Rewrite of an old story. More details on my Face Book page, flowerchild33fanfic.
Chapter 1 – A Prediction
Aurora Sinistra rolled over in bed to look at her lover. He was a bit odd and they were definitely an odd couple, but she realized she was falling in love. His unusual appearance was a front for a wickedly sharp mind and a dry sense of humor. He was also deeply compassionate and she marveled at his ability to deal with the most troublesome students. 'Plus he is ferocious in bed' she thought to herself as she remembered their most recent night of passion and began to heat up again. Yes, Filius had slowly stolen her heart.
They had known each other for several years, as professors at Hogwarts, but only a few months ago had the relationship changed. They were very careful to hide it from others, especially the headmaster. She suspected Minerva may be catching on, but she trusted Minerva to remain quiet, especially since Minerva had her own secrets. The main problem that Aurora had was that the relationship had become particularly distracting. A month ago she had been called away to attend to her sister, who had contracted a particularly nasty strain of dragon pox. Aurora had gone to France to stay with her and thankfully her sister was almost fully healed. Aurora had returned to Hogwarts two days ago and restarted her classes that night, but found it hard to focus as she longed to be with him again. She and Filius had both been busy, but now had finally managed to steal a couple of hours for themselves.
As she pondered, Filius began to awaken from his doze and his mustache twitched with a smile. She leaned over and began kissing him, but had to pull herself back before she got too heated up.
"Filius baby I need to go. The castle will start waking up soon."
Filius sighed and nodded, understanding that she needed to head down the back corridor from his apartment and return to her own apartment at the base of the astronomy tower before anyone was awake to notice. Aurora reluctantly pulled herself out of his bed and began dressing. Filius watched her and was beginning to be aroused again when she finished and gave him one last kiss before slipping quietly out of his apartment.
Later that day Aurora woke and headed down to lunch. She kept unusual hours since her classes were all at night, which meant she slept through most of the morning. Her schedule did make it difficult to find time to be with Filius, but at least it was only three nights a week. After lunch, Aurora returned to her office and began working on lesson plans. There was an unusual sequence of astronomical events that were about to occur and she was working on a special lesson for her fifth year students. As she worked through the lesson, Aurora refined her calculations from two days previous. She had seen this event coming months before, but her sister's illness had delayed her calculations. As she ran her numbers she realized something wasn't quite right. Her calculations were off and she had to find the error.
Almost three hours later, Aurora dropped her quill as she fixed the calculations. What she saw was shocking. Something on this magnitude hadn't occurred in over six hundred years if her calculations were finally correct. It was a hideously complicated alignment, which was why she had had such a difficult time with it. If it was true, then the potential ramifications were staggering. To reassure herself, she did a few backward calculation steps at key intervals to ensure that she really was seeing what she thought. She completely lost track of time and missed dinner, but she was finally sure. 'Merlin! This is going to wreak havoc.' she thought. Aurora knew that she needed to report her findings, but it would have to wait. Her 9 pm class with first years was almost ready to begin. It was her earliest class and at that hour they mainly studied lunar cycles and behavior, but it was good practice for future work. Shaking her head, she organized her papers and proceeded up the astronomy tower.
Later that evening, after her first and third year classes, Aurora decided to report her findings first to the headmaster. Then she would ask his opinion on going to the Ministry. She couldn't believe the Ministry hadn't already found what she had, but it was a difficult alignment and in the last few years the Ministry cut backs had dropped their astronomy 'department' to just three people. Cornelius Fudge held little regard for the complicated science that was astronomy and his lack of imagination disregarded the effects that the heavens could have on any individual person.
Aurora reached Dumbledore's gargoyle and said the current password, 'fudge flies'. She waited, but there was no response and the door to his office didn't open. With nothing else to do, she made her way back to the staff room where she had last seen Minerva. In the staff room, she was pleased to see that Minerva was still there despite the late hour, and went over to talk to her.
"Minerva, I need to talk to Albus, but I received no response from his gargoyle."
Minerva smiled as she responded. "Albus has been called away for a couple of days. Another one of his 'errands'. He actually left just a couple of hours ago. I had planned on telling everyone in the morning at our staff meeting. I'm his deputy while he's gone, so maybe I can help?"
Aurora chewed her lip and thought for a moment before replying. "Hmm, ok Minerva, but can we talk in your office? I know it's late, but this is important."
Minerva smiled, drank the last sip of her tea, and then escorted Aurora down the hall to her office. When the two women entered, Minerva sat in her favorite armchair and offered another to the astronomy professor. Aurora sat quickly and then began to explain.
"Minerva, I've spent a good portion of my day working out some very difficult computations on an unusual astronomical alignment. It's something I saw a hint of a couple of months ago, but with my family emergency, I neglected to look closer until I returned. Now the alignment is almost upon us and I fear it may be too late."
Minerva raised an eyebrow and looked concerned as she replied. "Aurora I respect your abilities tremendously and if this alignment took you hours of work, then I know it must be complex. Can you please explain more, and remember that astronomy is one of my few weak areas."
