Chapter Three: Someone to Learn About

'Soft. The smells? I don't understand... where am I? Did I die?' Harry could only question what was going on. He felt the soft hands and the soft bed but he couldn't quite tell where he was. 'There is no sound, maybe I am dreaming.' Harry struggled to open his eyes but found them sticky shut. He strained to hear anything or even move his muscles but found them unwilling to cooperate.

At first he didn't notice, but a soft hand was squeezing his. He could not tell who it was, but she smelled of sweet strawberries and peaches. She...Harry did not remember anyone like that... but he imagined only a girl could come to that perfect scent. He gently pried his own eyes open to see a girl looking down at him with soft mossy green eyes that told him tales of comfort, and understanding, something Harry longed for. She did not remove her hand from his upon seeing his eyes open but stared into them. She silently put a finger to her lips and then indicated to him around the room. Harry glanced around astonished to see that everyone around him was sleeping. The first he saw was Mr. and Mrs. Weasley slumped over in chairs. Tonks and Remus were next to them on a couch. The next site he came upon was the cutest he had ever seen. A see of red heads asleep on the floor all with their heads together in a large circle, Fred, George, Bill and Charlie Weasley were all snoring silently. Harry could only assume that there were silencing charms on those who snored because he still could not hear a thing. The strangest site yet to see was the one directly to his left. Hunched over a large desk sat a man with a cauldron, Severus Snape... upon seeing this site Harry almost had a heart attack.

After the shock wore off, Harry turned to the girl he didn't know and gave her an inquisitive look. She climbed her way further onto his bed, closed the curtains and cast a silencing charm around the four poster bed. This alone shocked Harry, the girl in front of him could be no more than thirteen much too young to be breaking the rules. But she just smiled at his reaction

"I would bet you want to know first of all who I am, what you are doing here, how you got here, and what is going on. Am I correct in my assumption?"

Harry at first just gapped. He tried then to speak but the words came out more as a rasp that quickly turned into a cough. When he looked up he saw a glass of water hovering in front of his face. Grateful he sipped the liquid greedily. He slowly and painfully turned to face the amber girl, who was now sitting next to him on the huge bed. "So you know the questions, will you tell me the answers now please?" Harry said in a whisper.

The girl looked at him for a minute in a manner that Harry strangely found very comforting and he didn't see any of the pity or adoration that he frequently saw in the eyes of other girls. "We are at the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix as you well know. The people in the room now were sent to find you after they worried about your letters. I have it on good authority that they had reason to worry; hence you have been here for three days without so much as a blink. They removed you from your house and are never going back according to what I have heard. I was not there but I was here when you arrived, apparently you were badly beaten, barely alive. They are still questioning how you survived." The moss green eyes met with emerald, and he could tell she spoke the truth, she still had not said who she was, but already he knew who she was, she was his angel, someone he belonged with. It wasn't a reaction, but a feeling; Harry couldn't describe it except for fate. It was not love, at least not yet, or lust, or infatuation but a feeling of finding the one, without knowing why.

Harry slowly processed the information and struggled to sit up in bed. He would have succeeded except for the blinding white hot pain that consumed him upon his initial movement. He promptly ceased movement and buried his head as deep in the fluffy pillow as the feathers would allow. The sweet smelling girl on his bed sensed his discomfort and gently rubbed the back of his hand in a soothing manner, while they both waited for the pain to subside.

When Harry was finally conscious of his actions, he once again opened his eyes, and then he asked the question she had failed to answer. "So you answered the other questions but you left out the stuff about yourself, so who are you? Why are you here? Can you tell me anything about you? Or are you just an angel sent from heaven to show me the way? If the answer is affirmative to the last, I do believe I would gladly follow. I would relish the release from this path I seem destined to follow and all the weight that comes with it." Harry had no idea why he started telling her all of this. This was stuff he never even told his best friends. In a way his answers were truthful but it still shocked him to hear the words coming from his own mouth.

Her quivering voice told of her fear of telling him everything. Harry could tell she was holding back but she answered and he accepted everything she said. He knew she would tell him everything eventually. He still could not explain how he knew but he knew.

"My name to begin with is Aurelia Lorelei Avalbane. As for why I am here this is not exactly the time to tell you, other people should be present, in fact I am not entirely sure myself. As for what I can tell you about myself what do you want to know... that is a very open ended question and could take years if you want me to answer you fully." She kidded with him just to make him smile, which he did. Harry did not mind this in fact he was more than a little curious to go ask her anything and everything. She added as a last thought "and no I am not an angel, but they do exist," Aurelia seemed sad at the last part, but Harry could not figure out why.

A sudden movement startled their conversation. "It seems people are waking, they will want to see that you are ok." She smiled down at him, inside Aurelia was excited that Harry was awake and alive. The wizards surrounding him had been concerned that Harry would never wake. They had all, including her uncle, stood silent vigil over Harry's bed for days. He was never alone and every groan or spasm sent the room into tears. Frequently Harry would go into convulsions that no one and no potions could stifle. She knew Mrs. Weasley had forbidden her children from coming and even knowing about Harry's state, she wasn't sure what the woman would do now. Aurelia could see in Harry's eyes that he did not want people to know what he had been through. He was ashamed, for many different reasons; he was unable to defend himself from muggles, he was beaten and unloved, she also saw that he felt he deserved such treatment. She saw this in his eyes. Those unyielding emerald eyes that held way too much pain, guilt and suffering for someone of his years.

Aurelia could tell he despised the attention he received as well as the sympathy and pity. She could not bring herself to show him that. Silently she vowed to offer him a friendship free of that. It wouldn't be hard to do, she knew what to do, Aurelia had done it before. It took courage to face things together and friendship that always remained unyielding to the forces that threatened to break it apart. Those took effort, and Aurelia was more than willing to put forth the necessary effort to affect the life of anyone. She inwardly promised herself that she would be a friend Harry, her first friend in England. She only wondered what his reaction would be.