Deerly Beloved

[chambermusicandtenpins]

deerlyBeloved: DumbleDaddy Feeling hot for teacher? Need some magic in your life? Just have a thing for men in three-piece suits? Send an owl to this handsome local wizard and let him cast a spell on you.

( Albus Dumbledore | 46 | M | wouldn't you like to know )

Comments

[followorperish]

How many notches do you think I have? [Gellert frowns, though there is a faint spark of tired amusement in his eyes. Is this Albus's way of being jealous?]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I have no idea. It hasn't been any of my business for quite some time. [Because you left, Gellert and he's definitely NOT JEALOUS]

[followorperish]

What if I told you you have been my only?

[Ohhhh take that.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[Wait wut.]

What?

[followorperish]

That isn't an answer. [Is he toying with him? It's hard to tell.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[Goddammit Gellert.]

I'd ask you if you were jesting. Are you jesting?

[followorperish]

No. [Perhaps he isn't teasing him. Gellert is looking awfully solemn.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[...that...genuinely surprises him. He'd thought Gellert must be jesting, but it seems he was wrong.]

Why?

[followorperish]

Why would I abstain? [He snorts softly, his lips twitching.] Why do you think?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I don't know.

[He doesn't. The answer lurks in the back of his thoughts, but he can't find it in himself to believe it.]

[followorperish]

I will give you some time to think about it. The answer is entirely unsurprising.

[In his view, at least. But Albus doesn't know - he can't guess - how deep and twisted his feelings have become.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Unsurprising to you, maybe.

[He doesn't -- he doesn't want to say out loud what he thinks Gellert's implying, because there is some fear that he'll simply be mocked for it, that it'll still all be a jest, that once again their old feelings will be flung in his face. And yet -- and yet that seems to be what Gellert is saying, isn't it.]

[followorperish]

It shouldn't be a shock to you either.

[Though with how things stand between them, it likely is a huge shock. But Gellert has his pride and he won't say it outright only to have Albus wound him.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Shouldn't it? You've made it quite clear you have plans to have me killed, Gellert.

[And it is a shock, if its sincere. But there is still a great deal of him that refuses to believe it, that won't let him be hurt again if Gellert is lying.]

[followorperish]

Why would I care so much about your existence? Have you asked yourself that?

[He is perfectly able and willing to ignore anyone that doesn't matter to him - or that bores him.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Because I can beat you.

[He doesn't even say it as a boast. Albus sounds too drained for that. It's just a plain statement of fact, something they both know is true.]

I can beat you, and that's why you want Credence to kill me.

[followorperish]

Must it always devolve into violence between us?

[The fatigue is shared to some degree and Gellert purses his lips, shaking his head.]

What if it must be him because it cannot be me? What would restrain me?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

You are the one who wants violence, Gellert. When have I ever laid hands on any friends of yours? How many of mine have died so far?

[He is tired, so tired, but it all comes back to the same things -- the war, the bad blood between them, the things they do not say even as they grow so very obvious between them.]

Nothing, I imagine. Nothing except whatever Credence decides, whatever you can't convince him away from.

[followorperish]

Only because I haven't given you a chance and you are not nearly as bloody as I am.

[Gellert is the spear, Albus is the pure warrior. This all makes sense to him.]

The original decision had nothing to do with him.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Exactly my point, Gellert.

[After all, at the end of the day, it comes down to the fact that Albus will not kill nearly so readily. Their goals may be different, but their methods are the greater problem.]

And yet, at the end, the decision is still his. While the vial exists, you can't strike me down.

[followorperish]

And I thought I made it clear: I don't want to be the one to kill you.

[He isn't cowardly, so there must be another reason beyond the vial.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

And yet it must happen according to your plans. If you felt otherwise, you'd have let my sister devour me.

So you are at an impasse if Credence refuses you.

[followorperish]

Not here, darling, not here. In this town, you will live.

[He snorts and shrugs his shoulders.]

The visions haven't altered.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Will I? You can't guarantee that, and neither can I.

[And some part of him is deeply curious how Gellert will react if something happens to him, whether or not it is in their control.]

Perhaps not, and yet you wish to change them all the same. I know what you have seen of the upcoming war.

[followorperish]

I can guarantee it with all of the breath in my body and the strength of my limbs. Eventually I might be able to guarantee it with magic too.

[Oh he'll panic.]

That must not be.