#tsod spoilers

[ourgreatergood]

I posted 545 times in 2022

That's 450 more posts than 2021!

20 posts created (4%)

525 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@cinnamoncountess

@yumbledore

@folklorealbus

@love-arrogance-naivety

@lemon-drops-and-acid-pops

I tagged 82 of my posts in 2022

#grindeldore - 38 posts

#gellert grindelwald - 24 posts

#fb - 22 posts

#nicolas fantastic fanfiction - 21 posts

#hp - 18 posts

#albus dumbledore - 18 posts

#fantastic beasts - 15 posts

#tsod - 11 posts

#nicolas ordinary life - 9 posts

#tsod spoilers - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 67 characters

#i posted this on 4th of july 2019 and just stumbled across it again

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I wrote a little something inspired by Heaven (from the OST of Secrets of Dumbledore) - of course it’s about Albus and Gellert.

It may contain some spoilers for Secrets of Dumbledore, though, so beware!

33 notes - Posted April 9, 2022

#4

if you take angstier prompts: perhaps something with Dumbledore actually being seriously hurt after his battle with Credence/Aurelius, and Grindelwald having some weird angst session about it? (like he still was the one who sent him after Dumbledore with the intent of Dumbledore dying, but when it now becomes a real possibility, he realizes that he really doesnt want him dead?)

Thank you very much! So, I changed the set up a bit because it gave me a reason to explore a theory of mine concerning Gellert’s intentions with Credence, but I tried to capture the gist of Gellert’s angst session! Hope you enjoy! (Also yes, I tried to keep the technicalities of all the magical aspects very vague here bc it would’ve turned too long and honestly I have no idea how everything’s going to work out, either, don’t mind that.)

It was funny how Sight and reality could deviate. When he’d set up the boy to combat Albus he had done so with the conviction that Aurelius would never actually be able to harm Albus. Not clever, powerful Albus. Not Albus, who could shake the world with a flip of his wand. That was exactly why he’d set Credence up to do it.

Hurting Albus physically, magically was almost impossible. (Except for himself, Gellert knew.) But there were a million other ways to hurt a man and Gellert knew all of them and then some more for Albus, simply because he knew him so intimately.

Set up a boy he cares about to fight him. Force him to relive the moment they’d all lost control, yet Gellert was the one to be blamed for. Force him to hurt the boy. All that would do more damage to Albus than any spell ever could, he’d been sure of it.

Of course, he knew that Aurelius would never stand a chance against Albus, despite his vision. Admittedly, he had been curious about how it would play out. How Fate would fit in with the reality he was creating.

He had not expected this, though.

As always, he had forgotten about Albus’s stupid noble heart. Perhaps it was because he could not even imagine the kindness Albus was willing to show that he always underestimated this part of the equation, but once again it had literally blown up in his face.

How in Merlin’s name should he have anticipated that Albus was willing to die for that stupid boy? How could he have imagined that Albus would take the whole blow of the Obscurus and some strange magic Gellert had never seen before but that he was sure Albus had come up with, with the help of Scamander?

Now that his plan had worked out (it hadn’t since this had never really been his plan to begin with) and Fate was seeming to get her way, he realised that he’d been wrong once again. The fear he’d felt, when he’d had that vision was not because of his opponent. It was the cruel, cold fist of fear that was now squeezing his chest at the sight of Albus, pale and motionless and bleeding, lying on the ground, his friends and his brother rushing towards him.

Aurelius, perfectly fine, probably even better than ever before sat on the ground not far from them, dumbstruck at what had happened. It was Aberforth – of course it was – who dared to call out to him and ask if he was all right and Gellert was uncomfortably reminded of a similar afternoon, a lifetime ago it seemed, only that Albus had slipped his hand in his and asked him in a shaky whisper to please, stay and let me explain.

Albus wasn’t moving now. Theseus Scamander was steadily casting Renervate at his chest and Eulalie Hicks was cushioning his bleeding head on her cloak, but nothing happened.

Even from the other side of the plaza he’d felt Albus’s magic vibrating in the air all around them, before. It had been so distinctly familiar that it had almost driven him crazy, but now there was nothing. His own magic was searching, almost desperately, for that familiar trace, for the strings so intricately connected to his own but came up empty.

A feeling unknown to him, like a dark shadow surfacing from the depths of his being, began to rise in his body, constricting his lungs and throat, squeezing his chest, replacing his blood with ice water.

He was constantly surrounded by death these days, he’d told the members of alliance time and again that Albus was the greatest danger to their cause, when he’d been angry, he’d imagined hurting him, but now the prospect of Albus, the only person on this damn earth that it was really worth talking to, the only one, who’d ever been able to understand his mind, the only one, who’d ever known him – gone?

No, he’d never wanted this. He didn’t want this. That stubborn fool couldn’t leave him alone in this shameful world!

If he refused to see how brilliant they could be together for the rest of his damn life, fine, but he couldn’t leave him for good! Albus couldn’t just take his only connection away like that by dying.

He only noticed that his body had started shaking from the tension in his muscles, when Vinda touched his arm, muttering: “We should go.”

