(no subject)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Ariana Dumbledore/Aberforth Dumbledore
Theme Set: Epsilon
Rating: G-R
Disclaimer: It all belongs to JKR.
Warning[s]: Incest (and mild slash in background). Also, a bit of weirdness in the present day...
01 - Motion
Sometimes, he thinks he sees a flash of blonde hair out of the corner of his eye, but when he turns to look, it's gone.
02 - Cool
She's feverish again, and Albus is gone off with Grindelwald, and so Aberforth sits next to her, wiping the sweat from her forehead, waving his wand where she can't see it, and trying to keep her cool.
03 - Young
Ariana's wailing again, Albus is desperately trying to ignore the noise, Mother looks as if she, too, is ready to break down and cry any moment, Father's face grows more and more haggard by the day, and a seven-year-old Aberforth thinks that they were all young, a long time ago.
04 - Last
He's the last of them living, he thinks when he hears of Grindelwald's death; for a moment, he misses even Albus, but especially her.
05 - Wrong
Abby stares at her when she draws away from him, and she wonders what she's done wrong; after all, Alby and Gelly kiss like that all the time, don't they?
06 - Gentle
He's rude to almost all, rough in almost everything he does, and brutal in a fistfight, but Ariana never sees any of that; to her, he's the gentlest, kindest person in the whole wide world.
07 - One
When it comes to the number between three and five, there are always three, and an odd one out, the freak, the one who - three of them are going on this trip, one Alby insists must stay behind, and Ariana fears for Abby.
08 - Thousand
Ariana clings to Aberforth, and he holds her and strokes her hair, assuring her that no, he'll never abandon her, he'll always be with her, they'll stay together for a thousand years.
09 - King
Gelly is proclaiming again that, when he and Alby take over the world, they'll live like kings; "Queens, more like," Abby mutters under his breath, and Ariana giggles, although she doesn't understand the joke.
10 - Learn
Gellert learns quickly not to insult the family idiot in front of said idiot's loving, ill-tempered, violent sibling; he attributes the affection to Ariana's insanity.
11 - Blur
The world's a blur around her, and she can't tell memories from the present or hallucinations from what's real, but she still, distantly, can feel her fingers digging into Abby's arm, so it'll turn out all right in the end, won't it?
12 - Wait
Sometimes, he doesn't feel like he's living, any more, so much as waiting to see her again.
13 - Change
Something's changed between them, this summer; he'd like to pretend he isn't sure what, but he understands far too well.
14 - Command
Albus can't get her to do anything she doesn't want to, no matter how firmly or gently he commands her to do so, what rewards he promises her or things he threatens to take away; Aberforth, Ariana obeys without question, and in this one thing, Albus envies his brother.
15 - Hold
When she needs comfort, he holds her; when she needs to be restrained, he holds her; when she is beyond all mortal needs, he holds her and weeps.
16 - Need
She needs to be taken care of, she needs stability, she needs not to be hauled off for some idiotic world tour, he shouts - she needs me, he struggles not to say - and some small, selfish part of him adds and I need her.
17 - Vision
Ariana tries to persuade Abby of how grand Alby and Gelly's vision for the world is; he always stares off to the side and looks resentful, though, and when he asks "And where are we in this grand plan?", she can never answer.
18 - Attention
Even as Albus doesn't pay enough attention to his sister, Aberforth finds himself paying too much attention to her: how the light glints off her hair, how her laughter sounds, how she flushes when he kisses her goodnight.
19 - Soul
"Ariana?" Aberforth whispers, but the odd girl, staring up at him with large, silvery-blue eyes, says no, she's afraid she doesn't go by that name; as he turns away, he faintly hears an almost wistful "...any more."
20 - Picture
Portraits are the opposite of the mad, Aberforth's father said once to him, because the people portrayed are entirely gone, though they seem just the same; nevertheless, Aberforth takes comfort in Ariana's portrait, empty shell that it is.
21 - Fool
Gelly's a fool, Ariana thinks in one of her ill moods, preferring Alby and dismissing Abby.
22 - Mad
Ariana's been laughing, weeping, and screaming downstairs for Merlin knows how long when Aberforth gets home, and when, after he's calmed her down, he goes upstairs to see what the hell Albus was doing, he finds Mr. Brilliant, utterly oblivious to his sister's cries, cozying up to Grindelwald over a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and mouldering history books; sometimes, Aberforth wonders who the really mad one in the family is.
