Chapter Text
Ariana woke with a start, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the bright light all around her. Sitting up she realized she was in the meadow behind the house that Albus and Gellert would bring her to on nicer days. But it wasn’t the meadow. It was too bright, too white to be the meadow. The grass, the flowers, everything around her was washed out by an overwhelming light in the distance.
Glancing down, she was surprised to see that unlike everything else around her, her skin was warmer than it had been for years. Her wrists were now full and her hands no longer looked like skin draped over a skeleton.
Climbing to her feet, she found she was wearing a white dress and no shoes, but the grass felt unnatural on her feet. She remembered a stream that had run along the edge of the field and she turned, watching it materialize in front of her.
She crossed over to it and knelt down. Curious as to what her face might look like now, she leaned out over the water and stared into its surface.
Instead she was met with the picture of the living room of their house in Godric’s Hollow. It rippled slightly as the water moved, but the image was still recognizable. In it, Albus and Aberforth were arguing, as they often did. Ariana watched Aberforth draw his wand, and Gellert step in front of Albus protectively, drawing his as well. With a flash, the three boys started to duel, overturning furniture and shattering objects all throughout the room.
Ariana watched as she crept down the stairs, unnoticed by the three. She had always been unnaturally quiet. It was as if her footsteps themself had been muffled her whole life. The fabric of her skirts never rustled as they brushed against things, and even the rickety old stairs never creaked under her weight.
She watched as the duel became more violent, more uncontrolled, and she saw Aberforth forgo his wand and punch Albus in the nose when the opportunity arose.
She saw three spells, each a different color, each unnoticed by the boys, aiming for her. The image seemed to slow as all of them froze less than a millimeter from her chest. It was as if they had hit a shield no one had cast, but the damage was done. She remembered her eyes rolling back into her head, and then everything whiting out.
Oh, she thought, I’m dead.
The prospect of her own death had never scared her. Mother and Father and Ms Bathilda’s, yes. Albus, Aberforth, and Gellert’s, more than anything. But never her own. When she had first realized the gravity of her condition she had been terrified. What seven-year-old wouldn’t be? But as she got older her own death had started to seem like something of a comfort. She saw the effect she had on everyone around her, she had been glad that someday she would be gone and everyone free. Albus and Gellert could travel the world together and start their own family somewhere far away from Godric’s Hollow. Aberforth could look for his child, and then settle down and open his pub, or raise goats. And she wouldn’t have to live in pain anymore. She had figured –or rather, hoped– pain wouldn’t follow you through death. Now, sitting beside the creek, she could see she had only been partially right.
Her body no longer ached with every breath of wind, her fingers creaking with every movement. She felt no hint of the radiating pain through her body that would immobilize her for days at a time. She no longer felt the stretch of scars pulled by too-tight skin, or the ache behind her eyes that never quite went away.
But while the physical pain had subsided, her anguish seemed to be accentuated tenfold. It was like now that all her pain was gone, her memories, her guilt, and her fear, had all rushed to fill their place.
Desperately, Ariana dug her nails into her knees, hoping the sting would snap her out of the spiral that always led to one of her attacks.
As her vision cleared, the scene on the river changed. Now she saw her brother, much older now, standing in front of a frosted over window, tears running down his face. Someone knocked on the door and Albus quickly wiped them away, composing himself before putting on a carefully neutral expression and going to answer the door.
It changed again, now showing Aberforth sitting in a grimy bar, his head in his hands.
It moved again, showing a boy with black hair, his magic exploding from him much as hers would do at a man in a bubble.
Then it was Gellert.
Trapped in a prison cell, his face was even gaunter than hers had been at her worst. He had been starved and left without water, unable to move more than an inch. His tongue had been ripped out, and he had a number of new scars that were indicative of some of the ministry’s more unethical practices.
Behind her, the white light pulsed, drawing Ariana away from the images in the river.
‘Into the light,’ the muggles said. Yeah, she would not be doing that.
Desperately, instinctually, she plunged her hands into the stream, disrupting another image of the unfamiliar boy, and felt her body being sucked in behind them.
The world spun and whirled as Ariana was pulled back through the veil. Then it all went black.
Blinking twice, Ariana squinted around at the darkness. As her eyes adjusted she started to be able to make out outlines of large stone structures. The darkness faded, revealing more details of her surroundings.
‘Lovely, a graveyard in…’ she glanced around at the names on the tombs. ‘France. Why am I here?’
Once again, Ariana was blinded by a flash of light.
Accompanying it this time was a large creature that looked a bit like a lion. A man slid off its back, along with three cat-like creatures that proceeded to turn into actual cats.
The man dropped a suitcase on its side in the middle of an open space before turning to the creature and talking to it as if it were an average house-cat. Ariana’s attention was drawn back to the case as it flipped open and a woman in a reddish dress climbed out, followed by another woman, this one in a long black coat.
The cat-creature’s eyes found Ariana and she stood, stepping out of the shadows. Holding out a hand for the creature to sniff, she approached. The man started to speak, warning her away, but the creature just stuck its tongue out, licking her entire face in one swipe.
The man stared at her in surprise, his mouth hanging open.
“I’m assuming you want them to go into the case?” she asked, and at the man’s nod she led the creature to the open case and pointed inside.
The creature bumped his head against her, nearly knocking her over, and jumped into the case.
Turning back to the people, she saw they were all staring at her. The man in awe, the woman in the dress in reluctant curiosity, and the woman in the coat as if she were analyzing her.
“Do…” the man said, snapping out of his shock, “Would you happen to be looking for a job?”
Ariana smiled sadly. “You wouldn’t want me.”
“Why not?” the man asked.
“I can’t control my magic,” she frowned. “Actually, I'm not even sure I have magic anymore. It doesn’t feel like it.”
“You’re an Obscurus, aren’t you?” the woman in the coat asked.
“A what?”
“An Obscurus is formed when a young witch or wizard tries to suppress their magical abilities,” the man cut in. “They lose control of their magic and it slowly kills them. But that would be impossible. How are you even alive, let alone relatively healthy.”
“There’s a word for it?” Ariana asked. “But yes, I am. As for being alive, I’m not really sure I am. I mean I am, but I’m also not, I guess? I did die. Quite a few years ago if I’m guessing correctly.”
“How… How old were you?” the woman in the coat asked.
“Fourteen, I think.”
“Fascinating…” the man muttered. “This is really, really fascinating. The breakthroughs in Obscurial research that you even existing present, I mean, if one could figure out how to safely separate the Obscurus from the Host–”
“Newt…” the two women chided, glancing at each other in surprise.
“Right, right. Sorry. There’s just this boy –another Obscurus– that Tina and I are trying to save, and–”
Continuing to mutter to himself, Newt brought out a notebook and a pencil and started scribbling furiously.
Rolling her eyes, the woman in the dress stepped forward. “He’s always like that. You get used to it. My name’s Leta, that idiot is Newt, and this is Tina.”
“Ariana–” She started, but was cut off by shouting coming from inside a crypt. They all turned to it, starting forward.