Can Things Change

"The Vanishing Glass," Pandora read. Her voice as light and airy as Luna’s, and just as soothing to Aurora as Luna’s always had been.

Aurora squeaked, she knew when they had started planning this that her friends were going to learn that she had hid things from them, but at the same time, she didn’t want her friends to find out how bad it really was at the Dursleys. At the time in her eleven year old mind it just seemed normal. But now that she was older, and she had spent time with Sirius, she understood that she was abused, and she didn't want anyone to find out about that, especially Ron or Fred, they might hunt down Dudley, and she and Dudley were much closer now.

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their niece on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bonnets — but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, 

“Surely you are exaggerating how large this child is,” Columba said.

Fred and Ron snickered, shaking their heads no, and a picture appeared out of nowhere, enlarging enough for the room to see it, of Dudley on his eleventh birthday right before they left for the zoo. “Not even a little bit,” Aurora laughed. “He's a little better now, all muscle, not fat, but other than his hair and eyes he’s all Uncle Vernon.”

and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another child lived in the house, too. 

“Why are there no pictures of you?” Narcissa asked. While she wouldn’t have been thrilled about it, if something had happened to Andromeda and Ted, she would have taken in Nymphadora and loved her like her own, showing off the next generation of Blacks.

“I don’t like my picture taken,” Aurora said. Sirius looked at her sharply, that answer was a little too rehearsed, and he didn’t want to think of what that might mean. Where was he at, or Remus, or Peter, or Marlene, or Alice? He didn’t like where his thoughts were taking him.

Yet Aurora Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Her Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day. 

"Up! Get up! Now!" 

Aurora woke with a start. Her aunt rapped on the door again. 

"Up!" she screeched. Aurora heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. 

“But there’s only one door on the way to the kitchen downstairs,” Fred said, shocked, tears in his eyes. “Ray?” Aurora couldn’t do anything but shrug.

She rolled onto her back and tried to remember the dream she had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. She had a funny feeling she'd had the same dream before. 

“That is an extraordinary memory Miss Potter,” Alastor said.

“I was always told that the motorcycle would put me straight to sleep no matter how fussy I was. Mum hated it and threatened to kill Sirius the first time he took me on it until she saw me fast asleep curled into his chest. And then I was fussing all day the next day until Siri came over, and I said my first word, ‘Fly’. Dad was ecstatic, and mum just sighed and handed me over and he took me flying,” Aurora explained. Yes she had a great memory now that her magic wasn’t blocked, but her dream was more of home, and Sirius, then the night that she was dropped off.

Her aunt was back outside the door. 

"Are you up yet?" she demanded. 

"Nearly," said Aurora. 

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday." 

Aurora groaned. 

"What did you say?" her aunt snapped through the door. 

“Oh would you shut up you harpie,” Severus snapped. Aurora snickered, while others looked at him like he was losing his mind. “I can’t stand the sound of her voice.” 

"Nothing, nothing…" 

Dudley's birthday — how could she have forgotten? Aurora got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. She found a pair under her bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. 

Ron shuddered.

Aurora was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where she slept. 

For a moment there was silence, then a loud crack was heard in the room and everyone looked to see the table in front of Draco and Amice in splinters. That seemed to shock everyone out of their stupor, and everyone was yelling, James and Lily had turned to Dumbledore and were screaming at him, Sirius was running his eyes over Aurora trying to see other ways his goddaughter might have been abused. Severus was studying the girl, for all that she looked like a female James Potter, she seemed to be nothing like him, and yet nothing like Lily at the same time.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Aurora said quietly. And while she spoke softly, it was enough to get the attention of everyone in the room.

“But it was Ro,” Amice cried softly. “Why didn’t you ever tell anyone?”

“Ced knew,” Aurora said, “and I told Sirius. No one else ever seemed to care. Besides I get a bedroom shortly after this anyone.”

“Rory!” James exclaimed, “It will always matter.”

The look of devastation on Aurora’s face brought tears to the eyes of several people, and stopped James short. “Don’t,” Aurora whimpered. “Don’t call me Rory.” She was on her feet, her hands shaking, sparks coming from them.