23 - Child
Aberforth wished often that Ariana would, someday, no longer be a child in mind; when she climbs into his lap, throws her arms around him, and vigorously kisses him on the lips, he swears to be careful what he wishes for.
24 - Now
Whoever she is now - Lovegood - is calm and happy, healthy, grown to adulthood, graduated from Hogwarts, possessed of faithful friends, everything he could ever have wished for her; even so, when she stands and pats his gnarled old hands goodbye, turning to go and be with others, wander out into her bright and exciting world, and enjoy sheer living as only the young can, he wishes for more.
25 - Shadow
Back when all was well, she was a quiet little girl who followed her older brothers around like a shadow; the young Aberforth thought she liked being his shadow more, though.
26 - Goodbye
When he first went off to Hogwarts, Ariana panicked and tackled him and wouldn't let him leave the house; only after he and their mother managed to make her understand that he was leaving for Hogwarts, like Albus, and not Azkaban, did she release him and say goodbye.
27 - Hide
The family managed to hide Ariana from the neighbors for years, Aberforth thinks as he holds Ariana against him and kisses her neck; he can hide this from Albus.
28 - Fortune
He was just fine with his worthless, arrogant ponce of a brother leaving with his best friend Grindelwald to seek their fortunes, until Albus informed him that it was back to Hogwarts with him, and they were taking Ariana.
29 - Safe
She thinks of Gelly and his wild laughter and his vicious temper and the way the light sometimes glints strangely off his eyes, and she hugs Abby tightly and sobs with terror, but when Abby tries to soothe her and tells her she's safe with him, he doesn't understand; Gelly's fond of her, and it's not her safety she has to fear for.
30 - Ghost
Albus, melodramatic idiot that he is, wanders around the house like a ghost for weeks after Ariana's death, Doge coming over daily like an incompetent but persistent exorcist to comfort him; Aberforth thinks sullenly that it would be better if he was a ghost, because if he were dead, perhaps Ariana would still be alive.
31 - Book
Ariana's attempt to read Aberforth bedtime stories from The Tales of Beedle The Bard ends up centering around the unholy crossing of The Fountain of Fair Fortune and The Tale of the Three Brothers, wherein the oldest brother drowned in the stream and subsequently eloped with Death, and the second-oldest brother, after realizing his dead love had been cruel and faithless, lived happily ever after with the youngest brother; when Gellert Grindelwald passes by and remarks that she lacks any subtlety whatsoever and, furthermore, noon is a tad too early to be reading bedtime stories, she promptly adds as an epilogue that the Hopping Pot had harassed Death until Death had learned not to be such a spoilsport.
32 - Eye
If Albus would just keep an eye on them, Aberforth tells himself as Ariana fumbles with his shirt buttons, none of this would be happening.
33 - Never
He'd never hurt Ariana, Aberforth thinks over and over again after her death, never; but he'll never be sure.
34 - Sing
Ariana's always delighted when Aberforth asks her to sing, and he praises her lovely voice whenever she does so; that she's utterly tone-deaf is something only a prat like Albus would mention.
35 - Sudden
Once, when Albus paused to wonder what Aberforth and Ariana did when he was with Gellert at Miss Baghot's, an image of his siblings performing unspeakable acts suddenly flashed through his mind; shaken, he threw it into the dark, quiet corner of his mind where he kept all the things he glimpsed but refused to acknowledge, and locked a mental door behind it.
36 - Stop
Someone should stop them, Aberforth thinks, even as Ariana begs him not to stop, oh please don't stop; someone really should, but he can't do it.
37 - Time
Abby and Alby are off to Hogwarts again, and Ariana, at home with Mum, is already trying to figure out the exact amount of time 'til the holidays.
38 - Wash
At times, Ariana tears her skin open with her teeth and scrubs at the wound, mumbling that she'll wash all the freakishness away, see if she doesn't; Aberforth cleans and bandages the wound over her shrieking protests and washes the blood away, wishing he could do the same to her mind and madness.
39 - Torn
She wants to go along with Alby and Gelly and be part of this great new world, she does, but she can't leave Abby...
40 - History
Ariana and Aberforth have a history of unusual closeness, Albus tells himself, there is nothing out of the ordinary at all.
41 - Power
When she cries in agony and gibbers as the magic turns inward, Aberforth holds her hand and lies, telling her that it will be all right, that Abby's here, Abby'll make it better, feeling the power crackle and surge beneath her skin all the while.
