September 1st came quickly and Aura was soon boarding the Hogwarts Express with Draco. She looked around for the boy from the bookshop but couldn't find him anywhere so she settled for sitting with Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, and Draco.
They were soon talking about how Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban.
"I think he must have bribed a Dementor." Draco said.
"That's ridiculous. It's impossible to bribe a Dementor." Pansy said.
"I agree." Aura said absentmindedly.
"So anything interesting happen this summer?" Pansy asked them.
"My family and I stayed in one of our manors in Norway." Draco responded, smugly.
"I got a new familiar." Aura said as Pansy's mouth dropped.
"Another one? You already have Midnight though." She said.
"Well my father said I could have another one. I had to get special permission though, they're not on the normal list of pets."
"What is it?" Pansy asked, intrigued.
"Three guesses what it is. I think it's pretty cool but it better not bite me." Draco said, looking at Aura's arm cautiously.
"Oh come on! Is it a bird? A dog? A mouse?"
"Nope. It's a snake. A coral snake." Aura said, retrieving her familiar from her sleeve.
"Oh Merlin! No way am I sleeping in the same dormitory as that thing!" Pansy shrieked, shying away from it.
"It's…nice." Millicent said, obviously freaked out by it as well.
"It won't bite you, Pansy. Her name is Arista and she won't bite unless I tell her to. She'll be in her small tank anyways when we're in classes and when we're sleeping. The rest of the time she'll be on my arm." Aura said, stroking Arista's head.
"I still don't want it too close to me." Pansy grumbled. Aura rolled her eyes at her and said,
"I'm going to go and see the rest of the team. I want to see when we'll start practice."
Aura exited the compartment and walked to find Marcus Flint and his friends.
"Hi Marcus." She said, sliding into the compartment where the team was.
"Aura, you're here, good. I have a whole new training schedule. I'm sure all of you are going to be on the team again. Especially Malfoy, that kid is a good Chaser."
"When do we start practice?" Bethany Hanson asked.
"Soon. We'll have to ask Madam Hooch tonight if we can book the Quidditch Pitch for the rest of the week. We'll train nearly every night. It's Wood's last year as captain so we'll probably need all the tricks in the book to beat him. Um…Aura? What's that?" He asked pointing to the black head showing itself from under her sleeve.
"It's my new familiar. I got permission from Dumbledore to bring it. Look." She said, pulling the snake out gently.
"A snake?" Bethany Hanson asked, a mild look of disgust and fear on her face.
"It's a coral snake. Her name is Arista and don't worry she won't bite." Aura said, smiling at all their astonished faces.
"It is a cool pet." Flint said, mildly surprised. "I guess the fact that you can speak to it makes it even cooler. Are you taking it to classes?"
"No, I can't. I can take her anywhere except the classrooms."
"Wicked. This will scare some of the Gryffindors to death. Especially those squealing girls." Adrian Pucey said, reaching out to pet Arista.
"I'm going back to Draco's compartment. I'll see you guys later." Aura said, picking up her snake and walking back. It was dark outside and they were nearing Hogwarts.
The train lurched as Aura entered the compartment, causing her to fall into Draco's lap.
"Sorry, Draco." Aura said as he helped her sit down in the darkness.
"What's going on?" Pansy asked nervously, wishing she were sitting next to a boy she could cuddle with.
A large cloaked figure entered the compartment and it spread its decayed hands towards Aura who leaned against Draco as he wrapped his arms around her.
Suddenly, Aura could see the compartment no longer; instead she saw her worst memories over and over again, a feeling of hopelessness washing over her. She buried her face into Draco's shirt and tried to stop shaking as she heard the sound of a dagger cutting flesh and the screaming of children and infants.
It moved towards Aura for a split second, but then glided back out just as both Flint and Bethany Hanson ran in. Silently, Bethany put her arm around Aura's shoulders and guided her outside again as she shook and tears streamed down her face. Both of them hid Aura well enough that no one else could see her.
They led her to the prefect compartment where the bronze-haired boy was sitting in, pulling on his cloak. Aura was absolutely mortified.
"Are you ok?" Bethany asked, sitting her down.
"I'm fine." Aura answered, coloring.
"What the hell was the thing that stopped the train?" The boy asked angrily.
"Dementor, Diggory." Flint told him coldly, turning to Aura.
"You're the girl from Diagon Alley who was looking up the curses and hexes." The boy said, recognizing her.
Aura nodded at him as both Bethany and Flint gave her incredulous looks.
"I'm Cedric Diggory."
"Aura. It's nice to meet you." She said, smiling weakly at him.
"This is just fucking perfect that the train gets stopped and it's raining like--"
"I'm sure Professor Snape will be very displeased to hear the language you're using in front of his daughter." Flint informed him as Cedric paled.
"Can you just not--"
"I won't mention it, Cedric, don't worry." Aura said, giving him a tiny smile.
"You're staying in the prefect compartment so that Bethany can get you to the hospital wing and I'll inform your father about the incident." Flint ordered, sounding much like he did on the Quidditch Pitch.
Aura nodded and was extremely thankful she had worn a black cloak with dark colors underneath so she wasn't that noticeable.
"Come on, we're here." Bethany said, leading her down from the train.