Can Things Change

CHAPTER THIRTEEN Nicholas Flamel

Dumbledore had convinced Aurora not to go looking for the Mirror of Erised again, and for the rest of the Christmas holidays the invisibility cloak stayed folded at the bottom of her trunk.

Aurora wished she could forget what she’d seen in the mirror as easily, but she couldn’t. She started having nightmares. Over and over again she dreamed about her parents disappearing in a flash of green light, while a high voice cackled with laughter.

Aurora shivered a little, causing James, Lily and Sirius to reach down and touch her in some way offering what comfort they could.

“You see, Dumbledore was right, that mirror could drive you mad,” said Ron, when Aurora told him about these dreams.

Hermione, who came back the day before term started, took a different view of things. She was torn between horror at the idea of Aurora being out of bed, roaming the school three nights in a row (“If Filch had caught you!”), and disappointment that she hadn’t at least found out who Nicolas Flamel was.

Sirius and Regulus glared at the girl. 

“Instead of berating her, you could have offered her comfort for her nightmares!” Regulus exclaimed. 

Hermione looked down ashamed. “I didn’t even notice she was having them. I had no idea what she saw in the mirror.”

“It wasn’t her fault,” Aurora came to Hermione's defense. “Only Ron ever knew what I saw in the mirror.”

The brothers didn’t look convinced but were willing to drop it for now.

They had almost given up hope of ever finding Flamel in a library book, even though Aurora was still sure she’d read the name somewhere. Once term had started, they were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during their breaks. Aurora had even less time than the other two, because Quidditch practice had started again.

Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn’t dampen his spirits. The Weasleys complained that Wood was becoming a fanatic, but Aurora was on Wood’s side. If they won their next match, against Hufflepuff, they would overtake Slytherin in the house championship for the first time in seven years. Quite apart from wanting to win, Aurora found that she had fewer nightmares when she was tired out after training.

Fred glared at her for a moment. “I’m going to let your Wood-like tendencies go due to that statement alone, but if you start becoming more like him we are going to have a talk,” he teased.

“Oh wait till you hear about her practice schedule,” Ginny and Ron both said, laughing at Aurora. 

Then, during one particularly wet and muddy practice session, Wood gave the team a bit of bad news. He’d just gotten very angry with the Weasleys, who kept dive-bombing each other and pretending to fall off their brooms.

“Will you stop messing around!” he yelled. “That’s exactly the sort of thing that’ll lose us the match! Snape’s refereeing this time, and he’ll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!”

“But you hate flying!” Lily shouted.

“Especially Quidditch,” Lucius drawled.

“What are you doing, Severus?” Regulus asked his friend.

Severus’ scowl deepened, “I do not know.”

George Weasley really did fall off his broom at these words.

“Snape’s refereeing?” he spluttered through a mouthful of mud. “When’s he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He’s not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin.”

The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, too.

“It’s not my fault,” said Wood. “We’ve just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn’t got an excuse to pick on us.”

Which was all very well, thought Aurora, but she had another reason for not wanting Snape near her while she was playing Quidditch…

The rest of the team hung back to talk to one another as usual at the end of practice, but Aurora headed straight back to the Gryffindor common room, where she found Ron and Hermione playing chess. Chess was the only thing Hermione ever lost at, something Aurora and Ron thought was very good for her.

“Hey!” Hermione cried, hitting Ron with a pillow.

“Don’t talk to me for a moment,” said Ron when Aurora sat down next to him, “I need to concen—” He caught sight of Aurora’s face.

“What’s the matter with you? You look terrible.”

Speaking quietly so that no one else would hear, Aurora told the other two about Snape’s sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee. 

“Don’t play,” said Hermione at once.

“Say you’re ill,” said Ron.

“Pretend to break your leg,” Hermione suggested.

“Really break your leg,” said Ron.

“Poppy would have you healed in no time,” Barty said. “That’s not a very good plan.”

“It also doesn’t sound like you guys have a reserve seeker,” James commented.

“We didn’t,” Fred sighed. “Wood held tryouts but no one showed up after finding out that Aurora was on the team as a first year.”

