Light in the Darkness

Chapter 3

Aurora had stayed up for three more hours that evening, sitting in that same armchair by the fireplace, listening to the Dark Lord explain the details of his plans to her. The Sorting Hat would be confunded to put her into Gryffindor -because it seemed plainly obvious to both Voldemort and Aurora that she would be put in Slytherin otherwise- and she would have a new last name so that she would not be rejected by her peers upon arrival. By the time the rest of the components to the plan had been worked out, the fireplace that Aurora had been observing for most of the night had been reduced to a small collection of glowing embers. And at eleven thirty that night, she was at last dismissed to bed.

Nearly a full month had passed since her conversation with the Dark Lord, and Aurora now found herself standing rigidly beside the three Malfoys on Platform 9 and 3/4. Her keen eyesight was obstructed slightly by the smoke that emitted from the crimson engine of the Hogwarts Express, but Aurora could still make out a scene that was so utterly unfamiliar to her that she was left baffled. All around her, adults escorted their children across the platform. Some wore proud smiles and greeted old friends with smiles, while woefully kissed their children on their cheeks before watching them board the train, waving the entire time. It was unlike anything Aurora had ever seen, and to her the kisses and smiles were indecipherable; her brain could not compute the emotion behind the gestures.

She thought back to the time, not so long ago, when she had attended Durmstrang. It was a year to the day, when she had stood on a foggy, secluded dock in the Gothenburg. All around her was a scene of utter grimness. Her fellow classmates, all male, separated into two groups on either side of the harbor. These groups were based on the respective school houses, and there was a clear difference between the two.

On one side there was the Drakonya Krov students, horsing around near the abandoned ship building warehouses, and on the other were the Klyk Vampira pupils, standing in a tight group, talking amongst themselves. Aurora had always stood alone, however. On her first day at Durmstrang she had been sorted into Drakonya Krov, but it had not mattered. She was not one of them, she never had been. By school regulations she was not permitted to use the same common room as her housemates, or share the same dormitories -though she saw the rationalization for this latter thought. She was not allowed to play in competitive games with her house, only the weekly Wednesday scrimmages. In all it had seemed as though she were barely a part of the school itself, but Aurora knew, just as her classmates that she deserved to be there just as much as any of them. After all, it isn't everyday that the daughter of an infamous, and widely considered the most dangerous and talented, Death Eater came to their institution. They had made an exception for her, girl or not, she was pure of blood, and had Bellatrix Lestrange's wild eyes.

Aurora was shaken from these memories as her Uncle Lucius, abruptly took hold of her bony shoulder with the handle of his cane, "Over there," he whispered in her ear as he stood behind her.

Looking up at him for a moment, Aurora followed his gaze across the platform to where a group of tall red-haired adolescence were being pulled somewhat forcefully into an air tight embrace by a short, plump woman with matching hair. Aurora took careful note of each person, recording them in her memory, then turned back to her uncle, "The Weasleys," she said simply, and he nodded in return.

Releasing Aurora from the grip of his cane, Lucius studied the dark-haired girl before him as she analyzed the blood traitors before her. At first he noted that her eyes were intensely focused, most likely memorizing every last freckle on each person's face and cataloguing it into her strange mind. She never forgets anything, he thought to himself, and she sees everything. I wonder h- His thought was interrupted as a sudden change in Aurora's expression caught his eye. Turning his focus away from his pondering and back to his niece, he studied more intently.

At first he could barely recognize the shift his peripheral vision had registered, she was still staring at the Weasleys and her face still looked as emotionless as ever, but after a minute, he saw it. For what seemed like only few seconds, Lucius could have sworn he saw Aurora's eyes change from their usual shade of brown to a rich emerald green. Leaning in to inspect her more closely, he was met with a face-full of Aurora's hair as she ducked down to gather her things. Grasping the handle of her battered trunk, she picked up an owl cage from where it laid at her feet. (Inside the cage, however, there was no owl; just a small cate with brown, white, and orange fur, curled up amongst the newspapers at the bottom.) By the time she looked back up, to look for an opening in the queue of students attempting to board the train in an orderly fashion, Lucius observed that her eyes were the same shade of brown they usually were.

Watching her walk purposefully away from him and onto the train, all without a second glance back, Lucius wondered if he had imagined the green flash in her eyes. What he did not know was one vital fact, green is for envy.

