Severus Snape had replaced Albus Dumbledore as Headmaster of Hogwarts. The school had become a very different place from the one the students had left a few months ago. The atmosphere was depleted as well as the overall number of returning pupils. The Great Hall was barren, there was no warm fire nor welcome feast to fill the bellies of the tired and hungry travellers. The Headmasters' speech was just a list of new rules and regulations and to add to the horror, one of the new professors sent a hex by way of a red streak across the hall and square into the chest of a protester who had risen to his feet. Mcgonagall rushed from the shadows at the edge of the hall to aid the boy and those around him who were distraught. Snape dismissed the others to their dormitories before apparating in a cloud of black smoke. The Hogwarts that was once a friendly home to many, was now it was a hellhole.
Aurelia's lessons became something she had to force herself to get out bed for, they were regularly required to practice their curses on first years and anyone who refused would find themselves the target instead. The new allowances for brutal punishment had already left Aurelia with a black eye and a bandaged wand hand; she had been set on fire by a teacher named Carrow for failing to complete a full Imperio curse. She was only able to conjure her victim to think her thoughts, she could not force them to do her actions.
For the night before Aurelia's 16th birthday she was wide awake with worry, the Slytherin Dormitory was frightfully cold as winter descended, which also didn't help. She aimlessly stroked her left forearm. If Dumbledore was still alive she would feel more protected within the school, but that kind of security was no longer guaranteed, because the Deatheaters were already inside Hogwarts.
Aurelia woke early, overwhelmed with nausea. Her bare feet slapped against the cold floor to the bathroom. Her body flew over the toiler bowl but all that was available to expel from her stomach was bile. The girl sat and blinked the water from her eyes and gathered her breath, next to her nose, her bodily fluids mingled with the small amount of green stagnant water in the base of the toilet and the smell was bad enough to make her wretch again. When Aurelia exited her toilet stall she stopped in her tracks. Across the room in a shower cubicle was Pansy Parkinson.
Pansy sat on the floor with her knees hugged to her chest, her head was leant back against the wall and she had a sombre look on her face. As Aurelia approached her she could see that Pansy was silently crying, she also had a bruised eye socket, cut eyebrow and nose bridge and evidence of a severe nose bleed. There was blood on the floor around Pansy too, Aurelia's mouth parted, she had seen a large blackish-red mass next to Pansy. Pansy closed her eyes after her head tilted to see Aurelia.
Pansy sighed. "Do you know where Draco is?" she said.
Aurelia crouched down to her level and replied, "no... Pansy, what happened?".
After a tense but short pause Pansy rolled her eyes and shifted her sore body.
"I couldn't produce the torture curse... she looked so helpless... they tied her hands and feet..." fresh tears rolled down her stained face and she sighed again, "my head is still pounding."
Aurelia's concerned gaze moved back to the bloodied pile on the floor and back to the girl. Pansy watched the girl's eyes and tutted with defeat.
"I was 5 months pregnant, Lestrange. The curse must have triggered it to come early" and Pansy looked to the premature foetus but closed her eyes again.
Aurelia was mortified. "I'll get help!"
"No!" Pansy shot forward and grabbed Aurelia by both her forearms. Pansy continued to beg Aurelia not to run for help, she told her no one was to know about the baby, that she just needed to find Draco. That was when Aurelia realised that Draco was probably the father.
"Draco knew?" Aurelia pushed Pansy off from her arms and stood full height. She mentally worked out that Pansy must have been pregnant when they shared a moment in the bathroom back at Malfoy Manor, and Draco had told Aurelia that he loved her. She felt betrayed, she felt lied to by the one person she had grown to trust.
Pansy looked utterly in despair, she continued to beg for Aurelia's silence. Aurelia nodded and left the bathroom. The sun was beginning to rise but Aurelia didn't head back to bed. She walked to the hospital wing.
Madam Pomfrey was already up and attending to a patient, the wing was almost full of students. Aurelia turned white as a sheet and promptly heaved what little stomach acid she had left into a bowl that was already filled with puke at the closest bedside. Pomfrey rushed over and felt the girl's forehead with the backs of her fingers. Aurelia didn't have a fever and that confused the nurse.
