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As the short weekend flew by, all signs of summer went away with it. Gone was the warm breeze that would tickle your nose in Care of Magical Creatures, and the sunburnt necks you would often see from students taking Herbology out in the greenhouses. The sun went down before dinner time, and a soft, yet growing chill would invade your senses each time a window was opened.
After spending her first weekend back at the school where she was once brutally traumatized, none of her new Slytherin 'friends' had seen her over the course of the lazy weekend days. This was due to Rory and Frankie having their annual sleepovers, under diary-Tom's watchful eye of course. After such a hectic first week full of classes and manipulation, Rory was exceptionally thankful that she had found a home and safe haven within her Werewolf Hufflepuff. No matter how many wish her ill or are conspiring against her, Aurora knew that the one person she could wholeheartedly trust would be Frankie Day.
All good things must come to an end, however, as time could either be your greatest friend or worst enemy. Unfortunately, Aurora had no say in the matter as Monday approached upon the Hogwarts students quicker than she would've preferred. She would soon be thrown back into the toxic personal hell that is Tom Riddle and all of his bad decisions and deeds. Not to mention, she still had a curious Dumbledore that she would soon have to face and explain her long, long story to. Rory couldn't decide which she dreaded worse.
So, after one last carefree breakfast at the Hufflepuff table with Francis, who was feeling miles better, Aurora begrudgingly headed to her first class of the day— Defense Against the Dark Arts.
In her procrastination and dread to face the music, Rory arrived right as the bell rang. She looked around all of the partnered students and found an empty seat beside a Ravenclaw girl who's face she could not see. Plopping down ungracefully into the seat beside the blue and bronze stranger, Aurora begrudgingly looked to the front as Merrythought emerged from her office.
Rory didn't even try to force herself to listen to the old woman drone on about magic she'd already mastered. Instead, Aurora was entertaining herself in writing to Tom under the desk. And by writing, she really meant annoying him in every possible way.
So, do you think that a centaur is bred from a human having a relationship with a horse? If so, shouldn't that be illegal?
I despise you with my entire being.
I mean really, what kind of sicko saw a horse and was like, "damn that horse is looking kinda nice today."
You make me want to end my quest to immortality.
Or like, if a horse is eating an apple in front of that human, would he be like, "Oh? Is this fine specimen of a horse flirting with me?"
Do you truly know how much I detest you in this moment?
Don't act like you aren't actually pondering my words, Riddle the Fiddle!
No, actually, I'm pondering on how I can kill myself if I cannot touch anything.
No need to get so dark, Tomb Mar-churro Ridicule.
Why would I wish to murder Harry Potter when you're looking like a better option by the day?
Just as Rory was about to reply to his rather rude death threat, she was momentarily distracted by a beautiful clear voice.
"You do realize that we're supposed to be taking notes, right?"
Aurora didn't look up at her partner, only closed the black diary under the table. Tom must be throwing a party in there, she thought. "Are we really?" Said Aurora uninterestedly.
"Yes, as a matter of fact."
Aurora was putting the diary back into her black bag, still not looking up, she replied, "Well, that's just too bad. I accidentally left my textbook in my room, yanno, academics just isn't really my thi-"
She finally looked up and her cheeks immediately turned pink.
"-nking back on it," she tried to save, "would you mind sharing your book? I love learning about the definitions behind spells! I'm craving to write notes, could I borrow a quill?"
Aurora didn't know why she just made a fool of herself, but she guessed that it had something to do with how the pretty Ravenclaw's hazel eyes shined in the morning light.
The stunning girl simply looked amused as she simply answered, "Sure." She even handed Rory some fancy quill before gently scooting her book towards the center of the desk workspace.
Rory scrambled to quickly take the quill, even though she was just using one of her own to write diary-Tom, only a few seconds ago. "I'm Aurora, by the way. Aurora Pink." She introduced smoothly, holding a hand out hopefully.
The beautiful, mysterious, Ravenclaw goddess eyed her pale hand for a moment, before politely shaking it. "Sasha Delacroix," She said pleasantly, before politely turning back to face Professor Merrythought.
As Aurora aimlessly wrote random facts about certain spells, that Merrythought wasn't even teaching about, her thoughts ran wild and her cheeks reddened. Sasha? That's a pretty name, did she think my name was pretty? I wonder if I was annoying? I probably was, knowing me. Damnit! Regardless, I'm gonna have to be much smoother. Wait— didn't Tom say you aren't supposed to like girls if your a girl? Well technically, he said that he didn't care but other people did. I wonder if she cares?
