CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
*THIS IS THE START OF SEASON 2... THERE WILL BE MULTIPLE TIME JUMPS WITHIN THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS, UNTIL WE REACH THE NEXT MAJOR POINT IN TIME!*
"Grief"
TWO YEARS LATER
The cold wind blew and with it brought snow flakes that were as thick and fluffy as pieces of cotton floating down from the sky. The sky was grey as the snow came floating down, the trees coated and not a single bit of green had been left in sight.
A thick blanket of snow sat on the ground and as Aurora stepped through it, bundled in her jacket, scarf, hat, and gloves, with Teddy bundled in his jacket, hat and gloves and a blanket wrapped around him to keep all the body heat in and keep him warm. The snow crunched under her boots, as she walked through the cemetery.
Godric's Hollow was a place she had wanted to go for years now. It's already been two years since the Battle of Hogwarts, and although Harry and Ginny lived there, Aurora had never stepped foot to Godric's Hollow.
Until this year, for Christmas. Harry and Ginny had married the previous year and this year had much to celebrate. They were expecting their first child and Aurora had finally decided that it was time she went to the place where she lost everything and yet somehow, gained everything.
Before even stepping foot to the Potter house, Aurora walked through the cemetery with Teddy wrapped tightly in her arms. Today his hair was dark like Aurora's and his eyes were as bright of blue as Draco's. He looked like the perfect mix of the two of them, that was until he sneezed and his nose grew and pointed slightly. Aurora chuckled because he now looked a bit like her father, Severus.
She looked from stone to stone until she had found the one she had waited for. Her heart stopped and right away, Teddy cheered. It was as though he knew what they were looking at, as brilliant as he was, she knew that he could not have been able to read the stone.
Lily and James Potter's stone sat there, tall, and with a few inches of snow on the top. Winter flowers potted and in full bloom, bringing a bit of life and joy to such a dreary place.
Aurora stood there and stared at their names. She was nearly as old as her mother was now, by the summer she'd be 21, the same age her mother and father were when they were murdered. It felt strange, for her to be as old as they were, and yet- she felt as though she hadn't even accomplished anything that even matched their legacy.
But Harry would tell her otherwise. Harry would remind his sister that she had done greatness, she had helped bring down Death Eaters and Voldemort, she had Voldemort fooled, she and Draco fought bravely and have raised Teddy to the best of their ability.
Although, Aurora felt as though she should have done more. She could have taken more Death Eaters down and helped Harry more had she not been so sought out on getting revenge on Blaise...
All she had wanted since finding out these were her parents, was to be like them, to leave her own footprint in the world like they did. And she struggled with how to go about that. Until she looked at Teddy who had his head resting on her shoulder, his cheeks red from the blowing wind, and snow flakes melting on his lips.
"Teddy, this is my mum and dad, Lily and James..." She muttered. "They died to protect Uncle Harry and I... Just like how your Mum and Dad- Remus and Tonks, they fought and died to protect you. To protect all of us. I hope you know, I'll always be that brave for you. I'll always fight for you- to protect you and keep that smile on your face."
Teddy giggled and smiled at her.
"Mama- I cold!" He shivered and she pulled the blanket up closer to cover him.
"We're going to go to Uncle Harry's now, I just wanted to come here... To see them, even if we can't see them- I get the feeling they can see us." She blinked away tears and turned around, walking out of the graveyard, feeling as though there had been a pat on her back. That she had done right by them.
And although she felt as peace about her parents, she still hadn't dealt with the larger bit of underlying grief that rested in her veins, when she thought of Severus. How he gave his life for both she and Harry... Although, Harry still had not shared with her what he saw in Snape's memories. He said it would be too much for her and at the time she had too much on her plate, he didn't want to burden her.
But it had been two years, and maybe Christmas wasn't the best choise of timing to ask this of her brother, but she wanted to know. She wanted the truth of her father and all of it. Because to Harry, he was just a pain in the ass Professor but to her, he was everything.
