𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐄 𝐌𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐍 and Dorcas Meadows knew that they weren't able to
have kids. They've tried everything, and with that, I mean everything, from
muggle ways to ancient magic ways, nothing worked.
And you could imagine how much of a shock it was when they saw the two red
sticks that they had always dreamed of. Of course, it could be a mistake and
they shouldn't have gotten their hopes up as the muggle pregnancy tests
weren't to be trusted, but after checking up at St. Mungos it was proven right
and Marlene was, in fact, pregnant with a living baby.
Of course, when they found out - they were over the moon with Dorcas drinking
an entire bottle of fire-whiskey and Marlene watching her with a look of jealousy
- but there was something that worried them both.
The war.
Two years ago, when they found out about their inability to have kids, they
planned on adopting one, after the war was won, of course. Because they feared
that one of them would die or that the child would get hurt.
Several months had passed after finding out about Marlene's pregnancy, and
there they stood, with a tiny girl in their hands. She looked so innocent that they
felt guilty, knowing that the war would take it away from her and there was
nothing they could do.
One day, the girl, who they named Aurora after a french muggle fairytale called
"The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods", was sleeping in Dorcas' armed as the
coupe was talking about the Quidditch world cup that would take place in 1982.
Suddenly Aurora opened her eyes, showing her blue orbs but went without
anyone noticing. For a good five minutes, she listened as her parents talked
about something that prevents them from noticing their daughter waking up.
Having enough of the lack of attention, she prepared her vocal cords, opened
her mouth and said the word that Marlene had just spoken.
"Qwuidit"
At the sound of the velvety voice of their firstborn, both females looked at the
baby in Dorcas' arms. Aurora giggled at their starstruck expression. Marlene
blinked as if to make sure that she was real.
"As much as I was hoping that her first word would be Mamma D, I can't say
that I'm disappointed." sighed Dorcas with a happy grin.
"Mamma D? I that honestly what you want for the little angel to call you?"
questioned Marlene, her face scrunching up in disgust.
"Ouch, but come on she just said her first word, we ought to be proud," said
Dorcas.
"Who said that I'm not proud? In fact, I'm the proudest I've ever been." Marlene
shot back as her fiance sighed, this was gonna be a long night.
≋
𝐄𝐗𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐋𝐘 a week later after Aurora's first word, Dorcas had taken her out for
robe shopping at Twilfitt and Tattings, the shop that Marlene had recently
discovered. She walked down the alley with Aurora in her hands, oblivious to
the fact that Marlene and her family were getting murdered by the self-
proclaimed dark lord's followers just because of a traitor in the order that
decided to sell out the Mckinnon's just as if they were some kind of products.
Back when Aurora was born, Marlene and Dorcas decided to keep it a secret for
her own safety. The coupe was a part of the Order of the Phoenix, the society,
founded by Albus Dumbledore, that fought against Voldemort and his followers.
Dumbledore had informed them of the possibility of there being a spy in the
order, that's why they decided to keep her a secret, not even telling their closest
friends and family about her. They were really scared of losing her, as she was
the only thing that brought light to their life in the war.
≋
𝐈𝐓 had been a month since the murder of Marlene and her family and you could
only imagine what Dorcas was going through. Every night, after Aurora fell
asleep, she would cry herself to sleep. Despite that, she tried to act strong in
front of the one-month-old girl but Aurora had still seen her mamma D crying.
Seeing her cry, made Aurora cry too, and they both cried together, at least once
a day.
Dorcas grabbed a diaper from the cupboard and headed toward her and
Aurora's shared room while wiping her eyes that had become quite puffy from
crying. Suddenly she heard the front door open and it could only mean one
thing.
She made a mad dash towards their room, wrapped the thickest blanket
around the sleeping Aurora and placed her into a basket with a letter. She made
a slight whistling sound, earning the attention of Marlene's owl, Quill who flew
towards her.
"Take the basket and fly to my cousin Sophia, in Hogsmeade. Don't come
back," she told the owl. It grabbed the basket and flew out of the window that
Dorcas had opened for it as the door to the room flew open.
"Dorcas Meadows," hissed a cold, evil voice "it's a pleasure, Avada Kedavra!"

𝐚𝐜𝐭 ⅰ

AURORA MCKINNON
played by
Josephine Langford

"Now, what the fuck is a dementor?"

 ALEXANDER JONES
played by
Lucas Jade Zumann

"You-you're reading a book!"

SIRIUS BLACK

played by
Ben Barnes

"You should've left him to me-"

REMUS LUPIN
played by
Andrew Garfield

"You won't mind a chat, will you?"

 The 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 of the Harry Potter cast as 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬

𝐈𝐓 was near the end of the summer, which meant that the new school year was
going to start soon. The girl who currently was lying in her bed was looking
miserable. She didn't want to go back to Beauxbatons. It was hard for her to be
away from the place she spent her whole childhood.
Beauxbatons was in France which meant that everyone in the school talked
french, it was hard for Aurora despite knowing it from a young age. You see,
Aurora's Aunt Sophia and Uncle Edward decided that it would be better if she
went to the school in France, instead of England for safety purposes that she
was yet to understand.
Suddenly a soft knock could be heard throughout the room and the door
opened slightly, the face of Sophia Eastwood poking through it.
"Can I come in?" she asked while Aurora sat up to get a better look at her.
"Sure," Aurora responded as Sophia came in the room, closing the door behind
her.
"Excité pour l'éducation?"
"It's 'excité pour l'école' Soph, 'excited for the school' not 'education'." she
giggled as Sophia waved her hand, dismissing the girl. "and to answer your
question, no."
"Why not?" the older woman questioned.
"Remember when I told you about Danielle Dumont?"
"Yes," Sophia replied, not really recognizing the name.
"Well, she's an absolute Salope!" Aurora exclaimed as Soph giggled.
"Sweetie, swearing in the other language doesn't make it any better."
"Anyways, she makes everyone's life miserable!" she rambled.
≋
𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 Sophia was gone, Aurora got out of her bed and looked out of her
bedroom's window, the sun was shining brightly that meant that it was already
an afternoon. She usually woke up early, so early that most of the time she got
to see the sunrise, so it came as a surprise to her (it had nothing to do with her
staying up late and rereading some of the quidditch magazines from the 70s).
Throwing on a yellow sundress and a cardigan - despite it being 15° celsius
outside - she went downstairs. Walking in the kitchen, she saw Sophia in her
work robes cooking something and Edward sipping tea while reading a muggle
newspaper.
"Good afternoon." she greeted and sat down with a yawn.
"How'd you sleep?" Asked Edward who had set the newspaper aside.
"Fairly well." Aurora shrugged, looking out of the window.
"Here's your breakfast sweetie. Enjoy! Oh and before I forget me and Eddie,
both were called to work, so you'll be left alone for a few hours." said Sophia as
she swept out of the kitchen, with Edward not far behind.
"Looks like I'm gonna have a lot of fun today," she muttered to herself.
≋
𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 the breakfast, Aurora walked out of the house, hopping on her
bike, she took off towards the Three Broomsticks where she knew she would
find Madam Rosmerta, as she owned the pub.
Walking in the pub - after parking the bike - she opened the doors only to be
met with the cool temperature that sure felt good after being in the August sun
for even five minutes. She immediately spotted Rosmerta who was talking to
one of the waiters there called Rowan.
"Ah, look who is it! Aurora!" greeted Rosmerta as Aurora walked over them.
"Rosie, I missed you too! Still as young as ever!" responded Aurora in return.
"Let me guess, your boring aunt and uncle are at the work?" asked Rosmerta as
Aurora nodded in agreement "And you want to drink as much as you can and
then make fun of random strangers?"
"You know me so well Rosie!" beamed Aurora while Rosmerta poured her some
butterbeer.
After five or six cups Aurora was drunk enough to make fun of strangers while
slipping in some french.
"You're so moche!" she called after a middle-aged woman that just walked by.
The woman didn't seem to know french as she didn't have the reaction that
most people had when being called ugly.
"and you're too haut for your age!" she yelled at a boy with blonde hair. He
stopped and then started making his way over her. "Oh shoot, I'm Screwed, je
suis foutu!"
As the boy got closer, she sighed in relief, recognizing the face of the boy but
still couldn't pinpoint it.
"Oh, it's you!" he said, "and how many times do I need to tell you that it's you,
who's too much of a dwarf, not me being tall."
 "Alex! Long time, no see!" she beamed, finally recognizing her childhood best
friend who was the only person that called her a dwarf.
≋

𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 through the front door of the Eastwood household, after hanging
out with Alex who didn't get drunk, she found the lights of the living room on,
meaning that Sophia and Edward were already home. She made a mental note
to thank Romsmerta for giving her the Sobering up Potion, or else they would've
had her head.
"Oh, I see you're back. How was your day, sweetie?" asked Sophia from a seat
next to Edward's on the couch.
"It went pretty well," she answered simply, and then she noticed two enveloped
in their hands "Who're those from?"
"It's your Beauxbatons list of things, required for the term," Edward responded
clearly.
"What about the other letter?"
"That's from... Hogwarts."

𝐈𝐓 was the 1st of September, meaning different things to different people. But
for Aurora Mckinnon, it meant going to Hogwarts. With everything packed, she
walked downstairs and announced that she was ready to go. Despite living in
Hogsmeade, her adoptive mother, Sophia decided it was better for her to travel
with the Hogwarts Express and make some friends on the ride, she would regret
that decision later.
 The king's cross station was crowded with both muggles and wizards, well
mostly muggles. Sophia, Edward and Aurora were walking towards the brick
wall that said 9 and 10, but the ticket said that the train was on the platform 9 ¾.
She looked at Sophia with the are-you-kidding-me look yet she just motioned
towards the brick wall. Aurora being herself clinched on her trolley tightly and
ran through the wall. If it was any other 12-year-old they would ask exactly how
to get to the train, but not her.

Opening her eyes, the blonde was met with the most stunning train she had
ever seen, well she had seen Hogwarts that's why she couldn't call the platform
the most stunning. It seemed that Sophia and Edward didn't bother to come on
the other side, or it was simply Edward's phobias.
Walking through the hall of the Hogwarts express was an experience that
Aurora thought one day she would tell her grandkids about. After successfully
finding an empty compartment, she settled her truck and sat down by the
window, tucking her feet underneath. Then she took out a book and started
reading it, well pretending to read it. Aurora thought that the first impressions
were important and that she wasn't going to call the headmaster a manikin as
she did at the Beauxbatons.
After the most boring fifteen minutes of Aurora's life had gone (because staring
at the book about goblins wasn't her ideal concept of spending her free time),
the compartment door slid open, revealing someone she didn't expect to see on
the train.
"Mind if I sit here, Aurora?" Alex asked and sat down next to her.
"You're still gonna sit here, even if I say no, so why bother?" Aurora rolled her
eyes and went back to staring at the book and trying to keep her face straight
from the thought of pushing Alex out of the compartment window.
Suddenly Alex let out a gasp, startling Aurora.
"What? Are you okay?" she asked, worried for the boy's sanity who was
currently staring at her in horror.
"You-you're reading a book?!" he shrieked as Aurora let out a chuckle.
"Are you seriously that dumb? Of course, I'm not! That's the lowest thing that
one could do!" Aurora replied, narrowing her eyes.
"Says the one who had read 'Quidditch Through the Ages' one hundred and
sixty-four times!" he shot back.
"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT THE QUIDDITCH IS AN
EXCEPTION-" her yelling was cut open when the compartment door swung
open.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?" asked a sweet-looking old lady who was
carrying the trolley that seemed to be full of sweets.
"five chocolate frogs, three cauldron cakes and-" Alex looked at Aurora, asking
whether or not she wanted some sweets.
"Twelve sugar quills," she answered simply while Alex took a galleon out of his
pocket, but it would only be enough to pay for his order and Aurora didn't
hesitate to voice it "That's not enough."
"Well, you ought to pay on your own, A, dearest." He replied with a smug
expression.
She muttered a quiet 'git' under her breath and took out ten sickles. After the
trolley lady was gone, Alex and Aurora ate the sweets in a single breath.
"By the way, your book is upside down."

𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐅𝐖𝐀𝐘 through the ride, the train stopped. The lights went out and soon
it was freezing cold. Alex went out of their compartment to check on someone
whose name she didn't get. Aurora was confused. What was happening?
She heard a distinct screaming as if someone lived in her mind and was
screaming. It went away just as fast as it had come. Confused, she looked
around to see if anyone was there but what she hadn't anticipated was seeing
everything start to glow red. The colour soon took over her vision.
Aurora saw a shadow of someone that she was sure as hell wasn't her as she
was wearing a pair of flared jeans and a yellow cardigan with a crop top
underneath it while the shadow was wearing something, that looked like a ball
gown.
She looked down at herself, to check that she was wearing the outfit described
instead, saw nothing.
Suddenly she saw a woman approaching. She had light brown hair and a red
twinkle in her eyes. The woman looked so familiar yet so unfamiliar. She
approached her and caressed Aurora's cheek gently.
"I hope that I get to meet you someday. In the real world, I mean and not in
your vision." The woman said, then smiled sadly "For now, I'm nothing more
than your imagination."
And it all went black.

When Aurora woke up, she was lying on what seemed like the compartment
floor with Alex and a redheaded boy standing over her. She didn't recognize the
boy. Looking at Alex, he just shrugged with a worried look on his already pale
face.
"Thanks Merlin you're awake Aurora!" gushed Alex, a relieved sigh escaping his
lips. With the look on his face, you could tell that he deeply cared about the
blonde girl who was still lying on the ground. Aurora tried to stand up but was
feeling too weak to do so. Seeing this, Alex quickly gave her the hand.
"Thanks, Al-" but she was taken aback when Alex hugged her.
"I thought I lost you," he muttered in her golden blonde locks.
"You can't get rid of me that easily, Alexander Jones," she replied with a smile
tugging at her lips.
"I'm glad that you're aware now and feeling well," coughed the redhead boy
"I'll leave you two now."
Once the boy walked Aurora was quick to ask who he was.
"His name is Percy, he's the head boy. When I came back and saw you passed
out, I went to the prefect compartment and he was the only one there and I told
him about the situation. He reckoned it was because of the Dementor-" he
rambled but was cut off by Aurora.
"Woah, Woah, Woah, slow down man. Now, what the fuck is a dementor?"
"The guard of Azkaban," at the mention of the wizarding prison a shiver ran
down her spine. She'd heard from Sophia that the people there went mad, but
she never got any more details although it was enough for her to be frightened
of the place.
"What was it doing here then? Isn't it supposed to like, guard Azkaban?" she
questioned.
"Well, they here to check the train for... Sirius Black." he grimaced as Aurora
stared at him confused about who this Sirius Black guy was.
"Who?"
"You haven't heard?" Alex asked bewildered while she shook her head no "he's
a mass murderer who escaped Azkaban. The first one to do so."
Aurora took some time to process the information given to her. It was a wonder
that Sophia and Edward never told her. After taking it all in she asked: "Why was
he the first one to escape from a prison?"
"If you haven't noticed, not everyone has those shapeshifting powers you
have," he replied.
"It's called being a metamorphagus, Alexander." she rolled her eyes. The boy
never seemed to remember the name of her gift.
"We're off the topic, as I was saying when Percy and I came back, you were
glowing red while shaking viciously and muttering something," he answered,
scrunching his nose up at the memory.
"I-I don't remember anything..."