Throughout the rest of the long class, Aurora's thoughts never changed as she stole secret glances at the Ravenclaw, who was jotting down tidy notes in pretty handwriting. Once the bell rang, she sheepishly handed the girl's quill back.
Thinking on her feet, Aurora hurriedly spoke. "Hey, do you think you could, like, tutor me? In- in this class? Say, how about Wednesday in the library? You seem really, really smart," she sputtered to Sasha, who was casually packing away her school supplies.
Sasha Delacroix, in all her unknowing beauty, respectfully stated, "You really need help in this subject? If I recall correctly, you nearly beat Tom Riddle in a duel on the first day of classes. Shouldn't it be you who tutors me?"
Aurora blushed at the small thought that Sasha remembered her duel. Trying to remain cool, "I think you'll find that I did beat Tom Riddle," she winked, "Anyways, I'm not so good on theory as I am with wandwork. Perhaps we could trade knowledge?" She added smoothly, leaning up against the desk— which... wasn't actually there, making her to stumble on her feet clumsily, nearly face planting onto the hard stone floor.
Sasha shook her magnificent head in slight amusement. "Are you alright?" The Ravenclaw asked, causing Rory to nod furiously. She put her sleek brown bag around her shoulder and simply answered, "Sure. Wednesday, in the library. Shall we go after dinner?"
Aurora was much too quick and excited to agree. "That would be, I mean, that sounds... You— we have a deal, Sasha," Aurora rushed out, words jumbled and all.
Rory stayed in the classroom, stunned as she watched Sasha's perfectly built frame exit the doorway.Shaking her head to snap herself out of the trance the Delacroix girl unknowingly put her in, Rory followed suit not long after.
"We have a deal?" She muttered to herself, "stupid, stupid, STUPID!"
It's safe to say that the surrounding students quickly scattered out of her way.
The Slytherin girl relied on her muscle memory to guide her all the way to Herbology, not fully taking in the blurry faces that passed her. There was a stupid grin taking up half her face, as she had to make her legs stop trying to skip every few seconds. She got her first date! Or is it a date? Aurora considered it to be one, but what if Sasha didn't feel the same? Did Sasha even think that Rory was attractive? Her thoughts spiraled into uncertainty and bubbling eagerness, never having felt this particular emotion before.
She dazedly sat next to Frankie in the back of the earth-smelling greenhouse. He sent her a curious glance, but decided not to question her strange behavior. He knew that Aurora would tell him when she was ready and comfortable to do so. As Frankie dutifully took notes on plants, halfway into class Aurora had finally spoken to him.
"Do you ever find boys attractive?" She'd asked him somewhat shyly.
Frankie dropped his quill in shock of her random and frankly, intrusive question. "I-I don't think s-so," he said nervously. "Do y-you?" He asked as a joke to ease the tension.
Aurora frowned. If this is what growing up felt like, she wanted no more part in it. How was she supposed to figure out who she liked at fourteen? It was too much work, to be honest. "I think I do," she finally answered. "But," she whispered, causing Frankie to have to lean in to hear her, "I think maybe I might like girls too..." she trailed off anxiously.
Now that was something that Frankie never thought he'd hear. Out of all the nonsense that comes from Rory's lips, it was quite strange to have her actually confide in him about something so serious. Pushing that aside, Frankie confidently remarked, "That is perfectly normal. You know I will support you in anything you do, no matter who is lucky enough to win your affections." He said without a single stutter, causing Aurora to smile widely.
"Thank you," she said sincerely as she grabbed his golden-brown hand with her snowy white one, and squeezed it. "And if you ever have a crush on anyone, girl, boy, or alien, you know that I will never judge you, right?" She asked with nothing but genuineness in her multicolored eyes.
Frankie's ears heated up, "Y-yes. I know." He answered back, smiling fondly at his most beloved friend.
"Pink! Perhaps you know how to deal with Devil's Snare already, seeing as you're obviously too busy distracting Day?" The stern Herbology Professor, Professor Manchin, said loudly, drawing the attention of the class onto Rory and her fellow TimeTraveler-Werewolf-Rockstar-Friend.
Damn, Aurora thought proudly to herself, Frankie's kind of awesome when you put it like that.
