Chapter 44
The weekend did not come soon enough for Ariana and Harry. The week had been long and stress filled. They knew there was still plenty to do. Especially now that they had Sirius on board, but they would also make time for one another just to relax together.
Sirius and there new 'club' had too, of course, take priority though. All of them knew that. She couldn't believe how easily it had all come together though. Three days on from Hermione having her wonderful idea they were talking about getting there Defence Against the Dark Arts Club together for their first meeting in the Room of Requirement. Where they were going to hold the meetings had initially been a problem, but they had soon sorted it, again thanks to Sirius who had reminder Ariana of the room where she had had her fit the year before when the other schools had come to Hogwarts. That room was whatever they needed it to be.
Three days. Everything was moving so fast, but she was glad. It was exciting.
Harry walked down to the common room when he was ready and found a shocking sight. Ariana – in a pair of jeans and blouse.
"You're kidding me right? They got you out of your dresses at last?"
"It was Hermione's idea; she said it was going to be much easier to get involved if I was in jeans rather than in a skirt. Do you like them?"
"I don't know."
"Me neither. Not very me are they? They're coming straight off after we are done. I am going back to my skirts." She muttered to herself. She may be becoming accustomed to the ways of her new world but some things were never going to change.
He chuckled a little. She certainly knew her own mind these days.
With the twins, Neville, Ginny, Ron and Hermione the two of them went to the Room of Requirement holding hands. A smug smile was on the new 'teachers' face as he welcomed them to the first session. He had been right. It was Lily and James all over again.
He shook those thoughts out of his head. It was time to get on with the practical side of the club.
Stunning spells to begin with Sirius had decided, they were going to be essential if they were going to come up against Death Eaters. Certainly they had helped him out in the last war.
A wave of sadness crushed at his chest as he looked at the young people who were about him laughing and joking together. The love that he was around. Were they really to lose it? As so many as his generation had.
"Ron and Harry, why don't you too guy go first?" he offered after he had demonstrated.
He remembered when he had been young he had not got the chance to practice on James first which he had no doubt would have helped it when it came to the real fighting.
"Not too hard now boys, we want no comas here today." He said just as they were about to begin making them laugh.
"Stupefy," chanted Harry at Ron. Sirius had been watching them but out the corner of his eye he saw Ariana twitch as the spark flew out of Harry's wand.
By the time Harry had turned to her she had replaced her unhappiness with a smile but it had been noted. Sirius begun to question whether she of all people should even be there.
When the time to come to pair up came, Ron stuck with Harry, the twins went together and so did the girls leaving Ariana's with Sirius. He was glad he had the chance to talk to her.
"Do you want to do this?"he asked having read her expression.
"I need to. My brothers think it is right for me and I want to be good it." More than anything she wanted to keep up with the others now. "But just looking at it – firing my wand at another witch or wizard. I don't know if I can control my magic that well. Transfiguration is different."
"Yes it is, it is very different. I don't think you would hurt me if you tried. These guys aren't doing too much damage." She said as they looked at the three pairs practicing about them.
"No but I would have to really focus. And I don't know how intense the magic that came out would then be. I don't want you in a coma."
"You still don't trust your own magic at all do you?"
"It's never given me reason too."
He hadn't realised the old insecurities were so present in her still. But when she had seen the light from the wands, the flashing. It had reminded her so strongly of the night when she had been sent into the future when her brothers had been fighting.
"I think I should sit this one out."
"You'll have to try it one day."
"I know I will, but not today. Please Sirius. Let me read up on it, get my head in the right mind set." She asked.
He nodded. While they were learning he thought that was a fair enough request, though he doubted were she too make it of a death eater they would be of the same understanding nature as he was.
"And tell you what when you go for it we can rid of the audience if you like. I doubt they are helping with your nerves." He offered and she gave him a small knowing smile that told him he had been completely right.
"Thank you. You are too kind to me Sirius." She muttered.
"You gave me my freedom, Ari. I have not paid my debt to you and most likely never will. No amount of kindness is enough."
-
"Were you ok when we were all practicing? You and Sirius didn't get round to it." After they had eaten lunch with Sirius, they had gone back to the common room. She had changed into her skirt immediately as she had said she was going too.
"I had some stuff to think about." She said and a worried expression crossed his face. "Don't be anxious. Its nothing out the ordinary. Just stuff I have to consider while we are doing all this I think." She shrugged.
She looked about his dorm room. Everyone had gone out. When she had finished changing first she had gone to check on him. Now here they were alone.
"You're ok all this?" he checked and she nodded.
Walking over to where she stood he took her cheek in one of his warm hand and she shut her eyes as their skin touched together. He smiled at her obvious pleasure and allowed her to reach up to him and kissing him. Slipping his hands down to her neck he caressed her.
"As long as I have you I will be fine," she broke the kiss, but only momentarily. In the next second she had reached for him once more and he felt as she tangled his messy hair with her delicate fingers, exploring him in a new way. The passion he felt for her as they kissed, it was like never before.
He needed her. He always would need her.
Sliding his hands down further he caught her about her waist and pulled her ever tighter and she responded with a deep happy sigh. They hadn't ever kissed like this before. She didn't know you could kiss someone in this fashion.
New feelings rose in him. A feeling he hadn't felt before and he pictured what could happen next - he could pick her up and carry her to the bed. They were both sixteen... they were in love...it was no common fling. They were never going to come to an end. Why shouldn't he?
But before he had the chance to let his thoughts get the better of him, she mercifully took the choice which had seemingly been laid before him by ended there kissed and snuggling her head into his chest. Contented, she shut her eyes and relaxed.
