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The Gloaming of the Gods	By : Gracelynn Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 1678 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Albus rubbed the tense muscles in the back of his neck as he stepped out of the workroom. Everything was prepared for the international convention tomorrow. He had gone over all his findings on dragons' blood with Nicholas and was ready to share the information of its uses publicly.

He glanced at the sun as he passed a window and noted the red streaks trailing a colorful wake as is sunk lower in the sky. It was getting late. She would be waiting.

He left the house behind and cut through a field that took him around the small village and to the river, then followed its green bank a little ways into the forest and stopped by a particularly large tree. She was not there. He was about to sit at the base of its tangled, knotted roots and wait when he heard the water move and looked down to see Freya floating and beckoning him inte rie river.

He discarded his clothing in a pile on the grass and waded into the dark water. It enfolded him to the chest by the time he reached her. He looked down at her, and even in the fading light she could see the glow in his blue eyes as he regarded her with amusement.

"I might have mistaken you for a fish."

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "And I very well might have turned into one if you had taken any longer to find me. It isn't easy floating and looking tempting at the same time, you know."

He chuckled and bent to kiss her. "I apologize, fair lady. Might I say that you carried it off in fine fashion?"

"You might if you intend to show me just how well I pulled it off."

"Ah, that goes without saying. In fact�" he disappeared underwater and resurfaced on the other side of her. "I was just going to nibble on you a bit."

She shrieked as he found the sensitive of of her waist with his teeth, and sunk into the water. She came up spluttering and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her up against his body.

"Is everything ready, then?"

"Yes," he said into her neck, and continued kissing his way to her ear.

"Who would have thought that the most brilliant fish in the river would come nibble at me? I'll have to come here more often. I do hope you will be able to answer with more than a monosyllable in front of all those other important wizards tomorrow."

He bit lightly on her earlobe. "I don't believe there will be anyone quite as delicious to nibble at in the conference."

Freya laughed and tangled her fingers in his wet hair. "At least you will get a break from this heat."

"What will you do while I am away?"

She pursed her lips. "I don't know. It will seem quite strange to be alone at night. I am deliciously accustomed to your body wrapped around me in the bed."

He pressed his forehead to hers and asked her quietly, "Have you been happy with me these past years, here in the middle of nowhere?"

"What a silly question! Can you not see the joy of loving you in my every step?"

"There is a lot of world beyond here you could explore, though."

"I am not built for wandering, Albus."

"No, I suppose not."

"What will you do in your nights away from me?"

"Dream of you, of course. It will also carry me through the endless speeches."

"No! Not the great Albus Dumbledore! What would people think if they knew yereneren't marking every word?"

"That is a matter of supreme indifference to me. Didn't you lure me here with the promise of a surprise?"

"So I did. It is up on the bank."

They sat and watched the sun slip away while Freya worked her fingers through the knots in her hair and the warm air dried their skin. She disappeared behind the tree for a moment and returned with fabric-laden arms. She stood on her toes and draped it over his shoulders.

"You made this for me?" he asked as he ran his hands over the dusky wool.

She smiled shyly and nodded.

"It is the most splendid robe I have ever owned. Won't I look impressive tomorrow?"

"You always look impressive, Albus. And I have seen you in practically every state."

He pulled her close and rested his hands on the curve of her hips. "The color is perfect. Why is it that we spend most of our time together in the half-light?"

She rubbed her bare flesh against the soft scratchy fabric. "Dusk and dawn seem the most magical times to me. They are the only time the veil lifts, and night and day exist together. It's the time when the earth is most alive. The day creatures take their last burst of energy before settling down, and the nocturnal things stir."

He gazed beyond them. "Soon a new century will begin," he said absently.

Freya pressed her cheek into his upper arm and said nothing.

~~**~~**~~

When he returned a week later Nicholas met him in the courtyard.

"Where is Freya?"

The look on Nicholas's face twisted around his heart, and in that moment he heard the groan of time rolling over itself in his head. He dropped his bag into the dust.

"Freya is not hurt," Perenelle said from the door of the house when she saw the panic play over his features, "but her father took ill. She has gone to him."

Albus looked at Nicholas.

"They do not expect him to last long."

~~**~~**~~

Albus was in the courtyard under the small roofed terrace when she returned. He held her to him for awhile and tangled his fingers in the ends of her hair.

"How is your father?"

She pulled back and looked away toward the house. "He has a month, maybe two."

"I am sorry, Freya."

&#e noe nodded and looked up at the cloudy evening sky. "It's going to rain soon."

"Freya?"

She trailed her fingers down a wooden post and avoided his eyes.

"My father wants to see me settled."

Albus watched her but said nothing, and after a moment she continued. "He�worries for me. More than he needs to, but that is how it is between us. He knows he will be gone soon, and he says he will not be at peace unless he sees me settled before he dies."

She did not wait for him to speak, but rushed on, and he could hear the high notes rising in her voice.

"My father has chosen a husband for me. A muggle he knows well from the city. A painter. He has no ties to keep him in Athens. He can paint anywhere, and my family's estate is mine now."

She looked at him finally and he saw the unshed tears in her eyes.

"Is that what you want?" His voice was very quiet, but she flinched.

"Oh Albus�" A tear spilled down over her cheek and he watched its descent down her skin. "I have only ever wanted you." Another tear, and another. "But I have to give this to my father. I am all that he has, even when my mother was still alive�even then I was all the love he didn't get from her. I cannot deny him the one thing he has ever asked of me.

I am twenty-five now. I would have been married years ago if I had returned to Greece after Hogwarts. My father longs to see the seeds of a new generation begin in the home is ais ancestors. I will give that to him. That is my path."

As they looked at each other across the space dividing them, the skies opened up and cried their own tears, pounding on the tin roof covering them. Albus felt each breath he pulled into his body was an effort, and that each carried him farther away from her.

"Your path?" he repeated in a hoarse voice he barely recognized as his own.

Her shoulders shook slightly. "Yes. Can't you see? You belong to everyone. You take on the burden of every man. I cannot hold the world. That is not for me. I am meant to hold a few brown babies of my own body. You have never belonged to me."

"You are wrong."

She stepped back away from him, out from the cover of the roof and the rain drenched her and mingled with the salt of her tears.

"Can you say, in complete honesty, that I am part of the road you walk?"

"Yes."

"Then you are lying." Her body shuddered with a sob, but she pressed on. "You have known that your path is not wide enough to include me. You have known since that night of the centaurs."

"I have never lied to you, Freya. You are all things to me. You know this is true."

She turned her face up to the rain and her jaw trembled. "I don't know anymore what is fact and what is fiction. Only that I feel so empty. You will have to show me what is true. You are in my guts and wrapped around my bones. All I know is you."

He stepped out to her and touched the side of her face. She rested her head against his lowered chin and her hands on his chest. The tips of his fingers pressed into her back. They stood that way for long moments, two people in the rain, until she wrapped her arms around his middle and squeezed tightly.

"I must go back to him now. I will return in a few days."

Albus closed his eyes as her hand slid from his. When he opened them she was already gone.
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The Gloaming of the Gods