42 - Bother
Alby can't be bothered with them, most of the time; well, good, more time with Abby.
43 - God
Abby buries his head in a pillow, muttering something about going to Hell; Ariana toys with his hair and says, "We were going to Hell anyway, since God hates freaks," and doesn't understand why that doesn't reassure him.
44 - Wall
There's a solid wall between all Albus's perception and intellect and anything he refuses to comprehend, Gellert has noticed.
45 - Naked
At this point, Aberforth's remaining sanity and decency persists in reminding him, he can still turn back, despite them both being naked as the days they were born - from the same parents, it reminds him; Ariana, lacking much sanity and having forgotten where she put decency at the moment, cheerfully does her best to drag him past the point of no return.
46 - Drive
"Your brother has the drive to do precisely two things in his life: raise goats and sire bastards on-" Gellert checks himself before he can finish the sentence, letting Albus protest that lechery is not amongst Aberforth's sins and that he's never seen Aberforth so much as leer at the village girls; after all, it is possible Aberforth has enough brains to prevent the conception of inbred little goat-lovers, what with the cunning of beasts and all.
47 - Harm
It doesn't do any harm, Aberforth insists to himself, trying to justify what goes on between him and Ariana; it doesn't do any harm, it makes her happy, and how could that be wrong?
48 - Precious
When he's five, Aberforth decides his little sister is more precious to him than the goats, and that's saying a lot.
49 - Hunger
"No, look, the goat food isn't good human food - no, you're not a goat, you're a girl - I can bleat too, doesn't mean I'm a goat - no, I can't prove I'm not a goat - Ariana, my cooking can't be that awful, can it?"
50 - Believe
His father once believed that, so long as they kept to themselves and didn't stir up any trouble, no one would ever hurt them; his mother once believed that Ariana might recover; he once believed that the good were rewarded and the bad punished; Ariana believes that Abby can make things better and Albus believes the great Dumbledore and Grindelwald can change the world, and Aberforth, having seen too many beliefs shattered and strewn across the ground, knows he can't do anything to make them see reason; everyone learns the hard way about these things.
Pairing: Ariana Dumbledore/Aberforth Dumbledore
Theme Set: Epsilon
Rating: G-R
Disclaimer: It all belongs to JKR.
Warning[s]: Incest (and mild slash in background). Also, a bit of weirdness in the present day...
01 - Motion
Sometimes, he thinks he sees a flash of blonde hair out of the corner of his eye, but when he turns to look, it's gone.
02 - Cool
She's feverish again, and Albus is gone off with Grindelwald, and so Aberforth sits next to her, wiping the sweat from her forehead, waving his wand where she can't see it, and trying to keep her cool.
03 - Young
Ariana's wailing again, Albus is desperately trying to ignore the noise, Mother looks as if she, too, is ready to break down and cry any moment, Father's face grows more and more haggard by the day, and a seven-year-old Aberforth thinks that they were all young, a long time ago.
04 - Last
He's the last of them living, he thinks when he hears of Grindelwald's death; for a moment, he misses even Albus, but especially her.
05 - Wrong
Abby stares at her when she draws away from him, and she wonders what she's done wrong; after all, Alby and Gelly kiss like that all the time, don't they?
06 - Gentle
He's rude to almost all, rough in almost everything he does, and brutal in a fistfight, but Ariana never sees any of that; to her, he's the gentlest, kindest person in the whole wide world.
07 - One
When it comes to the number between three and five, there are always three, and an odd one out, the freak, the one who - three of them are going on this trip, one Alby insists must stay behind, and Ariana fears for Abby.
08 - Thousand
Ariana clings to Aberforth, and he holds her and strokes her hair, assuring her that no, he'll never abandon her, he'll always be with her, they'll stay together for a thousand years.
09 - King
Gelly is proclaiming again that, when he and Alby take over the world, they'll live like kings; "Queens, more like," Abby mutters under his breath, and Ariana giggles, although she doesn't understand the joke.
10 - Learn
Gellert learns quickly not to insult the family idiot in front of said idiot's loving, ill-tempered, violent sibling; he attributes the affection to Ariana's insanity.
11 - Blur
The world's a blur around her, and she can't tell memories from the present or hallucinations from what's real, but she still, distantly, can feel her fingers digging into Abby's arm, so it'll turn out all right in the end, won't it?
