Chapter 25 - Ariana Dumbledore


The waves crashed on the shore below the cliffs as Lizzie sat in intense silence. She hadn't spoken to anyone in the week that passed since Charlie's encounter with the horcrux. He'd been leaving her alone to sleep at night and hadn't had any success in getting her to explain what happened. He had no memory of it, but when he'd looked at her body after she'd fallen unconscious in the kitchen that night, he was able to make conclusions.

"What happened?" Bill asked watching his brother white knuckle the edge of the counter in the kitchen looking extremely distressed. Charlie shook his head dismissively and left out the side door without a word. There was something in the house, and they all knew it, only Lizzie, Ron, and Hermione hadn't elaborated on the curious gold cup they brought back from Gringotts.

Lizzie was riddled with dreams of being trapped in a basement. Tom at about Charlie's age sitting with an aura of satisfaction about him. She felt clammy and sweaty in the other girl's skin, but also cold, bone-chilled, and miserable. If he gave his ability to father children to the split soul manifesting itself as Estrella Black, what exactly was he doing with Bellatrix all this time? Lizzie shuddered at image after image of failed pregnancies, some early mush and others late tiny, feeble humans. He wanted something with them, fathered by him, to serve what purpose? Lizzie read through the manuscripts on Herpo the Foul with a more critical eye and wondered if he intended to breed meladictus of his own, or if he wanted a vessel to bring back Herpo himself. She wondered if he had that particular horcrux.

She shuddered and stared out at the sea longingly, legs folded under her, and a large jacket wrapped over her shoulders. They had to move and move fast on the one at Hogwarts. Hogwarts was also the only place she knew of with something that could destroy what was in the house, or rather, under the house. She hid the cup in the basement floorboards of the cottage, sealed it with the tightest magic she knew, and then added an enchantment to the hatch into the cellar. She could still feel it. The others were different as well, but there were no more violent outbursts or red-eyed encounters. This consequently made her obsess over Estrella, almost pity the thing locked in the basement. It reminded her of Dumbledore's sister, of herself in the cupboard. Was the purpose of it all to spare others the dread of their company? Creating a normalcy in homes otherwise haunted. She shuddered again and wrapped the jacket tighter. It was the first of May but by the ocean it felt like January.


Charlie took a walk down the path to rocks at the base of the cliffs when he noticed Lizzie standing on a taller, sharp-edged one as she stared below at something he personally wasn't sure he could see. For a cold morning, the picture struck him as odd. She was wearing a large cotton shirt and wasn't sure if she was even in shorts or just knickers, barefoot, still, with red hair whipping through the sea breeze.

He jogged closer and climbed a series of rocks which served as obstacles on the journey to her perch. When he reached hers and placed a hand on her shoulder, she turned. He startled backwards at the sight of lifeless eyes and a beaten face. He suddenly found it difficult to breathe or stay in the present. All he could see was himself pinning her down, all he could hear were muffled screams and poisonous words that didn't sound like they came from him at all. He struck her and desperately envisioned barging in to rip himself off and bludgeon his own face in.

He opened his eyes and lost balance on the rock's ledge, whatever it was he thought was Lizzie was broken on the rocks below him and he felt a hand reach out and pull him back to safety. When he turned, it was Lizzie. Green eyes wide as saucers, fully dressed, fading bruises on her face.

He pulled her in for a bone crushing hug, skin trembling. She let him and looked down at what he saw. "I'm so sorry," he sobbed into the top of her head. She started to shake too. "Lizzie, I'm sorry," he said clutching softly at her hair protectively. She was long since out of tears and felt dissociated from all of it. When he let go she didn't look at him.

"Let's go inside," she said with a weak voice and climbed down off the rocks toward shore. Charlie followed apprehensively.

They entered the kitchen and he immediately rummaged through cabinets. "Charlie, just sit down," she said.

He found a vile of something and handed it to her. "What's this?" She asked a little sharply.

"So you don't get... pregnant. It's what's left of what I made a few weeks ago..." he said. Lizzie snatched it from his hand and chucked it across the room before she realized she'd done it. The glass shattered on the wall and he stared incredulously at her for a moment.

"That didn't happen..." she said finally and sunk into the chair.

"What do you mean, it -" he said.

"THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN!" She roared. "If I'm - if we're - it just - didn't happen, you never touched me," she said, her eyes flooding with tears. "If something happens to you, I don't want that memory," she added. He sat down next to her and reached for her hand, but she pulled it away and buried her face in her palms.

