Sacrifice

I would like to thank my beta, AvidReader2425, for his help in this chapter.

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21st March 1995, Hogwarts

(Dumbledore POV)

Albus Dumbledore woke up with a strange intense pain in his hand. It felt like it was constantly burning. Did he somehow fall asleep with a hand in a fire? Suddenly, he remembered the events of the previous day. He had come to the Gaunt shack to retrieve the only deathly hallow he had never held before. He easily broke the wards and found the ring. He found the stone and tried to put on the ring. Why would he want to put it on? He must have known that Tom would at least curse it.

There must have been some sort of compulsion charm on the ring, and a powerful and subtle one as well since he hadn't noticed when it took hold. The protections were tailored to weaken the intruder mentally, he noted. He tried to move his hand but the agony he felt when even thinking about moving it was enough to get him to scream in pain. This will not do at all. He had to get rid of this curse somehow. For now, he will just not move his hand anymore. Thankfully, he didn't use his wand arm to touch the ring, it would have made things much more troublesome. He couldn't imagine not being to use magic.

With a wave of his wand, he summoned his prize. The ring itself was nothing special, just a gold band but the stone was as he imagined. It thrummed with old and cold magic. It felt like death. With a quick scan with his wand, he determined that Tom's soul piece was only residing in the gold band itself and stayed as much as possible away from the stone. It was funny, in a morbid sort of way, even Tom's horcrux was scared of death.

The dark lord must not have known what the stone truly was to even consider defacing it in such a manner. Albus again, mourned the ignorance of such a brilliant mind. Tom had so much potential. With another flick of his wand, Albus carefully separated the stone from the ring and decided to use his magic analysis spell to determine the spell and craft its counter curse. He found nothing, as far as he knew, the only magic present on the ring was the Horcrux. Tom must have designed the curse to dispel itself from the ring after it finds a victim. It was probably to make sure no one would be able to recognize the curse and cure its victim.

Dumbledore took a look at his cursed hand. From the wrist down, everything was fine. His hand, though, was blackened, and thin, resembling a skeleton's hand. For the most part, the hand felt dead. Albus lamented the fact that his spell didn't work on living beings, they were too complex to be represented using arithmancy, but he could feel the phoenix essence combatting the curse. Neither side was winning, and he could feel his hand being destroyed and regenerated at the same time and it was agonizing.

How he wished that Severus was still here. There were few with as much experience in the dark arts as him. He would recognize the curse immediately and Albus had roped him into an unbreakable vow, so he could trust the man implicitly. He had no one competent enough to help him that he could trust to keep their mouth shut about this. He only had one option left and it disgusted him that he would actually take it. With a pop Albus Dumbledore disapparated from Hogwarts and materialized in front of Nurmengard. It was time for him to see his former partner and lover, Gellert Grindelwald.

Nurmengard was stone fortress at the edge of a mountain. It had a tower with a cone shaped top. Albus had to admit that the castle is still intimidating more then fifty years after its construction. He felt the fortress' impressive wards recognize his magical signature and let him in. The guards silently escorted him to the highest tower, where Gellert was imprisoned in the top-most cell.

Dumbledore was led along the black marble corridors to the single most heavily fortified prison cell in all of Europe. The second he arrived at his destination, Albus flicked his wand making the guards on duty overcome with an overwhelming compulsion to drink some hot black coffee.

He clicked his heels and left. Dumbledore sighed as he strode in effortlessly through the magical protections and closed the outer doors of the cell behind him.

A frail excuse of a wizard lay in front of him, propped up by the wall. His golden hair was a dirty yellow now and his blue eyes had lost the vitality in them that had shook the continent with its gaze once.

"Albus." The haggard man rasped. It was a simple emotionless word, but full of meaning, nonetheless.

"Gellert."

Silence. Seconds ticked by slowly.

"What have you done to yourself, Albus?" Grindelwald said, looking almost horrified.

"A grave mistake, old friend." Albus responded.

"There are things that should not be tampered with. Even in my darkest moments, I knew that. What could have made you do something so foolish?"

"I lost the wand."

The prisoner's answer a couple of seconds of silence and then burst into laughter. Albus waited for minutes for it to die down, he was here for Gellert's help after all.

"Who?" Albus understood the implied question. Gellert wanted to know who the master of the elder wand. Who got one over the mighty Albus Dumbledore?

"A student. She disarmed me in a burst of accidental magic." Albus answered.

Gellert didn't laugh this time. He looked incredulous. He guessed that should be one of most embarrassing way the past wielder of the death stick lost its allegiance.

"She has no idea what she has done or what she accomplished. I still have the wand; it just doesn't belong to me anymore." Albus continued.

Gellert didn't respond to his comment, he looked up at Albus sadly.

"So, you felt it, too. The loss of magic." Gellert whispered.

"Yes. Why did you never tell me?"

"Perhaps it is pride. Or maybe a final revenge. Not a single wielder of the elder wand died with ownership of the wand. They either lost their lives or their magic. And I know how much you value your magic."

