Chapter 15
It was late February and things have calmed down for the dumbledore-grindelwald family. Issues in surrounding towns about intervention have calmed down, with only a few people being outwardly against them. Gellert had just gotten back from America and looked around “where are my loves?” He went into Theseus’ room and smiled as he saw both of them napping on the floor. Gellert sits down next to Albus and kisses his head. He watches as they continue to sleep and lays with them.
Albus slowly starts to wake up and notices someone next to him and quickly opens his eyes and holds his wand up to the intruder's throat “Merlin Gellert!” He sits up when he realizes it was his infuriating lover “I could’ve cursed you!” He takes his wand away. Albus glares at Gellert when the younger starts laughing a bit “it’s not funny!”
Gellert puts his hand to Albus’ lips and calms down from laughing “shh, you’ll wake our boy.” He replaces his finger with his lips and lays back down “I’m home” he smiles a bit as Albus calms down and lays down with him. He runs his hand through the others hair and watches as the auburn haired man fidgets with their blood pact that was attached to his jacket. He closes his eyes as he calms down from being around his family. He kisses Albus’ head and hums “let's go for a walk later”
Albus looks up at his love “that sounds nice” he sits up and goes to put Theseus in his bed. He pulls Gellert up and smiles “you got a haircut” he runs his hand through his lovers now short hair “I like it”. The cut was short, almost shaved on the sides and the top was slicked back but a few pieces were astray from the day. Now a mess from Albus’ hands and smiles as Gellert blows the strands away from his face.
Gellert kisses him again “well my love, I thought it was time for a haircut” he gently tugs on Albus’ now mid back length hair, smiling and kissing him again, pulling him out of the room. They walk around the castle for a bit catching up on what happened last week. Theseus blew up a wall on the east side of the castle when he was angry over not getting desert for not finishing his primary work for the day, opting to instead play games, Albus missed Gellert (which wasn’t a surprise), and there have been animal attacks at the muggle village which Albus sent some people to help with finding the animal responsible. Gellerts trip to America to speak with the president of MACUSA didn’t go as smoothly as he hoped, the president didn’t like how young Gellert is and thinks he would give up in the next 5 years, he won’t. Though in a small win, he convinced America’s voting council to lift the ban on marrying the non-magic.
Gellert sits down and pulls Albus closer on the couch, kissing the auburn's head and laying his head on the other's shoulder. He sits there content with his lover, said lover summons a book over and starts to read. He smiles and reads over his shoulder “you’ve been practicing your german too?” he hums as he feels Albus nod and starts messing with his beard “you need to trim it, you’re too young to go for the second coming of merlin look.”
Albus hums “do I really look like that or is this a distraction because you don’t want to talk about something you should be talking about.” he looks at the blond being him and raises his eyebrow. He knew Gellert and knew when he didn’t want to say something, and saw the signs of Gellert not telling him something all day. “Like, if you had another vision.”
Gellert sighs “the same one as a few months ago, the baby with the wild animals.”
Albus kisses his cheek “maybe it is important and that's why you keep seeing it”. He rolls his eyes as Gellert gives a non-committal hum and looks at the door as it opens “oh hi Theseus. Look apu is home” he smiles and laughs a bit as he sees the boy still tired.
Theseus comes over while rubbing his eyes “apu” he reaches up. Albus picks him up and sets him on his lap, letting him cuddle into him. Gellert wraps his arms around them both and smiles a bit, letting his son hold onto his arms as he falls back asleep.
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Albus had dinner served early so that it was still light out when they started their walk. He was making sure Theseus was wearing his jacket right and Gellert was waiting outside. He holds Theseus’ hand and goes outside “alright let’s go”. Gellert waves to open the gate and they walk out, both of them holding onto Theseus’ hands.
They walk through the Austrian forest as it gets darker and the two adults take their wands out to light the way. Albus hums “we should start to head back soon” he looks at Gellert who nods and looks around. “What's wrong?” he watches as Gellert lets go of Theseus’ hand and walks toward a clearing. He picks up Theseus and follows him, starting to hear crying. Gellert goes more into the clearing holding his hand out, signaling Albus to stay back, so with Theseus in his arms he does, not wanting to risk hurting their son.
Gellert keeps going into the clearing and creates a bright enough light to see a group of hippogriffs laying down, he could hear crying in the middle but it didn’t sound like the cry of an infant animal. The sudden light sent the hippogriffs on the perimeter of the circle into alertness to defend their herd. Gellert backs up quickly and stuns some, more get up and he gets a glance at the inside of the ring. On the inside, among all the baby hippogriffs now crying and trying to stay as close as possible, was a baby; a human baby. He manages to stun the rest of the herd, Albus would kill him if he killed the animals, and goes to the one hippogriff who stayed with the young. She makes an angry noise and stretches out her wings to try and scare the intruder off without frightening the young more. Gellert kneels down and puts his head down, still staring at the baby from his downturned gaze. The mare, seemingly calming down from this show of peacefulness, calms down and checks on her young again. All of the young, including the baby, calm down a bit but the baby keeps crying, shivering and his hands starting to turn blue. Gellert casts a heating charm around the baby and takes his jacket off. He slowly goes over and wraps it around him tightly, picking him up. The baby calms down a bit but cries more as he’s picked up, sending the mare into worry about her ‘colt’. Gellert rocks him “shh, shh” he moves the boys thin hair. He glances back at the mare before making his way back to where he left Albus, the boy had calmed down now, realizing he wasn’t going to get hurt and he was warm.
