The pitter-patter of rain could be heard upon the aged roof of a small tavern where the sign read The Hog's Head" The pub was closed and been closed for the past week.
The bar owner named Aberforth Dumbledore was upstairs with his lost son, Aurelius. However, most people still knew him by the name he'd been branded with, Credence Barebone.
His son was slowly dying from the same thing his younger sister had been. Both his sister and son had become what is known as an Obscurial. An Obscurus was a parasitic entity that was attached to magical children. This condition was brought on by trauma forcing the child to suppress their magical abilities.
His son was the only known one to make it to adulthood, as most children with this condition died at ten. His sister had made it to fourteen but would've died soon anyways. She only died sooner due to a fierce duel between the Dumbledore brothers and Albus's former lover Grindelwald.
All Ab could do for his son was ensure he died in peace, giving him the love he'd been so long denied. He couldn't undo a lifetime of being abused and unloved. But for the son he'd been denied to raise, he'd ensure his last days were the best.
Aurelius soaked up all the love and affection while his pet Phoenix stood guard over him. Aurelius listened to his father's stories about their family. He learned of his father's love of goats. He learned what his birth mother had been like when his parents fell in love that summer so long ago.
He'd been sad to learn he'd become what led to his aunt's untimely death. However, finally feeling genuinely loved made up for that. Nevertheless, he could sense his father's anger towards his uncle.
But from his own interactions with Albus? Aurelius could sense his uncle carried his own emotional scars. That may be all of them were very much alike. All of them wished to be loved. Only for their family to be broken by tragedy. Perhaps they'd find love and peace in the next life. Where their family could be healed and whole once more.
He didn't tell his father these thoughts. Instead, he kept them close to his heart. As a result, the final weeks of Aurelius Dumbledore's life were heartbreaking and healing.
Love indeed was the most extraordinary magic of all, the magic we all possess and should share. To live in love and leave a legacy of love behind us when we pass into the next world. Ab did mourn his son's death, and to his surprise, so did Albus. They had a quiet funeral where Aurelius's phoenix created a tomb for his master to reside in.
Despite the animosity between the brothers, who'd now lost another member of their family? Even if it weren't meant to last, they'd least for one day put aside their grudges and mourned together as a family should.
"This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life." Psalm 119:50
