"We need to talk."
Marlene was right in front of Aurora and Avery by this point. Aurora didn't know what to do besides stand there. Frozen. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she tried her best to steady her breathing.
"Well if it isn't the filthy half-blood." Avery spat.
"Well if it isn't the arrogant snob." Marlene retorted.
"Can't you see that we're clearly in the middle of something." Avery snapped.
"Oh please, she looks like she'd rather be anywhere but near you." Marlene said.
Avery was about to open his mouth to say something again but Marlene had already dragged Aurora out of the library.
"You're welcome by the way." Marlene said.
"For what exactly? Dragging me somewhere against my will?"
"Well I clearly saved you from spending another second with him."
"Where the fuck are you even taking me?!" Aurora had slightly raised her voice.
"Oh you know exactly where. We need to have a little chat."
*****
They had reached the astronomy tower. The two girls hadn't been here since their last encounter. The breakup.
"Okay, now that we're here, talk." Aurora said.
"The point was for both of us to talk." Marlene said, rolling her eyes.
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Stop being so stubborn. There's lot's of things we need to talk about and you damn well know it."
"I said what I said last time we were here. And that's final." Aurora stated.
"Why? Why did you do it all of a sudden?" Marlene questioned. "We were on good terms the day before."
"I- I just had to." She simply answered.
"You had to? Meaning what?" Marlene was growing impatient by the second. "I just want a bloody explanation."
Aurora had no choice but to let a lie slip past her lips. In her eyes, she was protecting Marlene by not telling her the truth. The less she knew the better.
"Can you just drop it?! Were done, so I don't know why it matters so much. Just move on." Aurora replied frantically.
"Move on? Move on?! Are you seriously telling me to ' just move on' right now?!"
Marlene was clearly furious. And for Aurora, that was a good sign. It meant that she was mad at her, and would hopefully, mean that she would distance herself from Aurora.
But no. Marlene didn't give up that easily.
"Yes. I broke up with you, why aren't you accepting that?!"
"You wouldn't just do something like that out of the blue." Marlene sighed.
"Well clearly I did." Aurora muttered.
"I'm going to ask you again, why did you do it? And why are you acting like this right now?!" Marlene was yelling at her.
"Why do you care-"
"Because I care about you! Don't you see that?" Marlene cut her off.
"Look, I'm not going to explain to you why I did, what I did. So stop wasting your time 'caring' about me." Aurora explains. "We should just stay away from each other."
"Look at me in the eye right now and tell me you don't feel the same way I feel about you." Marlene said.
Aurora couldn't. She couldn't look up. She knew if she did look up at those deep, warm, brown eyes, then she would fall for her even harder. She couldn't do that. She couldn't risk it.
At this point, the two girls were close enough for their scents to hit each other.
Cherries. It was sweet, but also had some hints of something floral. Marlene's signature essence was very intoxicating. It was like running through a field of flowers on a hot summer day. But then staying to watch the sunset, then laying on the grass and observing the many stars sprinkled across the night sky.
Vanilla. It was warm and mellow. But had some hints of lavender. Aurora on the other hand, brought a sense of comfort. Like staying home on rainy day and reading books by the fireplace. Blankets and books scattered everywhere.
The two were opposites. Like dusk and dawn. But there wouldn't be dusk without a dawn, and vice versa. There's no Marlene without Aurora.
"I-" Aurora was now making direct eye contact with Marlene, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything. "I- I have to go."
Aurora ran out of the Astronomy tower as fast as she could. She was now in the hall, trying to get back to the Slytherin dorms as quickly as she could.
This time she tried her best not to look vulnerable. Aurora hated looking weak and vulnerable in front of others. She also hated nothing more than crying, afraid that once the tears poured out, they wouldn't be able to dry out again. But her attempts at staying stable failed.
The tears were soon streaming down her face as she walked down the empty corridors. The only sound that could be heard was her crying and the noise that her shoes made as she paced.
Her vision became blurry, and as a result, she bumped into someone.
"Oh I-I'm sorry-"
"It's okay—wait, are you alright?" The unfamiliar voice asked. It sounded like a girl.
She fixed her gaze upon her and saw that the girl was in Hufflepuff. She had dark, voluminous, curly hair. And her skin, a warm shade of chestnut. Her chocolate-brown eyes were speckled with amber and glistened against the sunlight peering through. Aurora also noticed that she was wearing a pair of peculiar earrings. It had mini babies dangling from it. Strange.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Aurora replied.
"Really? Because if I'm being honest you look pretty fucked up, no offense or anything." The girl said.
"Yeah well I'm a fucked up person." Aurora muttered, mostly to herself.
"Aren't we all?" The girl chuckled as the two walked, "Anyways, I have to go, and i hope whatever you're going through gets better. See you around."
"Uh thanks, and bye."
And with that, the two girls parted ways, not knowing that their encounter was just the beginning of what was yet to come.
*****
Aurora reached the Slytherin common room and made her way to the girls dormitories. But as she was about to walk up the stairs, she heard voices from the opposite side. It sounded like Severus Snape and— no- it couldn't be-
Regulus.
"The dark lord— death eater— dark mark— this summer." Were the only words that she could make out.
