Revised 22nd July 2004
How nice am I eh? Putting up another chapter so soon! I still expect those of you who haven't reviewed chapter 17 to do so and this one as well!
Disclaimer : I have decided to make this for the whole of the story. I own nothing except characters you don't recognise from HP.
Dedication : Catherine, Clairie, Meeny Mehreeny, Addie and Arwen for being the only people to review chapter 17. #Sniffs# I feel so unloved!
Kerran vain haaveeni nähdä sain
En pienuutta alla tähtien tuntenut
Kerran sain kehtooni kalterit
Vankina sieltä kirjettä kirijoitan
Luojani luoksesi anna minun tulla siksi miksi lapsini minua luulee
Sinussa maailman kauneus josta kuolema teki minusta taiteilijan
Luojani luoksesi anna minun tulla siksi miksi lapsini minua luulee
Oman taivaan tänne loin
Anna minun päästä pois
Oman taivaan tänne loin
Anna minun päästä pois
After telling Draco that she had got herself into a mess, Aurora would not tell him any more for fear that Voldemort would find out. If he did, Aurora was sure that she would face the consequences. She avoided the subject as much as possible, and Draco recognised her discomfort and so did not talk about it either. She also avoided Mara, and Mara was doing the same. Settling into her three-lesson daily routine was easy, and she slept for the time that she was not in lessons, or read her Tome. There was less than a week left of school anyway, so she could not be bothered to work any more than she had to.
On the Saturday before they were to break up, it began to snow. It covered the castle and all of the grounds outside with a foot-deep white woolly blanket. Aurora sat at breakfast, not eating anything, listening to Draco talking and staring up at the enchanted ceiling, which was filled with fluffy white clouds spitting small perfectly formed snowflakes. She heard the beating of wings as the post owls came swooping into the hall. One of the Malfoy family's multitude of owls dropped a large box in front of Draco, then another a letter. Draco got mail regularly from home, but the only mail Aurora ever got did not come by owl, it randomly appeared on her desk, usually from Lucy or Will, but occasionally from one of her muggle friends.
Naturally she was quite surprised when a large tawny owl swooped over her head, neatly dropping a letter and a small parcel into her lap. She recognised it as it ascended back up to the ceiling, where it hovered for a few seconds before swooping out of the hall. Glancing around, she was glad Mara was looking at a letter and not at her, or there would have been questions asked about the owl, and why she was receiving it. But even she did not know why. Turning over the letter, she could tell who it was from straight away. It was true, the writing had changed in two years, but it was still recognisable as her eldest sister's. "Tilly?" she said to herself.
Draco stopped mid-sentence. "Isn't that your sister?"
"Yes," she replied. "Why would she be sending me something? Amme would kill her . . ." Her mother had not returned to see Aurora face-to-face since the day on which Aurora had found out about her father, although Aurora had sensed her presence many times. Will had been once or twice, but she had sent him away roughly.
Aurora opened the letter first. She skimmed the two pages of tiny writing, meaning to read it again later. It basically warned Aurora away from returning home as she had planned to, and said how scared she was of taking the Knife Test. Aurora could remember hers well. She had known what was going to happen, but it had come as a great shock to her mother who had not Seen it in a vision. They had all tried to convert her, but no one could ever be converted back from 'evil' to 'good'. The other way around it could be done, as was the case with Ben, Aurora's father, and Olivia, but never 'evil' to 'good'. Somehow Aurora had a feeling something unexpected was to happen with Tilly as it had with her. She just did know what yet.
The parcel was small and delicately wrapped. Aurora remembered Tilly being quite precise, as Eldara had always been. This triggered something off in her mind. "Did I ever show you those photos of my sister?" she asked Draco quietly.
"No," he replied.
"Come on then."
"But . . ." Draco had been poised with a piece of toast halfway to his mouth.
"Take it with you."
"Shouldn't you eat something? You haven't touched food for days."
"Suppose." She grabbed a piece of toast and an apple whilst standing up. In truth she had been eating, but food had started to make her feel sick.
"What's in there?" He nodded at the box.
"Paper."
"Paper?"
"Yes, paper," she repeated.
"What-"
"Never mind." Feeling Mara's eyes on her, she picked up the box and letter quickly and left the room.
