Aurora

It was beautiful autumn weather outside. The warm rays of the setting sun bathed in a soft light all around — the dark crowns of the Forbidden Forest, the green lawn near the castle, Hagrid's slightly sloping hut, Madame Sprout's greenhouses, and, finally, the Quidditch field. I sucked in the crisp September air and squinted my eyes against the sunlight as Anna and I walked quickly towards the Gryffindor locker rooms.

An unsuspecting Ginny Weasley was walking down the lawn from the field to the entrance to the castle in the company of her team. On either side of her, laughing merrily and periodically pushing each other in the side, walked the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Not far from them, with a clearly detached look, Potter trudged along — he was immersed in some of his thoughts and did not pay attention to what was happening around him.

"Damn, I think I forgot my hairpin in the locker room," Ginny said with a frustrated look. "Guys, go without me."

"Are you sure? We can wait for you here," said Coote, the tall Gryffindor beater.

"Absolutely. You go to dinner. I am in a moment."

With these words, the Gryffindor turned around abruptly and rushed towards the locker rooms.

I crouched in the shade of a huge oak tree near the lake and stared at the calming surface of the water — in her reflection I saw Ginny moving away in the opposite direction, followed immediately by a small gray-brown bird.

I didn't turn around so as not to arouse any suspicion. Instead, I opened the Advanced Potions Course and pretended to read it. I glanced furtively at the Gryffindor team — Peakes, Coote and Ron Weasley were already trudging towards the castle, but Potter, instead of going along with them, was heading straight for me with a confident step.

My heart sank somewhere in the heels.

"Hello," he said, shamelessly sitting down next to me.

"Hi," I replied discreetly, giving him an appraising look at his uniform. "How is the training?"

"Excellent! I'm sure we'll smash your team to smithereens," he remarked, smiling smugly.

"Do you take pleasure in insulting my faculty every chance you get? Is that why you came here now and prevent me from studying?"

"No." His face suddenly became serious. "Actually, I didn't come for that. I came to thank you again."

"No need to be thanked."

I tried to hide how much I was pleased to hear warm words from his lips, although my cheeks were filled with a blush.

"Anyone in my place would try to help you."

"Not a Slytherin!"

"You have a good opinion of all of us!"

"I have the opinion about people that they really deserve. It's just you…" He stammered, as if hesitant to speak his thoughts aloud. "You are not like them."

I looked at him warmly and smiled.

"It's just that you don't know many of us very well. Slytherins aren't as bad as everyone thinks they are," I said.

Potter smiled back at me, and his smile warmed my heart.

"How do you feel after yesterday?"

"I don't know. There are many things I cannot understand. You see, as soon as I touched you, I... saw something. Kind of like a vision."

"I thought so! Didn't your family have any clairvoyants? Who was in the vision, someone you know?"

"No. At least not all."

I hesitated, thinking about what I could tell him.

"There were unfamiliar people, apparently dead. For example, a woman with red hair, she was shouting something to me. And a crying baby..."

Suddenly, his expression changed.

"What did she say?"

"Do you know her?"

"I'm sure yes. Have you seen... Voldemort?"

"Don't say his name. Yes, I heard what he was saying..."

"It can't be!"

Potter jumped up and began to rush back and forth. He leaned against a tree to keep from falling and was about to open his mouth to startle me with his next comment, but a shout from behind him made him turn around.

"Harry! Harry!"

Ginny Weasley was running towards us. Her nose was bleeding, her hair was disheveled, and her eyes were flashing.

"What are you doing here?" she asked defiantly when she saw me next to him. She looked at us angrily and blurted out:

"A bird just attacked me and bit me!"

"What? What bird? What are you talking about, Ginny?"

"How should I know?!"

She gave us an angry look, then quickly turned around and rushed down the path to the castle.

I felt a barely perceptible prick of conscience. Poor Ginny.

For a split second, I thought Potter was going to follow her immediately, but instead he turned in my direction and made a sensational observation:

"It must have been the same bird that attacked me yesterday in the forest!"

"There are all sorts of things out there," I said, and rose to my feet, brushing the leaves off my robes.

"You'd better catch up with the Weasleys, calm them down," I advised, wanting to fall through the ground as quickly as possible.

"You probably know where that bird came from, right?" Potter asked, glaring at me suspiciously.

"I have no idea."

I slammed my textbook shut and tucked it under armpit, turning my back to him to get myself out of the way quickly, but he grabbed my shoulder.

"Wait! Don't leave. We haven't finished talking."

"Your friends are waiting for you, and so are my friends. You will need to report to them later on what you are doing in the company of the Slytherins."

I tried to break free, but his grip was iron.

"I don't really care what they say. I want you to tell me everything. Let's see you tomorrow after classes?"

"Tomorrow is my birthday," I said, and realized that it was a miracle that I remembered it in advance, considering all the events of the past days.

