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CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN:
BITTERSWEET ENDING
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When she let go of the Portkey, she immediately knew there was something wrong. Harry's hand was gone from hers.
Her instincts proved correct because when she landed in Dumbledore's office, her and Harry were not alone. He was not beside her anymore. She looked around the room. The room was full of more than a dozen people, mostly middle aged men and women, but also many young people.
She whirled around the room taking in every single person - every face, every detail that she would remember. However, there was one person whose face she landed on and she drew in a sharp breath when spotting him. It was him, Marcos, and she knew almost immediately. He was a tall man, maybe the same size as Sirius, except much more muscular. He had thin black short hair that stuck up in slicked spikes, and piercing blue eyes - so bright, and fierce you would get lost in them.
They had finally come from her, presumably planned.
She didn't focus on him for long, instead he had Harry held by two men in front of him. He held a knife to his throat, which caused an immediate alarm. Harry had a red bruise cover his under eye and he sent her a look that told her to run.
She should have known something like this would happen, and she also should have been more careful.
More importantly, she wondered how he got into Hogwarts. Sirius said that her mum put a spell over the grounds of Hogwarts to stop them from entering.
So how did they get in?
"I've waited for this for so many years." Marcos said, without introducing himself. He expected her to know. She stood in the middle of the room, afraid to move, and even afraid to speak. "It's nice to meet you. To be honest I wasn't sure this day was going to come, and how glad I am that it has. It's a beautiful day, today, isn't it?"
She didn't reply only narrowed her eyes to him.
"Oh, my apologies, Aurora." he said, and when he said her name her eyes narrowed. Her eyes flicker to Harry, who was glaring at Marcos as if he was trying to set his mind on fire. "Despite the fact you met my crummy son, I never introduced myself to you, I'm Marcos Hampton."
"I know who you are," she said in a clear voice, and she tried to hide the fear she felt in it. Not fear for herself. When he mentioned Beckham, her heart quickened unusually. "Beckham? Where is he? What have you done with him?"
"What makes you think I've done something with him? He's my dearest son, I would never hurt him. Unless I had to of course, with a fine cause."
"What did you do to him?" she asked, trying to switch her devastation to anger.
"Beckham is dead." he said, with a small shrug. At the look on her face, he added. "Oh, you didn't believe I was going to let the boy live? Truthfully, I did consider it but he would never see the bigger picture. He would never turn. Even as a young boy, he always showed mercy towards those who did not deserve it. People like you."
Maybe it was because she never experienced someone she was close with dying. Other than her mum, no one death had impacted her to strongly. She didn't know how to react. Beckham was the first person she ever loved, and love didn't come easy to her. She spent a few months with him and in that time he made an impact with her that no one else had. He was caring, loving, and was born into the wrong family.
She was also the reason he left Hogwarts, and was dead.
Part of her didn't believe him because it was Beckham, and she only saw him a few months ago. She closed her eyes for a moment and told herself not to bring herself to tears - because it would show how weak she was.
It was Beckham, he was her first love. That was maybe the worst feeling she had ever felt.
"There is no other people like me." she told him. "Isn't that the point of this?"
His eyes narrowed. "You're mother was like you. Your grandmother was like you, until your mother took her powers-"
"Unintentionally."
"Maliciously." he corrects.
"Fortunately for us all, she didn't get her powers." she told him, and watched as his cheeks tinted red with anger. "Instead my mum got them, and then I got them. Thankfully Marcos, Rotandia didn't get her power back, because she is a gigantic bitch, and didn't deserve them."
When Marcos went to speak, he didn't get a chance because she continued, "And I am so happy that my mum took her powers. I would do the same if I could."
"A very unusual outlook at things." Marcos said through gritted teeth. "Also a very stupid one considering how I can kill this boy right here with just one movement."
"He's not the one you want." she began, and when she went to move every single person in the room had raised their wands or weapons. Some of them at Harry, most of them at her. "I'm the one you want. Harry is not yours to kill. Just let him leave. He is Voldemort's. You don't want to kill him, Voldemort will not-"
"Voldemort and I are devoted companions." he said, offering her another malicious smile. "I'm sure he would be fine with it."
