Past

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"Think of Ariana!" Gaunter O'Dimm whispered again.

"Your poor sister! Poor Ariana!"

"As long as you say the word, Dumbledore, just one word, and I can bring Ariana back to you with a single clap of my hands."

Gaunter O'Dimm's voice was smooth and seductive, his eyes gleaming with malice.

Dumbledore's eyes wavered for a moment, a brief flicker of confusion crossed his face, but his resolve soon hardened again.

"I will never make a deal with a demon, Mr. O'Dimm!" Dumbledore declared firmly.

Gaunter O'Dimm shook his head exaggeratedly, his expression one of mock disappointment.

"Oh, well, poor Miss Ariana will have to endure the endless chill of loneliness, it seems!"

He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.

"To be honest, Mr. Dumbledore, you've surprised me. I've encountered countless powerful people, and most struggle to control their desires. But you... you're different."

Straightening up, he brushed off his coat as if the conversation had been casual.

"Anyway, let's move on from this little meeting, shall we?"

He stretched, almost leisurely, before casting Dumbledore a long, lingering look.

"I'm sorry to have disturbed your quiet life. Perhaps I can make it up to you."

His voice dropped to a near whisper, laden with meaning.

"How about a clue? A little hint about Voldemort's Horcruxes?"

"Not only is Wit beyond measure the greatest wealth, but so are envy and greed."

A sly smile curled Gaunter O'Dimm's lips.

"Those are emotions I find quite entertaining, though despair... ah, that's my favorite."

With that, Gaunter O'Dimm transformed into a swirling cloud of smoke, dissipating as if he had never been there.

Dumbledore stared at the space where the man had stood, his mind racing.

Had it all been real, or just a dream? He jolted upright, realizing he had dozed off at his desk.

"Was it all just a dream?" he murmured, still disoriented. But then, a nagging feeling pulled at him, and he quickly glanced down at his hand.

The Elder Wand was still there, clutched tightly in his grasp. Confusion clouded his thoughts as he tried to distinguish between dream and reality.

Then, his eyes caught sight of a familiar mirror before him—the very one that had shattered and cut his finger once before. Now, inexplicably, it was whole again, gleaming as if nothing had ever happened.

"He was here," Dumbledore thought, a chill running down his spine.

The words Gaunter O'Dimm had spoken echoed in his mind.

"Resurrect Ariana..."

A ripple of emotion stirred within him, disturbing the calm surface of his heart.

Ariana—his beloved sister—her memory was the deepest regret of his life, a wound that never truly healed.

The tragedy of the Dumbledore family had begun with Ariana. As a child, she had suffered a magical outburst, witnessed by three Muggle boys who had done unspeakable things to her.

From that moment on, she could no longer control her magic. The power built up inside her, festering, and combined with the emotional scars left by her trauma, she became something else entirely—Obscurial.

A Obscurial—a being of immense power, yet utterly incapable of controlling it.

When the host's emotions break, the Obscurial emerges uncontrollably from within. It consumes the host's extreme negative emotions, wreaking havoc on everything around it.

The tragedy of the Dumbledore family goes far beyond Ariana's suffering. Her father, Percival Dumbledore, driven by a desperate need for revenge, brutally tortured and killed the three Muggle boys who had harmed his daughter, using the Cruciatus Curse.

The boys died in agony, and Percival's actions flagrantly violated the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. As a result, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban.

The downfall of the family patriarch was only the beginning of the Dumbledore family's sorrows.

The wizards investigating Ariana's condition failed to recognize the Obscurial lurking within her. They assumed her madness was the result of the traumatic mental shock she had endured.

Their solution was to suggest that Ariana be permanently institutionalized at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries—a proposal the Dumbledore family refused to accept.

In response, Ariana's mother, Kendra Dumbledore, moved her family away from their ancestral home. She, Ariana, and her two brothers, Albus and Aberforth, settled in the secluded village of Godric's Hollow. There, Kendra told the neighbors that Ariana was unwell and unable to attend school. The residents accepted this explanation, and the Dumbledore family found a fragile peace.

Life, however, was far from easy. With their father's imprisonment, the Dumbledores lost their primary source of income. They lived frugally, barely scraping by. Albus, Aberforth, and Kendra took turns working outside the home, leaving one person to always care for Ariana.

Among them, Aberforth shared the closest bond with Ariana. His presence alone could often soothe her when she teetered on the edge of madness.

But then, tragedy struck again.

One day, when Kendra was home alone with Ariana, the young girl's emotions spiraled out of control once more. In an attempt to calm her, Kendra accidentally knocked a plate off the table. The sudden, sharp sound startled Ariana, who was already on the brink of collapse. The Obscurial reemerged violently, and in the ensuing chaos, Kendra Dumbledore was killed.

When Albus and Aberforth returned home, they found their mother lifeless on the floor, her body cold and bloodied. Trembling and huddled in a corner, Ariana was the only witness to the horrific event.

Only the three siblings remained—Albus, Aberforth, and Ariana. The brothers were left to care for their young sister, taking turns working to earn money and staying home to look after her. The weight of these responsibilities pressed heavily upon them, especially on Albus, who found himself increasingly overwhelmed by the emotional and psychological strain.

At that time, Albus Dumbledore believed this would be his life—a relentless cycle of duty and despair.

That is until he met a man named Gellert Grindelwald.

Grindelwald's arrival would change everything, completely altering the course of Albus Dumbledore's life.