Aurora focused on her hands that were neatly folded in her lap. She had no desire to partake in the discussion that was being held. Through the corner of her eye she saw Draco trying to cover a yawn and pretending to look interested.

Well at least I'm not the only one who's bored here…She thought lethargically.

Draco was seated next to her in the love seat. It was no coincidence; it was pretty obvious that their mothers wanted them seated next to each other. Aurora could smell a plot brewing, and she didn't like it. Before they arrived at the Malfoy Manor, Aurora had stressed to her parents multiple times that she and Draco were attending the Ball strictly as friends and nothing more. But she knew her mother well enough to know that everything she had said had fallen on deaf ears.

"Aurora!" Narcissa addressed the young woman with kind eyes. "I must say it is finally nice to meet you after all these years. The last time I saw you were just this tiny little thing, but now look at you. You've grown to be a beautiful young lady."

Aurora blushed at the compliment. "Thank you, Mrs. Malfoy. It is nice to finally meet you too, I can finally put a face to the name."

"Oh come now, dear. There is no need for formalities, just call me Narcissa!" The older woman smiled then turned to her son. "Draco, why don't you give Aurora a tour of the Manor, since this is her first time visiting? I'm sure you two are bored to tears listening to us adults complaining about the help."

Draco's face twisted in confusion, mainly because they'd had countless visitors before and not once had they ever given a tour of the Manor. The bewildered young man was about to ask why, but he was interrupted by his father's booming voice.

"Well go on!" Lucius admonished; waving his cane in his son's direction, he said, "What are you waiting for? Get up and give the lady a look around. I suggest you start with the library first."

Draco attempted to hide the scowl that was directed at his father; he didn't like how he addressed him as if he was still a child. But there was nothing he could do about it, he just had to bear it. Draco stood and gently took Aurora's hand in his and helped her to her feet. As the two began to exit the parlor Draco heard his father speak again.

"I apologize for my son's behavior, there's something wrong with that boy."

"Lucius!" Narcissa scolded.

"What? It's true! You gave the boy instructions to give the young lady a tour and he just sat there gaping at you like a fool!"

"Oh, there's nothing wrong with him, he's just shy." Ophelia interjected

Draco scowled at the conversation that was being had about him, and Aurora was beside herself; she could not contain her laughter.

"So, your father, he's a very charming man."

"Oh, he's charming, all right." Draco grumbled, "Come, the library is this way."

Aurora was left speechless by what she saw: the library was an endless sea of books, and she couldn't help but gape at it.

"I don't know why my father wanted me to start with this place, but here it is." Draco said plainly as he walked beside her.

"It's amazing! You must have spent a great deal of time here before you came to America."

Draco began to chuckle, "Actually no, I didn't."

"What?"

"I spent a majority of my time on the Quidditch pitch rather than burying my face in books."

Aurora smiled, "Ah, I see."

"Would you like to see the rest of the Manor?"

"Not really, I know where my room is and how to get to the kitchen. That's all I need to know. I'm pretty sure the reason why your mother suggested you to give me a tour is because she wants us to be alone together."

"Was it that obvious?" Draco said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh yes. It appears that your parents like the idea of us being together. But don't worry, I'm sure the feeling is mutual with my parents as well. Even though I did explain to them there was nothing going on between us, we're just friends and will remain as such."

"I told my parents the same. However, they don't seem convinced."

"Well, no surprise there. I'm sure they'll get over it once they realize that there's nothing going on between us."

A long silence followed as they continued to meander about the library.

"So, I've noticed that your hair is significantly longer than it used to be…what did you do to it?"

"Oh you know, I just had Wyatt brew me a simple hair growth potion before I left for home. If my mother had seen how short my hair was she probably would have fainted."

Draco chuckled and the two fell back into silence has they continued to walk around.

"Draco…"

"Yes?"

"I'm hungry, and I think it is only fitting that you take me to the kitchen and feed me because you are my host. And think about it, Mother will be so pleased!" She stated, clasping her hands together and batting her eye lashes.

Draco held back a laugh and extended his arm. "Well, we can't have a guest starve, just think what people will say of the Malfoys! They starve their guests!"

Aurora was pacing about her room waiting impatiently for her dress to be delivered.

"Why did I agree to this?! What is wrong with me! I hate being the center of attention, and what do I do?" She tugged at a strand of hair nervously. "I agreed to go to this thing with the son of the host and hostess!"

Aurora continued to pace about her room like an agitated lioness, letting her thoughts flutter about.

"Where is mother with my dress?! She should have been here fifteen minutes ago!"

She stared intently at her wrist watch, the fact that her dress had not arrived yet only added to her anxiety. Sudden there was a light knock at the door; thinking that it was her mother, Aurora flew across the room and opened the door, not realizing that she was indecent, wearing nothing but her undergarments beneath a loosely tied robe. To her utter embarrassment her caller was Draco himself.

Draco's eyes went completely wide and he couldn't help but gape at Aurora for he had never seen her in such an indecent state, in fact this was the most skin he had ever seen on her. He gasped and immediately turned around with his back facing her.

"I-I came to see how you were fairing."

It was at that moment when Aurora realized the state that she was in and immediately grasped her robe, face turning bright red.

"I'm well…just waiting for my mother and…my dress."

"Oh, I see…well, I'll come back in an hour."

Draco hastily walked away back to his own room, as soon as he was out of sight Aurora slowly backed into her room and shut the door.

"I wonder if I jumped from the window if the impact would be enough to kill me."

Even though her mother arrived later than expected Aurora was finally dressed and ready for the festivities. Her hair was styled in an elegant French twist, and her dress was a fitted old Hollywood inspired dress that sat snugly on her hips and flared out on the bottom, like the tail of a mermaid. It was elegant black lace sat on a beige background, which gave the dress a timeless look.

