𝙫𝙤𝙞𝙙. // 𝙜.𝙬𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙮

.xxxv.

"And you kissed him?"
"-shhhhh, keep your voice down!"
"Are you out of your mind?"
"-Daphne, can you just stop howling?"
"Yeah, I'll stop howling so you can go ahead and make excuses for his crappy behaviour"
"-I'm not making excu-"
"It's toxic, Aurora!"

Aurora released an angry huff of air through her nostrils as the fellow Slytherin girl walked beside her towards the Great Hall when she was suddenly pulled by someone into a corner. A yelp of surprise released from Aurora's lips as her eyes tried to adjust to the dark and at first she thought it was Draco but it was just George. Just George and her, crammed in a dark corner of the castle for some unknown reason. George took a deep breath and pushed his hair back while trying to regain his breath and calm his pants. Red patches had appeared on his freckled cheeks when Aurora held up her wand, tip alight, illuminating both their faces. 
"G, what's going on?" she asked confusedly, still not being able to connect the dots as to why he would drag her with him. 
"Fred and I just pranked Umbridge and we decided to run in different directions to confuse her. I suppose this will be the fastest way to the Great Hall" he said with a bit of a chuckle, making Aurora follow suit as she slightly shook her head at him and followed him towards an opening. 

She had reached the Great Hall within five minutes, whereas the route that she was taking would have taken longer than that and numerous steps to climb down which would wear down her energy even more. She was already tired from the amount of work, early morning and late night patrols. She was glad that George had found her and dragged her along with him, so no further questions were asked and she contentedly walked with him towards the Gryffindor table. Her stomach gave a loud grumble when the smell of delicious food wafted through the air and made George stop in his steps and turn to her. 
"Was that...your stomach?" he asked airily, making the brunette girl's cheeks flush in embarrassment. 
"Can you blame me? I am actually starving" she said breathily and caught up to him as he slung his arm around her shoulder and walked to the bench where he could see Harry and the rest of the group sitting along with Fred. 

Aurora inhaled a long breath of the food in front of her the moment she sat down using her hands as though to turn the scent towards her as the others watched her laced with incredulous amusement. 
"Ah" she said contentedly, filling her plate with the juicy beef steak in front of her, "Oh, so beautiful and charming"
At this, everyone snickered and one by one started filling up their plates with foods and then fell silent. 
"So, Harry, did you decide then?" Hermione squeaked excitedly, eyes flashing brightly and everyone's attention turned towards the bespectacled boy. Harry stayed silent for a moment, Aurora could feel him turning hot under their stares and rested a reassuring hand over his own. 
"Yes and I'll do it" he said after a long moment's pause. A grin broke out on Hermione's face and Ron thumped Harry's back, Aurora was beaming and then Fred and George started ramming the table. The loud sound caused Umbridge to come down to the Gryffindor table towards their end, nostrils flaring. 
"What is all this noise about? And in the presence of three Prefects" she said shrilly, eyeing Ron, Hermione and Aurora rather sharply. 
"Sorry, Professor, couldn't help ourselves"  Fred said on what sounded like  a mock-nice manner. 

"And you, Miss Potter" she continued while turning to the green-eyed girl, "We need to have a word later this evening." 
With that, she stocked off towards the Staff Table and Aurora leaned back in as they all started discussing where they would be meeting or how many people would be included.  

With the month ending, and a new one starting. Quidditch matches were also closing in. Aurora had never felt more in conflict with herself before than she was feeling now. The front of her robes where there usually was a Prefect's badge held another just beneath it that Umbridge had given to her a few days ago. She along with some other Slytherins were now supposed to be policing, as she thought, other people who disobeyed the rules. Well, they were mostly Umbridge's rules as she had now made herself the High Inquisitor and Aurora had to see more of her than usual. 

The new Inquisitorial Squad badge took away many of Aurora's and privileges and the old toad's words were always rolling in her head like a record tape on loop.
"This way we'll keep an eye on your brother as well. We don't want him causing any troubles and you're far more mature than he is" she had said.  The nerve of her to think that Aurora would betray her own twin brother just because a wretched woman wanted to practice control over Hogwarts and turn it into a Ministry controlled school. She just hoped that Hermione would come up with a place for them to have their first meeting soon so they could start using spells against Umbridge. 

With a deep sigh, Aurora slumped into the arm chair in front of the crackling fire of the Gryffindor Common Room. Lately, she didn't even feel like returning to the dungeons which had caused even more tension between her and Draco but she didn't mind because she had George for company almost all the time. 

"That's the fifth time you've sighed in the last ten minutes" George pointed out airily, sitting down in front of her legs and leaning against them while Fred had gone to the kitchens with Lee Jordan. Probably to sneak in some food. 
"Well, I'm absolutely bored and there's nothing to do" she said miserably, moving her hand so that her fingers had nonchalantly tangled in George's ginger hair. 
"We could always take a stroll across the castle" he suggested like it was the most obvious thing. Aurora slightly tugged at his hair so she could turn his head back to look at her.
"And get you into detention because of me with that old hag. No, thank you" she said with an amused smile and untangled her fingers from his hair, to lean back with another sigh. George took this as his cue and stood up so that he could face her and held his hand out for her to take.  The brunette girl eyed it curiously and very slowly took it, making the ginger-haired boy lead the way, dragging her out of the portrait hole. 