“That’s not true,” Aurora smirked. “Cormac tried out.”

Fred, Ron, Ginny and Hermione all shuddered.

“I can’t,” said Aurora. “There isn’t a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor can’t play at all.”

At that moment Neville toppled into the common room. How he had managed to climb through the portrait hole was anyone’s guess, because his legs had been stuck together with what they recognized at once as the Leg-Locker Curse. He must have had to bunny hop all the way up to Gryffindor tower.

Aurora gasped and hopped out of her seat faster than Hermione and Ron, who was bent at the waist with laughter. Aurora quickly pulled out her wand and over to Neville where she performed the countercurse. His legs sprang apart and his knees buckled. He fell right into Aurora's arms.

“What happened?” Aurora asked him, leading him over to sit with Hermione and Ron, who had stopped laughing at the glare he received from Aurora.

Narcissa saw her son look down in shame, and held back a sigh.

“Malfoy,” said Neville shakily. “I met him outside the library. He said he’d been looking for someone to practice that on.”

“Go to Professor McGonagall!” Hermione urged Neville. “Report him!”

Neville shook his head.

“I don’t want more trouble,” he mumbled.

“You really should have told someone,” Alice and Frank grumbled.

“Oh he’s just as bad about going to adults for help as I am,” Aurora said smugly. The professors in the room just shook their heads sadly. 

“You’ve got to stand up to him, Neville!” said Ron. “He’s used to walking all over people, but that’s no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier.”

“There’s no need to tell me I’m not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy’s already done that,” Neville choked out.

Aurora felt in the pocket of her robes and pulled out a Chocolate Frog, the very last one from the box Amice had given her for Christmas. She gave it to Neville, who looked as though he might cry.

“You’re worth twelve of Malfoy,” Aurora said. “The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, didn’t it? And where’s Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin.” 

“He is showing the worst traits of a Slytherin,” Narcissa said. Draco flinched, and Blaise laughed at the glares that Draco was receiving from his mother and Regulus, as well as the younger Moody.

Neville’s lips twitched in a weak smile as he unwrapped the frog.

“Thanks, Aurora… I think I’ll go to bed… D’you want the card, you collect them, don’t you?”

As Neville walked away, Aurora gave him a quick hug and small smile before she looked at the Famous Wizard card.

“Dumbledore again,” she said, “He was the first one I ever —”

“See,” Remus sighed, “chocolate is the answer to all questions.”

She gasped. She stared at the back of the card. Then she looked up at Ron and Hermione.

“I’ve found him!” she whispered. “I’ve found Flamel! I told you I’d read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here — listen to this: ‘Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon’s blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel’!”

Hermione jumped to her feet. She hadn’t looked so excited since they’d gotten back the marks for their very first piece of homework.

“You are such a prat Aurora Jasmine,” Hermione huffed, sticking her tongue out at her friend.

“Stay there!” she said, and she sprinted up the stairs to the girls’ dormitories. Aurora and Ron barely had time to exchange mystified looks before she was dashing back, an enormous old book in her arms.

“I never thought to look in here!” she whispered excitedly. “I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading.”

“Do we even want to know how big that book was,” Sirius whispered in Aurora’s ear. She grinned up at him and shook her head negatively. He let out a soft huff of laughter before leaning back in his seat again.

“Light?” said Ron, but Hermione told him to be quiet until she’d looked something up, and started flicking frantically through the pages, muttering to herself.

At last she found what she was looking for.

“I knew it! I knew it!”

“Are we allowed to speak yet?” said Ron grumpily. Hermione ignored him.

“Nicolas Flamel,” she whispered dramatically, “is the only known maker of the Philosopher’s Stone!”

This didn’t have quite the effect she’d expected.

“The what?” said Ron.

“But that’s just a myth,” Aurora scowled. She had read about Philosopher’s stones in primary before. 

“They really taught you that in muggle school,” Arthur said.

Hermione shook her head, while Aurora said, “I read it in the library one day before I was told that I couldn’t be in the library during recess. Piers had told on me because I was hiding from Dudley and his gang.”

“Oh, honestly? Look – read that, there.” 

