Chapter 20: Dark World Aches

Aberforth Dumbledore crossed his arms tightly across his chest and furrowed his brow as Albus happily counted his luggage outside of their little cottage house.

"I think I have everything," Albus said when he finished, standing up happily and rocking on his heels for a moment. Aberforth couldn't help but roll his eyes as their mother wrapped her arms around Albus's neck.

"Be careful," she said. "You may come home at any time if there's a problem, but I hope that won't be the case. I expect you to learn a lot and write down everything that happened."

"I will. Thank you, mother," he said.

Aberforth crossed his arms even more tightly. He could just imagine what would happen when he went on his world tour in two years- 'Be careful, don't cause trouble. I know you and your temper.' Of course she wouldn't say that to Albus. She just told him to learn everything he could possibly learn. Albus caused more trouble than Aberforth sometimes. Where was his 'stay out of trouble?'

When their mother let go of Albus, he turned to Aberforth. Aberforth just stared at him for a moment as Albus pushed his hair out of his eyes. Then, Albus stepped forward without hesitation and hugged Aberforth. He jumped, surprised, and then pushed Albus away instantly.

"Abe!" Mother said in scold.

Albus seemed hurt, his eyes suddenly loosing their usual twinkle and he turned away, picking up his bag and shrinking his trunk like it hadn't been a big deal.

"I'll see you in a month," Albus said to both of them. "Bye."

"Bye, Albus," Mother said.

Aberforth turned away and went back inside before Albus even disappeared.

He sat down beside Ariana at the kitchen table. She had Aberforth's charcoal and was drawing circles on a piece of parchment. Aberforth smiled, "Looks excellent, Ariana," and then grabbed the leather journal Albus had gotten him for his fifteenth birthday and began drawing in the empty spaces that he'd missed.

He hated to admit it, but he really did love that journal. It was already filled to the last page and as much as he didn't want Albus to spend his money on him just because he knew it probably felt like a burden to Albus, Aberforth hoped he'd bring back a notebook for him as a gift.

Though, he guessed the greatest gift of all was the fact that Albus would be gone for a month. He could finally relax and have fun without his older, idiotic brother who had to meddle in everything watching on.

"Aberforth," Mother called from outside. He looked toward the open window, seeing her standing near there. "Why don't you bring Ariana out to the backyard for a while?"

He smiled, grabbing her hand and walked her outside to let her feed the goats.

The rest of the day felt absolutely perfect until he went down to the village. He played with Ariana, helped his mother make goat cheese and even helped her with dinner. He even went down to the village to get bread for a couple days.

Going there by himself was especially leisurely. Usually Albus pushed him along and didn't let him talk to anyone, but once he got to the market and picked up a loaf of bread, he stopped at the counter where Sylvia Henderson stood. She was a witch and married, but he could still admire the way her hair was pinned back and how beautiful her features were.

"Hello, Dumbledore," she said with a smile.

And that's where everything went downhill.

"Where's your brother?" she asked. "I thought he'd be here with you."

Aberforth suppressed a sigh as he dug into his pocket for the money. Everyone just loved Albus, even the married women. No one could stop talking about him. Couldn't she have asked how he was? "He's on his world tour right now," he said as she took the knut.

"Oh, did he graduate this year? That's wonderful."

Thank Merlin. He wouldn't be down Aberforth's back for the next two years. "Yeah, he's very excited."

Sylvia nodded and looked up when the door to a backroom opened. Her husband, a tall man with thick brown hair, stood at the door, staring at her expectantly with a list in piece of parchment and a quill in his large hand. She turned back to Aberforth. "Well, good-bye Dumbledore. I'm coming, Samuel."

Aberforth sat down at a bench in the middle of the town square, watching people pass by. He wished he had his journal with him, but of course he forgot to bring it.

A few people stopped to say hello to him as he sat there. Three of them asked what Albus planned on doing as soon as he got back from his trip, and only one asked how Aberforth and his mother were doing. This was a kind old lady who worked in a floral shop across from where he was sitting. She handed him a flower to give to his mother.

But the worse visit was from a man with a long grey beard who sat down next to him and talked to him about Albus' last Transfiguration Today article. He remembered Albus working on that one in the Common Room in between working on his little light catcher contraption. All Aberfroth did was nod along as the man talked.

