A flash of light. Confusion. Three figures screaming, kneeling next to a fallen body. Another flash of light. Smoke, a sense of free-falling. Then it was all over.
“Albus!” said a voice and the young man who was lying on the floor was roughly shaken. “You have got to do something! She’s marble cold! Work your magic; come on!”

Aberforth’s voice was desperate with fear and confusion, but deep within his mind, Albus had no confusion at all. It was all crystal clear.

“She’s ,” he said. “Abe, I think she’s dead.”

Two brothers looked at each other for a moment. Aberforth seemed to be wanting nothing more in the world than to attack Albus and beat him into a bloody mess, but grief overcame his anger and he went to the side of his sister’s pale, fragile body. There, he was doubled with dry sobs and spoke no more.

Albus tried to move to his side, but found himself quite unable to arrange his limps even into a sitting position. He had never wanted this; had never dreamed of this. All he dreamed was a world in which Ariana could have lived free of all that kept her bound.

Don’t fool yourself, said the recently ignored honest voice in his head. You know bloody well how stupid you have been. You know bloody well the reason for all this, you selfish git!

Albus had started crying before he knew he did. How arrogant he had been, how stupid and miscalculating in his meaningless plans to take over Muggles. With him.

Muggles…A piano suite piece was coming through the window, open to the warm summer air. Muggles… He met them and greeted them everyday, people, human beings. Had he and Gellert ever stopped to listen to them?

Desperately clinging to his thoughts to avoid the moment he was in, Albus closed his eyes, but immediately reopened them as something cut him inside like a knife.

“Where’s Gellert?” he asked, secretly already knowing the answer but never admitting it to himself. Aberforth looked up from Ariana, whom he was cradling in his arms. If looks could kill, his would be a massacre, but he somehow managed to swallow his rage and speak with a voice thick with tears.

“Where do you think he is, you fool? Thought he’d stand by you, didn’t you? Thought he was your cuddly best friend! Look at this!”

A pain very much like a knife thrust in the chest shot through Albus. He was lost for words for some seconds, and all he could do was to close his eyes. Gellert … He tried to blink away the pain that had both everything and so little to do with the current situation. He was quite unable to answer his brother’s piercing gaze, struggling to keep away the sudden heart break.

A silent understanding passed between the Dumbledore brothers, and for a moment, they were just children again, too scared to go downstairs in the dark.

“Who did…” Albus began, not really wanting to know. Aberforth raised a hand in silence, swallowed a sob and went out of the room. Albus heard the front door close two minutes later.

He raised himself up to a sitting position, resting his back on the wall and closed his eyes, not daring to look at what used to be his sister.
I let you down , he thought, All of you. Mother, I am so sorry.

He had ignored what he saw in in Gellert, the arrogance, obvious cruelty, bloodlust. It was easy, toying with the idea of hurting people, living things. Eliminating opposition for the greater good. How stupid it was, how childish, the dream of a boy who knew not of death, only life.
Never again , He thought, looking long and hard at the face of his death sister, capturing the moment, lest he forgot. Never again,will I let myself be tempted; never again will I seek glory, ever!
Then there were Muggles. How human was his grief, how strange it felt…How unmagical . He wondered when was the last time he casually conversed with the village butcher, or with the man who looked after the priest’s sheep…
So lost he was in his thoughts that he did not hear the door when it was opened and closed. Before he knew, Aberforth was back, looking down at his elder brother with a look of absolute disgust in his face.

“Abe,” Albus cried out, trying to comfort him, trying to say something, anything, anything at all… “Listen…I…”

Suddenly, without warning, Aberforth let out a cry of agony. So piercing and so terrifying it was that Albus immediately stopped talking.

“No,” Aberforth said, with a blazing fire both in his eyes and voice. “You listen to me! I kept listening to you my whole life and look where it has brought us!I would not speak to you if I had any other choice!But now you’ll listen!”

Albus had no strenght left for anything but to nod a little and do as he was told.

“We will honour our mother’s memory,” Aberforth continued. The words seemed to have caused him great difficulty,but it was clear that he was determined not to stop. ”We won’t let anything out about her. We will lie about her.I hate it,but we will do that. We will tell a story of long illness and exhaustion, do you hear me, and we will stick to it. We will go along with every tradition and custom, and we will honour her damnable memory!”

Aberforth started to walk towards the door to storm out of it for the second time that day. Suddenly he paused and turned back to face Albus.

“And after that,” He said, “I will never see you again.” He left without another word.

Albus could not arrange his thoughts. The numbness of the situation, the sudden loss and betrayal, combined with seeing Aberforth take control for the first time in his life had left a great empty feeling inside him. He thought he was about to faint.

He was alone in the room. No , he thought. I am not. Ariana was there. Little, sweet, broken Ariana. Lifeless Ariana.
Albus could not tell for how long he had been sitting there when the door was knocked softly and in came Elizabeth Parker, their homely next door neighbour. Their mother had avoided her at all costs but the boys liked her.

“Albus,” she said, her voice filled with sympathy and grief. “Abe told me how she went into a craze, and exhausted herself…I am so sorry.”

Albus looked at her with dead eyes. “Where is he?” was all he could manage.

“I gave him something to make him sleep a little,” Elizabeth responded. “He is very angry with you for some reason, dear; it’d be the shock. He’ll come around eventually. I do understand your pain, and it is best that you also went to bed. I’ll see to.. everything.

The sweet, calming voice of the dear woman worked miracles. Albus managed a very weak smile and finally got to his feet.

“I have prepared soup for you. It’s in your room dear,” Elizabeth said with a tender smile.

Albus knew that the soup was more than probably spiked with something that would put him to sleep, and he was eternally grateful.

He was so bitter, feeling so guilty, and he was so worn out…

What he did not know, while he drank the soup and slipped into an uneasy sleep, was that what he decided that day was incredible. That he was a very remarkable person and few could have realised what he did. That the spirit makes human beings noble. And that he was about to get his nose broken.