No one expected Ariana to suddenly walk in.
At this hour, Ariana should have been asleep.
Perhaps it was fate, or perhaps the new gift she had received that kept her from falling asleep.
Inside, a fierce duel was underway.
Al, the genius wizard of Hogwarts, and Gael, who had been expelled from Durmstrang for his experiments.
Though Aberforth seemed ordinary compared to his brother, he was still considered an upper-tier student at Hogwarts.
The three of them clashed in the room.
In the cramped space, spells flew everywhere.
Al, skilled in Transfiguration, defended himself while also trying to protect his brother.
With a wave of his wand, he made the puppets from the puppet box leap out, attempting to stop the two of them.
Aberforth, blinded by rage, found his spells growing stronger with each cast, which only provoked Gael further.
Gael deflected Aberforth's attack and immediately retaliated with a Blasting Curse, which Al blocked by controlling a puppet.
Ariana's favorite puppet shattered into pieces.
But Aberforth didn't even think about it, striking Al with an Impediment Jinx that left his nose bleeding.
Seeing Al injured, Gael stopped holding back.
Aberforth gradually began to lose ground. He waved his wand wildly, deflecting spells in all directions.
Gael cast a dark curse that knocked Aberforth to the ground.
Al was also trying to protect his brother, deflecting stray spells that came flying from unknown directions.
It was impossible to tell whose spell was flying where.
Ariana gathered her courage and walked toward her brother.
She wanted to do what she had done earlier that day—take hold of her brother's wand.
Perhaps that would stop the argument between them.
At that moment, the absurd duel reached its climax.
Having lost patience, Gael cast a powerful spell. Aberforth refused to back down and retaliated, forcing Al to join the clash as well.
Boom!
Three brilliant beams of light collided, the resulting arcs triggering an explosion.
Ariana happened to step into the blast's range.
The teddy bear slipped from her hands as the girl's body fell.
The white flower wreath scattered and withered, pure white blossoms falling onto the battered floor. One petal clung to the girl's hair.
Time seemed to freeze.
Three pairs of eyes in the room all turned toward the girl caught in the battle.
"Ariana!"
Aberforth roared in madness.
He threw down his wand and ran toward his sister.
Too late. Everything was too late.
Ariana looked at her brother and reached toward the white flower resting on Aberforth's shoulder.
It was the flower she... She had treasured it in her palms.
"Brother."
Ariana, who had always remained silent, showed a smile.
She seemed normal now.
"Thank you for taking care of me."
In the face of death, that smile was like a fragile flower bud.
That white flower, in the end, never had the chance to bloom.
Aberforth was overwhelmed with grief, calling Ariana's name.
Again and again, without receiving any response.
Al stood there in a daze, his body feeling as heavy as if it had been filled with lead.
Slowly, mechanically, he turned his head toward Gael.
Gael too had stopped, stunned by the suddenness of the accident.
He immediately looked at Al and said urgently, "Come with me, Al!"
Al looked at him but did not move.
Gael understood.
He fled in panic.
Leaving the Dumbledore house.
Leaving Godric's Hollow.
Who was the killer?
No matter which of them it was, it meant Al would never leave with him.
He saw everything in Al's eyes.
The key to freedom had broken in the keyhole of the shackles. From this day forward, Al would be bound by it for the rest of his life.
Gael had to leave. Even if it meant deception, this would become an unsolvable mystery.
...
The night was very quiet.
Bathilda Bagshot sat in her creaking rocking chair.
"You're leaving, aren't you?"
John, who was walking downstairs, heard Bathilda's voice.
He turned to look. A blurred silhouette was watching him.
"Yes, ma'am," John said respectfully to the elderly woman. "I think it's time for me to go. Hogwarts will be starting soon."
"There's still another month," Bathilda muttered.
John smiled and stepped closer so he could clearly see the old woman's face and remember it.
"These have been a very interesting two months," John bent down and gently tucked the silver strands stuck to her face behind her ear, whispering beside the old woman's ear. "I think we'll meet again in the future, but first you need to forget me."
"Hmm? What do you—"
"Thankyou for everything. Obliviate."
Just as Bathilda was wondering why John would say such a thing, a flash of white light filled her vision.
Everything related to that blind white-haired boy vanished from her mind.
She slowly came back to her senses, looking at the empty space before her and murmuring to herself, "Strange?"
She rocked slightly in her chair, feeling as though something had disappeared from her mind.
This elderly woman, dull when it came to emotions, began to feel sleepy. She slowly closed her eyes, a blanket now draped over her.
...
John walked out of Bathilda's house and turned to take one last look at it.
The house was dim, without any light.
