Man, this chapter was fun to write.
In a small bedroom overlooking the orchard, Ginevra Weasley slowly flipped through the pages of yet another Quidditch manual, this particular one detailing team strategy.
It had taken serious effort, but she had finally acquired a good dozen from the rest of her family. While neither the Twins, nor Ron possessed any manuals focusing upon becoming a Chaser, their generalist guides were more than enough to get started.
Sure, they had goaded her, and made fun of her for 'trying to be a boy' (The Twins much more so than Ron, who had become wary of her, for some reason), but their words, well, really lacked the weight they had possessed before.
The fact that they had caved after a few good threats, and a now-practiced malicious smile only helped grease the gears of progress.
Of course, that didn't stop the oft-spoken 'Ickle Gin-Gin's grown herself some teeth!' that they endlessly spewed.
You'd have thought they'd have learned after the fifth time she'd kicked them, but noooo.
Still, annoying brothers aside, Ginny was enjoying her summer to the fullest. While her parents lacked the budget necessary to buy her a new, personal broom, they had found a way. Percy, who had recently begun his own studying for some awful bureaucratic nightmare, was lending her his broom instead.
She had to promise him not to damage it, but with the Twins occasionally bringing their expertise to her practice sessions, she really wished she hadn't made that promise.
She took another deep sigh.
Yet another book retreading the same information. Occasionally, one would have details on some obscure, yet effective move, and she'd write it down for later use, but more than half seemed like they were written by someone who hadn't played Quidditch at all!
Sure, learning about the history of the game was great, but unlike Ron, her goals were weighted a bit differently.
Notably, she didn't want to just play: she wanted to win, damn it!
Placing the book down in the 'finished' pile, she reached for the next.
Only to have her fingers grasp parchment, rather than the book she was expecting.
'Oh right. The letter.' she inwardly groaned.
Although neither of the two had agreed on it before they had left for the summer, she couldn't help but feel that Aurelia, who was fast becoming her best friend, would want to stay in contact, if only to share interesting stories with one another.
'Maybe I can even convince her to try out for the team with me!' she pondered, smiling the entire way.
And then blinked.
Despite how close she had gotten with the blonde, there were still some things that didn't make sense about her.
Although by no means a bad person, she tended to be weird.
And not Lovegood weird either, just… weird.
It really was the little things that were the most unnerving, things that Ginny knew she would have overlooked, had she not spent as much time near as she had.
Things like how Aura always seemed to have her back to a wall, or how she always seemed to jolt immediately awake, unlike pretty much anyone else she had ever known. For the first week after getting back to Hogwarts, she was pretty much always extremely jumpy, rude, and oftentimes paranoid.
Not even going into her seemingly-unique, and quite blatant immunity to over a third of her magic! Ginny even occasionally caught her attempting to create new spells, although usually with mixed results. More often than not, during those days, she'd awake to the smell of burning or the sound of an explosion, and the sound of furious cussing, oftentimes in a language she couldn't even understand.
When asked about it, she had played off her experiments as a 'family magic'.
In fact, most of the strange things she did were played off as 'family magic'.
As far as family went, that was another factor. Although she hadn't really looked much into it, Ginny could only assume that Aura was a pureblood.
Not like it was easy to tell. Any attempt by a Slytherin (Or other houses, but it was usually Slytherin) to push 'blood purity' around her tended to be interrupted by an equally-angry rant, usually to the tune of 'blood means shit, but power is power'. In her own words. To be honest, Ginny worried about ever introducing Aura to the family: with a mouth like hers, it'd only be a matter of time before something crude slipped out and whipped her mother into a frenzy. Either way, it'd lead to a flurry of Mouth-Soaping hexes, none of which would likely do anything at all to the magic-resistant Witch.
Although she didn't entirely agree with her exact viewpoint, it was certainly much more accepting than the Slytherin perspective, and she was taking what she could get. Either way, it tended to piss off more than just the Slytherins: although Aura never said much about it, several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs tended to give her jeering glares as she passed.
And then came the 'personal' magic Aurelia was using itself.
Ginny had asked someone for information on one of her spells. Once.
Because that one time, when she had asked for details about the fire-chain spell she had Aura use, the shopkeeper had given her a shocked, terrified expression. Then he shooed her from the bookstore, urged her to reconsider the path she was taking, and then slammed the door behind her.
If Aura's magic was truly Dark, then why had she seemed so friendly?
Being Dark certainly explained her affinity for physical, magical, and mental violence, but beyond that, she was more or less harmless.
'Perhaps', considered Ginny, 'There is more than one shade of Dark?'
That unhappy thought out of the way, she continued.
Dark or not, Aura had played a major role: she had been her personal saviour at least twice. First with poisoning that… book thing that was eating her soul long enough for The-Boy-Who-Lived to kill it, and then, last year, protecting her from the Dementors, not just once, but twice!
Her parents still hadn't learned of the first of the two incidents, but the second had become school-wide gossip mere moments after it had occurred. And while Molly Weasley was by no means a Slytherin, she definitely had her own channels for keeping up with the gossip.
To say that she was horrified with the events would be the understatement of the year.
It had taken serious effort, but she eventually convinced her mother than, yes, the school was now safe. After all, the Dementors had been redeployed somewhere else, what with Black being spotted somewhere else.
'Black.' she snorted. 'Some criminal, huh?'
She'd been terrified out of her mind when Aura had suggested that plan, but had went through with it, if only to ensure that Aura had backup.
Being able to actually do something without her brothers overshadowing her helped, too.
Even after the event, she was terrified that Black would track her down, fake oath be damned.
