Disclaimer: anything you recognise, not mine. Dat iz J.K. Rowling's. Sadly. I only own Aurora and the crew.
Thanks to Zahrah (her pen name won't show up), Lilypad333, InsaneOnTheInside and SkyMistle214 for reviewing! I get inspiration from your kickass reviews!
And thanks also to two of my BFFLs Zahrah and Lilypad333- you two are A-wesome!
Enjoy!
Last time on Whispers And Lies:
"Duck!" I shouted at Potter, tugging on his arm, trying to make him go down.
BOOM!
I was knocked to the floor, covered in black gunk.
Oh shit.
And then I fainted.
0o0
"You're such an idiot, Potter! You added too much Shrivelfig juice!"
"Shut up Mia! You're going to wake her up!"
"She won't wake up yet! And you! Potter! What is wrong with you?"
"Hey! It was as much her fault as it was mine!"
"Seriously Al, shut up. Rory saved your pathetic arse, look where it got her! The least you could do is be thankful!"
Voices. So loud. Why were they yelling? I think I'm going to tell them to shut up. My head hurts...
"Shut the bloody hell up. Idiots." I grumbled, slowly opening my eyes.
However, I barely had any time to take in my surroundings when my vision was obscured by a mass of brown curls and someone throwing their arms around me. "RORY! You're awake!"
"No shit, Sherlock."
"and back to your normal self, I see." added another voice.
Eventually, the thing that was violently choking me through a hug (death by hugging- he he he) and was met with the sight of the stark white Hospital Wing, accompanied by four people crowded around me. One was bouncing happily on the balls of their feet, another looking relieved, one smiling and the last person... Urgh.
The last person was Potter. He had his arms crossed sulkily, but still looked reassured. Why was he here?
"So tell me. What happened to get me into the Hospital Wing?" I asked nonchalantly. I didn't remember a single thing about what happened, except for a loud boom. To be honest, I was only bothered if it was someone else had caused it. Then I would be plotting their gruesome murder (well not really...)
"Well," began Mia, "Potter over here," she continued, shooting a venomous glare at him, "and you messed up your potion. You blew it up- I think you added too much Shrivelfig juice. Anyway, you pulled him down, the pathetic thing, but you were knocked back. The potion was smoking and it was whistling like crazy. T'was weird."
"Huh. I better add that to my list of potions I can't do. And Mia- t'was? Really?" I looked at her. Mia simply shrugged and went back to glaring daggers at Potter, who was trying hard to ignore her.
He, meanwhile, had a relieved yet incredulous expression on his face. "So you aren't going to be plotting my imminent downfall?"
"No, I don't think so. It was probably some of my fault too- I'm really bad at Potions- how I even got into NEWT level Potions is beyond me. And what burst of craziness made me want to take it even if Dornan hates me." I replied, a thoughtful expression on my face at the last bit.
Everyone was staring at me dumfounded.
"No death?" asked Leah feebly.
"No plotting?" asked Roxy, confused.
I was shocked- no, I was outraged. "You know a girl for a day and a half and you think you know everything about her? I may not be the calmest person, but I'm certainly not unfair!"
"Yeah right!" scoffed Potter, in clearly what he thought was an undertone.
My gaze whipped to him in an instant and my eyes narrowed as I jabbed one accusing finger at him. "Oi! Watch it, Potter! I can easily change my mind about harming you! And when I do, it won't be pretty!"
He gulped and gave a wan smile. "Have I ever mentioned how wonderful you are, Aurora?" I smirked and lay back against the pillows.
"That's more like it."
0o0
"Can I go now? Please Madam Howell?" I asked the matron, who was currently sorting out the medicine cabinet near my bed.
"No." She replied shortly, shutting a cabinet door with a slam.
"But I'm fine! I've already been here for one night! I feel great!" I whined, throwing my hands up into the air.
"No!"
"Please?"
"No!"
"Please?"
"No!"
"Please?"
"No!"
"Please?"
"No!"
"Please?"