“Shh, Ro,” Fred soothed, “It’s okay.” He pulled her back onto his lap, rocking her trying to calm her down.

The Marauders and Lily looked at the girl sadly, trying to figure out what they could do. Luna then explained softly, in a serious tone, “It’s painful sometimes, to relive the past. Hearing about her treatment at the hands of her caretakers, as well as hearing someone call her Rory that isn’t the person who gave her the name is difficult. We call her Ray, or Ro, or Ari but Rory is reserved for one person.”

Everyone nodded, several looking thoughtful at that. The devastation on her face was undeniable, and they wanted to know why it would hurt her to hear the name Rory.

“Can we go back to reading now?” Bill asked, tugging on Pandora’s skirt before walking back over to his beanbag.

When she was dressed she went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. 

“What a waste of money,” Hermione said.

“Computer’s are now available for homes?” Ted asked, "that must not be cheap."

“It’s not,” Aurora replied.

Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Aurora, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise — unless of course it involved punching somebody. 

Sirius growled very much like the dog his Animagus transformation was.

Dudley's favorite punching bag was Aurora, 

Seeing her godfather about to explode, and Remus looking as if the wolf was about to take control, and James and Lily in tears, Aurora went over and hugged Sirius. “I’m okay, I promise,” she reassured them.

“Where are we at?” Peter asked. This was his niece, he couldn’t imagine letting anything bad happen to her.

“The third book will explain a lot,” Draco answered, both to stop Aurora from crying anymore, and to stop Ron from snapping at Peter.

but he couldn't often catch her. Aurora didn't look it, but she was very fast. 

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, 

“It does,” Andromeda said, she was a healer afterall. 

“The malnourishment sure didn’t help either,” Amice added angrily. 

but Aurora had always been small and skinny for her age. 

She looked even smaller and skinnier than she really was because all she had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than she was, and was a boy. 

“They didn’t even buy you clothes?” Remus asked. “What about female items that you need?” 

Aurora shrugged, “By the time I needed any of that I had Hermione and Amice to help me buy it and my own money. Aunt Petunia wouldn’t have done it either way, so it was better for me to do it myself.”

Aurora had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair, and bright green eyes. 

She wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched her on the nose. The only thing Aurora liked about her own appearance was a very thin scar on her forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. 

The group from the future all laughed, knowing how much Aurora now hated that scar, and its twin on her chest.

She had had it as long as she could remember, and the first question she could ever remember asking her Aunt Tuney was how she had gotten it. 

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions." 

Don't ask questions — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys. 

“But how will you learn,” cried Professor Flitwick. As the head of Ravenclaw, he took learning very seriously.

She had only ever called her Aunt Tuney the one time. She remembers her Aunt looking into her eyes for just a moment, the only time she had ever looked her in the eye before, before looking away and yelling at her. She had spent the rest of the week in her cupboard, only allowed out for chores and the bathroom twice a day, and received one meal a day.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Aurora was turning over the bacon. 

"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting, 

“Ahh the curse of the Potter hair,” James said, ruffling his hair to make it even messier.

swinging his hand to hit her upside the head. Aurora knew not to duck out of the way as that would only make the next swing that much harder, and add several others to go along with it. She had learned over the years which hits to just accept and which she could get away with ducking from after all. 

About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Aurora needed a haircut. Aurora must have had more haircuts than the rest of the kids in her class put together, but it made no difference, her hair simply grew that way — all over the place. 

Aurora was frying eggs 

“You were cooking at the age of 10?” Molly exclaimed.

“I started cooking at 4,” Aurora said. “It was one of the only ways I could get food though so I didn’t mind too much. Now I hate cooking and gardening. Although Neville has been teaching me a lot of cool things that I missed out on in Herbology by being lazy,” she added, “Sorry Professor Sprout, I was just so used to not doing better than Dudley in school that it kinda carried over to Hogwarts. I do get better in my 4th year though.”

by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. 

Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Aurora often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig. 

Everyone snickered at the image.

Aurora put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell. 

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

“That’s worse than I’ve ever been,” Draco said, earning looks from all the people from the future, and his parents. 

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy." 

"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Aurora, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?" 

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…" 

“Is this kid serious?” Fabian said.

“No I am,” Sirius said, earning a swat on the knee from Marlene.

“I did say that I wasn’t allowed to do better than him in school, it just also helped that I did all his homework so that I could at least pass primary,” Aurora said.

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia. 

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then." Uncle Vernon chuckled. 

"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair. 

“What a horrible way to raise a child. You have to discipline them, not give into their every whim. They need structure,” Molly exclaimed, earning nods from Andromeda, Pandora, and Columba.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Aurora and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. 

He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried. 

"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take her." 

“Arabella Figg, my Aunt?” Amos asked.

“She was asked to keep an eye on Ray,” Fred said. Not that she did a very good job of it, he thought to himself.

She jerked her head in Aurora's direction. 

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Aurora's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Aurora was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Aurora hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made her look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned. 

“She was the same way when I was growing up,” Amos said. “It got worse after my Uncle Micah passed.”

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Aurora as though she'd planned this.  Aurora knew she ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when she reminded herself it would be a whole year before she had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again. 

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. 

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the girl." 

“That feeling is more than mutual.”

The Dursleys often spoke about Aurora like this, as though she wasn't there — or rather, as though she was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug. 

"What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?" 

“She still keeps in touch with Yvonne,” Lily asked? 

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia. 

"You could just leave me here," Aurora put in hopefully (she'd be able to watch what she wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer). 

Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon. 

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled. 

"I won't blow up the house," said Aurora, but they weren't listening. 

“At least you wouldn’t have on purpose,” Neville laughed.

"I suppose we could take her to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave her in the car…" 

"That car's new, she's not sitting in it alone…" 

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted. 

"Dinky Duddydums, 

“That’s worse than Ronniekins!” Ginny laughed, causing a blush to spread up Ron’s ears.

don't cry, Mummy won't let her spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him. 

"I… don't… want… her… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "She always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Aurora a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms. 

Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. 

Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once. 

Half an hour later, Aurora, who couldn't believe her luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in her life, although she could do without all the groping that she was receiving from Piers. This last year he had started to get a little too touchy whenever he would be holding her down for Dudley to pound on when they caught her. 

“Ro?” Amice asked.

“Did anything else ever happen,” Sirius continued for her.

“Doesn’t matter, I’m going to kill him. I don’t care that he is a 10 or 11 year old boy, no one touches my daughter,” James snarled.

“This was one of the last times I ever saw him,” Aurora said. “Nothing ever happened. I’m fine.”

Her aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with her, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Aurora aside. 

"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Aurora's, "I'm warning you now, girl — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas." 

"I'm not going to do anything," said Aurora, "honestly…" 

“I swear,” Ginny started.

“You’re luck is the worst thing I have ever seen,” Draco continued, the both of them shaking their heads at the sheer bad luck that seemed to happen to Aurora.

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe her. No one ever did. 

The problem was, strange things often happened around Aurora and it was just no good telling the Dursleys she didn't make them happen. 

“Yes we get to see some of her accidental magic!” Alice cried happily.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Aurora coming back from the barbers looking as though she hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut her hair so short she was almost bald except for her bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Aurora, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where she was already laughed at for her baggy clothes and taped glasses. 

Next morning, however, she had gotten up to find her hair even longer than it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. 

She had been given a week in her cupboard for this, and a broken arm, even though she had tried to explain that she couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly. 

The adults in the room frowned, accidental magic should be praised, not punished.

Aunt Petunia had then reluctantly taught her how to braid it into a tight braid and put it up into a bun.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force her into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls). 

The harder she tried to pull it over her head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Aurora. 

Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to her great relief, Aurora wasn't punished. 

“Well at least you weren’t punished for that, I would hate to wear something like that,” Marlene said.

