Darkest Desire

30. From The Beginning (EDITED)

The following week Aurora spent trying to get her life back on track. After nearly having died from getting poisoned, it was as if returning to the real world was somehow surreal, as if she were in a daze. Like her body had gone into autopilot, unsure what to do with itself now that it was no longer in mortal danger. It felt strange, like reality was sharper, crisper, with the twang of life heady on her tongue.

Her parents remained at Hogwarts for a couple of days to made sure that she was all right, making Aurora promise she'd come to the Flamel Home after classes were over to spend some time together. She agreed, and tried to assure them that she was, in fact, fine.

Which was an utter and complete lie.

She talked to her parents, answered questions about her poisoning, and even tried to convince Madam Pomfrey to let her return to classes. The Mediwitch insisted Aurora remain in the infirmary for a while longer, leaving Aurora basically bedridden while she was overall feeling well physically, which in turn caused her to be rather bored. But it was all superficial, meaningless in a way. It seemed as though all her attention was turned inwards, trying to make sense of what had happened. Aurora tried to focus on the mundane things, like trying to catch up on schoolwork so she wouldn't fail the year, even though technically she didn't need any further academic teaching and most professors had been very accommodating and understanding given her condition. She attempted to keep her mind on the simple things, like the twins coming to visit her, Fred ringing along an indecent amount of sweets whereas Fred tried to sneak in a Kneazle from their Care of Magical Creatures class in an attempt to cheer her up. Aurora did appreciate the cat-like creature with a lion-like tail but was forced to hand over the creature once Madam Pomfrey heard the purring and came out to investigate.

Stuck in the Hospital Wing Aurora didn't have much entertainment except the occasional visitors she would get. Even McGonagall had stopped to check up on her a couple of times, bringing along with her a game of wizarding chess, and so Aurora and the Transfigurations Mistress spent a few merry afternoons playing chess and making small talk over a cup of tea.

What Aurora didn't want to admit to was how often her thoughts wandered to Severus Snape. Cliché, she knew, but true, nevertheless. Severus's rejection hurt worse than she could have imagined. And that was saying something, given the fact that she'd had over 200 years of romance and heartaches under her belt.

The question that kept haunting her was: Why? How did it come to this? How did this happen? Aurora knew from experience that men with such a complex personality such as Severus tended to push the people they cared about away. Hell, they pushed everyone away. In a way, Severus reminded her a bit of Dominic. Very closed off, proud, and with a temper that rivalled her own. It seemed like she had a thing for stubborn, wilful men. But never did Aurora expect it to hurt so much. His words had hit a nerve. Did he mean them? Or was he just acting out? Did he really care?

The thought that he might care, even the tiniest bit, was encouraging. Aurora wasn't willing to give up quite yet. Why should she? She wasn't about to let some man with anger issues bigger that the ice-berg that hit the titanic get under her skin. She had had over 200 years to grow quite a thick skin when it came to brushing off rejections and dismissals. Not to mention she was quite strong-headed herself, so she would hardly let a little bit of stubbornness be the thing that stopped her from acting on her feelings. Agreed, Severus had managed to drive her away now, but that was only a temporary setback. After all, you didn't just walk away from someone you cared about so deeply.

The third and final challenge of the Triwizard Tournament was approaching rapidly, and Aurora's parents left before attracting too much attention with their presence. After all, they were pretty well-known in the Wizarding society, and people connecting them to her presence in the Hospital Wing wasn't part of the plan. They had put her in school after all in order to remain unseen, to keep her safe. So, after making sure their daughter was all-right, they left. Which came as quite a relief. Pretending to be fine had become harder and harder, especially with my overprotecting mother around. Physically Aurora was almost back to normal, although she was still a bit underweight. She was making up for that quickly though, thoroughly enjoying the meals the house elves sent up to her every day. Aurora took her exams in those few weeks as well, since she had had time to study while recovering in the infirmary. All the teachers had proven to be very open and receptive to her condition, and although only Severus knew about her true identity, all of the other teachers knew about her poisoning, allowing for a small reprieve in which Aurora could take her exams with a considerably lessened amount of stress involved.