A/N :

Hey all!

This is going up this weekend coz I probably won't get round to it next weekend. And coz Rhian [one of the most annoying people in the world Love you too Rhi!] keeps pestering. And coz I've written loads in the last few weeks and am finally three chapters ahead of myself for the first time in ages.

Number 40 ! Number 40 ! Number 40 ! He rocks ! And he came 40th in the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time ! Whoo !14 days to go . . .

Dedication : People keep asking me for them and I keep forgetting to give them. I promised someone this one and I can't remember who . . . Erm. So yeah. How about all of you lot? All of my friends and dedicated reviewers and typers. That does include Skankers for once. And Genevra. You'll have to guess who she is though. My Bonnie lies over the ocean . . . [subtle hint there!]

Here we go . . .


Here I stand alone with this weight upon my heart and it will not go away. In my head I keep on looking back, right back to the start, wondering what it was that made you change. I tried but I had to draw the line. Still this question keeps spinning in my mind . . .

What if I had never let you go?Would you be the person I used to know? If I'd stayed, if you tried, if we could only turn back time. Well, I guess we'll never know . . .


Pictures flashed before her eyes. Images of times buried deep in memory. Times that would have been better forgotten, but were now found and seen. The seer would rather block the memories, set barriers against them, but they had to be seen. Small children, three in all, running through ripened wheat fields to a shallow blue stream, small silver fish swimming its course, with weeping willow trees drooping over it. One child, the only boy, long dark hair flying, launches a small fishing rod into the water, and laughs with delight as he catches one of the small fish. Two girls, one dark, one fair, run to a small bridge, collecting bits of wood to play pooh sticks. The boy turns, a small smile on his face, his eyes dark. The two girls look up from their game, the same looks on their faces. Evil, dark looks. Everything goes black.

Aurora sat up in bed, a scream forming in her throat. A cool hand placed itself on her forehead, pushing her back down to lie flat, and a soothing voice calmed her. She looked up into the golden eyes that she had not seen for a long time. Everything still seemed so far away.

"What's . . ."

"Hush. Don't try to speak."

"But . . ."

"Hush selde." A cup came to Aurora's mouth, and she drank thirstily. The potion was bitter and herby, and she soon drifted back into sleep, this time dreamless. She kept waking, only to be fed more potions from the lady with golden eyes. Cold compresses were pressed to her burning forehead, salves to her arms and legs. She felt no concept of time – days, hours, minutes or seconds could have passed without her knowing it.

Finally she woke to find everything seemingly normal. She was in her bed at Hogwarts, though somehow she knew she had been moved many times throughout her fever. Bright sun streamed through the open windows, a cold breeze whipped through the room. She moved her hand slowly up to her forehead, which was cool, but fire-like pain ripped through her muscles and joints. The bright sunlight hurt her eyes, spots forming before them, almost as if they had not been used for a long time. A shadow fell over her and she knew who it was before the woman started to speak. Her fragrance gave her away, warm and flowery.

"Good day selde. Back with us at last I see." Golden eyes smiled into Aurora's deep blue ones.

"What . . . happened . . . ?" stammered Aurora.

"A suitable question to start with. The answer is, my dear, that we quite simply do not know. Being the Child of the Dark and carrying the Spirit should make you virtually immune to all illnesses. Those you do get should be healed quickly. Your fever has raged for nearly three weeks."

"What date . . ."

"It is Sunday the 6th of December. Approximately one o'clock pm I believe."

"That potions lesson I had was back on Friday the . . ." Aurora did a quick calculation in her head, then laughed weakly. "Friday the 13th."

"Correct. You have been ill for twenty three days." The woman sat on the bed, her brown dress swishing as she walked. She stroked Aurora's dark hair lovingly. "Why did she not help you selde?"

"Can you feel her presence Amme? She has gone. Deserted me."

"She cannot do that!"

"Can and has it would seem. She said something about me 'having to accomplish this task on my own' and then she left. I presume she has found another host and will come back to me in due course, after I have finished this 'task'. Whatever that may be."

"I hope she does selde, for all of our sakes, especially yours. In some ways you need her just to survive. Now," she said, standing. "Let me help you sit up, selde, for you have some visitors."

"I do?"

"Yes." Aurora sat up against her pillows. She still felt extremely weak, and the pain still spread through her muscles whenever she moved. Her mother, for that was who the golden-eyed lady was, brushed her long hair to make her presentable, then came and sat back down on the bed beside Aurora, bringing her a mirror, to let her see her face. She had dark circles under her eyes, which looked large in her pale face. Her dark hair framed this face, and with her pale body it made her look like a ghost.

