Author's Note: I apologize, for I've been in Oregon this whole past week and so I wasn't able to update.  I hope you will all forgive me… but at least this time I'm posting two parts at once!  Yes, well… don't get too excited, because the second one is rather short, but at least I'm back now and I can get back to working on this.

Part 3 ~ Aurora's Welcome

…Yes, there was something different.  In the topiary.  And it was so simple, so easy to see, that she just wasn't picking it up.  Come on, she scolded herself, you just trimmed the stupid hedge rabbit, so what's the

(that's it)

Her breath stopped in her throat.

The rabbit was down on all fours, cropping grass.  Its belly was against the ground.  But not ten minutes ago it had been up on its hind legs, of course it had been, she had trimmed its ears…and its belly.

Beverly's eyes darted to the dog.  When she had come down the path it had been sitting up, as if begging for a sweet.  Now it was crouched, head tilted, the clipped wedge of mouth seeming to snarl slightly.  And the lions—

"What's she doing?"

"Looks like she's working."

"What for?  Class is about to end."

"I don't know.  Who is she, anyway?"

"New girl.  Must not have any friends."


"That's hard to believe."  Extreme sarcasm met with a chorus of snickers.  Aurora sighed inwardly, trying to block out her classmates' remarks, but they had already broken through her brain's defense and shattered her concentration.  At this point there was no purpose in trying to write any more.  Stopping her work, however, might be interpreted by the onlooking Slytherins as a reaction to their commentary, so she glared even harder at her paper.  People could be so stupid.  Couldn't they go for even a minute without finding fault with one another to make themselves feel better?

"Someone who keeps her nose buried in books all day belongs in Ravenclaw with the other nerds," jeered a voice.  The remark was obviously made loud enough so that Aurora would hear.  Upon realizing this, she found herself less disappointed with the human race and more angry at these jerks.

After squinting at the clock in the corner of the room for an unnecessarily long time, Professor Binns finally announced the end of class.  It sounded as if the words had taken all the energy he could muster; he always spoke as though he were about to nod off because he had bored himself so much—which gives a hint as to what it was like to sit through one of his lectures.  Aurora was thankful she had her writing to pay attention to instead.

Since all the other students had already packed their things away several minutes before the end of class, they could immediately rush out the door at Professor Binns's dismissal.  Getting left behind made Aurora feel even more isolated; as she hurriedly jammed her books into her undersized satchel, she felt frustration rise in her chest.  A friend would be nice.  Not necessary, but nice.  It had already been a week, though, and judging by her fellow Slytherins' remarks, she had no reason to be particularly hopeful.

As she stepped out into the hallway, she felt…what was it?  Guilty?  Yes, maybe…guilty because she was not adoring Hogwarts like it deserved to be adored…guilty because at the moment she wasn't feeling noticeably lucky for her privilege of attending this school.

The halls were gradually growing colder and darker, as if she were slowly reaching the center of an underground mine.  She rounded the last corner and immediately had to exercise all her reflexes to avoid reeling into the boy who stood in the doorway to her next class.  He was tall and lean, but without an iota of frailty, for she could easily see his chest and bicep muscles flexing under his close-fitting robes.  His face matched his well-trimmed body, in that it was definitely striking—square jaw, strong but not overly pronounced cheekbones, glimmering pale blue eyes that worked perfectly to set off his dark hair.  No doubt he was the object of half of Slytherin house's affection—strong, handsome, and Quidditch captain to boot.

And the world's biggest ass, as Aurora would soon learn.

She tapped her foot and raised her eyebrows at him as if to say, "Hey, you moron, have you noticed yet that you're right in the way?"  He responded with nothing more than a smug smile.

"Are you going to let me in?  I need to get to class," she asked finally, making sure to keep her voice innocently polite.  Maybe if she pretended that she didn't realize he was purposely trying to be obnoxious, he would think her an idiot and give up.  No such luck, of course.

"I think you're mistaken—" he said coolly, gesturing over his shoulder with a thumb—"this class is Gryffindor and Slytherin."  Realizing that he was the one who had made the Ravenclaw comment earlier, she pretended to miss his meaning, and gave a little sigh.

"I am a Slytherin, dipwad."  With that, she propelled herself at the space she had been eyeing for some time, between his left shoulder and the door jam.  Despite her efforts, though, he caught her with a fluid movement of his arm and gave her a vicious shove backward.

"Go back to the library, you Ravenclaw bookworm," he snarled.  "Your kind isn't wanted here."  She definitely resented that—"your kind" made it sound as if he were talking to an animal.

With a slightly more forceful tone, she responded, "I believe you're the one who's mistaken.  And might I remind you that my kind is your kind, so you'd do best to not go insulting it."  He took visible damage from this revelation, and opened his mouth to unleash a fiery retort, when a thin, pale hand landed on his shoulder.  It was almost as if the skeletal hand were slowly sucking out his life-force; with its touch, the pride melted from his face, his jaw fell slack, and his eyes widened, all of which naturally had the effect of making him look like a fish.  A very very cold fish.  Who is just about to get beheaded and boned and made into bisque.  The hand then turned him sideways and its owner appeared behind.

"MISter Gent, would you like to tell me why you are holding up my class?" snapped a sour-faced Snape.

Jacob Gent floundered for a moment, searching for a way to save himself.  He then pulled free of Snape's grasp and in doing so regained much of his composure—and cockiness.  "Sorry, Professor—it's just this little girl here.  She thinks she should be in this class, but we don't want her fouling up the rest of the Slyth—"

"So you have no excuse then."  From his menacing height he focused a frosty glare down on the boy, who promptly lowered his head and hurried to his seat.  If he'd had a tail, Aurora was certain it would have been tucked.

"And as for YOU, Miss Aurora, I should HOPE that from now on you can take the time out of your harrying schedule to actually come to my class on time."

She had been caught completely off her guard.  What a jerk!  That wasn't necessary.

"As punishment, you may demonstrate the assignment first thing before the entire class."  He watched her face transform into a mild scowl as she turned away from him and headed to an empty seat in a back corner.

You got off lucky, child, he frowned.

A/N #2: Did anybody catch the fish pun?  I thought about putting in a second one, replacing "searching for a way to save himself" with "searching for a way to get himself off the hook," but I figured that was going a bit far… ::grin::

A/N #3—THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE: Since Aurora's writing is supposed to be noticeably good, I stole a passage from a Stephen King book I recently read.  (When her writing starts sounding stinky later on, you'll know I stopped using his words ^_^)  I give him 100% credit for this passage and apologize for the changing of pronouns.  Ten points to the house of whoever guesses which book it came from.  (Only ten, it's not that hard!)