"How touching." she replied. "You two seem to have a common weirdness for wanting to kill two teenagers."
"Aurora," Harry croaked out, her eyes flickered to his. "Not the time when he has a knife to my throat."
"The boy is right. Please, put your hands in the chains, so you can't use your magic." he said, and it sounded so simple, but caused her to pause. "It's a simple request, a reasonable request, don't you think?"
"If you refuse, we can instead I'll make sure Harry here can't make it to you." a different man said.
Her eyes darted around the room, looking for ant solution to not have to do this. She looked for some sort of way to stop everything but it wasn't working.
She clenched his jaw in anger. "Alright. I'll put it simply, if you lay a hand on him I swear I am going to make it my personal mission to hurt every single person in the room." she turned to the man who threatened him. "I'm going to start with you."
In all her time of being alive and all the times she got angry, she swore she had never felt an anger like this one. It was one that spread throughout her veins, and caused her to want to hurt every single person in the room. She didn't care about whether or not these people had a family - she didn't care about their feelings or their stories.
She was trying to keep the conversation as long as possible, and she wanted to distracted them.
"If I put my hand in those chains, what's to stop you from killing him?"
"Nothing really." Marcos replied. "I see your hesitance. I'll offer you a proposition. We can save the hassle of all of this, if you let me see you."
She looked at him. "See me?"
"Your mind." he hummed out, and her face fell slightly. "I want to see the outcome. I want to see if perhaps I made a mistake...perhaps we have nothing to fear from you. You can understand our fear, right? Someone like you, someone so young having such fine abilities, that others would want to have. Let me see into your mind and see who you are."
Aurora debated it but didn't have a chance to think anymore, as one woman went over and punched Harry across the face. Not once, but twice. His glasses fell to the ground and cracked. She went to go forward but someone had pulled her back by roughly her arms, and it caused her to yell out.
"No point, there's a charm outside this door, not to mention it's locked too."
"Fine - fine I'll do it, just stop!" she yelled, causing the man to release Harry. "Please, just..let him go."
Aurora had a problem and she only realised it now. It was as if her powers had stopped working. She tried using her mind and twitching her hand but nothing worked. It was as if her powers disappeared into thin air. Sirius said her emotions fuelled her powers in a way, and right now she was incredibly sad, so why weren't they working?
She didn't have time to worry about it right now.
Both boys took Harry to the side, and she rose an eyebrow. They let go of him, but when he went to go to her they pulled it back. "After."
Harry was quick to say to her, "Aurora don't-"
She went to Marcos. She felt like everything was going to go downhill from here. It was only natural because what else could go wrong? Fear ran through her veins as she exchanged a look with Harry. His cheek was cut open and there was a stream of blood coming down his face. She wanted to cry looking at him. He was in a lot of pain and it was because of her. He had gotten hurt, because of her.
No, this wasn't right, she thought as she walked up to him. She shouldn't be here. But it was to late now, and it was the only option.
When he reached up and touched the side of her face, his hands were cold, and she felt a coldness run throughout her body. He ran through her mind, and quickly pulled away.
"I was wrong." he said, and stepped back. She noticed how everyone in the room had become silent, and she saw one or two people nodded like it was expected. "I made a mistake. My apologies."
"What do you mean you were wrong?" she asked, not hiding her surprise.
"I see the outcome, and I see how it all ends. I was wrong. We can go now."
Marcos leaned forward and held her shoulder. Aurora felt a small shock but passed it. "I am sorry, Aurora. I hope we do not meet again. I will be on my way now."
Harry and Aurora both exchanged a look. That was it? He had made a mistake and now he was leaving. Like he said, after fifteen years he decided that he was wrong. He killed her mother and now he decided it was all a mistake. Something wasn't right.
Her mouth opens to speak, but he had pushed past her and rounded up his people. All of them connected their hands, and got ready to leave.
Marcos looked at her one more time. "You'll never be able to control your anger."
Her brows furrow and she goes to speak but he was gone, his followers disappeared with him leaving. They left no trace of their existence. She let out a breath, and turned back to Harry.
