Ariana: A Harry Potter FanFiction

Chapter Sixteen

“Here comes the mail,” Albus said as a flood of owls entered the Great Hall.

            Aberforth was still getting used to the exquisiteness of the school. The Great Hall by itself was astounding. The ceiling was a perfect image of the sky outside, bright blue and cloudless. Large windows showed the lawn outside. Four long tables lined the hall, with another at the end of the hall for the professors. The Gryffindor table, where Aberforth was seated with Albus, Elphias and the other Gryffindor students, was beside the far wall.

            A particularly fat owl flopped onto the table in front of Elphias, scattering biscuits and other breakfast snacks. The other students chuckled as the owl screeched and dropped a letter for him in his bowl of porridge, attempted to get jam off its wing, and then flapped obnoxiously away.

            Elphias stared at the soggy envelope that inhabited his breakfast bowl in shock. “Well, now that’s just disappointing.”

            “Have you considered getting an owl that’s actually mildly intelligent?” Albus suggested as the Dumbledore owl landed on his shoulder with a letter in its beak. “Or possibly eating a drier breakfast?”

            “What’s the point of life if a man cannot eat his porridge without having to worry about a letter from his dearest mother polluting it?” Elphias asked, taking the envelope and shaking it off.

            “To find the answer you must look deep within your soul,” Albus said, and Elphias shook his head.

            “Ab, this letter’s for you,” Albus said, handing the envelope to his brother. Aberforth perked up and took it, and brightened even more when he saw who it was from. “Ariana!”

            “What’d she say?” Albus asked, his mouth full of toast.

            “‘Dear Ab, I’m so glad you’ve been sorted into Gryffindor! Now you don’t have to worry about being in Slytherin. I wish I was there—’”

            “Did she say anything about Mum?” Albus interrupted, “Everything’s alright back home?”

            Aberforth quickly skimmed the letter. “Looks that way.”

            “Good,” Albus said, gathering his things. “Come on, it’s time to get to class.” He and Elphias stood, and Aberforth scrambled to do the same.

            “Remind me where the Potions room is,” Aberforth said, hurrying after them as they walked down the aisle to the door to the Entrance Hall.

            “In the dungeons,” Albus said, not paying much attention to his brother.

            “Right,” Aberforth said, “And I get there…how?”

            “The door beside the staircase that leads to the first floor,” Albus replied as they entered the Entrance Hall. The great oak doors loomed over them, and in the corner opposite was a set of four hourglasses filled with gemstones in the colors of each house. The gemstones represented the number of points the House had. Gryffindor’s hourglass, which had rubies inside, had the least of all the Houses.

            Albus and Elphias started up the stairway that led to the first floor, while Aberforth stood back and stared at the door on the left, and the door on the right. He blinked a few times, and decided to take his chances with the first door. After following a long corridor that led him to nothing but a large painting of a bowl of fruit, he turned and worked his way back to the Entrance Hall, hoping that he’d find his way to Potions before he was late.

            The problem with Potions was that Aberforth had no friends in the class. Transfiguration and History of Magic and Herbology all had his friends in it, but not Potions. He found the classroom finally, only late by a few minutes, and stepped inside as the professor finished taking attendance.

            “Ah,” said the professor, “There you are, Mr. Dumbeldore. Please, take a seat, and try not to be late again.”

            Aberforth stared around, but every desk appeared to be full. He was beginning to panic, when a girl who wore the Hufflepuff emblem waved him over with a sweet smile, saying, “I saved a seat for you.”

            He grinned gratefully and set his things down on the desk as the class began. The girl smiled, and he smiled back, and realized that maybe Potions wouldn’t be as horrible as he expected.

            In front of the dark fireplace, where nothing but a few embers glowed, a little girl sat waiting, with her skirts folded under her and her golden locks surrounding her face like a curtain of sunlight. She’d been waiting patiently, and she would wait patiently, if it meant sitting there before the fire for days and days endlessly. Without her brothers, she had nothing—no happiness, no fun, nothing to look forward to, nothing to do. Her mother tried, but didn’t succeed. There was nothing left for her without her brothers. Nothing at all.