“No, wait,” he told her, still observing how Albus’s friends were trying to breathe life back into him. He knew they wouldn’t let him approach them and he couldn’t be seen helping Albus Dumbledore, but all his impulses were pushing him to stride over and pour out all his magic and remind Albus’s blood that it was still bound to earth, bound to life.

“The Aurors will be here soon,” Vinda said. And she was right. They needed to be gone soon, but he couldn’t as long as he wasn’t sure that Albus would live. He watched as Aurelius slowly, carefully stumbled over to the group of people surrounding Albus and for the second time that day he witnessed magic he had never seen before. (He wasn’t sure anyone had seen it before; they were definitely pushing the boundaries of known magical territory.)

He would never understand what it was with phoenixes and the Dumbledores but for a moment he did not care. There was blinding red and gold like a flame and then he could feel the familiar presence of Albus’s magic filling the plaza again, no matter how weak it seemed, and the next moment a dozen Aurors apparated all over the place.

Vinda’s eyes had already widened with fear, when he finally gave her permission to go, following with merely a last glance at Albus’s slowly moving form.

37 notes - Posted March 5, 2022

#3

Promise

This is for @darkangelis, who requested: They meet in secret throughout the war because they can’t stay away from each other but Albus feels so guilty about it he starts to suffer from panic attacks. They normally happen after Gellert has left but one time Albus can’t stop one coming on while he’s still there. Gellert comforts him through it.

I absolutely LOVED writing this, it was very therapeutic and I do love making Albus suffer, so thank you very much for this! I hope you enjoy it!

TW panic attacks

Albus was wondering time and again how he got into all the comfortable hotel rooms in various countries on the continent and in the end he always came up with one simple answer: He wanted to.

He wanted to, even though he knew it was wrong. He wanted to, even though he knew that no decent man would’ve ever done it. He wanted to, even though he despised himself for it.

He never told anyone about it, naturally. Who could he tell? Nobody would understand and the shame he felt over it was so overwhelming that it sealed his lips tightly shut. Perhaps that was the reason for the increasingly severe sessions of discomfort that had started to follow those encounters with Gellert. (Perhaps discomfort was not quite right considering that his throat was so constricted he couldn’t breathe and his body was shaking so much he wasn’t even sure it was his own anymore.)

Back when he’d been eighteen and broken after that summer Nicolas had told him that speaking about it, no matter how hard or impossible it seemed, would relieve him. He’d been right. He’d poured it all out one night, fully expecting Nicolas to tell him what he already knew: that there was something wrong with him. But Nicolas had done no such thing. He’d been kind and understanding and encouraging and somehow that had saved him.

But he wasn’t eighteen anymore and none of this could be blamed on youthful carelessness, on accidents or ignorance. He knew perfectly well who Gellert was and he knew perfectly well what he was doing. Not even Nicolas could tell him there was no shame in that.

He forgot about all that, the moment Gellert kissed him. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, no matter how much he’d tried to suppress it, his heart was longing for it. He was suddenly reminded that his whole being wanted nothing more but to be with Gellert. He remembered everything he’d dreamed of as a boy, of Gellert by his side, of them growing old together. He certainly hadn’t imagined it like this, but if this was all that he would get, he had to take it, no matter how much it hurt him, no matter how wrong it was.

In the beginning a small part of him had hoped that perhaps, Gellert would change his mind, leave his path and return to him, but their irregular meetings continued for more than three decades now and if anything Gellert had become only more determined with his cause.

They weren’t meeting very often, they couldn’t afford it and Albus suspected that the long breaks were doing nothing for his emotional stability. It was always enough time to let him get over the dark pit of guilt and shame and contempt he fell into right after such an encounter. It was even enough time to let him forget how much it hurt every time Gellert left, every time he had to beat himself up afterwards. It was so much time that his heart started missing Gellert again, despite everything. So much time that, when he made a fascinating magical discovery, he instantly thought of sharing it with Gellert until the second passed and reality crept back in that he could not simply tell Gellert about it.

Sometimes this downward spiral was delayed when he heard especially atrocious rumors about what Gellert and his Alliance were doing and he was forcefully reminded of all the blood on Gellert’s hands but even that could not deter him, whenever he found himself faced with a chance encounter or one of Gellert’s subtle invitations. (It was the only dignity he could retain: He would never ask for a meeting, although lately he wasn’t sure anymore if it didn’t make him more pathetic that he came running each time Gellert called.)

Now, though, he found himself once again in a hotel room in a small French village near Versailles (of all places, of course!) with his robe on the floor and Gellert’s hands all over his body.

It was what he would’ve dreamed of at eighteen. A cozy room, a warm summer breeze toying with the curtains leading out to the balcony, a rich country. Foolishly, he’d not imagined a war, he’d not imagined the most powerful wand in the world to have drawn so much blood just the day before Gellert was running it up his leg, vanishing his undergarments.

Gellert’s teeth were grazing the crook of his neck and he felt the thrill of it running through his body, but it was oddly distant. Gellert’s hands and lips on his skin, which had been fire before, emptied his head and had him craving more were suddenly obscured by numbness. Before he knew what was happening, before he could try to do anything about it, his breath was coming in shallow gasps – not of the good kind -, he desperately tried to fill his lungs with oxygen but not air could reach it, his throat was constricted. He could feel his body shaking and tears escaping his eyes, running down his cheeks of their own volition.