Madam Howell slammed the jar she had been holding onto the table and let out a frustrated shout. "Fine! Go on! You can leave!" and with that, she stormed into her office, muttering furiously about 'ungrateful students' and 'difficult patients'.
I jumped up and whooped with delight, doing a sort of happy jig as I waltzed out of the Hospital Wing, taking the box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans that the twins had got me last night on the way. Dinner was supposed to start in half an hour, but I didn't want to go up to the common room, and have to come back down almost straight away. I wandered around the bottom floors, chatting absent-mindedly to the paintings and eating some jellybeans (I got coffee, sugar, apple juice and grass, among other things). Finally, my jellybeans ran out and I decided to go to the Great Hall. Most people were already eating and when I walked in people started talking about me even more, what with the explosion- as if the current rumours weren't already enough.
I quickly spotted the twins and Roxy. They were sitting next to Potter and Scorpius. Why wouldn't they pick somewhere different? For some reason, James and Fred (one of Potter's cousins) were sitting with them. Did these people not have other friends?
A brilliant idea came to me. I crept behind Mia, telling the others to be quiet with a finger to my lips. I kept going till I was right next to her head and shouted, "BOO!"
Mia shrieked and accidently threw her plate into the air. The plate, of course, had food in it. This, of course, fell on me.
Aren't I just a lucky one?
The whole group (and the majority of the Great Hall) burst into laughter as I stood there, bits of mashed potato and gravy sliding down my hair and my face, shell-shocked. I blinked stupidly for a few seconds, with my mouth open, then shaking my head; I pulled out my badass, stardust core wand and quickly muttered a cleaning spell. The food vanished in an instant and I went and sat next to Leah, still wondering at how badly that plan backfired.
She was laughing her head off, but this was nothing in comparison to Mia. She was laughing so hard she was crying, tears pouring down her face as he laughed at my misfortune.
"Your- face!" Leah managed to gasp out.
If I was blushing before, it was pale compared to my face now. I felt it heating up and could only imagine how red it must have been, "Oh, shut up!"
This only made her, and the others, laugh harder.
"You do realise that I am never going to let you live that down, right?" giggled Roxy.
I shrugged. Potter smirked and said, "That backfired."
"Did I ask for your opinion?" I asked airily, helping myself to some food.
"Glad to see you back, Rory." said Scorpius.
"Oh my god! You people need to stop calling me Rory! It is the world's worst fricking nickname!"
"Sure thing Rory!" chorused the twins.
I ground my teeth together and ignored them, taking out my anger on the sausage on my plate. I looked up a few minutes later and saw James talking to Fred, and the girls, Potter and Scorpius arguing. I noticed that James gaze kept flicking towards Leah, who was sitting on the other side of the bench to him and that Scorp was not really joining in with the argument (clever move) and was instead making eyes at some girl on the Ravenclaw table. I couldn't be bothered to find out who it was.
Seeing as I would undoubtedly get roped into the argument if I started to talk to the girls, I decided to join the boys' conversation.
"Hey." I said.
"Hey Rory." said Fred. James just smiled and waved.
I scowled at Fred and stabbed my plate.
Fred just smirked at this. Prat. "I'm Fred Weasley. So Rory, tell me your full name. I'm pretty sure it's not mashed potato girl."
I smiled at this- looking at how it must have looked to a stranger, it was pretty funny. "I'm Aurora Perry. Sixth year Gryffindor. Same year as that insufferable idiot over there." I said, jerking my thumb in the direction of Potter.
Fred just smiled again. He had short brownish red hair and caramel skin. He was Roxy's brother and in the same year as James. "Nice to meet you Aurora- or should I say Rory?
"Please don't say Rory! PLEASE!"
"Sure thing, Rory!"
People seemed to be doing that to me a lot recently.
I groaned and let my head fall against the table repeatedly. I heard them chuckle at me and felt my head being pulled up away from the wood. In front of me sat Potter. Where did he come from? I was pretty sure he wasn't there a few minutes ago...
"Just repaying the favour- except we have no porridge." he said simply.
"Whatever." Realising how rude that sounded, I grudgingly added, "Thanks, I guess."
