Duplicitous | T.N.

XXXVII • Almosts & Atelophobia

Grinning widely, she stood up, bracing herself for the bone crushing hug from Molly herself. The mother, squeezed her tightly, knocking the air from her lungs. Rory chocked, wheezing her words out. "You're crushing me Molly."

The lady let her go immediately, only before gripping the girls face and kissing either cheek. Rory grinned down at the woman as she did so. She turned and received a much gentler hug from Remus and Arthur.

Pleased with the affectionate goodbyes, Rory and her band of friends boarded the busy train. They shuffled through the narrow walkway in search of an empty compartment with enough room for each of them to sit, the chances were slim due to their tardiness, they could only hope.

Fortunately for them, Hermione had quite the eye and found themselves an empty cabin. It was all the way back to the near end of the train, Rory knew what this meant, they all did. The Slytherins were right next to them, no one spoke this aloud but each and everyone thought it.

It became especially difficult to ignore when Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini walked out of the compartment right beside theirs, with a impassive look on their face and some spare change in their palms. The Gryffindors didn't glare back, they merely looked away and continued to set up their bags and suitcases into the snug compartment. Rory was thankful for the lack of argument.

Peaking through the ajar door of which, Pansy and Blaise had left open, Rory spotted Theodore, himself, chatting up a small trio of Slytherin girls, they appeared to be in fifth year. Aurora smiled slightly, he was in his element, chatting up a bunch of girls. She sighed, of course.

Whilst he seemed uninterested, it was obvious from a bystanders view that he was eating up each and every compliment those girls were giving. She chuckled, when he took it to flirting back with one of the lucky Slytherins. He heard her sound of amusement, and turned to look at her, his mouth still moving as he chatted. He allowed a smile to grow at the sight of her.

Auroras smile exchanged to one of mocking, as he continued to talk up the three ladies. His own words appeared to get lost in his mouth as he watched her. His own thoughts eloping him deeply, never did he think he would willingly smile at Aurora Flores, nor did he think he could possibly be somewhat excited to see her... even weirder, he never would've guessed she would seem excited back.

Whilst they had taken it to awkwardly grinning at one another, Theodore paying absolutely no attention to the soft hand resting upon his bicep. Neither of the two noticed Hermione emerging from Rory's chosen compartment. The Granger witch eyed them as they talked with their eyes, she gently tapped Rory's shoulder pulling her from the trance.

Rory shot round to Hermione, confusion displayed on her features. Hermione merely gestured towards the compartment nodding in the direction of an empty seat next to Ginny. Aurora nodded in response, turning back to Theodore one last time.

He was still looking right back. He gestured towards the empty compartment right by him. It was natural for empty compartments to show up near the end of the train, most houses of red, blue and yellow avoided the colours of green but Hey, more space for them.

She nodded in agreement when he mouthed 'Five minutes.' Before turning back to her friends, each of them chatting wildly. Hermione shot her a gentle stern glance of which Aurora ignored before turning to her left and taking up light conversation with Ron.

It took what felt like forever until two minutes were officially over. She had been counting, so she supposed it was natural to feel like forever when paying deep attention to time. She didn't know why she always counted time, whenever anybody would ever schedule a hang out, she always took it to counting in fear of disrespecting anyone, but Rory supposed Theodore wouldn't appreciate that, like he said, be herself. So she stopped and allowed herself to relax.