The plan she had formed in her mind was to go to Aberforth alone that afternoon to see him for an hour. She still felt a little guilty for how she had behaved and it had been along week without him. She wanted to share all the secrets she had been carrying with her, about the new club. She had dismissed the thought of telling him about her detention. His reaction would not be pleasant and he had no reason to worry. She was fine.
"Come with to my brothers." She muttered to Harry now though. She could not bear to part from him. Not now. They were too close; it would hurt to be gone from his side. She hadn't felt the need to devote herself to one person before she had met him. But she knew she would till the end of her days.
The thoughts in Harry's head were still a little crazy though. And there was something in his head that told him if he had such thoughts in front of the barman or indeed the headmaster they would know he was having such impure thoughts about their baby sister. Then of course they would be forced to kill him.
"I don't think that is such a good idea. I have a lot of work to do, and Aberforth would want to see you on your own no doubt. I'll see you when you get back though."
She was disappointed but didn't want him to see her unhappiness in his response when he had just previously made her so happy. What a contradiction."Ok then." She said to him, leaving him with a lingering kiss. Just before leaving though she turned and gave him a soft smile.
Was happiness like this a sin? She wondered.
Most likely.
She walked out of the common room and down the stairs, the entirely familiar route not being interrupted that day by the stair cases.
Sighing happily, she giggled to herself.
The gravel crunched beneath her feet as she made her way across the court yard the route to Hogsmeade sprawling out in front of her, the gate open.
"Hem, hem." She heard a voice behind her.
No. Not now. Not when she had been enjoying such a brilliantly joyful moment.
"Miss Dumbledore where do you think you are going?"
Turning to face professor Umbridge, Ariana plastered on her face a sickly sweet smile which she knew only the women who was in front of her would be able to match. As ever, the women looked hideous in her pink cardigan.
I must not lie, she thought bitterly to herself and she had no reason too.
"I am going into the village to see my brother," she shrugged.
"I am sorry Miss Dumbledore, but I do not believe it is an allocated Hogsmeade weekend, dear, is it?" she said talking slowly to her.
Ariana felt her blood boil. She was certainly not her dear.
"The headmaster has always allowed me to go whenever I chose to, to see Aberforth."
"That might be so, but it is very fair is it? No other student gets to wonder off home whenever they chose."
"But –"Ariana could feel panic rising in her chest. All she wanted to do was go and see her brother. She had never in her life been told she could not go to him if she wanted too. "I need to see him!"
"No, Ariana I don't think you do. What you need to do is learn to follow the school rules."
"But I am allowed to do this; Albus has always made it clear that I can go."
"Well he never made that clear to me and I would wait to hear it from him."
"But-"
"Miss Dumbledore, are you once again answering back to me?"
She considered her answer for a second. If it was over anything else then she knew she could silence herself. But her trips to see Aberforth were so important to her. To both of them.
"Yes. Yes I am!"
"Well then I do not think that you learnt your lesson yet. Detention, Monday night."
She could not believe what she was hearing; she was allowed to do this! Why was she being so unfair?
"Now return to the Gryffindor tower."
Turning on her heal she ran. She had to get to Albus. She knew he would overrule this. He had too. He would never allow his siblings to be kept apart, not when this was in his power. Tears sprung.
On reaching his office she did not knock but strolled right in only to find it was deserted...
"Al!" she asked called desperately. "Albus, where are you?"
No response.
Going into the private quarters she didn't find him there either. Disappointment crushed her chest, a wave of sorrow flowing over her. Not another detention with her. It was so much worst now she knew what to expect. How was she going to tell Harry? All she had done all week was tell him to try and keep out of trouble with Umbridge.
Knowing she had no reason to rush out she sat down. A voice in her head was telling her she should flu Aberforth then he could come and get her. But then it would contradict everything she had been saying to him about her being able to cope without him. Yet her heart ached for him.
Shifting her position, she laid down on her brothers sofa and she allowed herself to think back to how things had been when she had first got to Hogwarts all that time ago. There was so little time for her to reflect. She was living in the present, yet parts of her craved the past and what she had had then. Her parents and her relationship with Aberforth mainly. It was so different to what it was now. It wasn't worse but it was not the same. Even that summer she had had to acknowledge it. Harry held her heart. The devotion she had felt for him that day... there had been a time when she had been devoted to no one but her brother.
That was different now.
She had gained so much. Sirius, the twins, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny. Her friends. And then there was Harry. A blush rose scarlet in her cheeks. The way he had held her, kissed her. She knew her brothers would be displeased by it but she could not be. The things she had done – the way she had kissed him... was that not meant to be kept for marriage? Yet surely there could not be a wife who loved her husband more intensely than she loved Harry... she knew they were young, but still. She knew what she felt. There were things in the world that had no explanation. That came into existence for no real reason. And that was how her love for Harry was. It needed no explanation.
Getting up she found a blanket on one of her brother's chairs. She was so tired she realised. Just lying there thinking had worn her out somehow along with the other events of the day. A chill came over her.
She couldn't face another detention with Umbridge, she just couldn't.
When Albus returned from London, he found his sister where she had laid herself down, deep in her slumber. He had been gone for such a short time he did not think she would have missed him, but apparently she had.
His dear girl. She had grown up since she had rejoined them, but not so much.
He remembered the night the previous summer when he and Aberforth had spoken about potion.
An angel, he had thought then and again he thought so in that moment. That was truly what she was.
Going over to her he gently pulled the blanket which had been falling off of her up to cover her whole body. She looked so comfortably he could not bear to wake her and ask what she had wanted. He would leave her to what peace she had found in her dream. Kissing her forehead lightly, he left the room to go back into his office, knowing if anyone wanted her then they were going to have to go through him first.
In that moment a paternal love for her pulled at his heart as he realised she had been in trouble and the person she had thought to run to for help was him. This thought caused a tear to trickle down his cheek. He had got it right so far this time then. He was doing something right.