***
Aurora woke up on Christmas Day with a mustache.
Scratch that— Aurora unknowingly woke up on Christmas Day with a mustache.
She had to hand it to her friends: she had no idea they could be such brilliant actors. Even Fred and George, who'd gone up to bed before the trio fell asleep walked down the next morning, looked her up and down, and said nothing.
She had been gently shaken awake by The-Boy-Who-Wakes-The-Dead himself, saying, "Come on, Ron's already trying to open presents. Fred, George, and Percy are all waiting for us as well."
She only nodded grumpily, stretched dramatically, and stomped her way over by the roaring fire. She was wearing her old night gown and slippers as she sat down in front of her small pile of presents, right next to Ron's much larger pile. She smiled to the Weasleys and wished them a Merry Christmas.
She had found it fairly odd when Percy looked at her and opened his mouth, about to speak, until George stomped on his foot harshly.
Her haul this year was very few compared to others in the past. She'd gotten a two-way mirror from Draco— he had the other so they could talk to each other through them, a tiny golden ring with a single small pearl on it from Harry, a few Chocolate Frogs from the Weasleys, and a handmade knitted jumper from Ronald's mum.
"Oh my goodness! This is the best, your mum is officially the best," Aurora exclaimed as she looked at her pink jumper. It was made out of a soft baby pink material and a hot pink letter A smacked right in the middle. Ron's ears turned scarlet as she quickly threw it on, followed by Harry's cute little gift on her right hand ring finger.
"It's no problem Rory," Ron said quickly.
She looked down, examining her jumper better before asking jokingly, "Did you tell your mum that I'm super girly or something?"
Ron awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, "Well I told her about my friend named Aurora Malfoy so..."
Oh. So his mum thought Aurora was a spoiled little rich princess. She only smiled reassuringly at Ron before wrapping him in a soft embrace.
"Thank you."
Ron's face turned to match his ears. "Thank me..? My-my mum made it not me! If anything I should be thanking you for the Chudley Cannons jersey you got me!"
She pulled away slightly and said, "Not just for that. I mean thank you for not judging me based off of our families past...animosity towards each other."
Ron looked genuinely touched by her words— that is, until Harold had to ruin the moment by sarcastically saying, rather loudly, "I thought you were disowned?"
Over the course of the break, they had started to jokingly fight with each other with these type of insensitive comments.
She turned around slowly to face Harry and retorted, "Aren't you an orphan?"
Harry's jaw dropped. He then collected himself and replied, "Aren't you technically one too?"
"This Christmas is getting a bit dark," George whispered to Fred who nodded in agreement.
It was Aurora's turn to drop her jaw. She then grinned wickedly (which looked very odd indeed with her marker-made mustache) and proceeded to tackle Harry to the floor in a hug while they laughed merrily. Ron shrugged and joined them on the floor in a group hug.
"Quick George, get a photo while they're all cute and nice to one another!"
"Can we get a normal one too?" Aurora gasped— she was currently being crushed by both boys.
They struggled to untangle each of their limbs from one another. Eventually, they sat up and smiled sweetly at the camera that George had gotten as a gift from his friend Lee last year. He took another photo and they all got up to see them, each wearing their new jumpers. The first one was kind of cute and wholesome, Aurora thought secretly, as her back was faced to the camera and they all were lain on the floor, grinning like crazy. She smiled and went to look at the second photo.
...
"Is that a mustache on my face?!" She screeched and grabbed the photo out of Fred's veiny hands for a better look. She did indeed have a swirly black, marker-drawn mustache above her lip.
"Told you I'd get you back," Harry grinned.
Now on her first instinct, Aurora was quite furious. However, she wasn't raised in a house full of Slytherins for nothing. She knew how to hit people where it hurt. Therefore, she was going to make his prank seem lame.
"Are you joking?!" She exclaimed, making Harry smirk, "This is great! Now I won't be the only girl of the group, thanks for making me feel included guys," his smirk abruptly disappeared.
Fred seemed to catch on to what she was doing, "If you like it so much, you should keep it on and be one of the guys for the day."
She internally cringed. Tom was going to have an absolute fucking field day.
She wasn't about to back out now, she was a Gryffindor for a reason, "Hell yeah, let's do it!"
Percy appeared absolutely frazzled. "Language!" He scolded, affrontedly.
"Fuck yeah, let's do it!" She rephrased.
The twins cackled at this for a solid twenty minutes.
***
"Tommmmmm."
He popped out, took one look at Aurora, and decided that he was exhausted with her already.
Sighing, Tom said, "Yes?"
She pouted and crossed her arms over her chest childishly. "Come on, don't be the Grinch."
"The what?"
"Never mind. Can I come in?"