He was glad when he walked away.

Aberforth wondered why he was even sitting there. At first, he thought it would nice to be there by himself without Albus pushing him along, but most just ignored him and when they did talk to him, he was only bothered. Something kept him there, though.

The sun was just beginning to set when a boy about his age sat down near him at the square's fountain with a life-size sculpture of a lion sitting proudly and surveying the village with wise eyes.

The boy stared up at the lion, his blonde hair hanging nearly to his shoulders. Aberforth watched him. He's seen all the people that he'd talked to that day before, but this boy… he'd never seen him in his life.

Then, the boy turned his head and Aberforth looked away quickly as if he hadn't been staring. He stood up and began to walk away, but he heard footsteps padding along almost silently before they fell into rhythm by his. He could feel the boy's magic radiating off him and he swore he felt a familiar twinge to it, like the feeling he got when Albus was particularly mad.

"Hello," the boy said. There was a slight accent that Aberforth couldn't quite place in his words. "How old are you?"

Aberforth ignored him, walking faster. The boy kept up with him easily, though, much to Aberforth's irritation.

"Silent type, huh?" the boy said. "I can respect that."

Aberforth sent a glare at him as they passed by the Henderson's store. Sylvia was out sweeping off the steps. She looked up and immediately caught eyes with Aberforth.

"Good night, Dumbledore," she said, smiling and waving as she stepped inside the store to sweep off the entrance.

"Good night," Aberforth said back.

The boy kept following him, and once they were out of earshot to Sylvia, the boy said, "You're Albus?"

Aberforth took in a heavy breath and the grunted out, "No. Why does everyone have to mention him to me? I can think, too, you know."

The boy smirked. "I didn't mean anything by that. My auntie has just been mentioning Albus to me all year long. I didn't know if you were him or Aberforth."

Aberforth looked up, surprised. He knew his name? Most just called him Dumbledore, even though they called Albus by his first name. It was like he was the lesser of two, and he really supposed he was.

"I'm Aberforth, obviously," he said. "You'd know Albus if you saw him. He's tall and just looks like he's powerful."

The boy clasped his hands to together behind his back and surveyed him softly. "I'm sure you're much more powerful than you make yourself out to be. But, who knows… Maybe Albus is just, you know, an anomaly. I met this one man about a week ago in Germany. He says he knew Albus. Said Albus was a better wizard than I think he is, and I already think he's very intelligent, even though I haven't even got to meet him yet."

Aberforth looked off to the right in a half eye roll. He spotted the church graveyard and cringed slightly. He never liked looking at the graveyard. It always seemed too eerie for him.

"And whom was it that you met?"

The boy shrugged. "Dreadfully messy black hair, round glasses, strange scars. Even odder accent."

Aberforth blinked. It couldn't be… What was Potter doing in Germany? "Yeah?"

The boy nodded. "Said he worked at Hogwarts. Very odd. I got a sense he was lying. He was too young be-"

"No, he wasn't lying," Aberforth said. "He left in November, because of some kind of investigation."

The boy's eyebrows raised and his eyes twinkled slightly as he smirked. "Really? He didn't seem like a rule breaker type to me. What did he do? Inappropriate magic on a student?"

Aberforth shook his head, but didn't say anything. He knew the reason, but he wasn't about to tell whomever this guy was what happened. He couldn't tell anyone. Who would believe him if he said Harry Potter was from the future?

"What business is it to me, anyway?" the boy said, sighing. "I'll probably never meet him again." He paused and pulled out his wand, lighting it as the sun went down under the trees. Aberforth stared at it. It wasn't smooth like any he had seen before- instead, it seemed like it had tumors running down it. Aberforth got a deep feeling of dread as he looked at it, like the wand didn't want to be lit like that.

"Do you like it?" the boy asked, apparently seeing what Aberforth was staring at. "My old one broke not too long ago. I got fitted with this one. Nice, isn't it?"

Aberforth turned to look at the road ahead, a shiver running down his spine.

"My name is Gellert, by the way," the boy said as they walked pass the Potter's cottage. Aberforth could see a candle in the window and Atticus Potter reading by it.

