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CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT:
BECKHAM'S THEME
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"Harry. You can let go now!"
Last night she had finally come back to Hogwarts. Harry and Ron were asleep so she didn't wake them. It had been almost three weeks since Sirius told her she could return but they hadn't known that of course. She had come down the stairs after getting into her uniform, and out of know where Harry grabbed her into a huge
She had no idea where he came from, absolutely no idea.
"No." he says, hugging her tighter. "To long. It's been far to long. Three entire weeks."
"Good point." she muttered, hugging him back even tighter. She rested her head on his chest. "How have you been?"
She felt his chest rise slightly, and knew he was nervous for the question. "It's been fine, I've been fine."
"You sounds like you're trying to convince me, and I don't believe you." she pulled away, and she saw his expression. Something had happened. Something was wrong. "What happened?"
He sent her an assuring nod. "I don't want to talk about it now. Later tonight, we'll talk, just the two of us."
She nods, and turns back to Hermione and Ron who were both waiting quietly for them to stop. When they did, the two almost pushed them forward out of the portrait and towards the Great Hall.
"Aurora!" a voice shouts, before they go in. She turns and Dean comes over grinning. "You're back."
An arm slung around her shoulder. It was Seamus. "How I've missed you."
She nods. "Glad to be back."
When she glanced over at Harry, it seemed as though he was trying to set Seamus' arm on fire.
"We need to go to Breakfast." she shoved Seamus' arms off her. "Bye boys."
"I hate Seamus." Harry declared to her, as the four of them went into the Great Hall, and sat down at the middle of the table. "He's annoying, and needs to learn when to give up."
"That's rich coming from you." Ron snorted. Hermione burst out laughing, but quickly stopped.
"Oh, look at that." Harry begins, sarcasm lacing his tone. "Now I hate you too, Ron."
There was several new Daily Prophet papers left around. She leaned across and takes one, as did the others. The heading was printed in red bold and obvious.
MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN MINISTRY FEARS BLACK IS "RALLYING POINT"
FOR OLD DEATH EATERS.
"Mass Breakout? They think Sirius did this?" she whispers, eyes narrowing at the paper. Her head felt hot at the thought. "Is there anything he doesn't want to blame on him."
The Ministry of Magic announced late last night that there has been a mass breakout from Azkaban.
Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, confirmed that ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening, and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the dangerous nature of these individuals.
"We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in the same position we were two and a half years ago when
the murderer Sirius Black escaped," said Fudge last night. "Nor do we think the two breakouts are unrelated. An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help, and we must remember that Black, as the first person ever to break out of Azkaban, would be ideally placed to help others follow in his footsteps. We think it likely that these individuals, who include Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Black as their leader. We are, however, doing all we can to round up the criminals and beg the magical commu- nity to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached."
Instantly, Neville and Alice came into her mind. As far as she knew, Neville wasn't at Hogwarts at the minute again. "Bellatrix escaped?"
"There you are, Harry," said Ron, looking awestruck. "That's why he was happy last night."
"Who was happy?" Aurora asked, Ron became quiet and Harry sent him a look.
"I'll explain later." Harry says, again. She gives him a look. "Don't worry. I don't believe this. Fudge is blaming the breakout on Sirius?"
"What other options does he have?" Hermione mutters. "He can hardly say, 'Sorry everyone, Dumbledore warned me this might happen, the Azkaban guards have joined Lord Voldemort, and now Voldemort's worst supporters have broken out too.' I mean, he's spent a good six months telling everyone you and Dumbledore are liars, hasn't he?"
Aurora opens her bag and pulls out her potions book. She sighs before opening it.
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked, sounding urgent. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm studying."
Aurora hadn't mentioned to them the fact she wouldn't be able to come back next year unless she passed all her O.W.L exams. It was new to her, it was all completely new to her. A few moments passed, Hermione and Ron got into their conversation about SPEW.