“Albus?” He could hear Gellert’s voice, could even recognize the concern in it but he couldn’t speak. His body had forgotten how to obey him, how to do anything but shake with the uncontrollable feeling of dread and doom that was filling out his chest.

“Albus!” Gellert’s hand found his and he could squeeze it, so tightly he was almost worried he could hurt Gellert, but he couldn’t let go. Once his hand had closed around it, it refused any commands his hazy mind might make.

“It’s all right, Albus. Breathe. Slowly.”

Uncontrollable, embarrassing sobs were escaping his mouth as he desperately tried to do as Gellert told him. He tried to get a hold of his breathing again, tried to suck in air slowly.

“Albus. You’re safe, you’re all right. Breathe in and out. In and out.” Gellert was squeezing his hand back, while he was slowly succeeding in slowing down his breathing. “Hey, do you remember the first time we met? You had the tale of the three brothers memorized… There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight.”

“In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across,” his mind supplied automatically. He could feel the tears subside and his body stopped shaking. “However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water.” He could feel Gellert’s hand in his again, the room came into focus again and with it Gellert’s face. His body was listening to him again. He loosened the grip on Gellert’s hand and drew a few shaky but controlled breaths before he slowly sat up.

Gellert pulled the sheets over them and leaned back against the headrest of the bed, while Albus ran his hands over his face and tried to collect the rest of his sanity.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. He felt drained like all energy had been plucked from his body. Here he was now, in a hotel room in France, naked with Europe’s most wanted man next to him and all he wanted was to be somewhere else, to be someone else. He could feel tears rising in his throat again and closed his eyes. It was embarrassing enough to have been so vulnerable in front of Gellert once today, he could not bear a second time. But Merlin, he was sure that this war, that Gellert, that his own despicable traitorous heart would break what he’d tried to put back together years ago.

“Don’t be. Did I do anything – ?” Gellert asked.

He took the hands from his face and shook his head and he almost had to laugh. “No.” He turned his head to look at Gellert, who was watching him curiously (he even imagined there was still a concerned spark in his eyes). “No, it was nothing you did. This just – happens sometimes.”

Of course, it was everything Gellert did outside of this room, outside of this bed. Of course, it was everything Albus didn’t do. It was everything he did do with Gellert. He leaned back against the headrest as well. They wouldn’t be doing a lot today, at least.

“It wasn’t always this bad,” Gellert said and he was right. When he’d been younger, there had been occasions when it had been hard to breathe, when he’d felt similar dread take over his body and he’d taken to recounting magical laws and literature in his head to get through it, but it had been controllable.

“No, that is a recent development,” he sighed.

“Why do you think that is?”

See the full post

40 notes - Posted March 6, 2022

#2

if you take anon prompts, how about Gellert realizing his feelings for Albus? Perhaps he previously though he only wanted to manipulate Albus to make him stay, but suddenly he realizes that his feelings actually are real ones.

Thank you very much! I am taking anon prompts, always feel free to send them! :) this turned into a bit of a character study for Gellert, but I do hope you enjoy it!

It was fascinating. Albus was the most brilliant person in the world. His mind was sharp and precise like a razor blade, yet vast and creative and unconventional. He was the only person really worth talking to, if one was to ask Gellert. And he was so magnificently powerful, too. The way Albus did magic, felt magic was the most beautiful, intriguing spectacle Gellert had ever witnessed. Magic flowed through Albus like blood, he directed the matter around him effortlessly, he altered the earth with a flick of his wrist, he took the most ancient incantations and made them his own.

Albus was everything he had never dreamed to find. An equal in mind and might. Someone he’d never thought could even exist.

It was dazzling, thrilling, that he had chosen a path of fate that led him right to Albus. It was exactly what his plans had needed, without his knowing. What the world had needed.

And yet Albus was so different. He had a warm, noble heart and a kind soul, so much that Gellert sometimes wondered how a mind like his could bear the confinement of his virtue. For all his brooding and rightful bitterness that came with the duty of caring for his siblings, he sternly refused any talk of abandoning them. Albus was patient with even the most dimwitted of people (Gellert was sure that Aberforth was the only one to ever successfully push him into losing his temper.) and he tried to see light in even the darkest of people. Muggles had ripped his family apart and yet, he did not harbor any intimate rancour against them.

Gellert would have thought it foolish if it hadn’t been Albus. He could not say that he agreed with Albus’s gentleness, but he knew that he didn’t have to, anyway. Their plans remained the same and he was more than happy to let Albus care for the muggles in their scheme, while he cared for wizardkind. That’s what they did after all - complement each other. That was why they would change the world for the better, they would create a world for all of humanity. They bore that responsibility together. For The Greater Good, as Albus had so fittingly put it.

He had to admit it took him a few days longer than it usually did to notice the way Albus was looking at him. Not because Albus was very good at hiding it. He was not. Actually, for such a private person, for all the secrecy he’d lived with since he was a young child, for someone with such rhetoric skill - he was exceptionally bad at hiding his affection.

