Revised: 14th March 2011
Chapter 2
When Ariana woke, she found herself on the cold ground. It was undoubtedly outside, and she soon figured out she was in some sort of woodland area.
Getting up, still clutching her goat to her heart, she began to walk. She had to get out of there and then she had to find Aba. He'd know what to do, she was sure.
Her eyes drunk the sight of the trees in with wonder. It had been a long time since she had been outside so freely. She remembered when she and her papa had gone on long walks in the country side when she had been a little girl. Where had he gone? Was it her fault he had? Why was he not returning to her?
She had been told something she was sure, but her memory – it seemed unable to recall. Her frustration wound her up but she did not cry or throw a tantrum. No one was there to comfort her, or as Al might have said 'put as show on for'.
It was then she heard something. A squeaking. She looked down on the floor to see a rat. It was horrible, dirty looking, but the fur would be soft and wanting to feel it Ariana picked it up, roughly in one hand. It didn't take long before it bit her, upsetting her and making her angry all at once.
She concentrated on her feelings so much that without explanation when rat hit the floor, it found itself in a small cage. Ari looked at it and had no understanding of how the cage got there, or why the rat was inside of it. She had no idea how powerful she was.
She picked it up, the rat going mad. She had cut off his escape route. She walked back the way the animal had been coming. It wasn't long till Ariana came to a clearing. There stood six other people. People she neither knew nor trusted. She had to hide, was her first instinct, but it was too late. One of them had seen her.
She cowed into the grass behind as he approached her.
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Sirius walked towards the little girl with the rat in her hands. She had caught him! What a girl she was in his opinion already…but the poor little thing looked terrified of him as he approached her. She was small and a little too on the thin side he could tell even with her dressing gown on. At a guess, he thought she was a first year. A scared one at that. Of what, he didn't know.
"Hello." He said to her gently. "Can I have that rat?"
She nodded and just wanted to be left alone. So she gave it to him. What if he thought her a freak like those boys had, when she had been back home, for doing magic? She hadn't known how or why…or anything.
"Al." she muttered to him, as tears of fear glistened in her eyes. Sirius could no way leave a child like this.
"Who's Al?" he asked gently.
"Aba…" she said weakly.
"Aba…what?"
"Black, Lupin!" he heard Snape cry behind him.
"Not now." He turned to see his friend…the transformation had begun.
"Listen, you need to trust me…go with my friend here, and he can look after you!" Sirius motioned to Snape – they had to get her out of the forest if Remus was transforming.
She looked at him. His friend looked neither friendly nor kind. She didn't want to go. She wouldn't! Her mother had told her not to go with strangers.
"NO!" she yelled with a pure terror taken her body as she turn and tried to run into the forest. She didn't want to be hurt again. She wouldn't be able to bear it.
Sirius throw Scabbers to Harry before tearing off after the child. But as he caught her, his hands begun to burn. She turned and he saw tears were flowing freely down her face now.
What magic was protecting her? And what had happened to make her so scared?
There was no time to figure it out. He had to try and control Moony.
"Snape take the others back up to the castle," he said as he looked with affection towards his godson. He believed him! They were going to be a family.
And because of that little girl, he had met they had proof he was telling the truth. He had to protect her. Though now she was in the forest that was going to be harder. He owed her.
XXX
Ariana run on though, crying desperately for her parents or her brothers. She needed them more than ever.
She tripped and fell down in her panic though, hitting her head hard. She was soon unconscious, the tiny goat still in her hands.
XXX
"Describe her to me."
This was the day he had been waiting for, for over a hundred years. If his suspicions were right, then his sister was at last safe.
"She was tiny, pale, didn't look very well. She was in her bed clothes and had a toy." Hermione said to the headmaster. Why the girl was of so much interest to him she didn't know though.
"Was the toy a little stuffed goat?" he asked.
"Well, I didn't get a close enough look to say for sure but it could have been, yes."
"It's her. I know it is." He said to them, confusing them. "Poppy," he called.
"Yes Albus."
"Can you send a message to Aberforth? Tell him to come to the school, if he asks why just say Ariana. He'll understand." Her turned back to the Gryffindors.
"She run into the forest?" he checked though. He had been told so by them already but he had to make sure.
"Yes."
Then he had to get in there after her. He refused to let her down again.
"Sir, what about Pettigrew?" he asked.
He looked at the rat in the cage, who seemed to be distressed. "I think he can wait till his olds friends return. We can deal with him in the morning." Said the Headmaster to his students and rushed out of the hospital wing. His sister was his one and only concern at that moment. She was more important than a betrayer.
She wasn't safe in the forest. He had to get her out.
XXX
When Ariana awoke she found her head pained her greatly. She hadn't hurt herself like it in a long time.
Suddenly, she very cold though. She felt cold in her heart. Every good memory she did have and could remember was gone. Happiness was so foreign to her in that moment.
"ARIANA! ARIANA!" she smiled some one had come to for her.
Turning she saw an old man coming towards her. He was…familiar. She let him approach; her heart telling her he could be trusted.
She looked in to his eyes as he bent down in front of her. She was right. She did know him.
"Albus?" she whispered.
"Thank god you're ok." He said as he cupped her face gently. He had been dreaming of this for so long. "My darling sister." He said
She did nothing but smiled. His appearance didn't seem to faze her what-so-ever.
"You know who I am don't you?" he checked.
"Of course. You're my big brother." As if it was obvious. After all this time…
"Good." He said as he picked her up. He had to get her away from the Dementors. She buried her head in his neck, letting him comfort her. It scared her slightly, him being so close, but that was nothing compared to the fear she had felt earlier that day.
"Where's Aba?"
He smiled through the happy tears that had been streaming down his face since he had seen alive and as well as could be expected.
"He is on his way, he's coming Ariana."
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