"Saturday, eight o'clock in the morning." Aurora looked up from her seat on the sofa in the common room, to see Marcus Flint looming over her. She exchanged a glance with Pansy and Daphne, and frowned.

"What is, Flint?"

"Your unofficial tryout. Malfoy said he reckons you'd be a decent reserve. We don't normally accept girls, but he insisted. His father's made a... generous donation to the team." Flint didn't look very impressed, and he was practically glowering at Aurora. "You better fly well."

He stomped off to join a group of sixth years, leaving the girls seated around Aurora to start up an immediate stream of gossip. "He's really going to let you try out?" Millicent asked. "I asked if I could apply for Beater and he said no!"

"There aren't open Beater positions, Millicent," said Pansy with a sniff. "I suppose reserve isn't an awful position."

"It's more than any other girl has," Lucille pointed out. "If I'd known all it took to get on the team was a generous donation, I would have gotten father to make one before I even started at Hogwarts." She pouted. "It's really rather unfair."

"That's life, Lucille," Daphne said, flicking her hair. "Have you got a broom, Aurora?"

"Dora lent me her cleansweep seven."

"Oh, that's no good!" Lucille cried. "You'll be laughed at!"

"I suspect the provision of Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones will be extended to the reserve," Pansy said, shaking her head.

"Two Thousand and Ones? You didn't say that was the donation! Oh, now I really wish I were on the team!"

"One day," Aurora said, "I'll work my way up to the captaincy. Then you can all be on the team."

"Not me," Pansy said.

"Except Pansy," Aurora said, "who can be our team mascot. We'll dress you up as a snake."

Pansy glowered at her. Daphne found this very funny, beaming at Aurora. "I wish I could come and support you," she said, "but Pansy and I are auditioning for the Frog Choir on Saturday morning."

"Are you really?"

Daphne nodded, and leaned down to whisper conspiratorially in Aurora's ear. "She doesn't want to, because she thinks they'll be awfully slimy."

"I told her the Morgana Choir would be much more appropriate," Pansy said, "for ladies of our standing. It's Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors who join the frog choir, not Slytherins."

Daphne rolled her eyes. "Then we will stand out, Pansy. Which is what you said you wanted."

Pansy muttered something incomprehensible to Lucile, who laughed loudly and shot Millicent a look.

"What?" Daphne asked, raising her eyebrows coolly.

"Nothing."

Daphne narrowed her eyes in suspicion at Pansy, but Millicent quickly changed the subject. "Right, Aurora, we have to discuss your Quidditch trial. How are you going to play it?"

By Saturday morning, they still hadn't gotten much further than agreeing that Aurora would have to be the very best flier there, better than any of the boys, if she was to have any chance of securing her spot as reserve. She was already nervous when she went down to the Quidditch Pitch with the Slytherin team - she didn't have the same robes as the boys did, and they were all much larger and taller than her, but she did have a broom which she was holding very, very tightly. Though Draco appeared to be trying to calm her nerves, he wasn't doing a very good job, and her nerves only doubled when she caught sight of the Gryffindor Team also on the pitch, in scarlet and gold robes.

"Why are they here?" She whispered to Draco, who shrugged.

"Don't know. Flint'll give them what for though. We've got special permission from Snape." She wasn't sure any Gryffindors would bow to the will of Snape, but they had noticed the Slytherins now, and Oliver Wood - Gryffindor's Captain and Keeper - swooped down furiously to confront Flint. Draco smirked. "This should be good. Look at old scarhead's face." Potter did look furious.

"Flint!" Wood bellowed. "What are you doing here? I've booked this pitch all day!"

"Easy, Wood," Flint said, laughing. "I've got a note from Professor Snape."

Aurora stood on her tiptoes to get a look at the confrontation. Granger and Weasley were hurrying down from the stands towards the teams, followed by the Gryffindor who had been following Potter around all week. Wood snatched a piece of parchment from Flint, glaring. "I, Professor Snape, give Slytherin Quidditch Team special permission to practice on the pitch today owing to the need to train their new Seeker and reserve. You've got a new Seeker? Who? And what reserve?"

The older team members parted to reveal Draco and Aurora, who quickly stopped her looking about on her tiptoes. Draco stepped forwards and she followed, smirking at the look on Potter's face. "Malfoy," Potter said. "Black."

"Not like you to get a reserve, Flint."

Flint grinned, though it was more like he was baring his teeth. "Things change, Wood."

"Aren't you Lucius Malfoy's son?" Fred Weasley asked, staring at Draco.