Ⅳ
𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍 after
their heartfelt interaction, Alex left for the bathroom, leaving Aurora to change
into her plain black Hogwarts robes. By the time that she was done changing
Alex had come back, now in his fresh green, Slytherin robes.
"Look outta the window, darling," he advised. Seeing nothing wrong with it,
Aurora looked out of the window only to catch a sight of Hogwarts in a state that
she'd never had seen it in before.
Living in Hogsmeade for her entire life, she was used to looking out of the
window and seeing Hogwarts on a daily basis, but from the train, it was a whole
different story. The brightly lit windows contrasted the black construction of the
castle. The black lake reflected the castle, creating what Aurora called a 'double
castle.
When the train stopped the two best friends got out of the compartment as fast
as possible so that the train wouldn't leave with them still on board. It proved to
be a hard job whatsoever, as the rest of the students seemed to be thinking the
same. The older students pushed the younger out of the way. She nearly fell
down two times, only to be saved by Alex (both of the time).

Once they got out of the train and on the tiny Hogsmeade platform, they
realised something.
It was freezing on the tiny platform.
The rain was driving in icy sheets. Drenching them to the bone. Luckily enough,
they hopped on the last free carriage that set off right after they sat down.
Sighing in relief, Aurora turned to Alex.
"Well, that was a close one."
"Yeah..." he sighed, bringing his hands to touch his wet hair and then wiping the
falling droplets from his face.
"Oi, wait up!" came a yell from behind, causing both of them to look over their
shoulders.
They saw a figure running towards their carriage. She couldn't make out her or
his face but it seemed like Alex could.
"Fuck off, Parkinson," he yelled. Just on cue, the carriage speeded up leaving
Parkinson angry as she yelled out in anger.
"Who was that, P-something?" Aurora questioned.
"That was Pansy 'Pug-face' Parkinson, we Slytherins call her triple p's so that no
one knows who we're talking 'bout," he answered with a look of disgust on his
face "trust me, she's a complete bitch."
≋
 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 a rather cold ride, Alex and Aurora along with the rest of the students -
save the first years- were positioned in the entrance hall, waiting for the doors of
the Great hall to open. As a strict looking witch - who Aurora learned to be
Professor McGonagall - informed them, they were to wait for the right time as
the train had arrived earlier than expected despite the dementor incident.
"Ms Mckinnon, you are to come to the headmaster's office for your sorting as
requested. Follow me." McGonagall ordered her. Not wanting to cross the stern
professor, Aurora followed her after telling Alex to see him later.
As they made their way towards the headmaster's office, Aurora could feel
herself becoming tenser and tenser. She didn't have any problem with being in
any of the houses, it was the idea of people treating her differently that made
her tense.
Even without her gift, Aurora was never the one to blend in. She liked, loved
being the centre of attention, just not the negative one. As Soph and Eddie had
told her, there was nothing wrong with her and if anything people should be
jealous of her.
Holding onto that thought, Aurora and McGonagall stepped into the
headmaster's office, after McGonagall said some candy name to a gargoyle.
Soon the professor left, claiming that she had things to attend.
The office strangely reminded her of some muggle museum that Edward took
her to, years ago. It was full of stuff that Aurora would never figure out the point
of without any help. They were made of gold, silver, some were bronze.
Next to the shelves, where those strange objects were kept, was a wall packed
with paintings of the people that she had little no idea what their name was.
Most of them were asleep or conversing with each other. Upon her arrival, the
talking ones looked over to her with curious eyes, wondering what would a
student do to get themselves in a trouble before the start-of-term feast, seeing
as they didn't know about her sorting.
There were many, even stranger things in the room but the strangest was Albus
Dumbledore himself. Even when a red phoenix flying around, he was still the
most unordinary person that Aurora had ever met.
"Good evening, miss Mckinnon." Dumbledore greeted with a smile "I see you've
come. Now let's not waste any time and get you sorted before Fillius comes
searching for the hat."
 He took an old dusty hat from his desk - that had a cut for its mouth but Aurora
had come across even more unusual things - and placed it on her head. She
wanted to throw up at the sight of it but kept her posture. The dust seemed to
vanish upon touching her head, making her feel better.
"Hmm... Haven't seen one like you for years..." whispered a soft voice in her
mind, making her jump slightly "So perfect for only one house... Let's make it
GRYFFINDOR!"

Ⅴ
After her sorting, she was to go to the Great Hall where the start-of-term feast
was taking place. When the feast was over, a boy named Colin led Aurora to the
Gryffindor common room and it was just as she'd expected it to be, warm and
cosy. The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming.
"Well, I'll leave you to it" was all colin said before going off somewhere.
Looking around, she spotted the head boy from the train. Recognizing him, she
made her way over him to ask where the dorms were.
"'Ello," she greeted, chuckling when the boy jumped slightly "Would you mind
telling me where the dorms are?"
Without a word, he pointed his finger towards the spiral staircase. Aurora
thanked him and went to battle her greatest enemy.
She'd hated stairs since she forever. From what Edward had told her - because
she didn't remember - she was three years old, when one day, she slipped on a
wet stair and hit her head hard enough for it to scar. When she checked, she
found a scar near her hairline. While it was barely visible, Aurora still smiled at
the sight of it, remembering her wonderful childhood which wasn't over yet.
Going up the stairs, she was culching on the stone wall while reading the signs
on the doors. The third one read "3rd year: Brown, Granger, Midgen and Patil."
while the fourth one read "2nd year: Hampton, Hampton, Mckinnon and
Weasley.". Figuring that she was the only Mckinnon in Gryffindor, she knocked
on the door and opened it without waiting for an answer.
When the girls inside the dormitory heard the sound of the door opening, they
all looked up to see who disturbed their peace.
"What are you doing in our dorm?" sneered the red-haired one.
"I was under the impression that the sign on the door read 'Mckinnon' too,"
Aurora replied without missing a beat.
"Ooh, you're the new girl?" asked the blonde one, whose nails were being done
by a brunette "I'm Lucy, this is my sister Loren."
The brunette waved at her and went back to doing Lucy's nails.
"Ginny Weasley." the redhead introduced herself.
"Aurora, so which one's my bed?" Aurora asked.
"Whichever you want," answered Lucy, pointing at two unoccupied beds, one
near the window and another in the middle of the room.
"How come none of you wanted the window one?"
"As you can see the other window bed is occupied by Ginerva," Lucy scoffed at
the name as Aurora made a mental note to ask whatever was wrong "Mines near
the bathroom and Loren's scared of heights."
"I have acrophobia," Loren added.
"I literally said the same thing."
"Yeah, but mine was cooler." shrugged the brunette as she put the nail polish
onto the nightstand by her bed.
Aurora walked towards the unoccupied four poster bed by the window,
changing its status to occupied. As she sat down on the bed, her trunk appeared
at her feet. Nodding in approval, Aurora unpacked her truck, which mostly
consisted of her clothing instead of school supplies.
She owned every piece of clothing that one could dream of. From the velvet
dresses to Guess jeans. She had absolutely everything. Of course, she didn't
wear all of them. A big percentage of her closet consisted of things bought by
Sophie. While the woman's husband was a muggle and she basically lived in the
muggle world, she still was stuck in the wizarding fashion, which in Aurora's
words was 'horribly barbaric with a peck of awfulness'.
Halfway through placing her shoes in the closet that the girls told her was now
hers, Lucy let out a squeal bringing the attention to her.
"Is. That. Doc Martens?!" she cried, blinking rapidly.
Letting out a laugh, Aurora nodded her head, making Lucy squeal even louder,
if that was even possible.
"What's the big deal anyway?" asked Ginny, who was rolling her eyes at the
blonde's dramatics.
"Lu wants to get one but mom won't let her, dunno why." shrugged Loren, who
was now doing her own nails with different nail polish.
"You can have mine if you want it that much," said Aurora, who was smiling
kindly at Lucy who froze upon hearing her say it.
"REALLY?!"

𝙏𝙝𝙚 next day, Aurora attempted to go to the Great hall alone. Keyword
attempted. After getting lost, she decided to make her way back to the
Gryffindor tower and follow the other students. Well, going up there wasn't easy
for her either, as she had to go to the other end of the Castle.
At Beauxbatons, there were maps on the castle walls that would disappear in
mid-November. Also, the castle was smaller there and less confusing, like the
muggle ones. They also had cut the number of stairs to a minimum, because the
castle was more wide than tall, three floors at max.
Eventually, she got to the Great hall, which was full of chattering students. Like
she had done the night prior, she sat down at the Gryffindor table, not before
waving at Alex who was sat at the Slytherin table. He mirrored her actions,
getting himself a few dirty looks from his housemates, just like Aurora had.
Making herself a plate of goods aka vegetables, she began eating. She'd been
told from Sophia, that her mom Marlene loved vegetables too and preferred it
over meat. It, of course, encouraged her love in it and she began eating it more
frequently, enjoying it more.
Too busy with munching on a carrot, she failed to notice a boy sliding onto the
seat, next to hers. While she was eating, he pulled out a quill and a parchment,
then tapped her shoulder gently.
Aurora jumped at the sudden contact but soon calmed down, after seeing the
doe-eyed boy staring at her and smiling innocently.
"Yes?"
"I was wondering if I could draw you?" he asked, batting his eyelashes. Aurora
looked at the boy curiously, wondering why he wanted to draw her out of all
people.
"Sure, I guess?" she answered. Although it came out more as a question, the
boy beamed. "Am I supposed to be in a certain position or something?"
"No, do whatever you want, I'll not bother you." he dismissed her thought of
staying still as a rock for about twenty minutes, as Aurora let out a sigh of relief.
While the boy sketched her profile, Aurora ate her breakfast like a muggle
vacuum cleaner that Edward bought many years ago. The boy continued to
observe every single part of her face to get it right. Aurora was uncomfortable,
but the narcissistic part of her was happy.
"And done! How'd you like it?"
Aurora would've answered if she was able to do so, which she wasn't. Her
mouth hung open as her eyes were wide with shock. The drawing didn't have
any colour considering that the boy had drawn it with blue ink.
"I-wow-I really- this-this-" she kept stuttering. The boy just smiled, sat down the
drawing next to her plate, then stood up and swung his bag onto his shoulder."
"The name's Luke, by the way, Luke Scamander." he smiled at her one last
time, before setting off.
Aurora, still in shock, picked up the drawing to examine it closely. Getting over
the shock, she quickly placed it into her bag, just then noticing the parchment
that was lying next to her plate. It was a schedule, her schedule.
Looking up she saw that she had only two minutes to get to the class that
happened to be Potions with someone named Professor Snape - she misread it
as snake - and set off towards the classroom, but then she remembered that she
didn't know where the classroom was.
In a state of panic, she looked around, maybe, just maybe they had a single
map, but they didn't. She was already late for her first class and the corridor was
empty, the students being in their classes. Just when she was about to find a
painting to ask for directions, a ghost came gliding towards her.
"You okay, sweetie?" the ghost asked, as Aurora shook her head. "What's
wrong?"
"I can't find the Potions classroom, not that I've tried..." she muttered the last
part mostly to herself.
"Follow me then."
The ghost guided her towards the dungeons, the atmosphere becoming more
and more gloomy at their, well Aurora's, every step.
"There you are, sweetie," the ghost smiled "Have fun, but not too much,
Snape's a bad-tempered fellow."
After thanking the ghost, Aurora knocked on the door and opened it. If she
thought that the corridor was the gloomiest place she'd ever been in, now she
didn't. The dimly lit potion classroom was filled with a mixed smell of Dittany,
African red pepper and Neem oil with a hint of Salamander blood. Let's just say
that those ingredient's smells mixed together wasn't as good as their smells
alone.
"Miss Mckinnon, care to explain why you're seven minutes late?" asked
Professor Snape with an ugly sneer.
He had a large hooked nose, the greasiest hair that Aurora had ever had the
displeasure of seeing, swallow yellow skin that reminded her of some old
cheese that Rosmerta once made her eat and black eyes. Pure black eyes.
"You see, Professor, I couldn't find my way to this classroom," she replied, with
a look of faint disgust.
"Sit down, five points from Gryffindor."
Shooting Snape a nasty look, she sat down on the only empty seat, which
fortunately for her, happened to be next to Alex's. He shot her a grin which she
reflected.
"You think he's ugly don't you?" he whispered into her ear.
Making sure that Professor Snake wasn't looking, she whispered back "What
gave it away?"
"Your hair ends, it turned dark green."
"Yah."
After what seemed like hours of listening to Snape drawl about something
boring, she decided that it was time to give him his deserved name.
"Psst," she whispered, "psst, Alex."
"What?"
"What's his-" she motioned her head towards Snape "name?"
"Dunno never bothered to know."
"It's Severus." said a Brunnette girl that was sat to Aurora's left.
"Thank you, miss-?"
"Greengrass, Astoria Greengrass."
"Thank you, Miss Greengrass." Aurora shot her a toothy grin.
Thinking for several minutes, a light tub appeared at the top of her head,
signalling that she got a perfect idea. With a devilish smirk, she turned her head
to Alex who was watching her with interest, wondering what the girl was up to.
"I've got a perfect name!" she said, a little too loudly.
Snape seemed to have wondered who dared to disturb his boring lecture about
something called Bezoar.
"Miss Mckinnon, am I disturbing your conversation?" he asked, the ends of his
mouth twisting into a nasty smile.
"Not necessarily, Snivellus."