It was only after Ron stopped in her in the halls to tell her the whole story (of course, he first lectured her for foolishly attacking him in the first place) did she finally feel safe.
Although she felt some guilt for having attacked an innocent person, it really served him right for sucking at communicating that badly.
According to Ron, Black, while not refuting his own stance as Dark, had revealed himself to fight for the Light.
She nodded to herself. That'd have to be the case for Aura. In the Dark, picking fighting those around her.
'Sounds a lot like her, to be honest.' she snorted.
'Tonight.' she promised, moving the letter aside, as she reached for the next book.
"Ginny!" called Ron, from the floor above.
She placed down the book, this one about broom maintenance and proper handling. Definitely one to keep on hand.
"Start getting ready! We're picking up Harry in an hour or so, then we're off to the World Cup! Remember to wear your Bulgaria Jersey!"
'Tomorrow.' she amended, as she rose to her feet in search of the elusive jersey.
The cup game was a real nail-biter, with Krum catching the Snitch, but Ireland winning the cup. The twins won a rather heavy wager, but were snubbed, instead receiving only three-quarters of the payout.
Sadly, Aura was not at the cup at all. It seemed that she was unable to acquire the tickets in time.
Of course, none of that really mattered.
Because she had been walking around, along with The-Boy-Who-Lived and Ron, when a man in a while mask had Apparated directly in front of them. She could hear dozens more of the telltale pops echo around her.
"Locomotor Mortis!" she screamed, quick-drawing her wand while the only Death Eater in line-of-sight was still dazed from transport. She was quickly supported by a Stunning Spell each from The-Boy-Who-Lived, and Ron. "Regurgitae Mollusca!" she continued, throwing in a Slug-Belching Hex for good measure.
The target, still blinking away the spots, had his legs seize up, and lost consciousness, before falling sideways into the mud. Once in the mud, he began to fill the inside of his mask with regurgitated slugs.
"Good shot, Ginny." remarked The-Boy-Who-Lived, causing Ginny's cheeks to redden slightly.
"Do we leave him here? Or do we bring him in so they can arrest this wanker?" quickly asked Ron.
"We have to. There could be more of them out here, and might not get lucky next time." answered The-Boy-Who-Lived.
"Take his mask." added Ron, "If we take it, we can use it as proof for self-defense, and we can use it to brag about next year!"
"Probably a good idea." murmured The-Boy-Who-Lived, as Ginny reached down to unhook the mask. Beneath it…
Well, after about half of the slugs had been wiped away, none of the three actually recognised the person. In fact, none of them really expected to.
"Aww. No one we know. Oh well." whined Ron. "We need to get back to safety: there could be more of these wankers out here… and I don't particularly fancy getting in a fight with one who's got their heads together, no?"
The three immediately agreed, and began their sprint back to the Weasleys.
Of course, not before Ginny took a mighty stomp to the Death Eater's midsection, eliciting another eruption of slugs.
The Weasleys had scampered to cover the moment the moment the attack had begun, and had weathered the storm to the best of their abilities. Several times, a Death Eater had approached the tent, but had been quickly turned away by the flurry of aggressive magic which was launched from the tent.
"Didn't take Lucius much time to throw on his mask, did it? Must've been ready for just the occasion" murmured Arthur Weasley, who was continuously attempting to cast a Messenger Patronus. Unfortunately, the counterspell wards were already up, and burning strong.
Percy, on the other hand, was grumbling about how the entire security department should be sacked. If the fools on the security team actually knew how to follow specific instructions from the Ministry, this whole mess would already be over and done with!
The twins, for once in a blue moon, saw nothing funny at all from the situation, and were sitting crouched in the blind spot of the tent door, wands out, ready to stun intruders.
Molly was worrying herself grey about her missing children, and charge, who were still out in the thick of things.
Not like that didn't stop everyone in the room from turning wands on the three when they ran in, winded and terrified.
Sheepishly, the other Weasleys lowered their wands, but not before quickly ensuring that they were, indeed the wayward children.
"Don't worry kids, the Aurors will be here soon." spoke Arthur, reassuringly.
Molly, on the other hand, took a much more direct approach.
"Merlin's wand, dears! I'm glad you three are safe! I can't bear to imagine what could've happened, had you bumped into one of those… those... horrible, evil… murderous… scum…" spoke Molly, although her voice wavered and at the end.
Arthur placed his unwanded hand upon his wife's shoulder, having finally managed to send a Patronus through.
"Everyone's safe. The wards just went down."
"Actually, we..." began Ron, but he was interrupted by a quick kick to the shin from Ginny, followed by a motion of a slashed neck, and a point towards his sobbing mother.
"Actually, I'm glad we're safe too." he recovered, as Ginny stashed the recovered mask into her bag.
"Well, I can't wait to go home" spoke Ginny. "I've a letter to write, and I finally know what to put in it!"
AN: For the record, to put things into perspective, if Harry Potter ran off of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, Aurelia would be a (Daemonic) Alu-Fiend, with a couple of tweaks swapping power for durability. Level-wise, she'd be floating at about level 1-2 Warlock right now.
Also of note, Dementors would be either an Aberration or a Daemon (Neutral evil, textbook Daemon, to be honest)
I have the urge now to write a oneshot centering upon Aura meeting Milo from Sir Poley's Harry Potter and the Natural 20 (Amazing fic, I can't recommend it enough)
Completely unrelated, but also worth mentioning, Ginny's perspective as only seeing Harry as The-Boy-Who-Lived is annoying. I'm hoping to have her break out of that.