A/N: Written for the QLFC round three.
Prompt: Magpie. Word count: 1750-2000.
Final word count: 1994.
A Life of Regrets
One for sorrow
It is an ill omen to spot a single magpie, and Albus Dumbledore is spooked by its appearance on the window-sill of his dormitory in Gryffindor tower.
"Shoo, bird, shoo," he tries to scare it away. The bird gives him a sideways look and screeches before it flies off.
The bad news comes at dinner.
"Mr. Dumbledore? Come with me, please," the Hogwarts professor tells the young promising student. Albus dutifully follows him to the Headmaster's office, wondering if he did something wrong all the while. He knows he didn't, but maybe he was set up? Gryffindor House is full of bullies, after all.
But he learns he is not in trouble himself. In the Headmaster's office he finds his mother, who looks like she has been crying.
"Albus… your father he, he was taken away," she begins to tell him, haltingly.
"Taken? Taken where? What happened?" he demands answers.
"To Az… to Azkaban! Oh, Albus," she exclaims, rushing in to embrace him as she begins to sob again. It takes some time before she calms down and is able to floo back home, Albus with her. Abe and Ari, his younger siblings, don't understand what happened at all, and Albus himself has little understanding of what happened. Only when their neighbour comes over to watch the children while his mother goes to the Ministry to plead for her husband's release does Albus learn his father was arrested for assaulting Muggles who had hurt little Ariana. Little Ariana, who is special and not in a good way, but he loves her all the more for it. He understands what his father did, and why, and tries to tell Abe what happened.
Less than a week later he is back at school, pale as a ghost after having witnessed the trial where his father was sentenced to life in Azkaban for Mugglebaiting. He spots the magpie as he walks around the lake shore and shoots a curse at it as it cackles, but misses.
Two for joy
He is an orphan now and responsible for his brother and sister. Aberforth is still a Hogwarts student but little Ariana is considered to be a Squib, if she is considered at all, and still lives at home. That is why Albus is there now, after his mother died in an accident and left Ariana alone. Oh no, she is not a Squib, far from it. She is much, much worse… a witch capable of wandless magic, but not of controlling it. He can't be angry at Ariana for having accidentally killed their mother, after all, she didn't know what she was doing. By now he knows that Ariana suffers from what Muggles are calling autism and will likely need care for the rest of her life, but he refuses to send her to Saint Mungo's. He has seen how horribly the mentally unstable are handled there, and he cannot do that to his little sister.
Albus is hanging up the wash with Ariana's help when he sees a pair of magpies sitting in a tree nearby. He has long forgotten about the magpie from years ago and smiles as he sees them sitting side by side. Magpies mate for life, he knows. Just as he looks away he sees an unfamiliar person walking up to their neighbour's house. The young man is about his age, has dark locks of hair and a noble face, and Albus is smitten on the spot.
Later that day Albus finds an excuse to go over and introduce himself. Gellert is his name, and he is on indefinite leave from Durmstrang. Gellert is a kindred soul, Albus finds, and intelligent, oh so smart. He is in love before the day is over, finding himself wanting to be with the young German man forever.
Three for a girl
Gellert is delightfully foreign, most of all. Albus can spend hours just listening to him talk, the German inflection of his words just a little off but somehow increasing, not lessening, the impact.
As a small group of three magpies fly overhead that early summer they are sitting in Albus' garden talking about the future while Ariana plays nearby and makes herself a necklace of flowers.
"It is for the Greater Good of all mankind that we must take charge, Albus. Only with the might of magic can we end this madness the Muggles are forcing on the world. Do you realize that thousands have died in the Balkans alone this past decade? Men, women, and children, Mein Gott! And now the Germans and French are just one gunshot away from another war. Will it be Paris or Berlin that is sacked this time, Albie? We cannot let this happen again!"
Albus smiles. "I agree, Gellie. If we are to take charge, there is no more need for the Statute of Secrecy... and all the problems it causes."
Gellert's expression softens a little. "You refer to your father, do you not? And the... Incident?"
Albus shakes his head. "He should not have been punished so harshly... he was just protecting Ariana. Maybe, if he had not died in prison, she..."
"She would not have had the episode?" Gellert hugs Albus from behind while the English boy sobs. Kendra's death is still an open wound, made worse so by the fact it forced Albus to abandon his lofty goals to explore the world and study magic.
"It is not too late, Albus! You know I have friends in Munich still, powerful friends. Come with me, together we'll take over Durmstrang, and from there, the world!"
"But... what about Ariana? I have a responsibility to her," Albus says, hesitatingly.
"Take her with us, of course! Surely you see this cold, nasty place is no good for her."
"You're right, Gellie. Together, we can go anywhere in the world," Albus says, smiling as he hugs his friend.
Ariana won't be a problem, she would love to see the wider world, he justifies it to himself.