As she approached the door, Harry swung it open before she could even knock. Harry greeted her with smiles by the million and hugs that could break her in half if she let him. Teddy stood in the entry way as Harry closed the door behind them, Aurora began to remove his jacket and hang it up, taking his hat and gloves, but those little legs- they moved so quickly. Teddy ran right to the living room where Ginny and the others had been waiting on their arrival.
"Who else is here?" Aurora asked softly.
"The whole lot of Weasley's, Sirius-"
Just as Harry spoke his name, Aurora could hear his voice booming from the next room over. He had been thrilled to see little Teddy, seeing as the last he saw him was the summer before Sirius would have head back to Hogwarts to begin teaching for the year.
"Hermione is here but Viktor is away for a match right now, she's a bit tense about it." Harry rolled his eyes and then smiled at his sister, but the smile soon faded as he noticed she had been alone with Teddy. "Where's Draco?"
"Working." Aurora replied flatly. "Christmas Eve and the Ministry won't even let him leave early, can you believe it? He tells them he has a young son at home and he'd like to spend the Holiday with his wife and child and get this, they tell him 'Malfoy, it's a good thing your boy is young enough to not remember that you'll be late, now finish our paperwork, will ya?' I say it's bullshit! They work him like a dog because of who his Father is, they're awful him!"
Aurora hadn't been able to express any of this to Draco without it ensuing in a fight. Draco loved his job and did not want it to fall onto the fault of his father, although Aurora could tell by the look in his eyes that even he knew that they treated him poorly for the way his father had been for many of years.
The Ministry only gave Draco the job there on account that Arthur Weasley had recommended him and came to his aid when they were about to decline it to him. Draco had always been so grateful to have had Arthur to help him.
But slowly they took more and more tasks away from Draco, telling him to do more bitch work for them, to the point there was one day that Draco had spent his entire shift at the Ministry, polishing the shoes of those who were above him.
"They treat him like a bloody house elf!" Aurora added.
"Speaking of house elf's, how's Kreacher doing?" Harry asked. "Still a pain?"
"Well, if it wasn't for Kreacher I don't think I'd have been able to make it through wrapping gifts for Teddy this year. He's oddly good with kids. Kreacher." Aurora replied.
Harry nodded and then snorted lightly. "Draco should think about applying over at Hogwarts again, I hear from Sirius that Sluggy really wants to cut his classes in half."
"It won't work for us, not with Teddy. He needs stability Harry, he can't have a father who's off at Hogwarts 9 months out of the year." Aurora was exhausted, and felt as though she had been a bit snippy with her brother. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be like this, it's just- I hate Christmas since the Battle, you know?"
"I get it." Harry replied. "Your Dad, Severus, he loved Christmas, didn't he?"
Aurora smiled as she nodded, but then soon that smile faded to a frown. "My grandmother, Eileen, she made a fruit cake again this year, her memory isn't what it used to be. She forgot for a moment that my Father was dead, broke my heart to tell her... Third time this month she's forgotten."
"That's rough," Harry didn't really know what to say, he'd never deal with something like that before. "I uh- Er, have a surprise for you by the way."
Aurora followed Harry as he lead the way to the sitting room, where she saw three people whom she'd never seen before. A man, woman, and a boy around their age. The woman was tall and slender while both the boy and man were heavy set.
"This is our Aunt Petunia," Harry introduced her to the slender woman, who gasped and then smiled as she looked at Aurora. "Our cousin Dudley, and his father, Vernon." Harry strained as he introduced Vernon, the man who had been the most cruel to Harry.
Petunia and Aurora met halfway as they walked to each other from either side of the livng room. A piece of her mother was standing in front of her, a piece she hadn't thought she'd ever meet.
