TFLN

[plungeintofire]

You know what you must do.

Comments

[greatestgood]

I can't spare you anything.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

You spare me some by being here now. The rest I can live with. [After all, he's already done so for 20 years.]

[greatestgood]

We should be together. I should be living with you. [Waking up together...]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[That makes his heart break a little, his expression sad and wistful.]

Are you speaking of here, or at home?

[greatestgood]

...both. I've thought about it and...

That is what I want. [He snorts.] I never thought of myself as a normal, peaceful citizen, but the idea appeals to me when I think of you.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[There's a look on Albus' face of deep, longing hopefulness -- and yet also so deeply cautious, as if he might say the wrong words and the whole thing will evaporate into thin air.]

I would like that. [He exhales shakily.] I would like things to be that way very much.

[greatestgood]

Going to sleep next to you, waking next to you... I can't explain what the thought does to me, but I want it.

[He has been trying to get a vision about the future, but none have come so far.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I want it as well.

[A pause, and then:]

I don't think I realized how much I missed having you until I saw you here.

[greatestgood]

You were protecting yourself. Our memories can protect us by becoming less crisp, less clear.

[But they have awoken them again.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[He smiles sadly.]

I have a Pensieve now, Gellert. I've relived all of my worst moments over and over again. If my memories have tried to save me, they were never going to succeed against my own stubborn need to remember.

[greatestgood]

So stop using it! [He knows that is impossible for people such as them.] How often have you tortured yourself?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[He smiles sadly again.] You know I won't, Gellert. I've looked at it more times than I'm able to count.

[greatestgood]

Have you, at least, perused the good memories too? [There were some of those. He frowns, stubborn.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Yes, but not nearly as often. And if I am truthful, Gellert, seeing them through a Pensieve was painful in its own right.

[greatestgood]

We will make more. They will outweigh the bad. Somehow. [He isn't sure how to do it, but it has to be done.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

We can. Seeing you here has been lovely. Those memories, even though they are recent, are sweet to me.

[greatestgood]

Being with you has been sweet. You're more beautiful than I remember and I thought you couldn't exceed my memories of you.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

You really are too kind, Gellert. But seeing you has been wonderful. More than I could have hoped for before.

[greatestgood]

Your school and your students... They do keep you happy, don't they?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

They do. I know if may not be what you'd have imagined for me, but they truly do.

[greatestgood]

...I wish I could see it.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Perhaps you will one day.

[greatestgood]

Would I live there with you for the school year?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Only if you could behave yourself.

[greatestgood]

That is asking a lot of me.

But the incentives are nice.