They were standing in the abandoned girls bathroom on the second floor, Aurora ditching the boys while they went to breakfast— she was not very keen on her new crime boss, aka Quirrell, to see her in a mustache. It would absolutely demolish her street credibility.
Tom gestured for her to enter, and so they both went inside and sat at the Slytherin table in his diary-scape, across from each other.
"Well?" He asked impatiently.
Scrunching her nose, she asked, "well what?"
"What's the occasion?" He clarified irritably.
"It's literally Christmas, Tom." She said slowly, questioning his sanity. She would always make it a point to visit him on Christmas so that he was never alone.
Rolling his eyes, he replied, "I meant your.. appearance. Why do you look..."
She sat up straighter, "Manly? Do I look more manly to you?" She asked hopefully.
He narrowed his eyes. "In some aspects, I suppose. Although the hot pink jumper sort of cancels out the fake facial hair."
She sighed and shook her head in mock sadness. "Damn. I was trying to go for the whole man-look. I wanted to see what you looked like if you found me more threatening," she teased.
He sighed and placed his forehead onto his palm tiredly. "Can we not do this today?"
"Do what?" She asked.
"You acting like an idiot."
She grinned, "But isn't that basically the whole essence of being a man?"
He promptly kicked her out.
She was once more standing in the abandoned bathroom, smiling softly. He was always a grouch during the holidays; he didn't have the fondest of memories— she knew he grew up in an orphanage. Sitting on the floor, she writes in the neatest handwriting she could:
Merry Christmas, Tom.
Happy Christmas, Aurora.
***
The Weasley siblings, Harry, and herself spent the rest of the day outside in the snow. Harry, having grown up around muggles his whole life, was not expecting how truly dangerous wizarding snowball fights could get. They were practically self-proclaimed war veterans by the end of the day.
They were long ways away from the castle, close to Hagrid, the gamekeepers, homy little hut. Looking around, Aurora noticed everyone's cheeks and nose were flushed pink and knew she probably looked no different— they'd been out there for hours. They were all bundled up warmly, all wearing their new Weasley sweaters that were now doused in snow.
Harry had just gone back to the castle, claiming he was tired for the night with Percy, Fred, and George. Aurora and Ron were still doused with Christmas cheer, so they decided to go visit Hagrid. Rory was a little hesitant at first, considering she didn't know him like Harry and Ron did, but he convinced her that the Gamekeeper was quite friendly. As they walked over, Ron grabbed her hand to stop her.
Confusion written on her face, she stopped as well. "What is it?" She asked worriedly.
Ron sighed and looked her in the eye, a slightly guilty expression worn on his face. "Earlier, when you were talking about our families.." he trailed off. She raised an eyebrow curiously, so he continued, "You were thanking me for not judging you based off your family and well... it's just..." he seemed hesitant, trying to find the right words.
"Go on," she said with an encouraging smile.
He sighed and said quickly, "It's just that I did. Judge you, I mean."
Auroras smile dropped and she looked anywhere else that wasn't the red haired Weasley standing awkwardly in front of her.
Seeing her slightly crestfallen expression, he hastily spoke, "obviously I don't think that way about you anymore! Harry vouched for you, but it wasn't until you saved our necks in Transfiguration that I believed it."
He sighed, "I just wanted to be honest with you. Now that we're friends, I didn't want any secrets or anything like that."
She smiled warmly at his friendly blue eyes and grabbed his hand comfortingly as they continued their walk. "Don't sweat it. I'm just glad that I have you and Harry as friends now."
He grinned. "And I'm just glad you never called me a blood traitor the first chance you got."
She sighed dramatically and fake scolded, "Oh now look what you've done! Now I want to call you a blood traitor just to piss you off!"
He's shot her a flat look. "I hate you."
Aurora beamed and said in a posh manner, "As if I care about what a blood traitor thinks of me."
He laughed and said, "I hope that doesn't stick— when you come around to visit during the holidays, my family won't think you're joking."
It was her turn to laugh. "That would be quite funny actually. I can just picture an army of angry redheads trying to duel me," she joked, "Is this your subtle way of asking if I want to come and visit during summer?"
Ron's ears turned pink. "Only if you want to!" He said hurriedly, and continued to ramble on about his home that they called 'The Burrow.'
She decided to cut him off from his mumblings, "It sounds lovely. So lovely, in fact, I want to visit right now!" She declared.
He sent her a grateful smile and played along, "How would we get there?"
She pretended to think for a moment. "Aha!" Aurora snapped her fingers, "We shall walk there," she stroked her fake mustache, "like men!"
They continued to joke around until they reached Hagrid's old wooden door. Ron knocked, while Aurora stood a little bit behind him. The front door opened and there stood Hagrid, in all his giant glory.
