[Fic] Writings on the wall / Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Crack in the Mirror
Be careful what you wish for,
'Cause you just might get it all
*
The one thing that Gellert despised more than anything was the fact that people tended to interfere at the wrong time; in fact, any sort of interference drove him mad, as he didn’t respect the opinion of minor persons anyway. If he was disturbed by someone like Aberforth, of all people he regarded as insignificant - dangerous even, considering his possible influence on Albus -, he was beside himself with rage.
Albus calmly returned his brother’s furious gaze, even though one could say he felt uncomfortable, being confronted in this vein. “Please don’t shout like that,” he replied, “Ariana might wake up from your -“
Broad laughter, full of derision, cut him off immediately, though. “Come on, don’t pretend to care about her,” Aberforth finally said, still with a wild gleam in his eyes, conspicuously different compared to his brother’s eyes’ glow. “There are more important things than that, right?”
“Whatever may have caused your lack of manners,” Gellert barged in, simulating he hadn’t noticed his friend’s warning glance, “we would be very delighted if you preferred not to share them with us.” For a long moment, Aberforth was staring at him wordlessly, grimacing with disgust as if he was about to spit on him. Still, both of them remained motionless. Then Aberforth turned away from him, once again to face his brother.
“We have to talk, right now,” he repeated, apparently forcing himself to sound composed, and added, “alone.”
Slowly, Albus nodded in return; but Gellert, who sensed what the upcoming conversation would be dealing with - they both sensed it -, refused to leave the chamber. That burning inside his chest that could be controlled so easily since he had found his counterpart now drew attention to itself again, imperatively, almost hurting.
“Just tell us what you want to talk about so urgently,” he said aggressively, “and do us a favour and hurry up.”
“Gellert, please,” Albus answered instead, resting his hand on his friend’s shoulder. Although Albus was usually excellent at concealing his feelings, the blond wizard could tell, just from his look, that he was strained. “It won’t take long.”
Nevertheless Gellert kept smiling viciously right next to him, shrugging his hand off. “Let me join your talk, I’m curious.”
“It’s not -“
“Fine,” Aberforth surprisingly interrupted his brother. “It’s about the two of you anyway.” Even though he was standing in front of two the probably most skilled wizards at that time, he seemed to be unflinching; Gellert smirked at that thought.
Albus, on the other hand, endeavoured to maintain a polite tone. He always acted politely towards his brother, Gellert noticed, never conversantly. “What is it what you want to talk about?”
“Oh, I’d just like to know what you’re going to do in the near future, dear brother,” was the scoffing answer, and the irony could not be missed. Hardly ever had he seen his brother that angry, Gellert figured, judging from Albus’ facial expression. Again, he could feel the blood running through his veins, as if -
“Why do you - “
“Surprised that your dumb little brother can put one and one together, huh?” He laughed, even though his eyes were filled with anything but amusement. “Reckoned you could walk off with him like that?”
Albus breathed deeply, taking a step forward, leaving Gellert behind. Don’t, he thought, don’t feel guilty.
“It’s not like that, we just planned - “
Once again, he was interrupted abrasively. “That owl arrived a minute ago, by some damn wizard,” Aberforth continued, “with a letter addressed at you, saying how disappointed he is that you’ve postponed your meeting,” and with a twitch of his head he pointed at Gellert, refusing to face him directly, “to travel with him.”
“How dare you open his letters?,” Gellert immediately growled, equally irate. His hand clutched his wand inside his jacket, invisible to the other two; his body slightly trembled and he knew he was about to lose control.
“Well, if you prefer hiding for weeks to work on whatever-it-is, I dare open his letters, yes,” Aberforth replied. The angrier they got, the smaller the room seemed to be. Only Albus oddly looked like he didn’t fit, despite being in his own bedroom. The bright blue eyes that had aspired to appease his brother a few moments ago now avoided looking at either of them. No, Gellert thought.
“Tell me, Albus,” the younger wizard’s voice sounded dangerously calm all of a sudden. “Now that I’m getting back to Hogwarts next week, what are you going to do with Ariana? Drag her along? Hope that she’ll stay quiet, like at home?”
