Duplicitous | T.N.

XLII • Concealed shames

Auroras face too softened. She wasn't charming, her internal monologue chastised, she was anything but. She could be incredibly selfish, and incredibly rude. It was all an act, she knew that then, and she despised herself for it.

"You've always been so charismatic Rora." Although she didn't believe their words to be true, she surely enjoyed the affection, the attention. It was why she acted that way in the first place, in reality she was the worst of all of them. A ruse.

"How do I catch Chos' attention?" He mumbled. Ron and Hermione cackling behind him. "You know how I get. All awkward."

Rory laughed loudly at his words, it was true, he could be the most sassy kid in the world but underneath all that he didn't know what to say or when to say it. She liked to think that if she ever felt awkward at least she wasn't as bad as he.

"Well I have a few ideas." Leaning forward her hand brushed over his. All three smiled at her, she grinning back with equal enthusiasm. "Okay okay." She huffed, leaning back. "One of my favourite tricks, one I've been doing since the beginning of time might I tell you is this:" she leant forward, and looked directly at him as though examining Harry as he sat motionless. After a moment, she smiled and leant back slightly. The eye contact she found captured many's attention.

They all erupted into laughter. "Okay but what about the hair thing?" Hermione brought up.

That had Rory's eyes furrowed. "What hair thing?"

"You always tangle your hair between your pointer and middle finger." Hermione explained. "When you like someone."

"No I don't." Aurora attempted but they all disagreed.

"Yeah you do." Ron sat up.

"Remember with what's his name." He fumbled for a name. "Wood." The others gasped in remembrance. Auroras first crush. "Oliver Wood, remember that?" She blushed profusely. "Yeah you do." He grinned triumphantly, based off her reaction he knew she did.

"Your hair became your favourite thing to play with." Hermione cackled. "Though it was much longer then."

In Auroras first two years at Hogwarts, her locks cascaded down her back, so long it reached her behind. The hair grew messy and tangled so by third year, she cut it shoulder length. Since then the straight and dark silk reached her chest. "I need to cut it again." She looked down at her hair between her fingers. Did she used to twirl it?

Her friends examined Rory as she continued to check her hair, deciding what length she would cut it. All of their attention remained on the locks that many had wished to obtain. Hermiones eyes wandered across the premises.

She seemed conflicted. Her eyebrows tilted downwards in concentration as she stared. Her face always squinted in such a way when she was concentrated, it was an expression her mates easily grew accustomed to. Hermione Granger was always lost in a haze of concentration, she was after all the greatest witch of her year. Perhaps even many years to come, Rory thought.

The muggle born witches face of stone cracked and melted as her eyes shifted. The remaining three noticed as a blush crawled up her pale features. "Don't look now she mumbled." A tiny grin pulling at her cheeks. "But remember that stunning looking guy we'd been admiring with Ginny all those months ago?" Her head turned to Aurora slowly but her eyes remained ahead of her. It was an attempt to be inconspicuous, but Hermione was being shockingly obvious.

"Yeah." Aurora grinned. That man she was admiring with her friends had later become the first man she'd ever spend a night with. Anthony.

"Well I recognise those gorgeous features and he's looking our way." She giggled shyly.