What attracts you to malbus? You're probably the only one regularly making content with this forgotten pairing. Doesn't it bother you that Albus is canonically gay?
I've always been a little amused by how many people are surprised by a ship like Malbus and by the fact that there are people in the fandom who ship them. Yes, Albus is canonically gay. But it's not written in the books, and it's mostly known from Rowling's interviews and additional materials and in the Fantastic Beasts films. Actually, that's not even the point. In canon, we have many male characters of heterosexual orientation. Take James Potter, for example. But he is calmly shipped with Regulus Black, and no one gets outraged or asks how one can ship Jegulus when Jily is canon. Or let's look at Minerva's canonical orientation. She is heterosexual, but modern fans see her as a lesbian and ship her with Poppy Pomfrey, forgetting that she was married to Urquart. Fanon ships always, to a greater or lesser extent, deviate from canon, and that must always be taken into account, not just for ships related to LGBTQ.
What attracts me to Malbus first and foremost is the great deal of trust and mutual support between Albus and Minerva. They are a prime example of hurt/comfort, and they are very similar. The eldest children in their families, with conflict between their parents (Isabel lying to Robert, Percival's arrest, Kendra alone with the children), loneliness and feeling misunderstood (Isabel and Minerva are clearly not close, Kendra paid more attention to Ariana than to her sons). Albus and Minerva are intelligent, talented, passionate about Transfiguration, and they are both teachers.
The age difference, for which there is no detailed information (Rowling removed Minerva's 1935 birth year, and I headcanon their age gap to be 20 years), doesn't bother me, nor does the existence of other canonical love interests for Albus and Minerva. I'm not attracted to the Grindeldore relationship due to its toxicity and the way it's romanticized. The connection with Grindelwald was more of a big mistake for Dumbledore, not a great love. I don't like Minerva's relationship with Urquart because she repeatedly refused to marry him, and her first love with Dougal seems more like an escape from loneliness.
I believe Albus and Minerva could have grown very close during Minerva's seventh year (Before that, they had a good relationship, but it didn't go beyond the distance of a teacher and a student). He helped her become an Animagus, they became friends. I believe Minerva would be drawn to an older partner. She is intelligent and talented, with emotional wounds that her peers wouldn't understand. Albus, on the other hand, avoids long-term attachments (though I don't see Albus as a recluse who never had relationships) and doesn't wish to form a bond with anyone, but he lets Minerva get close, doesn't see her as a threat, and then grows attached and feels responsible for their relationship. Albus and Minerva are, for me, somewhat like reflections of each other. They both have skeletons in the closet, and they open up their pain to one another without fear of being vulnerable. Their relationship would, of course, face difficulties, which only makes it more intriguing. An attraction could have arisen from such a relationship. And it's so interesting! It involves forbidden relationships and drama. A fertile ground for thought. This attracts me. I'm not saying everyone should support my opinion, but I believe Malbus has great potential among most fanon ships
