al doesn’t mean to, he really doesn’t, but at his father’s embrace, holding him tighter than he has in a long time, albus becomes undone, and he finally lets the tears flow as he cries into his father’s shoulder. he didn’t realize just how frightened he had been. the focus had only been on rescuing his sister and other family members, and for once, albus shared the same fearless courage as the ones most important to him, but after being so close to being one of the ones lost, al doesn’t know how he’s been in their family, always feeling misplaced. he blinks away some of the tears, some still falling as his father speaks to him. and he knows he’s only trying to comfort him, but there’s still that guilt, the one that makes him feel like he should have never gone to if it only ended in hurting his family this way. but albus nods his head anyways, sniffling as he finally reaches up to wipe away some of the tears. a soft “okay” is his only response, and he’ll work on it, he truly will, but it’s not just something that one conversation will be able to fix.
he instantly knows by the change in his father’s demeanor and tone that there was loss at the manor. it’s something that he’s had to experience his entire life, experience loss of important people in the order that aren’t family by blood, but they might as well be. al is going through the ranks mentally, and he hates how he’s already listing in his head those they might have lost, but as harry speaks again, the name xue coming from his lips, and al starts shaking his head, the tears already beginning to fall again. his stomach turns at the mention of torture, and his face blanches, becoming pale again as if all the color he’s regained since healing is gone again. the idea of someone like xue, someone so good, having an ends that cruel. he’s speechless for a moment, having trouble believing it, and if it was anyone else besides his father, he would have called them a liar, telling them to get out. “it’s not fair,” albus says, his voice small and cracking as he leans into his father’s hands once more, a fist bunching the sheets as he tries to ground himself with the news. “do we ... do we know which ones did it?” he knows it’s too early for the order to have been investigating into it, but he wants to know, needs to know. albus isn’t a fighter, he doesn’t want to be, but he’s starting to think that maybe it’s becoming a time where he doesn’t have a choice.