"Everything is more complicated than it looks to most people." -Frederick Lewis Allen


Albus is wrong again.

And Gellert laughs.

"No, no, no," he says, chuckling, "you're incorrect." His clipped accent sends a rush through Albus's body—but shouldn't he be used to it by now?

He should get used to the failing, too, he thinks as Gellert corrects everything he says and does effortlessly. Gellert is perfect, and he's just…Al.

He knows that he's brilliant. He knows that he's just as smart as his best friend, but sometimes he can't believe it. He's eighteen, meant to be seeing the world, and he's stuck. He's in a tiny town with a mad sister and a nearly unlettered brother. Gellert is his escape, and so failure should be normal to him.

A fact of life.

Ari wanders in, her blonde hair tangled and matted as usual after Kendra's death, her nightgown ripped in a few places. She rubs her eyes.

"Gellert!" she cries, and flings herself at him, giving him a hug.

"Hello, darling," he says softly, prying her away from him in his expert way and kissing her nose.

"What are you doing?" she asks slowly.

Albus is instantly jealous as Gellert explains everything to her in that same soft, adoring tone he always uses around the girl. He hates to believe that maybe they're in love, because who could possibly love Ari but her family?

But maybe he is her family, Al decides as his sister plops onto his lap and listens to him with a reverence that is startling to behold.

That doesn't make him less jealous, though. He is glad that it makes them happy to be together, soothes Ariana and calms Gellert's wild spirit. He's also happy that Abe is out with his goats, not watching Ari fawn over Gellert and Gellert baby Ari. His best friend would be long since dead if Abe had caught whiff of the totality of their relationship.

Albus thanks his lucky stars and tries to ignore them and concentrate on getting something right. He looks down at the complicated plans he and Gellert have been working on and inwardly sighs.

It's hard to admit it, but he misses his mother.

He misses his father.

He misses normal Ari.

He misses being small, a time before Gellert and Azkaban and horrible Muggles and even school.

He misses when things were simple, but simple cannot be in his vocabulary any more.

The Hallows will not be simple. Loving Gellert has not been simple. Taking care of Ari will never be simple. He and his entire family—even Abe, even his dead mum and dad, even half-mad Ariana—are not simple.

Complicated, like the plans. Everything is so complicated, and as he hears his best friend explain everything to his sister, he wonders how she'll warp it later.

Ari doesn't get complicated, but complicated suits Gellert.

Al would just rather everything be simple…


A/N: First off, let me say that I am sorry for the sucky format. Fanfiction wouldn't let me not center the whole damn thing! I was nearly ready to kill someone...but I think I'll just come back later...
-swears at fanfiction-

This is for Cuban Sombrero Gal's Pop Culture challenge. Somewhere, hidden away, is scarily subtle references to About a Boy, Brothers and Sisters, and My Sister's Keeper…0.0

Thanks Cubie for the challenge!

r.e.v.i.e.w.