Stumbling along in the train, Aurora felt like a sailor who had suddenly been thrust onto land. Students crowded the hallways in thick masses, grouping at the entrances to compartments, or congregating right in the middle of the hall to greet one another. The whole scene was chaos to Aurora, who was accustomed to the strict and orderly fashion of Durmstrang where everyone gathered in neat lines, and made a straight procession to their duty positions on the large ship that took them to school. These children obviously do not understand the concept of synchronized movement, thought Aurora, such a simple ideal for organiza- Her inner ramblings were cut short when the train lurched forward, sending Aurora stumbling backwards. Just barely catching her footing before she tumbled to the ground, she steadied herself and watched as every student of the train suddenly ceased their conversation, paused for a moment and then began rushing towards the right side of the train, where it faced the platform. As she was pushed backwards a second time, she fell was unable to grasp hold of anything to break her fall. I stand corrected, she thought irritatedly, they can move in synchronization, they just have no conscious knowledge of it.

Yet, just as she began to calculate the likelihood of injury should she A) catch herself with her hands or B) pull her muscles inward to brace for impact, two strong arms had caught her under her own and heaved her back into a standing position.

Noticing that the arms were still around her, she quickly moved out of their grasp, and turned to face person who had caught her. Initially she had assumed that the person would be about her height. She was just above average in that regard, standing at a slightly gawky five feet eight inches, but when she looked directly ahead of her, all she saw was the person's neck. Traveling up said neck, she counted the freckles there, and followed the specks up onto the strong chin of a young man. Above the chin was a pair of lightly pink lips that were curved around shiny white teeth into a broad smile, that smile, Aurora noted, seemed to reach all the way into the boy's cheeks, up past his nose and into hazel eyes. That was when Aurora became stuck.

For a full three seconds she was paralyzed, just staring. She did not know why, and she did not understand what was happening. All she knew was that she was scared and confused , and did not know whether she wanted to take off running, or stay transfixed in that moment. Without warning, all of the children that had rushed to the windows to wave a final farewell to their parents were now scrambling back across the narrow to rejoin their conversations. Still occupied by her mysterious savior's eyes, Aurora was suddenly shoved forward by the wave of people flooding back to their compartments.

Catching her by her shoulders before she fell into him again, the mystery boy bent down a bit to look in her eyes, "You look like a fish out of water," he chuckled then inspected her more closely, "but you're definitely not a first year..."

He trailed off, his brow creasing ever so slightly in puzzlement, and lock of bright red hair fell into his face. Weasley. It was then that Aurora snapped her attention back to the mission at hand, silently reprimanding herself at her lack of focus before.

"Aurora Clytemnestra," she said, using her somewhat new identity flawlessly. She stuck out her hand for him to shake, which he took into his own warm one, "I just transferred here from the Durmstrang Institute."

Just as the boy before her was about to introduce himself, another Weasley boy appeared beside him. This other boy was clearly the identical twin of the first, but Aurora could already notice the differences between the two. The first parted his hair to the side, while his brother had his down the middle. The first boy also had a slightly crooked grin, and only one dimple. And his eyes, thought Aurora, those strange strange eyes...

"So you're new here?" asked the second boy, grinning mischievously as Aurora nodded in affirmation, "Well in that case my brother and I would like to offer you a thirty percent discount on the newly improved, and recently tested, Skiving Snack Box!"

"Sorry," said Aurora, turning her back to the boy's and heading down the corridor in search of an empty compartment, "I don't accept candy from strangers."

The first boy, the one with the dazzling eyes, rushed to stand in front of her, "Then let's stop being strangers," he said with a smile, sticking out his hand for Aurora to shake, "Fred Weasley."

As she shook Fred's hand, George grabbed her other hand, effectively crossing her arms, and shook it. "George Weasley, the handsome and charming twin at your service."

"Where did you transfer from again?"asked Fred.

"Durmstrang," Aurora replied simply, walking alongside both boys as the semi-led and semi-followed her through the hall.

"Why the move?"asked George from her other side.

"What with everything that's been happening lately, my mum thought it best that I be at Hogwarts. Dumbledore is the headmaster after all." The statement was not a lie. In fact, she had not stated a single lie since she had begun her conversation with the Weasley twins. Her mother had thought it was a good idea for her to go to Hogwarts, although the motivations were not as innocent as Aurora might have conveyed. Additionally, her name was Aurora Clytemnestra, that was just the shortened version of her much longer technical name, Aurora Borealis Clytemnestra Lestrange. After all, if there was one thing that she had learned in her Survival class at Durmstrang, it was that the best lies, are laced with the truth.