She pushed the book toward them, and Aurora and Ron read:

The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.

There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).

“See?” said Hermione, when Aurora and Ron had finished. “The dog must be guarding Flamel’s Philosopher's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they’re friends and he knew someone was after it, that’s why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!”

“A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!” said Aurora. “No wonder Snape’s after it! Anyone would want it.”

“Except Severus wouldn’t need that to have a fortune,” Regulus said. Severus glared at Regulus.

“He’s the Prince Heir,” Lucius informed.

Aurora shot a small glare at Hermione, before stating, “My deduction skills my first year weren’t the best. Unfortunately he had made himself a target for my blame with his treatment.”

“Besides who would want to live forever,” Sirius grumbled.

“And no wonder we couldn’t find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry,” said Ron. “He’s not exactly recent if he’s six hundred and sixty-five, is he?”

The next morning in Defense Against the Dark Arts, while copying down different ways of treating werewolf bites, Aurora and Ron were still discussing what they’d do with a Philosopher's Stone if they had one. It wasn’t until Ron said he’d buy his own Quidditch team that Aurora remembered about Snape and the coming match.

“I’m going to play,” she told Ron and Hermione. “If I don’t, all the Slytherins will think I’m just too scared to face Snape. I’ll show them… it’ll really wipe the smiles off their faces if we win.”

“Just as long as we’re not wiping you off the field,” said Hermione.

“You’re so cheerful you know that?” James joked.

As the match drew nearer, however, Aurora became more and more nervous, whatever she told Ron and Hermione. The rest of the team wasn’t too calm, either. The idea of overtaking Slytherin in the house championship was wonderful, no one had done it for seven years, but would they be allowed to, with such a biased referee?

Aurora didn’t know whether she was imagining it or not, but she seemed to keep running into Snape wherever she went. At times, she even wondered whether Snape was following her, trying to catch her on her own. Potions lessons were turning into a sort of weekly torture, Snape was so horrible to Aurora.

“Do I want to know,” Lily and Regulus asked. Aurora didn’t even bother replying, they wouldn’t like the answer anyway.

Could Snape possibly know they’d found out about the Philosopher's Stone? Aurora didn’t see how he could — yet she sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.  

Aurora knew, when they wished her good luck outside the locker rooms the next afternoon, that Ron and Hermione were wondering whether they’d ever see her alive again. This wasn’t what you’d call comforting. Aurora hardly heard a word of Wood’s pep talk as she pulled on her Quidditch robes and picked up her Nimbus Two Thousand.

Ron and Hermione, meanwhile, had found a place in the stands next to Neville, who looked just as grim and worried as they did, but couldn’t understand why they had both brought their wands to the match. 

“You should always have your wand on you,” Alastor grunted out. Angry at these children who didn’t understand that they could be cursed at any time.

Little did Aurora know that Ron and Hermione had been secretly practicing the LegLocker Curse. They’d gotten the idea from Malfoy using it on Neville, and were ready to use it on Snape if he showed any sign of wanting to hurt Aurora.

“Now, don’t forget, it’s Locomotor Mortis,” Hermione muttered as Ron slipped his wand up his sleeve.

“I know,” Ron snapped. “Don’t nag.”

“She can’t help it,” Ginny teased. Hermione scowled at her friend for a moment.

Back in the locker room, Wood had taken Aurora aside.

“Don’t want to pressure you, Potter, but if we ever need an early capture of the Snitch it’s now. Finish the game before Snape can favor Hufflepuff too much.”

“The whole school’s out there!” said Fred Weasley, peering out of the door. “Even — blimey — Dumbledore’s come to watch!”

Aurora’s heart did a somersault.

“Dumbledore?” she said, dashing to the door to make sure. Fred was right. There was no mistaking that silver beard.

“Except when it's charmed to flash different colors,” Sirius laughed.

“I knew that was you four,” McGonagall scolded.

“Why didn’t George and I ever think of that,” Fred shouted.

“You were too busy inventing things. Besides you made something very similar to that that you sell,” Aurora soothed.

Aurora could have laughed out loud with relief, she was safe. There was simply no way that Snape would dare to try to hurt her if Dumbledore was watching.