"That cup is a horcrux. It wasn't you that - did that," she said finally. "It was him. You-know-who...his horcrux. We've been hunting them. That's one of them and Griphook took the sword to kill it with. We're living with a piece of him and it possessed you," she explained, her voice muffled some in her hands.

He stared and she wasn't sure he'd even taken a breath. His eyes were calculating and worried. "Then how do I know if -" he started to say.

"You... don't. Ginny was possessed by one for most of her first year at Hogwarts. I've experienced the same. I'm not - I don't blame you, I'm just hurt. He knows exactly how to hurt me and used you. Which makes it hurt more. But I need to go to Hogwarts. The last one is there aside from the one with him. There's also a way to destroy them there, otherwise we will be driven mad in this house. He knows I'm hunting them, the break in at the bank was a dead giveaway..."

"How many are there?" He asked.

"Six. We destroyed three and have one. The last object is in or around the castle somewhere, his snake is the final," she explained in a hushed voice.

"Hogwarts is a trap," he said. Lizzie nodded.

"I know but there's no way around it."

"Maybe one of us could sneak in and you stay here. Find it and bring it back?" He asked.

"No, you're not going to know what or where it is," she retorted.

"And you do?" He asked.

"I know what it is. I still have a connection to him...and you need parseltounge to get into where they can be destroyed," she said. "I'm going alone on this one. I'm not bringing any of you with me until I find a way in."

"Don't be a bloody idiot," he scowled. Lizzie raised her eyebrows and stood up. She splayed her hands on the table and stared eye-level at his with intense resolve and a compulsive urge to hit him.

"I'm leaving tonight. If you breathe a word to Ron, Hermione, or Remus and they die coming to the bloody rescue, I will cut you in thirds and bury you with them, even if I have to rise from the dead to do so..." she said quietly. "Don't tell anyone you know about the horcruxes. I will send you a signal to come if I need you."

He grabbed her wrist as she turned to leave and stood up, towering over half a foot taller than her. "If you need help, ask. If you don't think they'll draw and quarter me for letting you go alone, you're wrong."

"Then don't say anything," Lizzie hissed.

"Why won't you let anyone protect you?" He asked, frowning at the look in her eyes.

"I don't need you to, and I don't want you to," she breathed with mild reproach. "That's how they all have died." Her eyes flicked out the window at the cliffs where Dobby was buried. Charlie swallowed and looked angry but released his grip on her wrist apologetically. Lizzie went upstairs to the room and paced around talking herself through a plan to intercept the castle.


Lizzie ate dinner in silence, warning Charlie with her eyes not to say anything since he seemed to fidget with anxiety. At one point she noticed him clenching his jaw so hard he looked ready to combust. Only Bill picked up on the tension between them.

When Ron and Hermione retired to bed, Lizzie snuck down the stairs with the cloak, Draco's wand, the horcrux, and a pouch of essentials. Charlie was sitting on the couch, leaned over, with his elbows digging into his knee caps.

"At least let me go with you," he said after a long pregnant pause between them.

Lizzie rolled her eyes and pushed her way through the door. She heard him get up and storm out after her.

"Liz! Stop!" He yelled and broke into a jog to catch up to her. Lizzie hurried to the edges of the cottage protections faster in response, but his strides were longer and she felt hands on her arms.

"You need to let go," she struggled. He spun her around and she stared up at very sad eyes. He kissed her and didn't release the lock on her face or her arms. Lizzie's body slumped and she pushed at his chest when he pulled her in for a tight embrace.

He backed up half a step as he let go. "Please don't die," he whispered. Lizzie was shaking and nodded, she took a few steps backwards away from him and pulled the cloak on. He heard her apparate with a loud crack and sucked in the ocean air with a sharp breath.


The air of Hogsmeade immediately erupted in horrific screams when Lizzie apparated just behind the Three Broomsticks. Lights came on immediately and dozens of death eaters and wizard order police spilled into the streets as Lizzie hid under the cloak.

She ducked into a stable and held her breath as it was diligently searched along with every other building in the corridor. Lizzie hoped to slip into Honeydukes and down the Cellar, but would defer to the shrieking shack and come up from the Whomping Willow if necessary.

"She's here. We were warned yesterday she would show, were we not?" One of the death eaters asked his comrade. "Potter!"

"What you think she'll just pop out like that?" Another scoffed.

"Azalea... sweetheart, we can make this painless," the first said with mock consideration. This made Lizzie cringe with disdain.

"I say we call the dementors, they will find her..." another hissed.

"The dark lord wants her alive!" The first shot back harshly.

