Beast And The Beastly: Loyalties Lie

Chapter 2: Ravenclaw

Aurora watched the thin wheel as it cut and splattered through the mud. The rhythm was oddly soothing. It was stained a nasty brown, and the rain did its best to wash it clean, but with every crick-cracking turn, it was filthy again. The carriage hopped on a rock with a heavy crash and Aurora groaned as her bony butt slammed down onto the seat. She pulled some wet hair from her face and went back to studying the ground. She refused to turn around. She refused to look at the other occupant of the carriage. She was seething.

"He won't recognize you, Aurora!" Dumbledore had tried to calm her down a few hours earlier.

"You can't be sure of that!" She swiftly snapped in return.

It had taken Dumbledore a while to convince Aurora to at least sit down. But then he confessed the fact that dementors would be stationed at the school, the fact that Alastor Moody owned a magical eye, and the fact that Dumbledore was the one who recommended Moody as her babysitter in the first pale, and she immediately shot back up with an enraged roar. Accompanied with her talon-like hands and frizzy curls, the sound made her seem uniquely inhuman for a moment.

Aurora felt like she could have slugged the old man if she didn't care for him so much.

Dementors were infamous in the wizarding world as the vilest creatures and were the guards of Azkaban: a prison for the worst wizarding offenders. A match made in heaven, Aurora thought. Their decaying, corpse-like faces were cloaked with black ethereal cloth, and only five skeletal fingers could be seen from beneath their withered cloaks when they glide through the darkest and foulest of places. When you are finally able to glimpse a dementor's face, there wouldn't be a moment to panic before every ounce of joy and peace is ripped from your very soul. They leave the air itself feeling soulless and empty. By a dementor's kiss, people are rendered a mere shell of their former self - evil and hollow.

Aurora knew dementors well - too well.

"Alastor agreed to maintain personal boundaries," Aurora remembers Dumbledore saying, and for the first time in a long time, seeing the mischievous shine in his eyes had made her blood boil, "Alastor won't see anything he shouldn't."

"Not to mock the man, but you haven't gone mad, have you, Albus?" She hissed through gritted teeth.

And so, Aurora sneered down the side of the carriage, and she willfully dismissed Dumbledore's existence. She might as well start acting like a child now, since she'll be living as a fifth year soon. She heard him chuckling next to her at some point, but she ignored it. It became more and more difficult with time, as the silence begged for her to speak; she felt words bubble and press against the back of her throat. Only when the carriage finally passed the dark forest and the familiar castle came into view, did the urge vanish.

Aurora blinked some raindrops from her lashes to gape up at Hogwarts School For Witchcraft And Wizardry. The skies were pitch black and the castle's windows looked like stars atop the mountain. Its magnificent size seemed particularly ginormous, silhouetted by the moonlight. The moon is almost full, Aurora realized. Forgetting her determination to pretend he wasn't there, Aurora turned towards Dumbledore to watch the lake on the other side of him. The water shimmered under the blue moonlight, and each ripple looked like its own dazzling crystal. Each time that Aurora had gazed onto Portree Loch, she had seen Black Lake. The water's beauty was truly unmatched, and the light which refracting from it made Hogwarts glow. Aurora knew Hogwarts well - she's studied every corridor, spoken to every portrait she could, solemnly stared through every window - but after being away for so long, it was like reliving her first time. The castle's jumble of battlements and towers were still structured with gorgeous grey bricks and were weaved with long vines. It was truly breathtaking.