0o0
I was sitting in Defence Against the Dark Arts, trying to ignore the snide comments that Rose and her cronies were making at me. Professor Lupin was going on about the NEWTs (as if every other teacher hadn't already gone through that).
He was a relatively new teacher, having only started teaching here two years ago- and he was the youngest. Did you know that Professor Lupin and Rose know each other? Her uncle is his godfather. How can someone as plainly awesome as Lupin be related to slags like Rose? The mysteries of human nature befuddle me...
Suddenly, Professor Lupin turned away from the board and said, "Alright, class! We are going to recap on the work we did on duelling last year. Get into pairs and practise. Remember! No unfriendly jinxes! We do not want a repeat performance of last year!" at this, he looked particularly at Ed Thomas and David Smith. Last year, their duel went a bit... overboard and both ended up in the Hospital Wing with many ailments of varying severity.
The class got out their seats and quickly paired up. Neither of the twins or Roxy took this class, so I was virtually on my own, friend wise. Eventually, the only two people left on their own were me and... Rose. How fortunate.
Lupin came over and clapped his hands together. "Neither of you girls have a partner it seems; why don't you work together?"
Neither of us made a move to get up. We were both staring at each other, taunting each other with our eyes to see who would back down first. The hatred between us was so strong, I bet even Lupin could feel it.
"Rosie? Miss. Perry?" asked Professor Lupin, "If you don't get up and start practising, I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you a detention and take away some points."
Detention I wasn't particularly worried about, but points I did not want to lose. It appeared that Rose had the same thought because she turned away from our staring contest to face Lupin and gave him one of her 'look at me I'm so perfect and innocent' smiles. "Of course, Teddy- I mean Professor Lupin."
Satisfied, Professor Lupin smiled at us and walked away, going to inspect some other pairs. The second he turned away, Rose snapped her head around to me and glared at me. Rolling my eyes (did she really think she could intimidate me?), I got to my feet and looked her straight in the eye.
She had a warped smile on her face as she sneered, "So, Perry. Where are your little friends and my loser of a cousin? They obviously aren't really your real friends- after all, who would even want to be around something like you?"
I could handle digs at me, but just the way she talked about the twins and Roxy made me want to slap her. Gritting my teeth together and forcing myself to calm down, it took all the self restraint I had to stop me from Avada-ing her. Instead, I just settled for imaging all the oh-so creative ways of brutally murdering her- and not all of them were magical. To hell with Lupin's 'no harmful spells' rule. This bitch was going down.
Rose pulled out her wand too and stood to face me. Neither of us wanted to bow to the other, so instead we commenced another staring contest. Suddenly, a jinx came hurtling at me from Rose. I narrowly dodged it and sent one back immediately.
It continued like this, jinxes, hexes and random spells (I think Rose shot a vanishing spell at me) at each other, only just dodging them in time. We had passed the boundaries of non-harmful spells a long time ago, delving into the most complex and dangerous stuff we knew. We hadn't realised this, but we had acquired quite an audience, Lupin having stopped the others so that they could watch us. We were so caught up in our duel, we didn't notice people cheering for me or Rose. The whole time, she was whispering taunts at me, making sure they were quiet enough so that only I heard what she said.
Out of nowhere, a knockback jinx shot at me, but I didn't manage to dodge it in time. I was flipped backwards and I landed on my back, completely winded for the second time this week.
Rose strutted up to me, a smug smile on her face. "Loser. That's all you are." she said softly. But not softly enough.
The whole class, most of whom had been cheering madly just moments ago, was shocked into stunned silence; even Lupin was standing there with his mouth open. I could see why they were so gobsmacked- could their 'perfect' Rose Weasley be tormenting someone so mercilessly?
"Rose! What are you doing?" asked an angry voice from the sidelines. I turned my head to face the speaker (I had scrambled to my feet at this point) and saw Potter, face twisted in fury. It occurred to me then that I had never seen him angry- even when we annoyed him, he only got irritated. He looked scary now, his green eyes practically spitting flames and his fists clenched. Who knew black haired midgets could be scary?
