He who creates a poison, also has the cure.
He who creates a virus, also has the antidote.
He who creates chaos, also has the ability to create peace.
- Suzy Kassem

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Aberforth comes back with a tray, carrying cups filled to the brim with warm hot chocolate. He hands one to Grindelwald's child, then handing one to Tom, and then me. Tom gives my cousin a charming look- the look he used on all of our professors to gain their instant approval. "Thank you, sir," Tom says, his voice smooth and free of all the arrogance it usually had.

"Thanks, cousin." I smile up at him. Aberforth looked enraged and highly worried.

"Valentine, introduce me to the young lads." He tells me, and I hop up.

"Oh! Right. Uh- Riddle, this is my cousin Aberforth Dumbledore. Aberforth, this is-" Tom interrupts me, standing up to shake Aberforth's hand.

"Tom Riddle. Pleasure." He addresses like he was a middle-aged man and not some thirteen-year-old with godawful scrapes and bruises across his body.

Aberforth looks at Grindelwald's daughter. "And what might your name be, young one?" He asks, eyes locked on her mismatched eyes.

"I don't have one," She states, shrugging like it was the most normal thing to say. Even Tom looked slightly intrigued by her words.

"What do you mean, you don't have a name?" I ask, making her sigh.

"No one has given me a name." She adds further, making my brow draw in confusion.

She was such an adorable little girl. Did her parents not care enough to name her?

"What did call you by, if they ever needed you?" Aberforth asks, leaning back in his own seat, eyes trained on the tiny witch in front of us.

"They called me bitch." She states calmly, and I think Tom chokes a bit on his drink.

I hit his back twice. "You alright?" I smirk in humour, causing him to glare at me.

"She called herself an incredibly crude word. She's like four." He states, glaring at me, but gazing back at the girl with barely hidden intrigue.

"I'm actually five." The girl whispers at us with a giggle.

"Still want to hand her over to Grindelwald?" I whisper under my breath, with a snort. He tilts his head, analyzing the child. I blink twice, realizing how much like a snake he really did look.

He shrugs, lifting the cup to his nose. He sniffs it as if he didn't trust whatever was in the drink. He watches me have a sip first. I didn't taste any truth serum in it this time. Thank the lord. Tom watches me for a second as if I would spontaneously combust. I scoff at his paranoid behaviour. He takes a tentative sip just after I had.

"Would've saved me a lot of trouble." He murmurs to me, answering my question, sounding almost grumpy.

"What would you like to be called?" I ask the young girl, and she looks up at me, eyes widening in hope.

"I have a choice?" She asks and my heart breaks.

She reminded me so much of myself at that moment, I had to blink.

"Names have power. Choose wisely." Tom snaps at her, giving her a warning look.

"I like your name." She admits looking at me, and I smile.

"Valentine?" I ask, and she nods, head bobbing up and down frantically.

"Can I just have your name?" She asks. making me chuckle, shaking my head.

"Make your name special. Make it unique."

Tom was scoffing to the side.

"What about Ariana?" Aberforth asks, voice terse, and I still. That was the name of his late sister. I knew that because of Ron. Everyone in the future knew the story of Ariana Dumbledore.

The girl beams. "I like that!!" She demands, pointing at him with her tiny fingers. "Can I be called Ariana?" She asks, looking around at us, hope shining in her eyes.

"Of course you can." Aberforth nods. He knew who she was. Who she was related to. What her mismatched eyes represented, yet he still allowed this girl to take the name of his sister. He was smiling softly at her.

Tom was silent, staring from Aberforth to my chilled stance, in silent analyzation. He shrugs and continues sipping his hot chocolate from his mug.

Lord Voldemort sure loved his hot chocolate.

Albus apparates into view and stares at us. "Aberforth, you still haven't healed them!? Look at the poor kids." Albus demands after a second, making Aberforth glare at his brother.

"I was healing them emotionally." He retorts and my lips curve up in a smile at that.

Albus waves his wand towards Tom and me. All my scrapes and bruises were instantly repaired. I didn't notice how much pain they'd been causing. Albus does the same to the curious Ariana. "What are those stick things?" She asked, and we all stare at her.

"I always see them, but I don't actually know what they are." She claps her hands again.

"These are wands, my child," Aberforth answers her as Albus moves to sit in the spot beside me.

"Mr. Riddle. Ms. Dumbledore. Explain the attack, please." Albus motions at us with a hand and I turn to lock eyes with Tom. He was busy drinking his hot chocolate and motions for me to talk with his head. I purse my lips, shooting him a glare.

