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Aberforth and Albus

I'm just kicking myself for never thinking about what happened between them and their relationship in much detail beyond "Oh tragic story for Albus where he fucked up" But making myself think about it more and how each of the brothers would have felt made it feel that much more tragic and complex.

You can genuinely get why Aberforth hates Albus, despite Albus's position being very sympathetic, he was the one clearly in the wrong with Ariana's situation with the decisions he made there. Put yourself in Aberforth's shoes, his mother just died and now it's just him, Ariana whom he had a close relationship with, and his distant brother Albus. Imagine Aberforth being told by Albus (Who was only a year older by the way) that no, he (Aberforth) won't take care of his sister whom he deeply cares about, and instead Albus who was always blowing her off was going to step up and do it because he thinks that the last year of Hogwarts is more important for Aberforth. It's something which Aberforth would have probably heavily disagreed with. Especially since Aberforth was already caring for Ariana with his mother; he was the one getting her to eat when Kendra couldn't and he was the one who spent his time with her and helped calm her down. And yet, Aberforth appreciated it still, he even even thought that Albus did a well enough job. You can imagine that whatever distance between them both would have started to heal by then... till Grindelwald came. Bit of a comedown for Mr. Brilliant, there’s no prizes for looking after your half-mad sister, stopping her blowing up the house every other day. But he did all right for a few weeks . . . till he came.” And just as the rift was starting to heal, Albus fucks up massively and starts actually neglecting Ariana, probably leaving Aberforth to do the lion's share of the work with her, and if that wasn't enough, Albus and Grindelwald started cooking up a plan which involved dragging his ill sister across the world while they work on politics, grandeur, and wizard domination. Albus did this all while spouting off bullshit about 'The Greater Good' while again, Ariana was right there suffering! So Aberforth quite reasonably gets furious and argues his concerns about them working on a plan that would surely kill his sister or at the very least cause her great suffering, and his ask wasn't even something like "Albus you won't do this, abandon your goals and stay here to care for Ariana" (Which would have been valid too), no, it was literally just "Do what you want but just leave Ariana to me," Albus and Grindelwald would have no reason to refuse, their plans don't concern Ariana at all, and Aberforth clearly loves her and wants to care for her. But they did refuse, and Grindelwald even condescends to Aberforth about it: He told me what a stupid little boy I was, trying to stand in the way of him and my brilliant brother . . . Didn’t I understand, my poor sister wouldn’t have to be hidden once they’d changed the world, and led the wizards out of hiding, and taught the Muggles their place? Imagine the sheer anger Aberforth must have felt there, being told that his valid concerns about his sister's health are just him being a silly child, and that what Albus and Grindelwald are doing would help Ariana all while they were harming her right now by neglecting her? I honestly don't blame Aberforth for pulling out his wand here, not one bit. Then Grindelwald escalated the situation by 1000X, and now Aberforth was being tortured by his brother's friend, and then the duel happens where Ariana was killed by accident (and the fact that it could have been any one of them that did it would have just hurt more), in large, large part because of Albus and Grindelwald. ... If I were Aberforth, I honestly would have done a lot more than just breaking Albus's nose here. Aberforth's character is where I can say "He was clearly biased to hell against this person, and I don't blame him at all." But what did Aberforth do after this? Well he worked with his brother still. He still passed off information to Albus and joined the order, despite hating Albus and blaming him for Ariana's death, despite him thinking that Albus felt zero guilt about Ariana while Aberforth felt plenty, Aberforth still consciously chose to be near Albus and help him, why? Because it was the right thing to do.

“The Order of the Phoenix is finished. You-Know-Who’s won, it’s over, and anyone who’s pretending different’s kidding themselves. It’ll never be safe for you here, Potter, he wants you too badly. So go abroad, go into hiding, save yourself. Best take these two with you.” He jerked a thumb at Ron and Hermione. “They’ll be in danger long as they live now everyone knows they’ve been working with you.” It always strikes me as deeply funny that in DH, Aberforth was all like "There is no hope, we lost, and if you're wise you'd better run away and save yourself" All while he himself was still sticking his neck out to protect the students of Hogwarts, and all while he was still with the Order even in the first war where they were heavily losing and outnumbered by more than thirty to one(!!), Aberforth clearly isn't taking his own advice here. And what lit that fire under him again? What caused him to join the Battle of Hogwarts? It was Harry telling him that Albus really did care about him and Ariana and did feel guilt over what he had done. It was Harry showing his resolve to keep up the fight even now and to follow Albus's plan. Albus's perspective is also pretty heartbreaking here, he probably felt like he was at the peak of his life when he was making that trip with Doge, and then suddenly life went to shit and his mother died, he had to cancel all of his plans and ambitions and had to return to his family and care for Ariana.

