Are there any good (or even just readable) non-slash fics that have significant Grindelwald involvement? It seems impossible to find any amongst the mountains of slash and garbage.

I don't care if he's the protagonist, the villain, an ally, a mentor, an important background, character, or whatever. Normal universe, time travel, AU, any of it is fine provided the story is not about two dudes playing hide the sausage.

I can deal with stories where Dumbledore had one-sided love for him and was manipulated, provided that this is not the focus of the story.

Any help from those who have managed to locate such needles in the fanfic haystack is appreciated.

 

Escape to Darkness is a decent Grindelwald-mentors-Harry story.

But the best Grindelwald fics heavily focus on his relationship with Albus. Which shouldn't be a surprise, given that it largely defines him in the original books.

 

In the original books it was never defined as a romantic relationship. Until Rowling up and said Dumbledore was gay, I'd assumed it was a close friendship primarily based on shared interests, equivalent intelligence (rare for someone at Dumbledore's level), and similar beliefs that coalesced into the radical ideology later pushed by Grindelwald and rejected by Dumbledore. A fic exploring that would be great.

Since the gay reveal (not a bad thing in of itself), most fics focusing on their relationship place too much emphasis in the romantic side of things. It becomes 9 parts admiring the way sun glints through Gellert's hair or whatever for every 1 part exploring obscure magic and forming Greater Good ideology, when it should be the reverse.

This cheapens Dumbledore's character imo. He wasn't walking down a dark path because he was a kid with a crush, but because the ideas he and Gellert created genuinely appealed to him. He rejected the Minister post because he didn't trust himself not to be seduced by power, not a handsome and clever guy. The romantic feelings he had for Grindelwald were a secondary issue (albeit an important one), but slashfic writers treat it as the primary (or even only) one.

TL;DR: I'm not defining slash as any story where someone is gay, but as any story where gay romance is emphasized above and beyond the other, arguably more interesting and important, aspects of the story.

Also thanks for the rec.