She looks over at Harry who looked up at her at the same time.
"Don't laugh." she says, to him in a whisper.
"I would never laugh at you." he held a hand over his chest. "I'm offended you would even think that of me."
She gave him a questioning look. "Oh really? I wasn't aware you were a saint."
He grins at her, "I am."
"You're the worst." she whispered to herself. "You're also the best."
"I am the best." Harry added.
Aurora wanted to stop the uncontrollable grin from forming on her lips. She shakes her head, and continues reading through the book. At this point now she wasn't understanding anything. She glances back up at Harry, who was giving her the same look. "Stop staring."
"I can't help it." he mentions, grinning. "You're blushing again."
"If you don't shut up-"
"You two make me want to vomit." Hermione said unhappily. "But in an oddly good way."
"Hi, Harry." the sound of Cho Chang's voice came into her ears. "Aurora, nice to see your back."
She looks up at Cho. "Thank you, Cho."
"Harry," Cho turns to the boy who had become quiet. "I just wanted to check we're still on for Valentine's Day?"
Aurora looked up from her potions book, and noticed how Ron and Hermione's conversation had stopped. Harry eyes quickly widened and he quickly looked over to see his girlfriends reaction.
She looks up from her book. "What's happening Valentine's Day?"
Cho glances towards her. "We're going to Hogsmeade together."
"Oh are we?"
"Suppose to be."
"Oh that's nice. Harry?"
When both girls turned to Harry, he had been stuffing his face with food with the assistance of Ron who was passing him bread rolls.
"Huh?" Harry says, through a mouthful of bread rolls. "Oh. Right." he nods.
Cho took this is a yes. "Okay. I'll see you then!"
Once Cho was gone, Aurora took a bread roll and threw it at him. "What the hell?"
"I have an explanation!" he says, as she continues to throw bread rolls at him. "It's a really good one!"
His girlfriend didn't look convince, and instead looked the opposite.
"Stop throwing bread rolls at me!"
She got up from the table, and went away despite the fact he called her name about ten times. She was sure everyone was wondering what was going on. The rest of the day she avoided the boy even at lunch and dinner. She hid out in the Hufflepuff common room with Luke even after hours.
"You should be on your best behaviour." Luke mentions offhandedly. "You need to go back to your common room. It's almost ten, after hours."
"I know, but I'm-" she hesitated. "Worried, that he's...bored."
"Bored? Of what?"
"Me!" she explains, as it was obvious. "We've been friends for five years! It's not like a new relationship! I know everything about him. It's new, it's so new but at the same time it's not. Is that a good thing? I can't even tell. Maybe he's decided waiting wasn't a good idea and-"
"I think you're overthinking it." Luke interrupted, shaking his head quickly. "It is new but it's better. Harry likes you and you like him back."
"But Cho-"
"Did you let him explain-"
"Well no but she-"
"Okay well put your trust issues aside and go talk with him."
She groans, and gets up from the ground. "You're mean."
She leaves the Hufflepuff common room and swiftly goes past Ron and Hermione, who were both on their prefect duties. Aurora nods to them both as she enters the Common Room. It was empty except for Harry who was waiting for her.
"Just don't say anything, just let's sit." she says.
He nods. The two of them sat in front of the fire, angled against the couch, and she lay across his chest. Her eyes were on the fire which was raised high and heating the already hot room. She notices his breathing was short by the way his chest rose every few seconds.
She turns back now to him eventually, and now he says, "Can I tell you what happened with Cho, now?"
She buried her head in his chest. "No. The thought of you with Cho annoys me. It makes me.. really mad."
"Let me explain."
She lifts her eyes to his and nods.
"It happened before we got together. A few days after we kissed, she hinted at me to ask her to Hogsmeade, and I did. It was stupid, I knew I was still hung up on you, but I asked her anyway. Then we happened," he watched as a small blush came upon her face, "I completely forgot about it. I came back and she asked me about it last week, and I couldn't come up with a good excuse to say no on the spot. I could have said something but literally nothing came to my head as a good excuse."
