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The summer was lovely in that year. But Albus was not enjoying it, as he should have. Instead, he was inside with his sister and he was a little bitter. You see, he had just graduated and was about to embark on a great journey around the world with his young friend Elphias when the tragedy occurred. He had explained it to Doge that he had a household calamity come up that he could not excuse. What shoddy timing, in his opinion. Prime of his life and he was at home, babysitting. The circumstances were special though. That much was true and that much he understood. His brother was still at Hogwarts, and he couldn't ask him to leave behind his education just so he could go on a trip. His father was also unavailable and his mother was dead. That was why he was here.

Now, he was at home, taking care of his sister. She was very relatively calm at the time. It was about sunset, so she was getting excited. She smiled up at Albus and asked in a small whisper of a voice, "Brother, is it time? May I go outside?"

"Not yet. It is not dark enough."

She was very patient and good, so Albus allowed her to do most of what she wanted to do in a timely fashion. In the meantime, he lazed around on a plush chair, looking at the newspaper for anything interesting. Anything at all. Nothing absolutely riveted him, he was too depressed to like anything anymore. He loved his mother and now she was gone. It seemed like everyone was leaving him nowadays. Even Doge.

He sighed and looked out the cottage window once more. It was summer, so the sun would set a lot slower.
"Brother, when will mother come back?"

"Ariana, I have told you. Mother will not be coming back anytime soon."

"Why? Does she not love us anymore Brother?"

She frowned slightly, her head curiously tilted to one side as she patiently waited for Albus' answer. For her age, her naivety and innocence astonished him. Death should not be such a foreign concept to a fourteen-year-old, but Ariana had far from a normal childhood and education. Albus pinched the bridge of his nose as he thought about a way to explain this without causing an accident.

"Mother has gone on a trip, Ariana, one that she will not come back from, alright," He bit back the snark in his tone. "But she loves us very much. Now please, enough questions for the night."

She nodded, seemingly disheartened now, and went to sit in another chair with a toy. It was a patchy, sewn cloth doll that she had had since birth. It was quite ugly by now, with torn bits on it, some stuffing missing from some parts of it and an entire button eye gone. She hugged it close to her chest and Albus scoffed at her silently, as an older brother does. 

It had been one summer since their mother had died and Ariana still asked almost weekly about where she was. It was an accident, so the brothers kept it from her as best they could. Not that they enjoyed lying to her, but they did not want to cause her anguish more than she already had. Aberforth was completing his schooling and was not home much either, so she asked about him too. She asked where he was, what he was doing, if he liked it there, when he would visit; it almost drove Albus mad.

Eventually, after another agonizing few hours, the sun went down and everyone in Godric's Hollow was falling asleep supposedly. Albus took up his wand and held Ariana's hand as he took her outside. He lit it up with a quick Lumos and began a long night's walk. There was a little spot of grass by the cemetery that was used by children for playing outside. Albus let her do as she pleased there in the grass by herself for a while, however long she wanted before she said she would like to go back and play on the swing in the backyard. He walked with her back, hand in hand, until they had arrived.

"Brother, Brother! Please, push me!" She asked excitedly as she sat herself down in the simple wooden trees swing. These were one of the few times a day that she seemed happy, so Albus could never say no, though he could also not say no because she might lose her temper with him. He put his wand between his teeth and began gently pushing her at a steady pace, much to her enjoyment. She giggled happily, her dress and hair billowing in the night, back and forth with the momentum of her swings.

Albus sighed. He could not help but love her, she was oh so sweet. It made his hard heart almost, almost melt when she gazed back at him with pure joy on her face as she grinned in the light of his wand. 

Unbeknownst to the siblings, someone across the way had seen them in the field. He was up reading in his room by the light of his own wand when he noticed these night stalkers out and about. It made him curious. A mischievous smile danced on this boy's lips and he resolved to go and socialize the next time he had the pleasure of seeing them.






(Credit to @Rumination_Runaway for helping me get this in production)

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