A/N: Hope you all have a wonderful 2015! Please enjoy. Another coming up soon.
If you like this, please consider giving my other story The Lesser Good a read. I'm sort of tandem writing between them at the moment so if it seems like updates are few and far between, it's probably due to me concentrating on the other. ;)

Chapter 44

No Time For Heroes

It had been a very tiring day (and night) at the Academy of Astrophysics. Aurora was of the assumption that the only reason their Professors (real Professors, not the imposters that trolled the halls of Hogwarts – Merlin, was she glad to be shot of the lot of them) dismissed their protégés from their observatory studies was because dawn was their natural enemy. With a million and one research papers stuffed into her leather satchel, she made her way out of the prestigious stone castle with its many towers full of state of the art telescopes and domes of ever-changing star maps, and marched down the steep country hill preparatory to Apparating back to her brother's home. Merlin's beard the tiredness was overwhelming her today. Being the avid stargazer she was, she never usually had this much trouble trying to stay awake in the mornings… she was usually quite accustomed to the alterations to her body clock. This morning, however, she could barely keep herself upright as she took out her wand and readied herself for home, and her nice warm bed.

She took out her black wand and Apparated right into her bedroom, which was the only place in her abode where she was magically permitted. She did not expect to fall head over heels on top of Sirius Black as she did so.

"Ow!" she yelped, as both Sirius and herself toppled off the bed and onto the floor. Sirius gave an equal shout of protest; in his defense, this was probably far more justified – given that somebody had literally just materialized out of thin air onto his lap.

"Merlin's beard Vipe, your arse just gave me a nosebleed!" Sirius groaned as he held a hand to his nose. "Haven't got the hang of Apparition yet have we?"

"Sorry…" Aurora started, pulling down her robes and dragging herself off him. It was only when she had sat herself back down on her bed and took a good look at him, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger, that she realised he had apparently just let himself into her house.

"How did you get in my room?" she demanded. Sirius frowned and flinched as he did so.

"Your brother Leon let me in! D'you think I scaled your drainpipe or something?"

"So you've been sitting in my bedroom just waiting for me to come home?"

"Please," Sirius rolled his eyes and made himself comfortable on the floor, where he created a Sirius-shaped hole amongst all of the books and charts. "I didn't go rifling through your drawers and sniff your knickers or anything. Tempting as it is…" he gave her his typical smirk, to which she unintentionally returned. "… no, I knew you got off at 6 so I got up nice and early, left James's, and sat here like a good boy. Until I was flattened by a stroppy witch-physicist that is."

"I'm too tired for sex."

"Little Viper! You think so little of me! Living with Slytherin boys for seven years must've taken its toll." Sirius said, appearing affronted. He reached into his coat pocket, pulled out of a crumped letter and held it out to her. "An owl came for you last night just after you left. Apparently someone's been tracking you…"

Aurora paid no attention to the letter at first, staring into his eyes instead. She could not decipher the emotions behind them… his gaze was pure ambiguity.

"Oh…" she replied vaguely, reaching out and taking the letter in her own hand where she flipped it over and back again. The front merely read her name. The back bore the Hogwarts seal.

"Who's it from?"

"Heaven's sake, Sirius, let me open it first!" Aurora could tell by the eager way that he was gaping at her that he was very interested in finding out who on earth would be writing to her from their old school. She bit her lip and slid her finger underneath the backing of the envelope and popped it open. She had a feeling that she knew what this was regarding… and she would prefer it if Sirius was kept out of the loop.

He watched as her eyes flicked back and forth over the small piece of parchment that fell out into her hands.

Aurora,

I am eternally grateful for your letter informing me of the book that you found. I thought it only polite to write you back and inform you, in turn, that Eileen Snape is physically safe and well here in Hogsmeade – and we are well on the way to getting to the bottom of these dark occurrences.

This is in no small part, thanks to your efforts. The Order is indebted to your assistance in the resistance of the rise of the Death Eaters.

I wish you all the luck in your future Astronomical endeavors. If an Astronomy vacancy ever arises, we at Hogwarts would surely welcome an application from your good self.

Pass on my regards to Mr. Black.

Kindest Regards,

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

Her eyes lingered on the letter for far longer than it had taken her to read it. For some reason it felt far too personal to her to divulge any of it to Sirius.

"You got it too, didn't you?" Sirius had decided that he was going to speak for her.

"What?"