"So you didn't want us to break up." she says, not hiding the frown she had. "It was...just an awkward situation."
His brows crease softly. "You thought I wanted us to break up?"
She turns away from him, and looks towards the fire. "I thought maybe you were having seconds thoughts about us. I thought maybe you didn't want to continue this, that you were bored."
Suddenly he had put his hands under her shoulders and pushed her up to see him. He brushed a strand of hair out of her face. He leans forward, and kissed her. She didn't like how when she was around him, that's all she wanted to be doing, was staying with him. Harry had been surprised she thought that, it was the first time she ever sounded somewhat insecure.
"Never." he says once he pulled away. "I'll never have second thoughts about us."
She rests her forehead against his. "Exactly why I don't want anyone to know about this. I want this to stay between us. I want this to work. I want us to work."
He took her hand into his. "What should I tell her?"
"Maybe just cancel on her." she suggests, before stopping. Actually, the new and improved Aurora would say be wouldn't be fair to do and she should at least consider other people's opinions. "No, actually that would just be mean."
"Especially with her crying about Cedric." he says, frowning. "I'd feel bad if I was to cancel. Not to bad, but bad enough."
"Maybe you should go with, then?" she mentions, not sting in her tone.
"But I want to spent Valentine's Day with you." he mutters, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Only you. I had a plan."
Her eyebrows lift. "A plan? Tell me what you were gonna do? Now you're blushing-"
"Shut up." Harry groans.
"I wanna know!" she falls back into his chest, and extends her hands frantically. "Was there going to be flowers? Chocolates even? Was there going to be some sort of beautiful song playing and we'd dance, even though you can't dance. I mean Valentine's Day is a pretty romantic day-"
"You don't eat any chocolate other than hot chocolate." he points out, rolling his eyes. "You're a picky eater. You only like one type of flower also, and I can't dance."
"You're such a pessimist."
He laughs, pushing her hands away.
"Tell me about what Ron was talking about this morning." she asks a few moments later, the two of them sat up on the couch. "What made who happy?"
"The other day I got a feeling that someone was happy. That he was happy, Voldemort." he added, causing her to sit up. "It was me but it almost felt like it was. I tried to figure out why but until this morning I had no idea."
"He's building his army, isn't he?"
Harry nods. There were no more words exchanged between them after this, Aurora simply moved over and rested her head against his shoulder.
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At the opposite end of Hogwarts, Beckham pulled his suitcase outside the grounds of Hogwarts. He glanced back up past the woods. He couldn't deny his heart still lay with Aurora, and he felt it always would.
"I heard you're close with the Black girl."
He turned around seeing Marcos who made a shiver run up his spine.
"What the hell do you want? How did you know where I was?" Beckham asks, sending him a look. "I told you I want nothing to do with you-"
Marcos stepped forward and grabbed the boy's face in his hands. " Look at you, looking after a half breeds crops, living life, you disgust me."
Beckham shoved his hand away harshly. " Sorry to disappoint Macros."
" Your not even going to call me dad." he placed a hand against his chest, " ouch."
"You are not my father. I will never call you that." Beckham clenched his jaw. "Y-You used me for those things, that's why I left. You and your group of freaks-"
"They're your family, it's time you learn that. You will be part of it Beckham. I was reluctant to come around at first and now look at me-"
"She's a good person. She's more than a good person, she's -"
"The one? I thought you'd say that. I really hate that it had to happen this way."
When Beckham turned around, it happened instantly. He felt a pain run through his head almost straight away. When he turned around, his vision was poured in red and it took him a moment to realise it was his own blood. His father was not alone now and there was to much people for him to count.
That was the last thing Beckham remembered before darkness took over his vision.
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SO BECKHAM IS MARCUS'S SON..who saw that one coming?