This was written for inmemoriam7 (livejournal community), prompt: King's Cross. Enjoy :-)
It was ironic, really. Ariana had suffered madness for nine years, and the moment it lifted was the moment she was hit with a deadly curse. Ironic too that it wasn't a Dark curse, because that meant it wasn't cast by Albus or Gellert and so it must have been cast by Aberforth: the one who'd protected her and been by her side for so long.
Ariana wasn't angry with her younger brother. Although she feared dying and the pain had brought new waves of fear – what if the pain lasted for eternity? – she was thankful that she had been relieved of the insanity that had haunted her and her family for so long. If anything, she was glad that she was moving on. She could remember something Albus had told her once.
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"Al, where's mummy?" Ariana had asked, tears still staining her cheeks. "Will she be back soon?"
"No, she's not coming back," Albus had said, receiving a glare and a shushing gesture from Aberforth. "She's gone somewhere else now, Ari. She's gone to a really nice place where really nice people go."
"Oh… can we go and visit her?" Ariana had asked hopefully. Albus sighed; Aberforth, sensing approaching tears, had taken Ariana's favourite toy goat off the shelf and given it to her.
"Not yet, Ari," Aberforth had said.
"Not until we're all dead," Albus had muttered, not intending Ariana to hear. But her sharp ears had caught his words, and she began to cry. Gellert had taunted her once, saying she'd be better off dead, and Ariana had sensed the negative connotations of the word even if she didn't understand what it meant. Longer ago, the muggle boys had attacked her had said that they were going to 'kill her deader than dead' and remembering this, Ariana accidentally smashed the window.
"Ari, would you like some nice hot cocoa?" Aberforth suggested. "I'll add some extra cream, alright?" Ariana had nodded and Aberforth had shot a pointed glare at Albus before leaving the room.
Albus had awkwardly moved to sit next to Ariana on the bed.
"You don't need to be scared of death, Ari," he had said comfortingly. "It's like an adventure. You've always liked adventure stories," he said.
"What's the place like?" Ariana asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Well, it's a secret," Albus had said in a cheerful voice. "That's why it's an adventure, you see. You have to wait and find out when you get there."
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Now that Ariana knew she was experiencing her first ever adventure, she was torn between fear and excitement. She could feel the world of life fading, and her body was cold, but the atmosphere around her was beginning to warm. She wanted to say goodbye to Aberforth and to Albus, to hug them and tell them she was alright now, but she couldn't make her mouth move or her arms lift. She couldn't twitch her toes or her fingers, and for a few moments the panic overtook her excitement and she was whirling in a pool of blackness…
And then everything was white. Ariana could feel her body again: the breeze whispered and danced across her bare skin and she felt blood rush to her cheeks as she realised she was naked – then she wondered how she could blush when she was dead and a beautiful yellow gown appeared, so she dressed herself for the first time in years instead of having Albus cast a charm to Transfigure her nightgown into something suitable to wear at breakfast.
Ariana looked around her. She was in a vast room all alone; she stretched her arms out and spun around and laughed as her dress flew out, because although she was dead she'd never felt more alive. She was sane again – finally she was herself – and she couldn't wait to see her mother again.
Was this really death, though? Albus had said that after death they'd all see mother again, but she wasn't anywhere here. Ariana saw someone approaching and for a moment she thought it was her father but then she realised it was a man in a uniform, and she realised where she was.
Aberforth had told her all about this place. Every summer he'd told her everything about Kings Cross Station and Platform 9 ¾, every little detail from the colour of the Hogwarts Express down to the number of gold buttons on the conductors' smart uniforms, and Ariana had giggled and listened avidly to her brother's (probably highly embellished) tales of the first and last day of Hogwarts.
"Your train awaits you, miss," the guard said with a bow. Ariana felt every bit the princess (Albus had sometimes told her fairy stories about beautiful princesses with expensive dresses who were addressed by titles) as she inclined her head gracefully (it felt so good not to be trapped with the mind of a child any more) and took the proffered arm to be led towards the next great adventure.
Ariana had always wanted to board the Hogwarts Express. She'd never been able to do so, but now she was boarding her very own personal train at King's Cross and it was taking her to her mother, and it was infinitely better than any earthly train could have been. And as the train gathered speed and became misty and Ariana thought it had left the tracks and was flying forwards into nothing, all she could see was Kendra Dumbledore's smiling face.