"The dementors won't kill her, idiot. She doesn't need her soul for what he wants. I think he only wants her alive to torture for the rest of her miserable bloody life," the other contested. Lizzie could hear their voices fading as they left. The air went cold and everything went dark. Lizzie gripped the wand but knew the dementors could sense her from under the cloak.

She moved into the main road toward Honeydukes, but felt herself fade quickly on heavy legs as dozens of them descended on the town. She knew they'd know her patronus, and considered transforming even though that was still a dead giveaway. Lizzie moved to scale the stone buildings near the alley, but was intersected by a cloaked beast. Before she could slip away she muttered the charm, but found it difficult to produce anything with the weight of the horcrux in her pouch. She closed her eyes around a memory of Cedric in a room above the pub where his friends celebrated his seventeenth birthday. They celebrated in other ways, but it fluidly came to mind as a pre-war bliss and out bounded the silver stag. The death eaters roared with excitement and Lizzie ran forward toward Honeydukes, only to get stopped by an open door and pulled, despite the cloak, into a side door of the Hogs Head. Lizzie felt her perceived attacker grab a fist full of the cloak and pull it off from over her. He bundled it up harshly and shoved it into her stomach.

"Upstairs, Potter. Go," he ordered. It was dark, but she caught a glimpse of who he was. Lizzie listened at the door upstairs as he argued with the death eaters about his patronus being a goat, not a stag. She was surprised it fooled them but it did, and footsteps soon thundered up the steps just before he pushed open the door harshly, causing her to stammer back.

He walked right past her and pulled out a chair. "Sit," he barked and she obliged.

"Here they tell me how bloody intelligent you are, and you apparate into Hogsmead like a blasted dimbo?" He asked incredulously.

"I never thought it was smart," Lizzie said reproachfully. "You're Aberforth, his brother, aren't you?" She asked, noticing the eyes that looked identical to Dumbledore's. He sighed.

"Assuming you're referring to Albus, yes," he said gruffly.

Lizzie frowned. "You're in the mirror? Where did you get my godfather's mirror?" She asked.

"Mundungus..." he said cautiously, watching Lizzie's face flicker with some mixture of reproach and pain. "Where is Dobby?" He asked.

Lizzie's chest dropped and she stared. "You sent him?" She winced. He nodded. Lizzie rubbed her face as it went hot with guilt.

"He's gone, Bellatrix killed him," she said in a weak voice. Aberforth stared and nodded absently.

"I liked him," he said after a long pause. Lizzie's eyes welled.

"Yeah me too," she said with a stifled sob.

"You can stay the night, leave in the morning when curfew breaks. Can't apparate out, but climb up the mountainside and you can apparate from out there," he explained.

Lizzie shook her head. "I need to get into the castle," she said curtly.

"Wow, you are bloody stupid," he said shortly with a frown.

"I need two things while I'm there, and then I can leave. I don't want to be detected and there's no reason to be..." she explained, trying not to let the comment bother her.

"What on God's green earth could you need? Show up in that castle, with Snape as headmaster, surrounded by dementors, infested with death eaters... you're done. You'll be you-know-who's by the morning and from what I've heard about you over the years, that will be a miserable state of existence, he won't show you a shred of mercy, including death," Aberforth rattled.

"I almost have what I need to stop him and end him, but I need what's hidden in the castle..."

"My brother tell you that?" Aberforth asked, cocking his head to give her a rather intent look.

"Your brother figured out his secret, and I've dug out, quite literally every skeleton in the dark lord's closet ever since. There is no reason to stop now," Lizzie shot back.

"Skeletons in his closet. Did my brother ever tell you about his? Did he tell you that you were one of them? Or did he keep everything a secret from you as well? If he had told you the truth, you could have done yourself a favor and gone home to your family a long time ago," Aberforth said. Lizzie paused at seemingly common knowledge how much she'd longed to be put out of her misery.

"I know he kept secrets. I know he did me no favors, ever. But I'm not here for him..." Lizzie retorted.

Lizzie looked at the painting above the fireplace and clenched her jaw. "She was an obscurial, wasn't she?" Lizzie asked.

His eyes narrowed at her immediately in response. "Those boys touched her didn't they? I've been in the house. I found her drawings. That's why your father killed them..." Lizzie continued.

"That's not what turned her," Aberforth said in a low voice and got up only to set down a drink glass and whisky for himself. He didn't offer Lizzie one. "Locked in that house, shut up like an embarrassment... called a squib, she was no sqib. I blamed those boys too until..." he said after a couple of swigs from the glass.

"Until...?" Lizzie asked.