Ⅶ
𝘼𝙇𝙀𝙓 had to
keep up with a grinning Aurora, which wasn't an easy task. They were currently
going - Aurora skipping - to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Alex
had a small smile on his face, while Aurora... Her face was brighter than the Sun.
Even her hair had gone bright yellow.
In the hallway, they were stopped by Mcgonnagall, who had her lips pursed.
"Miss Mckinnon, I hear you've got a detention with me from Snape, I expect you
to be there on Saturday at 5 o'clock, sharp." with a final nod she swept off,
probably towards her classroom.
"It was worth it, wasn't it?" Aurora smiled, as Alex nodded.
"How'd you even come up with it so fast?" he questioned.
"I don't know, it was just the first thing that came to mind." She threw her head
down with laughter, golden locks tickling her face.
"As many of you know, I'm your new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor."
Lupin smiled at them.
He had mousy brown hair which was the neatest it had been in years. Scars
littered his face, each different shape. He was wearing shabby robes, also known
as I-don't-care robes. He probably wouldn't bother to buy new robes unless the
ones he owned were literally ripped to pieces.
The class wasn't filled, despite the fact that in exactly one minute the class
would start. Seemingly, the luck was on her side. She had most of her classes
with Slytherins which was great, even though her housemates would disagree.
She and Alex sat down in the third row. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but
their seats happened to be next to Astoria Greengrass' who was writing on a
piece of parchment with an eagle quill.
"Whatcha writing?" she asked, making Astoria jump a bit.
Astoria was about to answer but Lupin interrupted them, by revealing an ugly
greyish creature.
"Many of you are ought to recognize it," he started, everyone automatically
leaned in, desperate to find out about the creature that was now scratching its
glass cage "Can anyone tell me what is this creature called?"
Expecting many hands to shoot up, Lupin was horribly disappointed upon
seeing the students look at each other confused. However, he saw one hand,
lazily dangling in the air. When he looked at the person who had risen their
hand, he got a nasty shock.
"Yes, miss -?"
"Mckinnon, it's really easy to remember," she answered, smiling charmingly.
"And what may this creature's name be, miss Mckinnon?"
"Imp, horrible creature trust me, nearly scratched my nose once." Aurora
scrunched up her nose, making the most occupants in the room laugh.
Remus had to hold in laughter, while Alex was rolling on the floor. Aurora did
think that she was funny, very funny, but not in her appearances, she just had a
good sense of humour, so why were people staring at her funny?
After the students slightly calmed down, she helped Alex up.
"Dude, I know I'm pretty an' all, but why are they staring at me like that?" She
whispered, at which Alex burst out laughing.
Unable to calm down, Alex just pointed at her hair. Panicked that something
had happened to her precious she reached to grab it, only to find that she had
none. She touched her now bald head, which seemed no be uneven and slimy.
Wondering what in the name of Merlin was going on, she pulled out a mirror
that she always carried around in her dress pocket, that had an undetectable
extension charm on it (it was Rosmerta's work).
Looking into it, expecting to see her extremely beautiful face, but she was met
with a sigh that would haunt her dreams forever. She looked like the creature
that had scratched her nose once.
It was no time to panic though, she reminded herself. She was in the middle of a
disastrous crisis - well, not really, but she just had to be dramatic - she tried to
recall every single thing she'd learnt at Beauxbatons, which wasn't much.
And then did she remember.
Suddenly the class went stiff, if all of them were staring at her funny just a few
seconds ago, now they were staring frozen in their seats, faces petrified with
pure shock.
"Miss Mckinnon, you should've just told us that you were a metamorphagus
instead of turning yourself into an imp, which was of course. You wouldn't mind
a chat after class, would you?"
Ⅷ
"𝙈𝙄𝙉𝙀𝙍𝙑𝘼,
Minerva, Minerva, Minerva..." Aurora kept muttering her professor's name, as
she wrote lines.
"Minerva, Minerva, Minerva, Minerva..."
Aurora was forced to write 'I must not call my Professors disrespectful names'
one hundred times and she made sure to write them as slowly as she could. She
even drew tiny hearts on the letter 'a' as her name started on the letter.
"Minerva, Minerva, Minerva, Minerva..."
McGonagall had to resist the urge to dismiss Aurora right on the spot, but she
was never the one to give in so easily, keeping a straight face. Aurora looked up
at her, narrowed her eyes, looked back to her parchment and started writing
more furiously, well, she wasn't exactly writing.
Aurora held up the parchment, showing her professor her masterpiece.
Minerva wanted to burst out laughing at the horrid doodle of herself with cat-
ears, but she only let a chuckle escape her lips. Aurora just grinned brightly at
her and went back to writing, full of enthusiasm.
≋
𝙒𝙃𝙀𝙉 she told Alex how she made McGonagall chuckle, he didn't believe her
in the slightest.
"As much as I trust you, that's clearly a lie." he had said. Aurora had looked at
him with such an offended expression that one would think he just insulted her
greatly, which in her mind, he did.
"I can't believe you, Alexander... I'm going to Lupin's office, but not because he
told me to, because I don't want to see your traitorous face ever again." she
flipped her hair dramatically before marching towards Lupin's office, totally
because he wanted a chat with her.
It was probably a coincidence but when she walked into the office, Snape was
there too. From Lupin's last lesson, Aurora learned that he was a chill person
and had a great sense of humour, so maybe it wouldn't be much of an issue if
she politely called Snape Snivellous.
"Aurora, I see you've come." he greeted her as she walked into the room.
"Yeah, I did." she replied curtly, before turning her head towards Snape with a
mischievous smirk "Professor Lupin, when you said you wanted a chat, I
thought you meant alone, not with a grease-ball like Snivellous here, listening
in."
Unlike McGonagall, Lupin didn't even try to hold his laughter in, making Snape
sneer in both of their direction before sweeping out of the room.
"Not to falter you so that you won't give me detention, but you're my second
favourite professor," she said, smiling in the man's direction.
"Only second?" he joked, returning the smile.
"Yeah, 'cause McGonagall's the first and she's a bloody-"
"Legend, I know. She used to be my professor too." Lupin chuckled.
"So, you wanted to talk about me being a metamorphagus." she started,
obviously trying to make a conversation.
"About that, I didn't actually want to talk about your abilities, but-" he started
but was interrupted by Aurora, who didn't look as sweet as she usually did.
"About my mothers, don't you? Lupin knew the surname sounded familiar.
Sophia mentioned you, once or twice. Remus isn't it?" she jeered, now
remembering who exactly her new professor was.
"I was a friend of both of your parents, Dorcas was in the year above though,
got to know her after the graduation. Marlene, on the other hand, was one of my
closest friends, after James." he sighed.
"You were friends with Sirius Black too, weren't you?" she asked, even though
she knew the answer to it.
"Yeah... I was." Lupin looked away, maybe he was reliving some memories just
like Aurora did from time to time. "Who's Sophia anyways?"
"Oh, she's my aunt, my mom's, Dorcas' cousin, Sophia Brown."
"I remember her, a Hufflepuff, wasn't she?" Aurora nodded "Often saw her in
the library, she was a quiet girl."
"Tell me more about them, my moms."
"Well, Marlene played beater for Gryffindor, since the second year and Dorcas, I
don't really remember her from school." he looked at her apologetically.
"Then tell me about Marlene."
"As you wish," Remus set down his tea "I got to know her in my second year,
her, Lily Evans and Alice Fortescue. They were like sisters. She was the biggest
flirt, had a new boyfriend every month, none of them lasted though. In the fifth
year, at a victory party, she came out by kissing Ava Green. In '79 Marlene met
Dorcas and they sort of clicked."
"Thanks." Aurora muttered and got up to leave.
Just as she opened the door, she was stopped by Remus' request.
"May I have a chat with Sophia?"

Ⅸ
October 31st meant different things to different people, for some, it was the day
that the dark lord fell, for some it was Halloween, but for Aurora, it was the best
day of the year, also known as her birthday.
On her, every birthday Soph and Eddie did something special and this year sure
as hell wasn't going to be any different. In the letters, they were all secretive and
everything, but they forgot that a woman, under the name of Rosmerta existed,
resulting in her writing a whole letter to Aurora all the things she overheard
them talking about.
So, Aurora was expecting them to take her and Alex to France.
She woke up early in the morning, got dressed and went down to the great hall,
where she was supposed to meet Alex. Halfway towards there, she decided that
the shirt that she was wearing looked hideous, so she went back to her dorm to
change.
Totaly expecting her dormmates to be asleep, she was surprised upon seeing
Ginerva flipping through a quidditch magazine that seemed outdated.
"Is that Seeker Weekly?" Aurora asked as she looked through her drawer for a
sweater that would match her jeans.
"Yeah, so what?"
"Nothing." Aurora shrugged, having found what she was looking for.
After changing, she ran down the stairs that led to the common room, where
she was slowed by a group of third-year girls that were excitedly talking about
the Hogsmeade visit that was due the day. Escaping them, she risked using a
passageway she heard some older students talking about.
Fortunately for her, it turned out to be a lot faster and shorter than the normal
way. In the time of ten minutes, she was already in the Great hall, looking for
Alex.
"There you are!" Came Alex's voice from behind her.
"Sorry, I'm late. So, what's the plan?"
"We're to transport via Floo powder to the Leaky Cauldron where we'll meet
Soph and Eddie," he explained, as Aurora made herself a plate of goodies "In...
Five minutes!"
She barely managed to get a taste of her salad, when Alex was dragging her
towards McGonagall's office. On their way there they met the Care of Magical
Creatures. Aurora had heard the rumours about his Hippogriff attacking the
Malfoy child, but she wasn't sure if it was true or not.
From McGonagall's office, they travelled to the Leaky Cauldron, where Soph
and Eddie were waiting for them.
"Hey, kids." Soph greeted.
"Hey."
"So I was thinking, what if we went for a walk, in the Diagon Alley? I promise
we'll get ice cream."
"Sure."
First, they went to Quality Quidditch Supplies, under the birthday girl's request.
While she was looking at the new Firebolt, she didn't notice Eddie and Alex
slipping out of the shop. The door to the shop opened and a noisy couple came
in. She was about to tell them off when a beater's bat caught her eye. No, no, it
wasn't like any bat, it was the part of the limited edition that was signed by
Dawn Withey herself. It came as no surprise when she and Soph walked out of
the shop with the bat.
"Where are the boys?" Aurora asked, just then noticing the disappearance of
the two males.
"They went for a stroll." Soph dismissed her, as they started walking towards
Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.
On their way there, they met up with the boys, who had returned from the
stroll.
There they brought banana flavoured ice cream with chocolate sprinkles for
Aurora and Peppermint one for Alex. Soph was on a diet and refused to eat any
sweets while Eddie simply didn't want one, considering that it was October.
"Oh, shit, we're late," Soph exclaimed, startling both of the kids who were
having a rather intense staring battle.
"To where?"
"We gotta catch the flight to Marseille." Eddie winked.
After finishing up the ice creams as fast as they could, Soph apparated them -
nearly getting splinched - to an airport.
"Rosmerta told me that you were gonna take us to France, not to Italy," said
Aurora.
"Marseille's in France," replied Eddie, not even looking at her.
After getting their tickets checked and everything, Aurora and Alex were happily
conversing while the plane - a muggle invention that could fly - took off. She
must've fallen asleep because when she woke up, the plane was already
landing.
Marseille was beautiful, but they had no time to admire it as Soph was
apparating them again, this time more successfully, to a small town called
Quiberon and them ushered them to the woods nearby. When Alex asked what
they were doing in the middle of the woods, she just winked at him and guided
them towards, what seemed like the middle.
They didn't have to walk for a long time when a stadium came into the view. As
they got closer, they saw a bright pink sign that had "Quiberon
Quafflepunchers" written on it with black paint. And then did it hit her.
Soph didn't send that Quidditch Times magazine to her for no reason.
There was an article written about the upcoming match between Quiberon
Quafflepunchers aka the only decent french team and Puddlemere Untied,
which would determine who got to play in the league.
Just as they sat down on their seats, which were pretty high, the players took
off.
"And, they're off, Puddlemere United with its usual players. By the way to
anyone who wants to play for them, their general manager, Miss Anderson is
here. If I remember correctly, they're in need of a reverse keeper. And let's not
forget Quiberion Quafflepunchers, say 'Pink' if they're better!" most of the
crowd said pink as most of them were French, which Aurora and Alex booed at.
"Anyways, Wadcock throws the quaffle to Hill, who passes it back and Wadcock
scores, ten zero to Puddlemere."
Eddie had performed some kind of spell on their ears that automatically
translated everything they heard to English, despite all of them knowing French
quite well.
"Babin snatches the quaffle from Hill and makes a beeline towards the English
people's goalposts, is nearly killed by a bludger, Puddlemere back in
possession."
"One would think those french fries would be good at scoring, you know, they're
literally called 'Quafflepunchers'." Aurora sniggered as Puddlemere scored yet
another goal, changing the score by ten.
"Agreed."
The match went on as Puddlemore kept on destroying Quafflepunchers. It got
kind of boring after Wadcock scored Puddlemore the tenth goal, while
Quafflepunchers had scored only one.
"And Wadcock scores again- wait, is that what I think it is? Yes, yes, Quiberon
Quafflepuncher's seeker Augustin, has seen the snitch. Oh, I shouldn't have said
that now Williams is going after it too, though Augustin got a head start.
Williams dodges a bludger, fired by Allaire, by inches, and I think Augustin is
about to catch the snit-"
Aurora was not ready to see her team lose, so she closed her eyes. Well, in the
end, she didn't have to, as Puddlemore United's beater, fired a bludger at
Augustin, breaking his arm, leaving Williams to calmly catch the snitch, bringing
victory to his team.
After the match, they went to Hogsmeade, visited Rosmerta, had a butterbeer
(in her and Alex's case, a muggle drink mixed with some magical ingredients, it
was delicious). Turned out, Rosie had baked Aurora a cake with flowing icing.
She also made the customers sing happy birthday.
Then popped by Zonko's to grab some things such as dungbombs and sugar
quills (which were her favourite sweets). Around ten pm, Soph gave them a
handful of floor powder to return to Hogwarts.
When Aurora and Alex returned to the school, they were surprised to find
McGonagall's office empty. Alex had to keep Aurora from planting a dungbomb
under her carpet. Alex suggested going down to the kitchen's as the dinner
must've been over by then. When they walked in, they were surprised to see
Lupin sitting there, sipping peppermint tea, while reading a book.
"Oh, hi, professor." Aurora greeted him casually, pretending as if she and Alex
weren't doing anything wrong.
"Mmm, hello, Aurora, mister Jones. May I ask, why you're here and not in the
Great hall?" he raised a brow at them.
"Well, the dinner must be over by now." she shrugged.
"Ah, how could I forget, you were out of the school." he chuckled "While you
were gone, Sirius Black broke into the castle, so, for your safety, you will be
sleeping in the Great hall for the night."
"Ugh, and I was hoping to get a good night sleep."
"Do Miss and Mister want peppermint tea too?" asked a rather old house-elf,
that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"Oh no, I'm allergic to peppermint. I'll take those brownies though," she made
her ways towards the table where brownies were put onto.
"I'll make one myself, thanks." Alex smiled at the elf, and proceed to make tea
for himself.
After Alex made sure to enjoy the tea just to piss Aurora off, Lupin led them both
to the Great Hall, where they were met with dozens of students sleeping in the
sleeping bags. He conjured two more sleeping bags and wished them a good
night sleep before disappearing through the doors.
Aurora fell asleep quickly, not knowing what was waiting for her.

Ⅹ
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s=fit&w=1280&h=1280

After successfully telling McGonagall the whole Quidditch Through the Ages, she
let her commentate on the upcoming match, but only that one time. She met
Lee Jordan, who she'd be commenting alongside.
So there she was, waiting patiently for the match to start while ignoring the fact
that she was very much cold. It had originally been Gryffindor versus Slytherin
but Slytherin seeker, Draco Malfoy claimed that he was injured and would be
unable to play and seeing as Slytherin didn't have a reverse seeker.
The wind was so strong that the team staggered sideways as they walked out
onto the field. Whether or not the crowd was cheering, they couldn't tell, as they
couldn't hear it over the fresh rolls of thunder.
The Hufflepuffs were approaching from the opposite side of the field, wearing
canary-yellow robes. The Captains walked up to each other and shook hands;
Diggory smiled at Wood but Wood looked as though he had lockjaw and merely
nodded. Aurora saw Madam Hooch's mouth form the words, "Mount your
brooms."
Hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and
distant —they were off. They rose fast, their brooms slightly swerving because of
the wind.
"And they're off, looks like Diggory's trying to flip his hair while trying to steady
his broom. Trust me, Cedric, you have no chance of looking attractive while you
have those goggles on, ridiculous, no offence to anybody who's head over heels
for him.
"Uh-uh, Minnie, I'm saying the truth. So, Wood seems to be nervous, I don't
understand why, after all, no chaser stands a chance against him. Johnson's got
the quaffle, passes-Bell, passes-Snippet who drops it, Applebee catches it -
personally, I think the reason why nobody makes fun of his surname is Diggory's
threats - drops it, isn't anybody gonna catch it?" Aurora yelled in her
megaphone, she knew that in a storm like this, it was hard to see the quaffle, let
alone catch the snitch, so she pitied the Gryffindor seeker, Potter "Bell does,
passes to Snippet -Alicia don't you dare drop it, I placed really need to win this
ten galleons. I'm not taking sides, Minerva! And she scores, honestly, everybody
would be able to score against O'Flaherty, unless their name isn't Marcus Flint.
No, Professor, I'm not bullying anyone! "
Within five minutes everyone (including the crowd) was soaked to their skin and
frozen. Most of the team couldn't hear the commentary over the wind. The
crowd was hidden beneath a sea of cloaks and battered umbrellas.
Often the players nearly hit another player, without knowing whether it was a
teammate or opponent; everyone was now so wet, and the rain so thick, she
could hardly tell them apart. With the first flash of lightning came the sound of
Hooch's whistle; Aurora could just see the outline of Wood through the thick
rain, gesturing his team to the ground. The whole team splashed down into the
mud.
Aurora couldn't quite see what was happening down there, but she saw two
girls approaching the team, and then the time-out was over.
There was another clap of thunder, followed immediately by forked lightning.
This was getting more and more dangerous. Potter needed to get the Snitch
quickly. He turned, intending to head back toward the middle of the field, But at
that moment, another flash of lightning illuminated the stands, and out of blue,
Potter became motionless in the topmost, empty row of seats.
Wood was yelling something at the poor boy, who was looking as confused as
Aurora in a make-up store.
Aurora could make out the seekers going after snitch, well, she couldn't see the
ball, but she hoped that was it.
"Looks like both seekers have seen the snitch, let's hope that Gryffindor gets it.
Please, Minnie, what are you playing at? We both know that you want him to
catch it, just as much as I do!"
But something odd was happening. An eerie silence was falling across the
stadium. The wind, though as strong as ever, was forgetting to roar. It was as
though someone had turned off the sound, as though Aurora had gone suddenly
deaf — what was going on? And then a horribly familiar wave of cold swept over
the crowd. It was those creatures that Soph wanted them about. The ones that
everyone was after.
At least a hundred dementors, their hidden faces pointing up at him, were
floating near the field. Suddenly the crowd saw something falling from the sky,
or someone.
"Lucky the ground was so soft."
"I thought he was dead for sure."
"But he didn't even break his glasses."
"What does her need those glasses for?" asked Aurora, smiling innocently when
the whole Gryffindor alongside some students looked at her with raised
eyebrows.
"He's blind."
"There's a special spell to fix eyesight, didn't you know?" she shrugged, going
back to watching Potter's unconscious body.
"Don't you know that the Potters have an allergic reaction to the 'Sparkly
Spells' that kills them?
"Yeah, haven't you heard of Hendrix Potter, back in the day?"
"No, I haven't."
"That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life."
Aurora left the hospital wing. On her way to the Gryffindor Tower, Lucy and
Loren caught up with her and congratulated her on her commentary.
Apparently, they heard it over the growls of thunder, which was impressive.
After a little chat, the girls left her to go somewhere, leaving her to sulk about
the loss of the match.
Ⅺ