Perhaps that was why Snape was looking so angry as the teams marched onto the field, something that Ron noticed, too.

“I’ve never seen Snape look so mean,” he told Hermione. “Look — they’re off. Ouch!”

Someone had poked Ron in the back of the head. It was Malfoy.

“Oh, sorry, Weasley, didn’t see you there.”

“Did you seriously go to the other side of the stadium stands to taunt Weasley,” Blasie laughed.

Malfoy grinned broadly at Crabbe and Goyle. 

“Wonder how long Potter’s going to stay on her broom this time? Anyone want a bet? What about you, Weasley?”

Ron didn’t answer; Snape had just awarded Hufflepuff a penalty because George Weasley had hit a Bludger at him. Hermione, who had all her fingers crossed in her lap, was squinting fixedly at Aurora, who was circling the game like a hawk, looking for the Snitch.

“You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?” said Malfoy loudly a few minutes later, as Snape awarded Hufflepuff another penalty for no reason at all. “It’s people they feel sorry for. See, there’s Potter, who’s got no parents, then there’s the Weasleys, who’ve got no money — you should be on the team, Longbottom, you’ve got no brains.”

Amice smacked Draco upside his head. “You know that’s not true. Neville is plenty smart, and since you were only sharing one class with him there is no way that you would know how talented he is in anything other than the one class where the teacher makes him a nervous wreck.”

“Also you are one to talk about how a team chooses its players,” Aurora added, raising an eyebrow at the blonde. Draco blushed beet red.

Neville went bright red but turned in his seat to face Malfoy.

“I’m worth twelve of you, Malfoy,” he stammered.

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle howled with laughter, but Ron, still not daring to take his eyes from the game, said, “You tell him, Neville.”

“You tell him Neville,” Remus cheered.

“Longbottom, if brains were gold you’d be poorer than Weasley, and that’s saying something.”

Ron’s nerves were already stretched to the breaking point with anxiety about Aurora.

“I’m warning you, Malfoy — one more word—”

“Ron!” said Hermione suddenly, “Aurora —”

“What? Where?”

Aurora had suddenly gone into a spectacular dive, which drew gasps and cheers from the crowd.

Hermione stood up, her crossed fingers in her mouth, as Aurora streaked toward the ground like a bullet.

“You’re in luck, Weasley, Potter’s obviously spotted some money on the ground!” said Malfoy.

“Or she has spotted the snitch and the game is over,” Narcissa stated. Once more getting irritated at her son's attitude. She made a note to spend more time with him as a child than his father, she was obviously going to have to curb some of the Malfoy tendencies.

Ron snapped. Before Malfoy knew what was happening, Ron was on top of him, wrestling him to the ground. Neville hesitated, then clambered over the back of his seat to help.

“Come on, Aurora!” Hermione screamed, leaping onto her seat to watch as Aurora sped straight at Snape — she didn’t even notice Malfoy and Ron rolling around under her seat, or the scuffles and yelps coming from the whirl of fists that was Neville, Crabbe, and Goyle. 

“How did you not notice that,” Columba asked.

“I was focused on the game.”

“But you don’t even like Quidditch that much,” Ginny pointed out.

“There is something about watching Aurora play though that is hypnotizing.”

“It’s true,” Fred added. “Outside of games, when she is just flying, you can’t take your eyes off of her. She looks so at peace with the world, as if she belongs in the sky.”

Up in the air, Snape turned on his broomstick just in time to see something scarlet shoot past him, missing him by inches — the next second, Aurora had pulled out of the dive, her arm raised in triumph, the Snitch clasped in her hand.

“That couldn’t have been more than five minutes,” Regulus said in awe, as James and Sirius cheered in the background.

“Five minutes and six seconds,” Amice stated.

The Black brothers both whistled, impressed.

“What was the record before that,” James asked. “Right now it’s Thirty-eight minutes and thirteen seconds. Regulus holds that one.”

“Charlie broke it with a thirty-three minute fourty-two second catch,” Fred answered.

“That's amazing,” Lily said, smiling proudly at her daughter.

