weak ➪ h. potter

072

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"THEO, TAKE PANSY AND FIND SYLUS." draco instructed.

"no." blaise said just as they were turning to leave. "i want to go with theo."

"remind me again why we're splitting up?" aurelia asked, rubbing her temples at all the commotion around them.

"draco, you and pansy go find sylus and the three of us will..." blaise trailed off, looking around at the state of his friends, draco's eyes were still a bit puffy and his knuckles, along with theo and himself had dried blood around them from hitting trees.

pansy just looked defeated, she hadn't said much since they made it back to the castle.

and aurelia, well aurelia was just trying to push through to the next thing, she wanted—needed to see voldemort defeated to feel a little better about astoria's sacrifice.

"we're just killing time." theo concluded. "it's not exactly smart to run up to our parents is it?"

no one gave him a response.

aurelia knew draco and blaise missed their mothers and pansy genuinely liked her folks, theo didn't quite care for his only blaise.

"if i'm holding you back from that," aurelia spoke. "please by all means i'll be fine, go see your parents. i can find sylus." she paused before she spoke again, it'd been a thought at the back of her mind for forever and now that she wasn't tethered to voldemort she felt more confident with the idea.

"just know the next time we see one another i'll be on the other side."

she didn't look up until she felt a hand in hers and looked to see pansy, who had a determined face on as she spoke for the first time in hours. "i'll be right there with you."

aurelia gave her a nod, knowing it was hard for them to do things like that given their status, she would love all of them regardless of whose side they ended up on because she knew how hard it was to leave your family.

AURELIA ENDED UP OUTSIDE a large wall after convincing her friends she'd be fine to go alone, blaise had said he needed to see his mother so he and draco went off to do that while pansy and theo went to find sylus.

they had to talk aurelia into finding harry.

she hadn't been avoiding him per say, she simply didn't feel like it was the time or the place to kiss him in front of every hogwarts student who's only thought was "the dark lord's heir is kissing harry potter," they were more likely to kill her for just that.

she closed her eyes, feeling the presence of another and it made her heart do a flip, she didn't know how big she was smiling until she was inches apart from harry and he was looking at her in awe, mumbling "lia," as his hands gripped her waist like never before as she took no time to talk, smashing her lips to his for a few quick moments.

she tried to save every little thing she could in one kiss, his smell, how chapped his lips were, how his hands traveled up and down her back, pulling her closer and she cursed at how thick her clothes were.

"i love you." aurelia breathed out as she pulled away, intertwining their fingers with no thought of letting go.

harry could only smile and nod again, a single tear rolling down his face as he snuck a quick kiss again, continuing to nod like a mad man. "i love you."

"was it that hard to say?" aurelia laughed breathlessly.

"no, i just—i've been worried."

"worried about me?"

harry nodded wordlessly, pulling her around the room as he began looking for the diadem but most of his attention was on aurelia. "i felt it."

"felt what, harry?"

a long silence followed his next words but he kept his hand in aurelia's as he spotted a box, pulling out the diadem before turning back to her with a saddened look. "you die."

"whatever hold he had on you, i felt it disappear—almost like a part of him had died but not in the horcrux way." he said. "it felt like he was grieving."

aurelia's mouth went dry and she had almost forgotten how involved voldemort used to seem for those brief moments, or the singular time he'd gotten her a dress and a ring.

"well let him. he can't harm me now."

harry looked puzzled. "what do you mean?"

aurelia wanted to shake her head and explain how it wasn't a story for now, how she'd just lost one of her best friends, how she hadn't been in this much pain since her mom died, how she just wanted time to stop so she could cry.

but she didn't and she wouldn't for a while as hermione and ron stormed in, both asking about what he'd found and barely registering aurelia's presence as they'd been on a kiss-high.

"are you two?" aurelia asked with a smile, feeling harry's eyes on her, still wanting his question answered.

ron nodded happily, not thinking as he took aurelia into a hug of his own and jumped around. "you can read the bloody future that's for sure." ron exclaimed, allowing for hermione to hug her.

"the fang." harry remembered, pulling the diadem out his pocket for all to see.

"that's a horcrux?" aurelia asked.

"not anymore." harry mumbled, stabbing it with the fang as three dark smoky heads began making a high pitched ringing noise and they all scrambled out of the room, aurelia yelling a spell that sealed it shut the second they were out.

harry slid to the ground as aurelia could only assume he could feel voldemort becoming weaker.

she dropped next to him, wiping away some of the sweat from his forehead as he took her hands in his, squeezing them gently repeatedly.

"the snake." he said. "the snake, it's the last horcrux.

aurelia chewed on her lip knowing no one messed with that snake, it was basically voldemort's fourth leg—if he had a third.

"look inside him, harry." ron said, kneeling in front of the two. "find out where he is. if we find him, we can find the snake. then we can end this."

harry wordlessly closed his eyes and gave aurelia's hands a few more squeezes as he tried to concentrate on where voldemort was. aurelia's eyes never left him.

seconds passed and harry's breathing became heavier and uneven until he opened his eyes and looked to aurelia instead of hermione and ron.

"i know where he is."

aurelia didn't question harry much—not that she ever had the luxury to, but regardless the look in his eyes as he said it made aurelia antsy, like he knew things were about to go south.