Old-Friends-Reunited (II) [Chapter 193]

“Hello, old friend…” Gellert greeted Albus and the respected Headmaster could do nothing but gape at the sight in front of him. He already expected to meet Gellert somewhere down the line, but he never expected his friend to look young again… There were some Magical means to look younger, but none of them could make someone look this young.

Even the Aurors and other Professors gathered around were shocked to their cores… “What have you done to yourself?” Albus asked in a horrified tone. Almost everyone believed that Albus Dumbledore is all-knowing, but he would disagree with that notion… Yes, he was old and knowledgeable, but there was a lot he didn’t know. He hated not knowing, but he zealously avoided certain branches of Magic.

One of them was Dark Arts. Tom and Gellert were a lot more knowledgeable than him when it came to Dark Arts. He also didn’t know much about Black Magic, but Merlin be damned, he was glad that the others were also on the same boat in this regard… All knowledge of Black Magic had disappeared through time and he was glad that it was gone. Then there was Blood Magic and Sacrificial Magic…

It took him a lot of time, but he managed to understand that the Protection used by Lily was Sacrificial Magic, not Dark Arts… Then there was Blood Magic. Albus had to get Blood Magic banned and while it was illegal in almost all the countries, he wasn’t able to eradicate it completely as there were still practitioners of Blood Magic and then there was Spain… Even though Spain was a part of ICW, except for Black Magic, everything else, including the Unforgivables, were completely legal in that country.

Back to the topic at hand, it was clear that Albus wasn’t all-knowing, so it was kind of understandable that he thought Gellert might have used some sort of Ritual to become young again…

Gellert quirked his brows at his questions and looked down at his hands… “You mean this?” Gellert asked with a grin. “This was not my doing, my friend. This is a gift from my new boss” Gellert revealed and Albus gave his old friend a disbelieving look.

“You are working for someone?” Albus asked in a disbelieving tone.

“Times are changing, my friend and I needed to change my ways too” Gellert admitted that he was working for someone, but he did it in a roundabout way. If it wasn’t for Harry’s threat of turning him into a mindless doll, he wouldn’t have agreed to work under him, but the Strong always ruled the world… It wasn’t anything new. He had to go with the flow or he would be swept aside.

“Now, I believe we have dallied enough” Gellert declared with a soft smile before he jabbed his Wand toward Albus, releasing an orange beam from the tip of his Wand and much to Albus’ credit, he reacted with equal zeal as jabbed the Elder Wand toward Gellert, releasing a pale blue beam, which collided with the orange beam creating a huge shockwave.

Everyone standing near Gellert and Albus stumbled back a few steps due to the shockwave… All of them were sporting various looks of surprise, horror, and awe on their faces… The hall trembled around them, but both Gellert and Albus held strong. Neither of them wanted to give their opponent even the slightest opening. A few seconds later, both of them broke their initial greeting and attacked each other for real.

“Everyone clear!!” Albus screamed loudly as he didn’t want any of the Aurors or his staff members to be struck by any errant Spell as it would mean certain death for them. Even though Albus was using non-lethal Magic, he wasn’t holding back, which meant there was a certain force behind all of his Spells. Force strong enough to grind anyone’s bones into dust at impact.

Gellert didn’t even need to tell his followers to move back as they knew that could become collateral damage at any moment. As the others scurried away from the Magical Titans, once again their Spells collided mid-air, creating another shockwave, but this time, the walls around them started to crack as they were no longer holding back. A large block of stone fell from the ceiling near Gellert and he jabbed his other hand forward, and the stone sailed toward Albus.

Albus was forced to drop the Spell, but he easily stepped around to dodge the Spell and when Gellert’s original Spell collided against the wall, it blew a hole through the stone wall… Albus paled a bit at the sight, but he didn’t have the time to pay the destruction any Mind as he had to dodge a flame whip before he attacked Gellert with a stream of water.