The stands erupted; it had to be a record, no one could ever remember the Snitch being caught so quickly.

“Ron! Ron! Where are you? The game’s over! Aurora’s won! We’ve won! Gryffindor is in the lead!” shrieked Hermione, dancing up and down on her seat and hugging Parvati Patil in the row in front.

Ginny, Luna and Amice fake gagged.

Aurora jumped off her broom, a foot from the ground. She couldn’t believe it. She’d done it — the game was over; it had barely lasted five minutes. As Gryffindors came spilling onto the field, she saw Snape land nearby, white-faced and tight-lipped — then Aurora felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into Dumbledore’s smiling face.

“Well done,” said Dumbledore quietly, so that only Aurora could hear. “Nice to see you haven’t been brooding about that mirror… been keeping busy… excellent…”

Snape spat bitterly on the ground.

“Don’t be like that Sev,” Lily teased, trying to draw him out of the funk that this book, and the last several years, had put him in. She really did want her friend back, but she had to know that she could trust him to have her back, and not choose Voldemort’s side in the war.

As Aurora was walking to the locker room, she was approached by the Hufflepuff seeker, his hair wind-swept. ‘He has a girlfriend,’ she kept repeating in her head, and no matter how hot he looked fresh off his broom there was no way that he would be interested in her. Her thought’s happened to mirror his own in a way. He thought that she was super cute with her flushed cheeks and her plait mussed, but that she would never see him as more than a friend.

“Why would he think that,” Columba asked. “Aurora is very obvious with her feelings about him.”

“She really wasn’t,” Amice sighed. “I mean there were times when her crush was obvious, but then other times it was like there was a brick wall in the way of her feelings and everyone else.”

“It probably didn’t help that she was being pulled in two directions,” Neville said. “And both of those were two of her friends' older brothers.”

“And with Cedric with Cho, she had to keep reminding herself that he was off limits,” Hermione added. She had a little more insight into Aurora’s thought’s first and second year because she shared a dorm with her.

Aurora just tuned out of the conversation, staring at Fred. She could see the toll that all this was taking on him, and she really didn’t know what to do to comfort him. 

“Good game,” Cedric said as a way of greeting.

“The best,” Aurora blushed.

“Pretty close there for a minute,” Cedric teased.

“Nah, I had you beat before we were even in the air,” she laughed.

“That you did,” Cedric laughed. Before Aurora could say anything else, Cedric got a mischievous glint in his eye and swept her up off her feet, lifting her over his head, his hands around her waist, twirling her around in a circle. Aurora put her arms on his shoulders, laughing and squealing. “You did amazing up there,” Cedric said, dropping her lower to give her a hug, her feet still off the ground.

Aurora leaned into the hug, inhaling his earthy scent, “Thank you. It felt amazing too.”

Cedric finally released her, seeming rather reluctant. “I’ll see you later Rory,” he said, not looking at her, but glaring at something behind her.

Fred got up and quickly left the room. Aurora hopped up from her spot in front of her parents and rushed after him. “Keep reading,” she said as she raced after Fred. The couple's parents stared after them worried before focusing back on the book.

“Bye Ced,” Aurora replied, turning to see what he was looking at as she headed to the locker room, but there was nothing there.

“So it was probably Fred then,” James and Arthur both sighed.

Aurora left the locker room alone some time later, to take her Nimbus Two Thousand back to the broomshed. She couldn’t ever remember feeling happier. She’d really done something to be proud of now – no one could say she was just a famous name any more. 

The evening air had never smelled so sweet. She walked over the damp grass, reliving the last hour in her head, which was a happy blur: Gryffindors running to lift her onto their shoulders; Ron and Hermione in the distance, jumping up and down, Ron cheering through a heavy nosebleed.

Aurora had reached the shed. She leaned against the wooden door and looked up at Hogwarts, with its windows glowing red in the setting sun. Gryffindor in the lead. She’d done it, she’d shown Snape…

“I don’t think you needed to show him by almost ramming him in your race for the snitch,” Regulus laughed.