"Funny you should mention Draco's father," Flint said. Aurora tightened her grip around her broomstick. "He's made a rather generous donation to the team this year." They all held out the nimbuses in unison, and Aurora couldn't help the feeling of satisfaction when she saw the Gryffindors' fury. "Latest model, just came out. I believe it outstrips the old Two Thousand model by a considerable amount. As for the Cleansweeps..." He was looking very deliberately and Fred and George Weasley, who were holding the old Cleansweep Five models. "Wipes the floor with them."

The rest of the team laughed behind Aurora, and she avoided meeting anybody's eyes. "Oh, look," Flint said softly, as Granger and Weasley came over. "A pitch invasion."

"What's happening?" Weasley asked Potter. "Why aren't you playing?" As if wasn't obvious. Aurora rolled her eyes, catching Draco's smirk. "And what are they doing here?"

"I'm the new team Seeker," Draco said smugly, looking down his nose at Weasley. "Aurora's our reserve."

Flint gave her a fleeting look as if to remind her she still had to try out, but he wasn't going to break rank in front of the Gryffindor Team. "Everyone was just admiring our new brooms," Draco said. "Father gifted them rather generously to the team."

"What?"

"Good, aren't they? But perhaps the Gryffindor Team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms, too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives, I bet a museum somewhere would buy them." Ordinarily Aurora might have told Draco off, but it was important not to lose face in front of either team. While she didn't outright laugh, she did smile, eyes on the sky.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor Team had to buy their way in," Granger said, crossing her arms. She shook out her bushy hair. "They got in on pure talent."

"No one asked your opinion," Draco snarled immediately, "you filthy little Mudblood."

Aurora had to yank Draco out of the way so Alicia Spinnet didn't punch him in the face. "What did you say that for?"

"You'll pay for that one, Malfoy," Weasley said, pointing his wand furiously at Draco.

"Stop!" Aurora shouted, flinging an arm between them.

Weasley ignored her, and a jet of light sprang from his wand with a very loud bang. Draco seemed unaffected; Weasley on the other hand had a rather dazed expression, as his own spell hit him in the stomach and knocked him back. He fell to the floor, bent over, rather green in the face. Aurora stared at him in horror. "Ron!" Granger cried. "Ron! Are you alright?"

"Is he going to be sick?" Aurora asked incredulously to Derek Symms, the fifth year Chaser, who just laughed. Weasley belched and a trail of slugs fell from his mouth. Draco and Flint were both doubled over in laughter, and Aurora stared, caught between amusement at Weasley's misfortune and horror at the sight of the slugs. It was rather disgusting.

Potter, Granger and the Gryffindor Team all crowded around Weasley, obscuring him from view. The little Gryffindor boy was hurrying around with his Muggle camera, trying to get a shot, while the Slytherin Team laughed at Weasley's backfired spell. "Get out of the way, Colin!" Potter told the little Gryffindor boy, trying to pull Weasley up to stand. "We should get him to Hagrid's, he'll know what to do."

"You should be thrown off the team!" Oliver Wood howled as the three of them traipsed down the hill. "Wait until I tell Professor McGonagall about this, there is no place for that kind of language in Quidditch!"

"You're foul, Malfoy," Angelina Johnson spat. "Utterly foul."

"Weasley brought it quite upon himself."

"This isn't about Weasley!" Alicia Spinnet shouted. "How dare you use that word against Granger! Flint, discipline your bloody team, why won't you?"

"Malfoy, get to the back of the group before any of these idiots start trying to throw punches."

Draco didn't have to be told twice. He ducked behind Symms, and Aurora shot him a glare. "Where is he?" Fred Weasley demanded, as he and George caught up to them. "Malfoy, where's the little sod gotten to?"

"Stand down, Weasley," Flint said. "You don't want to go the same way as that little brother of yours."

Fred lunged for Flint, and Aurora ducked out of the way just in time as the two of them went sprawling to the ground. "Flint!" Symms shouted, as the Chasers hurried to try and separate them. The Gryffindors made no such attempt, clearly feeling that Flint got what was coming. "You'll get suspended for that!"

Neither seemed to hear. Both Flint and Fred were brawling and rolling around on the ground, yelling insults at each other. It took the threat of Madam Hooch to persuade them to break it up, and even then the two teams were spitting furiously at one another. Aurora watched, quite unused to such situations. There wasn't an ounce of decorum between these people, clearly. She decided to keep out of it, as did the Slytherin Chaser, Perseus Lavin, who seemed just as disapproving as she was.

"We'll take the pitch," Flint said eventually. "Since you're down a Seeker."

"We're what?" Wood looked around comically, as if noticing for the first time that Potter was not among them. "Where's he gone?"

"Took Ron to Hagrid," George said, with a strong glare at Malfoy. "Come on, Fred. You've got slug slime on your boot."