"You look so much like her, aside from the hair and eyes that is, but your face- Goodness it's like I'm looking at Lily from another light..." Petunia said with a heartfelt smile. "Harry had found a way to free me of that memory charm Severus Snape placed on me. I uh- I brought something for you."
Petunia handed her a small box, wrapped nearly with a bow on the top. Aurora wasn't sure if to open it now, but Petunia encouraged her to do so.
Inside the box was a necklace. A heart locket at that, made of gold and inscribed on the outside was "L.P." and inside was a photo of Lily and James on one side, and Harry and Aurora as babies in the other.
She quickly put the locket on and smiled a tearful smile at Petunia.
"Thank you," She muttered through tears. "You saved this, all these year?"
Petunia nodded. "Of course the charm, it took away my ability to see you in that photo. But the moment it was lifted, I went into my jewelry box and pulled it out and had to see for myself. And right I was, you were smiling back at me. I knew it had to be given to you."
"It suits you," Harry said with a grin. "Like it always belonged with you."
Aurora had placed her hand onto the necklace that sat on her chest. A piece of her mother, shaped like a heart, sat close to hers. Even standing by the grave of her mother, and standing in the house where she spent the first year of her life, she hadn't felt as close to her mother as she did now.
"It's strange, I only ever visited this place once. On Christmas after you two had been born. I brought Dudley with me and I feared so much that I'd see Riddle again, after I left him, it was dangerous to even return back to this world. But I couldn't keep away. It was who I am, who I'd always wanted to be. It broke me when Harry was brought to my doorstep, not because it was just him and not the set of you, but because I had already began Christmas shopping, I had already planned a lovely gift for your mother, and she and I, we were going to do so much together with all you children... And that was gone... My sister, my sister was gone and I couldn't save her." Petunia explained.
"When the memory charm was lifted, I was angry that Severus had done such a thing. Because his charm filled me with horrible memories, and horrible feelings toward this world. Now I know he did it to keep me away and to keep you safe but... He was right to do it, because I wouldn't be here if he hadn't. I would have tried to face Voldemort head on." Petunia's eyes shined with truth.
"I was angry with him too, sometimes I still find myself angry, I feel as though I missed out on so much time with family, which is why I cling to other's as quickly as I do, with fear of losing them." Aurora replied.
"But once they cross you-"
"They're lucky if I give them another chance. I've found myself less and less forgiving." Aurora replied.
"You are Lily." Petunia smiled. "Had I not told her the truth about why I was pursuing Tom Riddle, she would have never spoke to me again had she believed it to be real."
"He kept a scrap book, with photos of you and him. Letters he had written to you." Aurora replied.
"I never took a photo with that man?" Petunia was confused.
"I saw the book though! Sirius was there and so was Draco," She turned to her side but then realized that Draco had not been there yet, and he couldn't come to her defense.
"It was at the old Gaunt house, I had seen it! Held it in my own hands!" Aurora was growing more and more upset. She knew what she had seen and she knew what she felt when she touched it. There was no way it could have been faked, it was all too real. She remembered seeing the face of Petunia Dursley with Tom Riddle.
But Petunia shook her head, a brow raised in concern. "Sweetie, I'm not sure how else to say it, but maybe it was there to trick you."
"But who would-"
Sirius then walked into the room, his head down and arms crossed. He stood there silently and there had been a weight bringing his shoulders down. Aurora looked at him and could see right through the glassed look in his eyes. He knew something about that book.
"Sirius-" Aurora growled at him. "Your memory charm has been lifted for years now... Tell me the truth about that book I saw."
He shook his head, silently.
"Sirius Black, you will tell me now!" Aurora argued. "Tell me who placed that book there!"