The Christmas holidays were just around the corner resulting in Soph and Eddie
sending her a letter, requesting she come home while being free to invite any of
her friends. To be honest Aurora missed her adoptive parents, not having sent
many letters to them. She'd invite Alex (who didn't need inviting) but he and his
family were going to Germany.
There she was, in her dorm packing her trunk she heard giggles from behind.
Turning around, she saw Lucy and Loren along with two older girls that she
didn't know the names of. One of the girls had blonde curly hair while the
other's was black and straight. Aurora looked at twins with the look asking what
they were doing in their dorms, causing them to send her an apologetic smile.
"Well, girls this is Aurora, Aurora these girls are Lavender" Lucy pointed at the
blonde.
"And Parvati." Loren continued while pointing at the dark-haired girl. Aurora
just nodded her head, going back to packing while knowing damn well that Lucy
and Loren brought the guests for a reason.
Double-checking if she had everything in the truck. She knew that they wanted
to say something to her, she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction by
paying them any kind of attention. Humming, she walked towards the
bathroom, only to be stopped by Lavender's sudden outburst.
"McLaggen's dying to fuck you!" she squealed, quickly slapping her hand on her
mouth. Aurora fake gagged, turning to her with a look of annoyance and disgust
while others were giving her hopeful looks. Aurora McKinnon was sure as hell
that this Mclaggen guy was like one of the boys that were really full of
themselves for absolutely no reason.
Besides, she was thirteen!
"Well, you're more than welcome to tell that McLaggen that I'll be dead before
even looking at him." she sneered, throwing an empty shampoo bottle in the
garbage bean. She had already finished packing her truck and was making her
way towards the common room.
By the time she got there, it was already twelve o'clock. Linking her arms with
Alex, the two proceed to walk in the direction of Hogsmeade (having missed
carriages). As they neared the village, Aurora turned towards her best friend
gave him a hug and a peck on the check then took off towards the Eastwood
household.
≋
Sophia and Aurora walked down the Diagon alley, both of their arms full of
shopping bags but that didn't seem to stop them from walking into every store
possible and buying merlin knows what. While Sophia could easily use the
undetectable extending charm, she didn't because as she liked to say 'what's
the point of shopping if you don't get to carry tons of bags'.
The alley was covered in the white snow, crushing underneath their feet,
making the heavenly sound that the words couldn't describe. The two females
were chatting about merlin knows what, but the important thing was that they
were happy. It was their 'tradition' kind of thing to go on a last-minute
Christmas shopping. They never let Edward tag along, coming up with different
reasons every year, but the truth was that they wanted to have a girl-to-girl
shopping (and Edward couldn't stand going on shopping longer than one hour,
'he got tired easily').
Sophia and Edward weren't even married when Soph took Aurora in, they had
just gotten engaged, being no older than twenty-two. Despite their young age,
the couple gladly took her in and treated her like their own. When it went down
to her last name, they said that making her an Eastwood would be an insult to
Dorcas' and Marlene's memory and that her last name didn't define her, for that
she would always be Eastwood at heart. After that many years had passed, yet
the couple didn't have children of their own.
"Look, Soph!" Aurora shouted while pointing at the newest broomstick at the
display. It was the Firebolt. She looked at it with awe indescribable, despite
having seen the broom already.
"Aurora, dear, we still have to buy a gift for Rosmerta, new Christmas
decorations and some food. So unless you want to starve, I recommend stop
gaping at that broomstick," Sophie called, hoping to get Aurora to follow her,
but with no luck. Who was she to stop Aurora Mckinnon?
"Aww, come on, we can always get Rosie some tickets to muggle opera, you
know she adores it."
On their way to Gringotts to grab some more money, they came across the two
boys that Aurora had seen kiss many times in the Gryffindor Common room.
They were chatting while holding hands. Then one of them slipped, the other
laughed at him so he dragged him down two.
After grabbing the money, they did indeed buy Rosmerta tickets to an opera
performance. Then they went muggle grocery shopping and after two hours,
they returned home. Aurora loved shopping, but for clothes, not food.
Feeling kind of tired, she went upstairs for a nap.

It was a normal Christmas for her. She had received new quidditch gloves
alongside a postcard from Alex, colour changing nail polish from Lucy and
Loren, a set of hair ties from Rosmerta, a two-way mirror from Eddie (he had
brought from a man who begged for him to take it) and a Piunty Parchment
from Soph.
Everything seemed normal, except that she had gotten a box via muggle post. It
said her name clearly and it was from Australia. Despite Eddie warning her that
it could be something dangerous, she still opened her and didn't regret doing so
by any means.
There it lay, the thing that Aurora was dying to buy, yet, it was out of stock
before she could even say 'Otorhinolaryngologist', which she did, it only took
about ten tries.
Kylie Meadows was a famous quidditch player, she played for Thundelarra
Thunderers and later got recruited by the Australian National Quidditch team.
She also happened to be Dorcas Meadows' second cousin. While she hadn't
been that close to her British cousin, they had still occasionally exchanged
letters.
Upon getting a letter from her other cousin, Sophia, that read:
 Dear, Kylie,
I know I've never actually met you, apart from some family gatherings, and this
letter may mean nothing to you but hear me out. I know Dorcas had written some
letters to you before her death, and you guys were on a first name basis to say, at
least.
Look, all I'm asking is you to send a single signed beaters bat to your dead
cousin's daughter. She's a huge fan of yours and would really appreciate it.
Sincerely, Sophia.
Not even being aware of Dorcas' death, Kylie took the bat that she didn't use
frequently, signed it and as a bonus to the girl, she got all of her quidditch-
player friends to sign it too. By the time she was sending it off, it was covered in
the signatures of famous quidditch players, explaining why Aurora didn't let go
of it for two days.
Returning to the school felt good, well kind of. From the Hogsmeade station,
Alex (who had returned from the trip) and Aurora walked towards the castle,
careful to avoid any dementors lurking nearby.
When they made it to the castle, they headed straight towards the kitchens.
Just as they were about to tickle the pear, they heard two voices approaching.
Thinking that they were prefects, Alex and Aurora hid behind a statue.
"No, I'm not afraid of you, you're not even a pureblood, your parents don't have
any high position in the ministry, you don't have good grades. What's there to
be scared of?" the first voice said, by the sounds of it, it belonged to a girl about
their age.
"I swear to Salazar, if you don't stay away from him, I'll kill you." the second
one, also a girl, sneered.
"How? You can't even do a simple unlocking charm, let alone a killing curse."
the first one laughed.
They could hear the footsteps stomping away, leading them to believe that
both girls had left, so they came out of their hiding spot. They were wrong. Only
one of the girls had left.
"Oh, hi." It was Astoria Greengrass.
She seemed pretty nervous to see them.
She was also the first girl.
"Who were you talking to?" Alex asked her, straight-forward as always.
"Pansy Parkinson?" It came out more as a question, but they still counted it.
"Who were you talking about?" this time it was Aurora.
"Draco Malfoy, she thinks I'm trying to steal him from her." Astoria rolled her
eyes.
"Are you?"
"Why would I?"
"Want to join us in the kitchens?" Aurora offered, at which Astoria politely
declined, saying that she had to get some things done.

That semester passed quite uneventfully. Aurora was called in by McGonagall

and she thought that she was getting expelled because of the number of
detentions she'd gotten. Though Alex reassured her by saying that one can only
get expelled when doing some serious harm to the other.
Turned out that she was just called in to choose electives for the next year. If it
had been up to her, she'd just drop out of school, but it wasn't. She was given
the option of choosing from these subjects: Care of Magical Creatures,
Arthimany, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies and Divination.
She had to choose at least two, so she did just that.
First she pointed her finger at Muggle Studies. Having spent most of her life in
both the muggle and wizarding world, she was sure she'd do well in the lesson
and wouldn't have to work that much.
Not really liking animals, she was left to chose divination as in the other two
subjects she'd have to work much. Divination felt like an easy way out and she
wouldn't have to do much work. She'd just have to drink some tea and that
would be it.
ⅫⅠ

Aurora had somehow gotten another detention for some reason that she
couldn't remember and was skipping towards Professor Lupin's classroom
where she would be serving it. Before going in she knocked, if detentions taught
her anything, it was that Lupin liked his privacy. There was no answer, so she
knocked again and again.

Growing frustrated at the lack of answer, she pushed the door open, peering in
to catch a sight of her second favourite professor, yet the office seemed empty.
Hesitantly she walked inside. Remus spent most of his time grading papers in
his office while sipping tea. Looking around the room there was no sign of the
friendly man who faces beered too many scars that Aurora thought were cool.
A sudden movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, turning
around she saw a piece of parchment that had some writings on it that moved.
Nothing unusual for the wizarding world, still she moved closer to investigate.
However, she saw that it was a map, a map of Hogwarts. Also, there were little
moving footsteps that each had a name written on top of it. First, she read the
name Sullivan Fawley in the Courtyard. She realised that the map showed
people and their whereabouts, so she got looking for Lupin.
And she found him.
What was he doing, running to the Whomping Willow?
Well, it was never late to find out, so with that thought, Aurora ran out of the
office, towards the tree, having left the map behind. She neared it just in time to
see Snape disappearing in the hole under the willow.
She was sorted into Gryffindor for a reason.
The whomping willow was frozen of sorts, so taking the opportunity she ran
towards it and jumped inside the hole, hitting the ground with her back. She
stood up with a groan, only to hit the tunnel's ceiling. Normally she wouldn't
have as she was shorter than some first years, but to jump into the tunnel she
made her legs longer with her metamophagi abilities.
Returning to her normal height, she started walking through the tunnel where
she thought Snape and Lupin had disappeared in, now to trip on the rock of
sorts.
"Wow, either I have two left legs or just this place sucks," she muttered to
herself, regaining her posture and continuing walking "Yeah, this place sucks.
Ouch, Lumos!"
After walking for what felt like an hour to her, not being more than ten minutes,
Aurora saw the light at the end of the tunnel. She grinned to herself, muttered a
quick 'Nox' and proceed to run towards it.
She tripped, again.
"For Godric's sake, did someone put those things for me to trip?"
She climbed out of the tunnel, only to find herself somewhere shat she had
never been in before. It was a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Paper was
peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor; every piece of
furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were
all boarded up. It didn't take her long to realise where she was.
She was in the Shrieking Shack.
Aurora heard some voices from upstairs, assuming it was the ghosts that were
rumoured to live in the shack. She climbed upstairs cautiously, not to draw any
attention to herself, and was met with the greasy hair that was the reason why
she came all the way here.
She backed down, hiding behind the ruins of what looked like a wardrobe
"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Aurora heard snape shout "DON'T TALK
ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"
"Vengeance is very sweet," He continued "How I hoped I would be the one to
catch you "
Who was he talking about?
"The joke's on you again, Severus," a coarse voice snarled. "As long as this boy
brings his rat up to the castle, I'll come quietly "
The only person she knew had a cat was a boy called Ron Weasley who was in
the year above.
"Up to the castle?" said Snape silkily. "I don't think we need to go that far. All I
have to do is call the dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very
pleased to see you, Black pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay "
Black as in Sirius Black?
"You – you've got to hear me out," the same coarse voice croaked. "The rat –
look at the rat –"
What had it got to do with a rat?
"Come on, all of you," Snape said "I'll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the
dementors will have a Kiss for him too –"
Werewolf? She was growing more and more confused by the second.
"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already," snarled Snape, so
Potter was here too "If I hadn't been here to save your skin –"
"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year," a voice
said that Aurora recognized to be Potter's"I've been alone with him loads of
times, having defence lessons against the dementors. If he was helping Black,
why didn't he just finish me off then?"
"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," hissed Snape. "Get
out of the way, Potter."
Lupin a Werewolf? It was all making sense now, his monthly disappearances,
scars...
"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Potter yelled. "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU
AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN –"
"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape shrieked "Like father,
like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on
bended knee! You would have been well-served if he'd killed you! You'd have
died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black –
now get out of the way, or I will make you. GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"
Aurora was having a hard time containing herself. She tried coming out of the
closet, but the door was stuck, so she raised her wand at the door and
performed the knockback jinx.
There was a blast and the door flew open. In the literal time of two seconds,
there was another blast that made the door rattle on its hinges; Snape was lifted
off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of
blood oozing from under his hair. He had been knocked out. Aurora looked
around. She spotted Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger who seemed to
have tried to Disarm Snape at the same moment. Snape's wand had soared in a
high arc and landed on the bed next to Crookshanks.

"You shouldn't have done that," said Black, looking at Harry. "You should have
left him to me –"
"And what were you gonna do?" she interrupted, raising her wand at Black.
"He's clear," Aurora looked to her right, where the voice had come for, seeing
her favourite professor.
"I don't think so."
"Just wait."
"We attacked a teacher... We attacked a teacher...," Hermione whimpered,
staring at the lifeless Snape with frightened eyes. "Oh, we're going to be in so
much trouble –"

"That if someone finds out and I'm not gonna rat us out if you guys are willing to
do the same," Aurora replied as Black bent down quickly and untied Remus who
was struggling against the ropes. Lupin straightened up, rubbing his arms where
the ropes had cut into them.
"I'm still not saying I believe you," Harry retorted.
"Neither am I, but what are we talking about?" Aurora asked, looking around
the room for some answers as to what was going not there.
"Just wait."
"Then it's time we offered you some proof," said Black. "You, boy – give me
Peter. Now."
"Okay, I did come to save the day and now I'm the only one who hasn't got a
clue about what the fuck is going on."
"No-Give me the rat boy." Black switched the subject.
Ron clutched Scabbers the rat closer to his chest.
"Come off it," he said weakly. "Are you trying to say he broke out of Azkaban just
to get his hands on Scabbers? I mean..." He looked up at Potter and Hermione
for support. "Okay, say Pettigrew could turn into a rat – there are millions of rats
– how's he supposed to know which one he's after if he was locked up in
Azkaban?"
"You know, Sirius, that's a fair question," said Lupin, turning to Black and
frowning slightly. "How did you find out where he was?"
Black put one of his clawlike hands inside his robes and took out a crumpled
piece of paper, which he smoothed flat and held out to show the others. It was
the photograph of Ron and his family that had appeared in theDaily Prophet the
previous summer, and there, on Ron's shoulder, wasScabbers
"How did you get this?" Lupin asked Black, thunderstruck.
"Fudge," said Black. "When he came to inspect Azkaban last year, he gave me
his paper. And there was Peter, on the front page... on this boys shoulder... I
knew him at once... how many times had I seen him transform? And the caption
said the boy would be going back to Hogwarts... to where harry was –"
"My God," said Lupin softly, staring from Scabbers to the picture in the paper
and back again. "His front paw "
"What about it?" said Ron defiantly.
"Umm, excuse me! People are still confused over here." Aurora waved her
hands, trying to get attention.
"He's got a toe missing," said Black, ignoring Aurora.
"Of course," Lupin breathed. "So simple... so brilliant... he cut it off himself?"
"Just before he transformed," said Black. "When I cornered him, he yelled for
the whole street to hear that I'd betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could
curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed
everyone within twenty feet of himself – and sped down into the sewer with the
other rats "
"Didn't you ever hear, Ron?" said Lupin. "The biggest bit of Peter they found was
his finger."