No, he merely had been so caught up in his own admiration for Albus that he hadn’t realized what the faint nervous flutter of Albus’s magic meant, whenever they were especially caught up in an intense debate. Or the lingering stares or the more frequent excuses to touch, however innocently. It was by accident (almost) that he discovered Albus was a lot more lenient with his more forceful suggestions, when they were touching while discussing them (even if it was only their knees brushing, or his arm on the headrest of Albus’s chair).

He respected Albus more than anybody else, so he was reluctant to use this advantage too often. And he was also aware that while Albus was even more willing than usual to see brightness in him, where he was sure was only dark, Albus was no fool and would not simply be played.

He had to admit it sent a very pleasant rush of power through him to have the single other most powerful wizard of their time at his fingertips, willing to be pushed, surrendering control to him. He was sure, Albus was inclined to do anything (almost anything) he would ask of him.

And yet, he had to wonder, why he was so reluctant to play those strings of Albus’s heart whenever the opportunity arose. He’d discovered that a simple kiss could make Albus forget about a lot of admonitions and yet he had rather spent an evening discussing the morales and necessities of the Imperius curse.

Later that night in bed, he examined his uncharacteristic hesitancy and all he could stumble upon were Albus’s crystal blue eyes that shone with so much warmth and affection that it sent an odd sensation right to his stomach.

He had never considered… any of his feelings, really. He got angry sometimes, furious, so much that hot rage was the only thing to fill his body and he had to act on his impulses then. He felt dread when he could feel a vision nearing and often even afterwards. He felt excitement and triumph, when he accomplished academic goals or succeeded in overcoming a particularly difficult problem. Rarely, he could even feel his pride, most prominently, when it had taken a blow.

But apart from that?

He knew that Albus had fallen in love with him, but he had never stopped to consider what it felt like to be loved by the only human he admired.

He thought of Albus’s warmth again. Of the twinkling of his eyes, of the tenderness with which his fingertips had traced the lines on his hand only yesterday. He thought of the pleasure of being so thoroughly understood that he sometimes felt like his mind was directly connected to Albus’s. He thought of the strange new desire that had overcome him to feel Albus’s lips on his the other day.

He had never felt like that for anyone.

It was an early evening, when he realized that, despite his certainty that love, which had been oustandingly absent from his life until then, was not for him - perhaps, Albus would show him yet another kind of magic.

They knew each other three weeks now, of which they had spent every possible second in each other’s company and had filled their absence with a steady flow of letters. He felt like he knew Albus inside out and the only topic he had ever expressed reluctance for was divination.

Yet, when Gellert collapsed in the middle of his room, in the middle of an animated discussion with a vision, that was so forceful he had no chance to control it in any way, Albus caught him.

He didn’t ask stupid questions. He didn’t try to stop him from shaking with dread after icy fear had been the dominant theme of his vision. Albus didn’t doubt him, not even for a second.

He held him until the shaking stopped and listened to what he’d seen with a very serious, very thoughtful expression.

“What do you think?” He asked, perhaps a little harshly and Albus blinked. He knew he’d dragged him out of a very complex thought process, but Gellert knew that Fate and Sight did not work systemically as he’d liked it and he didn’t need Albus trying to figure out what could not be figured out yet.

“I think that I want to be there, whenever this happens to you again. I hope I can be there,” Albus said, squeezing his hand, almost as if he was making a request.

Something shifted then. It wasn’t magic, at least he thought it wasn’t, but he noticed clearly that strings inside him vibrated and wove together that he hadn’t known before. Somehow his chest was filled with emotions that wanted to spill out of him and the only one that he could recognize was relief. He hadn’t even known he’d feared Albus’s rejection of this part of him he knew he would understand the least. But now that Albus was looking at him only with love and worry and a little bit of wonder, the overwhelming desire to kiss him, overcame him again.

Kiss him, drown in him, become one with him. He’d never felt the urge to be so close to someone before. He’d never felt his heart beating like that before. He’d never felt so complete before.

And he knew that he wanted to be with Albus for the rest of his life. He simply, purely wanted it for the sake of his beating heart.

47 notes - Posted February 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Okay, since I wrote that long rant about how I imagine Albus being neurodivergent (more specially autistic and suffering from anxiety) and how it’s always prevalent in my mind, whenever I write him, I’m also sharing it on here:

‪I think it’s especially apparent in his relationship with his siblings (apart from the whole world calling him “eccentric” multiple times), but I always imagine that Aberforth (who I imagine to be incredibly empathetic) is very good with ‬Ariana bc they’re just well neurotypical kids (until Ariana’s incident) and Albus is - well - not. Always caught up in books, which to me, read: hyperfixation, which other kids consider weird and which adults consider adorable up to a point where he seems to be almost anti social bc he is so caught up in his mind that he doesn’t play with the other kids (I magine Kendra to be very ambiguous here too, very proud of her ‘gifted child’ but also at dinner she’d say things like “don’t you have anything else to talk about but that fairy tale?”, “you should go and play with the other kids more often” and he’d say “yes mother”, but really he’d feel very much like an alien in his own home) and Aberforth is just accepting him the way he is, he’s the one, who punches other kids, if they make fun of his weird brother, he’s the one, who listens to Albus’s ramblings about the three brothers even though he doesn’t care about it

And then Ariana is attacked and everythings falls apart and Aberforth is so good with Ariana bc he is just good at accepting people the way they are and Albus is terrified bc even with healthy people he always seems to say the wrong stuff at the wrong time, how is he supposed to interact with Ariana, who seems to have a breakdown at the littlest thing?