"I told Albus you were an obscurial. He didn't believe it. He thought you were something else even after they made a fuss about your bogart... I took one look at you, sometime after that Skeeter article released during the tournament. It was clear. After that boyfriend of yours died you looked just like..." he said with a dark expression.

"Ariana?" Lizzie asked.

He nodded with his eyes. "Ariana got good at controlling it, I helped her. But it started to slip from her control and killed our mother. The grief of that only made her less able to control it. We don't know which of us killed her. Grindewald, my brother's partner in world domination, wanted to use her as a weapon. But you looked just like my son, who was also used as a weapon after having been raised with religious persecution. That kind of power can't be learned..."

"I witnessed the prophecy told. My brother interpreted it to mean the difference in power could only be that kind of power. He used you as a tool to bring down the dark lord from the moment you were born..." Aberforth said and set down an empty glass.

"I'm not - following..." Lizzie said with a cracked voice.

"He put you in our house, didn't he? He made them keep you inside, willing to turn you into what his sister was, if it meant destroying the dark lord..." Aberforth said darkly and laughed weakly.

"You don't think he knew Pettigrew wasn't trustworthy? You don't think he knew Sirius was innocent? You don't think he made a gamble and knew your family would be found... He didn't know it would destroy the dark lord; he hoped the trauma would set you into motion to eventually be able to. So, you were raised like my son was, he wasn't planning on trying to rid you of it, but it got too cancerous..."

"You showed up at Grimauld Place, knowing he knew you'd been raped. You looked like her, were about her age too. The poisonous words, the way you snapped, it's a miracle you didn't take the bloody place down. He saw her in you. Sirius pled with him constantly to just let him take care of you, like I did Ariana - but no, Albus had other plans. Then You-know-who found out. My brother did not want his weapon, however ashamed or reluctant he was for making it, to be used against him... now he's got you doing what? Under the delusion you can bring this regime down by yourself?" He spat the last part. Lizzie's hands were trembling.

"I've been hunting horcruxes. I'm not doing it for your brother, I never trusted him. I knew he knew about everything. I knew he ignored every plea; I knew in my bones it was an agenda," Lizzie said, but the weight was sinking her heart into her stomach.

"Well don't take it personally, he did it to Ariana too. He cared about you, I'd say he even loved you, you impressed him, what Ariana could have been, I suppose, had we not shunned her, hushed her up, and had let he get her education. Nonetheless, it was all to the end it served this impossible purpose..." Aberforth added.

"I know he did, and I hope it ate him alive. He didn't forgive himself for Ariana. The night he died, he drank a potion that had him feeble and tormented by something he did, something he let someone else do. I think it had a lot to do with her. I think I reminded him of her. Guilt killed him if that gives you any consolation," Lizzie explained.

"Snape killed him," Aberforth corrected.

"He put him out of his misery," Lizzie retorted.

"Horcruxes, you said? That's a suicide mission," he scoffed. "Bloody bastard is going to be around forever, isn't he?" He muttered. Lizzie smirked at the accuracy of calling him a bastard.

"I've destroyed three," Lizzie said. He raised his eyebrows with a weak look of being impressed. Aberforth suddenly looked distracted by something and moved toward the door to the hallway curiously. They both seemed to hear it, a faint creaking noise as though someone were listening. Lizzie looked up at the painting again, but saw Estrella. The girl stared directly back at her in a satisfied sort of way.

Lizzie closed her eyes and heard a heavy breathing in her ears. It was a labored breath of being trapped in a small space. "You're no squib," Tom hissed and she saw her eyes go white and the air pick up in a furious force that exploded in green light. Lizzie caught her breath.

Aberforth muttered "hominom revelio," and there was a ear splitting scream that rang through her ears. Lizzie was small again pulling a hand from the floorboards of Privet Drive. The girl in the closet with her was Estrella, she stared with a menacing grin and Lizzie curled up into a familiar tight ball. The feet coming down the stairs gave her familiar chills, but when Vernon opened the cupboard door, it was Tom who stared back. This time, as she practically exploded with a surge of obscural force, he blocked her airway until she fell unconscious. Lizzie remembered herself sinking to the floor and gasped as she came to on Aberforth's. She crawled forward into a sitting position, but the door was wide open, and a wailing could be heard from below, muffled by what could only be his cellar.

Lizzie got up on trembling legs and scaled her way downstairs with her wand drawn. Aberforth was on his knees, hands trembling too hard to open the latch to his cellar. Lizzie knelt beside him and grabbed his hand.