By the time Aurora had already given up on asking what was going on.
"Look, Scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something! He's been
in my family for ages, right –"
"Twelve years, in fact," said Lupin. "Didn't you ever wonder why he was living so
long?"
"We – we've been taking good care of him!" said Ron.
"Not looking too good at the moment, though, is he?" said Lupin. "I'd guess he's
been losing weight ever since he heard Sirius was on the loose again "
"He's been scared of that mad cat!" said Ron, nodding towards ginger can, who
was purring on the bed.
"This cat isn't mad," said Black hoarsely. He reached out a bony hand and
stroked the cat's fluffy head. "He's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met.
He recognized Peter for what he was right away. And when he met me, he knew I
was no dog. It was a while before he trusted me... Finally, I managed to
communicate to him what I was after, and he's been helping me –"
"What do you mean?" breathed Hermione."He tried to bring Peter to me, but
couldn't... so he stole the passwords into Gryffindor Tower for me... As I
understand it, he took them from a boy's bedside table –"
Aurora was feeling tired from all of this new confusing information that she had
no use for.
"But Peter got wind of what was going on and ran for it..." croaked Black."This
cat – Crookshanks, did you call him? – told me Peter had left blood on the
sheets... I supposed he bit himself... Well, faking his own death had worked once
–"
"Faking his death? I have done it too but it didn't look convincing so Soph had
me do the laundry for a week..." she trailed upon seeing Luping give her the not-
the-time look.
"And why did he fake his death?" Potty said furiously. "Because he knew you
were about to kill him like you killed my parents!"
"No," said Lupin, "Harry –"
"And now you've come to finish him off!"
"Yes, I have," said Black, with an evil look at Scabbers.
"Then I should've let Snape take you!" Harry shouted.
"Eww, Potty, how can you wish for someone to be taken by Sniv-"
"Harry," said Lupin hurriedly, "don't you see? All this time we've thought Sirius
betrayed your parents, and Peter tracked him down – but it was the other way
around, don't you see? Peter betrayed your mother and father– Sirius tracked
Peter down –"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Harry yelled. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET KEEPER! HE SAID SO
BEFORE YOU TURNED UP. HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!"

"ENOUGH!" roared Aurora, her hair turning crimson red "What are we cardboard
shortcuts?! Because last time I checked Potty is not the only one here who
wants answers as to what a mass murder is doing here!"
"For the starters, Sirius was accused of a murder he didn't commit and that's
why we're here and I promise to tell you everything I know when this is ove-"
Remus started but was cut off by Black.
"Who even are you blondie?" he asked, rather rudely.
"You don't know, do you? Well, how would you, I'm Aurora and I have the most
fabulous hair on the face of the planet Earth," she answered flipping her
majestic hair that was back to its original blonde colour.
"Oh please, my hair's better it just needs some proper care that I couldn't
manage in Azkaban," Black replied.
"It's not the time, what were you saying Sirius?"
"Harry... I as good as killed them," he croaked. "I persuaded Lily and James to
change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as Secret-
Keeper instead of me... I'm to blame, I know it... The night they died, I'd
arranged to check on Peter, make sure he was still safe, but when I arrived at his
hiding place, he'd gone. Yet there was no sign of a struggle. It didn't feel right. I
was scared. I set out for your parents' house straightaway. And when I saw their
house, destroyed, and their bodies... I realised what Peter must've done... what
I'd done –"His voice broke. He turned away.
"Enough of this," said Lupin, and there was a steely note in his voice Aurora had
never heard before. "There's one certain way to prove what really happened.
Ron, give me that rat."
"What are you going to do with him if I give him to you?" Ron askedLupin
tensely.
"Force him to show himself," said Lupin. "If he really is a rat, it won't hurt him."
Ron hesitated. Then at long last, he held out Scabbers and Lupin took him.
Scabbers began to squeak without stopping, twisting and turning, his tiny black
eyes bulging in his head.
"Ready, Sirius?" said Lupin. Black had already retrieved Snape's wand from the
bed. He approached Lupin and the struggling rat, and his wet eyes suddenly
seemed to be burning in his face.
"Together?" he said quietly.
"I think so," said Lupin, holding Scabbers tightly in one hand and his wand in the
other. "On the count of three. One – two – THREE!"
A flash of blue-white light erupted from both wands; for a moment, Scabbers
was frozen in midair, his small grey form twisting madly – Ron yelled– the rat fell
and hit the floor. There was another blinding flash of light and then –It was like
watching a speeded-up film of a growing tree.
A head was shooting upward from the ground; limbs were sprouting; a moment
later, a man was standing where Scabbers had been, cringing and wringing his
hands. Crookshanks was spitting and snarling on the bed; the hair on his back
was standing up.
He was a very short man, hardly taller than Aurora. His thin, colourless hair was
unkempt and there was a large bald patch on top. He had the shrunken
appearance of a plump man who has lost a lot of weight in a short time. His skin
looked grubby, almost like Scabbers's fur, and something of the rat lingered
around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes. He looked around at
them all, his breathing fast and shallow. Harry saw his eyes dart to the door and
back again.
"Well, hello, Peter," said Lupin pleasantly, as though rats frequently erupted
into old school friends around him. "Long time, no see."
"S-Sirius... R-Remus..." Even Pettigrew's voice was squeaky. Again, his eyes
darted toward the door. "My friends... my old friends..."
"You were friends with this ugly creature?" Aurora muttered to herself quietly.
Black's wand arm rose, but Lupin seized him around the wrist, gave him a
warning look, then turned again to Pettigrew, his voice light and casual.
"We've been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night Lily and
James died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking
around down there on the bed –"
"Remus," gasped Pettigrew, and Aurora could see beads of sweat breaking out
over his pasty face, "you don't believe him, do you...? He tried to kill me, Remus
–"
"So we've heard," said Lupin, more coldly. "I'd like to clear up one or two little
matters with you, Peter, if you'd be so –"
"He's come to try and kill me again!" Pettigrew squeaked suddenly, pointing at
Black, and Harry saw that he used his middle finger, because his index was
missing. "He killed Lily and James and now he's going to kill me too... You've got
to help me, Remus "
Black's face looked more skull-like than ever as he stared at Pettigrew with his
fathomless eyes.
"No one's going to try and kill you until we've sorted a few things out," said
Lupin.
"Sorted things out?" squealed Pettigrew, looking wildly about him once more,
eyes taking in the boarded windows and, again, the only door. "I knew he'd
come after me! I knew he'd be back for me! I've been waiting for this for twelve
years!"
"You knew Sirius was going to break out of Azkaban?" said Lupin, his brow
furrowed. "When nobody has ever done it before?"
"He's got Dark powers the rest of us can only dream of!" Pettigrew shouted
shrilly. "How else did he get out of there? I suppose He-Who-Must-Not-Be-
Named taught him a few tricks!"
Black started to laugh, a horrible, mirthless laugh that filled the whole room.
"Voldemort, teach me tricks?" he said.
Pettigrew flinched as though Black had brandished a whip at him.
"What, scared to hear your old master's name?" said Black. "I don't blame you,
Peter. His lot aren't very happy with you, are they?"
"Don't know what you mean, Sirius –" muttered Pettigrew, his breathing faster
than ever. His whole face was shining with sweat now.
"You haven't been hiding from me for twelve years," said Black."You've been
hiding from Voldemort's old supporters. I heard things in Azkaban, Peter... They
all think you're dead, or you'd have to answer to them...I've heard them
screaming all sorts of things in their sleep. Sounds like they think the double-
crosser double-crossed them. Voldemort went to the Potter's on your
information... and Voldemort met his downfall there. And not all Voldemort's
supporters ended up in Azkaban, did they? There are still plenty out here, biding
their time, pretending they've seen the error of their ways If they ever got wind
that you were still alive, Peter –"
Aurora's mind was racing faster than Snape approached with shampoo. So
Black was accused of murdering - or something along with those like - Potters,
but in reality, it was the ugly excuse of a man under the name of Peter Patigrew?
No, it was not Patigrew, more like Pettigrew.
"Don't know... what you're talking about...," said Pettigrew again, more shrilly
than ever. He wiped his face on his sleeve and looked up at Lupin."You don't
believe this – this madness, Remus –"
"I must admit, Peter, I have difficulty in understanding why an innocent man
would want to spend twelve years as a rat," said Lupin evenly.
"Innocent, but scared!" squealed Pettigrew. "If Voldemort's supporters were
after me, it was because I put one of their best men in Azkaban – the spy, Sirius
Black!"
Black's face contorted.
"How dare you," he growled "I, a spy for Voldemort? When did I ever sneak
around people who were stronger and more powerful than myself? But you,
Peter – I'll never understand why I didn't see you were the spy from the start.
You always liked big friends who'd look after you, didn't you? It used to be
us...me and Remus... and James "
Pettigrew wiped his face again; he was almost panting for breath.
"Me, a spy... must be out of your mind... never... don't know how you can say
such a –"
"Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it, "Black
hissed, so venomously that Pettigrew took a step backwards. "I thought it was
the perfect plan... a bluff Voldemort would be sure to come after me, would
never dream they'd use a weak, talentless thing like you It must have been the
finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the
Potters."
Pettigrew was muttering distractedly; Aurora caught words like "farfetched"
and "lunacy," but he couldn't help paying more attention to the ashen colour of
Pettigrew's face and the way his eyes continued to dart toward the windows
and door.
"Professor Lupin?" said Hermione timidly. "Can-can I say something?"
"Certainly, Hermione," said Lupin courteously."Well – Scabbers – I mean, this –
this man – he's been sleeping in Harry'sdormitory for three years. If he's working
for You-Know-Who, how come he never tried to hurt Harry before now?"
"There!" said Pettigrew shrilly, pointing at Ron with his maimed hand."Thank
you! You see, Remus? I have never hurt a hair of Harry's head! Why should I?"
"I'll tell you why," said Black. "Because you never did anything for anyone
unless you could see what was in it for you. Voldemort's been in hiding for
twelve years, they say he's half dead. You weren't about to commit murder right
under Albus Dumbledore's nose, for a wreck of a wizard who'd lost all of his
power, were you? You'd want to be quite sure he was the biggest bully in the
playground before you went back to him, wouldn't you? Why else did you find a
wizard family to take you in? Keeping an ear out for news, weren't you, Peter?
Just in case your old protector regained strength, and it was safe to rejoin him "
Pettigrew opened his mouth and closed it several times. He seemed to have lost
the ability to talk.
"Er – Mr Black – Sirius?" said Hermione.
Black jumped at being addressed like this and stared at Hermione as though
being spoken to politely was something he'd long forgotten.
"If you don't mind me asking, how – how did you get out of Azkaban, if you
didn't use Dark Magic?"
"Thank you!" gasped Pettigrew, nodding frantically at her. "Exactly! Precisely
what I –"
But Lupin silenced him with a look.
Black was frowning slightly at Hermione, but not as though he were annoyed
with her. He seemed to be pondering his answer.
"I don't know how I did it," he said slowly. "I think the only reason I never lost
my mind is that I knew I was innocent. That wasn't a happy thought, so the
dementors couldn't suck it out of me but it kept me sane and knowing who I
am... helped me keep my powers... so when it all became too much... I could
transform in my cell... become a dog. Dementors can't see, you know..." He
swallowed. "They feel their way toward people by sensing their emotions... They
could tell that my feelings were less – less human, less complex when I was a
dog... but they thought, of course, that I was losing my mind like everyone else
in there, so it didn't trouble them. But I was weak, very weak, and I had no hope
of driving them away from me without a wand...
"But then I saw Peter in that picture I realized he was at Hogwarts with Harry
perfectly positioned to act if one hint reached his ears that the DarkSide was
gathering strength again –"
Pettigrew was shaking his head, mouthing noiselessly, but staring all the while
at Black as though hypnotized.
"... ready to strike at the moment he could be sure of allies... and to deliver the
last Potter to them. If he gave them Harry, who'd dare say he'd betrayedLord
Voldemort? He'd be welcomed back with honours..."
"So you see, I had to do something. I was the only one who knew Peter was still
alive –"
"It was as if someone had lit a fire in my head, and the dementors couldn't
destroy it... It wasn't a happy feeling... it was an obsession but it gave me
strength, it cleared my mind. So, one night when they opened my door to bring
food, I slipped past them as a dog... It's so much harder for them to sense
animal emotions that they were confused... I was thin, very thin... thin enough to
slip through the bars... I swam as a dog back to the mainland... I journeyed north
and slipped into the Hogwarts grounds as a dog. I've been living in the forest
ever since, except when I came to watch the Quidditch, of course. You fly as well
as your father did, Harry –"
He looked at Harry, who did not look away.
"Believe me," croaked Black. "Believe me, Harry. I never betrayed James and
Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them."
Potter nodded, a sign that he believed him. Aurora too, couldn't help but believe
that man who spent twelve years rotting in Azkaban.
"No!" Pettigrew had fallen to his knees as though Harry's nod had been his own
death sentence. He shuffled forward on his knees, grovelling, his hands clasped
in front of him as though praying.
"Sirius – it's me... it's Peter... your friend... you wouldn't –"
Black kicked out and Pettigrew recoiled.
"There's enough filth on my robes without you touching them," said Black.
"Good one." Aurora pointed out from where she stood.
"Remus!" Pettigrew squeaked, turning to Lupin instead, writhing imploringly in
front of him.
"You don't believe this Wouldn't Sirius have told you they'd changed the plan?"
"Not if he thought I was the spy, Peter," said Lupin. "I assume that's why you
didn't tell me, Sirius?" he said casually over Pettigrew's head.
"Forgive me, Remus," said Black.
"Not at all, Padfoot, old friend," said Lupin, who was now rolling up his sleeves.
"And will you, in turn, forgive me for believing you were the spy?"
"Of course," said Black, and the ghost of a grin flitted across his gaunt face. He,
too, began rolling up his sleeves. "Shall we kill him together?"
"Yes, I think so," said Lupin grimly.
"You wouldn't... you won't...," gasped Pettigrew. And he scrambled around to
Ron."Ron... haven't I been a good friend... a good pet? You won't let them kill
me, Ron, will you... you're on my side, aren't you?"
But Ron was staring at Pettigrew with the utmost revulsion.
"I let you sleep in my bed!" he said. Aurora had to resist the urge to laugh.
"Kind boy... kind master..." Pettigrew crawled toward Ron, "you won't let them
do it... I was your rat... I was a good pet "
"If you made a better rat than a human, it's not much to boast about, Peter,"
said Black harshly.
Ron, going still paler with pain, wrenched his broken leg out of Pettigrew's
reach. Pettigrew turned on his knees, staggered forward, and seized the hem of
Hermione's robes.
"Sweet girl... clever girl... you – you won't let them... Help me..."Hermione pulled
her robes out of Pettigrew's clutching hands and backed away against the wall,
looking horrified. He stumbled upon Aurora.
"Pretty girl, you will save won't you? I-I've never done anything to you-"
"NEVER?! WHO SOLD MCKINNONS TO VOLDEMORT?!" Remus roared, his face
scrunching up from disgust.
Pettigrew knelt, trembling uncontrollably, and turned his head slowly toward
Harry.
"Harry... Harry... you look just like your father... just like him –"
"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY?" roared Black. "HOW DARE YOU FACE HIM?
HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES IN FRONT OF HIM?"
"Harry," whispered Pettigrew, shuffling toward him, hands outstretched."Harry,
James wouldn't have wanted me killed... James would have understood,
Harry... he would have shown me mercy –"

