Pumpkin Juice

         Looking back on his time with Albus Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald couldn’t help but sigh and wonder as to what has truly happened. While their relationship had lasted mere months, a tiny speck on the timeline of their long lives, the effects of that relationship had lasted a lifetime. Together they had theorised on the matter of Wizarding supremacy over the Muggles, over creating a new world order, and of what seemed just as important at the time, over the pros and cons of having pumpkin juice with breakfast. Dumbledore had never agreed with him about pumpkin juice, though at the time he had agreed with the other ideas. As he had often joked, Dumbledore would be proclaiming the magical qualities of pumpkin juice till his dying day.

         The intimacy of their relationship had been at best debatable. He had known at the time just how blinded Albus had been, just how badly being in love had affected his judgement, but to further his own ends he made no comment on the matter. He let their relationship continue as it was, basking in the dual pleasure of his plans and his lover. He had never stopped to consider the consequences of involving someone so dear to him with his plans. He had never thought of what would happen if something were to happen to Albus.

Years after the ordeal with the fight and the death of Ariana before his incarceration, he had gone back to Albus to confront him about the way of the world in which they lived. Their time apart had changed Albus’s views, while it had only served to harden his own. He had been unable to convince him to reassess his ideas, and their relationship was lost completely when he had admitted to stealing the Elder Wand from Gregorovitch. Albus was horrified and had banished him from the house, not listening to his explanations or excuses.

         Many years after that, when he had come to power, he found himself once again face to face with Albus. This time, however, the ground between them was further than they had initially thought possible. Albus was fighting against him, against his every idea; he still professed the abilities of pumpkin juice. In many ways, the pumpkin juice was the final proverbial straw. The battle between them had commenced, and Albus was at his most daring. It had never failed to strike him as ironic that such a brave and caring soul could also be so ruthless and cunning. In the middle of their heated battle, Albus had stopped and run to him. Putting a hand around his waist and another in his hair, Albus had delivered a kiss that would stun him to this day. That kiss had consumed him, stopped him from fighting just long enough. It had been the end of him; a flick of another’s wand and he found his wand out of reach, hands bound behind his back. Albus had tricked him, using the only power that he possessed to stop him from fighting back. As Albus pulled away from him for that last time, the look in his eyes had been one of sadness and love.

         Sitting in his cell on the top floor of Nurmengard Prison, he looked back on his time with Albus. As his last act had proved, Albus’s love for him had not lessened, even if their opinions had differed. Neither had his love for Albus; in all his time stuck in the prison he had built, he had never blamed or stopped loving him. A loud bang and shriek from below him alerted Gellert to his situation. He picked up his glass of pumpkin juice, raised it in a toast to the door, and took a sip, waiting for the inevitable. The door to his cell opened as he put down the glass; death had finally come to take him so that he may join his lover again. A snakelike face stared down at him, a wand pointed at his chest.

         “You have the Elder Wand?” Voldemort asked him.

         “I have no such thing,” he replied, no trace of fear in his voice.

         “Then you have no such life.”

         “Kill me, then. Voldemort, I welcome death! But my death will not bring you what you seek.”

         “It will bring me something nonetheless.”

         As the curse was sent his way, he thought of nothing but his first night with Albus, soft and sweet. It was truly a thought to last him a lifetime.