“No,” Albus answered, his voice even lower than his brother’s’, “I have thought about it and I took into consideration - an option would be the St. Mungo’s Hospital for -“
An enraged cry was escaping deep from Aberforth’s throat, drowning his brother’s words out instantly. At the same time a red lightning seemingly appeared out of nowhere, crashing into a wall consisting of light, much brighter than the previous spell; both Albus, looking supremely horrified, and Aberforth were stepping back while Gellert stood still. The hand holding his wand was still lifted in midair. For a long moment, the three boys stared at each other in silence.
Then, Albus put his hand onto his friend’s wand, forcing him to drop it.
“The sooner we leave, the better,” Gellert said, whispered almost, ”that scum of brother that dares to attack you is not worth listening to.”
Before Albus was able to reply, they all turned towards the door, due to the squeaking noise; there she stood, wearing blue pyjamas that covered her from her ankles to her neck, looking scared and confused as her eyes were searching for Aberforth. Ariana Dumbledore resembled her oldest brother only slightly, considering the barely noticeable similarities between the curves of their nose, their lips. At that moment, said lips were shaking whereas simultaneously, Aberforth’s expression softened.
“Get back to bed, Ariana, please,” he said whilst he turned towards his brother again, apparently reinforced in his determination, “I won’t let you lock her up. I won’t let you.”
“Try and stop him,” Gellert scoffed and started grinning when Aberforth raised his wand again; he was no match for him, that ignorant child whose charm Gellert could stave off so easily.
“I will -“
Instead of facing Aberforth, he observed Albus from the corner of his eye, his friend who was hardly maintaining his usual aura of self-confidence and placidity, obviously struggling with his conscience; and Gellert realized, if he didn’t act soon, if he didn’t convince him, Albus might -
“- you don’t give a damn about your family, don’t you, Albus, it’s all about you and him and your magnificence - “
Much to his irritation, Albus was shaking his head at those words. Something inside Gellert burst, screamed, and he thought, don’t, don’t, don’t feel guilty.
“Crucio!”
Don’t change your mind.
Aberforth’s screams were mingling with a piercing shriek, coming from Ariana; everything got blurry, even the hands on his shoulders didn’t feel real, just like the pain of the fingernails scratching his skin, as though there was a barrier between him and everything else.
That familiar voice shouted at him, “Stop it! Stop it!”, and automatically, he attacked the person beside him as well. Needless to say, Albus not only defended himself from the charm but seized the chance, becoming offensive himself. Moreover there was the other boy on Gellert’s left who obviously had been recovering rather quickly and now fought back with a vengeance, still screaming. By now the three of them were duelling each other.
Gellert forgot who he was fighting and for what reason; he didn’t need to know, either, on account of his inner anger and anxiety that led him and his wand perfectly. Neither he nor Albus was hurt so far, only Aberforth seemed to suffer from the previous execution of torture, and still he struggled with them - him - unexpectedly toughly.
There was another lightning, a mixture of green and red light of which Gellert couldn’t identify his own curse. Thanks to his expeditious reaction, he was able to avoid being struck. Slowly, the heat inside him was cooling down, and he vaguely conceived that they had to stop, now.
Yet spells kept being cast, his wand protected him on his own, still attacking although he truly wanted to end it, even if for the only reason that he wanted to persuade Albus unhurriedly, however not in the presence of his brother and his sister.
Then it happened.
At first he did not realize it, virtually refusing to grasp it; there was this noise when a curse happened to hit somebody, that curbed and briefly-resounding sort of noise that one could not be sure of whether it was carried by the curse or only in oneself. Silence was following, and no spell was performed anymore.
A body fell to the ground, slowly, as if toned down. Gellert watched it falling, with his hand raised and his eyes gaped in horror, and the only thing - a relieving thought, in fact - that was crossing his mind was, it’s not Albus, it’s not him...
It wasn’t him, but she was dead, dead, and now he was more than willing to allow his instincts to lead him, which resulted in running out of the room, escaping, disapparating far away.
And everything broke down.
*
You just might get it all,
And then some you don't want
Daughtry, “Home”
Next chapter: Not what you have promised
Thank you for reading!
As always, I would love to know what you think about it :) Criticism is very welcome, such as any other sort of feedback. I really want to improve, so please help me, especially as this fic is very precious to me, my very first multi-chaptered fic with the two characters I absolutely adore. Please leave a comment, it'll make me a very happy girl ♥
Thank you!