But the answer didn't come from Sirius, it came from Harry who said, "It was Severus... He put it there as a ploy. He wanted to lift the charms, he wanted you to know the truth before it was too late. He knew if he told Malfoy not to take you there, that he'd gladly take you and he did, he knew you'd find the book-"
"But I had seen it in a dream! Voldemort was looking at it! He was sad and angry and-"
"Your father taught you occlumency and used it against you. Like I said, he wanted you to find it so you'd learn the truth sooner, but he didn't want to make it seem like one big lie, even though it was. He wanted you to be productive but he regretted it the moment he realized what all that pain had done to you. How you fell apart that summer..." Harry explained.
"This was in his memories?" Aurora asked. "The memories you still won't tell me about!"
Harry put his head down. "Yes..." He muttered softly and then picked his head up to defend himself again. "It wasn't Snape's idea though! Honestly! Dumbledore-"
"Don't." Aurora scoffed. "I've heard enough."
"No you haven't Aurora, you want to know what was in your father's memories so badly, I'm going to tell you! Even if it hurts you, clearly you want to know!" Harry argued.
She began to chew on her lip, and her eyes scanned the room. Dudley had now taken to sitting on the sofa with Vernon, as to try to not look as though they were listening to the entire bit. Sirius stood aside Petunia, nearly a little too close for comfort, Aurora thought.
And the Weasley's made their way out of the living room and to the dining room, where Molly was now feeding Teddy dinner, and reading him Christmas stories to distract him from the pain his mother was enduring in the next room.
"Severus was in love with our mother, Lily, and he did all he could to not only protect us, but protect her. And when she died, he took you because not only did he love our mother, but she loved him back. He acted on Dumbledore's orders when it came to how he treated me, and how he treated everyone else here. He had to keep up a look and he didn't want that look, he didn't want to be known as the asshole Potions Master, but Dumbledore told him to do that." Harry explained, crossing his arms.
"Snape was bullied horribly by our father, but he made a mistake and called our mother Mud-Blood out of sadness when she started to hang out with the guy who had been bullying him, and it reminded me of when you told me how your father told you to never in your life say that, he even gave Malfoy detention that time he called Hermione that, second year, don't you remember? We made that plan to embarrass Malfoy, and it worked- although now you're married to him."
Harry continued. "But Severus didn't want to put a memory charm on anyone, in fact, he was just going to change your name and keep you private until it was time for school. But Dumbledore pushed him into performing these charms on all those around you, and me too. Snape wanted to take me too, he wanted to keep us together. But Dumbledore said it wasn't safe and Snape didn't even understand why. But Aurora... He loved you so much and he did everything, because... Before Lily died... She confessed to Snape that she loved him and she had told him that if the Dark Lord could be defeated, and all would be well, she'd leave James for him and that they'd get the happy ended they deserved."
Aurora frowned. "But that never happened. She knew it'd never happen. So why would she do that?"
Harry shrugged. "She wanted to run away with him but she knew it would blow his cover. And then Dumbledore banned Snape from seeing her again after that. Said it was going to ruin everything."
"So it's all Dumbledore's fault is what you're saying?" Aurora couldn't believe the words she had been hearing.
"My sister loved that Severus, loved him as children and loved him all through her years at school." Petunia added as she blinked away a tear and sniffled.
Aurora didn't know how exactly to feel anymore. Seeing as every feeling she had felt since she had been old enough to process emotions had been wrong. She couldn't talk to her father about it, and she couldn't ask anything to her mother, and for two years Harry had hid all of that from her and for a moment she resented him. For a moment she wanted to punch him in the face.
Because Severus was her father, and those memories- those precious memories, are ones that Harry should have shared with her. Because she deserved to know the truth in that moment as badly as he did. It was her family too, she knew James and Lily as well as Harry did, it was unfair of him to act as though he had more time with them. All Aurora had was years of not knowing the truth, not knowing who they were, all Harry had was photos, which was more than she had.
The only good thing was that now if Aurora tried hard enough, she could look deep into her own mind, and find her memories from those days. Memories that she once though were just strange dreams.
She had held all of those memories close to her. Being able to see her mother's face and hear her voice. Hearing James' laugh and how he used to get her and Harry to play games that made Lily screech in terror that they'd end up hurt.