On the other hand, she'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing her as usual when, as much to Aurora's surprise as anyone else's, there she was sitting on the chimney. 

Dumbledore looked at the girl in surprise. Even with blocks on her magic, it was coming through in large amounts that no normal child should have. It might be exacerbated by the fact that she was being chased at the moment, but apperating her age was astounding. 

The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Aurora's headmistress telling them Aurora had been climbing school buildings. But all she'd tried to do (as she shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of her cupboard) was jump behind the big trashcans outside the kitchen doors. Aurora supposed that the wind must have caught her in mid-jump. 

“Apparition at that age is astounding Miss Potter,” Dumbledore said.

“Yes it was,” Aurora said shortly, “Especially since most of my magic, that hadn't been bound, was working to heal my broken bones and malnutrition.” She knew that she shouldn’t be so short with the headmaster, but this chapter was doing nothing to calm her ire at him by making her relive her crappy childhood with the Dursleys.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, her cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room. 

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Aurora, the council, Aurora, the bank, and Aurora were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles. 

"…roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Aurora, remembering suddenly. "It was flying." 

“Oh Ro,” Hermione sighed.

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Aurora, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" 

Dudley and Piers sniggered. 

"I know they don't," said Aurora. "It was only a dream." 

But she wished she hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than her asking questions, it was her talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think she might get dangerous ideas. 

“Is this why I’m not allowed to watch television,” Fred asked, looking at Aurora innocently. She just stuck her nose up at him, and he laughed.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Aurora what she wanted before they could hurry her away, they bought her a cheap lemon ice pop. 

It wasn't bad, either, Aurora thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond. 

Aurora had the best morning she'd had in a long time. She was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting her. 

Everyone in the room frowned.

They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Aurora was allowed to finish the first. 

Aurora felt, afterward, that she should have known it was all too good to last. 

“I don’t like the sound of that at all,” muttered Lily. “Why can’t you have a nice, normal, trip to the zoo.”

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep. 

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils. 

"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. 

"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on. 

The parents all cringed at the way that child was talking to his father. If that was them, they would take that child over their knee right there in front of everyone.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away. 

Aurora moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. She wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least she got to visit the rest of the house.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Aurora's. 

It winked. 

“That’s not possible,” Remus said. “Snakes don’t have eyelids.

Aurora stared. Then she looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. She looked back at the snake and winked, too. 

The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Aurora a look that said quite plainly: 

"I get that all the time." 

“A metamorph and a Parseltongue!” Sirius said. “Oh I wish I could introduce you to my mother.”

“She would never get over the shock that a Parselmouth came from Dorea’s line,” Regulus laughed. “I wish I could see that. She might even try to go to grandfather and have him name you heir over everyone else in the family.”

Aurora looked in shock at her parents, no one in the room was freaking out. In fact several occupants seemed to find it thrilling that she was a Parselmouth. Trying to gather her thoughts, “Um, well Arcturus never removed Sirius from the family line, and I’m his Heir, so technically I am. Plus with Sirius blood adopting me, instead of the normal Godfather oath, I’m his heir either way. But Walburga wasn’t happy about any of it. She did not want Sirius to inherit, and with Orion passing before her there was a huge fight between her and Arcturus, and then she died before him…” Fred finally cut off her ramble by kissing her.

“Too much information, Love,” he said when he pulled away. “You’ll learn a lot of this in the fifth book.”

Only Sirius noticed that sad look that Amice gave when Fred kissed Aurora. It wasn’t one of longing, as if she wanted either of them though. He had a feeling that the reason for that look as currently being held by his mother on one of the other loveseats in this room.

“You’re not upset that I’m a parselmouth though?” Aurora asked, getting back to the matter in the book. It had been her biggest fear after she found out that it was considered dark, that her parents would hate it, and her for having it.

“Oh Aurora,” Lily cried, opening her arms for her daughter, “we could never hate you. You have a very rare gift, but it does run in the family.” James nodded at her side, wrapping his arms around his future wife and daughter holding them tightly.

