Chapter 3

A few months ago, Mould-on-the-Wold

"Hey freak!" The words reached the ears of six-year-old Ariana before the boys did. She turned around and crouched behind a bush in fright when she saw three burly boys approaching menacingly towards her.

"Wh....What do you w..w...want?" Ariana stammered, unable to keep her voice steady. She missed her brothers immensely, especially now. She wished that they, especially Albus, were there to protect her.

"Well, we just want to see that little magic trick that you performed a couple of minutes back. The one with the leaf," one of the boys told her.

Ariana was flummoxed. She herself was astounded when the leaf that she had picked up from the ground fluttered around her in perfect circles when she tried to blow it away.

"I...I don't know h...how I d..d..did it," Ariana tried to explain but the boys refused to listen to her explanations.

"We don't care how you did it, freak. Show it to us or else....." The bigger boy looked at her, his eyes glowing with hatred.

Nervous, Ariana picked up a leaf and, closing her eyes and praying fervently, blew. The leaf fell on to the ground, limp.

"So, now, you have to face your punishment, freak. We are going to squash all that magic out of you." Saying so the three boys pounced on a helpless and screaming Ariana.

~*~

"Kendra, isn't that Ariana's voice? Why is she yelling?" Percival put down his newspaper and ran to the window. The sight of his daughter crying while the three boys continued with their unimaginable horror filled Percival with rage.

"Bring Ariana inside," Percival instructed his wife as he rushed down to the yard.

"Hey Muggles! Leave my daughter and face me instead!" Percival yelled, raising his wand. The three boys took one look at him and started to run away. Kendra wrapped her arms around a violently shaking Ariana and led her inside the house.

Percival, however, pursued the boys relentlessly till they reached a dead end. Finally cornered, the three boys tried to look out for an escape route when a flash of red hit one of them squarely on his chest. He fell to the ground, writhing in pain while the others looked on, horrified.

"That is for assaulting my girl," Percival said, firing the Cruciatus Curse on the other two boys as well. He kept torturing them till they could take it no more and begged him to stop. Only then did Percival grant them mercy.

~*~

Percival Dumbledore was arrested on that very evening. After a hushed and a hurried trial at the Ministry of Magic, he was carted off to Azkaban to be imprisoned for the rest of his life. From then onwards, neither his nor Ariana's life would be the same ever again.

Chapter 2

"Am I really a Squib?" Ariana asked me softly one afternoon. Before I could answer, Aberforth interrupted me.

"We don't know that as yet, Ari," he told. "And Squibs aren't bad. just misunderstood."

I kept my trap shut. Now wasn't the best time to tell my siblings that I had witnessed little bursts of magic originating from Ariana a few days back when Mother was yelling at her again. It wasn't much. Just that the spoon in Ariana's porridge bowl rattled a bit. But, it was magic, nonetheless. Which clearly meant that my sister wasn't a Squib.

"I don't think you are a Squib," I announced, unable to hold it any longer. "You do have some magic in you. Albeit uncontrolled."

"Oh, so the great Albus has spoken!," I did not miss the sarcasm in my brother's voice.

I didn't care as I continued with my reasoning. "Squibs are born, Aberforth," I explained, slightly exasperated at his lack of simple magical knowledge. "Witches and wizards just don't turn into Squibs overnight. It takes time to detect one though."

Thankfully, Aberforth didn't argue. He just put his arms around Ariana and tried to comfort her.

"You heard what Albus said," he told her, much to my amazement. Aberforth actually agreed with me! Now this was surprising.

"I think Albus is right, Ari," he told her, softly. "He knows more about this world than us."

I was poleaxed. Not knowing how to react to this sudden truce, I sat down on a chair and enveloped my two siblings in a bear hug. Thankfully and much to my surprise, neither of them pushed me away.

"We'll find a solution to this, Ariana," I promised fervently. "We will."

We hugged even more tightly and my mind went all those years back to that grisly incident which landed my father in Azkaban and left my sister in this state.

Chapter 1

"Stop it! Stop it, Mother!" Aberforth yelled as he rushed forward to protect Ariana from Mother's merciless blows. I stood there, rooted to the spot, not knowing what to do. I wanted to go and help my brother but....my legs didn't move.

"She's a Squib! A Squib! Can you believe it?" Mother yelled. Aberforth lunged forward and yanked Ariana away from Mother's deathly grasp and threw her to me. A weeping Ariana crashed into my arms.

I held her awkwardly, my mind still refusing to cooperate.

"Take her to our room, Albus!" he screamed, still trying to restrain Mother who was trying her level best to get to Ariana. I hurriedly took Ariana inside my room and consoled her the best I could. I don't know why but I'm not very good with emotional outbursts. And Mother and Ariana were prone to that pretty often. I wish I could get away from all of this soon. I wish that Gellert would come soon and take me away from all these.

I heard some loud, thumping sounds and rushed out to the hall to see Aberforth wrestling Mother away to her room. He pushed her in, roughly, and locked the door behind her and turned to face me.

"Where's Ariana, Albus?" he asked, looking around.

"In my room," I replied and we both went there to find that Ariana had finally stopped crying. I inwardly heaved a sigh of relief.

"Now now, little girl," I heard Aberforth consoling her. I went to my siblings and hugged them.

"Ariana, please stop crying," I told her gently. "We are always there to protect you."

Ariana sniffed while Aberforth looked at me condescendingly. I flinched at the sight of such unadulterated hatred in my own brother's eyes.

"You?" he sneered. "Will you always be there to help her? Protect her?"

"Of...of course," I stammered, suddenly scared. "I'm her oldest brother after all."

Aberforth laughed sarcastically. "Yeah right! A very good oldest brother!"

I said nothing.

"You just crave for power, Albus," Aberforth spat. "Your family does not matter to you. It never mattered.

I cannot deny that Aberforth's words shook me to the core. I do care for my family. I love them all, however they may be.

But, he was right as well. I did crave for power. Very much.