Four for a boy
Later that year, after Abe returns from school, the Dumbledores prepare to eat in the back garden, it being a warm and beautiful summer day. Albus brings in the food and has just prepared three plates when loud screeching occurs behind him. He turns to see three, no, four magpies flying off as none other than Gellert climbs over the hedge they were resting on, a wide smile on the German boy's face.
"Gellert! Come, join us for dinner," Albus invites him. "Abe, this is Gellert. He is Mrs. Bagshot's cousin and a good friend of mine."
Abe mumbles a greeting and scoots over to allow Gellert a place to sit.
"Danke, Albus. I had to get away from there. Auntie is making me crazy," Gellert explains himself. Albus grins.
Before long most of their food is gone and they begin speaking about their plans again.
"What?" Abe's exclamation derails Albus's train of thought, and it takes a moment before he realizes Aberforth and Ariana are still nearby.
"You are planning to take Ariana away? You and that foreigner?" Abe continues.
Gellert frowns. "Be off, child, the adults are speaking."
"Get out of my house," Aberforth counters.
"Make me," Gellert says, his expression darkening as he reaches for his wand.
"Gellie... please," Albus steps between them. Turning to face his brother he continues, "Just listen to his ideas, Abe. Gellert has great ideas, all for the Greater Good of –"
"I heard that nonsense before! Dammit, Al, what about me? What about Ariana? Are you just going to leave us?"
"No, of course not! You can come with us too," Albus quickly says.
"With you and him? I think not," Abe scoffs.
"Ignore the little boy, Albie. We have plans to make," Gellert says, slowly lowering his wand.
Unfortunately it seems he has provoked Abe too far. "Little boy? You lousy Prussian bastard! Go then, and take my no-good brother with you! But you're not dragging Ariana into this!"
"Would you condemn her to a life of staying hidden when I can offer her the world?" Albus tries once more, but it is too late.
Before he knows it Gellert has cast the Cruciatus on Abe, and he is forced to curse Gellert in turn, only to receive a hit by a cutter from a quickly recovered Abe. Spells fly everywhere and in the end, Gellert is running away as Ariana lies dead on the ground.
Five for silver
Albus is an old man when he sees his sister again. One day he is walking at the lake shore at his school when he spots a group of magpies, five in number, flying overhead. Perhaps the descendant of that bird from long ago is among them for Albus finds his robe soiled with bird droppings, and he rushes inside. In his haste to make it back to his quarters before a student spots him he makes a wrong turn and finds himself in a room he has never seen before at Hogwarts, and in that room is a shining silver gleam.
It is an old and dusty mirror, and Albus forgets about his current wardrobe malfunction for a moment as he inspects it.
"Erised stra… no, this is mirror writing," he mumbles to himself, mentally reversing the text. "A mirror that shows my desire? How odd..."
He gasps as he sees his reflection, for it is not alone. Standing next to the mirror Albus is a very much alive Ariana, smiling at him.
"Ariana… how..."
She raises a finger to her lips as if to shush him, then takes a pair of socks out of her pocket. Albus doesn't care about the tears rolling down his cheeks as he sees mirror Ariana put them in his reflection's pockets, just as the real Ariana did every Christmas while she was still alive.
It's only when he finally returns to his quarters that he finds the socks are really in his robe pockets somehow.
Six for gold
Older and wiser still, yet oh so tired. Albus knows he cannot let young Harry find all the Horcruxes himself, not while he can still help. As he walks through the countryside of Little Hangleton searching for the Gaunt shack, he disturbs a colony of magpies. Six of them fly off in protest but he ignores them, for he has found the shack at last.
The defences, magically reanimated snake skeletons, are quickly dealt with by a wave of the Elder Wand, but they are proof that Tom has indeed been here. No other living wizard knows necromancy quite as well as Tom, after all.
Once inside Albus casts some detecting spells and smiles.
"Clever, Tom, but not clever enough," he mumbles to himself as he disables a particularly nasty ward on the floorboards, then crouches down to open the secret hatch.
His breath stills as he sees the item he was looking for; a single gold ring holding a stone marked with the Peverell sign.
"Ariana," he mumbles to himself, slipping the ring on. But before he can use the Stone to call her, aching pain shoots through his body. He takes the ring off as quickly as he can, throws it to the far wall and casts a blasting curse after it, but the pain does not stop. It is all he can do to pick the ring back up, mercifully destroyed, before he apparates to Hogwarts, praying that Severus can save his life.
Seven for a secret never to be told
Every student save for the traitors is present at Dumbledore's funeral, all wearing dress robes. Even the animals appear to be mourning, seven magpies silently sitting in a tree nearby watching the crowd.
Only Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix companion and long-time friend, is not silent, singing a song of lament.
Bright magic engulfs his body as he is laid to rest, taking a lifetime of secrets with him.