Closer Than Brothers

The Blood Pact

Albus woke an hour later, a question burning in his mind. He sat up, found a quill and a blank piece of parchment, and began to write.

Gellert-

There is a minor drawback in our plan. How will we convince people to join us? Of course, the concept in itself is very enticing, but that will not rally enough people to our cause.
We need to show that we are strong, even if we do not possess all three Hallows. How is it possible to convince the public to believe in us as leaders?

△⃒⃘lbus

He rolled up the letter and gave it to his large eagle owl Stella, who took off immediately. And he waited.

Half an hour later, Stella came swooping back with a reply clutched in her beak. Albus eagerly unrolled it, to find only a sentence scribbled on the back of his letter.

Meet me in the woods outside Godric's Hollow at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Don't be late.

Pondering what this could mean and what Gellert was planning, Albus lay back on his bed. Why had it taken Gellert so long to reply, too? Well, he guessed he'd find out tomorrow. Don't be late...

Albus woke early the next morning, got dressed quickly and headed downstairs, his mind buzzing. He hardly noticed what he was eating for breakfast, before he rushed out the door and down the lane towards the little copse of trees at the edge of Godric's Hollow. He reached it, slightly out of breath, and looked down at his watch. He was perfectly on time.

Albus looked around for Gellert, but couldn't see him anywhere. Typical Gellert, saying don't be late and then being late himself.

Suddenly, from somewhere above his head, he heard a voice call down, "up here, Albus!"

Startled, Albus looked up. There, standing on a branch of a tree high above, was Gellert, grinning down at him.

"Catch," said Gellert, and without warning, he stepped casually off of the branch, and began to fall. Panicked, Albus whipped out his wand and urgently muttered an incantation to slow Gellert's fall. Gellert hovered for a moment, a metre off the ground, before collapsing onto the leaf-strewn floor, laughing.

"What was that for?" Albus asked angrily, his heart still beating very fast.

Gellert got up and shook out his hair. "Crazy trust exercise. I needed to know that I could trust you."

"But what if I hadn't reacted fast enough? What if you had hit the floor?"

"Well, I did have my wand on me if anything went wrong..."

Albus sighed with relief. "Oh, thank god. At least you had something to save you if it had gone wrong. So, why are we here? What was so important that it had to be in these woods rather than the graveyard?"

"I didn't want anyone finding us," Gellert took Albus by the arm. "Follow me."

Gellert led him right to the edge of the copse, where a run down barn stood proudly. With a wave of his wand, he undid the heavy padlock holding the doors shut, and led Albus inside.

Albus looked around at the empty barn. "Why—?"

Gellert put a finger to his lips to silence Albus. "Now, this might not help much about what you said in your letter, but it'll give that extra bit of reassurance for me, and hopefully you. I've been thinking hard about it and this is the only way I can think to really be sure it'll work. Now," he took a step forwards, "I've never done this magic before, so I'm not sure what will happen, or what it'll do when it's done."