Aurora took her precious time to give the Professor her attention, only to be a git. She just had to live up to her new rebellious, free-spirit reputation she had going on! Having not brought (or even bought) her textbook, the girl had nothing to fake being interested in, so Aurora opted to continue to stare at Francis, really awkwardly. Under her diligent, non-blinking eye contact, the Werewolf merely made a pained noise as his nectar eyes swam with discomfort.
"This seemed way more badass in my head," Aurora discreetly whispered to Frankie under the stifling silence that was Greenhouse Three. It also did not help that Rory could feel Riddle's death-glare all the way from his usual seat, located somewhere approximately near the Professors' arse.
Frankie's eyes flickered anxiously around the classroom. "W-well, this is nice, w-why don't we just sit here all day? I-i-it's not like everyone is, I-I dunno, staring right at us!"
Frankie's panicked response successfully diverted her attention away from him, and instead to Manchin, who Rory and diary-Tom once caught licking a potted Venomous Tentacula plant late at night— on accident, obviously. They don't really speak about it.
Nodding solemnly to the exasperated Professor, "Oh yes," Rory spoke almost sadly, as if she'd just snapped out of a trance. "Of course I do."
The Slytherins and Hufflepuff's wore a bemused expression at her dramatics, aside from the one lone Hufflepuff student in the back of the greenhouse who laughed manically. Anyways, Professor Manchin only narrowed her lined emerald eyes in suspicion, causing Aurora to cooly lean back in her seat with a cocky grin.
"Is that so? Then perhaps you could demonstrate for the class?" She asked rhetorically, hoping to embarrass the young girl to teach her a lesson. How dare she not have a mutual late night cravings for dangerous herbs?!
Don't get Aurora wrong, she truly had no quarrel with the Herbology Professor, in fact, she could confidently say that it was one of her absolute favorite classes! Not that she enjoyed the subject, but sometimes she and Francis would find delight in the misfortunes of other students when they were shrewdly attacked by vicious plants.
Aurora nodded wistfully, "It would be the highest honor to demonstrate for the class, Professor." She winked at Frankie, who was shying away from all of the stares, and stood up. Aurora glided mysteriously to the front of the greenhouse, where Manchin had a fully-grown Devil's Snare in a cute decorated pot for review.
The teacher stood back, watching Aurora as the the murderous plant came to life and reached out, without any sort of pre-warning. Rory made direct eye contact with Riddle, as she loudly chanted, "Aurora!"
The usual blinding ball of sunlight danced around the greenhouse, and shone excessively through the open windows. Aurora had never felt happier, witnessing the pained cries of the other students as they shielded their eyes. It's moments like these, she thought wistfully to herself.
Once the plant surrendered after a few threatening jabs, she dimmed the bright light she'd created. The class was silent, and Riddle even looked a bit stumped, although his face went right back to an emotionless expression soon after. Rory turned around to the shocked Professor expectantly, with wide and innocent eyes.
"Where in Merlins name did you learn that spell?!" Manchin sputtered, "I have never seen something be used so effectively! You—" the Professor inspected the plant once more, "He's not even withered!"
Aurora smirked and shot a smug glance over to Tom, who was holding his quill a bit too tightly. She easily replied, "I extend my deepest thanks, Professor Manchin, you have my sincerest gratitude." She took a very long and dragging pause before continuing. "And to answer your stunningly well-phrased question, Professor, I created the spell myself. I am completely devoted to the divine art of Herbology, and thought that it would be more efficient and safer than a normal fire spell."
Manchin looked delighted by this new information, completely changing her views on the usually distracted Slytherin. "It was excellent! Thirty points to Slytherin for such determination and execution! Why don't you teach it to the class, I'm sure that they will excel once OWLs approach!" She laughed in disbelief. "Marchbank won't know what hit him!"
Aurora bowed her head humbly in response. "It would be the greatest honor of my career."
It was quite safe to say that Manchin's eagerness did not last very long at all.
"Pink," the Professor said exasperatedly after Aurora tried to give yet another student detention. "Please," was all the Professor said, appearing as through she aged fifty years in the short span of time Aurora had been teaching.
"But Professor-"
"Please."
Aurora's respect for the Herbology Professor had grown tremendously this day.
So that's how Aurora spent the rest of Herbology, teaching newly interested students the spell she created four years ago with diary-Tom. An added bonus to her surely fantastic day, was critiquing the real Tom Riddle in the spell that he helped her make. And he didn't even know! It was all very humorous, in her humble opinion.
