Chapter Ten: A Very Eventful Evening
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Aurora and her friends made their way to the library after the S.P.A.M. meeting, eager to have an excuse not to start on the petition. They made their way over to a table in the corner, as far from Madam Pince's range of hearing as they could get. Before they had sat down, Jamie gave a soft squeal of excitement and promptly headed for the opposite end of the library. Aurora followed her progress to see that she was being welcomed by a table of Slytherins.

"Maybe we should start calling her the Slytherin Queen," Kim said disgustedly. Aurora had to smile as she noticed the group was staring at Jamie as if she was a queen. "I don't know what's so special about them. And why do they worship her? I mean, she's a nice person and everything, but give me a break!"

"I don't know what to tell you, Kim." Aurora said, turning back to the friends at her own table. They all looked at Erin expectantly.

"Don't look at me! Maybe they like her because she doesn't look down on them," she said pointedly as she stared at Kim.

"All I know is that I wouldn't trust a Slytherin farther than I could throw them," Kim replied grumpily.

"I agree!" Ron stated emphatically. Erin turned to him in surprise.

"Ronnie!"

"What?" he asked huffily. "Every dark wizard ever has come out of Slytherin. I've heard the whole lot of them followed You-Know-Who when he was in power. Just look at Malfoy if you want proof! We all hate him!"

"Jamie doesn't," Kim said quietly, staring after her friend. The silence that followed was awkward, and Aurora took it upon herself to lighten the mood.

"Hey guys, I want to show you something." She pulled out the deck of cards Steven had given her before term and set them on the table.

"A deck of cards?" Ron scoffed.

"It's a Muggle set of cards," Aurora corrected him. "Steven gave them to me. Want to see a magic trick?"

"Aurora, we all do magic." Ron was snickering again, but stopped when Erin shot him a dirty look.

"That's the point," Aurora explained shortly. "It doesn't use magic at all, but Muggles think it does. Now watch." She shuffled the cards a few times, even letting Harry cut the deck twice. Then she dealt out several cards, face down on the table. "Okay. Kim, look at those cards, then pick one in your mind. Don't show it to anyone, but remember your card." Kim did as she was told, then nodded as she memorized her card. "Good. Now, put the pile you just looked at back in my deck, and I'll ask you what card you picked." She waited while Kim put the cards in the deck. "What was your card?"

"Seven of Clubs," she answered. They watched as Aurora began dealing out the cards, spelling out seven of clubs. When she flipped the last card over, sure enough, it was Kim's card.

"Cool!" Ron said. "My dad would love to see that. And you didn't use magic at all?"

"Nope, it's all very simple."

"How'd you do it?" Kim asked, her eyes wide.

"As Steven always tells me, a good magician never reveals her secrets!"

"That's simple!" The friends looked up to see Draco standing at the front of a group of students who'd wandered over, Vincent, Gregory, and Basil right behind him.

"True, but only if you know how," Aurora told him.

"Can't be that hard," he sneered.

"Go on then," she said, handing over the deck. "Let's see you do it." He looked down at the cards in his hand, then back at Aurora.

"Petty Muggle tricks don't impress me. I don't need to prove that by showing you up, Rinkle."

"Oh, come on, Doofus. I'd love to see you fail miserably." There were chuckles from many of the students as Draco's face began to turn red. He threw the cards at her, sending them fluttering in all directions. Aurora smiled as she flicked her wand, causing them to stack themselves neatly in their box. Draco bullied his way through the crowd, calling his cronies as Basil hesitated briefly.

"Good trick," he muttered before he followed his friends. Aurora gaped at her friends.

"Did he say what I think he said?" Kim nodded, her eyes reflecting her own amazement. They had little time to discuss it as Madam Pince pushed her way through the crowd, standing at the end of the table with her hands on her hips.

"What's going on over here? This is a library, Miss Rinkle, not a stage. I suggest you move this exhibition outside of the castle if you want to show off."

"Sorry, Madam Pince. I'll put them away." Harry grinned at her as Madam Pince shooed what remained of the quickly dispersing crowd of students back to their own tables.

"That was a neat trick, Aurora. Do you know any more?"

"Tons! Steven is a Muggle stage magician, remember? He even told me in his last letter that he might be going on tour in America soon." After another glare from Madam Pince, she shoved the cards in her bag and pulled out her Potions book. "I think we'd better do our homework before she throws us out," she whispered. Harry nodded and pulled out his own Potions book.

"I've got to finish last week's assignment. With S.P.A.M. and quidditch practice, I haven't had a chance to do it – and I know Snape will try to expel me if I don't get it done."

"Nah, he'll probably just have you disembowel some toads," Kim offered from across the table. They began giggling uncontrollably, drawing the librarian to their table again.

"That's it. You lot need to leave now. Some people are trying to study!" Still laughing, the five of them picked up their books and left.

