It wasn't as bad as Aurelia had expected. The "estate" was no manor by any means, it only had one elderly house-elf and the cottage, for that was the accurate term, was old and creaky and even a little bit shabby; but to Aurelia, it was a relief. Nestled by the sea with walls of warm sun-bleached stone and an interior filled with light and mismatched furniture, the whole place offered a homey appeal that Portia's house could never even come close to conveying.

It didn't take long for Aurelia to slip into a routine. Her first day in exile, she found the gem of the house, a moderately sized library full of classic volumes and muffled in that old book smell. She divided her days between swimming and spending time on the beach or the cliffs and reading in the window seat in her room. Every waking minute was managed in order to prevent any crack in her emotional armor, mentally or physically she was always active. She immersed herself in a world of activity and fantasy that was bright and engrossing even if it was a little shaky around the edges.

When she had just established a nice status quo, the visitors started dropping by.

She was wandering idly along the cliffs one day when she saw someone sitting on the porch watching curls of smoke drift up from a glowing cigarette. For a moment she slowed, squinting into the sunset, but then her face relaxed into lines of joy and set out for the house at a trot.

"Oliver!" She exclaimed, running up to him and throwing her arms around his neck, "what are you doing here?"

He hugged Aurelia close until she had to disentangle herself and then replied as he folded himself down onto the porch steps, "Well, Lottie might have dropped me a line about the Grandmonster putting my favorite kid sister to pasture. Since I'm far too spineless to take on the old bird and have the sentence overturned I decided I'd just come cheer you up. How are you?"

"I'm great actually, being out here is much better than living at the illustrious manor. Here I can wear a bikini without anyone making a reference to the world's oldest profession. I mean where else can you find joy like that?"

"Wow. I know that's what I look for when I'm finding a new place. So, I'm afraid to ask, but what exactly happened?"

"It's a long story. Suffice to say that it ends in me being unacceptably rude to a member of the beau monde for being flip about our parents. It was inexcusable obviously," she said acidly.

Oliver shot her a sideways glance, "Lia, you've got to let it go. People can't always be on their guard about whether they're going to say something that might remind you of our parents or that might upset you. You get that, right?"

She turned towards him with her chin up and her nostrils flared. "Yes, Oliver, I get that I can't be going off on people for little things. But I am not going to let it go. Apparently you don't remember, or don't care, or I don't even know, but our parents were murdered. I can never let that go and I don't see how you can either."

"Aurelia. There's nothing we can do. The very best thing we can do is just get on with our lives." He put his hand on her shoulder with unusual tenderness, but she immediately shrugged it off.

"Thanks for coming, Oliver, but I bet you have lots to do at the paper and should probably be getting back."

"Lia…"

"Do you know if Lottie wrote to Edward too? Because I really don't want he and Elisabeth to have to leave Johnny to come to visit."

"Lottie and I wouldn't inflict that on you," he paused, waiting for her to smile or betray some evidence of emotion. She didn't. "Well, I guess I'll be going. Owl me if you need me." She looked at him askance. "I mean it, Lia, if you need anything at all let me know." He gave her a one armed hug and set off down the walk to the apparition point as she stared moodily after him.

Her next visitor was lighter hearted. One Elysian morning she was dozing on the beach, skipping back and forth over the border between waking and sleeping when with no warning at all she was immersed in freezing water. Flailing and screeching she got her bearings and made her way to shore. She stalked out of the water, glowering, right in to a giant bear hug, courtesy of Sirius Black. She was looking over his shoulder when she noticed something that made a smirk crawl its way up her lip to replace her grimace. After a moment of letting the moment ripen she began screaming.

"Help! Help! Oh, please, help me!" she screeched. Sirius just looked at her like she had gone barmy until he saw the man running down the beach toward them; then he removed his arms and scampered away from her with astonishing haste. Aurelia just stood there, sopping wet, using every miniscule bit of self-control she possessed to keep succumbing to the giggles bubbling up in her throat.

Until, that is, she saw the man produce a wand from somewhere on his person. Then her mouth dropped into a tiny "o" of astonishment, which only took a moment to mutate into horror. She swiveled her head to look at Sirius and saw that he had already pulled out his own wand and was looking tense as a bowstring.

"What's going on here? Are you all right, Miss? Was he trying to hurt you?" The man's voice was deep like a lake, both concerned and slightly threatening.

The first thing Aurelia did was step in front of Sirius, a response that invoked a puzzled head tilt in the unintentionally quixotic rescuer. "Oh, erm…" Aurelia stumbled, trying to figure out the best way to break the news to a man who was, admittedly, taller and rather more intimidating than he had looked from a far. After chewing nervously on her lip, the truth just came tumbling out, "I'm terribly sorry, it's, I mean, it was just a joke. He's actually one of my best friends, has been for years."

Had it been anyone else that would probably have been the end of it, but this man furrowed his brow slightly and looked over at Sirius. "I saw your wand, how do I know she's not confunded, or worse?"

Aurelia tried to say something, but Sirius nudged her out of the way and exclaimed hotly, "Look mate, it was a harmless joke. I don't know what it's going to take to convince you, but I would never do something like that to any girl, much less one of my best friends."

Not knowing what else to do, Aurelia just stood there doing her best not to look confounded, imperioused, befuddled, or otherwise coerced. She put a hand on Sirius's wand arm, in a half-hearted attempt to calm him (making sure he would still be able to use the if necessary and cursing the fact that she had left her own wand on the nightstand) and tilted her chin up defiantly. No one acted at first, it was just a gridlock of wills, but finally the stranger gave in. "So you two are telling me this was all just some sort of joke?"