And then he goes to school and he’s brilliant and admired and suddenly his gift and power outweighs his eccentricities and he is kind and friendly and polite enough that people like him and his friends are nice and also he’s learned that people don’t want to hear hour long deliberations about fairy tales or dragons or magic, no matter how fascinating he finds it, he has learned the technicalities of lying, of keeping secrets, of holding back, not only because Mother told him to, but also because not revealing his true self was usually the best option, bc no matter how nice people seemed, they still made him feel alien one way or another, wether that is because he talked a little too much about transfiguration, because he can’t stop his leg from bouncing bc he doesn’t even notice but other people do and they find it annoying or simply bc as much as they don’t understand him, he doesn’t get what they’re on about either with their parties and ever changing love interests and gossip, but he learns to seem interested

I also imagine him learning legilimency initially in hopes to understand the people around him more, to connect with his family more, but it ultimately ends up (mostly) with people being annoyed bc he’s looking into their heads

And Aberforth, obviously also very much burdened by the fate of the family and angry about pretty much everything bc what are they even doing? Does love his brother and he knows how he is, but he also needs his older brother and he really has zero nerves to spare and Ariana needs his care while Albus seems to be sufficiently great at school and he really doesn’t understand why it’s so difficult for Albus to be good at school but not good at home, when they all love him

And then Mother dies and Gellert arrives and Gellert is the first and only person, who doesn’t make him feel like an alien, he actually likes to hear Albus’s thoughts, even for hours on end on the same topic (the Hallows for one, Gellert can talk about just as much, so he doesn’t even feel guilty or like a burden, bc he can actually believe he is not too much for Gellert) and how incredible is that? And Gellert is understanding, Gellert knows how his mind works bc his is the same! And what he’s feeling for Gellert is amazing but also so overwhelming and he really cannot focus on his siblings’ needs, which are a whole different can of worms (here comes in anxiety bc how in the name of Merlin is he supposed to manage that? And change is hard anyway and he’d just planned this whole tour and it should have been him shining and all, how everyone has always predicted and he really doesn’t want to be responsible bc he also not good at it, but magic, that’s what he’s good at)

48 notes - Posted March 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[threeimagineryboys]

I've seen some people online saying how shipping Grindeldore is gross due to what Gellert stands for.

I think that's exactly why Grindeldore is such an interesting ship.

We know Dumbledore as this loving and protective character; the greatest wizard of all time. Even the bloody qilin bowed for him.

And yet even he still loves this twisted dark wizard.

We need to know more about Grindelwalds background. I love how Mads said that he believes something bad happened to his family which is why he's carrying this hate around and spreading it.

There has to be more to the story and I NEED IT NOW!!!!

[tearblossom]

As we all know, the aspect of their relationship that’s the most beautiful yet simultaneously the most tragic is how they never fell out of love. Even after everything that happened and all of their years apart, the intensity of that love never dimmed. Both of them only ever loved one man in the entirety of their lifetimes.. each other. I’ve heard it said that the breaking of the blood pact “changed everything” and that “nothing will ever be the same again” between them. 

It’s so ironic because the breaking of the pact did, in a way, “change everything” but in the cruelest way given the circumstances and not in the way that one might think upon seeing a couple “getting divorced.” In my opinion, it only made them love each other more, which tragically only made things that much more difficult for them. And at the same time, it changed nothing. They still can’t bring themselves to kill one other, pact or no pact. In their hearts, there was no “divorce” and never will be.

Albus had an expression of sheer panic when Gellert tried to kiss him and it wasn’t because he was turned off by how evil Gellert was or because he thought him undeserving of his love. It was because he would have kissed him back. He would have comforted the man he loves. He had to remove himself from the situation entirely and he had to do it fast lest he falter in his resolve. As others have pointed out, he did what was right, not what was easy. 

[hannahtheshipper]

*the internal duel scene ends*

Gellert: *internally* shit, this bitch has the audacity to divorce me AND walk away? No fucking way! Say something, say something, make him stop!

Gellert: *aloud* Who will love you now?

Gellert: Shit this didn’t go as planned

[dumbledore-and-grindelwald]

The Secrets of Dumbledore  had some great moments during which Dumbledore’s subtle arrogance, his tendency to focus on the greater good first and to manipulate in its service, and overall the fact that he is chaotic good, shined through.

-When Grindelwald asks Dumbledore how the blood troth feels around his neck, Albus leans in, softens his expression and tells him “we can free each other” with a casual smile on his face. Gellert looks like he’s been slapped.

-When he meets Theseus and Newt: Albus: Has Newt told you why you’re here. Theseus: Was he meant to? Albus: *sassily laughing his ass off* No. As a matter of fact.

-The way he uses his gloves and the cheeky manner in which he takes out the documents Newt needs to get to Theseus.

-Albus: *calls the Erkstag the German ministry’s little bed and breakfast* The prisoners are left to spend their nights and to be eaten.

