Preface
A Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort Saga
A butterfly floated loftily above the wind-strewn field, the morning sunlight shone in streams through the trees that littered the edge of the field. The blue, black-speckled butterfly hovered and fluttered above a small patch of lilies in the midst of the field. As it landed, the stalk of the white flower tilted to the side as the slight weight of the small insect pulled it closer to the earth, however, this change in position did not bother the butterfly, and it continued to do its natural duties and pollinate. Another gust of wind swept through the long grass of the field, the flowers dotted around the area blowing in the wind, the grass sweeping with the wind, giving a distinct impression of a green and yellow sea flowing elegantly. A petal from the lily upon which the butterfly was perched, was torn from its home, and fluttered away in the win, swept up and forced to travel along the path, following the breeze, weaving and twirling in the sky, lowering almost to the earth before catching another drift and floating back upwards, into the light of the sun, which would at once, cast a slight shadow upon the palm of a small girl who looked expectantly upon her hand, her face a little off, her light blue eyes scanning her palm to examine the shadow.
The small girl looked up to the sun to find the source of the shadow, however the bright star burned her eyes and she looked away, her eyes stinging as she rubbed them, trying to make her eyes feel a little better. The small white petal landed on her light blonde hair, however, the ending of its flight went unnoticed as the girl struggled to regain her sight. The petal settled into her hair, then slid off when she brought her head back up to the position previous. The girl muttered something under her breath as she looked back at her palm, the shadow was gone, as was the source of the shadow, which depressed her a little. Her cold blue eyes looked around to find it, but she could not see the fallen petal, sighing dejectedly, she sat on the grassy earth, cross-legged and sad, her eyes cast downwards at the earth, staring at a small flower, slightly wilted and hidden from the sunlight by the taller grass, a small daisy, carefully, she plucked it from the damp earth in the midst of the grass. Holding the daisy in the sunlight, she gazed upon its countenance, it reminded her of Aberforth, her second oldest sibling, the one that she preferred. Aberforth was constantly being put down in the light of the eldest of their family, Albus, who, she felt a little more wary of, as he was not nearly as nice to her, always off doing his own thing, things she never understood, but Aberforth was nice to her, he let her go for these walks and he played with her, but he, much like the daisy, was often strangled against the higher and more powerful and common plants. A gust of wind caught the daisy in her hands and bent the stem, and she dropped it, watching it as it fluttered on the breeze for moments before falling to the earth and resting.
It was getting cool out now, she looked up to the clouds to see the darkening horizon, the grey storm clouds coming her way. Naturally, she did not quite understand it herself, but anything that made noises and flashes of light as this was doing, it made her uncomfortable, but as long as Albus was still near, she knew she was safe. To find him was another matter, unfortunately, he was not within sight, and she felt panic rise in her breast, had he left her? She was so confused, her hands were clasped together and held against her chest in a slight panic, the storm clouds roiling in overhead, and her panic was growing ever so powerful. Tears gripped the corners of her eyes in a panic, and as the first crackle of thunder boomed over the field, she closed her eyes and drew her chin to her chest, however, a pair of warm, strong arms wrapped around her, and she felt her panic simply whoosh away, looking up to the person who had grasped her, it was, not whom she expected, Aberforth, who had a look on his face between rage and confusion, she did not quite understand why, but she still felt the warmth radiate from him, he was here at least, and she had completely forgotten about Albus being he one who was supposed to be with her. Hugging Aberforth tightly, she sobbed into his jacket as another boom of thunder echoed loudly, he pulled her closer, then picked her up, whispering into her ear, soothing her.
Being underage, he could not cast an Impervious charm, so they were about to get thoroughly wet, and as the first raindrops fell from the sky, he felt them land on the top of his head. It began to grow stronger in seconds, first it was smaller raindrops, then large ones, and it was getting frightfully cold now, the once warm and calm summer breeze was now a torrent of cold air and powerful, cutting winds. Arianna clung tightly to jacket that adorned Aberforth, and he tried to keep her as dry as possible, knowing that she was already ill enough without having to catch some sort of cold, especially when his elder brother was off doing whatever it was he was doing and neglecting his charges. Another bout of rage erupted within him, like a beast, clawing his insides trying to get out, Albus, his bastard of a brother had left Arianna in the field and gone of, most likely with that weirdo of a friend Gelert. Aberforth did not like Gelert, he had changed his brother, it was strange, and it was subtle, but over the one month the older boy had been here, he had managed to get inside of his brothers head, and although Albus had always been one to want to showoff, with Gelert here, it made him even more...He did not really know what to call it, distant sounded appropriate, but it was not quite powerful enough, as he almost removed himself from the family with what he thought were his new 'duties'.
Arianna made a noise from within his grip, and he noticed that they had found their way back to their home in Goderics Hollow, it was positively dreadful now, the rain was coming down in heaves, massive puddles had formed everywhere, and the noise was quite immense. Releasing the young girl, he watched as she made her way towards the door of the house, after placing her hand around the handle of the door, she looked back at Aberforth, who gave her a curt wave, then proceeded to follow her path, his boots throwing up masses of water as he stepped in puddles a little more forcefully than he normally would have, his fury quite immense. The door had swung shut after Arianna had entered, and when he opened the door he was greeted by quite an aggravating scene. Albus was kneeling next to Arianna, who was now sopping wet, he was completely dry, his blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, and his face taught with worry, from his position, he could hear the older male apologizing profusely to Arianna, trying to hug her, but she was fighting back against his grip, although unable to speak, she was quite effective at showing her emotions.
