A/N: Written for the QLFC Round 10 - Of Ghosts & Portraits. Team: Montrose Magpies.

CAPTAIN: Ariana Dumbledore (Portrait)

Thanks to Shannon and FF for beta work, remaining errors are my own.

I Want to See Hogwarts

Kendra Dumbledore was preparing some sandwiches for her boys. Today was September 1st and the train to Hogwarts would be leaving in a couple of hours. It was a happy day for Aberforth to join his big brother. Still, the house would be so empty without him and she would only have little Ariana running around.
Her smile dropped a little. Ariana. Little Ariana was… special. She hardly spoke and for the longest time the Dumbledores had wondered if she even could, but even when she finally did, it sounded strange. Ariana also never looked anyone in the eyes and would often trail off in the middle of a conversation. Not that she started many of those, preferring to be alone and read or draw. Kendra had no idea what was wrong with her little girl, it wasn't as if she was a squib—Ariana had demonstrated accidental magic like all magical children, but still, she dreaded the day a Hogwarts letter would come. Ariana was simply not ready to use a wand, let alone interact with hundreds of other children.

A yell cut through the relative silence, coming from Aberforth's room.
"Am not! I'll go with you!" That was Ariana's voice, yelling at the top of her lungs. Kendra sighed and put down the knife, she probably would have to calm her girl down now.
"You can't go with us, Ari! You have to be eleven or older and… well… be a wizard or witch," Aberforth's voice answered.
"I am a witch! I want to see Hogwarts!"
"Can you keep it down over there? I'm trying to study!" a new voice sounded through the house, her oldest, Albus. Studious, super-intelligent Albus.
"I want Hogwarts!"
"Squibs can't go to Hogwarts. Be a good little girl and be quiet, okay? I need to finish this Transfiguration essay and—" Albus was cut off by a loud wordless scream that only seemed to intensify in pitch as it went on. Kendra rushed towards the childrens' rooms and found her daughter hovering a foot from the floor, surrounded by a wind as she screamed her lungs out in frustration.
"Ariana dear, hush, it's okay," Kendra said, moving to her child to embrace her. Aberforth gave her a pained look and then went to his brother's room to berate him for upsetting their sister so much.
Ariana would not calm down enough for Kendra to feel confident enough to take her with them to King's Cross Station, so in the end she asked their neighbours, the Bagshots, to take her boys with them. It was a lonely and sad house after the two left, leaving behind promises to write.

When Ariana turned eleven, the dreaded Hogwarts letter came. With trembling hands Kendra took the letter from the owl, glancing through it to see that it was indeed a school invitation. But she knew Ariana could not go. Kendra took a quill and started writing a reply, when she realized to her shock that her daughter had come into the room and was looking longingly at the letter.
"Hogwarts?" she asked, a hopeful tone in her voice.
"Oh Ari… we talked about this, remember? I don't think that—" A bundle of energy rushed past her mother and grabbed it.
"It's my Hogwarts letter! I can go! I can see Abe and Albus and—"
"Ariana, give that here, please," Kendra said, trying to remain calm.
"No! No, no, no, no, no, no!" Books started to rise from their shelves and began swirling around as well, hitting Kendra as she tried her best to calm her child down.
"Ari! You're hurting mummy!" she cried out, finally stopping the rush of accidental magic. Kendra sat cradling her crying daughter for a long time after that.

Things came to a head again some years later, when Albus graduated Hogwarts summa cum laude. He would come home for one last time to pack his bags, then would leave to travel to Germany for a year of studies at Königsberg Magical Academy. Kendra was trying to explain this to Ariana.
"No, Ari, Albus isn't going back to Hogwarts. He's an adult now and—"
"Can I go with him?"
"I don't think so, little one," Kendra said, smiling.
"Okay. Then I'll go to Hogwarts with Abe."
"Now Ari, we talked about this, you can't—"
"I want Hogwarts! I want, I want, I want!"
"Ariana Dumbledore! Calm down!"
"No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Ariana's accidental magic began to lift items in the air as she got more and more frustrated. Unable to get close enough to her daughter, Kendra pulled her wand to try and diffuse the situation. Ariana suddenly made a grab for her mother's wand and somehow the clash of accidental magic and the beginning of a spell caused a backlash. An explosion followed.
When Albus arrived home hours later he found a wall had been blown apart, his mother was lying dead on the floor, and Ariana was crying hysterically still holding half of the destroyed wand.