And speaking of Snape…

A hooded figure came swiftly down the front steps of the castle. Clearly not wanting to be seen, it walked as fast as possible toward the forbidden forest. Aurora’s victory faded from her mind as she watched. She recognized the figure’s prowling walk. Snape, sneaking into the forest while everyone else was at dinner — what was going on?

“If he had a hood on how did she know who it was,” Amelia asked. 

“She pays attention to that type of thing,” Ron said, shrugging. He had no idea how his best friend knew some of the things that she knew, he just chalked it up to how her brain worked and didn’t ask questions.

Aurora jumped back on her Nimbus Two Thousand and took off. Gliding silently over the castle she saw Snape enter the forest at a run. She followed. The trees were so thick she couldn’t see where Snape had gone. She flew in circles, lower and lower, brushing the top branches of trees until she heard voices. She glided toward them and landed noiselessly in a towering beech tree.

She climbed carefully along one of the branches, holding tight to her broomstick, trying to see through the leaves.

Below, in a shadowy clearing, stood Snape, but he wasn’t alone. Quirrell was there, too. Aurora couldn’t make out the look on his face, but he was stuttering worse than ever. Aurora strained to catch what they were saying.

“… d-don’t know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus…”

“Oh, I thought we’d keep this private,” said Snape, his voice icy. “Students aren’t supposed to know about the Philosopher's Stone, after all.”

“What are you doing Sev,” Regulus asked his friend quietly. He knew that Severus wasn’t after the stone, but this was going to cement the idea that he was even further in Aurora’s mind.

“He’s probably the one after the stone,” Severus whispered to Regulus in reply, having put together some of the clues from the book and how the time travelers acted when Quirrell was mentioned.

Aurora leaned forward. Quirrell was mumbling something. Snape interrupted him.

“Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid’s yet?”

“B-b-but Severus, I —”

“You don’t want me as your enemy, Quirrell,” said Snape, taking a step toward him.

“I-I don’t know what you—”

“You know perfectly well what I mean.”

An owl hooted loudly, and Aurora nearly fell out of the tree. She steadied herself in time to hear Snape say, “— your little bit of hocus-pocus. I’m waiting.”

“Well that owl chose a horrible time to cover up what you were saying,” Lily teased.

Severus snorted, “Yes it did.”

“B-but I d-d-don’t —”

“Very well,” Snape cut in. “We’ll have another little chat soon, when you’ve had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie.”

He threw his cloak over his head and strode out of the clearing. It was almost dark now, but Aurora could see Quirrell, standing quite still as though he was petrified.

“Aurora, where have you been?” Hermione squeaked. “Were you with Cedric?”

“He has a girlfriend Hermione,” Aurora said, repeating herself to her friend for what felt like the hundredth time. 

“We won! You won! We won!” shouted Ron, thumping Aurora on the back. “And I gave Malfoy a black eye, and Neville tried to take on Crabbe and Goyle single-handed! He’s still out cold but  Madam Pomfrey says he’ll be all right — 

“Oh I really wish you wouldn’t have fought them,” Alice whimpered.

“I was fine, mum. Honestly.”

talk about showing Slytherin! Everyone’s waiting for you in the common room, we’re having a party, Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchens.”

“Never mind that now,” said Aurora breathlessly. “Let’s find an empty room, you wait ’til you hear this…”

She made sure Peeves wasn’t inside before shutting the door behind them, then she told them what she’d seen and heard.

“So we were right, it is the Philosopher's Stone, and Snape’s trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy — and he said something about Quirrell’s ‘hocus pocus’ — I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through —”

“So you mean the Stone’s only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?” said Hermione in alarm.

“It’ll be gone by next Tuesday,” said Ron. 

“That’s not a very nice thing to say Ron,” Molly lightly scolded

Ron shrugged, not bothering to reply. She would learn soon that Quirrell wasn’t who he was pretending to be.

“That was the end of the chapter,” Flitwick said. “Shall we take a quick break to wait for Miss Potter and Mr. Weasley to return?” As soon as he finished the question, snacks appeared on the tables again.

Meanwhile with Fred and Aurora - 

“Fred!” Aurora yelled, catching up with him as he got to their bedroom. “Don’t please,” she pleaded, wrapping her arms around him from the back, burying her face in his back.