"Riddle, you're doing the movement incorrectly," she'd smugly criticized to his scowling face, "It's a swish horizontally, not the slanted nonsense you're doing."
Aurora really had a hard time keeping her face straight in that moment— which was a moment she would surely treasure forever.
Riddle's jaw clenched tensely, "Perhaps if you rubbed your last two brain cells together, Pink, you might come to discover the startling notion of direction— in which up and down is in fact, Vertical," the prefect deadpanned, temper flaring all the while.
Aurora ignored him and looked proudly amongst the classroom, seeing other fifth years trying to do her and diary-Tom's spell. As it would turn out, Aurora was shockingly delighted inside- it was as if she could finally share a real part of herself to her fellow peers. Granted, they would never know who helped her create it, but it was still somewhat nice. And that suddenly meant that no sassy prefects were allowed to ruin the moment.
She drew herself up to her fullest height, "Five hun-der-ed points from Slytherin," she drawled boringly, channeling Snape to the core. "For not being capable enough to perform a spell that I, myself, created simply because boredom smothered me beneath her torturous underbelly."
Tom knew full well that the girl was acting ridiculous simply to get under his skin, and he was internally enraged at her snide comments. It made him even more furious that it was actually working, Rory could easily tell by the (not so) subtle expression of pure loathing on his quite handsome features.
Riddle closed his eyes for a half-second (probably to calm himself), before his face morphed into a smirk. His eyes were still expressionless, though. "As I would see it," he started collectively, "it may bode well for you to change up your... creative process. You see, Pink, wand movements are, under normal circumstances, consistent and precise. I personally do not agree with your required wand movement method of tracing the first letter of the castors' least favorite colour."
Okay, he did sort of have a point with that one.
As much as Riddles' sudden Blink-Of-Tranquility had unsettled her, Rory knew when to pick her battles— Tom was clearly quite furious with her still, no matter how creepily fast he can change his face. Deciding not to poke at the literal Devil, Aurora dropped her playful act. "To be fair, I was only eleven. And it's original," she added.
Tom's smirk only deepened when she "obeyed" his silent command to stop acting strange.
Once the bell rang, and Aurora got an additional fifteen points for her efforts in teaching, she and Frankie walked out of the fifth year greenhouse, arms linked together. They were starting their uphill trek back up to the castle for lunch, when a voice called out.
"Pink," shouted Tom, as he quickened his pace to try and catch up, "Pink!"
Aurora was quick to shout back, "Blue! Blue!"
She nudged Frankie, forcing him to play along. Surprisingly, he added to the shouting match. "Y-yellow! Yellow!"
Aurora laughed in utter delight as a tall Hufflepuff student behind them shouted in a deep voice, "Brown!"
It was over after that.
Hufflepuffs, who were extremely loyal to one another, started a full out mini-riot of screeching out different colors. They all huddled together as different shouts of "Purple!" and "Orange!" could be heard miles away.
This had to be the best day ever, Aurora thought as she watched in amazement as Tom and his friends get caught up in the crossfire of strange Hufflepuffs who were screaming out colors. It seemed that luck was on her side today!
She and Frankie laughed loudly, but it couldn't be heard over the random colors that the fifth years were spewing out as the duo continued their walk up to lunch.
"That was brilliant!" Frankie watched as Aurora shouted to him, a joyous glint in her beautiful eyes.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Aurora had figured that out a long time ago, and yet the fact remained that it still managed to creep up on her when she least expected it. The person responsible for her recent woes came in the form of a young Albus Dumbledore.
After a very entertaining lunch, where she sat with Francis at the Hufflepuff table, the fifth year badgers had managed to rope in most of the younger years into their ever-growing color battle. Rory was surprised to see how intense they had made it, as a small innocent first year had shouted "azure!" Which is a very rare color, and it deeply impressed a few of the older students who were in some sort of competitive trance.
It was after Transfiguration when the nosy Professor spoke directly to her. She'd sat by none other than Arcturus, leaving Malfoy to sit with Riddle and Aquila Black to sit with their other roommate and female prefect, Magnolia Parkinson.
During class, Dumbledore always had a special talent for making whichever topic he taught to be interesting. Today, however, the lesson he taught had relatively nothing to do with Transfiguration. Instead, he taught the class of a spell to learn about their heritage and nationality.
Now, this certainly peaked both Aurora and Tom's interest— as neither of them knew of who their real parents were or where they came from in terms of past ancestry.
