Grindeldore Oneshots

Boxing Day

1899

Gellert POV:

It was 9 at night and Ariana had just been taken to bed by Aberforth who had read her a story to get her to sleep before tiptoeing down stairs to join me, Albus and Tante at the table. Not because he wanted to enjoy our company but because we had just gotten out the red wine and cheese board. We had Christmas songs playing from Albus' wand and decorations twinkling in the light of the roaring wood burner that caused the aroma of firewood to fill the room.

Abe immediately reached for the wine, filling his glass to almost the rim before downing it as quick as he could. Bet he was just preparing for tonight. Christmas had just finished but Albus had invited me and Tante over since apparently it was tradition they played all sorts of games and it would get rather heated if it was just him and Aberforth. Unfortunately, I think I only made it worse.

Albus, clearly forgetting last years arguments, brought up a box that said 'Charades' on it. This would be fun. Albus, being the alpha Male that he is, decided that he was to be on a team with Bathilda and I was with Aberforth. That surely won't cause conflict, great. After what seemed like hours of flapping around pretending to be stupid objects and stupid words with everyone stupidly shouting at each other with phrases such as 'Stop guessing for their team!' And 'well how was I suppose to get that?' Albus and Bathilda won 6-2.

Aberforth grumbled, downing more wine and slamming his glass in the table, 'I'm not having him in my team the next game,'

Albus obeyed his wishes and swapped it so I was on his team and Abe got Bathilda. The next game we were to play was called 'Trivia Pursuit' which was all about answering knowledge questions but the real challenge was knowing which way round to pick out the cards because if you got it wrong you'd be asking the team a question you'd already had. Unfortunately for Aberforth, knowledge is my forte and so it was a smack down between me and Tante who is also very good at general knowledge.

In the end, me and Albus got all our cheeses and to the middle of the board first only making Abe even more annoyed as he started to drink straight from the bottle.

But that was just the start. For the final game, the worst and most competitive game of all time, was yet to come. It was called 'Taboo' and something about the cover made me feel stressed already. The rules, Albus read, were that you would be given a noun that you would have to describe so that the people in your team guess it but you weren't able to use specific other words. For example, if you had to describe the word 'parchment' you wouldn't be able to use the words pen, draw, write and ink and if you did then you would get a buzzer noise from someone on the opposite team refereeing the round which squawks in your ear causing you to slap the person doing it...ok maybe that was just me and Aberforth. You also have a minute to get as many as you can which can cause many arguments and debates as to whether you got it in time or not.

When we started playing it was actually pretty enjoyable, it was fairly straight forward and there had been no arguments...I spoke too soon. There was only a few grains of sand left in the timer when I got the final word that Albus was describing to me. However, Aberforth completely disagreed.

'That doesn't count,' He pointed at the timer, 'It ran out before he said broomstick,'

'No It didn't,' I said casually, 'Ve got it right before,'

Aberforth, fuelled by alcohol, decided to argue against it, 'You got it after, isn't that right Bathilda?'

Tante, not wanting to join the conflict, looked between the two of us, 'Oh, I didn't see dear,'

Aberforth huffed, 'Well I'm right, they didn't get the answer,'

Albus frowned, 'Why does one point matter anyway-'

'I'm not having you win by one point you didn't deserve!' He yelled.

Albus checked the score, 'I don't understand why you're so mad, you and Bathilda are in the lead anyway-'

'I don't care! You don't deserve the last point because you didn't earn it!' Aberforth continued on, 'Admit it,'

'I'm not admitting to something that isn't true,' I rolled my eyes.

Aberforth jumped to his feet, hitting his fist angrily on the table so it shook, 'It is true,' he said through gritted teeth, 'The timer was done when you said the word broomstick, admit to it,'

I also stood up to match him, 'No, it vas not, it finished after,'

'Before,'

'After,'

'Before,'

'After,'

'Before-'

'Stop being so god damn childish!' I shouted, 'It's one point Vhy does it matter,'

'It's not about the point,' he got more angry, 'it's about you thinking you can warp everyone's minds into believing your opinion but you won't charm me, oh no, never in a million years would I let you get inside my head,'

I was so exhausted with his stupidity I didn't even know why I was bothering, 'Vhat are you even talking about?'

He shook his head, 'I can see straight through you, how you've twisted my brother's mind into nothingness and charmed him into believing every word you breathe; how you've even brainwashed my sister into thinking you're safe to be around and that she can be herself with you when you will do nothing but take advantage of her, isn't that right?'

His words filled me with rage as I raised my voice a little, 'Vhy are you getting this worked up over a few grains of sand-'

'Shut up!' Aberforth yelled at the top of his voice, 'Don't ignore the truth I just spoke as if I never exposed you at all! How dare you step into this house as if you are welcome. Because trust me, you are not,' he drew his wand and pointed it at me.

Albus immediately raised his wand to Abe, 'Do anything to him and I'll curse you,'

Aberforth looked upon his brother with no fear but only disgust, 'This is exactly my point, you would even hurt me to protect him wouldn't you Albus?'

Albus lowered his wand a little in guilt but stood his ground, 'Only because you are being unreasonable Aberforth, you're making a big deal of nothing-'

'So you call our safety nothing?' He laughed pathetically, 'I knew you didn't care about us, you'd get away if you could,'

Tante pushed both of their arms down before either of them could cast a spell as her face showed only rage, 'Boys! You should be ashamed of yourselves that even at your age and capabilities you squabble like children! I refuse to hear anymore of it, including words against my great nephew,'

'Bathilda-'

'No!' She shut Aberforth's mouth, 'Go upstairs to your room now Abe, you've drunk and said way too much for this evening,'

He was about to say something else when Bathilda widened her eyes to make him think better of it as he ran up the stairs, slamming his bedroom door in anger.

'May I stay with you?' Albus asked me and my aunt, 'I fear he may curse me in my sleep,'

Bathilda laughed a little, 'Of course Albus my dear, I assume you'll be staying in Gellert's room?'

'Only if he'll let me,' Albus joked.

I kissed his cheek, 'Of course, I vouldn't have it any other vay,'

That night as I lay in bed, I thought of that evening and how it had escalated so quickly from a friendly, competitive gaming night to a fight that almost became a duel between all of us. I knew it all along, Aberforth is just a stupid, little boy.

Hello! I am writing a lot of one shots rn and just a lot in general since it's the holidays, I have tons of chapters of my other main GGAD story ready to go up soon and I'm preparing my little story to become my main once my other one has finished so...prepare for a lot of content. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and my other ones ❤️