Both Black and Lupin strode forward, seized Pettigrew's shoulders, and threw
him backwards onto the floor. He sat there, twitching with terror, staring up at
them.
"You sold Lily and James to Voldemort," said Black, who was shaking too. "Do
you deny it?"
Pettigrew burst into tears. It was horrible to watch: He looked like an oversized,
balding baby, cowering on the floor.
"Sirius, Sirius, what could I have done? The Dark Lord... you have no idea... he
has weapons you can't imagine... I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you
and Remus and James. I never meant it to happen...He-Who-Must-Not-Be-
Named forced me, he tortured her –"
"DON'T LIE!" bellowed Black. "YOU'D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR
A YEAR BEFORE LILY AND JAMES DIED! YOU WERE HIS SPY! "
"He-he was taking over everywhere!" gasped Pettigrew. "W-what was there to
be gained by refusing him?"
"What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever
existed?" said Black, with a terrible fury in his face. "Only innocent lives, Peter!"
"You don't understand!" whined Pettigrew. "He would have killed her and me,
Sirius!"
"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared Black. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY
YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"
Black and Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, wands raised.
"You should have realized," said Lupin quietly, "if Voldemort didn't kill you, we
would. Good-bye, Peter."Hermione covered her face with her hands and turned
to the wall.
"NO!" Harry yelled. He ran forward, placing himself in front of Pettigrew, facing
the wands. "You can't kill him," he said breathlessly. "You can't."
"Are you out of your mind?! He basically killed my mother!" Roared Aurora
getting angry at the bespectacled boy for defending him.
Black and Lupin both looked staggered.
"Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," Black snarled.
"This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair.
You heard him. His own stinking skin meant more to him than your whole
family."
"I know," Harry panted. "We'll take him up to the castle. We'll hand him over to
the dementors... He can go to Azkaban but don't kill him."
"Harry!" gasped Pettigrew, and he flung his arms around Harry's knees."You –
thank you – it's more than I deserve – thank you –"
"Get off me," Harry spat, throwing Pettigrew's hands off him in disgust."I'm not
doing this for you. I'm doing it because I don't reckon my dad would've wanted
his best friends to become killers – just for you."
No one moved or made a sound except Pettigrew, whose breath was coming in
wheezes as he clutched his chest. Black and Lupin were looking at each other.
Then, with one movement, they lowered their wands.
"You're the only person who has the right to decide, Harry," said Black."But
think... think what he did –"
"He can go to Azkaban," Harry repeated. "If anyone deserves that place, he does
–"
Pettigrew was still wheezing behind him.
"Very well," said Lupin. "Stand aside, Harry."
Harry hesitated.
"I'm going to tie him up," said Lupin. "That's all, I swear."
Harry stepped out of the way. Thin cords shot from Lupin's wand this time, and
next moment, Pettigrew was wriggling on the floor, bound and gagged.
"But if you transform, Peter," growled Black, his own wand pointing at
Pettigrew too, "we will kill you. You agree, Harry?"
Harry looked down at the pitiful figure on the floor and nodded so that
Pettigrew could see him.
"Right," said Lupin, suddenly businesslike. "Ron, I can't mend bones nearly as
well as Madam Pomfrey, so I think it's best if we just strap your leg up until we
can get you to the hospital wing."
He hurried over to Ron, bent down, tapped Ron's leg with his wand, and
muttered, "Ferula." Bandages spun up Ron's leg, strapping it tightly to a splint.
Lupin helped him to his feet; Ron put his weight gingerly on the leg and didn't
wince.
"That's better," he said. "Thanks."
"What about Professor Snape?" said Hermione in a small voice, looking down at
Snape's prone figure.
"Snivelus? Let's leave him here to rot."
"No Aurora, we will not leave him here. There's nothing seriously wrong with
him," said Lupin, bending over Snape and checking his pulse.
"You were just a little – overenthusiastic. Still out cold. Er – perhaps it will be
best if we don't revive him until we're safely back in the castle. We can take him
like this."He muttered,
"Mobilicorpus." As though invisible strings were tied toSnape's wrists, neck, and
knees, he was pulled into a standing position, head still lolling unpleasantly, like
a grotesque puppet. He hung a few inches above the ground, his limp feet
dangling. Lupin picked up the InvisibilityCloak and tucked it safely into his
pocket.
"And two of us should be chained to this," said Black, nudging Pettigrewwith his
toe. "Just to make sure."
"I'll do it," said Lupin.
"And me," said Ron savagely, limping forward. Black conjured heavy manacles
from thin air; soon Pettigrew was upright again, left arm chained to Lupin's
right, right arm to Ron's left.
Ron's face was set. He seemed to have taken Scabbers's true identity as a
personal insult. Crookshanks the cat leapt lightly off the bed and led the way out
of the room, his bottlebrush tail held jauntily high.
Aurora had never been part of a stranger group. Crookshanks led the way down
the stairs; Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron went next, looking like entrants in a six-
legged race. Next came Snape, drifting creepily along, his toes hitting each stair
as they descended, held up by his own wand, which was being pointed at him by
Sirius. And Aurora herself went back to being cheery. Harry and Hermione
brought up the rear.
Getting back into the tunnel was difficult. Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron had to turn
sideways to manage it; Lupin still had Pettigrew covered with his wand. Aurora
could see them edging awkwardly along the tunnel in a single file.
Crookshanks was still in the lead. Harry went right after Sirius, who was still
making Snape drift along ahead of them; he kept bumping his lolling head on
the low ceiling. Harry had the impression Sirius was making no effort to prevent
this.
"You know what this means?" Sirius said abruptly to Harry as they made their
slow progress along the tunnel.
"Turning Pettigrew in?"
"You're free," said Harry.
"Yes...," said Sirius. "But I'm also – I don't know if anyone ever told you– I'm your
godfather."
"Yeah, I knew that," said Harry.
"Well... your parents appointed me your guardian," said Sirius stiffly. "If
anything happened to them..."
Looked like Potter had a new family invitation.
"I'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle," said
Sirius. "But... well... think about it. Once my name's cleared... if you wanted a... a
different home..."
"What – live with you?" he said, accidentally cracking his head on a bit of rock
protruding from the ceiling. "Leave the Dursleys?"
Who?
"Of course, I thought you wouldn't want to," said Sirius quickly. "I understand, I
just thought I'd –"
"Are you insane?" said Harry, his voice easily as croaky as Sirius's. "Of course I
want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?"
Sirius turned right around to look at him; Snape's head was scraping the ceiling
but Sirius didn't seem to care.
"You want to?" he said. "You mean it?"
"Yeah, I mean it!" said Harry. Sirius's gaunt face broke into the first true smile
Aurora had seen upon it. The difference it made was startling, as though a
person ten years younger were shining through the starved mask;
"Err... Mr Dog-star," Aurora started, bringing the group to laugh at the silly
nickname.
"Mr Dog-star? why?" Sirius asked with an amused expression.
"Yeah, 'cause your name 'Sirius' is also the brightest star in the constellation
'Canis Major' which translates to 'The greater Dog', so... Anyways I wanted to ask
if you knew my mother since Remus mentioned Pettigrew betraying her..." she
trailed of, of course, she knew the answer, she just wanted to hear it from him.
"You're Marlene's daughter?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"When's your birthday?"
"October 31st, Halloween"
"But, Marlene was murdered in middle summer."
"I was born in '80"
For a moment no one spoke, creating an awkward atmosphere.

ⅩⅠⅤ

They did not speak again until they had reached the end of the tunnel.
Crookshanks darted up first; he had evidently pressed his paw to the knot on
the trunk, because Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron clambered upward without any
sound of savaging branches. Sirius saw Snape up through the hole, then stood
back for Harry and Hermione to pass. Then came Aurora.
At last, all of them were out. The grounds were very dark now; the only light
came from the distant windows of the castle. Without a word, they set off.
Pettigrew was still wheezing and occasionally whimpering.
"One wrong move, Peter," said Lupin threateningly ahead. His wand was still
pointed sideways at Pettigrew's chest. Silently they tramped through the
grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger.
Snape was still drifting weirdly ahead of Sirius, his chin bumping on his chest.
And then –A cloud shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground.
Their party was bathed in the moonlight. Snape collided with Lupin, Pettigrew,
and Ro, who had stopped abruptly. Sirius froze. He flung out one arm to make
Harry and Hermione stopped. Aurora could see Lupin's silhouette. He had gone
rigid. Then his limbs began to shake.
"Oh, my –" Hermione gasped. "He didn't take his potion tonight! He's not safe!"
"Run," Sirius whispered. "Run. Now."
Now she was really confused, but upon seeing her professor's state in the
moonlight she got a brief idea of what was happening. When she was little, Soph
and Eddie often left her with Rosmerta as they were busy with their jobs. Every
day, she'd ask Rosie to tell her a story.
Once she saw a picture of a werewolf, but she didn't know it at the time. She
showed it to Rosie, asking what it was, and she told her all about them.
"Leave it to me – RUN!"
But Aurora couldn't run, she was never one to do the heroic stuff but this time
she felt different. Ron was chained to Pettigrew and Lupin and would be in mild
danger. Lupin leapt forward but Sirius caught him around the chest and threw
him back.
There was a terrible snarling noise. Lupin's head was lengthening. So was his
body. His shoulders were hunching. Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and
hands, which were curling into clawed paws. Crookshanks's hair was on end
again; he was backing away –As the werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws,
Sirius disappeared from their side.
He had transformed. The enormous, bearlike dog bounded forward. As the
werewolf wrenched itself free of the manacle binding it, the dog seized it about
the neck and pulled it backwards, away from Ron and Pettigrew. They were
locked, jaw to jaw, claws ripping at each other –
Aurora stood, transfixed by the sight, too intent upon the battle to notice
anything else. It was Hermione's scream that alerted her –
Pettigrew had dived for Lupin's dropped wand. Ron, unsteady on his bandaged
leg, fell. There was a bang, a burst of light – and Ron lay motionless on the
ground. Another bang – Crookshanks flew into the air and back to the earth in a
heap.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled, pointing his own wand at Pettigrew; Lupin's wand
flew high into the air and out of sight. "Stay where you are!"Harry shouted,
running forward.
It was too late. The filth had already transformed and took off towards the
forest. She would have chased him but she decided that staying alive was more
important.
Aurora looked around, they had to get away as soon as possible. As a prankster,
she was introduced to situations like this. Harry was standing frozen, Hermione
was screaming, Ron was unconscious, Sirius was fighting Remus. She would've
gone to get help if the three older (and possibly dumber) kids weren't in danger.
"Okay, you've got this Aurora." she encouraged herself. Taking a deep breath,
she pointed her want at Ron and cried "Rennervate!"
Surprisingly it worked, Ron woke up, his face scrunched from pain. Aurora tried
to remember the spell that would make his pain go away. She remembered the
one time she jumped off a roof of her home and when Sophie found her she
used some spell to heal her. It was-
"Relashio!" she bellowed, pointing her wand at the bandages that Ron had on
his leg. His face scrunched up, even more, the injury making him go through so
much pain now that the bandages were removed.
"Brackium Emendo!" she heard a small crack, telling her that the bone was
healed. "Ferula!"
Ron was feeling much better, while Aurora's healing skills were no match for
madam Pomfrey's, but it certainly did the trick. He was about to thank her
when she dashed away from him, towards snape who was still hanging midair.
"Relashio! Rennervate!" Snape fell on the ground with a thud, his conciseness
slipping away yet again "Rennervate!"
He opened his eyes, Aurora was sure that he could manage some healing spells
on himself without her interfering.
"Listen professor Snive- help them, please." she managed to croak out as she
heard Harry yell at Sirius about Pettigrew escaping.
"Merlin's beard!" she shrieked upon seeing Sirius' bloody state, still in his
animagus form. She ran over Harry and Sirius.
"We'd better get them up to the castle and tell someone," said Harry, pushing
his hair out of his eyes, trying to think straight. "Come –"
"Move aside, Potter! Vulnera Sanentur!" the scars on the dog's body started
healing themselves, the only proof that they were ever there being the blood
that was on his fur "Scourgify! There, it'll keep him from dying."
Now she had to get to Hermione who was having a panic attack and then take
the injured to the hospital wing. She made her way over the girl, remembering
the time when Soph had to use the Shock spell on Edward after coming across a
banshee.
"Sa Inpulsa!" Hermione's breathing slowed down, returning to a calm state.
"You okay there?"
"Yeah, yeah..." she panted "I'll go help Harry, will you take Ron to Madam
Pomfrey?"
"Yes, be careful."
"I will," Hermione reassured before running off to help her friend, leaving Aurora
to deal with her other friend.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" but it didn't work quite as well on humans, leaving her
to take Ron to the castle herself, but suddenly she was pushed out of the way by
an angry potions master who had come to save the day.
"Stand aside Mckinnon, I'll deal with Weasley myself!" he snarled at her before
conjuring a stretcher and heading towards the castle. Now she could either
head to the castle or go help Harry and Hermione.
Aurora took off towards the lake where she could find them, but she suddenly
tripped on something, finding herself on the ground, with a possibly bleeding
head. Standing up and running towards where she deemed them to be, she felt
herself stepping on something weird.
"Lumos," she muttered, pointing her wand at the ground to get a better look.
She wanted to burst out laughing at the scene. There lay Peter Pettigrew who
was transforming back to his human self, being unable to stay in his rat form
from the pain of Aurora stepping onto him.
"Noquttando!" she knocked out the man.
Oh, how she wished she could leave him to bleed out there, but she'd be
framed for murder, so she would have to him out so he wouldn't die. At least he
would be sent to Azkaban for what he had done.
After a quick 'Ferula', then she tied him up with 'Funiculos' and with ropes
around him, she dragged him to the Hospital Wing.
She opened the Hospital wing doors, only to find it empty, without any sign of
Ron or Snape, but that wasn't her priority as she too, was slowly bleeding out.
"Madam Pomfrey! Madam Pomfrey!" there was no response so she rose her
voice "POPPY!"
The school nurse came rushing into the room, still in her night-gown. Upon
seeing Aurora's bloody head, she immediately called her over to mend it.
"Who is that?!" Shriecked the nurse, just then noticing a body.
"It's uhh-"
"Ah, Poppy, I see Mckinnon has already made it here." came a voice that Aurora
recognised to be Snape's "Weasley here insisted on taking her with us, but I see
there's no need."
"No, unfortunately, I was unconscious back then and couldn't do anything, but
just our luck that Mckinnon was there to save him." he sneered, obviously not
happy about the fact that a twelve-year-old saved his and several people's life.

