The Pureblood Prince
38
The Other Half
Aurora's fork scraped across her plate back-and-forth several times, reaching for absolutely nothing, before Sirius gripped her wrist to stop her.
"Stop it, will you? You're driving me nuts!"
Aurora looked up with a glare. "I can always jab it in your eye instead…"
"What's gotten your sexy knickers in a knot?"
She threw down the fork, pushed the plate of half-eaten bacon sandwich toward the centre of the table and cocked her head curiously. "I'm not going to even answer that ludicrous question."
Sirius smiled empathetically and rubbed the area of wrist that he had previously grasped. "They're not going to hate you, Viper, not if I like you so much."
"Barking up the wrong tree, Sirius. Do I look like I care if they'll like me or not?"
"Ok, I get it. You're hopelessly attracted to me… I mean, obviously… but you don't like James or Remus –"
"I like Remus."
"Ah, so we get to the sparkly pink hippogriff in the room…"
"You can't pretend the feeling won't be mutual," Aurora bit as she pushed back her chair and made her way across her kitchen. "I mean – what did he say when you told him about us? You have told him about us, haven't you?"
"Of course!" Sirius bellowed with a mouthful of sandwich. He quickly swallowed and continued: "Prongs is fine with us. He trusts me. Besides, if you're going to want to come to his house, the house in which I share with him, then he's going to want to be on friendly terms with the girl who is banging her head against my bedroom wall every night."
Aurora hid her smile by searching through her kitchen cupboards for a glass.
"Wishful thinking times a million," she murmured. "Orange juice?"
"Please. Thanks for the sandwich, by the way."
"Not at all. You're lucky my brothers are out – every crevice of the kitchen would have been bare."
"Maybe we should get a place of our own…" Sirius mused behind her. When he saw Aurora's face returning dangerously close to him with two glasses of orange juice in her hands he quickly added, "joking!"
"Please go back to your house without me today; I have a lot of study to do and a field trip to the Orkney Isles to plan."
"No," Sirius replied. "I want you two to meet without stupid school politics involved… you don't have to be his friend, just… be amiable. I can always ask Moony to come along to make it easier?"
"Who the heck is Moony?"
"Remus. Sorry."
"And it matters this much that I get along with all of your Gryffindor comrades?"
Sirius shrugged sheepishly. "Yeah. And they're my best friends, no matter what House they were sorted into… just like how I want to desperately get inside your pants, despite you being Slytherin scum."
Oh, her ever reliable non-sentimental Sirius. Aurora was glad that he didn't come out with some melodramatic dribble about how much he cared for her or such other nonsense. She sighed and plonked herself down on his lap.
"Fine, we'll go. But do one thing for me first…"
An hour later, the couple emerged, coughing, through the fireplace situated in the middle of the Potter's living room. They both looked slightly disheveled… but that could have been blamed on the mode of transport – not the sexual exploits that had just occurred. No one else was here.
"Huh, he might be out. Might be your lucky day… me licking you up the legs and not having to see James."
"Sh!" Aurora reprimanded.
Sirius grabbed her hand and began dragging her up the stairs. "Come on, I need to change anyway."
They made their way up the narrow stairs of the very homely looking abode. When they reached the landing, Sirius turned and knocked on the very first door that they came to; music was blaring from behind its wooden frame. "Oi, Prongsy! It's three o' clock! Time to get up you lazy prat."
He opened the door and immediately the couple were hit with a wall of what Aurora assumed was Muggle rock music (not completely heinous as Aurora imagined it would be). Two figures from the bed immediately looked up at them; one was James Potter, the other Lily Evans. She was lying with her head in his lap, and from the looks of it he was halfway through running a hand through her hair.
"Ah huh. Well at least you both are clothed. Sorry." Sirius apologized, but he entered James's bedroom anyway. Aurora stayed back within the hallway, never feeling so uncomfortable and awkward in her life. Before Sirius had a chance to make mention of her, Lily had lifted her head and was now gazing curiously behind her boyfriend's best friend.
"Aurora? What are you doing here?"
She could have killed Sirius. So he hadn't said anything about them whatsoever.
Before she could think of an answer (because Sirius was of absolutely no help at all), James interjected. "Oh, they're a thing now. Hi Aurora." He greeted her quite nonchalantly.
Aurora nodded in equal restraint. "Hello."
"Huh? Them?" Lily queried, gesturing between Sirius and Aurora. "But I thought," she paused and sat further upright on the bed. "I thought you and Severus were…?"
The distaste from the other three faces in the room was so apparent that it could possibly have been spotted from space.
"No!" Aurora objected just a little too loudly. She received a very favorable hug around the shoulder from Sirius and a little smile from James. "Well… I just mean that he's… not my type. Nor in my league."
She had certainly won in the boys' books. Lily, however, merely shrugged.
"Fair enough. Well, come in and we can have a proper chat. You know sometimes I think the housing system at school is awfully wrong. You hardly get to know anyone outside your chosen House."
"I know. I think the exactly the same way," Aurora replied. "It really only becomes apparent when one has graduated; before then Slytherin law dictated that I must hate you all."
"Worked two ways," James grinned. "Well it's nice to meet a sociable Slytherin for once anyway."
And good to see a Gryffindor with a head smaller than the size of a boulder. For once, anyway. Thought Aurora. Give it time, though, it'll probably swell again in time.
