Chapter 19

"Ariana come on," said Harry to her. It was one of the most exciting days he had ever spent at Hogwarts. The day that the other schools were arriving for the beginning of the tournament. They had had there last lessons off and now every one was heading down to the lawn to greet there foreign guests. What were they going to be like he wondered. He had never met a foreign wizard before.

Ariana had to say she was quite excited about it all as well. She had never met some one from a foreign country before let alone a wizard. It was going to be a whole new experience for her. The two of them raced down on the lawn together.

Harry Ron m Hermione, Neville and Ginny were all there when they arrived and had been looking about with impatience for their friends. .

The two of them arrived it seemed just in time.

"Look what's that up in the sky," said Colin from where he stood in front of them. He was pointing up at the sky. Ariana strained her eyes and could see a small black dot, but it was coming closer to the school all of the time.

"What if the crash in to the castle," said Ariana to Harry. They were going to crash she was sure of it and the thought of it made her feel sick. They were coming closer. And straight for them. Was she being irrational, she wondered?

Only she could think of that at a time like this, he thought to himself. "Of course they are not going to crash, stop worrying," he said to her gently.

Som times he wished he could get her to have a little more faith in magic, but he could see her reasons for not having any. The 'magic' of magic for her had gone out a long time ago. She looked about and when she located her brother she tried to catch his eye, it was obvious how ever he was focusing on the arrival of his guests.

All of the six hundred students in the school were out there and she couldn't help but feel under pressure. She could feel the magic swelling up inside of her for the first time since she had been at school. When she had been in class it had been different. That had been emotion. But now as this unfamiliar experience panicked her, she knew some thing was going to happen. She had to get into the castle and find a quiet place.

She turned away from Harry and as she walked into the castle she was sure she heard him call her name but she had to carry on. Going in to the entrance hall, she saw a door. It had never been there before but it was going to have to do. From outside she could hear screams of delight at what was going on.

The room she went in to was like a sitting room only there was no sofa. The room held no obstacles that she could harm herself on. Only pillows so she could lie down. It was exactly what she needed.

It wasn't long till the magic that she had been suppressing came out of her. She had not done a spell in weeks; it seemed to all be coming out at once, from no where.

Her entire body shock with the shock of it all. "Aba!" she cried out in fear.

There were so many colours and bangs she wanted to get out of there. She wanted to be held. For some one to come.

As her eyes filled with tears her vision was blurred, panicking her been more. She just wanted it to stop but she didn't know how to make it.

"Mama!" she cried out. She had never been on her own when this had happened before. Some one had always been there to make it stop. She wanted it to stop. She was just waiting for the crash to come when the dot in the sky crashed into the castle. "MAMA!!"

Covering her face, she tried to convince herself that if she could not see what was going on then it wasn't happening to her. She had thought the potion was going to make this stop. But apparently not. There were still screams of delight and cheering which she could hear from out side.

The door which she had not realized just opened shut against, and then the noise went away.

"Ariana." said Sirius. He had seen her go in from the celebrations outside and he had wondered what was wrong with her. He watched as she went mad it seemed. Her while body was shaking and she lay on the flooring sobbing as magic seemed to come out of every part of her. It was like she was glowing on the floor. What had happened to make this happen he wondered? He had seen her go out on to the lawn with Harry she ad been fine when they arrived.

"Ok, its ok," he said from where he stood unsure if he could get near enough to her or not.

"Want mama - get mama!" she said to him.

That was all Sirius could take. He was unwilling to watch a small scared girl lay on the floor and cry for a mother he knew would never go to her.

"Honey its ok," he said as he knelt down to her height and look into her eyes. They were glazed over.

He reached out and touched her arm. Just as it had been on the night the two of them met it was far too hot for him to touch it.

He had no choice he realized to wait until she had stop fitting. He had no choice but to wait. It seemed a life time before it stopped, but slowly the glowing stopped. She lay there for a moment out of her mind and silent before continuing to howl.

"I want Aberforth." she said to him as she looked up at him. And he would want to be with you, thought Sirius.

"Ok I am going to go get him in a minute but first we have to get you comfortable. Ariana what happened? Why did you panicky."

"The dot in the sky was going to hit the school." she said to him weakly.

"That was the Beauxbatons carriage. They weren't going to crash in to Hogwarts. And even if they had no harm would have come to the castle. This old place has been standing for centuries." he said, wondering if some thing as small as that was really enough to set her off. Albus had said it had been when she had been a small girl at home, but she had had the potion. It was meant to make all of this stop for her.

