Hey everyone! This story was brought to you Culinary Arts: Pasta assignment, and Insane Prompt List on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Culinary Arts: Pasta assignment: Task 11 Write about someone/something weak or frail.
Insane Prompt List: 465. (Platonic Relationships) Aberforth and Arianna
Warning for character death and slight out of character. Word count is 1,133 words. I hope you all enjoy Frailty.
Aberforth watches Arianna like a hawk after those Muggle boys attacked her. He noticed how shaken she seemed after the incident and tried to tell his mother about it. She had just waved it off as something that would pass in time. Arianna was a perfectly normal little girl in their mother's mind.
He tried to talk with Ablus about his concerns but he was always so busy with Gellert Grindlewald. Always talking about the Greater Good or whatever it was. It seemed Albus was always too busy for them nowadays. So it was up to Aberforth to take care of Arianna.
Arianna always seemed to like their little escapades. He'd allow her to ride him around the yard like he was a pony when she was younger. She enjoyed that immensely. She almost seemed like a normal girl when they were at their play.
Then there were times when her frailty would shine through which was often more recently. Ever since Gellert had shown up. Something about the older boy rubbed Aberforth the wrong and seemed to be more than upsetting to Arianna.
"What's wrong with her now?" their mother asked Albus. She didn't seem to see Aberforth standing there looking like a stormcloud about to burst.
"Nothing is wrong with her, mother," Albus said. "I can't seem to figure out why she clams up like this whenever Gellert is around."
That is what is wrong, Aberforth thought as he walked down towards their drawing room. Sure enough sitting across the room from Arianna was Gellert Grindlewald looking like he owned the place. Arianna seems to think there is something wrong with him too. I'll wait until he and Albus are gone and talk to her about it.
He didn't have that long to wait until Albus led Gellert out of the house. Once he was sure that they weren't going to make a surprise trip back any minute, he walked over to Arianna. Sitting down next to his younger sister and putting a hand on top of hers he gave her a concerned look.
"Are you feeling alright, Arianna?" he asked. He knew that she was close to having one of her fits, as mother would call it. He could always tell when she was about to have a fit.
"I'm fine," Arianna lied. She'd started lying more often since Albus had brought Gellert into their lives. It was the one thing he didn't like about Gellert being here. Arianna never used to lie before now. "I am."
"Only, if you aren't you can tell me," he insisted. He turned Arianna to look at him. He could read the doe brown eyes as easily as she could read his own twinkling blue ones. "You know I'm here to help you, don't you?"
Arianna nodded.
"Then why do you insist on lying?"
"He's going to make Albus leave us," Arianna said simply. "I don't want Albus to leave us like father did."
Aberforth could sense the storm of weakness coming over his little sister. He could see the stir of her brown hair as the fit started to come upon her. Father had been the one to stop the fits before he was taken to Azkaban. Now it was up to Aberforth to stop them. He was the only one able to.
"Why do you think Albus is going to leave us?" Aberforth asked gently, making Arianna look at him. "Do you not think he cares about us?"
"I don't think he intends not to care about us," Arianna whimpered weakly. "But he cares more for Gellert than us. He can't help it."
"He can't?"
"You haven't seen it? The way he looks at Gellert like one of those people would in the books mother reads?"
Aberforth shook his head in shock. He didn't realize that Arianna was capable of noticing these types of things. He wondered when she'd started noticing this and why she'd never told him before now.
"I have. When Ablus thinks no one is watching he will steal quick glances at Gellert," she told him. "I don't like it, Abe. He's going to make Albus go away. He's going to ruin our family."
I wish I would have listened to Arianna before now but it's far too late for that, Aberforth thinks bitterly as he hears the argument between his mother and brother raging upstairs. He hears the sure signs of Arianna's weakness taking over. The fit hits in full force and he's not there to stop it. He hears Albus trying to talk Arianna down. He knows it won't work.
Running at force up the stairs, he flies over to his little sister as though he was the very wind itself. He puts his arms around her saying all the things he can think of to calm her down. It takes longer than he thought to work.
He dimly recalls wondering what had set her off before he notices the very still form in the middle of the hallway.
"Arianna go to your room," Aberforth tells her gently, steering her in the right direction. "I'll be in in a little bit to talk to you."
He watches her go into the room and close the door. He doesn't want Arianna to have another horrible experience in this house that's already full of bad experiences for her. Walking towards Albus who is kneeling close to their mother's body on the floor he feels his heart sink. How is he going to explain this Arianna?
"She's getting weaker," Aberforth tells Albus. "She needs her family surrounding her more than ever now. You do know that?"
Albus turns towards Aberforth pinching the bridge of his nose. He looks older than his years at that moment. He looks like their father after those boys attacked Arianna. This is the first time that Aberforth has seen this in concern to him and his sister from Albus in a long time.
"I know," Albus says. "I will have to tell Gellert I won't be able to go with him…"
Albus says something else but Aberforth doesn't hear what it is. The anger clouds his mind at the fact that Albus's only concern was some stupid plans with Gellert. Their mother was dead after all. He should be concerned with his siblings not his own plans.
"I'm going to go check on Arianna," he tells Albus before he can tell his brother off. It's his own weakness but he holds close to his heart and allows it to bitter him.
Walking towards Arianna's door, he opens it slowly so as not to scare her. But that wasn't necessary. She was already sound asleep in her bed. She looked more frail and weak than he'd seen her at that moment but she was still here.
I hope you all enjoy Frailty as much as I enjoyed writing it.