"It's a very long story…" Aurelia offered.

"Well, I can only hope that its funnier on the inside looking out. I'll let you two get back to it then."

Something about his tone made Aurelia and Sirius both shy away from each other. "Oh no," said Aurelia, as Sirius interjected, "It's not like that."

The man just bowed slightly, saying sardonically, "My apologies," and continued walking down the beach.

When Sirius and Aurelia were alone she turned to face him, lip held sheepishly between her teeth, awaiting his reaction. To her relief, but not surprise, he burst into whooping barks of laughter until he was almost doubled over. "Oh, man, Harper, you've got a special kind of luck. Of all the guys who could have been walking down the beach when you decided to pull that excellent stunt, very nice by the way, you would get the one who would think I had 'confounded you, or worse', how ominous." By the time he finished, Aurelia too was grinning widely. They walked back up to the cottage arm in arm and spent the rest of the visit doing light, frivolous things, avoiding talk of their problems. It was so wonderful that Aurelia was sad to see him go.

Sirius's visit had two unexpected results. First, Aurelia realized something that she had a very ambiguous feeling about, she realized that she was actually glad that Lily was on holiday abroad and couldn't come visit. It was easy to fill letters with cheerful jabbering that Lily would never have stood for in person. Aurelia could just see it in her head, Lily bursting into the cottage practically radiating good intentions, telling her to let it all out, to share, which would be followed by her own staunch refusal, and probably a healthy dose of shouting by the end of it all. Of course Lily was still her best friend, Aurelia knew that was true, but she just didn't think she could face all of the emotional mumbo-jumbo. Letters were just…easier.

The other effect of Sirius's visit was that she began frequently seeing the man from the beach incident. It began one day while she was on one of her walks. Suddenly, someone was walking at an angle that put them on course to intersect her path. She tensed, deciding whether or not to flee in case it was another, probably unwelcome, visitor. Then she saw the man, for it was definitely a man, wave in an unfamiliar way and decided to face the music and just keep walking. She was not at all pleased when she saw that it was protective-beach-man, as she had dubbed him, because while she could have just ignored a total stranger she felt compelled to at least acknowledge the man who had stepped up to her (unnecessary) rescue. As they passed each other she gave him a shadow of a smile, looked down, and kept walking.

After that she saw him more and more. She would be on the beach reading and he would walk by, or she would be swimming and she would see him on the shore, and she often encountered him as she was walking. It was actually a little uncanny. Before she knew what was happening, they had developed a kind of camaraderie that developed as the summer days glided by. One day he said hello, the next time she saw him she gave him a genuine smile. On another not so special day they ran into each other while they were walking, and instead of just passing he turned and fell into step with her.

"So, where are you headed?" he asked.

"Headed?"

"Yeah," he grinned boyishly, an expression Aurelia had not expected to see on his face, "it means where are you going, what are you doing, what's your purpose out here?"

Her lips pursed, "I don't suppose I'm doing anything other than walking. What are you doing?"

"Walking with you."

"Uh huh. Well that doesn't seem very worthwhile for you now does it?"

"Sure it does. I could walk by myself, or I could walk with you, this way we both have company."

"What if I don't want company?" she asked, only halfway joking.

"Oh come on, everyone wants company."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Not I," she said, then turned and walked back toward the cottage.

That was the first of many random little run-ins and conversations that the two had and eventually Aurelia grew to rather enjoy them. It was nice having someone to talk to that didn't know anything about her or want to delve into her baggage. The two of them just covered the basics, she told him her name and that she was on holiday from school, and he told her that his name was Finn Fletcher and that he was twenty years old, and that, like Aurelia, he was also on holiday. Despite the fact that she had seem him draw his wand and heard him talk about magic they never spoke of it, despite Aurelia's burning curiosity. They kept up a façade of impersonality by not finding out the specifics of each other's lives, but by Finn's last day by the sea their questions had gotten quite personal in an abstract sort of way.

"So," Finn asked, "what are your thoughts on love?"

"What about it?"

He rolled over on his side so that he could look at her more easily, "You know, do you believe in true love, love at first sight, love everlasting, etc."

He looked at her expectantly until she answered. "Well, I guess the jury is still out for me."

"That's really all you're going to say? You don't have an opinion?"

She rolled over too, smiling edgily, "That's all I've got. Besides, isn't it usually girls who are asking these kind of questions?"

With a harrumphing sound Finn shifted back onto his back and for a while there was silence as the two looked up at the sky. Finally Finn rekindled conversation, "I have to leave tomorrow."

"It's going to be different without you," said Aurelia noncommittally.

"Good different or bad different?"

"Oh definitely some good different, but maybe mostly bad different."

"So basically, you're saying that you're going to miss me."

"No," she said quickly, but then relented, "maybe a little."

"I get the feeling that from you that's quite a complement," there was pause that made Aurelia squirm a little bit where she lay, though she wasn't sure why. Finn continued, his voice stiff with renewed resolve, "Aurelia."

"Yes?" she asked, head cocked.

"I'm going to kiss you now." And before she had a chance to say anything one of his hands was in her hair and one was on the small of her back pulling her towards him as his mouth found hers. She didn't resist, and after a moment of restraint she was kidding him back. But after a few minutes she pushed herself away, the word sorry falling repeatedly from her lips as scrambled to her feet in the sand and rushed towards the cottage. She occasionally tossed backwards glances at Finn, who was sitting where she had left him, but she didn't turn back.

By the next morning when went looking for him he was already gone.

A/N: New chapter! Yay, it's been forever. Review with comments and suggestions!