Taking a deep breath, Aurora continued. "Let me start with a bit of background reminder for you Minerva. You know that there are two major areas of celestial events, an occultation and a conjunction? Well, when I first saw a glimpse of this months ago I thought it was a potential conjunction, which would have some impact, but not severe. My most recent calculations indicate that we will actually be experiencing an occultation on Thursday evening. That means, that rather than just being close, the bodies in question will actually be in alignment, a RARE alignment. This greatly increases the impact. The bodies in question specifically are Venus, Earth and Mars. Venus will be in the dominant position and will hold the most sway. In addition, there is a lunar eclipse happening the same evening that adds to the complexity and will increase the impact. An alignment of this magnitude hasn't happened in over six hundred years."
Minerva regarded her colleague and then spoke. "This is all very interesting Aurora, but can you explain what this means on an individual level?"
The astronomy professor drew a breath before continuing. "First, Venus has occulted with Earth before. There were effects, but nothing too severe. Where I am concerned is the fact that this occultation is actually happening when Venus is at its closest position to our planet. Also, the involvement of Mars is a real issue. Venus, as you know, is the planet whose movements mostly impact the desire and procreation drives of an individual. As some would say, it's the love planet. Mars on the other hand is the opposite. It impacts the carnal fires that effect the mood and temper of each individual. Mars is thus called the war planet. Having love and war vying for position with Earth in the mix is where the problem arises. Venus is in the dominant though and much more closely positioned, so love will dominate. Then there is the added influence of the eclipse. The moon of course effects the tidal patterns on earth and also the moods of many individuals. Some are especially sensitive and of course there is the known effect of more births occurring during full moons than at any other time of the month. My calculations indicate that the lunar eclipse will basically amplify the effect of the other alignment."
Again, Aurora stopped and waited for Minerva to absorb what she had said.
"So basically we will have an amplified period of love on the night after next? What does that mean? Should we reschedule Valentine's Day? Does that mean that we will have some peace between Slytherin and Gryffindor? I really don't think that would be all bad, but do you think something needs to be done to prepare?"
Aurora sighed. She knew Minerva was trying to understand, but hadn't really grasped the implications of what she had been presented. Aurora decided to be more straightforward.
"Minerva, what this means is that the libido of everyone in the magical world will be at a heightened point. Desires will be even more difficult to control. This includes of course, every student at Hogwarts. My recommendation would be to restrict all inter-house fraternizing, as well as placing monitors in all student dorms."
Minerva pondered for almost five minutes while Aurora sat in silence, then she spoke. "Aurora, I appreciate you coming to me with this. Tonight is Tuesday and this alignment is due for Thursday night. Friday is a test day for most classes and I expect every student will be cramming. We also have the Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw Quidditch match this weekend and I know practices have increased in preparation. With everything else going on, I think everyone will be more than busy and I don't think this alignment is going to sway them enough to cause much of an issue."
Aurora spoke up to object. "Minerva, I don't think you are fully appreciating this and I respectfully have to disagree. Also, I feel that I should inform the Ministry of what I've found. This alignment will impact the entire magical community. Thankfully, muggles feel very little effect from such astronomical events."
"I understand and you may present your findings to the Ministry. They can decide how they wish to act on it. As for this school, I cannot allow it to be disturbed by a slight probability of astronomical mischief."
With that, Aurora could tell that the deputy headmistress had made up her mind. She sighed and got up to leave.
"Thank you for listening to me Minerva. I truly hope I am wrong. I will send an owl to the Ministry immediately." With that said, she left the office.
The next day was Wednesday and Aurora was just waking up mid-morning when an owl tapped on her window. She opened the window to allow it to enter and untied the letter it carried. As the owl flew off, she began reading the note from the Ministry. The note was quite brief and basically said that the Ministry's Astronomical Research Department had looked at her calculations, thanked her for the information, and came to the conclusion that they were not concerned about any possible minimal impact. Aurora threw the parchment into her fire and felt like screaming. Eight years at Hogwarts, five years additional study, nine years working in various consulting positions and four years as a professor had apparently amounted to nothing as far as credibility with the Ministry. She had done all she could, now she would just have to wait and see what the consequences were. She had no classes Thursday night and had decided that she would make sure to be with Filius for evening. Others may not believe, but Aurora was ready to take advantage of her predictions.
That evening Professor Aurora Sinistra had a class of fifth years on the astronomy tower and the focus of the lesson was on the unique alignment that was due the following day. Although the calculations she had done were complex, she did have the students map the individual paths of each of the involved heavenly bodies. She made no mention of her prediction on the meaning of the alignment. Truthfully, her area of expertise was normally focused on the scientific aspects of astronomy. Delving into the magical workings and effects of astronomy was more Professor Trelawney's area, but it was also an area of special study that Aurora had personally pursued. She didn't dare make mention of it to Sybil, who would have probably taken the information and divined that half the school would die in a massive orgy due to the alignment. Aurora had little regard for Sybil and her supposed abilities and often wondered why she had stayed on at Hogwarts for so long. It was one of the few areas where Aurora disagreed with the headmaster.