12 - Wait
Sometimes, he doesn't feel like he's living, any more, so much as waiting to see her again.
13 - Change
Something's changed between them, this summer; he'd like to pretend he isn't sure what, but he understands far too well.
14 - Command
Albus can't get her to do anything she doesn't want to, no matter how firmly or gently he commands her to do so, what rewards he promises her or things he threatens to take away; Aberforth, Ariana obeys without question, and in this one thing, Albus envies his brother.
15 - Hold
When she needs comfort, he holds her; when she needs to be restrained, he holds her; when she is beyond all mortal needs, he holds her and weeps.
16 - Need
She needs to be taken care of, she needs stability, she needs not to be hauled off for some idiotic world tour, he shouts - she needs me, he struggles not to say - and some small, selfish part of him adds and I need her.
17 - Vision
Ariana tries to persuade Abby of how grand Alby and Gelly's vision for the world is; he always stares off to the side and looks resentful, though, and when he asks "And where are we in this grand plan?", she can never answer.
18 - Attention
Even as Albus doesn't pay enough attention to his sister, Aberforth finds himself paying too much attention to her: how the light glints off her hair, how her laughter sounds, how she flushes when he kisses her goodnight.
19 - Soul
"Ariana?" Aberforth whispers, but the odd girl, staring up at him with large, silvery-blue eyes, says no, she's afraid she doesn't go by that name; as he turns away, he faintly hears an almost wistful "...any more."
20 - Picture
Portraits are the opposite of the mad, Aberforth's father said once to him, because the people portrayed are entirely gone, though they seem just the same; nevertheless, Aberforth takes comfort in Ariana's portrait, empty shell that it is.
21 - Fool
Gelly's a fool, Ariana thinks in one of her ill moods, preferring Alby and dismissing Abby.
22 - Mad
Ariana's been laughing, weeping, and screaming downstairs for Merlin knows how long when Aberforth gets home, and when, after he's calmed her down, he goes upstairs to see what the hell Albus was doing, he finds Mr. Brilliant, utterly oblivious to his sister's cries, cozying up to Grindelwald over a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and mouldering history books; sometimes, Aberforth wonders who the really mad one in the family is.
23 - Child
Aberforth wished often that Ariana would, someday, no longer be a child in mind; when she climbs into his lap, throws her arms around him, and vigorously kisses him on the lips, he swears to be careful what he wishes for.
24 - Now
Whoever she is now - Lovegood - is calm and happy, healthy, grown to adulthood, graduated from Hogwarts, possessed of faithful friends, everything he could ever have wished for her; even so, when she stands and pats his gnarled old hands goodbye, turning to go and be with others, wander out into her bright and exciting world, and enjoy sheer living as only the young can, he wishes for more.
25 - Shadow
Back when all was well, she was a quiet little girl who followed her older brothers around like a shadow; the young Aberforth thought she liked being his shadow more, though.
26 - Goodbye
When he first went off to Hogwarts, Ariana panicked and tackled him and wouldn't let him leave the house; only after he and their mother managed to make her understand that he was leaving for Hogwarts, like Albus, and not Azkaban, did she release him and say goodbye.
27 - Hide
The family managed to hide Ariana from the neighbors for years, Aberforth thinks as he holds Ariana against him and kisses her neck; he can hide this from Albus.
28 - Fortune
He was just fine with his worthless, arrogant ponce of a brother leaving with his best friend Grindelwald to seek their fortunes, until Albus informed him that it was back to Hogwarts with him, and they were taking Ariana.
29 - Safe
She thinks of Gelly and his wild laughter and his vicious temper and the way the light sometimes glints strangely off his eyes, and she hugs Abby tightly and sobs with terror, but when Abby tries to soothe her and tells her she's safe with him, he doesn't understand; Gelly's fond of her, and it's not her safety she has to fear for.
30 - Ghost
Albus, melodramatic idiot that he is, wanders around the house like a ghost for weeks after Ariana's death, Doge coming over daily like an incompetent but persistent exorcist to comfort him; Aberforth thinks sullenly that it would be better if he was a ghost, because if he were dead, perhaps Ariana would still be alive.