There was no reason for the old woman's candle to remain lit.
The child she had taken in had left.
"Magical fluctuations?"
John sensed waves of magic coming from the neighboring house. Someone was fighting?
The thing that could not be changed had happened.
A wave of sorrow spread through the air.
John stood outside the house, unable to come back to his senses for a long time.
Grindelwald had fled.
He had escaped from Godric's Hollow.
On this night, Al's dream shattered.
The girl named Ariana could not escape her fate.
The storm had begun when she was six and ended when she was fourteen.
That white flower had stopped at the moment before its beauty could bloom.
John let out a sigh and turned away from the place.
...
Ariana's funeral was held.
It was a quiet funeral, with few guests.
The girl's brothers stood before the gravestone erected beside their mother's grave.
Throughout the entire previous night, Aberforth had only said one thing to Albus.
"I hate you. Ariana does too."
Those words left a scar on Al's heart that could never heal.
It was he who had brought the wolf into the house, allowing this tragedy to happen.
John's words echoed in his mind.
Did the Invisibility Cloak bring freedom, or escape?
His hand trembled as he reached out, wanting to touch the tombstone, white as jade.
"Don't touch her!" Aberforth, like an enraged goat, threw a furious punch straight into Al's tall nose.
Blood dripped from his nose.
Aberforth clenched his fists, his eyes red as he stared fiercely at Albus.
Albus said nothing, silently wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand.
A drop of rain struck the tombstone.
Then the sky opened, and heavy rain began to fall.
The soil was soaked, small pits filling with rainwater.
A foot stepped into one of the puddles. Holding an umbrella, he stood quietly in the cemetery, watching the two brothers.
Through the hazy curtain of rain, the two figures were blurred.
Stepping through the rainwater, he walked up to the gravestone.
Al slowly raised his head. His white hair stood in stark contrast to the black umbrella.
"Your escape… has created your first regret."
John spoke, and the words stabbed into Al's heart like a sharp blade.
Yes. If he hadn't wanted to leave, none of this would have happened.
Yorl forced him to face his own heart.
Was it really for Ariana?
During his time with Gael, he had kept convincing himself.
That he was doing it for wizards, for his sister.
He had chosen the Invisibility Cloak so his sister could go outside.
But what was the truth?
Al didn't want to be bound. He wanted to become a bird soaring freely.
He wanted to go to Europe like his classmates, to travel the world and display his talents.
He wanted to change the world, like Gael.
All of it… was about himself.
From the corner of Al's eyes fell drops that could not be told apart—whether they were tears or rain.
John raised his head calmly, looking at the tombstone.
"You too! Stay away from her tombst—" Aberforth tried to stop him, but John kicked him away.
"Get lost, you useless bastard who couldn't even protect your own sister!"
John's kick sent Aberforth straight into the mud.
He pulled out his wand and tapped the tombstone.
Pure white flowers bloomed beneath it.
John lifted his eyelids slightly and turned to Al. "Take out your wand, Dumbledore."
His wand rose, pointing straight at the drenched Al.
He repeated, "Take out your wand, Albus Dumbledore."
Al looked up in disbelief, as if he couldn't understand why this was happening.
John answered with action, raising his wand.
With a swing of it, Al was struck as if by a galloping wild horse and was sent flying.
At last, he understood. John was teaching him a lesson.
With another wave of his wand, Aberforth's body was bound by the rusted iron fence.
"Defeat me, or he dies."
With his brother's life under threat, Al finally stopped drowning in despair.
He stood up, drew his wand, and fired a spell at John.
John flicked his wand casually, deflecting the spell so it struck the ground at Aberforth's feet.
"Use all your strength and show me why you think you can change the world!" John barked.
Al gritted his teeth and swung his wand at John.
But every time, John easily blocked the spell.
Al used Transfiguration, but John turned a stone into a large dog that swallowed Al's transfigured creation.
It was a complete domination. John held an umbrella in one hand while casually wielding his wand with the other.
He was like an upgraded version of Al, overwhelming him in every aspect.
Finally, John fired a streak of silver light that carved a deep, bone-revealing wound across Al's face.
Blood flowed down with the rain as John watched the battered Al with cold indifference.
"You can't change anything, Dumbledore."
Defeated, Al dropped to his knees. He stared at his own hands while his wand lay far away.
A sense of helplessness and defeat he had never felt before rose from deep within him.
"So I… am this insignificant."
"Right, I remember your nose is crooked."
Al lifted his head just as a fist grew larger in his vision.
This wasn't Aberforth's fist.
It was John's.
The punch sent Al flying backward, and his nose cracked with a sharp snap.
Broken.
____
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