"George, where are we going?" Aurora hissed, no matter how quiet her voice was; the castle was so silent that she could feel it bouncing off the walls. 
"Just come with me" he said, turning to her slightly with one of his mischievous smile. Aurora was feeling scared but at the same time she felt weirdly exhilarated, it was just how it was when she was with George. But a pit was forming in her stomach, she didn't want to get caught not because she would be in detention but she didn't want George to get caught. He didn't even know how awful Umbridge's detentions were and that writing lines was actually opening and closing your skin with an invisible scalpel till your hand was scarred. She wanted to keep it that way. A familiar drawling voice reached her ears, she recognised it at once and it was followed by another voice that she loathed with every atom in her body. 

She grabbed George by the elbow and the two hid in a dark opening, with just enough space for them to send facing each other with one turning their head to the other side or their lips would have crashed. Aurora turned her head while George's faced her, so close that the tip of his nose was almost touching her temple. 
"Potter and his stupid Weasel. I'll teach them both a lesson, can't even stand a chance against me at Quidditch with those ballerina moves" Draco's sneering voice sounded, followed by a titter from Pansy. 
"Oh, Draco, you're the best" she crooned as their voices started to grow closer which meant they would be crossing this path to get to the dungeons. Aurora's jaw clenched and unclenched, she wanted to step out but she couldn't, she couldn't because of George. 

The voices were fading away and suddenly she felt how close George was to her when she felt his warm breath caressing her face. He was awfully quiet, it was weird because they would be making jokes no matter who was passing by. The urge to turn her face towards him was painful and she couldn't hold it back. Very slowly, she turned and saw that there was no distance between them at all and George was slightly crouched because the roof was too low for his height. She remembered when the exact same thing had happened just the previous year. George had to support himself so that he brought up his hands and placed them on either side of her, their eyes almost at the same level and unblinking as though afraid of what might happen if one or the other blinked. 

"Do you think they're gone?" Aurora whispered, finding herself unable to speak. It was like with every passing second, she thought she saw George leaning in closer and her giving into him. Maybe, everyone was right. We probably were more than just friends. Why would I feel so nervous being crammed up to him if he was just my best friend? Maybe I should just be with him. But I think I'm growing too fond of Draco despite how awful he was, he was caring towards me. That was all she was thinking about. 
"I think so" George replied in an equally quiet voice, "Let's get out."
Just like that, all the tension was broken and they continued their journey but this time, it was back to their respective Common Rooms because they were meeting at a pub in Hogsmeade tomorrow anyway. 


⟺
 

"Oh, Lord! I'll see you back at the castle for dinner, all right?"
"-yeah, okay"

"Did you know that  your sister hangs out with Malfoy? Who's to know that she won't rat you out?" Zacahrias Smith said spitefully as they all gathered at the Hog's Head pub, waiting for Aurora. 
"She's a prefect! She doesn't hang out with him" Harry retaliated hotly, he had been growing tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. He was also growing impatient, tapping his foot against the floor. 
"You probably don't know her well then" Zacharias Smith piped up but this time, George was the one who spoke. 
"All right, mate. You don't want to be here then there's the door" he said angrily while pointing at the door from where Aurora was entering, unaware that she was being discussed as all eyes turned towards her. Her spirited smile slightly faltered when she saw the frowns on some of their faces as though they were unhappy to see her there. She slowly walked towards the group and sat between Ron and George who was now passing her a cold bottle of Butterbeer. The tension in the room seemed to thicken as no one spoke but kept on glancing at her. 

"Am I not invited? Should I leave?" she said a bit airily trying to loosen the air but then Hermione exhaled a deep breath. 
"Anyway, we have to decide where we're supposed to practice" she said in a voice slightly higher than usual which unraveled the tension as they had something else to discuss. 
 "We can't practice in the library without Madam Pince breathing down our neck" Aurora added when someone suggested the library and murmurs of agreement rang through the group. She was surprised to see how many people had turned up and realised that she was the only Slytherin there, maybe that's why she earned the stares. Maybe they didn't trust her but she never gave them any reason to not trust her. 

She was glad to step out of the pub with Fred and George once the meeting was over. Quidditch was closing in and that's all that they could talk about but Aurora had something else on her mind. 
"Did something happen before I arrived?" Aurora asked Fred as they entered Honeyduke's. She knew that Fred would tell her no matter how bad it was but if she were to ask George, he would probably brush it off if it was about her. 
"Something stupid about you hanging out with Malfoy" Fred told her nonchalantly, Aurora stopped in her tracks, eyes widened. This was worst than what she had expected, she should have been more careful but they never did anything in public. Neither wanted to disclose the relationship but then that would explain why Harry kept on glancing at her the entire time.
"Oh, don't worry. He was a stupid bloke anyway" Fred said, looping his arm around her shoulder and dragging her towards the shelf full of cockroach clusters. 
"Oh, bother. Did Harry say something?" she asked, suddenly becoming more conscious but Fred looked too busy picking out bottles of cockroach clusters.  

"No but Rori, do you know why I'm buying these?" he asked while picking up a jar from the shelf, making Aurora shake her head, "So I can stuff them in that boy's mouth"
Aurora released a short laugh as she shook her head at him and joined George and Lee who were stuffing paper bags with God knows what. 
"For you" George said with a smile while passing her a licorice wand, a smile that indicated that he had some sort of trick up his sleeve along with his brother.