As she pulled away, Aberforth saw the defeated look in his brothers eyes, and the way his body seem to sag with depression, and it made him want to laugh, it was his own damned fault, if only he had taken care of his sister instead of wasting his time and going off with his mad ideas. As he moved forward to confront Albus, he saw Gelert looking slightly guilty, sitting on one of the puffy armchairs that were around the fireplace, and his anger grew, this was the source of his brothers negligence, his fists were balled up before he realized it, and he yelled at his brother. This had not been the first time the older of the two had left his sister for dead to come and plan with his partner in crime, and even though Aberforth knew that it was not entirely Albus, it still did not alleviate any rage at his brother. The man was incredibly smart and brilliant according to all his awards, how could he be so blind to not see that what he was doing was breaking his family apart, did all of his genius account for nothing past his books and his classes? It was infuriating, and he had never been so angry at his brother in his life, then again, Albus had never left Arianna so far away from their home as he had today, and the irresponsibleness of it all was overwhelming.
"Albus! What the hell is wrong with you?"
Albus Dumbledore, the blonde teen, kneeling on the floor and looking dejectedly down, looked up into his brothers infuriated face, no change in his face happened, he knew what he had done, and he knew he deserved this, so he said nothing as his brother yelled at him.
"What were you thinking? You left Arianna all alone in the field, anything could have happened to her, hell, it started to storm out there, and did you care? No, you're here, being all high and mighty with your good pal Grindelwald" Aberforth pointed an accusing finger at Gelert Grindelwald, whose face changed from one of somber neutrality to an angered look at being accused. "Arianna could have died, but you don't care, you're too busy being important to care about your family!"
Aberforth could tell that his words hit home with his elder brother, as his eyes always expressed his emotions, however, before words could escape his mouth, Grindelwald interrupted. His accent was actually quite thick, and this was the first time that Aberforth would speak directly to him, as opposed to the snatches of words which he would hear from the basement or from Albus room when it came to them planning things. The fact that he was going to try and defend his own actions at leaving a little, magically damaged girl on her own in the midst of a field because he had more important work to do, horrified and perplexed Aberforth in a manner that made him angrier than he was. This was spiraling out of control quickly, he had never been so enraged in his life, and he was wishing more than anything that his mother was here so she could deal with it all.
"Albus has more important work to do, ve are doing this, 'For the greater good', if he vasted his time worrying about things that lesser people could be doing, then he vould never accomplish anything!"
Aberforth roared with angered laughter at this.
"For the greater good'? Albus, she is your sister, your family is the greatest good you will ever have, and you!"
The angered teen turned from his kneeling brother to the now standing Grindelwald.
"You should just get the hell out of here, he does not need you, I don't know where you came from, but get back there before you corrupt his mind anymore than you already have with your poison"
Gelert drew his wand with such speed that no one could react in time, especially not Aberforth who was struck by a forceful spell which blew him backwards and into the closed door behind him, which splintered with the force of the strike.
"Albus needs nothing of this place, he and I, ve vill lord over all muggles and become kings, the magical vorld vill rule with muggles at our feet, no fool of a brother vill stop our progress, we shall collect the Hallows and rule, masters of death"
The face of Albus Dumbledore drained of color, evidently, the mental barriers he had brought up against their plans about his hesitations and feelings against this had been broken by the way Grindelwald had spoken about it. In his head, it had always been for the muggles protection and safety, wizards ruling, not with an iron fist, but with kindness and freedom. He swallowed thickly and watched as his brother stood and brought out his own wand. Clearly Aberforth was being controlled by his anger now, as his face was contorted to one of quite immense hatred and rage. A spell was cast by his brother, however, Gelert was a greater wizard than Aberforth, Albus knew this, and the way Gelert simply deflected the spell and directed it towards the family portrait that rested above the fireplace made him realize what the foreign wizard was trying to accomplish. With the destruction of the portrait, he was trying to show him that the family meant nothing in front of power, and was trying to show Aberforth that he meant nothing in teh face of the Greater Good. However, Albus felt a twinge of pain in his heart as the visage of his mother and sister were burned before him, and he knew his brothers pain well as he howled with rage.
Gelert cast a spell at his brother, but Albus, using his own powerful magic dispelled it and stood between the two, his chest heaving and tears running down his cheeks. He looked between the two, who looked around him and at each other with such rage that Albus could almost feel the heat from them. However, with him between them, no more spells were cast, Aberforth because it was his brother, and Gelert because he did not want to ruin the friendship and lose his partner and all the progress that they had lost. Seeing that it had ended, he gave Albus a curt nod, then ignored Aberforth, disapperating with a loud crack. As he did so, Albus slumped down to the ground on his knees and looked at his brother, wanting to apologize, but before he could, the younger of the two opened to broken door and stormed outside leaving Albus alone with his thoughts. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his breathing, wishing that he had someone to guide him, the end of summer was coming close, and he needed to prepare himself, he and Gelert would be setting off soon, then, well, he would see if he could save Arianna along the way. Why was this so hard, not for the first time he wished his mother was still alive, then he would not have anything to worry about, life was cruel.