Chapter 728 - Interview for Divination Post Ⅲ

With Sybil Trelawney's interview over, Albus had been about to excuse Sybil Trelawney by courteously explaining that he did not believe her fit for the position. Just then her face became solemn and blank and a harsh, hoarse voice emerged from her throat. "That which Cassandra has spoken is gone, but that which spoken can never be truly be taken. And so, it returns, and so I say, 'Two stars have fallen, both equal in might…. Both filled with darkness and despair…. But neither can live for the Hydra hides in the shadows…. Long forgotten, long thought gone, but not all things that are forgotten are ever truly gone...The Hydra will consume them both….and the world shall finally perish and fall away into utter darkness...-Yet life and death will clasp hands in solemn accord, the Hydra must perish..."

Albus stares at the young witch, who sleepily blinks her eyes twice as if awakening. A flush of embarrassment creeps onto Sybil's face utterly mortified and humiliated that one of her strange fits occurred before the headmaster. "I am so sorry, Professor Dumbledore!" Sybill stammered with tears of humiliation creeping out from the corner of her eyes. "I-, I'll go now!"

Sybill scrambles to her feet, when Albus with a pensive expression says, "Miss Trelawney, I cannot say for certain yet, but I do believe that you are the most suitable candidate to fulfill the present opening for Professor of Divination."

"Truly?" Sybill gasped in her normal tone of voice, her soft, ethereal voice completely forgotten.

"Yes," Albus truthfully muttered, "I shall convey my final decision within a week, Miss Trelawney. However, might I make one minor suggestion?"

"Yes, Headmaster anything!" Sybill eagerly replied.

"You possess an infinite amount of talent, Miss Trelawney be more confident in your demeanor," Albus pointedly said as he not so subtly gazed at the rows of beads and chains slung around her neck.

"Oh," Sybill flushed in embarrassment. "My mum and grandmother thought since I lacked sufficient experience it would be best to present a strong front. I guess we got a bit carried away."

"No lasting harm done, Miss Trelawney," Albus replied, before adding, "then, I look forward to our continued cooperation."

"Yes, Professor!" Sybill earnestly answered, before hurrying off with a happy pink flush on her face to tell the wonderful news to her family! She even looked quite pretty at that not that she knew. But more a few patrons had watched her vanish into the cold, wet night intrigued.

At the bar, Aberforth had almost broken a wooden mug in his hand as he happened to overhear the prophecy that he had once heard before and received from the deceased Alphard Black. His eyes scan the pub trying to locate, who else could have paid attention to the Albus, but no one's eyes remain fixed on that corner. However, that proved nothing as he knew that his pub was under watch.

Struggling not to grind his teeth, Aberforth temporarily puts a closed sign on the bar in crude, but large letters that read, "OUT. TOUCH the ALE. BANNED for LIFE!" The patrons sitting at the bar wisely decide to sit elsewhere until the bartender returns.

Aberforth manages to catch Albus's eye as he storms into the back. Albus takes a moment to don his cloak, before making his way out of the pub into the wet night. Tromping around the inn through the mud, he enters again through the back. Butters, a professional escape-goat and con artist happily lets out a cry at spotting Albus. Albus pauses to scratch the wily goat under the chin, before knocking on the back door.

The door is instantly wrenched upon to reveal the furious figure of his younger brother, Aberforth. Seeing the dangerous scowl on his younger brother's face, Albus wisely climbs up the staircase to Aberforth's personal alcove followed by the angry stomping of his younger brother's footsteps.

A warm fire is blazing and shedding a gentle light upon the old bookshelf and the recently dusted old furniture. As usual, the frame of Ariana Dumbledore hanging on the mantelpiece is spotless. Her c.h.e.s.t-length golden hair is neatly pulled back as her bright blue eyes stare straight ahead all the while cradling a book in her arms. Albus's gaze lingers on the portrait of his younger sister, who had yet to speak in his presence. She never had and likely never would. He knew that he more than earned his younger's sisters silence, but how he yearned to hear the voice of his younger sister once more.

"What were you thinking, Albus?!" Aberforth roared as he slammed the door behind him. "Have your wits at long last deserted you or are have ye truly gone mad!?"

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting for the blood of Cassandra Trelawney to still carry true in Sybill Trelawney and for there be a glimmer of a true seer in her" Albus said only to be cut short by Aberforth.