“Thank you,” Aurora whispered to them before going back to her seat, nodding to Pandora to continue.

"I know," Aurora murmured through the glass, though she wasn't sure the snake could hear her. "It must be really annoying." 

The snake nodded vigorously. 

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Aurora asked. 

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Aurora peered at it. Boa Constrictor, Brazil. 

"Was it nice there?" 

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Aurora read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?" 

“You don’t even realize that its not normal to talk to a snake do you?” Barty asked.

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Aurora made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" 

Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could. 

"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Aurora in the ribs, cracking two if she was feeling and had heard correctly. Caught by surprise, Aurora fell hard on the concrete floor. 

“He pushed you so hard that your ribs cracked?” Andromeda yelled.

What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror. 

Aurora sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. 

The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. 

As the snake slid swiftly past her, Aurora could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo." 

“More like into a different cage once she’s caught again,” Hermione said.

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock. 

"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?" 

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Aurora had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Aurora at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Aurora was talking to it, weren't you, Aurora?"

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Aurora. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," throwing her into the cupboard by the scruff of her neck, irritating her already broken ribs, and making her fall on her wrist, probably spraining it, before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. 

“Why is no one doing anything about this abuse,” Amelia said, finally having enough of hearing how this child was treated. “Why isn’t Dumbledore checking on you? He was the one to place you there, apparently against your parents wishes if you have a godfather, and I assume a godmother as well. And any other family that you might have.”

“Alice is my godmother,” Aurora answered. “And I honestly don’t know. I know why Alice and Sirius couldn’t take me, as well as Remus and Peter. I know that Marlene was unable to as well, but any others that may have been listed, I just never cared to find out once I was old enough. By then it had been so long.”

Aurora lay in her dark cupboard much later, wishing she had a watch. She didn't know what time it was and she couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, she couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. 

She'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as she could remember, ever since she'd been a baby and her parents had died in that car crash. She couldn't remember being in the car when her parents had died. Sometimes, when she strained her memory during long hours in her cupboard, she came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on her forehead. 

“You survived the killing curse?” Alastor asked.

“I could fight off an imperio at 14 too,” Aurora grumbled, while the others from the future laughed, and everyone else looked at the girl frightened. What had she been through to be put under the imperious curse at the age of 14.

This, she supposed, was the crash, though she couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. She couldn't remember her parents at all. 

Her aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course she was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house. 

When she had been younger, Aurora had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take her away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were her only family. 

“No they’re not,” Luna said quietly. “We are your family.”

Neville hugged Luna to him, nodding in agreement, along with Ginny, Draco, Ron, Hermione, Fred and Amice. "You will always be my sister, no matter what," Amice adds.

Yet sometimes she thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know her. Very strange strangers they were, too. 

A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to her once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. 

“Diggle,” explained Aurora

After asking Aurora furiously if she knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at her once on a bus. 

“Cedrella”

“My mother,” Arthur asked, to which Aurora just nodded.

A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken her hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. 

“Slughorn”

The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Aurora tried to get a closer look. 

At school, Aurora had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Aurora Potter in her baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang. The teachers all turned a blind eye to the bullying and the beatings that she received. The one teacher who had tried to report the Dursleys to the LSCBs had disappeared within the week, and no one had ever bothered again. All the families in the neighborhood had been told that she was a delinquent that they had been saddled with when her good for nothing drunk parents had died, and so didn’t pay any attention to Aurora when she would be locked outside at night, after spending hours outside already during the day doing chores.

“Well,” humped Pandora, “that was rather distressing.”

“I realize that this has yet to happen Albus, but you and I will be having a long talk if there is not a good explanation for you placing that girl there.” Augusta said, looking at the Headmaster. “And there better be an even better explanation for why she was never checked on, since apparently my future daughter-in-law is in the line to receive custody.”

Dumbledore looked nervously at the matron, he did not want to get on her bad side, but he had a bad feeling about his reasons for placing the young Potter with her Aunt.

“I think I would like to read now,” Fabian said.