"Yes, yes, Severus, I see you healed him?" Pomfrey questioned upon seeing
Ron's leg, but her eyes darted back to Pettigrew's body.

Following her gaze, then did Snape notice the unconscious body on the ground.
He seemed to be shocked, staring at the body with wide eyes, yet the hate in
them was as obvious as ever. He pushed the body with his leg as if making sure
that it was real.

"Oh, I see. I'll take them from here. Will you please alert Minerva as she's the
head of their house?" she asked while taking out a potion from the cupboard
"Drink this, Aurora."
All she remembered after drinking the portion was the peaceful sleep.

ⅩⅤ

"Ah, ah ah... Never thought this day would come. A mass murderer proven
innocent. How did it happen again?"
"Well, minister, when I got there, Black and Lupin were already there, telling
some fairytales to Potter, Weasley and Granger, at least that's what I thought
back then. You see, minister, I did not know of the story being true, that's why I
proceed to bring him to the castle.-" Snape was trying to tell his side of the story
but it was rudely interrupted by the Minister for Magic.
"A true miracle... Do you think I can talk to the Mckinnon girl alone?" asked
Fudge.
"She will have to wake up first, then I'm not completely sure if Pomfrey will let
you," Snape replied with a possible sneer on his face.
"No, no, after what she has been through, I doubt she'd wanna talk to you." a
third voice said.
"Unfortunately your right." drawled out Snape, obviously not happy.
"There's also something I want to give something to her, but let's talk about it in
a more private place, if you please." the Minister whispered to the potions
master hurriedly, leading him out of the hospital wing.
Aurora opened her eye, after making sure that the Minister and Snape were
gone. She had listened in, on their whole conversation while pretending to be
asleep. What happened after she drank the potion, she had no idea. Only from
what the minister had said, Sirius was proven innocent.
Looking around to see if anyone else was awake, she was met with the Golden
trio looking at her intensely.
"Look, I know that I'm gorgeous but no need to stare at me." Aurora joked in
hopes of lighting up the mood.
"Oh, sorry for staring Aurora," Hermione apologised at which Aurora waved her
hand dismissively "We just wanted to thank you for what you did."
"Yeah, if it weren't for your healing spells I wouldn't be here." Ron chimed in.
"Neither would Sirius and Snape," Harry added, looking at her with a thankful
gaze.
"Where'd you learn those spells?" Asked Hermione. She didn't want to admit it
but she was kind of jealous of a second-year knowing the spells that she hadn't
even heard of.
"Well, I had seen my aunt use them multiple times," she answered with a smile
"now will any of you tell me what is going on and why the minister wants to talk
to me?"
"Err, last night after Pettigrew transformed, everyone thought that we were
doomed because try finding a rat, but then you like-" Harry proceeded to
explain with his poor wording but was cut off by Hermione who was rolling eyes
at him.
"When you brought Pettigrew here, Snape turned him in." she said quickly
"Dumbledore was here earlier, wanted to talk to you."
"Ah, I'm sure Albus missed me so much that he couldn't resist the urge to talk to
me." She laughed it off.
"I see you're awake, how's your head?" said madam Pomfrey who had just
walked into the room.
"Can't feel a thing anymore." she shrugged, at which the nurse nodded in
satisfactory.
"Good, good, some of your friends brought you some clothes," Pomfrey
pointed at not-so-neatly folded clothes on a nightstand "Now, get dressed. All of
you, out!"
After biding Aurora goodbyes, they walked out of the room, leaving her alone to
change, behind the curtains that were drawn around her bed. Putting on a
Gryffindor shirt and a black skirt, she was ready to leave the infirmary.
Walking out of the hospital wing with full intentions of not staying in the castle
in summer weather, she was stopped by a blonde lady.
The lady had golden hair, but darker than Aurora's. She was wearing a yellow
summer dress that hugged her body perfectly. In Aurora's eyes, she was very
very pretty.
"Hello, I'm here regarding the events of yesterday." she said monotonously,
obviously not wanting to be there "Shall we take a walk?"
Knowing that the lady was just trying to do her job, Aurora accepted the offer.
"So, I have several questions for you, if that's okay with you," She started "So, I
know that you caught the imposter, but nobody knows how and as far as we
know, he was disguised as a rat. Could you tell me how you caught him?"
"Well, I was running towards Professor Lupin, Potter and the others, to see if I
could help, and I tripped, hitting my head. When I stood up and continued
running, I stepped on something and it turned out that it was Pettigrew."
"That simple, huh?"
"Yeah, nothing more, nothing less," Aurora replied, at which the lady let out a
chuckle.
"Okay then, I'll report to fudge. Have a nice day."
≋
The school year was over and Aurora was back to Hogsmeade. Soph and Eddie
were home as it was a Saturday afternoon. Alex was to come over soon, he had
promised her the previous day.
Aurora was flipping through June's edition of Vogue magazine. It was better
than the May one, to say at least. It also happened to feature her favourite
actress Julia Robert, who she had first her on a muggle movie 'Hook'.
The magazine also mentioned David Bowie's and Iman's relationship. She'd
heard of Bowie but had never listened to him. From what she knew, Marlene
was a huge fan of his.
The knock on the door brought her attention back to earth. She stood up to
open it.
"Hello," greeted the woman on the other side, who also happened to be the
woman whom she met at Hogwarts just several days ago.
"Uhh, hi?"
"May I talk to your guardians?" The woman was more straightforward than the
last time Aurora had seen her.
"Yeah sure, this way."
But the woman seemed to know her way around. Maybe she was a friend of
Soph's. She settled in the living room, while Aurora went to fetch her aunt and
uncle.
"Morning, Sophia, Edward." The woman Greeted Soph and Edward who had
just come into the room.
"Oh, it's you" Said Soph, looking little to not pleased with the woman's
presence in her household, while Edward greeted her happily.
"See, Brown, I wouldn't be here unless it was something important."
"Might as well get over with it." Sighed Soph, wanting the woman gone as soon
as possible.
 "I assume you've already heard of what happened," Started the woman but was
interrupted.
"No, we're not."
While the woman told Soph and Edward what had happened with Sirius Black,
the couple sat there stunned and Aurora knew, she was in for a lecture
"Still doesn't explain why you're here," muttered Soph.
"I'm here to pass this letter from Fudge."
"And couldn't you have just owled us?"
"No. Goodbye." The woman walked out of the house and disapparated with a
pop.
"Open it," encouraged Edward, as it was addressed to Aurora.
Opening it, she read aloud.
"To Aurora Mckinnon,
Regarding your heroic actions on June 6th, the minister of magic, Cornelius
Fudge considers you as one of the nominees for the awards of the following:
Order of Merlin (first, second and third classes)
Golden Quill
Bagnold's Cup (gold, silver and bronze)
Gamp and Rowle's Medal of Heroic actions (only for those who are a part of the
Sacred twenty-eight)
The ceremony will begin on 5 in the afternoon, 1st of July.
The ministry is grateful for your service.
Bartemius Crouch Senior,
The head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."
"Nice, huh?"
≋
On the day of the ceremony, all Aurora wanted to do was lay in her bed as she
was feeling sick. But no, Sop made her get up early and took her shopping for
some formal clothes, seeing as she had outgrown them.
 Settling with a cream coloured blouse over wide-leg trousers -due to Aurora's
request, as Soph wanted her to wear a dress - they rushed back home, only
having four hours before the ceremony started.
She wanted to turn her hair brown, barely above her shoulders, but Soph
insisted on pale white. In the end, she went with her usual blonde. Edward was
busy with some work problems and couldn't make it, resulting in the girls
attending the ceremony alone.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're gathered here today to witness the 587th
awarding ceremony that takes place twice a year, in July and in January. Now
I'd like to pass the speech to our Hit Witch since 1985, miss Annabeth
Macmillan." Announced Fudge as all the nominees and the guests settled down.
"Thank you, Cornelius. As you may know, a lot has happened since the escape
of the mass murderer Sirius Black, who was proven innocent just a few days
ago. With the possibility of bringing people from dead to proving most sought
after murderer innocent, I'm pleased to be the one announcing." Started
Annabeth who Aurora recognised to be the woman who had passed her the
invitation to the ceremony "Ladies and gentlemen, the nominees for Gamp and
Rowle's Medal of Heroic Actions are Misters Abbotts,"
Two identical men stood up and made their way towards the platform where
Fudge and Annabeth stood.
"Missis Greengrass"
A woman who looked just like Aurora's classmate, Astoria, stood up.
"And Miss Shafiq."
Another woman with dark brown hair and the ugliest dress - in Aurora's opinion
- made her way next to the other nominees.
"Unfortunately, for Bagnold's Cup, we don't have any candidates and for
Golden Quill. However, we have ten for the Order of the Merlin, Third class, four
for the Second class and five for the First class."
"Mr Smith, Ms Pink, Ms Gorn, Mr Reen, Mrs Lee, Ms Jones, Mr Paul, Mrs Sull, Mr
Herm and Mr Logan for Third Class. Ms Bones, Mr Bones, Mrs Andrews and Ms
Love for the Second Class. Miss McKinnon, Ms Fawley, Mr Black, Mr Lupin and Mr
Selwyn for the First class."
She couldn't believe her ears. She thought that she only had a chance of getting
Bagnold's cup. Yet there she was, standing next to the nominees for Order of
Merlin first class.
"Now, not every nominated person will get the award, so please, don't take it
personally if you don't get it. Only two will be taking GRMHA home and their
names are Mister Henry Abbot for exposing five of the men serving in the ranks
of you-know-who and Miss Rosa Greengrass for saving the staff of St Mungo's
from a dragon attack!"
The crowd clapped politely as the pictures of Abbott and Greengrass were
taken, possibly for the daily prophet.
"Order of Merlin third-class goes to Ms Jones for the invention of a potion that
allows drinker to be immune of dying on quidditch match, Mr Roger Paul for
finding the best way to make the effects of Cruciatus Curse go away and Ms
Londa Pink for writing the most accurate description of how an XXXXX rated
creature's brain works!"
"Order of Merlin second-class will be in the possession of Mr Bones for finding a
cure for Dragon Pox"
"And last but not least, The Order of Merlin First class goes to," she paused for a
second Mr Nicholas Selwyn for trying to find a way to give ghosts another
chance of living! Ms Mckinnon for turning in a death eater spy, Peter Pettigrew in
therefore proving the previously thought mass murdered Sirius Black innocent."
Before Aurora knew it, she was shaking Fudge and Annabeth's hand while
holding The Order of the Merlin first class. Cameras were flashing, eager to snap
a shot of the youngest person ever to get a ministry-level award.
She and Sophia couldn't stay around for the rest of the ceremony, though
Remus and Sirius promised to owl her about what happened and whether on
not, they got awarded too.
That night Aurora slept soundly, a small smile gracing her lips.

The end of Act ⅰ

⋌⋌⋌
 IMPORTANT
This is my first time doing an author's note, so yeah, hi.
Firstly, I want to thank all of you for even clicking on my story. You guys have no
idea how much it means to me and don't get me started on the comments.
Secondly, I want to address why I haven't updated in like forever. You see, I'm
currently going through writer's block and it's getting on my nerves.
Thirdly, I changed the story's name from 'Mckinnon' to 'Ascertain'
Thank you for your attention.
P.S. I also changed face claims, including Aurora's, cause Alicia seemed too old
for a thirteen-year-old.

𝐚𝐜𝐭 ⅱ

AURORA MCKINNON
played by
Josephine Langford

"I'm trying to live my best life, so could you kindly fu-"

ALEXANDER JONES
played by
 Lucas Jade Zumann

"Miss dwarf, over here, wanted to see what was going on."

PANDORA BLACK
played by
Kaya Scodelario

"You're supposed to be on my side, dumbass."

PERSEUS BLACK
played by
Louis Partridge

"That looks like a nasty bruise."

 The 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 of the Harry Potter cast as 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬

ⅩⅤⅠ

The Quidditch World Cup was taking place in England that year. So naturally,
Alex and Aurora were going. While the tickets of the highest seats - after the
ministry box - cost a bunch, it was worth it, as it was they really enjoyed it.
Both Aurora and Alex were rooting Bulgaria and saying that they were quite
disappointed after their loss was an understatement. Before the match had
started they had come across Ginny Weasley, who Aurora had named as her
nemesis, therefore the encounter wasn't a pretty one.
They had started arguing about the teams they were supporting. Alex obviously
took Aurora's side. One thing led to another and he was struggling to hold
Aurora from punching the ginger, while Ginny continued to insult her.
She made the mistake of mentioning Aurora's moms in a rude context ("Good
thing they died, didn't need more of that filthy lesbianism."), making Alex let
Aurora bet hear up because he thought that she deserved it.
Their fight was broken up by Ron and Harry who happened to be nearby. After
getting scolded by Authur Weasley and Edward, they were forced to apologise.
Ginny went first, Aurora however refused, 'not wanting to waste her words'.
That was one of the main reasons why she was upset over Bulgaria's loss.
They were just about to go to bed in their magical tent when they heard
disturbingly loud noises from outside. Assuming it was just the Irish celebrating,
they just brushed it off. But then their tent caught on fire and they realised that
it wasn't a friendly thing.
Seeing no hope in extinguishing the fire, they grabbed their thing - which was
only two bags, already packed for them to leave the following morning - and ran
out. Going outside, they saw a group of masked people terrorising a defenceless
family of muggles.
While the kids didn't recognise them, the adults did.
They were quick to grab Aurora's and Alex's hands, dissapparating from the
scene to their house. Leaving them, Soph and Eddie apparated back to the
campsite. The children were very confused, but let it slide, knowing that Soph
and Eddie would tell them the reasoning behind their actions later.
"Hey, A, wanna go to my place?" Alex offered Aurora, who was staring out of the
window darkly.
"What about we go to Rosie's?" She really didn't want to be alone without any
adults.
"Yeah, sure." Agreed Alex, thinking the same as her.
Putting on their cloaks, they were about to go out when Alex came up with a
wonderful idea.
"What about you transform yourself into an adult?" he asked.
So she did. Not before changing into Soph's clothes and putting hers into a
bag, so that she could change into a bathroom.
"Let's go then."
The walk to the Three Broomsticks wasn't long, neither was it safe, as the way
to the pub wasn't illuminated and an imposter could attack them at any given
moment. They kept their wands at bay, just in case.
Finally making it, they put their wands into Aurora's bag, they walked into the
pub from the backdoor. Seeing as it was late at night, there wouldn't be any
customers, so Rosmerta would most likely be in the pantry.
"Kids!" exclaimed Rosie, noticing their presence as soon as they walked in.
"Hey, Rosie." Aurora greeted, while Alex just nodded.
"Do you want a drink?"
"Can I have a butterbeer?" Asked Alex.
"Aren't you a bit young for it? What about orange juice?"
"Yeah, okay."
"What about you, M-Aurora?"
She shook her head no, declining the woman.
While Rosmerta went to grab Alex a drink, Aurora had a look around. Turned
out, Rosie had moved her cupboard - which previously placed in the middle of
the room for no reason - to the wall opposite of the door.
"There you go, honey." Rosmerta handed Alex a glass of orange juice.
It seemed like he was quite thirsty, drowning the drink in one gulp.
"Are you sure that you don't want anything?" asked Rosmerta again.
Aurora was about to refuse when a strange feeling in her gut told her to accept.
"Yeah, I'll take that biscuit you always make me."
Rosie brought her a plate with a biscuit, just not the one she had wanted, but
she accepted anyway. Sitting down on a chair nearby, she started eating. After a
minute or so, she realised that it smelled and tasted like peppermint, yet she
didn't have any allergic reactions.
Suddenly feeling sleepy, she didn't pay any mind to it, slipping into a peaceful
slumber.

