TFLN

[plungeintofire]

You know what you must do.

Comments

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I suppose so, though if we're dead, I doubt we have to pay them.

[greatestgood]

Someone has to.

Besides, neither of us are ready to die, I don't think. There is too much life in us.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Mm, I think I have to agree. We're too lively to give up quite yet.

[greatestgood]

Just think of your students and you will find the courage to carry on, I'm sure.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Ah, of course. I need to be strong for the next generation and all that.

[greatestgood]

This is the duty you have chosen. I cannot understand it.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

You wish to sway minds with rhetoric, Gellert, but I like to sway them by teaching. It's not so different.

[greatestgood]

Yours takes far more patience. I don't work well with children.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Mm, that I will have to agree with you on. Though I do like working with children a great deal.

[greatestgood]

Ever thought about having some of your own?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

No. [His answer is certain, though there's a slight edge of melancholy to it.] I'd be too busy to take in a child and properly raise them. I wouldn't be able to give them the proper attention they'd need.

But I teach, and in that way I have dozens of children in my care all at once.

[greatestgood]

If we were together, would you feel differently about it?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[Genuinely surprised:] Do you want children?

[greatestgood]

[This is...difficult.] I wouldn't know what to do. [Is that an answer? Nope.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[He wears a tight smile at that.]

We wouldn't be able to regardless. Here, we might be sent back home at any moment. And back home...

[Back home they're at war, and it won't end with domestic bliss.]

Back home a relationship like ours wouldn't be allowed to begin with.

[greatestgood]

[A very strong curse is crossed out.]

Fick sie! Sie können nicht entscheiden, wie wir leben.

[Then he remembers, oh right. English.]

They don't get to decide how we live. If you want brats, we could have them.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[That's...genuinely sweet in a way he hadn't quite expected, and it shows in the odd but fond smile he wears.]

You're too kind, Gellert.

But I think it might be more difficult than that if the only places they can live are in a classroom or a German warfront.

[greatestgood]

Kind. Pah.

I thought we were working on there being no war. I'll live with you at Hogwarts and they can stay there too. It won't be hard, especially if they're a baby.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[He smiles at that, picturing it and feeling a sort of heartfelt ache in his chest at the thought of it.]

You think babies are easy, Gellert?

[greatestgood]

I can figure them out. They're just tiny human beings, aren't they?

[Merlin help him.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[Note to self, do not let Gellert babysit any children.]

That they are, which is part of why they're so very difficult, or so I've heard.

[greatestgood]

We're geniuses, Albus. Surely we can change some diapers and feed an infant.

[Watch Gellert be a great parent. The world will end from shock.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I think it may be a little more complex than that.

[The kid then grows up to take over the world, making his papas proud.]

[greatestgood]

How? They have parenting books, don't they?

[He would grumpily read them with a baby sleeping on his chest.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

As much as I delight in the power of books, I think even they cannot properly prepare a person for everything to do with parenthood.

[That is a fucking adorable image.]