Lost in her thoughts, lost in trying to process everything again, and still trying to recover from her own grief, she just stood there. Her gaze shifting from Harry to Petunia to Sirius. Those who knew the most out of anyone else in that house in the moment.
"My sister," Petunia broke the silence. "She loved you children so dearly. What she did and what she said was all from the heart and she had only wanted what was best for the pair of you. If she could see what you two have become since that day, I'd say she'd be mighty proud."
Aurora scoffed and chuckled softly. "I doubt she would have been proud of me while I was in school, I wasn't exactly easy. And I made some really poor choices."
"But look where those choices brought you." Petunia replied quickly. "Harry told me much about you and the things you had gone through, I can only imagine that had your mother been there, she would have found a way into that school and laid in that hospital bed with you for as long as you'd have needed her to be there for."
"Would she have been disappointed in me for being pregnant at 14?" Aurora crossed her arms and stared intently at Petunia. "Because I'm sure she would have hated me for it."
Sirius had finally had enough of Aurora being so salty about her mother. It was time for him to put his foot down, like he had tried to years ago but was told by Severus to step back, that he wasn't her father and had no place. But with Severus now gone, Sirius was the closest to a father she'd ever have. As her Godfather, it was his place now.
"Lily would have been angry, you're right." Sirius said firmly. "She would have yelled, she would have cried, but certainly after she'd have exploded- she would have hugged you and told you how much she loves you. But best believe she'd have let you know how poor of choices you'd made."
"Sirius, don't-" Petunia started, but Sirius cut her off.
"Don't what? Tell her what she needs to hear rather than what we think will make her feel a little better?" Sirius asked Petunia before throwing his attention back toward Aurora. "And if you think Lily would have been the most angry you're wrong, James would have been the worst. But not to you, no, he would have tracked that boy down and made his life a living hell for getting you pregnant. He would have had me, Remus, and had things been different, Wormtail, to back him up the entire time."
Aurora laughed from frustration. "Is that why you're still hard on Draco? Because you think you owe it to your friend to get all that anger out? Because it's been years now Sirius, YEARS!" She shouted. "I married that boy that you'd have hunted down with James and the others. I am raising a child with him and I think I'm doing a pretty damn good job! So let it go already!"
"Alright, that's enough!" Petunia said. "Tonight was not supposed to be like this. It's Christmas, let's enjoy the holiday! Please!"
Aurora kept her narrowed eyes, furiously on Sirius. "I'll be fine once he starts to be kind to my husband-"
"And I'll be fine once Aurora stops acting like a spoiled brat!" Sirius argued. "You can't use that poor me shit all your life! Bad things, worse things- have happened to your brother and you don't see him crying about it all the time!"
Aurora chewed her lips and fought back tears. "So that's how you really feel? I knew you always favored him over me. It's because I was raised by Snape, wasn't it?"
She shook her head and choked back tears as she marched into the dining room and grabbed Teddy, putting their jackets on, prepared to leave, when suddenly the fireplace lit up green and soot came flying out.
There stood Draco, who became very well aware that his timing was not great. He tried to smile at Harry when he noticed the hurt and pain on his face. Aurora stood with Teddy in her arms as she adjusted their jackets.
"D-Did you just get here?" Draco asked as he began to unbutton his jacket and then turned to Harry. "Sorry about your floor, I'll clean it up."
"Don't worry about it." Harry waved his wand and the mess was gone, and even the soot that had gotten onto Draco's face had gone too.
"We were just leaving." Aurora went to Draco and took him by the arm, her grip strong enough to break the skin had he not been wearing a long sleeve shirt. "Let's go-"
"Oh come on Aurora, don't run away from your problems." Sirius scoffed. "You're acting just like-"
"Like who, Sirius? Maybe- like you?" She shook her head again with a defeated look on her face. "Because you were on the run for some time, if I remember correctly? And where were you when I nearly died? When I was pregnant and suffering? When I needed someone to help me get through it? Because all I had was Draco!"
