The five students waited patiently in the lecture hall where they usually congregated for their Physical Geology course. They were waiting for non-other than Dr. Hines.

"Where is this guy?!" Liam asked as he looked at his watch. "We've been waiting for a half an hour!"

"Who knows, but he better get here soon. I have a nail appointment in about an hour." Vinona stated as she nonchalantly organized her papers.

The members of the team were growing restless as they continue to wait. Normally Aurora would chime, but she had no taste for human interaction at the moment. She was absolutely livid by the way Pansy had treated her. Just what exactly was her problem eh? And to bring up the subject of her family even, no wonder Aunt Celeste insisted she attend the most prestigious academy in the country; the possibly of her mingling with peasants like Parkinson was an absolute zero.

Metis Academy was very exclusive, only purebloods were accepted. Not only that, every applicant had to take an entrance exam. Fail the exam, there was no possibility of attending the school, even if the student was of pure lineage.

"Aurora, you smell like an ashtray." Xavier stated as he took a seat a few rows down.

Aurora didn't pay much mind to his comment, after all it was probably true; she did smoke a few cigarettes before coming inside. It was just something to help her calm down a bit for the time being. All she had to do was present what she had learned, listen to what her teammates found out, and then she'd be free to brood in the comfort of her own home.

"Sorry I'm late everyone," Dr. Hines arrived wasting no time, "okay what do you have for me?" he asked as he placed his briefcase on the desk. "Miss Pontellier, you first."

Aurora stood picking up her folder that contained her, report "Well," she began as she put on her glasses, "I carbonated the samples that I collected from Vishnu's Schist, like you asked-"

"What did you find?" Dr. Hines asked leaning on his desk.

"It turns out that the rocks are about 1.7 billion years old." Aurora looked around and found that her teammates were attentively taking notes as she spoke.

"What about the samples of garnet?"

"I tested those as well and found that the samples have very high levels of calcium in them. I have concluded that they were about 6 miles deep in the earth."

Dr. Hines nodded. "Mr. Bard, what have you found?"

Aurora sat back down and now it was Liam's turn to stand.

"The different layers in the walls of the canyon show that the land had been submerged by the sea at least 8 different times."

Dr. Hines stroked his chin in interest. "Go on."

"As you look at each layer in the canyon you have different age seas that have deposited different types of rock, different environments, as well as various fossils from different times."

"I'm assuming that you elaborated further on this in your report?"

"Yes sir."

"Very well, Mr. Bard, you may sit."

"Miss Bennett."

Vinona stood and cleared her throat and began to share what she had found out during the trip. Once everyone had given a brief synapsis on what their report was on they were free to go.

"Well, that went quicker than expected." Xavier said as he walked with the group. "I'm still kind of annoyed that we literally waited 30 minutes for him to show up."

"How much you want to bet that he forgot." Liam laughed.

"I really wouldn't put it past him." Vinona said thoughtfully, "I mean, he can be a bit of a 'scatter brain' sometimes."

"Well regardless, I'm just happy that we submitted in our reports and we don't have to worry about it until the beginning of the semester!" Malvina beamed. "Do you guys want to go out to night?"

"Sure!" Vinona exclaimed.

Malvina looked to the boys who just nodded in agreement. "What about you ashtray?" She asked eyeing Aurora who seemed to be lost in her own world.

Aurora blinked. "No, you guys go ahead."

"Suit yourself."

XXXX

Aurora sat on her living room couch as she took another lazy drag from her cigarette, with Pansy's words still stuck in her head.

"Just because they sent me here doesn't mean they care any less." A feeble argument that Aurora made every time the subject popped into her head, she honestly stopped believing that lie years ago, but she still repeated it to herself regardless.

The cigarette was reduced to nothing but a stub when she finally put it out and picked up the pack to grab another one. To her dismay that was the last one.

"I can't believe I smoked a whole pack in one day. No wonder Xavier and Malvina were referring to me as 'ashtray'." Aurora was disgusted with herself, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back so that it was resting on the couch.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" She asked not wanting to get up.

"It's me." Said a voice from behind the door, it was Draco. "Can I come in?"

Aurora was didn't respond, she silently chewed on her bottom lip debating on if she should allow him in or not. She was still shaken by what had happened earlier but it wasn't his fault, he was defending her.

"Sure. The door is unlocked."

Draco let himself in and was immediately hit with the pungent smell of tobacco. "I knew you smoked, but I didn't think you smoked this much."

Aurora turned to look at him. "Where's your friend?"

"I told her to go home." He moved to sit next to her. "I'm sorry about earlier."

"You didn't do anything." Aurora shrugged.

"I know, I just can't help but feel responsible for it."

"Responsible for what? That girl's defensive and insecure nature?" Aurora fiddled with her hands. "Let's be real here, there was no way you could have known she was going to say those tasteless, nasty things."

"Even so, I'm sorry. She was way out of line."

Aurora looked at Draco and saw nothing but sincerity in his eyes, a small smiled graced her lips and she intertwined her fingers with his without breaking eye contact.

"Thank you for defending me."

Draco smiled, her hand was a bit coarse from all the fieldwork that she did in Arizona.

"Can I ask you a question?" Aurora asked gently.

"Sure, ask away!"

"What exactly were you thinking when you decided it was a good idea to date Miss Parkinson." Aurora chortled causing Draco to go red in the cheeks.

"I-I don't really know exactly. I mean ever since we first met in our first year at Hogwarts she's been pining for me." Draco chuckled sheepishly. "I finally decided to give it a go in my 6th year, regrettably. Now it seems like I can't get rid of her."

Aurora blinked a few times and stated very plainly. "So, she basically threw her cunt at you."

Draco's jaw dropped, he has never heard Aurora use that type of language, ever! He didn't even think she was capable of spewing such words until now. One thing was for certain, Draco was learning a lot of new things about his friend today.

"Did- did those words seriously come out of your mouth?"

"Yes…did I offend you?"

"No, no…oh my God." Draco ran his free hand over his face and chuckled. "I can't believe you said that!"

"I guess you can say that I'm full of surprises."

"Yes you are." Draco checked his watch, he should probably get going. "Well, anyways, along with apologizing I wanted to make sure you were alright-"

"I'm fine."

"-well on that note I guess I should be going." Draco began to stand when Aurora tugged him back down, he had forgotten that she was still holding his hand.

"No, stay. After all, we really haven't seen each other in a while."

"-Er- are you sure?"

"Yes, unless- unless you're busy."

"No, no, for you my dear I'm never too busy."

Aurora chuckled. "You can be so corny sometimes, you know that?"

Draco flashed Aurora a toothy smile. "I get it from my father."

Aurora laughed. The two friends sat in silence with their fingers still intertwined, Aurora couldn't deny it any longer, she had feelings for Draco and she was certain that the feeling was mutual. Having Draco here with her like this made her think of what her parents had said weeks prior. Entering into a formal courtship with him would have, without a doubt, been lovely. However that was something she couldn't do, she couldn't figure out what she wanted for breakfast, how is she supposed to be in a seriously relationship with someone? It sounded nice in theory, but Aurora wasn't stupid, relationships require a lot of work. She wasn't sure if she would be able to dedicate her time to a relationship, especially when she had her studies to think about. Yes, she only had one more semester left until she completed her undergraduate degree, but she also wanted to continue on to the graduate level as well. Also in their case it wouldn't be just some typical courtship, it was no secret that both their parents are trying to steer them towards marriage, Aurora can't handle that sort of pressure. Draco would make a fantastic husband, without a doubt; but she as a wife? Preposterous!