According to the Council she was a criminal, a remorseless criminal and had a heart of ice.
It has been exactly 93 days since the Final
Act of War.
Finally almost everything went back to its place.
𝘈𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘢 was drowning in her lies, tragedy, c...
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DINNER AT THE GREAT HALL THAT NIGHT, was not a pleasant experience for Aurora, then again it never was. The news about her shouting match with Umbridge seemed to have traveled exceptionally fast even by Hogwarts standards. Which should say a lot.
"I am not surprised." Lucius said.
She heard whispers all around her as she sat eating between Atlas and Ron. The funny thing was that none of the whisperers seemed to mind her overhearing what they were saying about her - on the contrary, it was as though they were hoping she would get angry and start shouting again, so that they could hear her story firsthand.
Aurora scoffed. Classic. Always the same.
"How can you even live with them?" Percy asked.
Aurora shrugged.
"She says she saw Cedric Diggory murdered..."
"She reckons he dueled with You-Know-Who..."
"Come off it..."
"Who does she think she's kidding?"
"Pur-lease."
"Here is What I don't understand," said Aurora in a shaking voice, laying down her knife and fork (her hands were trembling with anger too much to hold them steady), "is why they all believed the story two months ago when Dumbledore told them..."
"The thing is, Aurora, I'm not sure they did," said Hermione grimly. "Oh, let's get out of here."
She slammed down her own knife and fork; Ron looked sadly at his half-finished apple pie but followed suit. People stared at them all the way out of the Hall.
"What d'you mean, you're not sure they believed Dumbledore?" Atlas asked Hermione when they reached the first-floor landing.
"Look, you don't understand what it was like after it happened," said Hermione quietly. "You arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching Cedric's dead body. . . . None of us saw what happened in the maze. ... We just had Dumbledore's word for it that You-Know-Who had come back and killed Cedric and fought you."
"Which is the truth!" said Aurora loudly.
"I know it is, Aurora, Atlas, so will you please stop biting my head off?" said Hermione wearily.
"Never." The siblings said.
"It's just that before the truth could sink in, everyone went home for the summer, where they spent two months reading about how you're a nutcase and Dumbledore's going senile!"
"Please go senile." Atlas said to Dumbeldore.
"He has already gone senile." Celeste said.
Rain pounded on the windowpanes as they strode along the empty corridors back to Gryffindor Tower. Aurora felt as though her first day had lasted a week, but she still had a mountain of homework to do before bed. A dull pounding pain was developing over her left eye. She glanced out of a rain-washed window at the dark grounds as they turned into the Fat Lady's corridor. There was still no light in Hagrid's cabin.
