A/N: Hello everyone and Merry Christmas! We hope you all have a fantastic and safe holiday.
Here at Diagon Alley II we have decided to have a little Secret Santa event in the spirit of Christmas. Several members of our forum have written a short story for their Secret Santa, and have published it together on this account. For the time being, the individuals authors will not be named until our other 'guess the author' competition finishes (in a day or so). As such, all formatting will be similar to prevent any obvious clues from coming out. Please feel free to take a guess yourself who it may be from DAII, and if there's a particular story here that takes your fancy, PM this account for I'd love to reward the hardest workers! (Note: no profit has been made from any of these stories - all characters and themes you may recognise from the world of Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling).
We hope you enjoy these stories from the heart. Without further ado, here is the first story written for the lovely Lokilette by the talented VoicesOffCamera (author of highly recommended fics such as 'Smoke and Mirrors' and 'The Righteous Side of Hell').
Christmas with the Dumbledores
"Albus, when will Aberforth be home?"
Albus glanced over at Ariana from where he sat at his desk, reading. He couldn't help but feel a bit startled by how coherently she had posed the question. He watched her for a moment where she sat on the floor with her feet tucked up underneath her and her elbows up on the low coffee table, observing how she seemed to be concentrating very hard on the parchment in front of her as she made little mindless doodles. Then he glanced up at the clock on the wall.
"Any moment now," he told her. "The Hogwarts Express must be arriving at the platform by now. He'll be along soon after."
"Should we go and fetch him?" Ariana questioned, not looking up from her doodles.
Albus raised an eyebrow at her, turning a little more fully from his book in order to study his younger sister curiously. "He will make his way here on his own," he stated. "He will floo from the platform."
"And mother? Will she be home soon as well?"
Albus took in a sharp breath at that. Apparently she wasn't a coherent as he had thought. He turned back to his book, feeling uncomfortable with the situation.
"I expect she will be," he mumbled, unable to give any other answer than that. He couldn't tell her that their mother wasn't coming home this time. Not again, anyway.
"Father will be cross if she doesn't have dinner ready when he gets home," Ariana said matter-of-factly.
"Hm," Albus hummed noncommittally.
His eyes strayed to a letter that lay on his desk from his friend Elphias Doge, which he had received the day before and had already read a dozen or so times. His friend had reached Egypt and was commenting on how warm the weather was for so close to the Christmas holiday. Albus sighed wistfully as his eyes traced the familiar curves of his friend's handwriting, before glancing out the window over his desk to find that it had started snowing in Godric's Hollow. Egypt would be a wonderful place to explore at Christmastime.
Suddenly, the fire roared up. Albus turned in time to see Ariana screech as she scrambled away from the fireplace, her eyes full of fear. A nearby vase was thrown off of the end table with such force that it smashed up against the wall, sending shards of glass in every which direction. Albus half rose from his chair, his hand already on his wand that was resting on his desk, but froze as Aberforth stepped from the fireplace. His brother did not even hesitate before dropping his rucksack and hurrying over to their little sister.
"Ariana, it's alright, it's alright now," Aberforth said gently, a kindness in his eyes that could only be seen when he looked upon his younger sister. A kindness that disappeared when he looked over at Albus. "You shouldn't let her sit so close to the fireplace when you know someone is about to floo into it."
"She seemed content with her little drawings," Albus tried to defend. With little thought, his wand was in his hand and he waved it, causing the shards of glass to jump back together into a whole vase once again. "I didn't want to disturb her."
Aberforth rolled his eyes. "She can do her drawings in another spot further from the fireplace so that it's not like flooing into a bloody war zone," he mumbled.
"It was only one vase this time," Albus reminded him.
Aberforth sighed in exasperation, though Albus didn't really understand what he was so worried about. This was normal behavior for Ariana and after all these years they knew that she was never going to get any better. So why not let her have some peace when she could find it rather than constantly moving her about trying to protect her from anything that might set her off?
It wasn't like she could do to Albus what she had done to their mother this past June.
"It wasn't my fault, it wasn't my fault, I didn't mean to, please daddy, come home, I'll be good I promise," Ariana was mumbling quickly to herself as she rocked back and forth on the floor.
Carefully, Aberforth wrapped his arms around Ariana. His presence had an instant effect on her, calming her in a way that Albus was never able to. She leaned into him and Albus suddenly felt uncomfortable, like he was intruding on a very private moment that had nothing to do with him. He sat back down in his chair and turned his back on the scene, going back to the book he had been reading, though he was admittedly less focused than he had been before.
"You've got some ink on your dress," he heard Aberforth say kindly. "Why don't you go get cleaned up before dinner?"
Albus listened as Ariana slowly stood up and carefully padded down the hallway in her stocking feet. He knew that she was unlikely to talk for a while after a breakdown like this. He closed his eyes, feeling worn. He wasn't looking forward to playing the guessing game when it came to what Ariana wanted for the next couple days.