On reaching the common room, she sent Draco to his room to get something to wear, and then she went to her room. There, under her bed, along with dirty socks and the odd plate with mouldy food on it, was the box where she kept her most prized possessions. Her photos. She just had to glance at the top photo to make her eyes fill with tears. "Won't cry . . ." she muttered, wiping her eyes with her sleeve and replacing the lid on the box. She pulled on some boots and black fishnets, her long purple coat, multicoloured hat and scarf in addition to her plum coloured skirt and black short kaftan, before slipping the box from Tilly under her bed, where she was sure nobody would dare to venture. She met Draco back in the common room, and they walked slowly, his arm around her waist out into the grounds.
It seemed about half of the school were now out here, including the teachers, many of whom were sitting on benches, talking and drinking hot steaming mugs of tea or coffee. The pupils in younger years were building snowmen and having snowball fights, and the older ones were supervising or in some cases joining in themselves. Draco took his arm from around her waist.
"Hey . . . !" she started before getting hit on the bum with a large snowball. "You're for it now!" She grabbed some snow and threw it roughly back at him. He ducked and threw some back at her legs, making her topple over to sit in the snow.
"Are you alright?" He squatted in the snow next to her, not noticing the snow already in her hands. She rubbed it through hi hair roughly. "Oi!" he exclaimed, before kissing her gently, a cold hand cupped under her chin. He stood up and held out his hand to pull Aurora up after him. She stumbled slightly and clutched at his arm.
"You alright?"
"Will you stop asking me that? I'm fine."
"You look . . . "
"Oh hush." They continued walking in silence until they reached a bench, where they say down, the box on Aurora's lap. "You open it," she said.
Draco opened the box carefully. The top photo, the one Aurora had glanced at earlier, he took out first. It was in a silver frame, and had been hanging on Aurora's wall at home before it had become too painful for her to look at. It was the first picture ever taken of herself and Eldara, Aurora in her father's arms and Eldara in her mother Serena's. Aurora's eyes filled with tears, which she fought hard to hold back. One tear however wound its way slowly down her left cheek. Draco looked into her eyes for a moment then reached up slowly and brushed it away with his lips.
"Shh," he whispered. "Are you going to be like this with all of the photos?"
"Probably," she answered. "I'll try to contain myself though." She smiled at him, and took the picture out of his hands, placing it on the bench beside her. Underneath it was a pile of various photos; mostly baby ones, which they flicked through quickly. They came to a certain one, and Aurora stopped with it in her hands.
"This was one of the last ones taken before she died," she said.
It was Aurora herself, holding a small child, Eldara holding a baby, Mara and Will standing over a bridge over a small stream. It was the only 'wizard' photo in the collection, as all of the rest had been taken with muggle cameras. The children looked happy, and the child Aurora was holding kept waving frantically.
"Who is the little girl?" asked Draco, pointing at the one with her arms clutched around Aurora's neck.
"Tilly. The baby is Isolde."
"You look funny."
Aurora stuck her tongue out at him, and her miniature self on the picture looked quite grumpy. "I was six years old! This was taken on the 18th of December, three days before she died," she said. Draco noted the snow on the field in the background of the picture, and the fact that all of the children had heavy winter coats on. They kept looking through the photos, which ended with the last full one taken of Morion. It had been taken in the summer, and Aurora pointed out all of the people Draco would know, including herself, Amy, Will and Olivia.
"Why is there a space?" questioned Draco, indicating a space between Amy and Lucy, in the middle at the front.
"It's an honourary space for my father. Technically he is still head of the Order, even if he is in a cave somewhere. Or not now, I suppose. Wherever he is."
"I had a thought last night."
"How much is it going to cost me?"
"Ha ha. No, I was thinking about Addie. She had left you, right?"
Aurora nodded. "Yes, that's right."
"Well, could she have gone to your father? To help him escape?"
"I never thought about that," admitted Aurora. "I suppose I've been thinking about this 'test' I have to get through so much I haven't thought about how he got out. She could have given him all of that power to escape. It is exactly like her."
"That's what I thought."
Aurora hugged him tightly. "Thank you!"
School continued as usual for the next three days, with Aurora almost forgetting about the up-and-coming anniversary of her sister's death, but it was always sitting somewhere at the back of her mind. Usually she would remember it before she went to sleep, where she would start to cry, with no one to dry her tears, as her mother had always done when she was younger. It was true that Draco could have done it for her, but other than the fact that he was not in her bed, they seemed to be getting further apart. He seemed to be keeping secrets from her, and she had found him talking to Pansy on a number of occasions, someone who he had told her that he did not like.
