The Greater Good [GrindelwaldxDumbledore]

~Chapter Fourteen ~ The Flaw in the Plan

"No, and yes, in a way," he sighed and leant back in the chair his energy waning. "I'm sure you know about my mother's visions, we'll I guess I was lucky enough to inherit the gift too."

Bathilda made a 'hmmph' noise but didn't outright dismiss his mother's 'gift' as she might have done to anyone else. She was a woman of solid facts and science after all. But still, she couldn't deny that something had happened to her nephew. "What did you see?"

"A problem, a big problem, with few solutions."

"Perhaps I can..."

"The problem isn't really mine to deal with, it's Albus' and I have already offered my advice but he has chosen to ignore it."

"Aberforth?"

"Is ignoring it too, denial is a powerful state of mind, and you can't always fix stupid."

"He'll be going back to school soon, then Albus will be free to..."

Gellert shook his head. "I have a headache, I'm going to go and lie down."

"Gellert, I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine," he smiled weakly, "It's not my problem, he's made that abundantly clear."

In the early hours of the morning Gellert awoke with a start, unsure if the scream he heard was in his dream or coming from the house with the unkempt hedge on the other side of town. His eyes searched the half-light for anything out of place, but his window remained empty of any trace of an owl or note. Disappointed, he pulled himself out of the sweat-soaked sheets and into his clothes.

Grabbing a hunk of bread from the pantry to still his grumbling stomach he let himself out of the house and into the pink morning light. Life in the fields had already begun, many hands working in unison to scythe the long grass in the far meadow and pull it into neat rows to dry. He watched them as he made his way up the hill towards the coach house, thinking how much easier the task would be with magic, a wizard could get the job done in a few hours. 

Cara was happy to see him, she whinnied and kicked at the door. Nudging him affectionately with her large head as he worked his hands over her leathery flesh kicking off the worst of the dust.

"I've been neglecting you haven't I, my friend." He crooned.

Her nose and tongue worked their way over every millimetre of his hands in search of treats. Finding none, she snorted, coating his hand in a fine mist of snot. 

"I deserve that." He slipped a rope over the thestral's neck and tied it in a knot. "Come on, let's go and get you something nice to eat, I saw a healthy crop of rabbits down by the river a few days ago when I was picking water mint." 

Cara budged past him through the door, earning herself a swift telling off and several repetitions of how to walk through the door politely. She kept her head low in a mark of apology but soon perked up as they reached the rotten stump in the grass Gellert used as a mounting block. Excitement made her muscles twitch, her nostrils flaring to their widest point. All it took was the lightest brush of his ankle against her side for her to ping off from the ground with a single powerful beat of her large wings. 

The fresh air felt good, the slight chill invigorating him as they brushed the treetops. But it wasn't enough to clear his mind. Cara's back felt lonely without the warmth and pressure of another body to share it with. Keeping his promise to the mare he brought her down in the trees beside the shallow river. He watched as she stalked her prey in the scrubby bushes and saplings at the forest edge. 

Rabbits scarpered for their warrens as hooves thundered across the sun-baked earth of the neighbouring field. A lonely hare narrowly avoided becoming breakfast. In the end, it was a plump pheasant that was too slow to escape Cara's snapping jaws. Gellert left her to her breakfast, the pheasant's final throws reminding him too much of his nightmares.