"'Lo Ron! Who's yer frien'?" He beamed.
She stepped forward and shyly stuck out her tiny hand, "I'm Aurora, Harry and Ron's friend," she said, purposely leaving out her last name.
He shook her hand and smiled warmly at her, "Nice ter meet ya. Come on in, I 'magine yer a bit chilly ou' here."
They both walked inside his cozy home and were immediately nearly tackled to the ground by a huge boar hound.
"Fang! Back off, ya' scoundrelin' creature. Tea?"
She and Ron pet the ginormous dog and nodded thankfully. They went and sat down at his small wooden table while Hagrid occupied himself with making the tea. The dog, Fang, immediately laid his giant head on her lap as soon as they sat down. Suddenly, Tom appeared.
He took in his surroundings and had a look of upmost disgust etched upon his face. Scowling, he asked, "What are you doing here?"
She shot him a 'what does it look like?' face as she continued to pet the dog's head lazily.
He rolled his eyes and exasperatedly said, "Incompetent girl. You have a meeting with Quirrell planned right now."
She immediately shot up and harshly whispered, "Oh, fuck."
Ron, startled, asked worriedly, "Is everything alright?"
"Everything's fine," she shouted too quickly. "I forgot I'm late for something! I must go, Merry Christmas, Hagrid sir!"
Hagrid and Ron watched bewildered as she ran out the door, accidentally slamming it shut. Curious, Hagrid looked over to the Weasley boy and asked, "Der she always wear a fa'e mustache?"
***
Aurora bursted through the DADA office obnoxiously, Tom right behind her. On the way over, she finally got rid of the godforsaken mustache with a quick scorgify after Tom teased her for the fifth time.
"Sorry I'm late Professor, I—"
She stopped herself upon see the empty office. She shot a confused look at Tom, and decided to wait for the shady Professor and sat down. As the minutes trickled by and she deduced that he wasn't going to show, she hastily made a small note for him.
Quirill the Squirrel,
Sorry I was tardy. I waited, but eventually figured you weren't coming as it's quite late.
Please don't kill me,
Aurora
She placed it on his desk as she and Tom walked the dark hallways of the huge castle, heading up to their room.
"Where do you think he is?" She asked Tom in the daunting darkness, as they passed by snoozing portraits.
Shaking his head, probably deep in thought, he replied, "There's no way to know for sure. For your sake, I hope he is not angry at you for skipping."
Worriedly, she asked, "Do you think he actually would... you know... kill me?"
His eyes turned dark and he glanced at her quickly before replying, "He'd be sorry for even trying, if he does," he said darkly.
She sighed and tried to lighten the mood of the eeriness of their conversation, "Hogwarts is like a freaking Viking Fighting Pit. I'm honestly surprised that no one has died yet— who in their right mind thought this was a safe place to send their kids?"
Tom did not get a chance to reply as her arm was harshly yanked and a fabric of some sort was draped over her head. She was about to shout, "RAPE!" until a hand was placed over her mouth. Struggling hard, she stopped upon hearing the familiar voice of the boy who lived.
"Stop! It's only me!" Harry whisper-shouted.
"Don't do that! Gave me a bloody heart attack, Harry! Wait, why're we under a blanket?"
She watched as he rolled his emerald eyes sassily and replied, "Its not a blanket. It's an invisibility cloak, didn't I tell you?"
"No?!"
"Right, sorry. Got it as a present after breakfast while you were still gone— don't know who sent it."
Tom disappeared back into the diary—he really disliked Harry for some reason and loathed being in his presence.
"Right, because that just happens. Walk me to my room?"
He obliged and they walked in content silence as they made their way to the seventh floor, Aurora leading the way. Selfishly, she didn't want anyone else to know about the Room of Requirement. It was like her and Tom's thing— she supposed she wouldn't be mad if Draco knew, however.
"So where have you been?" Aurora asked Harry lightly.
He appeared to be deep in thought, "I was testing out the cloak. Found this cool mirror that shows me my parents. Also, I know you refuse to believe that Snape is bad, but I saw him corner Professor Quirrell earlier— he seemed mad."
So that's why he wasn't in his office? He was getting beaten up by her lanky godfather? No wonder he wants the stone, she thought to herself, quite embarrassed on his behalf.
"I can positively assure you that Snape isn't after the Stone, but if you ask why I'll have to kill you."
Annoyingly, he asked, "why?"
She turned to him and patted his shoulder.
"I'll go owl Voldemort," she said solomnly. He shoved her playfully before they departed.
As she laid in bed that night, she couldn't help but wonder why Quirrell chose her, of all people, to help him.
***