"We were at Diagon's Alley just, you know, hanging out." I give Tom a look, and he nods absentmindedly.

"Yes. Yes. That is what we were doing." He muses and then moves to grab my half-filled hot chocolate mug. "This is magnificent hot chocolate, Mr. Dumbledore." He points to Aberforth. I gape at him. He stole my hot chocolate! The nerve of him.

"Hey! I wanted that!" I snap, but Tom shrugs.

"Didn't look like it." He sneers, continuing to drink my hot chocolate.

"Focus, Valentine." Albus chides me, and I stare at him.

"Did you not see-" I demand and Aberforth chuckles.

"I'll get you another cup after, my sweet." My cousin promises.

"We were hanging out in Diagon Alley and then out of nowhere Grindelwald and some of his followers start attacking everyone. They wanted um-" I motion to Ariana. She was drinking her own hot chocolate, not even listening to a word we were saying.

"Because of her heritage, they needed to capture her. I'm assuming she somehow escaped, and they wanted her back." I think out loud. "Anyway, I saw her being attacked, so I rushed in and helped. Tom didn't want to get involved but ended up helping me all the same." I say in a snide tone. Tom ignores me completely.

"So they all surround us. Grindelwald and his four followers. One of them was an Auror." I add, making Tom lean forward.

"May I add that she fought off all four of them, while I held off Grindelwald." He adds, causing me to give him a deadpanned look.

"No, really? I thought a ghost came out of nowhere and fought them." I snap, making him cross his legs again and give me a cruel smirk. "That's exactly what you said when you lied to that Auror." He sneers. "Should be an actor. Give up being a witch. Certainly would benefit you in the long run, seeing as you lack any real judgement." He says in a snide tone.

"I wasn't lying!! There was a man who helped me!" I lie again, gritting my teeth.

Albus wasn't paying attention to our banter and stands up, before pointing at us. Aberforth was gaping at us. "You kids fought off Grindelwald and lived?" He demands, and I nod.

"Yup. Pretty much." I muse.

"How?" Albus snaps.

Tom must've realized what a mistake we'd made and turns to me with a snide look as if saying Get us out of this one, Dumbledore.

"We are both adept at wandless and nonverbal magic," I state, quickly.

"They weren't expecting us to be so powerful, so we got a quick upper hand using their surprise against them," Tom adds smoothly, in his usual icy tone.

"Val!?" Aberforth demands, seeming proud of me. "You can do wandless and nonverbal magic?" He asks, making me blush at the indirect compliment.

"Incredible. Brightest witch and wizard of their ages." Aberforth breathes in shock, looking back and forth between myself and Tom. Albus was staring at us with an indescribable look on his face.

"And what of the black magic?" He asks. This time Tom was the curious one as he looks at me with an expectant look.

"The man. He came and helped me. I told you the truth." I said, making Albus shoot me an annoyed look.

"You also started screaming about how you couldn't perform the Lumos spell and how horrible you were at magic." He gives me a look.

I shrug. "I had to make the Aurors believe I was harmless. Those people are like detectives in the muggle world. Any chance a person may be a suspect, and they take him away for interrogation, even locking him up. I was saving a child. I did nothing wrong. The man who'd helped me must've performed the black magic, and when he saw that Grindelwald was involved, he bolted because that's what a sane person would do." I shot Tom a look. "Not duel him one-on-one."

Tom shrugs, still drinking my hot chocolate. "I wanted to see if the stories behind his powers were true." He answers as if that explained everything.

Albus looked ready to throttle the pair of us and be done with dealing with our antics. Aberforth looked highly amused, and Ariana was just gazing at Tom and me with an enthralled look. It was getting creepy.

"I don't even have any words," Albus grumbles and decides to conjure a cup of hot chocolate for his own sanity.

"Why can't you conjure me one!!" I demand insulted. Albus waves his wand, annoyed, and a cup of hot chocolate appears in my hands. I grin in delight. "Thank you!!" I quip and drink it happily.

"What are we going to do with Ariana?" I ask. At her name, the girl raises a hand and points at herself.

"Me!! That's me!" She squeals.

A look of pain crosses Albus's face of a single second before it's replaced with a soft smile.

"She can stay at Hogwarts for the time being, considering classes are out. But after we have to make arrangements." Albus thinks, but Aberforth shakes his head, face contorting into one of pain.

"After... After she can stay with me."

After a while, though, even the deepest sorrow faltered, even the most penetrating despair lost its scalpel edge.
― Richard Matheson