Rose appeared not to have heard him. Forgetting that she had an audience, she dropped her 'I'm so nice to everyone' act and sneered at me. "This is just another thing to add to the long list of things that I am better than you at. You're a loner and you aren't nearly as smart as anyone else. Even your friends thought it would be better to leave you than stick around for longer."
"Leave her alone! What's wrong with you Rose?" shouted Potter.
My hands were balled into fists, white with fury. How dare she say things like that? I wanted nothing more than to punch her face in, make her feel a smidge of the pain she has caused me over these past years. I didn't care what would happen to me, I just did it. I swung my fist towards her face, hearing the satisfying crack as my fist made contact with her nose. Blood gushed down her face as she stumbled back and grasped her face gingerly.
Suddenly, she let out a screech of fury and lunged at me, her hands itching to wrap around my neck. I edged away from her until my back hit the solid wall. She was inches away from me when someone pulled her back and restrained her hands.
"I've had enough of this." I said, my hands still shaking in anger. Throwing one last loathing glare at Rose, I picked up my bag and stormed out of the classroom. No one followed me.
0o0
I wandered around school for a bit, hearing the bell ring to signal the end of the lesson. I stomped angrily up to Gryffindor Tower, hissed the password to the portrait and slammed it after I walked in. I flopped on to one of the couches in front of the fire. Or at least the thing which I thought was a couch.
'Ow!" yelped the 'couch'.
I jumped up in surprise and muttered apologies to the thing. I looked up and saw Potter stretched out on my favourite couch, currently clutching his stomach in pain.
"It's ok, don't worry, Rory." He grunted as he hauled himself into a sitting position, making room for me to sit down next to him. I gratefully accepted the seat, shrugging my bag of my shoulder and kicking off my shoes. I tucked my legs around me and leant my head on the headrest, staring into the flames.
We sat like that for some time, neither of us speaking. Surprisingly, I didn't feel awkward in the slightest- in fact I felt... safe?
Suddenly, Potter spoke up, shattering the comfortable silence. "I'm really sorry about Rose. I don't know what got into her- she's normally never like this."
I gave a bitter laugh at this. "Maybe this is odd for you, but for me this is the norm. She's always been like this to me."
"What?"
I just shrugged. What were you supposed to say to that?
"We used to be best friends, me and Rose. But then she changed. It mostly started after she met that Winters' girl in Ravenclaw. She never really talked to me after that. I always thought we would be friends forever, you know? We weren't just cousins back then- we were best friends. Now, we're more like the kind of distant relation that you never really talk to." He sounded wistful as he said this.
"I wouldn't know. She's never been particularly nice to me, so I can't say anything about that."
He shrugged and looked at me. Smiling, he went back to staring into the flames. Soon, I began to feel tired so I stood up and yawned. "See you, Potter. Nice talking to you, rather than threatening you. Might do it again some time."
He chuckled and stood up too. "No dinner?"
I shook my head. "Not hungry. If I feel hungry later, I might just go to the kitchens and get something."
"Sure."
I smiled and began walking to the staircase. Just as I was about to put my foot on the step, I remembered something. "Oh Potter!" I turned around to see his piercing green eyes looking quizzically at me. "Thanks."
"For what?"
"For sticking up for me. It means a lot."
He just smiled and turned away, subconsciously ruffling his hair. For some reason, when he smiled, my stomach began to twist. Wonder why?
Aww! Isn't that cute! She's so oblivious!
Well, looks like things are finally getting somewhere with Alora (for you clueless twits, that's Albus + Aurora). Wonder what'll happen in the next chapter?
If you leave a review, maybe the magic idea fairy will come visit me and will grant me with an idea!
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OMC (Oh My Cod), I just realised how badly I have abused exclamation marks in this A/N!
Anyway, that's going off tangent. Please, if you do leave a review, no flames. I do like constructive criticism as it help improve points in my writing, but I don't like it if you say you hate my story without telling me why!
Love you all, even if you want to come and kill me for writing this,
kan
(seeminglyharmless21)
Xxx
p.s- OMC! This A/N is half a page long on Word!