Solemn memories of great pain ached at Dumbledore's heart as he stood in the realm of light where all good souls journeyed to after death. All his life, he had so many impeccable accomplishments, but underneath it all was an extremely scarred soul with a dark past. Standing there, he was awaiting the arrival of someone, but until that moment came, he began to reminisce of his own death and what it was like to finally apologize to the sister whose death was his own fault.

"Avada Kedavra," Snape said so sternly and with great regret as the jet of green light shot from his wand and hit Dumbledore, striking out his life as his body fell from the top of the astronomy tower...

After the building anticipation, there was a moment of numbness as all faded to black. He didn't even feel himself falling because it was as if his very spirit was unchained from the mortal body of the physical world and sent beyond the stars, beyond the fabric of time and space, to a place so unimaginable to even the well-educated mind...

At the gates of the afterlife he stood... Everything was white and it was as if it was nothing at all, but strangely, somehow there was a sense of serenity so overwhelming that it almost made him want to cry. Taking a step forward, he noticed that he no longer wore the half-moon spectacles that he donned his entire life and his eyesight was perfect. Likewise, he ran his hand through his long hair and it was no longer silver, but rather the ardent red of his young. His appearance had been fully restored to what it was in his young adulthood.

He began to walk, wondering just what would happen exactly, but as the lights of heaven shone upon him, the sudden knowledge of what was to come had graced him, enlightened him. It was time. The moment he had waited for his entire life was finally here and he could see her figure approaching him as she took her steps subtly, bathed in light. Her blonde hair and loving features mesmerized him.

"Ariana... Is it really you?"

Without a word, the woman nodded as her face bore the most amicable expression one could imagine. Such a sense of friendliness was upon her smile and it made her brother feel even more guilty for his role in her death. There was a moment of silence as they stood facing one another before Dumbledore's eyes filled with tears.

After a lifetime of waiting and agony, finally was the great headmaster able to meet the sister that he had killed so many years prior, albeit by accident. With her gentle smile, now a sane woman of adult age, she embraced her brother and consoled his sobs as he cried.

"Ariana! It was all my fault... I was so young and I didn't know what was going to happen! I had an entire future ahead of me and I was afraid of having to surrender it all just to care for you and Aberforth! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please forgive me!" Umbledore sobbed in his sister's arms as she rubbed his back soothingly.

"Oh, Albus... It doesn't matter anymore. I forgive you... You were young and had such incredible opportunities awaiting you and it would have been selfish of me to hold you back. I had Aberforth who was willing to take care of me," she smiled gently, tightening her hug and running her hand through his long and ardent red hair as his sobs continued unceasingly.

"No!" He protested. "I was the selfish one, Ariana. It was my fault that you died. And then our mother... If I would've been more involved with tending to you, she might not have died in your outburst that one, horrible day," he added, still sobbing.

"Mother and father are here with us now and they, too, have forgiven you. All is well now, Albus," she continued to smile so unconditionally.

In the wake of his tears, Dumbledore finally was able to smile as relief poured into his agonized mind. From this moment forward, no more regret, no more sorrow, and last no more disdain for himself would ever trouble him in regards to his sister's death ever again.

Now that much time had passed since that loving reunion and with the weight of that guilt behind him, something else remained. Something even more burdensome and deeper than a single accidental death. As the weight of the guilt brought on by the deaths of millions rushed through his mind, he stood there.

"Gellert..." He whispered to himself as he gave a great sigh.

From the afterlife, he watched as the terrifyingly powerful revolutionary of a wizard known by the blood-stained name of Gellert Grindelwald lay in his prison cell atop old Nurmengard. A frail and skeletal old man who had lost the handsome features and muscle mass of his younger days, sat there, waiting...

With a rush of dark energy, a figure emerged from the window of the cell. Cloaked all in black, the very tall man who donned the dark mark and whose body was like a walking skeleton of immense power turned his snake-like head, glaring, as he hissed at the only wizard who had done more terrible crimes than him. Albeit, that wizard, now fragile and powerless, was unafraid.

"I knew you would come one day... I never had it."

"Liar!" Voldemort screamed, erupting in anger.

Despite the Dark Lord's horrifying rage, Gellert Grindelwald showed no fear. A master at both legilimency and occlumency, he resisted the intruder's attempts to penetrate his mind, only angering him further.

"I'll kill you!" Voldemort screamed once again, but the former Nazi wizard stared him dead in the face, displaying no fear at all.