"It's not Ariana, it's the horcrux, it's Riddle," she whispered. It went quiet below and after a moment the man opened the latch. He stifled a breath and pulled what looked like Ariana's head from the second to top stair of the cellar. He dropped it in horror, fear washing over his body with an intensity Lizzie had not seen since his brother drank the potion in the cave. He took several steps backward then retreated up the stairs to the top of the house. Lizzie stared back down the Cellar at white eyes and the outline of something staring back at her. She shut the latch and locked it, knowing it was futile since the cup sat snug in her pouch on her hip.

She made her way up the stairs and found Aberforth pacing. "Whatever it is you have gets out of my house," he spat harshly.

"Then get me into Hogwarts so I can destroy it," Lizzie said in a semi-hushed tone. He stared for a long moment and then looked up at his sister's portrait. She nodded and retreated down a path in the oil scape. She came back with another figure minutes later. Lizzie frowned before the portrait swung open and Neville climbed out, giving a concerned look to Aberforth's ghost white complexion and then turning to Lizzie. His eyes widened and lit up before he flung arms around her in a tight embrace. He kissed her temple.

"Bloody hell, Lizzie!" He said with a smile. She noticed his badly beaten face and concern flooded her eyes. "Where are Ron and Hermione? They're not -" he asked. His jaw clenched at the anticipation of the answer.

"They're safe, don't worry, I just need in the castle," Lizzie said. Neville nodded.

"Ab, are you alright?" Neville asked.

"Just get her in the bloody castle," he said with a shake to his breath.

"Thank you," Lizzie whispered. Aberforth nodded but gave her a rather intense stare. Lizzie couldn't read him, much like she never could Dumbledore, and it made her nervous.

"What are you here for, Lizzie?" Neville asked as they climbed into the portrait hole and followed it down a long dark tunnel.

"This isn't one of the passages..." Lizzie said evasively.

"The seven secret passages were sealed at the start of term. This was made as a way out, you'll see where it goes," he explained.

"Why do you look mauled by a bear?" She asked.

"This isn't too bad, Seamus is worse... the Carrows are in charge of discipline, and they make Umbridge look tame," he added.

"What did you do?" She asked, horrified.

"I refused to torture first years in detention. They went after Gran for that... I don't know if she made it, in all honesty," He admitted.

"Neville," Lizzie breathed, horrified.

"Is it true you broke into Gringotts?" He asked.

"That was us, yes," Lizzie admitted.

"Blimey, what exactly are you after? Not a low profile. That got nay-sayers convinced you're not in hiding. Michael Corner was messed up badly when he yelled about you escaping on a dragon in the Great Hall the day after," Neville continued.

"I can't explain at the moment. You said Seamus was worse?" She asked.

"I ducked out and fell off the grid, not going to classes anymore. Hiding out in the room of requirement. They were ready to expell and imprison me. We tried to keep the DA alive..."

"Seamus and I have spearheaded that, Ginny and Luna too before they nabbed Luna on the train..."

"She's safe. We got her out of the Malfoy Manor," Lizzie interjected.

"Thank God. Amazing you are, how did you manage that?" He asked.

"Hardly... don't ask, I also managed to get her poor father killed..." Lizzie said shamefully. Neville lost his breath and words for a moment but squeezed her shoulder.

"Amicus Carrow took a liking to Ginny. I took a number over the course of the year to keep her out of his office," he said after a long pause. Lizzie grabbed his arm to stop him. Her hands were shaking in fury.

"Lizzie," he said, sensing the dread. She shook her head in wide motions trying not to let more guilt and anxiety bubble over.

"That's not your fault," he said. "When I fell off the grid, Seamus promised me he'd do what he could, but got the beating of a lifetime for showing up at his office instead of Ginny. McGonagall has had her confined to Gryffindor Tower and keeps changing the password. They're under the impression Ginny is in contact with you, but I think they're trying to get to the Weasleys. When Charlie and Ron were sighted with you at the bank, that didn't help... we were going to smuggle her out through here, but she didn't want them to go after her parents like they did my Gran... or nab her like they did Luna. Snape seemed to be blocking that to some degree, God knows why..."

"Jesus Christ. None of her family knows she's been a target," Lizzie said, clutching a stomach turning in violent knots.

"She's kept it that way. Told her she was taking after you for staying silent about that. I'm hoping to kill him with my bare hands," Neville hissed. It reminded her of Ron and Grayback and she wondered curiously how close he and Ginny had become.

"What has Snape been up to?" Lizzie asked.

"Hardly see him, really," Neville said.

They stopped at the end of the corridor. "Where in the castle is this?" Lizzie asked.

"You'll see..." he said with a smirk in his voice and pushed on the back of the portrait.