The Gryffindors all trooped towards the castle, furious. No doubt tensions would be even higher as they approached their first match. Once they were gone, Flint turned on the team. "Right. Malfoy." Draco stepped forward, looking smug. "You were out of line there." His smile quickly fell. "It looks bad on all of us if you start talking like that. Professional league, you'd be cut immediately for using that sort of language."

"But she-"

"I don't want to hear it. Regardless of anyone's feelings here on the subject, if a teacher had overheard that, you would be out of the team for good. And you've gotten us into confrontation."

"You were the one rolling around on the ground with Weasley!"

"Shut it," Flint growled, and Draco went very quiet. "Do you understand me? No more of that talk." Draco nodded tightly. "Black." Aurora jumped to attention. "At least you seem to have some dignity about you. We're behind on time, so you better prove you can fly, and fast."

With an evenly matched broom, she outflew Draco at the start, though they were very close. He still got the snitch before her, but she got a good few Quaffles past the Slytherin Keeper, and hit a good Bludger towards the stands, nearly taking out a Hufflepuff. When she reached the ground again, it wasn't to applause, but a couple of the players did look grudgingly impressed.

"Well?" She flicked hair out of her eyes and raised her chin to looked confidently at Flint.

"You're not bad, Black," Flint said. He grunted and nodded. "You're in, but I'm making no promises. You probably won't get to play, I doubt we'll have much need for you."

Aurora grinned anyway. That night, she wrote Dora and the Tonkses a long letter telling them how Lockhart really did seem like a bit of an idiot in class, and that she had managed to get herself onto the Slytherin Team, even if it was only as a reserve. It still meant something to be there, and she was determined that she would make her way to the main team one way or another.

-*

Last year, the Hogwarts library had been something of a haven, and this year, Aurora was determined to make the absolute most of it. In her last visit to Diagon Alley, she had done a search of a few more interesting items in her vault, mainly jewellery. Many of them had strong enchantments placed upon them, and though she didn't know what half of them were or how they worked, she had - unbeknownst to the Tonkses - brought some such items with her to Hogwarts. They sat in a small, unassuming yet also heavily protected box in her bottom drawer. Only Gwendolyn knew where it was, and that was only because it would be largely pointless to try and hide it and end up being questioned on why. Gwendolyn thought it was merely a keepsake box.

Though Aurora didn't expect she could quite uncover every one of the enchantments across her extensive collection of jewellery, she was certainly curious. A collection of three necklaces, each with serpent-shaped pendants, were bound together along a key which itself seemed to double as a lock, decorated with tiny emeralds; there was a silver ring inset with a large, smoky sort of rock that seemed to be whispering; and there was a pair of silver, diamond-studded earrings which didn't appear at first to have any enchantments upon them, but were very pretty, so she kept them with her and would ensure they were safe before she attempted to put them on. While she didn't imagine anything cursed would be in the vault, Arcturus had discussed with her when she was younger the manner of some of the objects they had in their possessions, scattered between houses and family members. All of them - spare anything Narcissa had, or that Bellatrix and her father had managed to take to Azkaban with them - were now her possessions, and she had to learn not only what they were out of curiosity, but how to manage them in order to avoid any accidents. It was rather a lot to ask of a twelve year old, but there wasn't really anyone else to manage the family possessions; Andromeda would have nothing to do with it and likely throw things out, which Aurora didn't want, but she refused to give anything over to the Malfoys. They wouldn't take her in, then they would get nothing from her except - in Draco's case - the friendship they already had.

She didn't dare bring any of the jewellery to the library with her, of course, but she did manage to find a number of books about enchantments traditionally placed on jewellery, even if she didn't think they would be very helpful for dark magic, they were still somewhere to start. Aurora suspected information on anything particularly dark would be kept in the Restricted Section. Even so, Grimmauld Place had an extensive Dark library that she could access through Kreacher, if she knew what she was looking for.

She spent most of Sunday reading up on enchantments which might typically be placed upon jewellery. Often they bound objects together, and though some might grant their bearer protections - such as in the case of amulets - they could also curse them. Of the books she read, only one went into any detail about curses - Aurora suspected Dumbledore had had a hand in purging the school library of darker materials - but when she returned to her room it was with a better idea of how to tackle the necklaces at any rate.

No matter what she had done to try and untangle the necklaces, prise them apart or unlock the key - which she had suspected to be some strange sort of combination mechanism - she had had no luck. Her first instinct had been to use the alohomora charm, which didn't work, much to her displeasure. She suspected that untangling the necklaces was only the first part of figuring out their enchantments, and was particularly interested in the matching snake pendants. But she had to take this one thing at a time.

The key had three tiny holes along its delicate silver stem, through which each necklace was looped. The connections on the chains were too large to go through the holes themselves, which meant that to release and thus begin to untangle the necklaces, she would have to open up those holes. There had to be a way, she just didn't know how yet.