"Don't lie to me!" Aberforth hissed. "Ye can fool the world even yourself, but I know you, Albus. Your hidden manipulations, and your nagging suspicions. Can you deny the fact that you did not call that girl here tonight to test her? Deny it, I dare you to say those words!"

Albus's child-like blue eyes are solemn from behind his half-moon spectacles as he faces the angry blue similar colored eyes of his younger brother that hide behind wiry spectacles. Albus does not immediately answer and Aberforth lets out a loud bitter guffaw. "I thought as much. Always the expert manipulator, the puppet master behind the curtain pulling the strings leaving the rest of to play the role of the stringed puppets."

Aberforth's voice breaks as he closes his wearily shuts his eyes as if unable to bear the sight before him. "You do not know what you have done, Albus," he hoarsely murmured. "What have you done, Albus."

Albus's child-like blue eyes fill with startling clarity as he eyes his younger brother. "The prophecy was not a sudden surprise to you, Aberforth, why is that?" Albus asked as he studied the tensing body of his younger brother.

Aberforth opened his blue eyes to fiercely meet the gaze of his older brother. "That is of no concern to you, Albus," he coldly answered with a hard gleam in his eyes.

Albus's eyes begin to deepen almost hypnotically as Aberforth's eyes widen with rage and disbelief bring up his occlumency shields up. Wrenching his gaze away from Albus, Aberforth furious bellows, "How dare you, Albus! How dare you attempt to peer into my mind! I thought that you could not fall any lower in my opinion and yet you have!"

"GET OUT!" Aberforth threatened with fingers twitching as he reaches for his wand. "I mean it, Albus, GET OUT!"

Albus opens his mouth to defend himself when a soft voice pierces through the situation like a warm knife slicing into butter. "Enough!" The portrait of Ariana firmly reprimanded them as she resolutely gazed at her two older brothers' sternly to temporarily quell their tempers.

Albus's expression goes slack with disbelief and joy as he eagerly gazes at the portrait of Ariana that gazes back at him. Feeling weak, he stumbles backward, before falling into the ratty armchair in the living room. Overwhelming guilt, joy, anger, sadness, a wave of countless emotions threaten to drown him as he sits there acutely stunned.

"How can you stand to defend him, Ari?" Aberforth protested as he turned his gaze filled with incredulity at the portrait of Ariana. "He attempted to pry my mind open with legilimency. Me!" For it was incredulous as their mother had taught them all the art of legilimency and occlumency to better keep their family's secrets.

"Yes, he did, Aberforth," Ariana quietly replied. "But one of Albus's countless faults is being too nosey for his own good, a classic Gryffindor fault to have. And well, the Dumbledore's tend to have very long noses." A common, old family joke about the Dumbledore family's long noses and their tendency to be far too nosey for their own good.

Aberforth opens his mouth for a moment but is uncertain what to say as he feels a vast sense of disappointment well up inside of his c.h.e.s.t. It hurt far more than he wished to admit at hearing Ariana defending their older brother, but his mother and father had always sided with Albus too. It had always been Albus this and always Albus that. 'And Aberforth, why can't you be like Albus!' Well, what had that brought them?! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

With each lost in their own thoughts, there is a thick silence between the two wizards and that of the portrait of Ariana Dumbledore. The fire crackles loudly as if signaling that the silence must come to an end. Taking her cue, Ariana softly says, "I know and understand your feelings of hurt and betrayal, Aberforth. But please for my sake just this once trust in, Albus, Abe."

Aberforth's face softens despite himself at hearing Ariana call him by his pet name, Abe. His mother and Ariana had been the sole ones in the family to call him that. It was the same how only his mother and he had called Ariana, "Ari." It was a token of affection between them that only grew less and less with the passage of time.

Aberforth lets out a weary sigh and Ariana takes that as an indication to continue. With a pleading blue-eyed gaze, she says, "Albus has his own path to take, Abe, and it is not your place to further inquire nor pry. Let destiny take its course."

Aberforth raises his equally brilliant blue eyes to meet with Ariana's own. His eyes are filled with cynicism, but with a hint of gentleness. He barely bends his head in acknowledgment of Ariana's words. Filled with relief at Aberforth's willingness, Ariana's portrait becomes stiff and still, and distant once more. However, there was a very familiar Dumbledore-like twinkle in her eyes. She was a Dumbledore after all, and they tended to plot against their better nature. Still, it was time to face the past, they had run for too long, and things needed to be at last come to a head.