Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter in any way.

A/n: So, I haven't been on ffnet, since... the summer? And that's a long time, and I'm sorry, but school has been crazy, and life has been crazy. And it's almost a new year. And here's a chapter. A very strange pairing, but I really like it now,... sad and different. This is a sorrowful look at unrequited love. Enjoy, and reviews are love.

4. Ariana/Gellert.

Everything is white here and everyone is sad, in the place where she watches him.

Everything has always been white here, ever since she got here, not very long ago. The walls are white, and they aren't exactly like walls, and the sky is white, even though it's not exactly a sky, and her mother's face was white, very white, when she first got here.

And she received a lovely white robe, and since then, she's been sitting here, watching him.

She remembers all of it.

He was magnificent, from the very beginning. The first day she met him, when he was over, talking with Albus – and that was all they ever seemed to do, talk; they said they were 'planning' – he had seemed so handsome and confident and sure of himself. And she was young and innocent and very, very naïve.

She doesn't think she is naïve anymore. Not even when her mother gives her those grief-stricken, pitying looks.

He was always around Albus. He didn't care about her. She knew that. It didn't seem to matter.

He was always hurting her. She doesn't remember a time when he made her happy, when there was anything to justify such feelings for him, but she does remember the cold glances that pierced through her like a knife, the ignorance of her entirely, the way he never seemed to speak to her directly, leaving her alone and empty. Hours later, they would find her howling, but they never understood why. They blamed it on her madness, and sometimes she did too. She certainly was mad.

And still, she watches him.

She remembers that day, not so long ago, when they were screaming, and the lights were flashing, and there was chaos, and she went out to stop them. She remembers his very fierce eyes when the light hit her, because that was the last thing she saw before waking up in this white place.

When she awoke, her mother was here, crying. And she didn't understand why she was crying, when they were in a lovely white place, that had no screaming or flashing lights or chaos. And her mother, who'd just disappeared one day, months before, was here and okay, and everything was fine.

And when she got here, her mother held her very tightly, and cried into the top of her head, heavy, salty tears. And she cursed, and whispered, "That boy was hell on earth the minute he arrived, and look what he's done now." And she wanted to argue that really, it wasn't just him, it was Albus and Aberforth too, but her mother didn't look perfectly okay, so she didn't say anything, and just let her blame him.

Albus and Aberforth aren't here, but she can see them, if she sits in the one room, but mostly she doesn't want to see them, she wants to see him.

And she watches him. And she doesn't feel so mad anymore. And her mother cries often, and is gone the rest of the time. And she watches him leave her brothers and her neighbourhood, and her brothers distance themselves from each other.

And life goes on. Not for her. But for him.

(Because he's not in the white place where everyone is sad.)