"We could go down to the Great Hall," Harry offered.

"Or we could sit outside while it's still warm enough," countered Kim.

"It doesn't matter to me; let's just decide sometime this century!"

"You're so over-dramatic, Ronnie," Erin chided as they walked down the stairs.

"The Great Hall it is, then!" Aurora announced, leading the way. Dinnertime was still an hour away, so they settled themselves in front of a window at the Ravenclaw table. There was soon no noise except the scratching of quills, and as Aurora finished her assignment, her eyes fell on her open palm, and she thought again of Erin's predictions. With the confirmation from her father that morning about events that had already happened, she was now obliged to take the rest of her friend's observations seriously.

Aurora thought of the note she'd received – would the person who sent it really come after her? She'd been so busy trying to determine who the people in the photograph were that she hadn't really been bothered by the message that had accompanied it.

I'm not going to die, she scolded herself. But despite her best efforts, she couldn't squash the knot of fear that had settled into her stomach.

Severus glanced up from the papers he was grading as Aurora wandered into the classroom after dinner. His quill paused, poised to mark through an entire paragraph of a Gryffindor essay, as he evaluated her expression. Her eyes were haunted, as though she'd just come across a bit of worrisome news.

"Are you feeling all right?" he asked as she reached his desk, handing her wand over without preamble. She nodded briefly.

"Am I going to scrape desks again?" Her voice held no trace of sarcasm, and every alarm in his mind sounded.

"No, you'll be writing a punishment paper on tardiness tonight," he replied, scrutinizing her face. "You're quite sure you aren't ill?"

"I'm fine," she repeated, setting her bag on the desk and withdrawing a roll of parchment. "Here's the late assignment. How long do you want tonight's paper?"

"Three feet should be sufficient," he said, not convinced that all was well. His eyes followed her as she sat at the desk before him, pulling out her supplies. She steadfastly ignored his piercing gaze as she began to write, yet he continued to stare at her, noticing for the first time how her hair reflected the candlelight, just as Marie's had.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he noticed Aurora standing next to his desk, confusion plain on her face.

"Father?" she asked tentatively. "Are you all right?"

"What? Of course, why?" He snatched his quill from the inkpot and made as though he was grading the papers before him.

"It's just that I've been standing here for about five minutes, but you didn't seem to see me," she replied, her brow furrowed.

"Have you finished already?" he asked, his eyes trained on the paper.

"No. My quill broke, and I don't seem to have an extra one."

"You may borrow one from the top drawer of the desk in my office," he said shortly. He saw her proceed through the door out of the corner of his eye, and began to grade the papers in earnest.

After a few moments, he raised his eyes to her empty chair, and frowned. What is keeping her? He stood and strode to his office door, the scathing comment he had been about to utter dying on his lips as he saw that she was standing at his desk, staring at a photograph in her hand.

In an instant, he was standing next to her, tearing the photograph from her and slipping it into the pocket of his robes. He yanked open the top drawer of the desk and withdrew a quill from a box in the corner. "I believe this is what you were searching for?" he hissed. She took it tentatively from his hands, and he erupted.

"How dare you snoop through my desk!" he growled. Aurora cringed, but then looked up at him, tears shimmering in her eyes.

"Is -is that really her?" she asked, her voice trembling.

Severus' jaw clenched of its own accord as he asked the question to which he already knew the answer: "Who?"

"The woman in the photograph. It's her, isn't it? My mother." He didn't need to look at it to verify. It was the only photograph he had of Marie. Taken long before everything had fallen apart. For a split second, he thought about denying Marie's identity, about keeping her in the dark a little while longer, but found himself nodding tersely.

"Yes." His voice was crisp, his tone short, as his hand found the photo again, as though reassuring himself that it had not been lost.

"Please," Aurora pleaded, her eyes fixed on his pocket. "Can't I just – look at it once more?" Again, Severus felt the urge to deny her request, and again, on its own accord, his hand brought the picture from the safety of his robes. His daughter took it gingerly, silent tears streaming down her face as she gazed at it.

"She's so beautiful," she said, tracing the outline of her mother with her finger. She tore her gaze away from the figures on the paper to stare up at him, her eyes reflecting her astonishment. "You're both so young. And you're smiling."

"Even I have lapses in character," he shot back, now regretting allowing her to study it. "And I was also a teenager once." He held his hand out expectantly, but she made no move to return it. She was studying it as before, but now her brow was furrowed in concentration. Suddenly, she gasped, her grip allowing the photo to fall towards the floor.

Irritated, Severus plucked it from the air and again pocketed it, and then turned his attention to his daughter, a reprimand on the tip of his tongue. It was forgotten as he saw her face – it had gone white, as though she'd seen a ghost. Her slight body began to shake violently, and he grabbed her shoulder to keep her from toppling over.