So she sat with the three of them. A 'proper chat' was probably far too overstated, but at least the discussions were sociable and ordinary. Aurora had missed ordinary conversation. It felt good to have to not think too hard for once.
Aurora stayed for a couple more hours. Lily and James had invited the pair to come with them to a pub down the road, but she had politely refused – stating that she needed to get home to study for her multivariable calculus exam that she had on in a couple of days… not a lie. She and Sirius remained in his bedroom for a while. They shared a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey, stripped down to their underwear and lounged on his bed; Aurora slipped up only once when she caught sight of a shiny copy of Advanced Potion Making sitting tightly up on Sirius's shelf and felt her stomach drop. She wondered if Eileen had managed to read it… no, she didn't wonder… she didn't wonder. She told herself that she didn't care and that was what she was determined to do.
"Everything alright, darling?" Sirius queried after gazing at her pained expression for a few silent seconds.
His voice broke into her deep thought, and it rather infuriated her. She suddenly felt rather self-conscious sitting here in nothing but her bra and knickers.
"Yeah…" Aurora said absent-mindedly. "Don't call me darling."
"Sorry, sugartits."
"Sirius," she warned. "Just…"
"Oh, what now?" he cooed, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her down onto the bed. "Forget about your study for a few hours. Where's that Astronomy twaddle gonna take you anyway? To Io?"
Joking or not, that was the final straw for the day. Aurora pushed him violently away from her and began pulling on her clothes. "I have to go. See you later."
"Let me walk you!"
"Sirius!" Aurora snapped midway from pulling her top over her pounding head. "All I have to do is Disapparate. Are you going to walk me over to the corner of the room, or…?"
Sirius looked positively flabbergasted.
"Er… well… fine. See you tomorrow, then? I'll come by the Academy after your lectures and we can eat. Or something."
She sighed. "Yes, fine. See you."
Aurora Disapparated without knowing where she really wanted to go.
As she suspected, she did not end up back at her house. She was back in Northern country.
She had no idea what on earth she was going to do in this place… but seeing that book, and reading those Daily Prophet articles about the new order of Death Eaters, had greatly troubled her again. It was a message that she had not done all that she could to alert people to how dangerous Severus could possibly be. If she did not do all that she could, and he ended up a murderer, the blood of the victims he took would be on her conscience permanently. But what could she do?
Aurora decided that she had to talk to Eileen again – she was obviously in the right place to do at least that. And this time she would have to come out and say exactly what was on her mind. Perhaps Eileen was the only person that could stop him; perhaps she could force her to alert Dumbledore… Well, it was the best plan her brain could come up with in the walk from the river to Spinners End; it would have to do.
As Aurora rushed down the smoggy cobblestoned streets, she hastily avoided the eyes of the Muggles who frowned in her direction. These weren't the kind of Muggles you'd want to get any sort of attention from. Eventually she made the turn into Spinners End and headed to number 52, when she got there she was met with a scene of utter devastation.
The front door had been left wipe open, its two small windowpanes had been completely shattered. Glass and a few items of clothing were scattered down the hallway and the piece of pavement at Aurora's feet. She quickly turned her head sideways to ensure that it was the right house before she timidly poked her head through, one hand involuntarily covering her mouth. "Sev? Severus?" she whispered. Not a sound was heard from inside. Aurora made her way through into the entrance, glass cracking underneath her heels as she walked. "… Eileen?"
The commotion in the hall must've stirred something from within the furthest room of the ground floor; all of a sudden she heard slow, heavy footsteps making their way toward her. The first thing she could make out was the scoured, weary looking face of the same man that had opened the door to her the first time she came here - his eyes so bloodshot that they were positively burgundy.
"You again…" he drawled as he made his way into the hallway toward her. Aurora started to back away, now fearing for her own safety. "They ain't here. They ain't never gonna come back here. Alright? Now get out before I make you."
"What have you done to her?" Aurora asked almost inaudibly, feeling panic rising within her stomach.
He was never going to answer that question - she had expected that. What she also expected was that he was about to do something rash in the heat of the moment – she could tell from his demeanor that he was not one for talking issues out. Aurora saw him reach for something from within the living room, and it was a matter of mere seconds before she had drawn her wand and was using it to fragment the vase that came flying toward her head before it had chance to strike her.
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE, WITCH!" the man bellowed. When he began to storm toward her, Aurora could do nothing else but run. She made it, albeit feeling as though her lungs were about to explode, to the end of the street where she stood like a dumbfounded imbecile – turning her body in all sorts of directions, completely uncertain about where she should go, who she should tell…
There was no way that Severus had fallen victim to that Muggle - but something awful had very recently happened to his mother. Her first thought was to alert Magical Law Enforcement, but if Severus was now a fully-fledged dark wizard then that could mean a one-way ticket to Azkaban for the rest of his life if they got the Aurors involved. She would have to go to the Muggle law enforcement officers. She would find it almost impossible to Apparate there, seeing as she had no clue where the Muggles kept their headquarters. She would have to ask for directions and make her way there by foot.
Would alerting Muggles be enough? No, Aurora decided. I need to speak to Dumbledore. I don't know why… I don't know how… but he'll know what to do. He can deal with it and I can go back to worrying about my studies instead of worrying about Death Eaters and a possible… no, we won't even think about that… she'll be found and she'll be ok.
Dumbledore would fix this.
He could always fix things.
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