Tilly had sent no more word to Aurora, so she presumed her younger sister was alright now. The box she had got from Tilly had contained paper, as she had said, but it was not the paper itself that was important, but what was written on the paper. It looked like the random scribblings of a small child, but was in fact all of the codes and passwords needed for Aurora to gain access to her house, mixed in with other words and pictures. It had been in a box to hide it from her mother. She remembered now that Mara was to go home over the start of the holidays, until after Yule, then go back to Hogwarts for the wizarding and muggle festival of Christmas, and this meant she would be at home when Aurora was there.
Aurora was on the train on the way home, silently sitting alone in a carriage. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle had gone off through the train, presumably to terrorize the younger children, and she had not wanted to go with them. It was true that usually she would have enjoyed it, but in her current frame of mind, feeling quite 'good', she thought it was quite horrible. Her plans of trying to tell Draco this had failed miserably, so she had given up and had sat alone for most of the journey up until now. Mara, she knew, was going all of the way to London before going back on a muggle train to their home, but Aurora knew that it would be easier to translocate straight from the train to somewhere near the house.
Changing quickly from her robes into a pair of baggy black trousers, a simple black vest, her long red coat and her biog black boots, she collected up her belongings from the carriage, including her money, none of which she had yet spent, and the box from Tilly. Quickly she scanned the corridor outside the compartment of the carriage, she could not see Draco anywhere, and she probed with her mind to find him scaring some second-years with Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy in the next carriage down.
Bye. she thought into his mind.
You're going already?
Yes. They live about two hundred miles away from London, which is near here.
Wait for one minute.
I've really got to –
No. Wait.
About a minute later the door slid open and Draco burst in, breathless. Pansy stood behind him, a small smirk on her ugly face, as if she knew something Aurora did not, and was trying to rub it in without Aurora knowing what it was.
"Hi," breathed Draco.
"I've really got to go."
"And you didn't want to give me a proper goodbye?"
"Of course I did. But now I'm further away from the house than I estimated and all of my calculations are going to be off and –"
"You sound like Granger," he cut in.
Aurora sighed, and reached out her hands to meet his. They felt cold and almost clammy to her touch, but she kept them in hers to make a point to Pansy. She turned both of his hands over and brushed them with her lips lightly, before reaching up to kiss him on the forehead, the ancient ritual of benediction. He reached up and stroked the streak in her hair lovingly, before drawing her to him and kissing her roughly.
"See you in a few days," he said as they drew apart.
"Sure." Aurora picked up her things again, for she had dropped them, kissed Draco lightly on the nose, then shimmered and disappeared, leaving Draco alone with Pansy in the compartment.
"You see what I mean about her?" said Pansy after a few seconds to check that Aurora had actually gone.
"Definitely," he replied, nodding.
A/N :
Ooooooooooooooh . . . what does he see Pansy means about her? Ooooooooooooooh! Hee hee I know and you don't! [Well some of you may do]. It's not really what he sees she means about Aurora, it's more . . . erm . . . Difficult to explain. The rift is occurring . . .
None of you that reviewed seemed to get what I meant with my little hints from the last chapter about looking at description. It doesn't mean that I'm going to tell you though. You can keep thinking about it until it gets explained. Its quite subtle and if you don't know too much about Aurora. Thinking about it, I can't remember if I've actually said it before . . . Ah well, it'll all be explained later in about chapter 23 I do believe. It's all about the eyes . . . And a certain someone's hair [NOT Aurora's or Draco's, a minor character described not too long ago . . .] Come on people guess!
Oooh BTW everyone if I have asked you to be in the cult you are a CF follower and not a carp faerie yourself . . . if you want to actually be one you have to understand why we are called the carp faeries and why the obsession with carp – just think about my obsessions!
Catherine : I've asked you now. The cult rocks! Thanks for saying its amazing dude!
Clairie : 3 doors down are pretty good – though not really my sort of music, still OK. As to Rora and Will - :p you'll just have to wait and see! He's mine if Rors turns him down – he's my ideal man as he has long dark hair and wears eyeliner!
meenyrocks :I'm updating woman! It's as quickly as I can be bothered to do it!
Addie : BLINK AND NOW NIGHTWISH! THIS IS MY LUCKY MONTH!!!!! How hyper was I earlier? Tis actually porn, I admit. Though it's not as bad as some stories . . .
A-G-S : You can be obsessed with SADIB too. He is amazing! You have talent deary, never underestimate yourself. I wouldn't still be reviewing if you were crap now would I? Thinking of betas though, I could do with one #thinks# Ah well, I'll be fine. Right now it's 5:30pm here and quite warm oddly enough. Sorry for what I said earlier . . .
Please do R&R!
