Broken Wings / tom riddle

Chapter 20 - Unknown loyalties

Briar was woken by the distant sounds of Christmas carols outside, were they coming from Hogsmeade? Too far away surely. She groaned and got herself dressed. It was Christmas morning.

Christmas was meant to be a joyous time of the year, but Briar found it hard to get out of bed this morning. She had no family, no friends and the closest thing to a friend she had close to her these past few days was Tom Riddle. She had nothing to be joyous about. Even at the orphanage Christmas was enjoyable, sure she didn't get many presents or end the night with a lavish feast. But she would sneak out and visit the town and all their festivities they had to offer. She had all day before the Christmas feast, she thought about how she could spend it. She gathered her coat and went for a walk in the snow.

During her walk she found a singular rose growing from beneath the snow. It was odd, it was too cold for flowers to grow and even the ones that did had been buried by the thick layer of white snow. She bent down and inspected it.

"Beautiful isn't it?" she turned around to see a man with a beard.

"It's impossible," Briar replied.

"Is it? It's right there in front of your eyes."

"Hmm, it appears so but," and using her wand, Briar gave it a light wave and the beautiful red flower morphed into a dark purple mushroom with shrivelled skin. "Mongo-shroom," she said."Highly poisonous and potentially deadly to anyone who touches it."

"Smart witch," he chuckled. "They've been sprouting up here the past few weeks, sent two ladies to St Mungo's last week and one was killed the week before."

"I never heard," Briar said saddened. "Who's planting them and disguising them?"

"Wish we knew, I've been trying to find out. I keep telling those bloody teachers at the school to come down and help but they never do." He muttered a few curse words and insults under his breath. "I'm Aberforth, Aberforth Dumbledore."

Briar's eyes widened at his name, now that she thought about it, he did resembled Dumbledore greatly. "I take it you know my brother then?" he rolled his eyes.

"I do, he forced me to come to Hogwarts."

"Sounds like my brother and his saviour complex."

"You're not to fond of your brother then I take it?" she asked.

"He wouldn't like me saying anything to one of his students, but I can tell by your curious face that you're not."

"Well i'm afraid that's something I haven't yet decided." It was true, Dumbledore seemed like a saviour, a noble man to all but she couldn't deny the odd feelings she had about the man. He seemed very judgmental to some of his students and he always seemed to know the answer to many things but failed to give help or offer solutions. "I'm Briar, Briar Emeralds."

"Well that's a last name I haven't heard in some time," Aberforth crossed his arms and inspected the girl.

"What do you mean?"

"You're all meant to be dead," he scowled slightly as if he was trying to see the faerie better, "but you do resemble your mother in the most striking ways."

"You knew my parents?" Briar asked shocked. He couldn't have, there's no way, her parents never associated with any wizards.

"Oh yes, and all that they were. Remarkable, how did you manage to survive it?" he questioned.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I was going to shoo you off back to the castle, but you're welcome to join me for a cup of tea on this miserable morning," he viewed the fields of snow around them.