-Albus: Professor Hicks… assuming you’re not otherwise engaged… *sassily* frankly, even if you are…

-When Newt asks about the case, one of the most important things in his life, Albus casually tells him that it’s in good hands and leaves without any other explanation, while Newt has a lost expression and his hand is still clenched as if he’s holding the case.

-When the gang is at Hogwarts Albus starts by congratulating them and when Theseus is surprised he mentions Newt, Jacob and Lally’s contribution. Then: Albus: And you are alive… and you ‘re well. […] Theseus:  Albus, forgive me, but aren’t we right back where we started? Albus: Actually I would argue that things are…*seemingly thinks of a way to argue in favor of the plan* a great deal worse.

-*Newt says something correct* Albus: Three points to Hufflepuff.

-Albus: Aberforth here will prepare you a delicious dinner; his own recipe. Aberforth: *internally screaming*

-When Newt cannot recognize his case on sight: Albus: Good, I’d be worried if you could *chuckles*.

-Albus: If by teatime the Qilin, not to mention all of us are still alive, we should consider our efforts a success.  Jacob: For the record, no one ever died playing Three-Card Monte.  Albus: An important distinction.

-When the gang is in the room of requirement, Bunty was there before the others entered and the real case was the closest one to her. When Jacob picks a case, he chooses the one in front of Newt but Dumbledore directs him to choose another. Newt notices and is fixed on THAT case thinking that it’s his own. This was such a classic case of Dumbledore’s casual manipulation.

-Albus cares about Credence, but he accepts fast that he cannot save him and he also can’t help seeing that he may be useful in helping against Grindelwald. While he is fast to instinctively use a counterspell when Grindelwald attacks, when Aberforth tried to approach earlier Albus held him back because Grindelwald being publically confronted by someone who was close to him is their best chance. This is a noticeable instance of Albus’ first instinct being to look at the bigger picture and make a choise that is risky but seems to be the one with the best possible outcome.

[heartoftheserpent]

After watching The Secrets of Dumbledore I really understand why Dumbledore is just always so disappointed in Voldemort

like he hasn’t faced anyone for decades, finally he’s facing someone who’s both so powerful he doesn’t need to hold back and so vile he gets to fully cut loose, and Voldemort is just constantly using human shields and flying around refusing to face him

Albus FINALLY has someone he can fight and use his true power against, someone it’s RIGHT to fight, he can cut loose like his husband who is in prison for fully being a supervillain, this is finally his “aren’t you tired of being nice? don’t you just want to go apeshit?” moment

and Voldemort never even has the guts to FACE him instead of constantly running away and setting up weird traps and riddles and murdering innocents, this is WAY less fun than fighting his ex

i’d be so mad lmao

[raccoonrabbit]

Huh.

So the secrets was that BOTH dumbledore brothers boned...

[ohthetasteofhoney]

[apoembymiria]

I wish thinking about... oh, we were closer that brothers... we can free each other... what you’re doing is madness... it’s what you said we’d do... committed to me, to us... because i was in love with you... with or without your help, id burn down their world, albus... love, arrogance, naive, pick your poison... we were young, we were gonna transform the world... who will love you now, dumbledore?... you are all alone... can help me pass my finals

[sweetbutdevil]

TSOD

Here's the thing, I've already seen TSOD about three times and I wanted to make some comments about grindeldore bcs I love them. -Cafeteria scene: boyyyyy everyone looking for the dark magician of the moment and he simply... meets him to drink... tea (that's love, bitches). How nervous Dumbeldore was to see him (I'm expecting someone). As soon as Grindelwald appears we can observe an increase in Dumbeldore's blinks (which usually indicates that your brain is processing too many emotions at once), the smiles, the TENSION in the environment

BECAUSE I WAS IN LOVE WITH YOU (as far as this is concerned, the use of "was"), does that mean not anymore? Is it because he talks about the past? In my opinion Grindelwald was the only love of his life, since, in the rest of the saga we can see that Dumbeldore does not fall in love with anyone else.

The number of times Dumbledore uses "Gellert and I" or takes advantage of any moment or conversation to highlight the fact of how in love he is with him (just the fucking fact that he A LOT of times (even then) refers to him as "Gellert" (just melts my heart)

-The battle: one of the scenes with more tension and sadness of the entire movie. Knowing that you have to fight with the love of your life because the magical world is what it expects of you... omfg I just want to cry. The moment of "hands on the chest", the sound of their hearts, all the time around them stops, it's just the two of them looking into each other's eyes, noticing the other's heartbeat, what would each one think?they separate (we can see how Grindelwald takes a step forward) why? The safest thing is that deep down, as we all know Grindelwald has always had that manipulative part, he knows that he is in control of the relationship, Albus was simply "blinded" by love and the power and ideas of Grindelwald, BUT, Albus separates, doesn't let him invade his personal space and... without Grindelwald expecting it, Dumbeldore simply... turns around and turns his back on him (Grindelwald has just been rejected by Albus), you can see the change of expression on his face, the desperation of being rejected, by someone who for him, he would think would never say no. In the face of the overwhelm, he shouts almost desperately: Who will love you now, Dumbeldore? , knowing that, there will be no one who will be able to love. And to his surprise... he simply tells him that he is alone.