"Now selde, you must promise me some things." Serena put the mirror to one side and took one of Aurora's pale hands in her own, which was quite tanned. "If you do not keep to these you will exhaust yourself even further, and you may get ill again. If you keep doing this you may eventually kill yourself without the Spirit's presence. You must not work so hard. We do know that Draco has a Tome, and that it is your job to teach him and help him to understand, but try to take it more slowly.

"Dumbledore has spoken to each of your subject teachers, and they have decided that you are far enough ahead to only have three lessons a day until the Yuletide holidays. You may choose which three you attend, and if you start to feel too bad you my rest until you feel well enough to return to lessons. You will only get a little bit of extra work; I mean homework, until the holidays unless you wish to do some extra.

"I shall be staying here just to keep an eye on you for another week. I have talked to Lana, and she still does not wish for you to return home after what you did to her. I believe a place for you to stay has been arranged, however, therefore you must talk to the person whom you are live with.

"Now finally about Benjamin. However much you and the rest of Morion search, you shall never be able to find him. I believe they have about twenty people searching for him right now, and none of them have even come remotely close, except my dear old friend Olivia, who got about fifty or so miles away, before turning on wing and going in totally the opposite direction. They shall never find your Ada. We shall make sure of it." Serena rose and moved to the door. Aurora had not even had the chance to fit one word into her mother's long speech, for every time she had as much as opened her mouth, whether it was to yawn or to actually speak, her mother had held up her hand for silence.

"Visitor number one. I shall leave the two of you alone." She opened the door, and Aurora could see a weary-looking Draco sitting outside her door, his head in his hands, pale blond hair a mess. "Naevaer selde."

Draco nearly flew to her bedside. He sat next to her on the bed and kissed her forehead gently, holding her hands, now nearly as pale as his own.

"Tell me seriously, Draco, how do I look?"

"Like death warmed up," he answered with one of her favourite phrases, a small smile on his face.

"Thank you!"

"You asked me to be honest! You are much paler than usual."

"Paler than you?"

"Maybe."

A silence fell between them. There was so much both of them wanted to say, but neither of them wanted to speak first. They just sat patiently, watching each other.

"Yes," whispered Aurora suddenly after about ten minutes of silence.

"What?"

"Yes. What you asked in the letter you sent me. Yes."

"Really?"

"Well my mother would like to have me back at home, but Lana is scared that I will do something to her again, so she refused to let me stay. So yes, I would love to come and stay with you during the holidays."

"I'm a bit confused about you and your mother. Did you live in the same house, but not see each other for two years?"

"Yes. I glimpsed her a few times, but never saw her face to face. The house is so large that I could be locked in ten rooms, be self-sustaining and never see anyone for up to two weeks. This happened quite often when I was particularly angry. They would lock me in with food and leave me. Lana would come in when I had calmed down. She would let me out if she thought I was calm enough."

"What exactly did you do to her?"

"Various things. Egged the house with a few of my friends, had massive parties and smashed my part of the house, got a bit tipsy and hit her. Stuff like that. But the major thing was when I accidentally pushed her down the stairs. That was when both my mother and her said I had to come here."

"If it was an accident, why did they send you here?"

"Oh, Draco, you're still slightly naïve aren't you? It wasn't an accident. Addie made me do it because Lana was pregnant. She miscarried after she fell, and that it why I was sent here. She lost the only chance of having a child that she will probably ever get, and it was because of me."

"Addie made you do it?"

"She sometimes used to just take over me and make me do things that I did not want to do. Sort of like Riddle and Ginny Weasley in your second year here. So anyway, I'd love to stay at your house over the holidays. Say thank you to your parents, but also say that I shall make my own way to your house as I have some things to do out in the muggle world first."

"I thought that you never saw the muggle world."

"When did I say that?"

"The first day you were ever here."

"Really? OK, so I sort of lied. I have friends in the muggle world, and I used to live there, remember?"

"Yeah. Never thought about it like that."

"Witches and wizards live in their own enclosed world. We live outside, in the muggle world, to keep an eye on things that are happening out there. There is a lot of terrible stuff happening, but your people really don't care. You just ignore it, and carry on with your lives. Yes Voldemort will come, and he may well get great power and overtake the wizarding world. But to take over the muggle world he will have to work much, much harder, and battle with greater things than wizards and things that they have in the Department of Mysteries. Much, much worse things."

