Dear Gellert Grindelwald,

Hopefully the owl will deliver this before I have to destroy you, hopefully. If not, oh well, that just means it wasn't meant to be read by you. Then again, there are quite a lot of things that should have fallen under that category for you.

I loved you for a long time. No, not just as friends. I was drawn to your power. It drew me in like a magnet pulling me in closer and closer. It gave me a longing to learn. A longing to learn the way of the dark arts. A longing I should have ignored.

You taught me well. We learned together and then you showed to me the depth of our knowledge and how much farther we could tale it. I was amazed and enthused. Was. But not anymore. Not now I see what we would have done. What this world would have become if we had claimed it as our own.

I know you will not listen to reason because you have already failed to do so. You have failed to listen to reason. Yes, you have succeeded to be all powerful, but is that really success? For you have lost out on the most powerful magic of all. Something you almost got from me, but gave away. The power of love.

That night we kissed so many years ago. We had stolen all the firewisky from your aunts basement. All of it. We drank and drank until we ran out. That night I just kissed you. I didn't even think with my head. With logic. Just my lips. And you kissed me back. I know you did because I felt it. We never discussed what happened that night. You might not even remember...

Then that night with my sister. My poor, dear, Ariana. Ariana. We'll never know who killed her. Except well, you might. You might. But I hope not. Because I'd much rather it be me than you...and it would never ever be Aberforth.

So now I say goodbye to you. The one I loved. The one I love. Within the next few days we will meet for the final time and I will defeat you as we know I must and will.

Yours most truly,

Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore

Note from the author:

Aberforth accidentally shot down the owl while visiting Albus so he never got the letter. And Dumbledore never knew that. This made the fight between Dumbledore and Grindelwald particularly painful because Grindelwald had no idea why Dumbledore expected him to know things he had no way of knowing.