"We both know that's not true, Gellert. Now tell me, why did you never tell me that you lost your magic." Albus pressed.

Gellert sighed, "Do you know how pathetic I feel now. Even Wandless, I could have escaped from this infernal prison. I didn't notice at first, I thought it was something to do with the runes carved in these walls. Maybe, some kind of new ward. It was months later that I figured out what had happened, and it broke me. We were always equals Albus. But after our duel, the truth is we were not."

Albus stayed silent.

Gellert continued, "We always had the same dream, Albus. We might have fought over the methods, but we had the same dream, that one day wizards and witches would be able to cast magic without fear, without hiding. Where magic would be celebrated, cherished. A world without wars and death where every magical would know peace."

"And you betrayed that dream when you massacred thousands of magical families." Albus bellowed, "You killed who we swore to protect. You betrayed our dream, Gellert. You may have once wanted to achieve our dream, our greater good, but all you wanted was power."

Gellert snarled back, "Do not pretend that you care about what I did, you only ended our relationship because of Arianna. Do not deny it Albus, you killed her as much as I did. We were drawn towards the same goal of a better future for wizard kind. We were prepared to do what it would take. At least I was."

"What do you mean by that, Gellert?"

Albus' former lover laughed bitterly. "What happened was the plan, Albus. It was my apology for Arianna. I gave you the wizarding world on a silver platter. You see it now. I was never meant to win the war, Albus. I did what you're trying to replicate with that abomination that calls itself a dark lord. A common enemy, being me, allowed the entire wizarding world to unite under one banner, your banner. I did all this for you, yet you spit on my sacrifice, Albus."

Albus didn't dare to utter a word, stunned by Gellert's confession. He always assumed that what he had achieved in his life was because of his own efforts. To know that it was the design of his old lover is shocking.

He didn't even have time to complete his thoughts because Gellert continued, "I really thought you would kill me that day, for Arianna. But you spared my life and doomed me to live the rest of my days in my own mind, in this cursed cell. And now I look at you Albus and I wish I had died that day, so that I wouldn't be able to see what abomination you turned yourself into. Don't look at me like that, I could feel your tainted essence the second I laid my eyes on you."

"It had to be done, Gellert." Albus protested.

"You were scared, Albus, just as I was to tell you about what happened to my magic. Just admit it."

"Alright, I was. I was terrified without my magic. It was so weak, so frail. I couldn't handle it. But Gellert, I'm in trouble and I need your help."

Gellert sighed deeply, "I guess you are the only thing I have left. What happened, Albus?"

"I am marked." Albus turn the area around his heart invisible on his road, showing Gellert the Morrigan's mark.

"The Morrigan… I thought it was a myth." Gellert said, almost reverently.

"What do you know about it?" questioned Albus.

"I came upon it in a very old scroll. It was just some old stories that were told in Mesopotamia. I found it when I was looking for the Hallows. It speaks of a force of nature that marks the unworthy, gods or men, and kills them."

"I found a way to fight her off. It's a chance but it's better than nothing."

"The Morrigan is a force of nature, Albus. You can't fight it."

"The Hallows." Gellert's head snapped at him at the mention of their old obsession.

Albus continued, "Only a true master of death can defeat the goddess of death."

Silence. Seconds ticked by slowly.

"Do... Do you have them?" Grindelwald said, almost pleading.

"I found the stone. I can get the wand and the cloak easily."

"Then why do you need me?" Gellert asked.

"I was caught in a trap when I retrieved the stone. I was cursed." Albus showed his dead hand to him. "Can you recognize it somehow."

Gellert took a sniff at Albus' hand. "Oh, I haven't seen this in a while. A withering curse but a very obscure Sumerian variant modified with blood magic. You were right to get to me, Albus. Anyone else would at best prolong your suffering. The only reason you are still alive is the phoenix essence you stole."

"Is there anyway to remove it?" Albus asked pleadingly.

"Yes. The old counter curse won't be enough. You know the rules of blood magic, Albus. A life for a life. You need a sacrifice that you value at least as highly as your own life."

Gellert kept looking sadly at him. They both knew what was going to happen. Hogwarts' headmaster slowly pointed his wand at Gellert who ignored him and cut his own finger and started to write runes with his blood.

"This is the counter ritual, Albus. There is only one thing left and that's the sacrifice."

Albus kept pointing his wand at Gellert and his hands kept shaking.

The former dark lord smiled peacefully, "It was always meant to be this way, Albus. I should have died when we fought. Death scares me no longer. And it's not like you'll never talk to me again, you have the stone after all." He looked up and looked at Albus' teary eyes. "After all this time?" He asked.

Albus responded, "Always."

"For the greater good."

A green flash of light later and a few silent screams, Albus Dumbledore looked at his healed hand with resentment, like it wasn't worth its price. He spent the whole day modifying the memories of the guards.

It was only a day later that the entire wizarding world was shocked with disbelief. Gellert Grindelwald was dead. Most celebrated, but Albus Dumbledore wasn't available to comment on the news, he did not even show himself all day.