"Are you alright?" he asked immediately, coming over and cupping her face. She nods. "Good, I was so worried. They're bloody lunatics. How did they get in here? I thought your mum put the spell."
"She did." she finished, sending him a nod. She reached up and examined his face. "I'm so sorry. I didn't want you to get involved in this-"
"Stop, let's just stop apologising, and try find a way out of here, alright?"
Harry walked over towards the door, and attempted to open it, he only stopped when realising she made no attempt to move. Harry watched as her hand raised to her chest and sucked in a sharp breath.
"Aurora, what's wrong?"
She thought what she felt earlier was bad, this was nothing in comparison to the pain that took over now. Her entire body had been to much to handle. It became to much to handle. Her breath went. Her chest started to crush in on her. With shaky hands she took off her jumper. When she looked down all she saw was red, and a long piece of silver going through her chest. It was in deep, and she could feel it through her back.
She looks up to Harry whose eyes became wide. She lost control of every part of her body after that but he was quick to catch her before she could fall to the floor.
"What's happening?" he shouted, he leaned forward to examine the metal that struck through one part of her chest. It was long, and the material stuck out through almost both sides. "It-its right in your chest. What did he do?"
"He. .tricked me." Aurora said, and as she spoke she began to cough red.
"You're going to be fine. You hang in there, alright?" he sat up, removing his jacket. He wrapped it around the blade, it was almost sword like. He looked down, and the blood didn't stop.
As he looked closer, he saw her neck wound was starting to open back up.
"I'm going to take it out. The blade, it's deep, I-I'm going to try pull it out and I'll heal you." Harry assured her, and when she nodded he took the jumper into his hands and started pulling.
Her screams and cries filled his ears but he didn't stop.
"What is taking you so long?" she breathed, "I can't, Harry, it-it hurts to much. Harry? What's wrong?"
Harry had been pale and looking down. "I-I can't move it. It's stuck. Every time I move it, it's moving back and it's cutting more of the skin a-and more blood. It's not moving, Aurora."
He tried spells to stop the blood, or even try and move the knife, but nothing worked. Neither of them spoke for a few moments but he heard her breathing become worse.
"T-Tell me how you feel?"
"I'm great." she said, eyes moving around the room.
Harry let out a small smile, one that he did for her, not himself. He looked at her, she didn't look great. If anything, she looked like she was barely breathing. He kept his hands over her chest trying to stop the blood.
It made been minutes and the blood hadn't stopped. If anything it was getting worse.
"Look at me, you're going to be fine, but you need to stay awake, stay awake until we can get you to the hospital wing." he tells her, and she nods meekly. Harry raises his hand to wipe the tears from his face, but was surrounded by not red coloured blood, but a much darker colour of blood, almost black. "Y-You'll be fine, I promise."
"I-I'll stay awake, Harry."
"Show me your hands."
The second he picked up her hands, he almost dropped them. It was like sticking your hands into a bucket of cold ice. As if this wasn't bad enough, when he touched her forehead, she was getting even colder.
"What's wrong?" she chattered.
Now, when he looked at her, she was almost as pale as a cloud and her lips had turned blue. Harry never saw her like this, he brought her knuckles to his lips, and kissed them. "Nothing, nothing you, how are you feeling?"
"My-my throat feels like it's being crushed, a...and my chest feels like it's going to explode, like there's pressure on it but not from the knife. I can feel it in my back, a-and against m-my ribs. I can feel my ribs, is that normal?"
Her breathing came to halted seizes, and more blood became to come her mouth.
"I-I'm going to try open the door, again. Everyone will be here soon. Just hold on."
Harry ran to the door, but with no force would it open. It had been almost like it was glued, and even when he used his wand it wouldn't open. He tried every spell he could think of, and none of them worked. "I can't open the door."
He yelled and yelled but no one came. He tried the window, he saw people but no one heard. Neither did any spells.
"The spell is still on it." she told him, she moved up to look but when she did, another shot of pain rang through her hair. "Harry."
He turned around, and ran back down to her, except this time he picked her up slightly by her elbows, allowing her to lie across him. She rested her head on his chest.
"I'm...dying."