"I packed up the rest of my things at school." Albus jerked in surprise, unaware that Aberforth had come up behind him. That was quite a feat, considering Aberforth wasn't usually the most subtle of individuals. "I'm going to arrange for them to be sent back here. I won't be returning to school after this Christmas holiday."
Albus sighed. "Don't be silly, Aberforth," he said tiredly. "I'm not having this conversation with you again."
"She needs me here, Albus," Aberforth snapped.
"I am here taking care of Ariana," Albus pointed out, the clipped tone of annoyance just present in his voice. "And you are going to finish school. That's all there is to be said on the subject."
"And what gives you the right to gives orders like that without any concern for anyone else?" Aberforth demanded.
"With father in prison and mother gone, I am legal guardian to both you and Ariana," Albus said in what he thought was a very reasonable tone. "That means that it's up to me. And you are not giving up your education, Aberforth. You need it." He said the last part quietly, almost to himself.
Aberforth snorted. "Not everyone puts as much faith in education alone like you do."
"Perhaps not," Albus said mildly as he stood up from his desk. "But as my opinion is the only one that matters in this house, I'd like to suggest that you get cleaned up for dinner." And with that, he brushed passed his brother as he headed for the kitchen.
"And perhaps if you cared for anyone other than yourself, you'd realize that simply controlling us isn't going to fix this family," Aberforth called after him.
Albus kept walking as if he hadn't heard him. Why couldn't Aberforth understand, Albus wondered as he entered the kitchen. It would be easy for Albus to give up all of this. He certainly didn't want to be here, sitting with his younger sister day in and day out like a nursemaid as all his talents were wasted in this small town. But he stayed because he cared for his siblings. He wanted more for them than what they had. That didn't make him a bad person. Someday, when he was a powerful wizard who influenced the world they lived in, they would both understand what he's done for them.
Albus had never been very good at cooking. It seemed like it should be simple enough, but no matter how closely he followed the recipe, it never tasted quite right. It was odd, he had excelled at Potions much like he excelled at all the rest of his classes in school, and it seemed that cooking should be terribly similar in theory. He really didn't understand why this didn't come as easily.
In any case, he had what he deemed to be a perfectly acceptable dinner on the table not fifteen minutes later. Aberforth had to coax Arianna out to the table, and Albus couldn't help but feel grateful that the task hadn't been left to him. It certainly would be useful to have Aberforth around more⦠but what would people think of him if he let his younger brother drop out of Hogwarts? It simply wasn't an option.
Dec 22
"You should eat something," Aberforth was saying, focusing solely on Ariana and acting as if Albus was not even sitting there, picking at the dry chicken on his plate. "Just a little something? Please? For me?" Ariana was staring vacantly down at the plate as if she had no idea what she was supposed to do with it. Aberforth sighed as he picked up his own fork. "Look, it's good. You don't know what you're missing out on, dear sister." He took a scoop of food off his plate, barely glanced to see what it was, and shoveled it into his mouth.
There was a pause as Aberforth's features were suddenly unreadable. Albus watched, unable to help but feel amused as his brother seemed to be at a loss. Finally, after the moment had stretched on uncomfortably long, Aberforth very unceremoniously spat his food back onto his plate.
"Blimy, Albus!" he said as Albus tried to hide a smirk. "Can the former British Youth Representative to the Wizengamot really not make a dinner that doesn't taste like feet?" As usual, he had named one of Albus' many achievements in a very mocking way, so as not to be confused with a compliment.
There was a small noise, like the tinkering of very delicate glass that didn't come from either of the boys. They both looked to Ariana, surprised by the noise that they heard so rarely at such an odd moment. As she lifted her gaze from the plate, Albus could see in her eyes that she was having one of her rare moments of clarity where she knew exactly what was going on around her, just a glimpse of the brilliant witch he knew that she could have been.
"Albus has always been a terrible cook," she said quietly.
Aberforth roared with laughter, as if this was the funniest thing he had ever heard. "I hope that he hasn't been feeding you this rubbish since I left."
"Bathilda has been sending over meals quite periodically," Albus spoke up, his eyes twinkling. "Curious, but it seems that she doesn't trust me to be a proper cook."
"Well, she sure got that right," Aberforth laughed. "I wouldn't feed this to my goats!"
Albus was still watching Ariana, mesmerized by the light smile that still graced her lips. Despite the two of them poking fun of him, Albus felt this wonderful sense of pride swelling up inside of him. It was worth a poor meal to be able to see that smile. It was even worth it to hear Aberforth jest so easily. For a moment, things felt very much like they did when they were young, before their lives had been so permanently altered by a group of young Muggle boys.
What he wouldn't give to simply live in this one moment, to pretend that nothing outside of the three of them sitting at the small kitchen table just a few days before Christmas existed.
What he wouldn't give for a simple life.