"What . . . ?"

"I like to get things off of my chest occasionally. If you happen to meet you father's master, just tell him, from me, or from my father via me, that it will be extremely difficult to take over the muggle world."

"What . . . ?"

"Just do it, Draco, please."

There were three sharp raps on the door, and Serena entered. Aurora could see her more clearly now, and she could not believe how much her mother had change in under two years. Her face was still rosy and beautiful, but the small creases around her eyes had deepened, making her look more the age she actually was. Her tawny hair had flecks of white in it that had not been there before. Aurora knew she had in some ways caused these signs of age, and she was slightly sorry.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but there are some more people to see you here Aurora."

"Can . . ." started Draco.

"Yes, you can stay." Serena waved her hand and some chairs appeared to the other side of the bed from which Draco was sitting. "You can come in now!" se called to the open door.

Dumbledore entered the room first, dressed in deep violet robes, white hair gleaming in the sunlight. Snape followed him, black robes billowing as usual. He sat nearest to the bed, his face betraying no emotion, but his eyes showing concern about the ghost of a girl in front of him. Dumbledore's face showed outward emotion, his eyebrows knitted in worry. It was almost as if he knew the consequences that could arise if she were to get even weaker, or if she were to die. Draco sat on the bed still, comfortingly holding her hand.

Aurora could feel herself starting to get more and more tired, but she tried to keep her eyelids open whilst Dumbledore talked to her about various things that she had missed, and what was to happen about her going back into school. She was to have two more days rest, then one lesson on Wednesday, just to make sure that she was strong enough to continue, then three full lessons on Thursday. Aurora could feel her hands starting to shake; a sign of tiredness, and her mother sensed it too.

"Excuse me Dumbledore, Sir," she interrupted carefully in between two of Dumbledore's sentences. "My daughter is getting increasingly tired, and she needs rest if she is to get properly well. You may return later or tomorrow if you so wish." Serena ushered them quickly out of the room. Snape did not want to leave, as he had said less than ten words to Aurora, and she could hear him talking in low tones to her mother outside the room.

"I'd better go too," Draco spoke up for the first time since the two teachers had entered the room.

"No you. . ."

"Yes," he said firmly, kissing her on the forehead. He had done this often, almost as if he were scared of kissing her on the lips. She struggled to move, but turned his hands palm upwards, then kissed each of his fingertips and the centre of his palms tenderly.

"What was that?" he asked. "You made my hands feel strange, sort of tingly."

"It was an ancient ritual of benediction. My mother used to do that every night before I went to sleep, but now she's frightened even to touch me. Now go."

Aurora stayed awake just long enough to hear her mother talking to Draco, presumably about her, then he left and Serena came back into the room and sat down in a chair facing out of one of the windows and towards Aurora's bed. She suddenly felt a sensation like a large woolly blanket being pulled over her, and Aurora fell into a deep sleep.


A/N :

So there you go! Mother saves the day. Damn Addie.

DLSnapeKurama18 : Damn you. But not in a mean way. In the way that you got a guitar. I want one. And some drums. Ah well, if my parents win the lottery . . .

Rje : Sooner than usual this one is. Feel like Yoda talking like this I do. The force in this one is strong . . . coughs Calm . . . I am calm . . . NO! Gotta do my German . . . Boldty is gonna kill me . . .

Rhi : No one can ever remember what happened in the last chapter, including myself. PLEASE don't tell everyone I'm on chapter 20 in rough. Dammit. I just told everyone didn't I?

Addie : 15 days to go . . . 15 days till TAF day . . . [and Leonard, don't forget him] Whoo ! Does scary Dementor impression I agree, Seether dude isstrangely attractive. Its something about long haired men. Don't know what yet though. God man I do not wanna have luck wid da Bradders man, innit? God Addie, you iz so ring-a-ding-ding! Let ESD have him.

glitzydancingshoes : I boogle slowly coz twas a slow song. headbangs ferociously to Lacuna Coil, the band no one has ever heard of That better?

lupu : I can only try.

Luthien Goldberry [formerly known as Sammy] : I shall one day get round to writing you an email. Soon, I hope. But till then hello! I shall also read your new fic when I have the time!

Arwen-Georgie-Skye : Yup, name changed. I love Will too but Draco hm. You'll have to wait and see. GO the Hogwarts God. He really is, isn't he?

14 days to go . . .

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