Post by jazzyjess on Dec 17, 2011 0:00:52 GMT -8
Title: Memory
Rating: PG
Word Count: 369
Warnings:
Summary: Albus Dumbledore remembers his sister.
-
There are some days that are worse than others –days where it hurts to look at the cloudless sky because the colour reminds him of her eyes, days where birdsong turns into the screams that echo in his ears long after she’s in the ground.
And this day, cold and white, is full of memory.
It had been some years since he’d spent Christmas at home. The hollow creaking of the old house, the tense silences where, in other families, laughter might be found – Albus preferred to enjoy his giftless holidays in the company of his truest friend, the library, with all its years of wisdom. But this year had been different. The owl that settled down before him in the Great Hall of Hogwarts was the one his mother kept for her correspondences, and that scattered, loopy handwriting was unmistakably Ariana’s hand.
Brother, it read, Visit soon. Love, Sister
And he couldn’t ignore that call.
Homecoming was bittersweet. Distant welcome from his mother and sullen silences from his brother were outweighed by the sheer happiness on that innocent, youthful face.
Albus remembers how lovely she looked that Christmas Eve. She was sitting at the window, legs tucked up under her, golden hair flowing loosely around her shoulders, bright blue eyes fixed on some far-away point out in the night sky. “It’s very late, Ariana,” he said gently from the doorway. “What are you looking at?”
“Father Christmas will come,” Ariana replied dreamily, “if I could only stay awake.” For the first time in so long, the little girl whose childhood was stolen by an uncontrollable magic was shining through the cracks in the warped tunnel of her mind.
“He’ll come faster when you’re asleep,” recites Professor Dumbledore with the shadowy image in the mirror. It seems so real to him now, he can almost touch it. On this, the longest night of his year, he cannot tear himself away from Erised despite his warning to the students who have stumbled across its hiding place. It is only here that his sister seems like real flesh and blood once again.
Distantly, Albus wonders if Ariana ever did find Father Christmas.
He wonders if, someday, he’ll find Father Christmas, too.
Edit: Awarded 5 Points by jesi, on 3/1/12.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 369
Warnings:
Summary: Albus Dumbledore remembers his sister.
-
There are some days that are worse than others –days where it hurts to look at the cloudless sky because the colour reminds him of her eyes, days where birdsong turns into the screams that echo in his ears long after she’s in the ground.
And this day, cold and white, is full of memory.
It had been some years since he’d spent Christmas at home. The hollow creaking of the old house, the tense silences where, in other families, laughter might be found – Albus preferred to enjoy his giftless holidays in the company of his truest friend, the library, with all its years of wisdom. But this year had been different. The owl that settled down before him in the Great Hall of Hogwarts was the one his mother kept for her correspondences, and that scattered, loopy handwriting was unmistakably Ariana’s hand.
Brother, it read, Visit soon. Love, Sister
And he couldn’t ignore that call.
Homecoming was bittersweet. Distant welcome from his mother and sullen silences from his brother were outweighed by the sheer happiness on that innocent, youthful face.
Albus remembers how lovely she looked that Christmas Eve. She was sitting at the window, legs tucked up under her, golden hair flowing loosely around her shoulders, bright blue eyes fixed on some far-away point out in the night sky. “It’s very late, Ariana,” he said gently from the doorway. “What are you looking at?”
“Father Christmas will come,” Ariana replied dreamily, “if I could only stay awake.” For the first time in so long, the little girl whose childhood was stolen by an uncontrollable magic was shining through the cracks in the warped tunnel of her mind.
“He’ll come faster when you’re asleep,” recites Professor Dumbledore with the shadowy image in the mirror. It seems so real to him now, he can almost touch it. On this, the longest night of his year, he cannot tear himself away from Erised despite his warning to the students who have stumbled across its hiding place. It is only here that his sister seems like real flesh and blood once again.
Distantly, Albus wonders if Ariana ever did find Father Christmas.
He wonders if, someday, he’ll find Father Christmas, too.
Edit: Awarded 5 Points by jesi, on 3/1/12.