Aurora was examining herself in the mirror to make sure that everything was in place when she heard a knock at the door, she walked over to answer it.

"I see that you finally got your dress." Draco chuckled.

Aurora's face began to turn red as she recalled the events that had occurred earlier.

"Oh Draco, please don't, I'd rather not think about what happened. Can we forget about it please?" She pleaded with a soft whisper.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you. Are you ready?"

"No…I'm really nervous."

"Don't worry," he extended his arm so she can take it. "You'll be fine, you look absolutely stunning by the way." He winked as he began to lead her to the stairwell.

"You're just being nice."

"No, I mean it!" Draco began to take his first step down the stairs when suddenly Aurora pulled him back looking absolutely terrified.

"I can't do this! Can we forgo tonight's festivities?"

Draco was absolutely baffled, he had never seen her look so scared and uneasy.

"No, that would be incredibly rude. What's wrong?"

"This is literally my first time attending a ball here in England and the fact that this would be my first public appearance to high society here- this is extremely unnerving."

Draco laced his fingers with hers and raised it to place a soft kiss on her knuckles.

"Trust me, love, you'll be fine."

Draco's actions and words made her stomach flip which instantly heightened her anxiety.

"We need to go down now, okay?"

She took a deep breath and nodded.

The young couple made their way down to the party and were greeted with polite smiles and curious looks. The curious looks were mainly directed towards Aurora. For the longest time she had been known as the "phantom daughter"; everyone had heard of her but had never seen her, except for a few rare occasions. As soon as they made it to the bottom of the stairs the pair were almost immediately swarmed with guests, most of them stepping up to finally meet Aurora Pontellier.

"It's so very nice to finally meet you dear, your mother speaks very highly of you." Said a middle aged woman as she took Aurora's hand in hers.

Despite the fact that Aurora felt like she was about to faint she put on her best smile and worked her charm.

"Thank you, it's a pleasure to meet you as well."

After a few moments of people greeting and asking her a bunch of irrelevant questions Draco noticed that Aurora was beginning to get slightly irritated with all the unwanted attention.

"Would you like to dance?" He asked.

She stepped closer to him and whispered, "Anything to get away from the crowd."

Draco led her to the dance floor the music started and they began to dance.

"Now I see why you were so nervous."

"Yeah, I'm not a big fan of being on the spot."

"I must say you were holding yourself very well."

"Really?"

"Yes, trust me- they have no idea how uncomfortable you are."

"Well that's a relief, I wouldn't want to make the wrong impression."

"You know, you're a very good dancer."

"Thank you, Master Malfoy, you're not so bad yourself."

Draco chuckled at his formal title and the two continued to dance in silence. Once the music stopped he opened his mouth to ask her if she wanted anything to drink but was interrupted by an all too familiar voice.

"Well, don't you two look adorable?"

"What do you want Wyatt?" Draco asked.

"Is that any way to talk to a guest, Master Malfoy?"

"Master Belby, don't flatter yourself," Draco noticed that Ramona was present as well. "Miss Belby, how very nice to see you! I didn't know you were back in the West. How is your research going in China?"

Ramona scoffed, "Drop the formalities, Draco." She looked over to Aurora, completely ignoring Draco's question about her work. "Aurora, it's been a while."

Aurora smiled. "Indeed it has."

"It's awfully stuffy in here, why don't we take a walk?"

Aurora immediately picked up on what Ramona was getting at: she wanted to go somewhere so they could talk alone.

"Yes of course, it will give us time to catch up." Aurora turned to Draco. "I'll be back for the count down."

Draco nodded his head. "No problem."

Once the two women were out of sight, he turned to Wyatt.

"What was that about?"

"Ramona probably wanted to talk to Aurora about something private."

"Any idea of what it may be?"

"Not a clue."

Ramona and Aurora did have a good rapport; they had attended the academy together. All during their school years they had been inseparable, but that all changed when Ramona graduated. She attended university where she majored in Herbology and minored in Potions; she was in an accelerated program so she was able to graduate from university early with her Bachelors. After completing her undergraduate program, she decided to complete her masters in Hong Kong, China, where she was recognized for discovering rare species of plants that can only be found in remote areas of China. Now at the age of 23, Ramona was currently working on her doctoral dissertation; her thesis was based on one of the plants she had found in China's Yunnan province, the Dragon Orchid. Normally, when people heard the name Ramona Belby and all her accomplishments, they thought of someone who was in their mid-30s, and so no one ever expected it to be a young, sarcastic 23-year-old with a bad attitude.

"So what are you doing here?" Aurora asked as she led the way to the library.

"I could ask you the same." Ramona retorted as Aurora opened the door to the library. Aurora poked her head out to make sure that they had not been followed and she shut the door and locked it.

"Well it's simple, Draco asked me to be his date and I agreed. What's your story? I didn't expect you to leave Yunnan before you finished your thesis."

Ramona turned to her old friend and locked eyes with her. She only uttered one word.

"Eleanor."

Aurora's face fell. "You went to see her?"

"Yes."

"How is she doing?"

"Not good."

"I see, how did she look?"

"As I said before, not well. It looks like she's lost a lot of weight from all the stress. She's planning on leaving her husband."

"Really? Well it's about time, I have no idea how she was able to handle that drunkard for so long. Do you know when she's planning on leaving?"

"Probably at the end of January. I'm not sure, well that's not the real issue. The issue is where she is going to stay. I highly doubt she'd want to stay with me."

"I'm currently looking for an apartment- she can live with me if she wants."

Ramona nodded and looked up at the clock. It was almost midnight.

"We should probably get back before people start wondering where we went."

Aurora nodded and the pair headed back to the ballroom so they could celebrate the coming of the New Year with their friends.