After finishing the battle we can see how Grindelwald "throws back" off the cliff. People look out to see what happened and... we can see the desperation on Albus's face (thinking if he got hurt in the fall?), he will always care about Gellert no matter what. -The fact that he collects the remaining pieces of the pact and despite everything he continues to keep them (and he kept the rest of the years, I will talk about this later)

--Wedding scene: OMFG, yes, the cafeteria scene and the fight killed me inside but WTF, "grindeldore" goes through a "divorce period" and they make poor Albus attend a wedding??? omg my poor boy Everyone is happy, everyone is reconciled, the "accepted" standards of love are those that survive, those that have happiness but, what about them? It's just not what "is well seen" for which, no it will have a happy ending :( And already , in the scene in which Albus looks into the cafeteria , he smiles for those who are happy , for love , for happiness ( because as we know Albus is one of the characters that defends love throughout the saga , even to Harry he explains several times that, above all, the most important thing is love), when HE is the only person he has not been able to love (I am broken inside) -Already at the end of the saga, when Albus dies, we can observe several things: Grindelwald tried to prevent Voldemort from going to Dumbeldore's grave and one of the things that he now understood and that hurts me the most: we can observe that a phoenix arrives later at Grindelwald's cell with something shiny around his neck (IT WAS THEM, IT WAS THE BLOOD PACT) simply together until eternity, because love, if it doesn't survive in life, will survive in death.

[sweetiebriar]

'A son cruelly banished

Despair of the daughter

Return, great avenger

With wings from the water.'

Tycho Dodonus, Prophecy 20.

TSOD SPOILER.

I’ve just been re-reading the Crimes of Grindelwald screenplay, and suddenly wondered: We know the prophecy was proven not to be about the Lestrange family, but could it still be related to the Dumbledore family somehow?

It’s very raw thinking, but hear me out:

A son cruelly banished - could still refer to Credence/Aurelius Dumbledore. As Aberforth’s lover was discovered to be pregnant, she was sent away, forcibly separated from Abe, and their newborn son boarded with (probably) family members on a ship for America. Moreover, in Secrets of Dumbledore, Gellert also convinced Aurelius that he had been banished by his family, that his brothers rejected him, and that his parents Kendra & Percival didn’t want him.

Despair of the daughter - This one is tricky, but as with any prophecies it needs to be interpreted. I believe the daughter here refers to Ariana and her despair to the Obscurus. Something that both Ariana and Credence/Aurelius share. Despair also in the sense of the Dumbledores already suffered such tragedy before through Ariana (whose Aberforth was very close), and must suffer it again through Aurelius, Abe’s own son. It’s a double pain, a punishment. As if the family was cursed by fate itself.

Return, great avenger - During Secrets of Dumbledore, Credence/Aurelius believed to be the forgotten son, the banished "brother". He left Nurmengard when learning that Albus was in Berlin. He followed him in the streets and waited for him to be alone before attacking. He sought revenge, he sought answers. He returns to his "brother" to avenge his abandonment.

With wings from the water - Let’s start with the last part which is the easiest to link. The ship sunk, filled with water, and Credence (then thought to be Corvus) is miraculously saved. He has risen from the water, reborn like a phoenix from its ashes. And then come the first part: The wings of a Phoenix. The Dumbledores' emblem. The family pet. Fawkes who has followed Aurelius since Crimes of Grindelwald. Who was there to watch over him in his agony in Secrets of Dumbledore, protecting him at the end of his duel with Albus, comforting him in Nurmengard when he was receiving the messages of his father (who he didn't know was his father at this time) on the mirror.

Well, that’s simply theories on my part and it might just completely be rubbish. But at the same time, prophecies have such important meaning in HP, and always have proven to be true (thinking especially about Trelawney here). So I don’t think this one would have been thrown into the narrative only to be denied later once Leta’s whole plot was uncovered. Then again, this could still refer to the Dumbledores, but can be interpreted differently from what I did. If you want to take a guess, please be my guest.

[threeimagineryboys]

The reason why I believe that Dumbledore will go rogue in the next film:

People have kept on asking for him to fight and stop Grindelwald.

He has promised to stop him, but fight him? No.

They are yet to realise, something that I believe Albus himself realised at the end of Fantastic Beasts The Secrets of Dumbledore.

The blood pact wasn’t the only reason why he couldn’t move against him. His love for him is eternal. He sees his image staring back at him from the mirror of erised.

Grindelwald is his hearts deepest, most desperate desire.

[hannahtheshipper]

Another thing I noticed while rewatching TSoD is Minerva calling Grindelwad “Gellert” while talking to Albus. I mean, supportive sis clearly knows things. I’m here for at least a little bit of expanding their friendship. She’s just so supportive and caring for Albus while delivering the message about vindicating Grindelwald’s crimes. Same thing in TCoG’s when she’s speaking with Albus in the “It was all very mundane, I’m fine” iconic scene.

[dumbledore-and-grindelwald]

What did you interpret the line who will love you now Dumbledore to mean? Was it grindelwald telling him that he was no longer in love with him and nobody else would/could love him?

Nope.

At this point Albus has started walking away. Gellert's expression is actually hurt and he even takes a step back and steadies himself, if I recall.