"An invitation…" he continued. "I got one too. James, Remus and Lily all did as well... even Peter."

"Invitation?"

"To the Order of the Phoenix!" Sirius smiled proudly. "Dumbledore's secret organisation to fight You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters! I knew he'd ask you too. Merlin, how on earth are you going to fit it in with all your studies? You're going to be one busy girl…"

"Uh…" Aurora started, quite unsure of how to continue this conversation. She had no idea what the Order of the Phoenix was. Obviously it was the 'Order' to which Dumbledore had referred to in his letter to her - but there was no invitation on her part to join any such Order... it was merely a thank you note.

"It makes perfect sense!" Sirius continued gushing away from the floor. "I mean, you've been around them all haven't you, being in Slytherin? You must know loads of secrets and have plenty of dirt on your housemates! Dumbledore rightly reckons you'll be a valuable asset!"

He was speaking about her as if she were some kind of useful artifact, or weapon. Aurora was feeling all sorts of things now… it was a complex battle between feeling completely used, and completely discarded. She had received no invitation and therefore was certainly not considered important by Dumbledore, and on the other hand there was Sirius stating that she was only useful because she could obviously be trusted to betray all of her friends.

"Yeah," she said vacantly, still blinking at the letter. And then she lied: "I guess that's the only reason they want me. But I shan't be accepting."

"Why?" Sirius demanded immediately. "You'd be so helpful!"

"I don't give a rat's arse about this stupid war!" she snarled quite honestly this time, scrunching up the parchment and tossing it aside. "I have my own ambitions and my own career to consider. They may ask me what they wish, and I may answer - but I just as likely may not. I've had it up to here with Death Eaters and Orders and arrogant tosspots."

"Rora…"

"Sirius, you know this stuff is much more 'you' than 'me'." Aurora explained more calmly. She was starting to feel rather dizzy; she attributed this to a severe lack of sleep. "Don't make me out to be some great hero like you and your band. The bottom line is that I want what is best for me and mine, and fighting in a war and taking such blatant sides is not what I have in mind."

Sirius paused and considered this.

"You'd sit back and let others fight for you?" he queried solemnly.

"No one is fighting for me," Aurora said angrily. "I don't ask anyone to fight in my name and nor would I welcome it."

"You-" he started, but it was very apparent that they both were getting no-where. Aurora didn't even know why she was fighting with him… Dumbledore hadn't asked her to join his merry band anyway, possibly because he knew she would have this exact reaction… or maybe because she really was not so important in the scheme of things. Either way, Aurora could foresee a lot of these arguments arising between her and Sirius. They both possessed very different mindsets on the world. If she had kept a list of Official Bad Ideas – dating a prototypical Gryffindor would probably feature very highly on it.

"You're right," he said very unexpectedly. "It probably is a smarter idea to keep to yourself and keep only your loved ones safe. Stupid me for wanting to keep a larger number of people safe and all… you know I don't even know them but I'd like them to not be killed and all. It'd be far easier to be selfish like you."

Aurora rolled her eyes. "Sirius…"

She expected him to angrily Apparate into thin air in typical dramatic Sirius-like fashion, but he didn't. Instead, he kissed her gently on the lips, and all her affection came flooding back for him.

"I'll see you tonight, yeah?" he asked tenderly in her ear. "I need to talk to you about something."

Aurora felt a stone drop in the pit of her stomach. Or was it a wave of nausea? Either way, she did not feel very good, or well for that matter. She weakly pulled him toward her and gathered him in her arms; he came to rest on top of her on the bed. If she was about to lose him, she needed something to remember him by. Something fond. She had had it up to here with unhappy separations.

"Sleep with me," she whispered into his thick brown locks. Sirius lifted his head to look at her eyes; the back of his hand began stroking the side of her face. It was clear that he knew she really meant sleep and nothing else… he had never really missed a beat so long as she had known him, this Sirius Black.

Their bodies shifted to accommodate each other; Sirius's arms entwined themselves around her curled up body, and her head came to rest upon his chest. Aurora would have very well quite enjoyed this still moment, even with someone who appeared to be losing all romantic attraction to her bit by bit, were it not for the almost torturous fatigue… or the increasingly potent sick feeling in her belly. As she lay there listening to her boyfriend (or probably just good friend now) breathing deeply in his sleep – a sudden, almost heart stopping thought smacked her right in the middle of her chest.

When they both emerged from their slumber hours later, however - the thought had been quite forgotten.