"Go ahead and kill me than, Voldemort! I welcome death, but my death will not bring you what you seek. There is so much that you do not understand."

With a flash of green light that filled the room, Grindelwald lay dead in the presence of his murderer, whom was signaled back to Malfoy Manor to take care of some nasty business at hand.

Dumbledore stood in silence, recalling the death of the only one that he ever loved. Now, he knew, that he would finally have his confrontation with him and words would need to be said after all these years.

Alone and naked, Gellert Grindelwald awoke, finding himself in the afterlife. Unaware and curious as to why he wasn't in a Hellish existence after all his atrocities, he took his first steps into this new reality.

"Where am I?" He questioned to himself, quite perplexed.

His frail, old appearance was now gone. His body was restored to what it was in his younger days. With a muscular figure and light blonde hair styled in an undercut fashion, that is, shaved upon the sides and back while being straight and slicked backward on the top, he glanced around. Suddenly, clothes appeared upon him. Black army boots and matching trousers and a white dress shirt with a black tie and to finish, a black trench coat that reached lower than his knees in true Nazi fashion. He was handsome again.

"I've been waiting for you," came a voice that echoed through this strange place.

Impetuously, he glanced in said direction, knowing just whose voice it was that was calling out to him. Awestruck, he watched as a tall man with long and dark red hair and with glistening blue eyes approached him. He was donning a wizard's robe of airy fabric that was violet in color and upon his hands were a great many rings made of fine metals and embedded with a multitude of valuable gemstones.

"Albus..."

"Gellert..."

The two of them stood there, staring at one another – Albus' blue eyes into Gellert's heterochromatic eyes of blue and dark.

"Shall we die, just a little?" Grindelwald asked, sighing as he stood with a sense of shame drowning over him.

"No... I think not. We've already done enough dying, old friend," Dumbledore replied, trying to find the right words. "Everything you did... All the pain you caused me... Gellert, through it all, I never once stopped loving you. For all the people you slaughtered, I bore the weight of the guilt of your crimes because it was I who gave you some of those ideas when we were young. For the greater good, as we put it... But we were wrong and when I tried to get you to see that, you just wouldn't listen."

"Don't think that I'm without remorse, Albus. I spent a long time rotting in that cell. I know the impact of the crimes that I committed and I'm well aware of the mass genocide that I brought about. Do you think me that cold hearted?"

Through his tear-stained eyes, Dumbledore gave a gentle smile. "No..."

"You know, you were the only real friend I ever had."

Those words made Dumbledore's eyes succumb to his tears as they began to pour from his face.

"And that's what makes you different from Voldemort. Your soul is no longer torn. You did the thing that he refused with absolute vitriol and spite to do. You have come to terms with your sins with absolute sorrow and integrity and now all the people you killed can forgive you just like how I've forgiven you," Dumbledore said through his trembling voice as his friend looked at him, ashamed of himself. "Gellert, you don't belong in Hell. You belong here with me."

Glancing at his feet as his soul burned with remorse, Grindelwald stared into the eyes of his soulmate. "Albus..." He began, pausing. "Thank you," he said as he came upon him, wrapping his arms around him as the two of them were caught in an embrace of joy.

Grindelwald rested his head upon Albus' shoulder as the two of them remained there, clinging to one another. He ran his hands through Dumbledore's long hair, gasping as he was overcome emotion. After all these years, they could finally be together. Breaking the embrace only for a moment, Dumbledore looked at his soulmate with relief.

"I love you, Gellert."

"And I love you, Albus."

Dumbledore was the first to make initiate the kiss, gracing his lover's lips as bliss burst from his tongue. Grindelwald threw his arm around his waste with a sense of joy, indulging in the kiss. As the light of God's grace shown upon them, they clung to each other with such adamancy as the wrongs of the past meant no more. Now and forever, the two of them would remain in paradise and never would they be separated.

"Gellert, all that awaits us now is paradise," he told him, taking him by the hand as light surrounded them both. With a calm smile, Grindelwald threw his arm around Dumbledore and the two walked into the light.

After all the strife and tears and blood of the past, the greater good had finally come about.

PLEASE REVIEW!

I hope you guys like this story. I can't wait to see what Jo is going to give us in the new movies. I hope that at the end of the last one, something like this story I just wrote happens where they're reunited in Heaven forever as soul mates. Also, if anyone is a talented artist, I was wondering if they would be willing to draw an illustration for this story. Please message me if you're interested.