Albus rushes to him “Gellert what-!”
Gellert puts his free hand to his own lips “shh, you’ll startle him again” he whispers and moves the hood of his jacket that was wrapped around the baby to show him. The boy had seemingly brown hair and also had mismatched eyes, one like honey, and one blue. He was looking at them and started to cry again. “Shh, it’s ok little one”
Albus pulls Theseus back to his chest so the excitable little boy didn’t startle the babe much more. “The baby from your vision?”
“I think so, we should get back home, warm him up and get him some milk made for him” he wraps his free arm around Albus and apparates them back to the castle, inside the gate. They quickly get inside, Albus going to put Theseus to bed and Gellert to get the tub filled with a couple inches of warmed water to wash the baby and order a few house elfs to go and get baby supplies and clothes. He gently puts the baby, crying again, in the tub and washes all the dirt off of him, checking for any injuries and any infection. What he gets instead was a blast of water in his face “Hallo mein kleiner Zauberer,” he wipes off his face and finishes washing the baby up as the elfs pop back in and give him a nappy and a warm baby gown with thick blankets. He puts the baby in the nappy and gown then does his best to wrap the blankets around the baby “how do mothers do this..” he goes out to the hallway as Albus is coming down.
As Gellert was washing the baby up, Albus was putting Theseus to bed. “But daddy I was to stay up!” he was fighting Albus about putting his pajamas on. Albus sighs and finally gets Theseus into his sleeping clothes then gets him in bed. Theseus was kicking at the covers “does this mean I’m getting a bother!”
Albus stills him “maybe buddy, apu and I have to talk about it and make sure the baby is healthy. Now it’s time for bed, do you want me to read you a story?” he hums as theseus nods and takes out the book he had started reading to him last night. As he reads he feels his son slowly leaning on him more and more until the boy is fully asleep. He sends the book to be put back in the bookcase and lays Theseus on his pillow, tucking him in more as gently as possible to not wake the 7 year old. He slowly leaves and gently shuts the door then quickly walks down the halls of the castle, meeting Gellert down the hall to their room “is he hurt in any way…how are you so wet?” He sends a drying spell to Gellert and looks at the baby.
Gellert hums, still rocking the boy, “seems this little bundle is magical, and no he isn’t hurt thankfully.” Now with the boy washed and clean his hair was dirty blond and very fine. “Is Theseus asleep?” He fixes his hold on the baby.
Albus nods “had a bit of trouble getting his sleeping clothes on, he kept asking if this meant he was getting a new baby brother” he takes the baby gently and fixes the blankets so they lay correctly “there we go, better” he rocks him “we have the space and they money..” he looks at Gellert and makes a begging face “and we have no idea where he came from”
Gellert looks at Albus fixing the blankets then at his pleading face and sighs “he came from a herd of hippogriffs, and he’ll need a name.” he puts his arm around Albus as they walk to their room and smiles as Albus kisses his cheek “something fitting, but not atrocious or unnecessarily long”
“Hey!” Albus sits on their bed and kicks his shoes off “those were digs at me weren’t they?”
“More so your family, Albus Percival Wulfric Brain Dumbledore” Gellert sits with him and lays down. He smiles as he looks up at Albus with the baby “how do you keep talking me into taking kids, this is the last child”
Albus smiles back at him “I promise the last one we are adopting, two children is perfect.” he looks back at the baby then up as Fawkes flies in “oh hello fawkes”.
The baby looks as the phoenix lands next to Albus, both the magical bird and the baby looking at each other in curiosity. The baby was the first to move and smiled while trying to reach out to the bird. Fawkes puts his head down to let the baby touch. Gellert watches and grumbles “Albus, tell your bird to stop using me as a perch”. He glares as he hears his lover laugh. He watches more, making sure Fawkes doesn’t hurt the baby and hums “...Newt”
Albus turns to look at Gellert in confusion “Newt?”
Gellert nods and yawns “the baby’s name, Newt Dumbledore-Grindelwald.” he bounces his legs a bit “Alright fawkes, off it’s time for bed” the bird flies off immediately which causes Newt to cry. Albus sighs and lays down, letting Gellert change their clothes and pull the covers over all three of them. Gellert takes a bottle from a house elf and gets Newt to feed. “There we go newt” he says softly and watches as Albus falls asleep, himself staying up to watch Newt as he eats and falls asleep.