Grief, no matter how you try to cater to its wail, has a way of fading away.
― V.C. Andrews

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Albus strides over to my side and grips me in a one-sided hug. "Valentine!?" He demands, and I look at my cousin.

"Hi, cousin!" I quip, and he sighs.

"Honesty, child. You could've been killed!" He demands. "Mr. Riddle?" Albus seemed confused at Tom's presence.

He makes his way to grab Tom's shoulder, looking at him from head to toe. "Are you two, alright?" He questions, eyes crinkling in worry. He grabs my own shoulder.

"Yes, professor. We are perfectly all right." Tom replies, voice cool and his demeanour cautious.

Albus looks between us and then notices the girl in my arms. "Valentine!? What happened?" He demands and then pauses, noticing her eyes. "Impossible," Albus whispers and lifts the girl from my hands.

"Grindelwald has a daughter." Albus murmurs and I look up to see him staring at the child in utter and raw agony.

"I'm so sorry, Albus." I murmur to my cousin. Albus shoots me a pained smile, giving my cheek a fond and loving tap. Tom was staring at Albus with disgusted and wary eyes. I don't think he imagined the great Albus Dumbledore to be in pain because of something as fickle as love. He had his arms crossed and looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

"No. No. No need for apologies. Besides, there are more prudent matters to attend to. Such as the fact that yourself and Mr. Riddle faced Gellert Grindelwald and survived." He eyes the pair of us, with unbelieving eyes.

The Aurors walk up to us, and a man with chestnut hair and kind hazel eyes looks at us, face crinkled in disbelief. "These are children Albus." The Auror implies.

"Yes, I'm very much aware that my students are children; thank you for that observation Mr.Bones." Albus states and the man gives him a haughty look.

"These kids can't have seriously faced Grindelwald and lived?! They don't even look eleven years old!" He demands, face turning red at Dumbledore's words.

"Did you not see them facing him or have you gone blind at thirty, Bones?" A witch comes up, sneering at the man beside her. The rest of the Aurors were rounding up the fallen witch and wizards that I'd kinda tortured to unconsciousness.

I couldn't help but wince when they started to haul their unmoving bodies onto stretchers. "Albus. Insane amounts of black magic were used here. Way more than any of Grindelwald's old crime scenes." She tells the professor.

My face reveals nothing.

I saw Tom staring at me from the corner of his eye, but I don't look back at him. He knew those were the wizards I'd been fighting. Tom shoves me forward, and I whip my head around to glare at him. 'Later' My eyes tell him, but he wasn't having any of that.

"Valentine fought those men." Tom declares, putting me on the spot.

"Tell them someone else came and helped you fight them off. Add some tears." Abaddon instantly says in my head. Good thing, my arm still ached like a bitch.

I let out a sob, nodding frantically. "They- They just attacked out of nowhere!" I cry, tears whelming up in my eyes at my command. "They were going to hurt the little girl, and I didn't want her to get killed." I point to the child in Dumbledore's hands.

"Some man came and helped me fight them off. But I was so scared I couldn't do anything." I wailed. "I only know basic spells!" I say, tearing up and then hold my wand for effect. "Lumos!" I say, but I don't use my magic, so nothing happens. "SEE!!" I scream wailing. "I CAN'T EVEN DO SUCH AN EASY SPELL!!!" I scream in rage, making the Aurors step back in shock. "Lumos! Lumos! LUMOS!!! LUMOSSSSS!!!" I scream over and over again.

My goal was to make them think I was traumatized, but I guess I overdid it, and they thought I'd gone utterly mad.

I let out another terrifying wail of agony, mostly because my arm was killing me. "Alright. Alright! Sweetie, do you know what the man who helped you looked like?" The woman asks softly, hands out in front of her as she tried to calm me down like she was talking to an animal.

"I DON'T REMEMBER!!!" I scream, sobbing like a madwoman.

"Valentine, dear. Calm down, please, you'll frighten the child." Albus tells me.

"But it was HORRIBLE!! I couldn't even do ONE SPELL!!" I holler in tears.

"LUMOS!!!" I screech, and my wand doesn't light up, making me let out another bawl of sorrow.

