Invisible String

5.

Aurora stopped as Harry looked up at her, awaiting the words to come afterwards. She said too much.

"...handy with erm, nightmares. Since I assume you get those a lot. Hopefully it works."

Harry weakly smiled and stood back up.

"It's amazing, thank you Aurora. Though it might come off as childish to be sleeping next to a teddy bear of this size at my age..." Harry laughed, picking up the bear and putting it on the couch. He sat next to it and cuddled it.

"I will never understand why people think being childish is a bad thing! Your adolescence should be the most cherished era of your life. There is simply nothing wrong with appreciating it," Aurora seized both plates of pasta from the nearby table, and sat next to Harry, offering him his.

"If we weren't so busy unravelling a bloody war, I wouldn't mind sleeping next to stuffed animals and having snowball fights and..." She trailed off, realising how depressing the conversation was getting.

They both sat and ate their food, looking out of the window that was in front of them. It was briskly snowing; the fireplace had kept them warm. But nothing was as warm as the presence of one another.

After an hour, Aurora declared that she must depart to go see one last person before the end of the day.

"Aw, I thought maybe... we'd spend the night together again. It's really nice, you know, spending time with you..." Harry placed his hand on top of Aurora's, "...every night I've spent with you I don't get nightmares. I don't know if it's the change of environment or if it's you, but I feel a whole lot better. Thanks for that, by the way."

Aurora smiled at his comment. "It's neither of those, actually. Well maybe it's the latter. I do this thing to relax your mind; the same thing I've made the bear do. Rather not dream at all then have nightmares, yeah?"

Harry figured she had been doing something, and then realised that she may be capable of even more.

"Do you, erm, know how to do Occlumency? And all the things to do with that?" He asked.

"Yes. I do. Learnt it very early on. I can help you practice, if you wish. R... dad told me you're taking lessons with Severus. I assume he's not giving you a good time," said Aurora, laughing.

"Severus, huh? Friends, are you?" They both laughed at this. "But I don't know, I'll let you know, I guess. It's enough that I have him breaching my mind, it hurts if you didn't already realise."

"Right, well yeah, you let me know. You know where to find me most nights. I'll be off then," Aurora stood up and smiled at Harry. He grabbed her hand before she could walk away.

Their faces were mere inches apart, and Aurora knew exactly where this was going. She laughed through her nose and gave Harry a forehead kiss, instead.

"Harry, you are so cute..." She pursed her lips, "I don't know if you realised this, but my father and your godfather are in love. Have their relationship go any further, it would be slightly weird if we were to kiss right now."

Aurora thought to tell Harry about Sirius' plan to adopt him but chose to let the man himself tell him instead.

"Plus, I know you only want to kiss me because I've been doing everything good for you and kissing you back would be me taking advantage of your emotional vulnerability around me. Trust me, I would not be passing up a chance to kiss you, had I been anyone else," Aurora kissed his cheek for good measure, put her stuff in her pocket and started to finally walk away.

Harry watched her leave with a longing smile on his face, stunned about what just happened. To his surprise, he did not feel bad about that rejection whatsoever.