The Long Road Home from Nurmengard, and the HP Alliance

Here's another WWDD play. This one is definitely the saddest so far, which is odd, considering the character who has died was old and a one-time supervillain. Not many laughs in this one, but I rather like it.

THE LONG ROAD HOME FROM NURMENGARD
A very short play by Dean O’Carroll

Lights up on a crossroads. A bright spring day. The road branches off in an infinite number of directions.

GELLERT GRINDELWALD is there. While he is still the very old man he was when he died, he has a youth and vigor about him that he clearly has not felt in a long time.

GRINDELWALD looks around, taking it all in.

GRINDELWALD
Of course. Of course.

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE is there.

DUMBLEDORE
Hello, Gellert.

GRINDELWALD
Albus. Oh, Albus.

Long pause.

GRINDELWALD
Imagine that. I have had fifty years to think about it, and I still do not know what to say to you.

DUMBLEDORE
I see no reason why we should rush.

GRINDELWALD
I’m sorry, Albus. I am sorrier than you could possibly imagine.

DUMBLEDORE
I am sorry, too.

GRINDELWALD
Do not be! You did what had to be done! Your defeat of me was the best thing that could have happened for me, and for the world! … I hated you, Albus. I hated you for defeating me. I hated you for betraying the principles we held so dearly back in Godric's Hollow. I hated you for abandoning me when my quest was just beginning. But you were right. You were right about everything. Do not apologize to me, old friend. I am the one who must apologize.

DUMBLEDORE
If you truly believe you are the only one with regrets, then you are just as selfish as you were a century ago.

GRINDELWALD
… Oh, Albus. You always knew what to say to make me question myself. But whatever sins you may have committed, you can be forgiven. Surely I cannot. Surely the blood, wizard and Muggle alike, that I have on my hands cannot be washed away with a few words.

DUMBLEDORE
No, no, it cannot. But it can, perhaps, be washed away with time. Time, after all, was your punishment and your gift. You used that time to consider the choices you made and beliefs you held. You have thought about where you were wrong and, if I am not mistaken, you have renounced those beliefs you now find so hateful.

GRINDELWALD
Yes, yes I have. Not immediately, I am afraid. For those first years, all I had was anger. I blamed you. I blamed Muggles, Muggle-borns … everyone but myself. I was nearly the mightiest wizard on Earth and I wielded what was truly the ultimate weapon, how could I have fallen? How could my power have failed me? And the only answer that came was this – I was wrong. Magic is not the ultimate power. There are greater powers that all people wield, Muggles, wizards, magical creatures alike. And if those powers could defeat me, then clearly I am no better than anyone else. Muggles are no lower than wizards. Elves, centaurs, goblins, all of them – no intelligent creature is higher or lower than any other. Only that understanding is truly for the Greater Good.

DUMBLEDORE
That must have been a difficult realization for you.

GRINDELWALD
The hardest.

Pause.

GRINDELWALD
He … he came for me, Albus. He was looking for the Wand. I told him nothing but … but I think he knows.

DUMBLEDORE
If Voldemort finds that wand, he will be … quite surprised.

GRINDELWALD
He will. He will, indeed. But that man … if he even is a man anymore … with that wand. He was a monster, Albus. Was I ever like that?

DUMBLEDORE
Never quite, Gellert. With you, there was always the chance that you might choose a wiser path … eventually.

GRINDELWALD
Eventually.

DUMBLEDORE
Choices, Gellert. Choices, wrong or right, have brought us here.
(Gestures to the crossroads sign)
And, as you can see, now we have a new set of choices to make. Perhaps, now, older and wiser, we can make the correct ones.

GRINDELWALD
Albus, I’m … I’m sorry about Ariana.

DUMBLEDORE
… thank you.

GRINDELWALD
And I’m sorry that … that I could not be what you wanted me to be.

DUMBLEDORE
That is one thing for which you have no need to apologize.

GRINDELWALD
I cherished our friendship, our partnership, Albus. But … I am not that way.

DUMBLEDORE
I know. I knew back then, from the way you romanced the young witches of Godric's Hollow. You broke many a heart in those days.

GRINDELWALD
Including one I never imagined I could hurt.

DUMBLEDORE
I was young and confused. Confused about my feelings. We wizards thought we were so advanced, but we still clung to so many old taboos in that area. I mistook friendship for romantic love, a kinship for an attraction. I spent my life devoted to the power and advancement of love. But it is a mystery I never fully solved.

GRINDELWALD
For two men as old and wise as we think ourselves to be, there is a great deal we do not understand.

DUMBLEDORE
Isn’t that why you and I planned to travel together? To learn new things, unravel new mysteries?

GRINDELWALD
Why, yes, I believe you’re right.

DUMBLEDORE
The open road lies before us, though we are more than a century late for our original appointment.

GRINDELWALD
Then why are we waiting? We have a lot of catching up to do.

DUMBLEDORE
Then … let us begin.

The two old friends gaze up at the sign and choose a way to go. They head off down a path, together.

Lights fade.




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