Ariana stopped talking almost completely after that and Albus didn't even let her go into the village any longer. Most people believed she had died with her mother in the accident and he was happy to let them think so. And so things might have remained had it not been for Albus' friend, Gellert.
Ariana didn't like the German boy and shied away from him whenever he was over. She wasn't that interested in his and Albus' plans anyway, there were so many colours drifting on the winds to seek out instead… oh. Albus took her hand and forced her to look at him.
"Ariana. We are going to Germany soon and you're coming with us."
"Not Germany. Hogwarts," Ariana said.
"No, Ari. Hogwarts is the past; Königsberg is the future. Pack your things, okay?" The door slammed open and Aberforth was there, looking angry. Ariana shied away to the wall, not wanting to be in the middle of her brothers fighting again. She'd had enough of that ever since her mother… ever since her mother fell asleep. Now Gellert showed up and there were three boys yelling and waving their wands at each other… Ariana felt she had to do something and she rushed towards them, trying to get them to stop.
A flash of light left one of the three wands and hit her in the head.

The next time Ariana became aware of things around her, everything was different. Aberforth was older and she was looking down at him from her frame. Her portrait frame. Ariana wasn't sure how she knew, but she knew for a fact she was a portrait now. Aberforth spoke with her regularly and did his best to keep her involved. Ariana paid him back by smiling and blowing soap bubbles whenever he looked her way.

It took a long time for Albus to reappear before her. One day he walked into Aberforth's bar and simply sat down at the counter, not even seeing her. Aberforth was not happy with his visitor and they began yelling at each other, so Ariana ignored their conversation until she heard Aberforth say her name.
"—take Ariana to your school!"
"Now Abe, you know I can't do that. Our dear little sister is long gone and—"
"Blind fool. Look up and to your right then!"
Ariana caught Albus' eyes and winked.
"A portrait… you had a portrait made? Without me?"
"Of course without you, you bastard! You and your boyfriend murdered her! But I'll forgive you under one condition. Take her to Hogwarts."
"Ah, Aberforth. You ask such a simple thing, yet it is not as easy as you may think. For you see, I—"
"Get out of my bar! Get out of my life, you meddling bastard!"
Ariana watched on sadly as the two brothers pulled wands on each other again, ending with Aberforth being transformed into a goat and Albus sporting three extra legs and a broken nose in a face full of boils.
He didn't return after that.

Many, many years later, Aberforth had grown old and even more bitter, but Ariana still smiled for her brother. Then one day he came to her with a request.
"Ariana, I need to do something. Hogwarts is being run by that bastard of a Dark Lord's followers and they're torturing the children. I know they found a place to hide, but they need supplies. There is a secret passage to their hiding spot, but I need a guardian. Could you… could you help us?"
Ariana nodded. Of course she would help out. Aberforth cast some spells on her frame and from then on occasionally she would open up the passage, allowing goods and people to go back and forth.

Months after that, Aberforth came back to his bar looking bloody and tired. "We won, Ariana! The Dark Tosser is dead!" Ariana smiled, not really knowing or caring what happened. As long as Aberforth was happy, so was she. Over the next few weeks a lot of people came to Aberforth, some sleeping in the bar, as she overheard the school was being rebuilt. Then it all calmed down and Aberforth came to her with another request.
"Ariana, I'm going to put you to sleep now, while we move your portrait, okay? You've been a great little sister and a good friend and you've earned a reward."
Ariana nodded and mimed falling asleep, causing a small chuckle in her brother. A spell left his wand and all went dark.
Voices woke her from her slumber. She could feel she was on a new wall, but she could not see out as she was covered by a cloth, so she listened for now.
"Behind this doorway will be a permanent memorial to the victims of the Blood Wars, so that none shall ever forget how bad things were. And to make sure the room would always be secure, we asked a special guardian to help out. Abe, would you do the honours?"
Ariana's cloth covering was pulled away and she blinked as she saw the group of people before her. Children, no, students… students at a school. A huge smile appeared on her face and she let fall a tear of joy as she realized her dream had come true: she was finally at Hogwarts.