Draco looked at Harry with horror on his face, and even Harry, shared the same look. Vernon stood up from the sofa and left the room, while Dudley stayed, still watching them all argue.
"This was a bad idea, coming here-" Aurora began to feel herself over come with emotion. "My son deserves better than this."
"He surely does." Sirius grit his teeth.
"And what exactly do you mean by that?" Aurora asked, tension filled her voice.
Sirius shook his head, biting his tongue for a moment until the words came out as word vomit. "He deserves Tonks and Remus, not you-"
"Fuck you Sirius!" Aurora shouted, passing Teddy to Petunia who immediately took him to the other room. "I have done EVERYTHING I can for him! And what have you done these last two years? You come by on Christmas and give him whatever gift you think will make up for you not being there and then during the summer you're still never there!"
"Tell me, Sirius, when was the last time you stayed up with Teddy while he cried from teething? Or when you woke up to him standing in your room throwing up all over the floor because he was sick? Or had to walk laps with him around the entire house because he was in pain and couldn't sleep? How many nights did you wake up to this little boy coming into your bed, crying, all because he wanted to be held and comforted after having a bad dream?" Aurora continued.
"I don't even think you changed a single one of his diapers actually. Did you potty train him? Did you get peed on at 3 in the morning because you were too exhausted to remember to cover him up when reaching for the clean diaper? Did you kiss his knee when he fell down at the park and scraped it? Did you read him stories at night before bed? Give him a bath? Any of it? No? Because Draco and I do it every fucking day! And every morning at 6, Teddy wakes up, we say good morning to Tonks and Remus' portrait in his nursey, and start our day. And every night at 8, we say good night to them too."
"So don't tell me when you think you know. Don't tell me he deserves more than me and Draco, because I'm fucking proud of us. I'm proud of the fact that Teddy calls me Mama, and that he knows Draco as his Daddy, because it shows us that he truly loves us and he's happy and content. But you wouldn't know that because you're not fucking there! You were never fucking there! NEVER!"
Sirius was huffing from anger but soon that anger changed to hurt. His eyes welled with tears and his face was red and puffy.
"I know I wasn't always there for you but I'm trying to do better for him, I'm here now, and I've tried my best to be what he needs, as his Papa, I'm trying to be the family he deserves."
"YOU WERE MY FAMILY TOO!" Aurora's face was wet with tears, her voice cracked and all that resentment, all that grief, everything... Came out now. "You were supposed to be there for me! You were supposed to have been the one to raise me when my parents died, but you didn't! IT'S NOT FUCKING FAIR! YOU WERE MY GODFATHER! MINE AND HARRY'S!"
"And I told you Aurora, had things been different-"
"What were you doing the night I found out I was pregnant? What did you do? Nothing. You didn't care. It wasn't your problem! And when I was depressed for weeks until my father shipped me to Grimmauld Place, you didn't do a thing! You never even cared for anything but getting revenge on whoever did it! And you still didn't! It was me! All me!"
Aurora could feel the pressure building in her chest, that gut wrenching feeling. The one that made it harder to breath. The memories of that moment, the one where she stuck that dagger into Blaise's chest came back to her. She could feel the warmth of his blood on her hands all over again. The sound of his chest cracking right under her echoed in her ears. And the look in his eyes, the way he still looked at her with that crazy obsessive look, the little bit of love in those beautiful brown eyes, the ones she had looked into so many times, haunted her.