⋌⋌⋌
A/N
Hey, guys! It's me again. Hope y'all are doing well.
I won't be able to update for quite a while, seeing as I'm going on a family
vacation, but I'll try my best.
Goodnight!
ⅩⅤⅠⅠ

She woke up with a pounding headache. Everything hurt, even opening her
eyes. It was like the feeling of waking up after a nightmare and not remembering
any of it. Eventually, she opened her eyes. Only to be blinded by the amount of
light that was in the room, causing her to close her eyes immediately
However, her slight movement seemed to be enough for whoever was there, to
start calling for healers.
She tried opening her eyes again, this time more prepared and ready for the
blinding light.
Getting used to the light, she looked around. She must've been in a hospital
room, as the walls were all white and there were healing potions all over the
shelves. Then she saw a woman, staring at her curiously while making sure that
she was physically alright.
"Wh-where am I?" her voice was a little croaky from not being used for long.
The woman handed her a cup of water, which she swallowed in one gulp.
"You're at St. Mungo's, Honey." said the woman, while mixing the red and the
blue potions in a cauldron.
"Why? Wha' happened?" her voice sounded much better.
"You got poisoned." answered the woman curtly and started adding various
ingredients in the cauldron.
"With what?"
"With Elixir 7." said the voice of Annabeth McMillan who Aurora hadn't noticed
was in the room.
"But it's not poisonous," she argued.
"Unless mixed with moonseed and baneberry."
"But who would poison me?"
"Drink this." Ordered the woman who seemed to have finished making the
potion.
"We'll talk after, sleep well, Aurora."
After Aurora had woken up (again), Annabeth told her the story of how she
happened to be at the Three Broomsticks and knowing Rosemerta for ages, she
found her behaviour strange. Deciding to investigate, she found Aurora laying
on the floor with her skin glowing and Alex levitating all over the room.
After bringing both of them to St. Mungo's, she went back to the pub only to
find the real Rosemerta petrified in a cupboard, meaning that the Rosemerta
who she had suspected was an imposter. More specifically-
"So who was the imposter?" asked Aurora, genuinely interested in who would
poison two innocent children.
"I think it was Elladora, though I have no proof."
"Who?"
"Oh, look, I have to go." and she rushed out of the room faster than Snape when
seeing a shampoo.
The rest of the summer was uneventful, but Soph was scared for her safety,
resulting in her never being left unsupervised. Rosemerta had apologised
numerous times, even though it was her fault and Aurora made sure that she
knew it.
Before she knew it, it was already the first of September meaning a new school
year was to start. She couldn't say that she was excited, as that year she'd have
to take two extra lessons. However, it meant seeing some of her friends again.
She took the train from the King's Cross station instead of just walking to the
Hogsmeade station. Alex had chosen not to, leaving her alone the whole ride or
she could sit with the Hampton twins, which sounded great except for the fact
that they sat with the youngest Weasley.
Settling for the empty compartment at the back of the train, she took out the
knitting supplies that she'd gotten from Edward's mother. Let's just say that she
didn't have the talent it took to knit.
Then the trolley lady came around and just in a few minutes, her compartment
was full of empty chocolate frog wrappers. After nearly puking - from all the
candy she'd seated -, she fell into a state of boredom that she didn't think
anyone would ever experience and it was only three hours into the ride.
But then came Astoria Greengrass, her lord and saviour. Apparently, she had
gotten bored of sitting with her sister and her friends and decided to sit with
someone her age. They played exploding snap for a while but fell asleep only
after two rounds.
They got woken up by Daphne Greengrass who had gotten worried upon not
seeing her sister leaving the train and decided to look for her. The welcoming
feast was just as it had been the year prior, except for the fact that Dumbledore
had made a huge announcement.
"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will
not take place this year."
Aurora had never wanted to murder someone so badly.
"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing
throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy -
but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in
announcing that this year at Hogwarts -"
Who cared for that event?! Or what was it so important that they had to cancel
QUIDDITCH?! She could feel Alex's eyes from the Slytherin table, waiting for her
to explode. So caught up in the devastating news, she failed to notice the
appearance of a strange man.
"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said
dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."
Who? She looked around, just then noticing the said man sitting at the
teachers' table. He had one what-looked-like natural eye and one that was
spinning around. The girl that sat next to her - whom she didn't know the name
of - was looking at the man, or Professor Moody quite terrified.
"As I was saying," Continued Dumbledore, smiling at the sea of students before
him, all of whom were still gazing transfixed at Mad-Eye Moody, "we are to have
the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event
that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform
you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."
So that's the reason behind the cancelling of the inter-house quidditch
tournament. That Tri-something tournament was the reason why Quidditch was
cancelled. Just its name sounded incredibly stupid. Who even were the guests
who had the unfortunate of visiting during the tournament?
"You're JOKING!" yelled someone who sounded incredibly happy with the
news, making Aurora glared at him hotly.
"I am not joking, Mr Weasley," so it was Ginny's brother who had said it, another
reason to glare at him "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent
one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a
bar."
Aurora really wanted to hear the joke.
"Er - but maybe this is not the time.. . no. . ." said Dumbledore, "where was I? Ah
yes, the Triwizard Tournament. . . well, some of you will not know what this
tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a
short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely.
"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years
ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of
wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to
represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical
tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years,
and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties
between young witches and wizards of different nationalities - until, that is, the
death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

Ah, so Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were the guests. Aurora's mood couldn't
get any worse. This tournament was highly dangerous, quidditch on the other
hand- well, not it was dangerous as well but-
"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the
tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which has been very successful.
However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and
Magical Games andSports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We
have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will
find himself or herself in mortal danger.
"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-
listed contenders in October and the selection of the three champions will take
place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most
worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a
thousand Galleons personal prize money."
Oh, so, her ex-classmates from the school she despised would be visiting
Hogwarts for a year and she had to suffer through it without quidditch.
Students around her seemed happy though, chatting about their opinions on
entering. Most of them were going for it, while others just wanted to enjoy the
show. She even heard some boy, who she recognised as Cormac McLaggen,
saying that he'd heard that Beauxbatons had a very attractive female
population, to put it kindly.
"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts,"
he said, "the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic,
have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students
who are of age - that is to say, seventeen years or older - will be allowed to put
forward their names for consideration. This" -- Dumbledore raised his voice
slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words "is a
measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be
difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely
that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will
personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge
into making them Hog-warts champion. I, therefore, beg you not to waste your
time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen.
"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October
and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all
extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give
your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is
selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert
and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"
On her way to the Gryffindor Common room, she got an idea so good that most
of the school wouldn't stop thanking her for a month the least.

⋌⋌⋌
A/N
I know I haven't been updating for a while, but hear me out, I have parents who
are so against using technology on a vacation.
I've been thinking about writing a book with all of the OCs from the most
popular harry potter fanfictions (with their author's permission). Lmk what you
think.

ⅩⅤⅠⅠⅠ

"What do you think about the tournament, huh?" Asked Alex.

He and Aurora were walking by the Black Lake and chatting.
"It sucks. Who even came up with it?!"
"Uhh, I think it's awesome. Sucks that I'm too young to enter, though."
"Eww, they cancelled quidditch for that."
"Well, if you look at it that way, you're right."
"All I'm saying is that they didn't have to cancel it." She sighed and looked
around "Alex, Alex! Did see that too?!"
"See what?" he questioned, not really believing that it wasn't a stunt to distract
him.
"There!" Aurora yelled, pointing in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.
"What-oh!" he didn't get to finish as Aurora started running towards the place
that she had pointed to.
"Wait, A-"
Alex had no choice but to run after her.
"Fetch a professor, Quick!" she yelled from where she was crouching, next to
two bodies that were laying on the ground.
He turned back, towards the castle and took off, confused.
 When Aurora had gotten there, she did not expect to see passed-out bodies of
two people laying there. So they were the two things falling from the sky. They
were bruised pretty badly from the impact.
Taking out her wand out of her pocket, she pointed it at the girl as she was
closer to her and muttered a quick 'Rennervate'. The girl yelped in pain as her
eyes shot open.
"Don't move, you'll hurt yourself even more." said Aurora while the girl stared
at something with wide eyes, more specifically, at Aurora's wand "Tell me where
it hurts."
The girl wasn't able to get a single word out of her mouth as she was in too
much pain, so Aurora took it upon herself to look for the bruises.
She must've broken several bones from the impact, so 'Brackium Emendo' was
the first spell that Aurora used. The girl sighed in relief, signalling her that the
spell had worked. She even muttered a quick 'thanks', meaning that she was in
much less pain than she had previously been into.
Now, Aurora moved over to the boy who seemed to be slowly bleeding out.
Quietly scolding herself for not healing him first, she performed the wound-
closing spell (Vulnera Sanentur). His wounds started closing themselves,
indicating that the spell had worked.
Aurora looked up just in time to see Madam Hooch, followed closely by Alex,
running towards her.
"Out of my way, miss. I must take them to the hospital wing."
Aurora moved out of the way, as Hooch levitated the girl and the boy and took
off towards the cattle. She and Alex, who was still very confused, followed.
When they reached the hospital, a concerned Madam Pomfrey started working
on healing them more profoundly than Aurora had.
"Your work, I take, Miss Mckinnon?"
"Yes, Madam."
"What happened, exactly?"
"We- well, I saw them falling out of the sky! They just appeared out of
nowhere!"
"Rolanda, do you mind fetching Dumbledore?"
 Hooch nodded and stormed out of the room. The girl had passed out again,
possibly from pain as Aurora hadn't healed her completely. The boy seemed
pale, as pale as Aurora had been while pretending to be dead to see Alex's
reaction.
"It's gonna take some time for them to heal completely, but they're gonna be
fine," said Madam Pomfrey as she walked by them towards her office, probably
to grab potions.
"Okay, good, nice, I think we should leave, don't you, Alex?" Aurora had started
to feel uncomfortable within the presence of the two strangers.
"Yeah, we should. Bye, Poppy!"
They quickly shuffled out of the hospital wing, both of them letting out a sigh of
relief when they made it out.
"That is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me," said Alex, while
Aurora looked around.
"Agreed. Want to grab a snack from the kitchens?"
"Sure."
≋
The next morning, while Aurora was eating breakfast in the great hall with Lucy
and Loren, McGonagall, with Alex in her lead, approached her. Loren looked at
her with an expression that said "What-did-you-do-this-time?", but Aurora just
shook her head at her.
"Follow me, miss Mckinnon," McGonagall said sternly and turned on her heels,
heading towards the exit of the Great hall.
Aurora quickly stood up from her seat at the bench, swinging her schoolbag
over her shoulder and following the professor.
"What happened?" she whispered to Alex while trying to keep up with
McGonagall's fast pace
"Dunno." he shrugged.
The rest of the walk was silent, with occasional stops to duck house points from
misbehaving students in the corridors. The silence was broken when they
approached the gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office.
 After uttering the password, the gargoyle stepped aside to reveal a staircase
leading to the headmaster's office. Going up the stairs, McGonagall only
knocked once, before opening the door and going into the room.
"Ah, Minerva, I see you arrived. Take a seat, miss Mckinnon, Mister Jones."
Dumbledore motioned his hand towards the chairs that appeared out of thin air.
McGonagall dashed out of the office as fast as she could, seeing as her class was
to start in several minutes. Aurora and Alex hesitantly sat down, wondering
whether or not they were going to get expelled.
Only then did she notice the other two occupants of the room. The girl and the
boy from the day before were sitting on the seats in front of Dumbledore's desk.
They seemed to look better than they had the day prior.
The girl had the upper half of her hair tied up, leaving the other half down. She
was wearing black jeans and a light yellow blouse. The boy had his hair brushed
back with Sleekeazy's Hair Potion. He was wearing deep blue jeans with a plain
white shirt on top.
"You may be wondering why you're here," Alex nodded while Aurora shrugged
slightly "I have several questions for you and then you can go to your classes."
"I take it, you know how Veritesarum works." Alex, this time joined with Aurora,
nodded again.
The unknown girl visibly paled, while the boy looked confused as ever.
Dumbledore made four cups, filled with pumpkin juice appear.
"Drink up," he said.
Veritesarum seemed to already have been placed in their drinks as
Dumbledore made no move to do so. Knowing that the simple truth could do
her no harm, Aurora drank the drink without much hesitation. Upon seeing her
do so, Alex followed the lead. The unknown boy seemed more hesitant but still
did so. While the girl didn't even touch hers.
"I promise it is nothing that will hurt you."
The girl didn't seem reassured but in the end, she drank it, having no other
choice.
"Now, what are your names?"
"Pandora Lyra Black."
The room fell silent after hearing the girl's last name. It must've been a
coincidence as there was no living Black (except females who all were married)
except Sirius, whom Aurora knew didn't have children.
"Perseus Leo Black."
They must've been twins, siblings the least, seeing that they shared the same
last name and their initials were the same.
"Very well, your age and date of birth?"
"I'm twelve and was born in 1880, 31st of December." Said Pandora, who didn't
seem all too pleased with what was coming out of her mouth.
"I'm twelve too, I was on in 1881, January 1st."
"Yes, yes, what about your parents? What are their names?" Dumbledore asked
the question they all wanted to ask.
"I don't know."
"How did you get here?"
"I don't remember."
"Neither do I."
"Very well, Miss Mckinnon, Mister Jones?"
Aurora told him the story of how she saw the two of them falling through the
sky, having appeared out of nowhere. After she was finished, Alex told his side of
the story.
When he was finished too, Dumbledore let out a deep sigh.
"Mister Jones, you can go to your class. Miss Mckinnon, please stay."
Standing up, Alex gave her a smile before slipping out of the door.
"Now, I believe that we should see if you are muggles or not."
Pandora nodded, seemingly understanding the wizarding slang, while Perseus
sat there still confused.
Dumbledore took the sorting hat from the top of the shelves that seemed to be
covering most part of the walls. Aurora was doubtful of how the sorting hat
would help them, but chose to go along with it, knowing better.
 He placed it on Pandora's head first. After a minute or so, the hat yelled out
'RAVENCLAW!' even though it didn't need to, seeing as all of them could hear
well.
"Congratulations, Miss Black, you are a witch, and a member of Ravenclaw, the
house of smart-"
"Wise and Creative." Corrected Pandora, calmly while her tone was as fierce as
McGonagall's gaze.
"Yes, you're right. Now, Mister Black." He placed it on Perseus' head.
The sorting hat deemed Hufflepuff as the house most suitable for the boy.
"House of Loyal and Hardworking, am I right, Miss Black?" Pandora just
nodded.
"Miss Mckinnon please give them a little tour around the castle and keep them
company till dawn when their house's prefects will bring them to their
respective common rooms."
"C'mon then, this way." Aurora stood up and made her way out of the room,
followed by the Blacks.
She first chose to show them the Great hall, as it seemed like the most obvious
start.
"So, we're at Hogwarts?" questioned Perseus, breaking the ice.
"Yes, Hogwarts," answered Aurora curtly.
"What's your name?" asked Pandora, who was looking g at her curiously.
"It Aurora, Aurora Mckinnon."
"Mine's Pandora, but you already knew that," said Pandora, and Aurora smiled.
"Can I call you Dora?" she asked and Pandora nodded, looking at her warmly.
"What about you? Is Percy good? No, Percy reminds me of the previous head
boy Percy Weasley and he hated pranks. Oooh, what about Persy, with an s?"
The boy laughed at the silly nickname but accepted it nonetheless.
⋌⋌⋌

A/N
Hi!
Hope you guys are well, if anyone needs anything or just wants to be my friend,
my pms are open!
I've been waiting to write this chapter every since it first started writing this
book. Ik it's not as good as it's supposed to but I hope future El will rewrite it.
Byee