Chapter 45
"Sweetheart?"
Ariana had awoken. Opening her eyes she saw the morning sun beam in to Albus quarters. Why was she there?
As memories of the day before rushed back into her head her heart weighed her down but not so much as it had the day before. She had had a chance to think about it and she felt better. Yesterday had been a hic cup. Nothing more, she told herself. She was sure that if she really had to endure another detention then she would, though she dreaded it with everything she was.
"Morning Al." She said giving him a smile as she sat up. He was in his chair eating toast already. He had a mug of steaming tea by his side and turning to the table she saw he had made her one as well. "What time is it?"
"Just gone half past seven."
Brushing the hair out her face she sat up, the blanket still round her legs.
"Harry – he doesn't know why I didn't go back."
"I wrote to your friends at the Gryffindor tower explaining you were somewhat indisposed last night." .
Picking her tea up she nodded gratefully at him and relaxed.
"Thank you."
He nodded. "It was a pleasure Ariana. I am just sad the longest about of time I have spent with you this past six months was with you asleep most of the time." He said making her chuckle. "You looked like you slept well though."
"I did, I slept like a dragon."
"You seemed too." He nodded.
Sighing contently she listened to the clock on the wall for a moment and allowed the comfortable silence between the two of them to take hold.
"Yesterday darling were you ok?" he asked the inevitable question.
She had two options, as does anyone who was asked a question. To lie or tell the truth. He had enough on his plate, she thought to herself. He doesn't need to worry more for his silly sister.
"Yes I was fine. Just wanted to see you. That was all. I suppose I fell asleep while I was waiting."
"Well as long as you're ok." He nodded as she smiled.
"I am fine brother. Just fine."
She finished her breakfast and kissed Albus goodbye before half eight. She had to get back to the common room. She wondered if Harry had missed her and egotistically hoped he had. But what to say to him? She had lied once that day and did not wish to again. And if she did lie then she had to cover up where she was going on Monday night...
She had always told the truth though. Despite what she had done earlier that day, lying did not come easily to Ariana Dumbledore. No she had to tell him the truth. She had too.
Going in to the common room she saw it was still pretty much deserted which was standard for this time on a Sunday morning. Everyone was enjoying the lie in far too much.
Going up to her dorm she grabbed her towel and headed for a shower. When you had a task ahead of you which you dreaded, there was nothing like a bit of time wasting to help you along she thought. She had had butterflies when she had gone to see Harry before, but never in this nervous sick feeling. She almost felt ashamed she had been caught. She should have taken the clock and all this could have been avoided.
When she walked back down the girls stairs to the common room she found he was there. A genuine smile plaster across her face. She had missed him even if he had not her.
"Morning sleepy head." She said to him as he greeted her.
Taken her into his arms, he wrapped her body in the love he felt for her. "I missed you."
Smiling at the confirmation, she sighed for the first time since she had left him contently. "Then I will not leave you again." She chuckled softly, but her face could not hide what she had to do.
"What is it?"
"Yesterday I did not get to Aberforth's." It was better to be straight with him, she told herself.
"How comes?"
"I was walking down there and I got caught by someone. I'll give you three guesses who it was."
"No... oh Ari." The look on his face told her he understood.
"I got upset, I answered back. I'm back in detention."
"No." His firm tone astonished her. "I'm not letting you go, you're not doing it. You can't ask that of me. You can't make me watch you go somewhere where I know you'll be hurt."
"It's one night." She said trying to be strong. But his pleads tore at her heart. The passion in his eyes made her appreciate how much he loved her. Raising her hands to his neck she brought his head down to met hers. "I'll be ok." She muttered.
"No, this is not alright."
"It is, really." She said to him but he would not be soothed.
"Tell your brother."
"I can't. And anyway, what would he do?"
"Stop it."
"He can't over rule his staff for me. I can't ask that of him."
"Of course you can."
He looked at her and she knew at once she had frustrated him. She was frustrating herself. She knew if he had been there when she had gone to the office yesterday Albus would have known all about it now. But she felt she had to do this - she couldn't always run for help.
Harry, upon hearing her silence, sighed. She was not going to give in this time.
"I need some air."
-
He considered going to her brothers behind her back. He could go and tell McGonagall. He even considered taking her as his hostage on Monday night. But none of those options could he act upon, though the last was the most tempting. Because he knew she had made her choice and he better than anyone knew what she was like when she had got something into her head.
She went through with it. Especially when she was told not to.
Why was she so much like him?
He found himself understanding her completely, but not at all in the same moment.
He loved her. Whether or not he understood her, he loved her. It was growing daily now. He wanted nothing more than her to be safe and protected from what was bad about their life. He had let her and Sirius in after a life time of being alone.
Losing her now was not an option.
Leaving her now was not an option.
A set of cold fingers intertwined with his announcing her arrival at his side. He knew she was worried still.
The day was cool and an unseasonably chilling wind was blowing storm clouds above them over Hogwarts.
"Don't ask me to keep my cool in class with that woman ever again." He said in almost a growl.
"I won't." A timid reply came from his side.
"Let me protect you."
"You can't protect me from myself. I promise I will keep my lips sealed from now on. And I'll be ok on Monday night."
"I feel as if I have let you down."
"Don't you dare say that? It is the other way round if anything."
"How could you ever let me down?" he said turning to face her. "You're the light in the darkness."
He watched as a singular tear escaped her eye. She looked so ... like Ariana. It was the only way to describe it. He knew she wasn't overly beautiful. She wasn't sexy, he thought cringing at the very idea of her being sexy. But she was his world. She was his.
Tilting her head to face him, he kissed her as he had the day before when they were in the dorm room. He shouldn't have let her go. She responded as lovingly as ever throwing her arms about him and kissing him with every fibre of her being.