"Where are you from?" Aberforth asked Gellert.

"Berlin," he said. Aberforth realized where his accent was from now and also realized who he his auntie was. Bathila Bagshot had a sister who was married to a German man.

And, in fact, Gellert stopped right in front of Bathilda's house when they passed by.

"Well, guten abend," said Gellert.

"And what does that mean?" Aberforth asked, his eyebrows raised in confusion.

"Good evening, Dumbledore."

Gellert ran up to the front door and as Aberforth stepped away from the gate, he blinked a few times, wondering what in the world that meeting was. His last thought before he opened up the gate to his house a minute later was Gellert was even stranger than Albus.

He closed the door behind him and hoped Albus would never get to meet that boy.

The darkness blinded Harry. Sometimes he wished he were still in the future where there were street lamps.

But, here he was, standing in the Dumbledores' yard in the complete darkness, with only a half moon for light. He could easily wait for the morning to talk to Aberforth, but he had no idea if Ariana would be with him and he didn't know how Ariana would react to him, so it was best for him to talk now, when Aberforth was hopefully in his own bedroom.

Harry had been trailing Aberforth all day. He thought about going to The Leaky Cauldron where Albus was, but he knew he had to stay there to try to stop Gellert, and to see what he could do about Kendra Dumbledore. He didn't want Kendra to die but… He didn't want to think about it yet.

Instead, he'd followed Aberforth into town, watching as he went into the market and came out before going into the square. He watched as he interacted to the people in town- how he scowled as they walked away after something they said. He watched as a man sat with him and saw how Aberforth crossed his arms tightly across his arms as the man talked.

But, his heart pounded heavily in his chest when he saw Grindelwald sit down at the fountain beside Aberforth and how Aberforth left with him.

That had scared Harry nearly to death. He heart rate was higher than it had been since the hours before Voldemort finally died, when he was walking to his death in the forest.

It slowed down, though, once Gellert left Aberforth. But, still, this was not what Harry wanted to happen. He didn't want the Dumbledores to interact with Gellert at all, and now Aberforth had met him.

He had to keep Aberforth and Albus away from him. He needed to talk to Aberforth.

He took in a deep breath as placed a hand on the door of the house.

But then, he heard a noise- a low creak, as if a window was sliding open. He jumped, looking for the source of the noise.

It was silent, but then he heard a scream from inside the house.

Harry tugged at the door- it was locked, but he uttered a quick Alohomora and rushed as quickly as he could toward the scream.

"Ariana!" Harry heard a woman say. Harry's stomach seemed to drop as a girl's scream continued on. He stopped dead at the door of an open room. As the girl screamed, a whirlwind of papers and toys spun around the room, all speeding around her. Sparks shocked out of nowhere and erupted all over the room.

The hair on the back of Harry's neck stood up. He stood there, wishing he could do something, but the girl's scream was so piercing that it made him feel like he'd pass out, and goosebumps flared across his skin as Kendra's screams- which could hardly be heard under the shrill screams- cried out, "Ariana! Ariana! It's all right. It's fine! You're fine!"

Harry heard running footsteps to the side, but in the moment that it took for him too look at Aberforth, there was a lower scream. A feeling of dread passed through his chest as the lighting scorched through the wooden floor and caused fires all across the room and then he heard a drop of someone falling, another scream. More calming voices.

Harry fought to stay upright, sure that his eardrums would be shot as soon as it sopped.

And then, the wind slowed. The fires were reduced to smoke and the girl's screams turned into a small whimpering.

Harry stared at the scene before him. As Aberforth hugged Ariana tightly, shushing her and rubbing her back calmingly, he stared at his mother's body on the floor. His eyes were wide, his face completely white.

It was obvious that he knew exactly what happened to his mother. She wasn't there. Her chest wasn't moving at all. Her eyes were wide, unseeing, unmoving in the moon light leaking through the window.

Ariana's cries didn't calm. Aberforth's eyes hardly blinked.

Harry became so aware of his beating heart as he stared at yet another body of someone who was once living. That had all happened so quickly. Much too quickly.

He didn't know what to do.

