Ariana: A Harry Potter FanFiction

Chapter Nineteen

Albus couldn’t believe how fast the years had gone by. Seven years of schooling, meeting great people, experiencing the brilliance of this magical world. He’d won so many awards of achievement, he’d made so many wonderful friends, and now he was nearly done.

            The NEWTs had gone fantastically well, he was proud to say. The professors had seemed very impressed with him. I’m going to have to tell Miss Bagshot all about this when I get home, he thought, smiling as he walked down the dirt trail to Hogsmeade. He was meeting Elphias at the Three Broomsticks Inn to discuss final plans for their Grand Tour of the World.

            The last day of school was the very next day, and many students were still running around trying to get things packed and ready, so Hogsmeade was nearly deserted. Albus pushed open the wooden door of the Three Broomsticks, and spotted Elphias immediately at a table near the entrance.

            He sat down across from his friend, and a huge smile spread across his face. “This is it, Elphias.”

            “Time to say goodbye to Hogwarts,” Elphias said, seeming just as surprised as Albus was. “It feels like just yesterday you were telling me how much you liked how green my skin was.”

            “Such a shame it returned to its usual hue,” Albus agreed, “Green really is your color.”

            “Oh, shut it,” Elphias said, and they laughed. The bartender appeared with two butterbeers, and he told Albus, “I ordered one for you.”

            “Thank you,” Albus said politely to the bartender, taking his butterbeer. He lifted it to the air. “To friendship!”

            “To dragon pox,” Elphias said, and clinked his butterbeer with a laughing Albus’s.

            Aberforth stepped out of the classroom and took a deep breath. His OWLs were finally over, thankfully. Better yet, he’d see Ariana in less than two days.

            He hurried through the halls to the Gryffindor common room. He wasn’t packed yet, and he wanted to be home as soon as he could be, to tell his sister of all the year’s triumphs. It was a shame Albus wouldn’t come home with him—he was going off on a trip around the world an wouldn’t be home for months.

            Never mind that, Aberforth thought, and he threw himself onto his bed on his back. He stared at the ceiling, wondering what wonders the summer would bring him.

            Ariana stood in the front lawn of her home in Godric’s Hollow. Kendra was inside, preparing for Aberforth’s arrival home, and paying no mind to her daughter. Why shouldn’t I step outside the house for once? Ariana had thought as she opened the front door silently. Why shouldn’t I just see what the world has to offer, just once?

            She was fourteen now. Fourteen years old, and she hadn’t a single friend, beside her brothers and Miss Bagshot. But, though she’d thought for the longest time that she needed them desperately, it wasn’t them she truly needed—it was human companionship. Someone to talk to about all her worries. What did it matter if she had one friend? Just one?

            A boy stepped out of a house across the street. He looked about the same age as Aberforth, Ariana noted. He was handsome, too. He spotted her and walked across the road to her.

            She smiled at him and curtsied politely. “Good afternoon.”

            “Good afternoon,” he repeated, bowing slightly. His hair was blonde, like hers, and his eyes were blue, like hers. He smiled kindly at her. “Forgive my asking, but do you live here?”