The voices then turned into footsteps and she rushed to the dorm. To her luck, it was empty, so she had the space to herself for the time being.
What did she just hear.
Aurora decided to shake it off and take a shower to calm her down.
The coldness of the dungeons hit her bare skin. But that was soon overpowered by the hot, steamy water. She just stood there at first, letting the water wash away her feelings.
Then she fell to the floor. Sobbing uncontrollably.
"I can't do this anymore."
Aurora stayed like that for a few minutes until she heard voices from outside the bathroom. The girls must've been back. She quickly wiped away her tears, got up and dried herself.
As if nothing happened at all.
"Oh, you're back." Veronica spoke as soon as she entered the dorm.
"Yeah." Was all Aurora managed to say. "And um, about earlier, I'm sorry. For snapping at you like that."
"It's okay, I get where you're coming from." Veronica replied, smiling.
"So, uh why's that one so giddy?" Aurora questioned, motioning to Narcissa.
"Merlin, I don't even know where to start." Narcissa said, with a huge smile on her face. "Okay, so me and Lucius are dating. Like officially now. Oh and he told his parents about us!"
"Well glad to see at least one of our love lives are going smoothly." Aurora said sarcastically.
Both of the girls then turned to stare at where she was standing.
"What?"
"Look don't worry, you'll find someone-"
"Ronnie, she did find someone, but look at what my dear aunt and uncle did."Narcissa interrupted.
"I- well- ugh I guess you're right." Veronica sighed. "Okay but like hear me out, how about we help you escape-"
"I'm starting to think you're mental." Aurora said, with her eyebrows raised.
"And you just realized this?" Narcissa said and they all broke in laughter.
*****
Marlene stormed into the girls dormitory and slammed the door. At this point she didn't know if she was upset or mad at Aurora for ignoring her and telling her to move on.
"Woah, you okay there, Marls?" Alice asked as Marlene paced around the room, muttering something to herself.
"I'm fine. Perfectly fine." She replied. "So, where's Lily?"
"Oh I don't know, I thought she went to the library with you." Alice said.
"I left to uh talk to someone, and I haven't seen her since."
"And by any chance is this someone, a particular Slytherin girl? Sirius's sister perhaps...?" Alice teased, but Marlene just stayed silent. "Wait, what's wrong? Did I say something-"
"No, no you didn't say anything. It's just that we're not on the best of terms right now." Marlene quietly said.
"Oh. Well, do you want to talk about it?" Alice asked.
"What's there to talk about? She basically broke up with me and won't even give me a bloody explanation!" Marlene's voice raised at this point. "I just- I don't- I don't know what I did wrong."
"Look i'm no 'relationship expert', but maybe she's going through something and she doesn't know how to talk about it. Give her some time." Alice gave a small smile.
"I don't know."
"Do you want to make some bracelets with me?" Alice asked. "It helps me take my mind off of things and it's surprisingly calming."
"Bracelets? Yeah, sure, why not."
But in that moment, the door opened only to reveal and panicked looking Lily Evans.
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod-"
"Lily? Lils what's wrong?" Alice asked in concern.
"I did a very terrible thing." Lily panicked.
"Merlin! Did you kill someone?! I-It's okay well help you hide the bod-" Marlene started, but was soon met with a glare from Lily and Alice.
"Okay, you guys might want to sit down for this." Lily finally spoke up as they sat down on their beds. "I-"
"Merlins balls! Are you pregnant?!? We definitely don't need a mini James or Lily running around Hogwarts." Marlene interrupted the redhead.
"Will you stop interrupting me?!" Lily looked as if she was going to explode.
"Sorry. Go on."
"Anyways, as I was saying-"
But Lily was interrupted yet again. This time, not by Marlene, but by cheering noises from the common room.
"Why the fuck are they so loud?!" Lily yelled once again as the three girls made their way to the common room.
But they were now facing a group of boys sitting on the couches. The Marauders to be specific.
"Prongs, look! There she is!" Sirius yelled.
All four heads turned to the three girls. James, unlike usual, looked very nervous.
"Will you idiots keep it down. I'm pretty sure even the students in the dungeons can hear you at this point." Lily snapped.
"You know, I thought you would've been in a good mood after your snogging session with Jamesie over here." Sirius continued.
"You and James did WHAT?!? Why didn't you tell us?!" Marlene turned to yell at Lily.
"Oh, did they not know?......oops." Sirius muttered.
"Honestly, am I the only one with a stable relationship in here." Alice muttered up from behind the two girls.
*****
Hi guyssss! Anyways thank you so much for 9k reads, ilysm!
Okay so we have a new character and i've been wanting to introduce her since forever, so this is her face claim:
Okay, everyone, meet Adelia Archer. she's in Hufflepuff and a halfblood.
Also i'm sorry for updating randomly, I don't really have an 'updating schedule' and because of school and stuff. Sooo I'll try to update whenever I can.
Anyways bye and have a nice day/night <3
*UPDATE* so before this update, i made Adelia a 7th year but now i'm aging her down to be the same age as Aurora for plot purposes. Just wanted to put this here to make sure that there were no confusions later on :)