Albus smiled at the bar of The Leaky Cauldron, putting down a couple knuts for the glass of firewhiskey the barman handed him. He slipped out from around the bar and found Elphias sitting at a table.

"I can't wait to leave for Greece tomorrow," Albus said as he sipped the firewhiskey.

"I know! It'll be great," Elphias said, his face already somewhat red and glistening from alcohol. "Oh, look, someone's about to play piano!"

Albus smiled, turning toward the piano across the room. The melody was fast and loud. He laughed as the pub goers began singing Odo the Hero. Albus began singing along loudly, feeling happier than he had felt in a long while. The music filled his heart and made him feel whole. An even greater feeling came when most of the people stood up to begin a dance. Albus stayed where he was, though, feeling his heart swell with even more joy.

"Albus!"

Albus looked around, looking for girl who called his name. He saw Merrythought standing there, a glass of amber liquid in her hand.

"Professor! How are you?"

"I'm great. I didn't expect to see you so soon!" she said, smiling widely. "Come dance with me!"

He had no choice as she grabbed his hand and they went out into the crowd where others were dancing to the new song playing.

"Be sure to go to Breton's and Alver's when you're on your tour. They have wonderful books," Merrythought said as they danced around. The piano player started on an Irish step dance. Merrythought smiled even louder as they all began to move with the same dance.

"I still think you should have taken a job at Hogwarts," Merrythought said after a long pause of not talking, just merrymaking to the sound of music. "We need a new library research assistant. You'd be great for that."

Albus shook his head. "I've already taken the job as Junior Undersecretary."

"Shame. You would be better doing research in an academic environment, or even being a professor. I saw how you were teaching everyone before the N.E.W.T.s."

He smiled and shook his head again. Nothing could convince him to change the career that he wanted. He would begin at the Ministry the day he got back from the world tour.

"I'm fine where I am, Professor."

"Okay, but if you ever find out you don't want to be in politics, there'll always be a place at Hogwarts for you and for anyone who is in need of it."

Albus smiled at her, though his corners of his eyes seemed to prickle. He thought about Hogwarts, and now that he was gone from it, he actually felt like he hadn't really left it. Not really.

"Thank you," he said softly. "But I'll be fine."

She smiled sadly.

When the song stopped, Merrythought hugged him. "Good luck, Dumbledore. Come see me when you get back from your tour."

And then she was gone.

Albus sat down by Elphias again.

"You look especially tired right now, and not in a good way," Elphias said in observation.

Albus shrugged, sipping at his firewhiskey again.

The rest of the evening was fine. He still felt happier than usual, and when Albus and Elphias went up to their rented to room, Albus fell onto his bed, exhausted and ready for the morning.

He fell asleep immediately.

He jumped awake at the knock on the door. He stared around for a moment, catching eyes with Elphias. He wondered who would ring so late, in the middle of the night. For a moment, he wondered if it was Merrythought, though she had no reason to see him again that night.

He rolled out of bed and looked through the peephole in the door.

Cadmus Potter.

His heart skipped a beat. This couldn't be good. What was the Head Auror doing here? What had happened?

He opened the door, allowing Cadmus to step in solemnly. Something really had happened.

"Hello, Dumbledore," he said tiredly, looking worn.

"Something wrong?" Albus asked. He could feel dread passing through his body.

He sighed and nodded.

And as Cadmus Potter said those words, a shock went through his body. His body seemed to wake up, no longer tired at all. Cadmus put a hand on his shoulder as his eyes widened. His chest erupted in pain, and his stomach, which still had alcohol in it, turned. No. Please, no. This can't be true. No.

"I'm very sorry," Cadmus said.

Please. No. It couldn't be true.

But it was.

His mother was dead.

A/N: I'm very sorry. So sorry. I didn't want to do it, but I did. I've never written a death onscreen before. I wasn't really sure how to do it.

YAY! Finally got to Chapter 20... after two years of writing this... sigh.

Also Gellert's wand. Yeah. Movie version. And, gosh, Aberforth's fun to write.

But, anyway. I need to do a 12 page paper now. Joy. Two more weeks of school left! :D I'm so burnt out already and I still have way too much to do. Sigh.

Please review, I like reviews :) Happy Easter if you celebrate it!