It happened so fast, before she knew it she was back at the ministry via the floo network in Lorence's office.

"Welcome back!" Melanie was still trying, Aura didn't reply to her.

She was put into her room again, locked away inside the small and extremely cold room, locked away from most human contact. The dementors weren't really any use, the one thing the ministry learned was that dementors seemed to resist her and possibly fear her. She emanated her own light that scared them away. Instead, they were kept outside of her room for the purpose of keeping others from coming in and stealing her away. Not that they would. She couldn't help but be pessimistic now that she was back and Hogwarts seemed so surreal.

Within two hours of her being back, they came for her. Another test.

"Please cooperate this time, or so help me I will go off the deep end," The usual white labcoat doctor came in the room, his face and hair masked with the usual setup a doctor would wear when going into surgery. It was time for a checkup.

The first few times Aura refused to let them examine her, she was such a rebellious child. After so long she gave up and let them do whatever they wanted to her, but never revealed her true magic. She didn't really know if it was just because she wasn't trying or because it wasn't there, but she feared what they would do if she did end up having some strange power that set her apart from others.

As the small girl stood up, she pulled her dress over her head and shivered in her under things. He did a basic check-up before leaving the room. She knew the worst was yet to come, so she quickly threw on her clothes again. It was too cold to go around half-naked.

She waited by the door instinctively and they came to get her. She never knew which room it would be in, never knew exactly where she was because they blindfolded her every time. She didn't know any of the pathways, the ministry was too afraid that she would commit it to memory and devise an escape route.

She heard the creak of a heavy metal door and was shoved inside the room. The door banged behind her and she heard a familiar voice.

"You may take off the blindfold," The voice said. This was the usual routine; the voice always said the same things. She couldn't match the voice to a face, though. Maybe that's what they wanted, she never really knew.

She took it off and found herself in a simple room with a table. On the table there were four objects. First object was a small chest, second and third was a key, and the fourth was a wand. My wand.

She walked to the table and instantly reached for the wand only to stop herself. This was a test; there was a right and wrong choice. It's obvious to pick up the wand and use magic to open the chest, but the keys are a normal choice as well. There might be an enchantment on the chest, too.



They had not made it easy, that was for sure. She took a few more minutes to contemplate before deciding to stick with the wand. No matter how many times she'd gone through her head, she couldn't see a key protecting her against something magical.

"Alohamora!" The lock, as expected, didn't click open. There was certainly some trick to this.

She pointed her wand at the box and silently willed it to open. Nothing. She willed harder but ended up feeling nauseous. The voice returned.

"You have three minutes to figure it out or the punishment will be severe."

The usual fear filled her and she tried every spell she had learned on the chest, but nothing. Aura held tight to the wand and picked up one key, stuffing it into the lock. At first it seemed like nothing would happen, but a small substance leaked through the cracks of the chest and formed in front of her.

There before her was a quivering house elf, and one she recognized.

"M-Maisy!" She smiled brightly, but the little elf's expression made her take a step back.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but they offered me freedom. I'm sorry!" Maisy took a step forward, shaking violently. She wondered if the elf would attack or just start punishing herself right then and there.

"Maisy, I don't want to hurt you-"

"PLEASE KILL ME!" The elf cut her off, falling to her knees before Aura.

A tear trickled down her cheek as she shook her head. "I can't."

"PLEASE!" The elf raised her palm and a stream of light came sailing full force at her. She used a shield charm, but seconds too late. The force of Maisy's attack knocked the wind out of her and put her on the floor, too.

"I don't want to hurt you!" Aura cried, Maisy was crying too.

"MAISY IS A BAD ELF, PLEASE! YOU HAVE TO SAVE YOURSELF!" Maisy shot another powerful blow that went right through the charm.

Aura gasped and wheezed, knowing her nose was broken. "Stop! Why are you doing this to me?" She cried.

"Maisy was ordered to! SHE WAS ORDERED TO KILL AURA!"

Aura cried and as Maisy raised another hand, she shot a binding spell. "Petrificus totalus!"

Maisy allowed the spell to hit her while crying, "Just kill me, please just kill Maisy, she wants you to. Please kill Maisy, the bad elf. Please!"

Unable to handle the elf's pleas, she pointed her wand at the small trembling creature and silenced her.



She sat on the floor, wanting nothing more than to sob over this terrible task. She knew that if she didn't kill the poor elf, the ministry would have.

"You have one minute to complete the task," The voice was cold, as always. It made Aura tremble.

"I don't want to," She replied, but at the same time she stood on shaking legs and made it over to the table again.

With shaky hands she picked up the remaining key and shoved it into the lock, knowing that if she didn't do it quickly she wouldn't have to courage to do it at all.

The chest flew open and a ball of silvery looking strands came up and out of it. The ball formed slowly into an older version of her, making her gasp in surprise.

"M-"

"Oh child, I didn't want it to come down to this," The astonishing figure, who was much taller and slimmer than Aura, said with a calm expression. She had pointed ears and gleaming silver eyes, her hair the same brown as the girl before her, except it didn't have any orange shine to it.

"Come to wh-what?"

"I left you to suffer in this world because I didn't want to deal with you myself. Oh, well." The figure, with a swipe of her hand, had Aura on the floor grasping her neck.

"Nnn," Was all she could say as she choked and gasped. She was being suffocated, deprived of air. She had always imagined a mother, just never one so cruel, so astonishingly cold that she wished she didn't exist.

"Pain, my child, that's all you would have given me. I'm glad I have the chance to truly discard of you!" She laughed, a merciless laugh that filled the room.

In that instant her head was filled with images. She saw her friends; Census, Raven, Sephora, and strangely enough she even saw Scorpius. In her mind they willed her to try, to fight. Hogwarts called her back…

With great effort she lifted up her wand and screamed the strongest curse she knew. The woman disappeared, laughing as she went. The room went dark and she knew it was over, she had satisfied them. She would go back to her room and have a session of crying, then sleep would take her over and the pain would still be there in the morning. Life seemed hopeless, but she would try. For Hogwarts, for my friends.