The wand movement was very intricate, and quite difficult to perfect. The phrase was "Herticulé Ameríanov" and if casted correctly, it would show some sort of bar graph with the different cultures laced within the caster's DNA.
Aurora watched in fascination as Arcturus was revealed to be mainly Italian and French, although it did not surprise her in the least. Taking his results as a form of motivation to satisfy her growing curiosity, Rory finally managed the complex spell she'd never heard of before today.
It was much different than Arcturus's— scratch that, hers was much different than the rest of the class's. While other students had two or three different nationalities, the most had before hers being five— Aurora's was like a long list. Her and Arcturus's eyes widened in shock when almost twelve different cultures appeared before her.
Now, considering Aurora's pale complexion, a large part of her just figured that she was just some random English orphan. However, it seemed that shockingly, most of her DNA was made up between Hungarian and Central European. Following that was German, Eastern European, Bulgarian... this trailed on and on with small dashes and splashes of different cultures randomly thrown in.
"Who knew that you could somehow be interesting? You must feel very fulfilled," commented Arcturus jokingly.
Aurora scowled and tore her eyes away from the glowing graph, "Now, now Arcturus. There's no need to be so jealous that at least some part of me is interesting. Can't say the same about you, however."
They continued to bicker throughout the rest of class, and only when the bell rang did Dumbledore attempt to call her back for the second time. Rory sighed, not ready to be mentally drained again. Luckily, it was just in time for dinner so she could take as much time as she needed.
Aurora sat obediently in front of his desk, waiting patiently for him to speak. After a few moments of awkward silence, he did.
"Hello, Aurora. Might I interest you in a lemon drop?" He asked kindly, trying to ease her into it.
Rory refrained from rolling her mismatched eyes. "No, thanks. Let's not beat around the bush, shall we? You wish to know why I am here, when, if I'm not mistaken, Nicholas Flamel was supposed to whisk me away via time travel." She said bluntly, causing a shocked expression to form on his lining face.
"How did you—"
She cut him off. "Because he succeeded, obviously. We have already met, however it is over fifty years in the future. Might I now suggest a silencing charm?" She asked cooly, leaning back in her seat and examining her nails.
Albus Dumbledore blinked away his shock as he looked at the seemingly unfazed girl sitting before him. "Might I ask why you are here?" He questioned, wondering how this turn of events could happen.
Aurora snorted. "You sent me back to my true time, as you once put it, to execute a rather important task." She leaned forward and folded her hands together, "You see, I had a vision of the future. Now I'm not going to explain the excruciatingly boring details of the event, however I will mention that my being here is rather important."
She heard a low chuckle from behind her, causing her to jump in surprise. When did diary-Tom emerge? Rory didn't turn around, not wanting to draw suspicion to herself, only smirked when she felt his freezing hand rest upon her shoulder.
"I see," nodded Professor Dumbledore, even though her explanation was nearly impossible to comprehend. "Well, I do not wish to stand in your way. I also feel it is my duty to let you know that I would like for you to check in with myself on your success and/or failures with the... task."
It was Aurora's turn to blink. Why was this version of Dumbledore so much easier to deal with? She didn't question her amazing luck, only smiled up at him in gratefulness. "I appreciate that, Professor. Sorry for being so stand-offish, to put it kindly— your future self is quite keen on details," she sighed relievedly at his twinkling eyes.
Dumbledore laughed in pure amusement. "I suppose I should apologize for giving you such a headache. Although, perhaps I should wait until the future to do so," he added offhandedly.
She smiled kindly while she was positive that Tom was scowling at them getting along. "Well," she said as she started to stand up, tummy growling for dinner, "It was a pleasure speaking with you, sir. And just so you know—" Rory said over her shoulder, "your future beard is quite magnificent."
Aurora heard him chuckle as she exited, heading down to dinner.
"I don't understand why you were so kind to that buffoon," spoke Tom as he followed her steps to the Great Hall.
As they neared, Rory could hear the clinking of plates and silverware. "Because Tom, unlike you I am not rude unless someone is rude to me— or manipulative for that matter," she boredly explained.
Tom furrowed his dark eyebrows. "The other Dumbledore wasn't rude," he commented, trying to call her out.
Aurora opened the big oak doors, "No, but he was very secretive. In my book, that just means that you have something to hide."
And with that, he disappeared once more, probably left to ponder her strange mindset.
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** Rory thinks she's so cool but is really an awkward bean<3