Aurelia shoved the lady's hand from her head and told her she needed to talk in private. Madam Pomfrey pulled a privacy screen around the nearest empty bed but Aurelia refused to sit down on the bed. She was not there for personal ailments.
"If somebody was pregnant..." She started but was interrupted. Aurelia's head began to spin. She hadn't eaten properly for a few days for her mind was preoccupied with her approaching fate upon her birthday.
Madam Pomfrey gasped and ushered the girl to lie down, Aurelia didn't have the words or energy to object.
"It's not me Miss" She breathed as her head hit the pillow. "A friend... I think she"
"Miss Lestrange, are you and your friends sexually active?" Madam Pomfrey raised her eyebrows and spoke with a condescending tone. Aurelia's brain flashed her memories of Lucius at her and then of Draco during the summer. She was old enough to know that sex could lead to pregnancy, but she had never been told this information direct. She had only begun her monthly bleed at the beginning of the year, and even at that time, Madam Pomfrey had been the mentor she desperately needed then.
"I feel sick". Aurelia answered to her memories.
After inspecting Aurelia's bruised face and healing hand, Madam Pomfrey lifted the girl's tank top up to reveal her stomach and prodded at her tender torso with her cold and wrinkled hands. She circled her hands from the top of her stomach down to her hips and abruptly pulled them off from Aurelia's body. Now it was the elder lady who had turned white in the face. Pomfrey knew of Aurelia's home life with Mr Malfoy, she had previously had many lengthy conversations with Dumbledore about the girl's safety and objected to Aurelia returning home with Lucius when her mother had escaped from Azkaban. She knew that Lucius had also escaped during the most recent summer and now Aurelia was laid on a bed in the hospital wing with a baby growing in her belly.
Aurelia huffed impatiently but opened her bright blue eyes at Madam Pomfrey's unexpected movements, she saw that the nurse had one hand over her mouth and the other on her hip, she appeared to be deeply troubled.
"Aurelia, Sweetheart, are you still getting your periods?" She asked.
Aurelia propped herself up on her elbows and thought hard. She hadn't noticed until that point that she hadn't for a while. She chewed on the inside of her cheek and looked to her stomach. Normally her hip bones protruded high above the line her stomach sunk to when laid down, but now it was plump and slightly rounded.
Madam Pomfrey felt rage bubble through her body, her face filled with heat and she had to swallow hard to stop vomit from entering her mouth and keep her composure in front of Aurelia. She grabbed at Aurelia's left forearm and upon quick examination, implored the girl to report her abuse before it was too late. She placed a hand softly over the girl's pregnant belly.
"You have proof now dear." Pomfrey stated. "All you have to do is say the words, they will believe you this time."
Aurelia's heart beat wild in her chest, her face was horrified. Was this woman mad? She thought, they all knew about Lucius anyway. She tried to talk but could only stutter and pause. She looked to her tummy again and whispered. "Am I pregnant?"
Madam Pomfrey nodded, a solitary tear fell from her watery eyes. Aurelia jumped from the bed and knocked over the side cart and screen in her haste. Pomfrey continued to plead with the girl to say something of her troubles with Lucius Malfoy. The other students had fallen silent to listen and watch the unfolding commotion but Madam Pomfrey was swiftly silenced when Aurelia grabbed her wand from the concealed ankle strap and aimed it towards the woman. Aurelia kept her wand raised until she backed herself out of the hospital wing, and she ran back to her dorm where she skipped out on her morning classes and sat in the cupboard where she had hidden with Draco. That time felt like a million years ago to Aurelia, their lives had been flipped upside down, she felt as though she had aged 10 years over the summer. Once lunchtime rolled around Aurelia had showered and entered the Great Hall. The thickness of her school uniform hid her stomach, but she felt conscious of its presence, the girl quickly took a seat and grabbed an apple but didn't take a bite.
Aurelia couldn't keep her thoughts straight enough to eat, a hand landed on the girl's bony shoulder, the fingers gripped and indented into her skin. Her head darted upwards to meet the face of her Headmaster. The moment they made eye contact the world disappeared around them, it swirled and gushed like water in Aurelia's ears and colours and light flashed into the darkness of her closed eyes. Aurelia's stomach soared into her mouth and she clawed at the hand that was stuck to her shoulder.