“I resented it, Harry.” Dumbledore stated it baldly, coldly. He was looking now over the top of Harry’s head, into the distance. “I was gifted, I was brilliant. I wanted to escape. I wanted to shine. I wanted glory (This is him talking about when Percival went to Azkaban and not when Kendra died, but I think it very much applies there too.) Albus felt like he was being held back and forced into a path that he didn't want, Albus hated it, (and most probably now hates himself deeply for feeling like that then), but had to care for Ariana now,.... or did he?

“I’d have looked after her, I told him so, I didn’t care about school, I’d have stayed home and done it. He told me I had to finish my education and he’d take over from my mother. Aberforth was right there! Albus could have just thrown Ariana to him and then screwed off to do whatever he wanted. Why did Albus not do that? He had the perfect excuse to remove all responsibility and chase his dreams. It's because of this:

“Do not misunderstand me,” he said, and pain crossed the face so that he looked ancient again. “I loved them. I loved my parents, I loved my brother and my sister, but I was selfish, Harry, more selfish than you, who are a remarkably selfless person, could possibly imagine It's because despite the resentment, he still loved his family, so he bucked up and started genuinely taking care of Ariana while trying to make sure that Aberforth could have the best life possible for himself too. It could also be argued that along with love, it was also Albus taking responsibility, that it was him making "a choice between what is right and what is easy." ....Till Grindelwald came, till Albus let himself love him and consequently, let the love blind him not only to who Grindelwald was, but also to Albus's duty to his family, the choice shifted from what was right, to what was so easy. Albus let himself be swept up in the plans to become great, to change the world and help everyone (including Ariana) all while neglecting and not helping his little sister who needed it. But even despite all that, Albus still cared! If he didn't, he would have just, again, thrown Ariana to Aberforth and proceeded to just go along with Grindelwald, instead he made (extremely stupid and horrible) plans to bring Ariana with him, because he still viewed it as his responsibility to take care of her, because he still wanted to also care for Aberforth and get him to finish his education. Even his plans for the hallows included his sister, yes by Albus's own admission, the cloak mainly was for him to complete the set, it still shows that even when he was his most selfish self, even when he was chasing his obsessions, he still cared about Ariana to think about her and her safety with such items, the stone so that his parents could care for Ariana (and so that he no longer has to care for her), and the cloak for hiding her

the true magic of which, of course, is that it can be used to protect and shield others as well as its owner. I thought that, if we ever found it, it might be useful in hiding Ariana, but our interest in the Cloak was mainly that it completed the trio, for the legend said that the man who united all three objects would then be truly master of death, which we took to mean ‘invincible.’

I have to state this again for the third time in order to not be (too) biased, but Albus's intentions for the cloak and stone were absolutely not pure and hearty, they were still mainly about his and Grindelwald's plans, about their power and their greatness, but the fact that he still tried to reason a use for them for his family shows that he did care. And then, just as he was once again at another peak of his life with Grindelwald, Aberforth had to come in and force him to face reality. I can just imagine the horror on Albus's face as the world crumbled around him, as he was forced to reckon with just how bad of a person his dear Grindelwald was while he was torturing his brother, when he had to contend with how his plans for the greater good really weren't for anyone's good at all, that he was signing up with a monster to dominate everyone for both of their own delusions:

Did I know, in my heart of hearts, what Gellert Grindelwald was? I think I did, but I closed my eyes. If the plans we were making came to fruition, all my dreams would come true. ... And then Albus joined the duel and probably tried to stop both Aberforth and Grindelwald, and then his innocent little sister came in And Albus fucked it up again and here was his beloved little sister DEAD because of him. And now Albus had to face another reckoning, that even excluding all the muggles and wizards, his plans that he convinced himself would ultimately help Ariana and Aberforth did none of that, with the proof standing right there in front of him in the form of a freshly tortured Aberforth and the corpse of Ariana. This could break anyone and it indeed broke Albus. Their later relationship during adulthood and the books era would also be painful. You know how Albus deals with personal shit even after OOTP, and it's by avoiding it like the plague and doing everything he can to not talk about it, even distancing himself from it some more by making quick jokes like Aberforth and the goats. I can imagine Albus wanting to reconnect with Aberforth but not doing anything about it and instead running away from it. He would just fear having that personal connection again and also probably feels like he didn't deserve to have a mended relationship with Aberforth. And the kicker is, Aberforth wouldn't see it like that, he'd see his brother becoming aloof, his brother going back to his books and his prizes and his greatness and just being that same distant old brother just like before, like nothing had ever happened and as if they both didn't fuck up deeply.* * I genuinely place literally zero blame on Aberforth on this, but I do think that Aberforth blames himself a little too because of this quote:

“— and I think she wanted to help, but she didn’t really know what she was doing, and I don’t know which of us did it, it could have been any of us— and she was dead.” His voice broke on the last word and he dropped down into the nearest chair. (Look, I just love self loathing characters okay??? Let me have this.)

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