I think that:

He did not mean that he doesn't love him, but that Dumbledore won't HAVE a person who loves him. In the beginning of the movie Grindelwald is absolutely absorbed by seeing Dumbledore after so much time UNTIL Dumbledore mentions that they could free one another from the bond. At that point he looks hurt and then he retaliates. Throughout the movie I got the sense that Grindelwald, liking the ensurance that Dumbledore can't move against him while the bond is in place aside, views the bond as a last point of connection that exists even if Albus has shut every other door.

I think that his comment is an unhealthy way of him showing his pain and his way of saying that Dumbledore just completely shut out the one person that really loves him. Funnily enough, it's even more tragic because thereafter Albus never had a person that loved him as much as Grindelwald did, which is quite tragic and poetic.

Another thing: Even after that line, he says something along the lines of 'I was never your enemy, not then or now'. He says it to a crowd but he has turned to Albus and they have locked eyes with each other. If he thought, even in his anger, that he didn't love Albus, he wouldn't have said this.

[heartoftheserpent]

Being obsessed with “blood purity” makes no sense for Grindelwald, a gentle rant

The only thing I truly object to in The Secrets of Dumbledore is the idea that Grindelwald cared about magical blood purity.

That’s just literally not part of my canon.

It doesn’t make any sense, it genuinely doesn’t fit with his ideology that magical people are born with the “gift” of power and that gives them the right to rule.

This is what I mean when I say that the FB movies are fanfiction, As far as I’m concerned that’s just part of the in-universe propaganda machine we know is working against him. This isn’t me being #Grindelwaldwasright, I just genuinely think it was in there to try and make him More Obviously Evil, because that’s a kind of magical racism we can easily understand.

And frankly, I think it came about in the movie!verse because when they wrote and filmed CoG initially, a lot of the actors/test audiences found themselves thinking that Grindelwald had a point, he was understandable, he was too sympathetic. So they had to put in way more signposts that he was Obviously Evil.

I want to see a Grindelwald where they actually ask the really hard questions, where they don’t make him kill baby animals and have his followers kill toddlers just to show the audience that He’s A Bad Guy.

My conception of it (I stole some of this from troth) is that his ideology was directly in reaction to a lot of stuff that was going on in the late 1800s - industrialization, the dwindling of wizarding villages, the way that wizards were essentially being driven farther and farther underground. Of course this would have appealed to Albus - his sister was irrevocably hurt, and his father died in prison, because of the Statute of Secrecy. Muggle boys hurt her terribly, and his father couldn’t even go to the authorities for justice because Ariana posed a threat to the Statute of Secrecy.

The vibe is very much that wizards are not safe, and industrial sprawl keeps increasing. It means more and more safe enclaves for wizards are disappearing. Now, it’s understandable that Gellert’s reaction is, “Okay, then we should be in charge so we don’t get smushed out of existence,” but obviously, this becomes intensely complicated by the fact that he sees Muggles as significantly Lesser than wizards. At best, he would see them like children who needed to be guided and helped into making better decisions. At the worst, he would see them as beasts of burden, entirely unable to fend for themselves and useless except as a wizard sees fit to use them.

This is why my conception of his ideology includes the idea that it was very easy for him to reach out to wizards who feel like they, too, are being legislated and oppressed out of existence - those with Creature blood, poor wizards, landless wizards, queer wizards, Muggleborn wizards, etc. That’s why he was able to gain so much traction for so long - not because he hoodwinked everyone, but because he was very very good at saying, “This isn’t your fault. It won’t always be like this. We can burn the whole system down, and you won’t be the one who’s hurt anymore.”

I just think the movies are afraid of making him look too sympathetic, so they’re giving him easy signposts of Villainy instead of trusting fans to engage with complicated methodology. And I’m not even saying they’re wrong, after some simplistic takes I’ve seen on this hellsite.

But yeah my conception of Grindelwald doesn’t give a shit about blood purity because it doesn’t make any sense for him, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[raccoonrabbit]

Secrets of Dumbledore spoiler review

Oh dear me. Where to start.

This movie was so much more interesting than i anticipated.

It started and the whole room (which was almost at full capacity!) went silent. The restaurant scene - everyone held their breath in. I could feel the tension all around, it was such a good start. And it kept going and i was just swept away...

Not one moment where i felt bored, quite the contrary, i felt captivated thourgh it all. The political thriller subplot was absolutely chilling!!!

And fuck me if i didnt fell in love with Mikkelsens Grindelwald <3 Honestly im really tempted to watch it again with the original english, instead of the hungarian dub, just to experience the voice acting as it should be.

And the JOKES? I havent watched cinema in years that had such good humour??? There was like 4 four times where the entire room laughed out loud, it was such a pleasure.

And okay i could rant about a few creative decisions that could have been changed to make it more complex, all plot-wise, but i feel like this movie is just not about the plot, strictly speaking? It was about characters, and feelings and had so much heart and soul <3 it really didnt need another half an hour explaining minor details, it would have broken the illusion.

And lastly, grindeldore. THE love story. They handled it so, so, soooo well. That very last battle with the heartbeats. I never experienced cinema quite like this before, this... emotional intensity. The angst, and the love, all present in one small sequence. Truly magical.

Yeah i really could talk about this for hours.

12/10 movie. Go watch it <3<3<3