They stayed there by the lake for a long time.
-
Ariana awoke on Monday after a rough night. Sunday had not been a joyous day after even her and Harry had settled there differences. Then she seemed to develop and a head cold over night.
Just brilliant, she thought to herself as she put her tissues in her bag sure she was going to need them over the course of the day.
"Come on," said Harry as he saw her looking miserable as she came down for breakfast, "it is going to be alright."
"I know it is." But the feeling he wanted to protect her was over powering once again.
Leaning in to his arm, she allowed him to lead her down to the breakfast table where she drunk tea and merely picked at her toast. It was never a good sign when she didn't ear but with the mood she was in Harry knew better than to tell her to eat up. She would not have appreciated his concern he thought.
Professor Dumbledore threw her a worried look though he noticed.
The day passed slowly. After her transfiguration lesson (which went mildly better than the week before) she went back to the common room. Her head was aching and instead of using her time productively she curled up in front of the fire. She wanted to do absolutely nothing.
That Defence Against the Dark Arts was a particularly painful lesson was an understatement. She was beginning to understand that as passionately as Harry could love, so could he hate. Umbridge was an evil woman in her eyes for making him so angry. She didn't care that she hurt her anymore. But the fact she hurt him?
Hurting Harry in her eyes was an unforgivable crime.
She breathed an audible sigh of relief when they left the class room. The two of them had opted to sit at the back (more her choice than his) and so were out the class first and left alone by their professor for the majority of it. She chose to ignore them, rather than antagonize them which was fine by Ariana.
She knew he was spoiling for a fight now though and one day he was going to be too determined to get it for her to stop him.
-
After dinner Arana left for the defence classroom. Knowing he was unlikely to leave her there if he walked her as he did the time before, Ariana declined Harry's offer to walk her to the detention. On top of that she was more nervous then she had been before and did not want him to see her so distressed. Her anxiety worried him. It was the last thing either of them needed.
Composing herself, she took a deep breath and walked into the classroom. The toad like women was already there and waiting for her.
As was the quill.
Taking the seat where she had been just a few evenings previous she mustered her courage.
"What must I write?"
You are a Dumbledore ... Act like one...
"I will not break school rules," said Umbridge imperiously.
It was with a shaking hand Ariana picked up the quill. Sweat broke out.
Think happy thoughts, she told herself.
But it was hard when she felt she was going to be sick at any moment. There was a lump in her throat.
How long was she going to have to endure this that night she wondered?
It was going to be longer than before she was sure.
Four hours later...
Tears cascaded like a river that had broken its dam. If Ariana's legs were strong enough to run then she would have. But after four relentless hours, she couldn't.
Turning on to the next corridor after the once the Defence Classroom was on she learnt against the wall and collapsed.
She hadn't felt like this in so long.
She wanted to let it out to scream, but if she did then so would her magic and for the first time in months, she felt as if it might be out of control.
She breathed deeply, in and out, in and out. She had to get a hold on herself. One thing was for sure. She could not go back to the Gryffindor tower as she was. But neither did she feel she could or wanted to be alone. It was in that moment she decided to do what she should have done so long ago.
Go to Albus and tell him what had happened.
She tried desperately hard not to look at her hand. It burned her enough without looking at it.
She had to control herself, she just had too, there was no other choice.
Getting up off the floor tentatively, she walked slowly, trying to keep calm. She was feeling a little better than when she had first got out of the office she had to admit but she still desired to see her brother above all others. And she knew she was not in control of herself.
He had to be there. He had to be there.
Her pale face was still covered in fresh tears as her unsteady feet begun the climb up the stairs to his office.
Oh, she wanted her brother!
"Do you want a drink?" she heard Albus ask through the part opened door.
He had someone with him already. No, no, no!!!
"I run a pub brother. I don't need a drink when I come here," Said a cheery voice she knew in return.
Relief swept her. It was Aberforth. Longing for him now she knew she was going to him over came her.
"I guess not. Lemon drop then?"
It was then she knocked on the door and stumbled against it a little.
Both sets of blue eyes turned to face her and a mixture of anger, pity and grief showed in both of them.
"Al...Aba." the sound of her brother's names shattered her and she gave way to her tears. Collapsing to the floor she sobbed.
Her body shook.
"No." She mumbled. A moan followed it.
A spark that came from nowhere. A scream that broke the men's hearts.
Breathe, breathe, breathe...
Ariana kept focus. This was not going to happen... she was so much stronger than this, she told herself, but tears flowed on and on.
"It's ok, darling. It's ok sweetheart, I'm here." A pair of strong arms pull her back from that dark place in her head and she shut her eyes as she turned into her brother. The familiar smell reminded her of home and she buried her head in his chest.
"Aba...."
"I'm here angel, it doesn't matter, I've got you. Shh, hush baby, its ok."
As Albus got to his knees, he stroked her hair. Summoning the blanket she had used the other night from his room, he helped Aberforth cover her. The two were no longer warring. They were in that moment utterly united, all three Dumbledore's together. Voldemort could have walked in to the Scholl and Albus would not have left his siblings. Not this time.
Stroking her face Albus helped to calm her in a way he never could have before.
A minute passed. Five. And then ten. But none of them moved. Ariana felt a warmth take her. She felt calmer but somehow she was still crying and shaking uncontrollably. She clutched at a hand not sure who it belonged to.
"Don't leave me."
"No one is going anywhere." Albus promised her.
"Sorry," a defeated whisper came from Ariana.
The firm thumb that caressed her cheek told her it was ok. A kissed was dropped into her hair.
Ari knew no more. Sleep claimed her.
Author note: Please Review!