31 - Book
Ariana's attempt to read Aberforth bedtime stories from The Tales of Beedle The Bard ends up centering around the unholy crossing of The Fountain of Fair Fortune and The Tale of the Three Brothers, wherein the oldest brother drowned in the stream and subsequently eloped with Death, and the second-oldest brother, after realizing his dead love had been cruel and faithless, lived happily ever after with the youngest brother; when Gellert Grindelwald passes by and remarks that she lacks any subtlety whatsoever and, furthermore, noon is a tad too early to be reading bedtime stories, she promptly adds as an epilogue that the Hopping Pot had harassed Death until Death had learned not to be such a spoilsport.
32 - Eye
If Albus would just keep an eye on them, Aberforth tells himself as Ariana fumbles with his shirt buttons, none of this would be happening.
33 - Never
He'd never hurt Ariana, Aberforth thinks over and over again after her death, never; but he'll never be sure.
34 - Sing
Ariana's always delighted when Aberforth asks her to sing, and he praises her lovely voice whenever she does so; that she's utterly tone-deaf is something only a prat like Albus would mention.
35 - Sudden
Once, when Albus paused to wonder what Aberforth and Ariana did when he was with Gellert at Miss Baghot's, an image of his siblings performing unspeakable acts suddenly flashed through his mind; shaken, he threw it into the dark, quiet corner of his mind where he kept all the things he glimpsed but refused to acknowledge, and locked a mental door behind it.
36 - Stop
Someone should stop them, Aberforth thinks, even as Ariana begs him not to stop, oh please don't stop; someone really should, but he can't do it.
37 - Time
Abby and Alby are off to Hogwarts again, and Ariana, at home with Mum, is already trying to figure out the exact amount of time 'til the holidays.
38 - Wash
At times, Ariana tears her skin open with her teeth and scrubs at the wound, mumbling that she'll wash all the freakishness away, see if she doesn't; Aberforth cleans and bandages the wound over her shrieking protests and washes the blood away, wishing he could do the same to her mind and madness.
39 - Torn
She wants to go along with Alby and Gelly and be part of this great new world, she does, but she can't leave Abby...
40 - History
Ariana and Aberforth have a history of unusual closeness, Albus tells himself, there is nothing out of the ordinary at all.
41 - Power
When she cries in agony and gibbers as the magic turns inward, Aberforth holds her hand and lies, telling her that it will be all right, that Abby's here, Abby'll make it better, feeling the power crackle and surge beneath her skin all the while.
42 - Bother
Alby can't be bothered with them, most of the time; well, good, more time with Abby.
43 - God
Abby buries his head in a pillow, muttering something about going to Hell; Ariana toys with his hair and says, "We were going to Hell anyway, since God hates freaks," and doesn't understand why that doesn't reassure him.
44 - Wall
There's a solid wall between all Albus's perception and intellect and anything he refuses to comprehend, Gellert has noticed.
45 - Naked
At this point, Aberforth's remaining sanity and decency persists in reminding him, he can still turn back, despite them both being naked as the days they were born - from the same parents, it reminds him; Ariana, lacking much sanity and having forgotten where she put decency at the moment, cheerfully does her best to drag him past the point of no return.
46 - Drive
"Your brother has the drive to do precisely two things in his life: raise goats and sire bastards on-" Gellert checks himself before he can finish the sentence, letting Albus protest that lechery is not amongst Aberforth's sins and that he's never seen Aberforth so much as leer at the village girls; after all, it is possible Aberforth has enough brains to prevent the conception of inbred little goat-lovers, what with the cunning of beasts and all.
47 - Harm
It doesn't do any harm, Aberforth insists to himself, trying to justify what goes on between him and Ariana; it doesn't do any harm, it makes her happy, and how could that be wrong?
48 - Precious
When he's five, Aberforth decides his little sister is more precious to him than the goats, and that's saying a lot.
49 - Hunger
"No, look, the goat food isn't good human food - no, you're not a goat, you're a girl - I can bleat too, doesn't mean I'm a goat - no, I can't prove I'm not a goat - Ariana, my cooking can't be that awful, can it?"
50 - Believe
His father once believed that, so long as they kept to themselves and didn't stir up any trouble, no one would ever hurt them; his mother once believed that Ariana might recover; he once believed that the good were rewarded and the bad punished; Ariana believes that Abby can make things better and Albus believes the great Dumbledore and Grindelwald can change the world, and Aberforth, having seen too many beliefs shattered and strewn across the ground, knows he can't do anything to make them see reason; everyone learns the hard way about these things.