Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Wyatt groaned as he felt the suns’ golden rays on his face, gently and firmly urging his return to consciousness. With a frown, he opened his eyes, groaning slightly at the cool air and the slight weight leaning against him. Looking to his side, he saw Aurelia sleeping with her head on his chest and his arm around her, both of them having shifted during the night until they were lying flat on the blanket rather than sitting up against the wall.
He glanced at his watch and his eyes widened as he swore.
“Lia. Lia. Wake-up. It’s already 7:30.” Wyatt said as he shook the younger girl. He had taken to calling her that half way through their conversation the previous night and it had just stuck.
Her eyes snapped open as she looked at him with her unseeing eyes.
“You’re sure?” she asked, sitting up and stretching.
“Yeah. We have to get to our rooms and change before going down to breakfast and hoping no-one misses us.”
“Though knowing our luck, they’ll know we hadn’t come to bed nor that we had returned to our rooms last night.” Aurelia muttered as she stood up.
Once they had changed into fresh clothes, Aurelia having called and asked Kreacher to get them their clothes, and her shades, from their rooms, they left the Tower, resuming their conversation from the night before. They flew down to a window on the first floor, and after using Alohomora to open it, they went in and Wyatt closed the window as Aurelia retracted her wings.
“This one time I scared away my mothers’ dates by manipulating the orbs to appear around my eyes.” Wyatt said as they continued their way to the Great Hall for breakfast, completely unaware of the stares and gawks they were receiving from the few students that were in the corridors.
Aurelia burst out laughing, her peals of musical laughter echoed through the corridor, mixed with Wyatt’s own deeper peals.
“How did your mother react when she found out?” she asked once she had stopped laughing.
“She asked, ‘Did your father teach you to do that?’” he replied with a laugh as they entered the Great Hall, causing everyone present to stop and stare at the pair. Aurelia laughed again, turning to the Gryffindor table, Wyatt following her. “What about you? Any crazy things you did to scare away potential dates?”
“Not really.” Aurelia admitted as they sat down and began filling their plates, nodding in greeting to their shocked friends and classmates (not that they were aware of the shock or that they were the cause) before beginning to eat at a relatively quick pace. “When Dad finally started dating again, we came to an agreement that I wouldn’t officially meet any of them unless he felt that there is the possibility of a future with that person. The same was with Uncle Remus and Uncle Severus, at least for the short time that Uncle Severus dated other people before he began dating Aunt Emmaline. Although, it was mostly because the excitement and drama over my being the Girl-Who-Lived was at an all-time high.”
“I take it that it wasn’t very long after Halloween?” Wyatt asked, being sensitive to the topic as she understood what he was talking about.
“A few years, I was about 5 or so.” Aurelia confirmed as they finished eating and stood up. “What class do you have right now?”
“Care of Magical Creatures.” Wyatt replied.
“Okay, you have dragon-hide gloves?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You’re very likely going to need them.” Aurelia said seriously.
“Why?” he asked, slightly worried.
“Blast-Ended Skrewts.” Ron said from the table, having regained his bearings like the rest of the school and resumed finishing his meal.
“Huh?” this came from Chris, who was sitting beside Ginny, Cedric and Luna at the Hufflepuff table.
“They’re sort off like a cross between giant scorpions and elongated crabs.” Aurelia explained as best she could, since she’s never actually seen them and had to go on the explanations of her classmates.
“Giant scorpions and elongated crabs.” Wyatt repeated disbelievingly, earning a nod from Aurelia and the other Fourth Years. “Really, Lia?”
“Yup.” Aurelia replied cheerfully, nodding her head as she grabbed his hand and they walked out of the Hall, now followed by the other Fourth Years as well as Chris.
Up at the Staff Table, Leo and Piper exchanged looks when they heard what their son had called Aurelia. If there had been any doubt in their minds the night before, there definitely wasn’t any now; the markings on her face, being a Star, looking like a younger version of the woman that they had met, and now the nickname, made them absolutely certain that this was the girl that would fall in love with and marry their son. When the two had entered, talking and laughing, the entire staff – guests and hosts alike – where shocked speechless just as the students. It wasn’t the fact that they were talking, since they had already expressed a desire to be friends, it was the way the young girl was shining. She was shining so brightly, she had nearly blinded half the Hall, though Wyatt had been completely unaware of it as they continued their conversation.
Albus gave a serene smile as he watched his grand-daughter lead her year-mates out of the Hall to their class with Hagrid. He had been just as surprised as the rest when Wyatt and Aurelia entered together, how brightly the girl was shining and the way they both seemed completely unaware of it, as well as the massive shock they had delivered to everyone. When he had heard what Wyatt had called her, he raised an eyebrow in surprise, a move mirrored by the rest of the Hogwarts staff. In much the same way that Nymphadora Tonks refused to allow anyone but Remus to call her by her first name (not even her parents), Aurelia had made it well known from a very early age that she would not accept anyone shortening her name, she didn’t mind the nicknames they had for her, but she would not accept any change to the name her birth parents had given her. In fact, she would become quite frightening towards anyone who would attempt it. The mere fact that she allowed this young man to shorten her name and use it freely was quite telling in itself, even if neither were aware of it, the same way that Remus was unaware of the reason Tonks would allow him to use her full first name.
