Of Apples and Oranges

I: xi: Secretive

AN: Early update due to a road trip and me having no idea when I'll get internet again!

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He stood in the rain waiting for her. The droplets bounced off of his silvery blonde, slick hair. His friends stayed behind in the castle on that Saturday morning. Defiantly, he remained in place for what was about half an hour sticking out the weather for the girl he had just watched a horrible transformation of the previous night. He shouldn't have returned, but he wanted to talk.

The golden blonde he had awaited slipped out from the roots of the Whomping Willow with a chick in her hands. She froze, surprised by the sight.

He wasn't as brave as he thought, confronting what he now knew to be a werewolf, so he ran off, leaving the girl distraught. She chased after him, not thinking of such implications. She desired to know what possessed him to wait on her to approach him that made him now run away.

"Draco!" she screamed through the halls of the castle they now entered.

He looked over his shoulder at her and turned a corner. She would have followed, had she not slipped on a puddle they had created jointly. Holding her chick above her head, she had faceplanted.

When she arose, she found the cerulean eyes of Ginny Weasley watching her chicken intently. The blonde shielded her chick in her bosom, remembering what the redhead had done to its mother.

"Aurum. How nice to see you again." Ginny greeted with an egregious smile. She pointed at Aurum's chick. "Planning on keeping that?"

"Listen, if this is about Harry, I just want you to know you can have him." Aurum assured her. "I didn't tell anybody about our meeting."

"You're such a loyal Slytherin. You should have been a Hufflepuff. Maybe then you wouldn't have utterly disgraced the name of Salazar Slytherin with your filthy muggle blood." Ginny pouted insincerely.

"Wait a minute... Who are you?" Aurum cocked her head to one side and squinted, finally putting the pieces together.

"Someone who you don't want to mess with," Ginny said, looking down. At the same time, Aurum heard a hissing behind herself.

Aurum looked down as well, and anticipating the worst, saw that the puddle below reflected bright yellow eyes that almost felt as if they were daggers in her skull. That was all she remembered.

When she awoke, it was pure white, her vision. It took a couple of blinks, but her sight came back to her and she was able to brush the golden strands of hair from her eyes. Her cheek felt warm, so she massaged it.

Looking around, she found Vincent sitting nodding off beside her bed and Gregory leaning away from her. She smiled at her company.

"Where am I?" she asked Gregory. "What happened to my chicken?"

"The infirmary. Dragon was back with Draco last I heard. I don't know where either of them are right now." Gregory informed her.

"What's happened?" she asked next. She had breathed a sigh of relief for her chicken.

"After you were chasing Draco, he said he hid behind a wall, watching you talk to the Weasley girl. He knew something was wrong when you became petrified so he grabbed your rooster and tried to find her brother. The male Weasley got Potter and they took your rooster to fight off the basilisk that's apparently been hiding under the bathrooms." Gregory explained. "Your rooster saved the day. I think. There was something about a phoenix in there too. Also a sword. So maybe not your rooster, sorry."

"I don't care as long as everyone's okay." Aurum shrugged with a grin. "Is Ginny okay? We have a meeting tomorrow."

"She's fine, it turns out she was possessed by You-Know-Who or something. That's according to Potter. But, Aurum, you've been petrified for a week and a half. School's getting let out next week." Gregory laughed. He quickly stopped, worried Aurum wouldn't chuckle as well. She did, and he continued laughing again.

"I can't believe it! I've missed you guys so much!" Aurum wrapped her arms around Gregory, dragging him towards the bed. She let him go. "Where's Draco?"

Speak of the devil. As Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley walked past her bed to visit Hermione Granger, Draco followed closely and stopped at Aurum's bed with Dragon in his arms and a pout on his face.

"It has been a miserable week, I'll have you know." Draco grimaced. "If you just told me about your stupid werewolf-ism, I wouldn't have cared."

"Draco, I know you would have been scared." Aurum stared wide-eyed, not believing him.

"No, I wouldn't have been because you're you. And you wouldn't hurt a fly. So stop trying to keep secrets from me." Draco demanded with a stomp of his foot.

Aurum looked down and smiled weakly. "I don't have any more to keep." she clasped her hands. "I promise."

Draco walked around to the side of her bed and released her rooster to her. The chicken's beautiful ruby crest had now fully formed. Aurum hugged Dragon and beamed up at Draco.

"Is this the part where we kiss and make up?" Aurum asked cheekily. She snickered at her own joke, but Draco crossed his arms and looked away with a "harrumph".

"I think Greg's got that base covered." Vincent roared with laughter. Gregory's face turned scarlet and he ducked away from Draco's laughter and Aurum's chuckling.

"At least we're all here. And there's nothing to split us up." Aurum sighed.

No more secrets, she decided.