticed he went back upstairs, for some reason feeling a bit insulted at him not introducing himself.
Bathilda hums as Gellert goes back upstairs “that's my great nephew Gellert” she goes to sit down “he’s staying for at least the summer, I don’t think he’s a very social person”. She holds out her cup as a teapot floats over “I haven’t seen him since he was a baby but from the hour he’s been here I can tell he’s a lot like you.”
Albus finds some books “like me how?” he looked at the woman confused, maybe she was finally losing it. In addition he thought that he probably wouldn’t get along with him judging by the glare he got before Gellert retreated upstairs. He puts the books in a bag and takes the tea that was offered.
Bagshot hums “he’s intelligent, very intelligent. He also loves to learn new things, and his interests in certain social aspects are the same as yours.” Albus has never told her but she has been around long enough to know that when a young man as handsome as a dumbledore boy has never brought a girl to the neighborhood there's a reason. She watches as the boy's eyes widen “don’t worry I’ve been able to tell since you were 15, if I didn’t like it don’t you think I would’ve told people even more let you into my house?”
Albus looks away, a bit embarrassed, when he sees an older book that he hadn’t seen before in the house. “The deathly hallows? I haven’t read that children's book in a while. Ariana might like it though” he goes to grab it when it's yanked away quickly by a pale hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gellert was held at a still by the boy in front of him, he looked straight out of his early pubescent dreams; auburn hair, bright blue eyes, slightly smaller than him but not by much, and the power he can sense from him is amazing. He kept looking at him for a few minutes before going up the stairs out of sight and listening to him. He sounded like early morning birds when he talked and Gellert did not like how it made him feel, he was above such childish feelings and he definitely did not have butterflies in his stomach he just hadn't eaten in a bit and was hungry. Gellert watches as they go to the living room and goes down to stand behind the door, he learns his name was Albus and he was not only powerful but also highly intelligent. Many wizards and witches he had met that could be powerful were all dimwits.
He started getting into his own thoughts when he heard Albus talk again, “The deathly hallows? I haven’t read that children's book in a while. Ariana might like it though”. Gellert quickly walks into the room and grabs the book before he could touch it and pulls it to himself, “that’s my personal book and it’s hardly the children's version.” He vanishes it up to his room and looks back at the boy “my aunt has told you about me, but I have yet to know who you are” he curses at himself for the one tell that he was slightly nervous, his accent getting thicker. ‘Great he must think I only recently learned english’ he thinks to himself
To his surprise he sees the other slightly blush it seems and Albus looks at him “s-sorry, I won’t touch it again” Albus held his hand out to him “I’m Albus Dumbledore, I live down the street.”
Gellert shakes his hand “Gellert Grindelwald” he says simply and studies the other trying to subtly go into his head but can’t and smirks a bit “you’re very skilled at occlumency”
Albus takes his hand away after a minute and looks at him “and you don’t seem to have manners, trying to see someone's thoughts upon first meeting them is quite rude.” he picks his tea cup up and takes a sip putting it back down “and honestly frowned upon in normal society”
Gellert holds back an eye roll at the statement, obviously his aunt had gotten that they had much in common wrong. “Aunt, do you have any food prepared?” he turns to her. Following her when she gets up and goes into the kitchen. He notices Albus going to the door and his eyes follow him until he's out of sight.
Albus opens the door and looks back to the kitchen “I should be going, thank you again Ms. Bagshot” he smiles and closes the door, making his way back home. Not being able to get Gellert out of his head was getting annoying; he doesn't even know him, and he seems like a brat.
When he gets back he sits down to read one of the books he grabbed not noticing the hallows book that had appeared in the bag. He ended up falling asleep in the chair while reading.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gellert had taken his food upstairs and stopped when he didn't see his book where it was supposed to land. He puts his food down and looks around, starting to tear his room apart looking for it “where is it!” He runs downstairs and starts to tear apart his living room.
“If you're looking for your book I think it ended up in Albus’ bag”.
He stops and turns to his aunt “no I vanished it to my room” he keeps looking “I need that book, what did you do”
She hums and starts to go upstairs, “well you aren't going to be spending the summer sulking alone in your room practicing magic, all I did was give you a reason to talk to someone. You’ll have to go over tomorrow to get it” he goes to summon it but the wards around the Dumbledore house prevented him.