"What is it?" he asked quickly, scrutinizing her face.

"N-nothing," she stammered. "I think – I've got to finish that assignment," she muttered. He relaxed his grip, his eyes narrowed as she went back into the classroom. Something was most definitely wrong.

Aurora walked back to the desk, still a little shaken. She tried to focus on finishing her paper, but her mind kept wandering back to the photograph. Her mother - she had actually seen her mother. And her father's smile had not been forced – he had actually looked as though he was enjoying himself.

If her father had not allowed her a second look, she doubted she would have noticed. But she did get another chance to study the image, and she did notice – it wasn't the first time she'd seen her mother at all. She'd been dreaming about her for over a month – her mother was the corpse from the clipped photo, she was sure of it.

She struggled to finish her punishment paper, finally scribbling an ending that brought it to just three feet, and then took it up to her father's desk. She was anxious to get back to her dorm to check the photo hidden in her trunk, but her father didn't seem as eager for her to go.

"What are you keeping from me?" he asked quietly, setting her paper to the side without a second glance.

"Nothing," she protested, studiously avoiding meeting his gaze. She'd found that he was somehow less inclined to guess what she was hiding if she kept them averted. His eyes felt as though they would burn a hole through her forehead before he finally dismissed her, his irritation thinly masked.

Aurora hurried back to the common room, but was accosted by Kim and Erin before she could reach the dorm.

"Did you hear?" Erin asked.

"What?" Aurora asked, suddenly confused.

"Jamie got caught kissing Malfoy!" Kim proclaimed, her eyes dancing with glee.

"By who?"

"Professor Sinistra! They got ten points off a piece, and a detention to boot!" Erin told her, laughing.

"Where were they?" Aurora asked, unable to suppress a grin.

"The Astronomy tower," Kim revealed. "Professor Sinistra was going up to prepare for tonight's class. Couldn't you just die?"

"It isn't funny," Jamie grumbled as she entered the common room. "I've just got back from Flitwick's office, and he was not happy. Told me I was too young to have those sorts of feelings for anyone yet. He seemed even more upset that it was Draco I was kissing." She sank into a chair by the fire. "My parents are going to kill me when they find out!" she moaned.

"Is he writing to your parents, then?" Kim asked, struggling to keep a straight face.

"He said he was, so I guess that means he will," Jamie answered grumpily.

"What were you doing kissing Doofus in the first place?" Aurora asked.

"Don't call him that! He's a nice guy, he really is!"

"Maybe to you," Aurora relented skeptically. But she still didn't understand why Jamie seemed blinded to Draco's true personality.

Aurora wanted to wait until she was sure her dorm mates were asleep before looking at the newspaper photo again, but she had nearly dozed off herself by the time they had finished teasing Jamie about Professor Sinistra's behavior towards her and Draco during that evening's Astronomy class. When the giggles had at last died down, she crept from her bed and slipped the clipping from beneath a stack of her robes.

It was difficult to be positive – the woman on the floor was lying on her back, but long locks of hair hid her face from view – but when Aurora looked at her, a lump rose in her throat.

It makes sense, she reasoned, replacing the photo in her trunk. It had been in her sitting room at Spinner's End, and her father had been present – the corpse had to be her mother. She shook her head as she climbed beneath her covers, chiding herself for not having figured it out sooner.

Sleep came fairly quickly, but as Aurora closed her eyes, she found that she was standing in the sitting room. Her mother was directly beside her, murmuring to a squirming toddler on her lap. Aurora found her hand reaching out of its own accord, and was disappointed – but not really surprised - to find that it passed right through her mother's arm.

For a moment, Aurora was able to bask in the peace that seemed to emanate from the petite woman in the rocking chair by the fire. She was murmuring a lullaby as she rocked, her gentle hazel eyes gazing into the fire.

Suddenly the rocking and murmuring ceased, and her mother's back stiffened as her eyes flew towards the front door. Her arms tightened around the baby as she rose from the chair, her eyes frantically searching the room until they came to rest on a bookcase Aurora knew hid the entrance to a secret stairwell.

"Hush, angel," she whispered as the child began to fuss. She set her down gently on the stair, muttering a spell to keep her still and quiet.

"Lumos!" A meager ball of light appeared in the closet, illuminating the interior as her mother kissed the top of her head, a tear rolling down her check. "Mummy loves you very much, Aurora," she said, caressing the baby's cheek before quickly shutting the door. Aurora suddenly found herself in the closet with her younger self, unable to get out. She heard a crash from the other room, and the baby began to cry in earnest.

Aurora heard her mother scream, "Severus!" right before she saw the now-familiar green light through the cracks around the door. The baby was still screaming, but the other room remained ominously quiet. Aurora began sobbing, vaguely realizing that she was awake, and back in her own bed at Hogwarts. Is that how it had happened? Had her mother been murdered?