Chapter 8
The morning of the quidditch match, conversation halts at the Gryffindor dining table as Aurora takes a seat between Sirius and James. Rory counts two seconds in her head before Sirius throws head head back in howling laughter “Batty!!! That’s brilliant! Merlin you look ridiculous!” He was, of course, referring to her face, currently fully painted in red and gold in support of her friends house.
“Nice look Rory” Peter says obligingly.
“I thought you didn’t like quidditch? Don’t tell me you’ve joined the dark side and left us bookworms in the dust?” Remus teases, chin perched on his hand.
Rory shakes her head “Don’t worry, I’m not a meat head yet-“ this earns an affronted “oi!” From James, who she muffles with a hand to the face. “I’m still a nerd, I don’t care about quidditch. But I care about my friends.” She beams at the faces around her.
Friends. She thinks to herself, holding back tears; and not for the first time.
She feels so incredibly lucky, her life was so different now than when she was small. There was laughter and light and friends. She was safe and fed and loved. No angry man screaming at her. No locked doors to claw and pound at.
She was happy.
That is until she heard the slurs being thrown from the table across the room.
“Mudblood filth” A Slytherin boy sneers, talking to his gaggle of greasy friends. Future death eaters no doubt, the threat was on the rise. It was all over the Daily Prophet, as the death rates grew. Some died from failed death eater initiations, others from battles in the streets, or random attacks.
Her eyes shoot to the redhead across the table from her. She liked Lily Evans immediately, as soon as she met her she knew she was special. She was wicked smart, and kind to boot; when she spoke, she commanded the group. The idea that anyone could think less of Lily Evans simply because her parents are muggles was laughable. Aurora was certain their muggle parenting was better than her pure blood wizard peers simply based on how they all were turning out.
Sending dirty looks to her house table, Rory removes her ever-present headphones and passes them to Lily, urging her to put them on “just to see why I like them so much”. This was the only kind of lying she could do with a clear conscience. Sometimes she wonders if she was sorted to the wrong house, but then again she knew Slytherins just got bad PR, mostly due to little death eaters in training.
She is snapped from her brooding when Sirius waves a hand in front of her face. “Helloooo earth to Batty? Are you alright? Need mouth to mouth?” He asks, wiggling his eyebrows and puckering his lips. James whacks him on the head “Stop flirting with Rory!”
Sirius ignores him, blowing kisses to Aurora, which she pretends to catch and gobble them down with glee.
“You are such a weird little freak.” Sirius coos lovingly.
“Stop distracting her. Rory, are you with me?” Lily asks, searching Auroras gaze.
“I am so with you.” Rory replies, holding her gaze as Lily returns her headphones. “You should come to the after-game party tonight in the Gryffindor common room.”
“I am less with you now.” Rory replies. She was Not a fan of loud, crowded spaces full of drunk,sweaty bodies and people she didn’t know. But she would know people here…
“C’mooonnn Batty it’ll be fun. Tell you what, if we win the game, will you come then?” James makes a good bargain. She wants them to win. She has her headphones.
She sighs, putting on a show of being obliging as she nods “ok if you win I will go to the party.”
James and Sirius share a meaningful look.
“I guess we will just have to win won’t we Prongs?” Sirius says, sly grin creeping up his face.
“Looks like it, Padfoot.” James replies, equally mischievous.
Gryffindor beats Ravenclaw by a landslide. Rory groans, voice sore from cheering. “Can I bring Pandora?” Rory asks Lily, who merely shrugs her shoulders. “Bring whoever you want, the more the merrier.”
She had expected Pandora to want to come with her. What she hadn’t expected was for Regulus to accept her invitation. “You know who all’s going to be there right?” She had asked skeptically.
Regulus had merely rolled his eyes “I think I can manage to play nice with my brother and his band of idiots for one night. Besides, Pandora needs a date.”
“I am a part of that group of idiots I’ll remind you. And I’m her date.”
“No you’re not. You’re mine.” He says evenly.