When the Fourth Years, plus Wyatt and Chris, reached Hagrid’s cabin, they found the large gentle man already waiting for them with the large crates. There was a collective groan from the class as they caught the sounds of the scuttling from within the crates as Wyatt and Chris eyed them nervously.
“Right, everyone. Gather roun’. Gather roun’.” Hagrid called to the large group, who reluctantly moved slightly closer as he began to explain that the reason the skrewts had been killing one another was an excess of pent-up energy, and that the solution would be for each student to fix a leash on a skrewt and take it for a short walk.
“Take them for a walk.” Draco repeated disbelievingly before turning to Aurelia and pleaded. “Aurelia please use your Song on them. Please, please, please.” By the end, he looked ready to go on his knees and beg, an expression mirrored by the rest of the class.
“I already tried, remember? When we were first introduced to them and then again a few weeks ago.” Aurelia reminded them patiently. “They are immune to my Song.”
“That’s what I don’t get.” Ernie said, making everyone turn to him. “Why doesn’t it work on the skrewts?”
“It didn’t work on the Dementors, either.” Pansy Parkinson, a Fourth Year Slytherin, pointed out.
“Thanks for the vivid reminder, Parkinson.” Aurelia said with a shudder as Wyatt out an arm around her shoulder.
If she hadn’t managed to cast her Patronus in the nick of time, she would’ve been Kissed by the Dementors back in June, a thought that still gave her nightmares on occasion.
“Song?” Chris asked his brother as several students glared at Pansy who shrugged apologetically.
“It’s similar to a Siren’s Song that works on married males, but this is something that works on magical creatures.” Wyatt replied softly. “It doesn’t lure them or anything the way a Siren’s Song would, rather it would calm and sooth them.”
Chris nodded in understanding as Draco reluctantly turned back to Hagrid.
“Where exactly are we supposed to fix the leash? Around the sting, the blasting end, or the sucker?” the pure-blood asked, only half sarcastic.
“Roun’ the middle.” Hagrid replied as he demonstrated, missing the sarcasm. “Er — yeh might want ter put on yer dragon-hide gloves, jus’ as an extra precaution, like. Aurelia — you come here an’ help me with this big one. . . .”
Aurelia nodded as she joined Hagrid and helped him, though his real intention was to talk to her away from the rest of the class. He waited until everyone had set off with their skrewts, some pairing up with each other, then turned to her and said, very seriously, “So — yer competin’, Aurelia. In the tournament. School Champion.”
“One of the school Champions.” Aurelia corrected, standing gracefully on a mid-sized pole so she could be at the same height as the towering man.
Hagrid looked at the tiny young girl, radiating the anxiousness his beetle-black eyes were expressing under his wild eyebrows.
“No idea who put yer in fer it?”
“You believe I didn’t do it?” Aurelia asked, managing with difficulty to conceal the rush of gratitude she felt at her oldest friends’ words. What mattered the most to her was not that the school believed her, but rather that those she loved believed her.
“’Course I do,” Hagrid grunted. “Yeh say it wasn’ you, an’ I believe yeh — an’ Dumbledore believes yer, an’ all. An’ yer a terrible liar.”
His last sentence earned him a laugh before the girl sobered up and gazed off in the distance, listening to the songs of the birds and the winds as they passed her by.
“I wish I knew who did do it.” She said softly after a few moments, her voice slightly bitter.
Hagrid didn’t say anything, knowing he wouldn’t be able to any more for the precious girl than he already was – believing her and believing in her. Instead, he looked out over the lawn as Aurelia listened to the sounds of the class; they were widely scattered now, and all in great difficulty. The skrewts were now over three feet long, and extremely powerful. No longer shell-less and colorless, they had developed a kind of thick, grayish, shiny armor. Like Aurelia had told Wyatt after breakfast, they looked like a cross between giant scorpions and elongated crabs — but still without recognizable heads or eyes. They had become immensely strong and very hard to control.
“Seem like they’re havin’ fun, don’ they?” Hagrid said happily. Aurelia assumed he was talking about the skrewts, because if the cries of frustration and the swearing was anything to go by, her classmates certainly weren’t; every now and then, with an alarming bang, one of the skrewts’ ends would explode, causing it to shoot forward several yards, and more than one person was being dragged along on their stomach, trying desperately to get back on their feet.
“Ah, I don’ know, Aurelia,” Hagrid sighed suddenly after several minutes of silence, looking back at the young girl standing on the wooden pole with a worried expression on his face. “School champion . . . everythin’ seems ter happen ter you, doesn’ it?”
Aurelia didn’t answer as the class slowly made their way back to them, many in desperate need of salves for bruising and a few even needing for minor burns. Once the skrewts were back in their crates, Wyatt and Chris healed everyone and each other. Aurelia jumped off the pole, landing elegantly on her feet, and they made their way back up to the castle for their next class with waves back at Hagrid.