Chapter Text
Albus Dumbledore, all of 49 years of age, sat in his office with a well-earned plate of roasted chicken and buttered potatoes. Classes had been grueling and his numerous duties along with the additional ones that befell him due to Headmaster Dippet's leave had kept him busy all morning. Finally, he had a few minutes of relaxat-
The portraits in his office began screaming just as he brought the first bite of his food to his mouth.
"Intruders in the headmaster's office!"
"They apparted! Inside the castle!"
"Intruders!"
He jumped into action, dropping the fork as he shot upto his feet. "How many?" He demanded as he whipped out his wand, face grim.
"Two!" "Two wizards!"
"There were two of them-"
That was all he needed to hear as he stalked out, shooting a Point Me spell to discern their locations.
For a second he wondered if it was Gellert. But no, that man would not have left so easily.
Grindelwald didn't flee. He conquered.
He picked up his pace. Two unknown and powerful wizards had broken into the castle— this was not how he'd envisioned the day would go.
It was deep into the Mildly-Discouraged-Agaisnt Forest that he finally slowed. The thick canopy above was filtering the evening light and casting shadows over the clearing.
There was rustling up ahead. Albus drew his wand, ready to attack.
Then, out of the underbrush burst forth—
A boy. A scrawny teenager with messy black hair, glasses askew and covered in leaves, sprinted past him, eyes wild with panic.
"AAAAAAAHHH!"
Albus barely had a second to react as a second figure followed. An incredibly old man in a flowy, fruit-patterned nightgown, his long silver beard trailed after him. He looked remarkably cheerful for someone fleeing in terror.
The old man met Albus’s eyes as he jogged past and, with alarming serenity, smiled and said,
“I do believe this is a good time to start running."
A low, guttural growl rumbled from behind them.
Albus turned, heart hammering, and a massive, furred creature with glowing yellow eyes leapt out of the trees.
His survival instincts kicked in at that moment.
He ran.
A few moments earlier
They were hiding behind a giant oak tree, hoping the yellow eyed creature wouldn't spot them. It sniffed the air and prowled around dangerously behind them and Harry physically felt his blood pressure rising.
"Sir-" He said softly yet urgently, turning towards Dumbledore who was watching the creature with some fascination. "Hagrid said that all Grymmaras went extinct over a century ago." He said, praying that they hadn't landed over a century ago.
"Indeed. Yet, it would seem that one of them survived till many decades later. I'm sure Newt would be incredibly happy to hear that." He exclaimed softly.
"Great." He muttered, "Maybe he can take it off of our hands before this thing kills us then." He paused, "…So we aren't a century in the past right?"
"No, no Harry, nothing so extreme. I'd say we're only aroud 50 or 60 years in the past." He said, casually.
"What??"
Harry tensed immediately after his, rather loud, exclamation as the creature seemed to have zeroed in on their position.
"Oops."
There was a beat of silence.
Then they ran. Panicking.
Well, he was panicking.
Dumbledore still seemed to be letting him have the panic attacks while he remained calm as ever, even as they ran from the terrifying creature.
"What should we do? Should- should I fire a stunner?" He shouted as he scrambled over some roots.
"No! We mustn't hurt the creature! It is endangered after all." Dumbledore huffed from the side. "Perhaps we can apparate away?"
His stomach turned at the suggestion. No way.
"Sincerely, sir, I don't think my body can handle any more apparitions today." He called out over his shoulder.
"Running for our lives it is then." Came the answer.
For a lack of anything better to do— and a whole lot of pent-up fear in his chest that he wanted to get rid of— Harry started screaming.
It was at that point that they came upon a clearing and saw a bewildered red-headed man standing there wand drawn. Harry paid him no mind as he ran past him, still screaming.
Distantly, he was sure that he'd seen that man somewhere before but for the life of him he couldn't remember. The fact that he was being chased by a monstrous creature probably didn't aid his memory.
"Who are you? What do you want from here?" The man asked as he ran behind them.
Harry waited for Dumbledore to take the lead.
"Don't worry about it!" Dumbledore called out, cheerfully.
Harry sighed, resisting the urge to sit down and cry. He just wanted to go home.
Albus felt his mouth drop open.
Don't worry about it??
To say he was bewildered would be an understatement.
"You-" He couldn't even form a sentence. He hadn't been this dumbstruck since— ever!
It almost annoyed him to find that he was falling behind the other two despite the fact that one of them was an old man.
The kid ran with the proficiency of someone who has been chased about many times in their life. A concerning observation he tucked away in the back of his mind.
However, even the old man seemed to be running like he regularly went for marathons.
Maybe it was the flowy nightgown that gave him more freedom of movement, he thought absurdly.
He turned his head to look behind him, trying to see if the Grymmara had caught upto them. The fact that they were supposed to be extinct was not lost on him but he decided to take it one step at a time. Thinking about how a previously extinct creature was now no longer extinct didn't really top the list of his concerns at the moment.
However, he couldn't help the frown as he noticed that behind him was— nothing.
He stopped, turning around to see that they had lost the creature a while back and had been running from nothing.
He turned to face the other two, questions on his tongue, only to see the old man grab the kid and apparate away. Again.
Albus stood in the middle of the forest. Alone. Not for the first time in his life he wondered where exactly things had gone wrong in his life, for him to end up where he was.