Her heart flutters like a dove, flying up to her throat. And of course he means she’s his date. Not his… not his. She ignores the logical Incongruence of his statement in favor of catching her breath.
And that’s how she found herself walking into the Gryffindor common room with Regulus on one side and Pandora on the other. The party is already going, music blares as people mill about with cups in their hands, or lay about on the couches and cushions scattered around the room. It’s close enough now to summer that the fireplace isn’t lit, the body heat of this many people in the carpeted room providing more than enough heat.
Aurora adjusts her headphones, and before she can think too hard about it, she takes Regulus hand in hers. He turns around and regards their clasped hands with raised brows, but keeps walking, following Pandora into the crowded room. He doesn’t take Pandoras hand, just holds on to Rory’s as they snake their way through the crowd. The bass of the music vibrates up her legs to her ribs and through her teeth. It made her feel wild.
Pandora makes a B-line for James, who spots her, then Rory, and lands finally on Regulus. Pandora reaches him just as Lily arrives with a tray piled with shots of varying colors. “YOU MADE IT!” Lily screams, already drunk.
James swiftly takes the tray from her, and begins dolling out glasses as the rest of the group joins.
There is a terse moment as Sirius and Regulus regard one another. Regulus inclines his head in greeting. Sirius does the same. And then it’s over. Here and gone in an instant as the silently agree to ignore each other for the night. When everyone has a glass, Lily raises hers “TO QUIDDITCH” she shouts and drains the glass. “TO QUIDDITCH!” The group echoes, Remus and Rory sharing a look before downing their shots. Another tray soon follows. And then another.
The night is a blur of laughter, her friends chatting and drinking, when suddenly someone suggests they play spin the bottle. The party has started to trickle down at this point, meaning the only people to play were part of the “inner circle” as it were. This leaves a high likelyhood that if you play spin the bottle, you are probably going to have to kiss your friend. If she wasn’t tipsy, she would have said no.
Sirius goes first, he spins the bottle and the whole groups “awwws” when it lands on James.
“Cmere sexy” Sirius growls, pouncing on James. Grabbing his face with both hands, he presses a big kiss on a squirmy James.
Aurora snaps her gaze to Remus, who is making a strong effort of staring at the floor, face red. If she hadn’t been looking at Remus, she might not have noticed Regulus face. His eyes were dead, his face a mask of cool indifference. It was the mask her wore in his daily life. The one that let him be cruel and cold and cutting. She admired what that mask could achieve; but she had taken pride in being one of the few people who got to see the Regulus beneath.
The empty bottle is passed to a stone faced Regulus. “You’re turn Reggie.”
He places the bottle in the center of the circle.
Aurora shoots to her feet, all eyes following her sudden movement. “I’m heading out now. Bye. Reggie, walk me?” It’s more of a command than a request, which he follows immediately, discarding the bottle and getting to his feet without a word.
“I’m going to stay a bit longer” says Pandora, jerking her chin towards James “James will make sure I get back safely won’t you James?”
James looks around, confused “are you leaving Rory??”
“I’ll get Pandora back to you safe and sound.” Remus assures her. And it does assure her, Remus is the most responsible out of all of them; and he was also the least drunk.
Aurora and Regulus say their goodbyes, and leave to the sound of James complaining, assuring himself that he was very responsible indeed.
They do not hold hands this time.
The walk back to the Slytherin common room is silent. Rory wished she knew what he was thinking.
She reclines herself in a loveseat by the window.
“I thought you were tired?” Regulus asks, sinking into the seat beside her. Their sides are pressed up together, from thigh to shoulder. She can feel their body heat pooling between them.
“My exact words were ‘I’m heading out now. I never claimed to be tired.”
Regulus lets out a pleased hum “I see”.
“If the bottle had landed on me, would you have kissed me?” Aurora doesn’t know what compels her to say it, but it’s out of her mouth before she can think to stop.
Regulus stops breathing beside her, going completely still. He turns his body towards her, leaning back to look into her face. “Yes. If you had asked me. I could never deny you anything.”