"What, you won't even invite me?" Potter taunted me and laughed.

"An invitation to a Slytherin party still needs to be earned," I replied, amazed at my own audacity, and immediately escaped from his hands. He looked at me taken aback.

"We'll talk later."

I flew like a bullet towards the castle, turning around only at the very entrance.

Potter stood in one place and with a strange expression on his face looked after me.

*

"Watch where you're going! How I tired of you already! There is no rest from you!"

Draco scowled in annoyance and bent down to pick up the books scattered on the floor, which he had dropped when Anna accidentally ran into him in the narrow corridor leading from the castle to the dungeons. I flew off in time to the side, falling out of the zone of his indignation. Apparently he was having a bad day.

"Watch where you're going, you idiot!"

He straightened up and gave Annabelle a contemptuous look, smirking:

"What is that in your hair? Did you fall asleep in the owlet, or what?"

Anna feverishly began to sort through strands of her hair until she pulled out a small feather from them and, trying to hide her fear from the alleged exposure, barked angrily:

"Better there than with you!"

"Guys, please don't quarrel!" I tried to calm down this couple so that an even greater scandal would not break out and remind them of my presence.

"I don't need to waste my time on this," Draco drawled and snorted.

His face was gloomy and tired, and his lips oozed habitually with caustic sarcasm. There was a fine wrinkle on the forehead between the eyebrows, the skin was paler than usual. He turned abruptly and strode away in his signature gait.

"I'm fed up! It's okay, you'll get it soon..." Anna muttered through her teeth and, grabbing my arm, dragged me into our common room. Her high spirits from the last manipulations she had done to prepare the potion had vanished in a flash. And so, with even greater zeal, she began to discuss how we could achieve the final result — quietly pour the potion for Draco.

*

Harry walked down the lighted hallway towards the Gryffindor Tower. Slightly stunned by the conversation with Aurora, he tried to sort out his thoughts and put the whole picture together, like a huge puzzle. It turned out like this: yesterday his scar hurt again, when he randomly met this Slytherin in the Forbidden Forest, he passed out, letting Voldemort into his thoughts again, and she was able to see the same thing? But how?

Harry didn't believe in divination, although the story of Professor Trelawney's prophecy about him and Voldemort, which he had heard over the summer at the Ministry, suggested otherwise. But that's a big rarity! As Dumbledore said, Professor Trelawney was a descendant of the famous seer Cassandra, and therefore inherited her very rare gift.

Therefore, it was obvious to ask Aurora if she had clairvoyants in her family, which, of course, was unlikely... But when she said that she saw his mother, who screamed before her death, protecting her son, Harry was taken aback.

"Why are you listening to that Slytherin?" Ron mumbled as he chewed on another cupcake he'd taken with him after dinner.

Harry, of course, told his friends everything as soon as they were alone in the living room, sitting in front of the sofa by the fireplace.

"Perhaps Malfoy persuaded her to ingratiate herself with you," Weasley suggested. "She's, like, his cousin or whatever... Merlin knows what those Slytherins' familial connections are!"

Harry didn't like that suggestion. No, she can't be Malfoy's spy, she's not like that... Although he didn't know what she really was, his inner instinct told him exactly that.

He sat thoughtfully, flipping through the pages of the Half-Blood Prince's book.

Slytherins aren't as bad as everyone thinks they are — to his surprise, Harry played the girl's phrase over and over again in his head. She did not look like a typical Slytherin: not cocky, calm, with a piercing, but without the slightest bit of contempt, look, sincere. And her smile...

"Anyway, Harry, you've got to be careful not to trust anyone," Hermione summed up. Harry nodded, even though he hadn't listened to everything she had said before.

"Yeah! Especially the enemy faculty!" Ron nodded as well, defiantly raising his index finger up.

The invitation to the Slytherin party still needs to be earned, Harry thought again and chuckled. He wondered if he would like to get to this party to congratulate Aurora? The character of the girl was clearly complex, however, this did not repel at all, and it seemed as if she was hiding something. What is this strange bird worth, attacking Ginny today and chasing them themselves in the Forbidden Forest, which, as if, the Slytherin was protecting. It's definitely not without reason, Harry could have sworn.

When it was finally dark and the guys went to bed, Harry could not sleep for a long time. He also could not read his book, his thoughts did not give him rest. Memories burst into his mind in bright flashes: how he ran through the forest, how he picked up a girl who almost fell, how he extended his hand, helping her to stand up and led her to the common room. How pale she was, how she was shaking and Harry was seriously scared for her. She was as fragile as a crystal vase and he wanted to protect her from any breath of wind.

Ron snored loudly and Harry was horrified by his own thoughts, waking up from the avalanche of emotions and images in his head.

I just need to find out what else she saw and what she knows. I'll talk to her and everything will fall into place — Harry convinced himself, trying to forbid himself to think about this unusual girl and did not notice how he fell into a dream.