Hey everyone. This is a story for Sophie's Shelf. I wrote for the Cross-gen pairing of /Ariana. After all they could have gotten close during all that time with her leading Neville back and forth to the Hogs Head. I hope you all enjoy A Picture of Love.
The first time her portrait had shown up I couldn't help but marvel at it. It was like the normal portraits at Hogwarts with it's moving occupant. But then she motioned me to follow her. I climbed up towards the picture frame finding the shock of a lifetime when I actually entered the picture.
"Follow me," she said in ethereal voice. She motioned me onward.
I couldn't help but follow. The girl in front of me seemed nice and didn't seem like she wanted to do me harm. So of course I followed her on towards whatever destination that she had in mind.
"What the..." came the startled voice in front of me.
I looked out of the portrait frame into what I remembered to be the Hogs Head. Aberforth Dumbledore was staring at me like I had three heads. It was then that I realized she was the answer that the Room of Requirement was giving to Dumbledore's Army getting food. I climbed out of the portrait and into the warm room beyond.
"What are you doing here?" asked Aberforth watching me as though I might attack at any minute.
Putting my hands up in gesture meant placate the older man I pointed back towards my painted friend. "That girl lead me here," I told him. "My friends and I are being hunted inside Hogwarts."
"And you thought it would be a good idea come hide here?"
"No," I informed him quickly. "We're all hiding in the Room of Requirement. But our supplies are beginning to run short. So I asked the room for a solution to that problem and then she appeared and brought me here."
He looked over my shoulder at the portrait of the smiling girl. She nodded at Aberforth as though the two of them knew each other. He nodded and walked towards another room. Sticking his back in the room I was left in he said, "Well, do you want to get more supplies or not?"
I nodded and followed him. He stocked us up well for the week with food supplies and other such important items. I thanked him as I climbed with my payload into the portrait.
"Thank you," I told the portrait of the girl as she began to walk back towards her other portrait in the Hogs Head. The crowded around me dividing up the supplies and stocking our shelves. "Who do suppose she was?" I asked Dean who shrugged in answer.
"An answer to prayers," suggested Seamus.
I let it drop at that because yes she had been answer to prayer.
The next time she showed up she brought news of what was going on in Hogsmeade. I had been the first see her approach and being the one she was most familiar with I met her when she stepped into her portrait. Her smile seemed almost sad.
"What's wrong?" I asked her.
"Aberforth sends word for you and your friends to avoid the Hogsmeade trips from here on out," she told me. "The Death Eaters are trying to use them to trap student with Muggle leanings."
"What?" came a gasp from the growing crowds behind us.
I nodded at her. "Thank you," I told her. "I don't remember catching your name."
"Ariana," she told me as she drifted away.
I watched her go. She seemed like an Ariana to me. She turned when she reached the other side before stepping into her other portrait and waved a good-bye to me. I waved back but she had already stepped into her portrait.
"Did she say the Death Eater are trying to trap students with Muggle leanings?" asked Seamus in concern.
I nodded.
"That would explain why Dean hasn't returned from holiday," he muttered under his breath.
I watched him wonder over to where his bunk was concern for our friends who had yet to return to Hogwarts written on his face. I was concern to but the thought of Ariana's smile and seeing it again wiped all that again.
The next few times I went with her to get supplies we struck up a conversation about books. Apparently when she was alive she had used to love to read in her garden. She told me she also enjoyed playing in her garden. Especially when she began to exhibit sign of magic.
"I was in my garden playing," she told me, "I was around eight years old at the time. I was floating one my toys in the air when I heard them talking. The boys that is."
My eyes widened. I didn't think that I wanted to hear the ending of this story but she didn't give me time to voice my opinion. She just kept on telling her story and me, I was a captive audience.
"The boys had seen me floating the toy in the air and wanted to see more magic," she told me. "They forced their way into the garden and began to harass me about showing more magic. I told them that I couldn't but they wouldn't leave me alone."
I looked at her sadly. She didn't deserve to be harassed especially as a small child. No one did.
"They kept at it until my oldest brother came and chased them off," she told me. "But the damage had been done. I really couldn't bring myself to want to do any kind of magic after that. Especially if would get me attacked or harassed again."
"I'm sorry that happened to you," I told her. "It doesn't seem fair."
"I wish you were alive back when I was," she told me. "Perhaps we could have been best friends."
"Or perhaps you could have been my girlfriend."
I watched as pretty blush covered her cheeks. I didn't know that portraits could blush but it only enhanced the beauty that was Ariana. We lapsed into silence as we neared the Hogs Head. Aberforth sent me back with another good sized load of supplies and the warning to be careful of going to Hogsmeade.
"They've put a Caterwalling Charm on the village," he told me as I started to walk away.
"Thank you, Aberforth, Ariana," I said as I walked back with the supplies and the news.
A few weeks later we heard a ear splitting sound coming from the direction of Hogsmeade. It was then that I remembered that Aberforth had told me about the Caterwalling Charm. Then Ariana appeared.
"Aberforth needs you to come to the Hogs Head," she said looking at me.
I nodded and climbed into the portrait with her. She seemed a little upset as though she knew something that I didn't. I went to put my hand on her shoulder when she turned towards me tears cascading down her face.
"This may be the last time we see each other," she told me. "I would like to know the name of man I have been helping this whole year."
"Neville," I told her. "Neville Longbottom. I'm sorry I should have told you my name after you told me yours."
She chuckled through her tears. "Before we go onward I would like to try something I never got to do in life," she told me.
"Wha..."
She gently pressed her lips on mine in a brief gently kiss that would stay in my mind for the rest of my life. She started to walk off towards the Hogs Head as though nothing out of the normal had happened.
I, of course, followed her because what else could I do. When we reached the portrait hole in the Hogs Head I saw three figures there that I thought I'd never see again in this life. Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I knew that we'd be in for a fight tonight as I lead the trio towards the Room of Requirement firing off questions as we went.
A huge cheer went up when I let Harry, Ron, and Hermione through the portrait hole first. As I climbed down from the portrait I watched Ariana's sad smile as she went to lead the rest of the fighters into Hogwarts.
It was later the next morning that I found that she was right. That would be the last time I would be seeing her. At least for now. The Room of Requirement had burned down and her portrait with it. Maybe once things settled down and the memories of why I was sneaking into the Hogs Head faded I would go visit her there. But for now I would remember her the way she was the last few times I saw her.
I hope you all enjoyed A Picture of Love.