"This is like beating a dead horse, don't you think?" Draco said to both Sirius and Aurora. "Clearly there is a lot going on here emotionally. But it's been years, so let's-"
"You have no say! None of it would have happened had you not been a stupid horny teenage boy!" Sirius snapped at Draco. "Had you just kept it in your pants she would have NEVER lost her child-"
"She was my daughter too," Draco did his best to hold down his anger, swallowing it further and further. Putting it away and hoping it wouldn't escape. "And just so you know, since we're all adults here now, I mean, we're all almost 21, aside from you-" He said to Sirius. "You're obviously the most grown out of all of us, but that night I had sex with Aurora, she's the one who asked. She started it the night before at the Yule Ball, I told her we shouldn't but she insisted. I did what she asked, I would never have pressed for it. I still don't. It's always her choice because you want to know something? Something that eats at me all the time?"
Draco shut his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath and then continued, again, as calmly as possible. "If I hadn't tried to make her keep that baby, it wouldn't have happened. But I demanded she kept that baby, I told her I had rights as a father, and now I realize that I was 14, I had no right to try to control her and what she did with her body. Do you know how badly that eats at me? From the moment it happened I knew it was my fault for filling her head with how perfect it would be. I was a fool. A fucking fool."
Silence.
"I don't think you're a fool." Dudley said as he rose from the couch.
All heads turned to look at him with confusion. Aurora had forgotten that Dudley had even remained sitting there after his mother exited the room, but when he got up and began to walk toward Harry, Sirius, Draco and Aurora, she realized his gaze had only remained on Draco.
"You're not a fool at all," Dudley reached his hand to his. "I'm Dudley, Aurora and Harry's cousin, I suppose yours now by marriage."
Draco silently shook his hand with a painful smile.
"I can't even begin to put myself in the shoes of anyone in this room, but I know if at 14 I had found out my girlfriend was pregnant, I'd probably have thought it would have been picture perfect too. I mean, at 14, you just think everything will be like a movie-"
Harry began to giggle.
"What's funny?" Dudley shot a look at Harry.
"Oh uh- you had to be there." Harry replied.
Aurora hid her laughter too, she remembered how the first time she had gone to Draco's family home, how he told her he had only made those type of moves on her simply because he had seen it in a movie.
"Well, as I was saying," Dudley continued. "You can't get mad at someone for something they did when they were 14. The two of them made a choice together and it was no ones fault that it happened. The only person who is to blame is the person who took that life away from them and from what I hear, that's been handled." Dudley look at Aurora and smirked. "So who was there and wasn't there, it doesn't matter now. Life is short and can be taken at any minute. We all know that and we've all been through it. So how's about you all put it aside, forgive one another and move along."
Harry smiled at Dudley. "You've become wiser with age, Big D."
"It's all because of you, Harry." Dudley returned the smile.
Dudley then turned to look at all of them, and with each word he looked another in the eyes to be sure he was truly being heard. "Now, can we all forgive one another and move on? We're all family one way or another."
Draco nodded and shook hands with Sirius who gave him a half smile. Draco put one hand in his pocket and the other around Aurora.
But she kept herself locked where she was. Firmly she stood, standing her ground and Draco could feel it coming off of her, that anger and heat. That resentment. Harry tensed up, aware that Aurora was not done here, that there was more she had to get out. But he was ready for it.
"Sirius..." She muttered. "I can forgive you but don't you dare for one single moment think I'll ever forget the way you hurt me tonight with the words you said. I will always remember that. And that should bother you."
"Aurora, I'm sorry-"
"Save it." She turned away and walked back to the dining room and sat down the Weasley family.
For the rest of the night she pretended as though Sirius was not there. She used Christmas Eve to bond with her Aunt Petunia and cousin Dudley. Vernon, however, was another story. He was at a bit of a stand off and seemed a bit frightened by Aurora, which maybe he should be.
As Draco watched Aurora laugh and smile with her family, he also noticed how her face would drop the second she'd hear the voice of Sirius or catch a glance of him.
She was hurt and usually she'd explode and be fine, Draco had experienced that plenty of times before. But this time, she was willing to let it go for the most part, but what she truly had let go of was the love and compassion she held for her Godfather.