"No, no you are not."
"Please, can you tell Ron I love him, and I want him to know that he really should tell Hermione he loves her. I know he might be....scared to ruin his friendship but he should let her know. Please tell Hermione that I'm sor-sorry. And my dad tell him I..I'm sorry for not being a better daughter-"
"Aurora, you're not dying." he leaned up and placed his hand across her hair, and brushed it back from her face. "Sirius is going to be here any second. Just stay awake. Please for me just stay awake a little longer. I know it hurts."
"It hurts so bad." Aurora told him, again tears in her eyes. She knew what was happening. She knew it the moment it happened. She knew it was going to happen. "I-I'm trying, but I can't. You have to look after Luke, alright, you need to be there for him."
She could feel her heart struggling, and going faster and faster. The more it went the more the explosion on her chest started to press in. It spread to what felt like every part of her body - she couldn't feel her right hand anymore, and neither of her legs. She could feel Harry's hand in left hand. It kept her warm.
Her focus of thoughts ended on Harry, or at least what she thought was. Her dying thoughts, because she was dying. Even though he hadn't accepted it she was. Aurora could feel it in her bones - so much for being a miracle witch, the one who was suppose to do good. She couldn't even save herself.
She was dying.
"I'm sorry." she mumbles, to him. He looked down at her confused. "I waited for so long. I never acknowledged your feelings, I really should have. It was a mistake. I was with so many other people before you. It was a mistake. I don't know why I did it. I'm sorry I hurt you."
"Why are you apologising for that, now? We're together, that's all in the past-"
"Harry, you know what's happening-"
"No, Sirius is going to be here any minute." Harry tore his eyes from her, and focused them on the door. "You see those doors, they're going to apparate here any minute."
Her eyes flickered to the clock, she could barely make out the numbers. "It has been even fifteen. We can't reach them. There's no way."
Harry looked down at her, the blade in her chest was still stuck in place. Whatever dark magic was on it was firm. Her entire torso was soaked in blood, he kept one hand in hers and the other on her chest trying to stop the bleeding. He had no spare hands to wipe his tears that came, and he had none to wipe hers. He had nothing. He had nothing to do or say that would fix the situation.
Her mouth was full of blood, and she was covered in red cuts on her face from the Ministry.
There was nothing he could do to make her feel better, but he could speak.
"You did so brilliantly in your exams. You said you didn't care but I know you did. I know you're going to do great because your smartest person I know. This summer, you, me, and Luke will all open our exams and whatever the outcome we'll celebrate. You don't need to worry about that now, it's months away. By then you'll have moved in with Sirius."
Her breaths were short and he could see she how her chest moved quickly trying to grasp air, but she nodded.
"You know you can't die because we've not even gotten to spent a proper Valentine's Day together." he told her with a small laugh. "I was going to surprise you with one this summer, just the two of us. I know you love surprises."
She smiled at him but he wished she hadn't because of how much pain he saw she was in.
"Anyways, we'll have a good summer time Valentine's Day, and then when next year comes I'll make sure we are together for the entire day. Just you and me."
Silence filled his ears, but he had told himself he didn't hear it.
"I love you, Aurora." he told her, "You don't need to say it back because you need to keep your energy, but I'll always love you."
Her hands had been cold for quite some time, and she stopped moving many moments ago.
"You only have a little longer left and then Sirius will be here, and Luke too. He's with Remus and the others right now. You're going to give them a massive fright, you know? You just need to hang on for another couple of minutes."
And after a few seconds that felt like minutes, he moved himself slightly to look down at her. He regretted the action he saw almost immediately, because her grey eyes had stopped seeing.
Only when she was dead did Harry allow himself to cry.
It was a few moments before the ground beneath him started to shake, but he had not looked up. He saw an odd shaped Portkey-like-globe begin to form, and a series of people yelling. He looked back down at Aurora and held her closely to him. He waited for Sirius and Dumbledore to come through, but it wasn't them that came through the odd portal....
Harry looked ahead, his entire body freezing with confusion when his late father emerged and fell down to the ground.
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before anyone says anything - it will be explained.
the next act will just be what happened after Aurora's death.