TFLN

[plungeintofire]

You know what you must do.

Comments

[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.]

[greatestgood]

So we learn on our feet. You think there's something fulfilling about it, don't you? I can't understand it yet, but I could. I just wasn't raised in a loving family.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[aw gellert ;;]

Perhaps so. Like learning anything else, we don't know until we know.

[/secretly kind of touched]

I suppose the real question is where we would even get a child to begin with.

[greatestgood]

We work well together and they would be ours.

There are plenty of orphans, Albus, and kids in bad homes. It's not easy to watch.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

No, it isn't, though I am curious how you would go about choosing one.

[greatestgood]

The brightest belongs with us. I wouldn't mind a boy or a girl.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Will we be raising this child to be heir to all our brilliant machinations, then?

[greatestgood]

That would be the whole point, wouldn't it?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I don't think that's why people usually raise children.

[greatestgood]

They have them to carry on the family name. In our case, it would be the family intellect.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

No one has children because they love them, then?

[greatestgood]

Is that why your parents had you?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I'd like to think that was at least part of it.

[greatestgood]

I'm fairly sure that isn't why mine had me.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Your parents were not loving people.

[greatestgood]

Does that make me the same?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

No. No it doesn't. [Because, for all Gellert's inability to name his emotions, he knows he loved him once.]