She was going to have to go to the hospital wing, that much was clear to him. She felt hot when he touched her forehead. She was exhausted.

Shutting her eyes at his gentle touch she seemed to relax a little and his eyes were over come with affection for her. She went through to much for her age, just as his god son did.

"Ok, shall we just sit here for a minute and let you get your breathe hey," he said to her gently, as the tears continued to poor gently down her face.

"Sirius?"

"Yes Ariana."

"Will you hold my hand. I can't get it to stop shaking." she said to him and he took it in to his. Nodding he felt his own tears well up. It had been a simple request but somehow there was some thing underneath it that told him this was a cry for help. To get away from the loneliness.

He wondered as he sat there looking at her if it was enough for her to be friends with other kids her age if it was enough for her to have doting brothers. What she had been through that night, her fit had terrified him. And he was sure she had had them when she was tougher. How on earth did you get over some thing like that? How would she?

He had to get her to the hospital wing before every one started to come into the hall.

"Ariana do you think it would be ok if I started to move you yet?" he said to her and she nodded.

Lifting her into his arms he wondered how muggles could do that was so appalling to a six year old that meant even over a decade later she wasn't functioning properly.

Later that evening her brothers sat by her side. They had thought she had been on the road to recovery. They had been wrong. Seriously wrong. Yet in himself Albus remained sure that educating her was the way forward, they had to make sure she could beginning to control what she was doing. So she never had to go through what she had that afternoon again. From the description that Sirius had given him it had been what their mother had experience on at least weekly basis. Ariana had been there nearly three months. She hadn't had a attack ever since the night she had caught Peter. She had been doing well.

Aberforth took a different view point. He had been right in his heart what had been best for her all along. And it was not school. It was home. Familiarity, quiet. They had to keep her at peace. She had been set off that afternoon by something in the sky for merlins sake. If she had not had the sense to get herself out of the situation then things could have been bad. She might have made the papers, and then she would have been sent off to St Mungos, never to be seen again.

No he wasn't going to let that happen to her.

"I think I should take her home." he said to Albus.

"For a few days yes I think that is going to be a good idea. Let her recover for a while before she comes back to lessons."

"What are you going on about? She can not go back to class, to the dormitory. You heard what happened to her today. It sounded as if it was a bad one, one like the one she had the day -" he paused.

"Well say it if you are going to." said Albus to him.

"The day mother was killed."

"But no one did die today did they. If it had been that bad then Sirius would not have got the chance to walk away. But I take your point though. We can not let that happen." he said to him.

One person had died due to her illness. That could not happen again.

"Then she has to go home." Aberforth continued to argue.

"She has to learn tot control herself."

"Why? Let me guess: for the greater good?"

A dark shadow fell over his face. Aberforth needed to get out of there after seeing Albus look so guilty. He was sure he didn't feel it, not really. If he heathen he would have been there for her that day, not Sirius.

Kissing his sister on the forehead he got up and left her bedside. He was going down to the lake.

As he passed out the room he didn't see the tear fall down his older siblings face.

--

"When I saw she was going to the school I should have followed her." said Harry to his godfather on hearing what had happened to Ariana when he had been worth Ron and Hermione in the feast. In a way he felt responsible for the attack the day. The way he had brushed away her fear when she had told him of, it had been cruel. He should have taken her more seriously or at least followed her in. Sirius disagreed.

What he had seen that day had been too much for him to handle in some ways. he would not have wanted Harry to have been faced with the same thing.

It had really hit home to him hat day what she had been through ever since she was a six year old girl. There had been no escape for her. And when he had shut his eyes he heard her frail voice calling out for her mother ever since. She was a baby he concluded. Nothing more. A baby in a body of a child. In a fighting world she could not get to grips with.

"No that would have been pointless. You could have done nothing for her." he said to him. He wondered absently if any body could.

In the months they had bent together, he was not sure that he had ever seen his go father more thoughtful. Not even when they had been talking about his mother and his father. He had really seen something which had affected him badly that day.

Sirius remembered Azkaban. How helpless he had felt when he had been in there. But he had stayed sane because he had known in his heart he had done nothing wrong. That had been the thought which had kept him alive. Others hadn't been so lucky; they had done the crimes they had been committed for. And they had ad to face facts. Some had cried out for their relatives in the night. Wives, daughters, husbands, sons, fathers, mothers…

That had been what the girl had reminded him of that day. The Dementors. When she had an attack it was as if she was surrounded by them. They wouldn't kiss her but neither would they let her be. And she couldn't produce a Patronus.

What crime had she committed?

"Go up to the tower and go to bed Harry."