This is it. If there was ever a moment to initiate a first kiss, it was this. But Aurora is a coward. She has always been a coward. Maybe that’s why she isn’t in Gryffindor. Maybe it’s the bitterness at all she cannot be, cannot say, that leads her to tell him about the Slytherin boy. She explains that she wants to make him sorry, pull some kind of prank. But she needs help. She would like his help.
“I knew James and my brother were bad influences. Why don’t you ask for their help?”
“I want your help.” I want you. Aurora thinks miserably.
“Very well then, what did you have in mind?”
—————————————————————
In the end they decided on a transfiguration charm that would turn the victims clothes, hair and makeup, into that of a clown. Aurora also modified the spell to include a tongue binding charm, rendering the victim speechless as well. It was simple work to spell the locks open to the slytherin boys dormitory. Aurora was quick on her feet, casting the spell over the boys sleeping body and slipping out of the room without waking a soul.
They had celebrated their success in silence. Quietly stomping and pumping their fists in the air, before saying a quick goodnight, eager for the fruits of their labor in the morning.
It was glorious.
Sudden laughter at the end of the table at breakfast turns heads. The death eater wannabe is sulking, bright white face shameful under the clown makeup. Oversized orange shoes flop as he struggles to sit down in his poofy circus pants. It takes great effort for Regulus and Aurora to hold in their laughter at the sight of their handiwork.
“It’s amazing!” Regulus whispers excitedly.
Aurora nods “I know” she catches a flash of red hair across the hall. At the Gryffindor table, Lily Evans is looking straight at her.
She doesn’t look away.
Not until the owls come.
Chaos descends as parcels are delivered. An envelope and a very long, large parcel are placed at Auroras seat.
Pandora gapes at the big, broom shaped parcel “Regulus no you didn’t”.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Regulus replies smoothly, shrugging his shoulders.
“Regulus did you buy me a broom?” Rory asks, stunned.
“Might have done-“ Rory’s hand flys to her mouth “- if you can call the safest, fastest, most reliable broom on the market ‘a broom’. Took me ages to pick just the right one.”
Pandora and Reg unwrap the broom and fawn over it; but Rory’s attention has been snagged by the letter.
In their excitement about the broom, they didn’t notice that this envelope is marked URGENT in bold, red font. Silently, Aurora opens the letter and reads. She jolts from her seat, hands shaking as they grip the letter.
Pandora comes forward, taking the letter. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” She asks, as she quickly scans the letter once. Her eyes grow wide, she scans the letter twice. “Oh my god. Rory… I’m so sorry.”
At the strong reactions from the girls, Regulus has taken the letter from Pandora and is carefully reading each and every word.
Her father had been part of the recent string of deaths. Apparently, he had been trying to become a death eater, wanting to be as close to the rising power as possible. He had attempted an initiation ritual. It had failed. The backfire had killed him instantly.
“Rory, you were his only heir.” Regulus says, waiting for her to say something. Anything. She can’t.
She knows she’s his only child. Knows what that means.
She also knows the stipulations.
“You are. Aurora this is a lot of money, even for a pure blood family. You are quite wealthy.” Regulus says, disbelieving.
He must not have read too carefully. The will was very clear, her Father had always been adamant about this clause. It was why she had been trained to be the perfect doll, the perfect bride.
“I have nothing.” Aurora says. Pausing to breathe in. Out. In. “I have nothing without a husband. Read it.”
Pandora takes the letter, finds the spot and reads aloud “this inheritance shall not be bestowed to an unwed witch under 20 years of age. Should a husband withdraw galleons before the bride (Aurora Ophelia Lovegood) comes of age, this transaction would be allowed.”
“What pure blood crazed maniac bullshit is this!” Pandora huffs, scanning the letter over and over as if she could find a loophole.
She would either have to wait until after she graduated to access even a penny of her inheritance. Unless she married.
Destiny is a sharp word.
No, not sharp. Aurora thinks to herself, doom settling deeply in her bones. Hot. Destiny was forge-hot. It burned like a brand.