"Alright, calm down, girl!!!" Auror Bones says tersely, and I sniffle, looking up at him with innocence shining in my eyes.

"It's all right, my girl. Calm down. We're just going to go check the scans of the magic this man must've performed." He tells Albus, looking at me with a weirded out and pitying look. The witch looks at us wide-eyed, taking one look at me and taking a couple steps back when she hears my sniffles.

"I'm just- I'm just going to follow... yeah, bye." She announces, and I don't think I've ever seen someone move faster.

"Valentine, my child, everything will be fine just-" Albus starts to calm me down, but I whirl on Tom wand raised at his neck.

"I'm going to slaughter you!" I snarl. Tom looked highly amused and actually snickers.

"Why don't you continue that little scene you were doing. I truly think they were utterly terrified of you. They thought you'd gone mad. Not too far from the truth, actually." He jeers at me, not even looking twice at the wand pointed at his throat.

"Would you like me to go over there and start screaming that you were the one who duelled Grindelwald and survived while being thirteen?" I snarl back at him, making all the cruel amusement vanish off his face.

"You wouldn't dare, Dumbledore." He snaps, eyes blazing with a threat.

"Really? You don't think I'd dare?" I let out a laugh. "HEY!! TOM HERE-" I start to say, but Tom shoves me to the side, snarling.

"Dumbledore don't even-"

"Mr. Riddle. Ms. Dumbledore!" Albus roars, and we freeze whipping around to look at our professor. Albus was giving us a strange look.

"Now you will both explain to me exactly what happened after I deal with the Aurors. I am going to take you both to Aberforth. He'll help heal your injuries there." Albus orders, while still carrying the girl. She wasn't crying anymore and was looking between Tom and me with an enthralled look.

He grabs Tom's arm and the back of my jacket and apparates us all at once.

The spinning lasts a second, but then it stops, and I'm ramming into Tom, getting off balance. "Oomph." We both mutter and then start to glare at each other.

"Val?" Aberforth wonders, looking at Tom and me in confusion. "My darling girl. What happened to you both?" My cousin demands, rushing over to grab my hand and then grab Tom's shoulder, checking him over as well. I whirl around, looking for Albus. Everyone turns with my movements, and we all pause when we see Grindelwald's daughter looking up at us with frightened mismatched eyes.

"Hello," The girl waves at us, and I think my heart melts a bit.

Tom scoffs, crossing his arms. "We should've handed her over when we could've." He mutters, causing me to shoot him a cross look.

"There was an attack, Aberforth. It was Grindelwald. We were there. " I explain, making his usually warm blue eyes go stiff in anger. He rushes forward and grabs the girl in his arms, ushering us to some seats in the corner. He sets the child across us and then points at all three of us.

"Stay." He orders, voice stern, before marching away.

"We aren't animals." Tom scoffs, leaning back and crossing one of his legs over the other, relaxing into the large armchair he was in. He looked regal... like he was royalty.

"Thank you." The girl whispers, suddenly causing Tom and I to whip around to stare at the child. Her voice was high pitched and innocent. It chimed like a bell, and I let my mouth twitch upwards into a warm smile.

"Oh, course sweetheart," I say, making her beam at me. She turns her attention to Tom, looking at him with eyes filled with hope.

He ignored her completely.

I elbow him harshly, causing him to sneer at me. "Tom!?" I hiss at him.

"What!?" He hisses back, and I look between him and the little girl, gesturing towards the child with my face as discreetly as I could.

Tom lifts up his lips in a sneer, looking at the cute blonde in disgust.

He looks at me like he was saying; What on earth do you want me to tell her?!

I answer him with an impatient look of my own; Anything... something nice though!

He looks at the child, emotionless. "We didn't hand you over to Grindelwald. He would've killed you, so you are in our debt." He muses in a nasty tone.

"My dad would've killed me?" She asked, eyes brimming in tears, and I push Tom roughly, annoyance drawn all over my face.

"TOM!!" I demand.

"What!" He says, leaning back into his chair and giving me a deadpanned look, "I was nice."

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
― Bernard M. Baruch