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[greatestgood]

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[chambermusicandtenpins]

[That earns him a small laugh.]

You've already been quite successful at that.

[greatestgood]

So you know I'm not lying.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Oh, I'm very aware that you are not. Delightfully so.

[greatestgood]

Then I will be waiting for you, dear Professor. Ready at my desk.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Bent over it, no doubt.

[greatestgood]

Are you already dreaming? I don't mind being fully prepared for you.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I merely guess at what ideas you might have already had in your head. But I certainly would not mind your preparations.

[greatestgood]

I think I can arrange myself enticingly - at your desk or mine. The lesson can be slightly delayed.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Why do I suspect you might use such enticement to push aside the lesson entirely?

[greatestgood]

I can't be blamed. Once you start teaching, I will want you.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I think you would want me even if I wasn't.

[greatestgood]

That's true! But I want you even more when you're official.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

You like the idea of seducing me away from my responsibilities.

[greatestgood]

I can't deny that. Maybe I am a demon.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Or perhaps you have been starved for my touch and are making up for lost time.

[greatestgood]

That is a distinct possibility. Germany lacked you; France lacked you. I stopped feeling much of anything.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[Gellert can't see it, but Albus wears such a pained smile at that.]

I'll bring you back to feeling, then.

[greatestgood]

I do fear it. What will I do if I lose you again? [The thought makes him sick.]

[chambermusicandtenpins]

I don't know. [And he dares not tell Gellert the thing that has tugged at him, the sensation that soon he will find himself at the docks no matter what he desires.] But you have me now, and I have you. I've no intention of wasting that.

[greatestgood]

[His brow furrows and he murmurs:] I am working on the wrong projects. I need to dissect the docks and discover how they operate. Then I could keep us here.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

You are helping a friend. And she needs help. You are doing the right thing. The rest can wait.

[Because even if he told Gellert the docks were tugging at him, Li had said she only had a year, maybe less. It would be pure selfishness on his part to insist that their priorities shift.]

[greatestgood]

Right doesn't mean we'll be happy. [He grits his teeth, angry.] I want to be happy for once.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

[He doesn't like this, because he is lying to Gellert on two fronts. Albus is no stranger to telling falsehoods, but if the choice is between the docks and saving Li's life, he will pick saving a life. But he knows that if he vanishes, Gellert will be hurt, and that aches him like a gnawing wound.]

We may be yet. But there are other things we must also take care of.

[greatestgood]

You know something I don't. [He can almost smell the ruse, but he doesn't know what has caused the change.] Are you afraid I will ruin your plans?

[chambermusicandtenpins]

No, that's not it.

[He pauses, and a half-truth emerges:] We need to take care of Li's curse soon.