Written for Hogwarts Online II's April Challenge

Title: Smiles in the Glass

Character: Ariana Dumbledore

House: Ravenclaw

Name: nargles lurk in the mistletoe/ Josephine

They were closing in on her.

The evening sky was slowly turning black, the boys' figures nearly silhouettes against it.

She couldn't run. There was no way to hide. "I didn't do anything!" she pleaded. A lie, but a lie for her life. She knew exactly what she had done, but she couldn't tell them, so they continued advancing. She was surrounded.

She screamed for help, but to no avail. The oldest one gave a gesture, and with that they lunged.

Ariana bolted awake, her heart pounding in her chest. Deep breaths, she told herself. But deep breaths couldn't help her, only the mirror could. She'd just witnessed the Accident yet again.

The Accident was what her family called the tragic series of events that had occurred eight years before, when three Muggle boys had caught her practicing magic. They asked how she did it, and when she couldn't answer them, they attacked her. The violent attack had rendered her magical abilities uncontrollable. Her father, in his fury, had killed the Muggle boys, an act that got him shipped off to Azkaban.

With one stupid action from those muggles, her life had been ruined; her power distorted beyond use, her father taken from her.

She hated those boys.

Eight years later, with Father imprisoned and Mother dead, she was left in her brothers' care, "care" being a loose definition. They hardly cared about anything. Aberforth cared about school; Albus cared about power. That was basically all. The mirror took better care of her than they did.

The mirror was a most peculiar artifact. It didn't show her reflection: it showed a glimpse of her life as it could have been. Should have been. It had been hidden away in the basement for years. Ariana knew she wasn't supposed to go down there, as was her parents' ruling, but since they were gone, and Albus didn't take any interest in rules, there was no one but Aberfoth to tell her not to. Hiding things from Aberforth was easy; he was completely oblivious.

Her brother couldn't keep her away even if he tried. Standing in front of that mirror, she felt whole. Ever since the Accident, it was the only place she did.

She stared into the looking glass, and an image slowly came into focus. She saw herself standing there, wand in hand, a gentle glow emitting from the end of her wand. Her magic had never produced anything so controlled.

Her parents stood on either side of her. Kendra, alive and smiling brightly, happier than Ariana had ever seen her in life, her hand resting on her daughter's left shoulder. Percival, clean and healthy, wearing his finest coast instead of rusted shackles.

Kendra ran her right hand though Ariana's dirty blonde hair lovingly. She'd been told her father's hair had been the same color when he was a young man. Her mother's was much darker.

Ariana smiled. The faintest ghost of a smile, but a smile nonetheless.

Then she heard the voices.

They were screaming at the top of their lungs, shouting Latin words at each other, words like stupefy and expelliarmus. She recognized them as spells.

Heart pounding, she ran out the door into the yard, where Albus, Aberforth, and Gellert, that awful boy Gellert, stood in a circle. Beams of light ricocheted across the lawn. Their faces were drawn into scowls.

"Petrificus totalus!"

"No! NO! Stop!" Ariana pleaded.

"Locomotor mortis!"

She couldn't take it anymore.

"Sectumsempra!"

She rushed into the center of the circle, determined to make peace.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Ariana's body hit the ground.

When she opened her eyes again, Kendra really was smiling at her.

Albus had found the mirror.

He stared into its glassy surface, and his sister stared back. The sister he had killed.

No. He hadn't killed her. Gellert had. It was Gellert's fault the duel ever began. It was Gellert whose spell had likely hit his sister, although they couldn't be sure exactly whose it was. They didn't want to know whose it was.

And from this state of unknowing sprung forth a circle of blame, and while Albus pointed the blame at Gellert, Gellert redirected it toward Aberforth for interrupting them, and Aberforth claimed the fault was Albus's, something he would never let his brother forget.

Albus clutched at his nose as another burst of pain shot through it, the reminder of his accused crime.

And thus completes the circle, he thought bitterly.

The mirror was too painful. He couldn't let it stay in the house. The boy removed a wand from the folds of his robe and pointed it towards Ariana's image.

"Reducio," Albus whispered. The glass shrunk many times in size, its dimensions reaching the approximate equivalent of those of a letter envelope. He scooped it up and stuck it in his bag.

It would be a perfect addition to the Hogwarts décor.