He goes upstairs and throws out his food, not hungry anymore and sits at the window, debating on breaking in and getting it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day Albus woke up to movement next to him, “Ariana get out of my bag” he mumbles and sits up. He notices the young teen take out a book he knows he didn’t take “not that one” he takes it from her
She looks at him surprised “why not”. Albus had never taken anything from her before. Albus sighs as he puts the book on a shelf, “because I have no idea how it ended up in my bag I’ll have to return it to Ms.Bagshot's house later” he turns to her “Ok what do you want for breakfast today?”
He goes to make breakfast after a very enthusiastic, eggs and toast. He was setting plates down when he heard Ariana yelling “put that down it's not yours!” He ran to the livingroom and looks at what was happening. Aberforth had taken the book and was looking through it. He goes over and sits on the table in front of Ariana, “Aberforth put that down I have to return it, Ariana how about you go get breakfast while I talk to our brother.” He watches her go to the kitchen then turns and takes the book back “I said put it down”
The younger teen glares at him “have you even opened that, it's filled with the ramblings of a madman. Where did you even get that?” he goes to grab it back
Albus pulls it away again and opens it “you don’t even know Hungarian or German, you aren’t supposed to be using magic outside of school!” he puts the book in his bag “I know you hate me now, and you can try to make me as miserable as you can but I’m not leaving and I can’t change who I am; and please do not make things harder for Ariana that they already are by upsetting her.” He hears a knock on the door and holds up his hand stopping Aberforth from saying something and goes to the door, opening it.
Gellert was standing there “you have my book” he said simply, obviously annoyed. Albus opens the door more and lets him in, going to grab it, “yes, I don’t know how it ended up in my bag. Sorry if some of the pages are moved around, my siblings found it before I did.”
Gellert takes it quickly and looks through it, fixing some pages and stops. He starts flipping through the book again, and again “I’m missing a page, it’s about the invisibility cloak” he looks around the room and stops and looks at Aberforth “give it back” he goes over to him
Aberforth looks at him “I don’t have it” he puts his hands in his pockets. Albus sighs and pulls the page out of his pocket “why have you been such an ass lately.” he turns back to Gellert and gives him the paper, watching him reorganize the book and hums. He could tell he liked the book a lot and he hums “can I help?”
Gellert looks up at him “with what?” He closes his book and shrinks it to put in his jacket. This boy was particular and he couldn’t decide if he hated him or if he was useful like he could with other people. His aunt was useful because she was allowing him a place to stay and this was where Ignotus Peverell was buried so he could look for more clues to find one of the hallows. Now Albus’ brother on the other hand he already hated; he wasn’t useful and the way he acted toward his older brother pointed to him being a traditionalist, someone who would do anything for him not to achieve his vision and for others with his attractions to suffer and stay hidden even more than they are forced to be now. He gets out of his thoughts and glares at Albus when he laughs a bit “do not laugh at me.”
Albus tries to answer him a couple of times before he realizes he was lost in thought and laughs a bit “you zoned out. I said with organizing that mess, I doubt it’s easy to find anything in that Ge-“
“Grindelwald” Gellert interrupts him “I do not like acquaintances to call me by my first name” he goes to the door, and stops for a second then apparates away, landing in his room and sits on the bed continuing to fix his notes and the book. He didn’t like how Albus made him feel at all so he would avoid him as much as possible.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Albus watched him apparate away and was surprised, he set wards so someone couldn’t apparate in you out, or outside magic couldn’t reach inside the house. He knew he was powerful for his age; he had always been a little more powerful than the rest of his year at school, but he had never met someone else that was noticeably more powerful than their age group. And from someone not much younger than himself to break against his wards was impressive to say the least.
He catches a book right before it hits him “what Aberforth?” He looks at him. “How in Merlin's name did both of you know that I took something that could've fallen out!” he yells at him “one: do not yell at me when you were the one who was stealing. Two: legilimency, and you were locking your jaw which is what you do when you lie.” he puts the book down and starts towards the kitchen “I get it you hate my guts now but I’m staying because you’re my siblings and I don’t want to see either of you get hurt.”