“Having some trouble, Albus?” Gellert asked in a mocking tone before he raised a stone wall with a sharp front in front of him with a flick of his Wand, but moments later, was forced to jump back when the water almost engulfed him. A smirk appeared on his face… Albus might have lost his touch thanks to his advanced age, but the Elder Wand was helping him hold his own.

Meanwhile, instead of mocking Gellert, he simply decided to press his opponent even more… Gellert was back to his prime, that much was clear to him. He was a bit stronger than Gellert in his prime and while Gellert was stronger than him with the Elder Wand, he managed to beat him because Gellert wasn’t able to cast the killing blow, but now the story was different.

He was no longer young… He was no longer as powerful as he was in his prime and he would have already lost the fight if it wasn’t for the Elder Wand, but the Elder Wand wasn’t infallible… It couldn’t make him keep going forever. He would eventually get tired if the fight became long drawn… That was why he knew that he needed to beat Gellert as quickly as he could. It was a bitter pill to swallow as he was no longer Gellert’s match without the Elder Wand helping him along.

Though moments later, Gellert struck back from behind the stone wall with a lightning whip and he was forced to jump to the side or he would have lost his head to the Spell… With a look of horror, he saw Gellert slowly step out from the dust cloud with his usual manic grace as he was still on the ground, but before Gellert could attack him, he had to take a step back and defend himself from Spell.

“Albus, get up!” Minerva exclaimed as she came to his rescue along with Filius.

Without wasting any more time, Albus forced his old body to get up while Minerva and Filius were holding back Gellert. It was clear that Minerva and Filius were barely holding back Gellert, so even though his body ached a bit, he stepped forward and attacked Gellert. “You two get back!” Albus screamed, but Minerva and Filius didn’t seem to back off.

“The others need you!” Albus exclaimed before Conjuring metal spikes in the air with a wave of his Wand.

“The reinforcements are already here. They can hold their own!” Minerva screamed back, surprising Gellert. He had no idea that the reinforcements were already here. To be honest, he was having too much fun so he forgot about his followers. None of his followers were near him, but even if he wasn’t paying his followers any mind, they should have informed him about the reinforcements.

That was when all of a sudden the hall shook due to a loud explosion from the floor below them and thanks to cracks in the walls, courtesy of Gellert and Albus, the floor started to crumble and all four of them started to stumble around… Gellert started to wonder what the hell his followers were doing and he hoped that they weren’t trying to bring down the castle on top of their heads.

‘What the hell are you doing?!’ Gellert screamed through his Mark in complete outrage as another explosion shook the hall.

‘Gellert! We are barely holding out here!’ Someone answered.

‘The whole goddamn DMLE is here!!’ Someone else screamed.

That was all he was able to get before the floor finally gave up and the hall started to crumble. “Hold on!” He heard Albus scream before the man cast some Spell and he was engulfed by some sort of translucent shield along with Minerva and Filius, but Gellert didn’t pay him any mind as he was staring at the Aurors and the Hitwizards his men were fighting. There were at least two hundred of them while his forces were only forty strong.

He could see them retreating thanks to the debris, but it was the same for his own forces… With this stunt, his followers managed to buy some time, but the odds weren’t looking good for them. Once again, he started to wonder how did so many of them managed to get here so quickly? The reinforcements weren’t supposed to arrive this quickly and surely not so many. He quickly cast Arresto Momentum on his boots to slow his fall.

He could crush the reinforcements on his own, but he couldn’t engage them with Albus still on his feet… Additionally, Minerva and Filius were nothing to scoff at. He could probably beat the two of them, but all three of them together? His odds weren’t looking good just like his followers. Gellert realized that they might have miscalculated and bit off more than they could chew.

‘Harry, we are cornered’ Gellert decided to call in the big guns since there was no way they could win. They never expected so many reinforcements this quickly in the first place.

‘Hold on. I will be there’ He received an answer only a second later, but there was something dark in his voice, which was something new to Gellert…