“Was Neville right?” Fred whispered. 

Aurora sighed, giving Fred a squeeze before walking around so she could see his face. “If I had thought you and Cedric would go for it I would have asked to have you both. Trying to choose one of you was like choosing only half of my heart.”

“I would have agreed,” Fred whimpered, tears in his eyes. “I would have agreed to anything.”

Aurora looked down in shame, she knew he was telling the truth because he did agree to anything she had asked for in the year between Cedric’s death and them finally making their relationship official. He let her use him any way she wanted, and didn’t say a thing when she would try and hook up with other guys or girls right in front of him, not that he knew she never followed through with those other people. “I know you would have,” Aurora sighed. “And I know Cedric probably would have as well, but a part of me didn’t want to share either of you with each other too.”

“Oh Ray,” Fred said, pulling her into a hug. “I just don’t understand, I guess. You were planning on marrying him, even at 14, but you won’t marry me.”

“The two times you’ve asked, you’ve made it seem like a competition that Cedric can’t win because he’s dead. I want you to ask me to marry you because you love me and want to spend the rest of our lives together, not ask me because Cedric did when he was 17 and I was 14 and we were scared of the tournament that I had been forced into.”

The tears finally fell from both of their eyes. “I never meant to make you feel that way Aurora. You are my life, and I can’t even remember a time that I didn’t love you. I want to marry you so that the world knows that as well. So that we can start our family and so that I can help you officially with the burden of being Lady Potter-Black, Head of Houses Potter, Black, Gryffindor and Slytherin.”

The tears fell harder for Aurora. “Ask me,” she choked out, sobs rising in her throat.

Fred looked at her in amazement for a moment before he got on one knee and pulled out the ring that he had been carrying around with him for three years. “I love you Aurora Potter-Black. You make me feel like I can do anything just by being around you. You are the bravest, craziest, most powerful person I know, and I would like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life making yours even crazier. Will you do me the honor of allowing me to become your husband?” He opened the ring box, showing a beautiful engagement ring. It had a marquise center diamond, surrounded by emeralds in a swirl design followed by pave set round diamonds and filigree designs around the band. 

Aurora couldn’t hold back her sobs, and simply nodded her head holding out her hand. Fred slipped the ring on swiftly, kissing the back of it once it was in place on her finger. “Sirius gave me this shortly before he died. He said it was the Black Family ring.”

The two continued to bask in each other's presence for a few more minutes before rejoining the others, who had continued to read in their absence.

As soon as they walked back into the room, Hermione and Ginny squealed, and raced to Aurora, enveloping her in a hug, pulling her away from Fred. Fred laughed, walking over to his brother who smiled at him and gave him a wink.

Alice and Lily spotted the addition to Aurora’s finger and smiled at the couple. “Congratulations you two,” Lily said, smiling at them.

“Thank you,” Fred said, as Aurora was still being bombarded with questions by his sister and Hermione.

Aurora finally detached herself from the girls and ran to Sirius giving him a huge hug, “Thank you for always knowing what I need before I even do.” Chuckling at his confused face she headed back over to her original spot, and curled into Fred’s side.

Most others in the room had clued into what happened between the couple and offered up their congratulations as well, while Narcissa who had caught a glimpse of the ring glared at the girl that she had come to like. She had begged Arcturus to let Lucius have the ring, but he wouldn’t budge, saying that it was up to the next Lord Black who would receive it. So she had asked Orion, who had said that he had already given it to Sirius, which she didn’t understand as Walburga had basically disowned Sirius at that point. 

James and Sirius still seemed confused as to what was going on. “He proposed,” their girlfriends told them. 

“With the Black Family ring,” Narcissa said, not hiding her jealousy at all. Sirius smirked, he knew how badly his cousin wanted that ring, and while he had been hoping to give in to Marlene in the next couple years, he couldn’t think of a person more worthy of it than Aurora. 

Not wanting an argument to break out, Amice quickly grabbed the book from where it had been set, “Break’s over, let’s read. CHAPTER FOURTEEN Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback”