Slowly I was dragged forward into conciousness by low swearing. Rubbing my eyes, I found I was curled up in a small ball under Arthur's covers, lent against his side. He was fully dressed in a Nirvana t-shirt and jeans, full of concentration as he jabbed a video game controller.
"Shit!" He yelled, throwing the controller down. He looked to his left, jumping when he saw I was awake. "Sorry, did I wake you?"
"It's fine, I needed to wake up sometime." I forced a smile, sitting up and stretching. To my surprise, golden light was dancing in through the window, but the sort you'd see in a sunset. "What time is it?"
"About half six in the evening." Arthur said sheepishly, picking up his controller. "I thought you needed sleep. Once you're ready I'll take you back to Surrey."
"Fun times." I said, picking up a towel that was folded on the edge of the bed with my jeans. "What video game were you playing to get all annoyed, anyways?"
Sheepishly, Arthur held up a box that said 'Space Invaders'. I rolled my eyes, and muttered, "You dork."
"At least I'm aware of it." Arthur said with a grin.
I took a shower, washing out my hair and putting it into a ponytail. As I dressed back into Arthur's jumper and my jeans, I wondered how things would change now. I mean, I'd make the decision to move on from Malfoy and recover--that was a big deal.
Would I just gradually not wince everytime I saw a present he gave me and learn to love somebody else like Arthur said? And what about in school? Would Malfoy go back to insulting me and my friends like he did before we were 'together?'
And most importantly to me, what about the friendship between Arthur and I? We'd never truly been close in the two years I'd known him, we'd go between talking all the time or none at all. Would we just ignore each other in school, or would we become closer after all I'd put him through this summer?
Emerging from the bathroom, I found Arthur struggling to do up the laces on his left boot. Without saying a word, I knelt down and did the laces up.
Going bright red, he muttered, "I can usually do them up, stupid blind eye." He cleared his throat, putting his glasses on. "Right, so you ready? We can get some fast food on the way."
"Why don't you just apparate me to Surrey, wouldn't that be quicker?" I asked, even though I wanted to spend more time with Arthur.
He pointed at a non-existent eyebrow above his right eye. "I'm not the best at apparating, I lost my eyebrow last night getting your pills."
"So what I'm hearing is that's how you lost your eye," I joked.
Arthur started laughing almost hysterically, actually having to bend over for a few seconds. "That's--That's just--great. Nobody will joke about this sort of stuff with me like ever!"
"Glad to be of service?" I said, picking up the carrier bag Arthur had put my (now) vomit free top and jacket inside.
We descended Arthur's stairs into his hallway, which was almost completley normal. If it wasn't for the moving photos and clock similar to the one in the Weasley house, I would have thought it was a muggle house.
The clock had Arthur's family and Cole's family on the hands. Camille, Alia and Elena all seemed to be home, while Cole was travelling--most likely to Gennie. I noticed that three hands had been pulled off--including his father's.
"Saw no point in having them on there." Arthur said stiffly. "My father's hardly around, and when he is, he whines about how I won't answer Cameron's letters..." He sighed before putting on a forced smile, and called. "Bye mum, I'm off now!"
He opened the door to let me out, but a small dark haired woman darted out of the living room before he could move more. "Arthur dear, why have you been upstairs all day--oh."
She'd noticed me and a soft smile came onto her face. "You must be Aurora, Arthur's told me a lot about you."
"Mu-um." Arthur whined. "Not now, we have to go."
"Have you got your wand?" Mrs Wilde said sternly, and Arthur smacked his head and swore. "Well go and get it! She's underage, she can't defend you both!"
Arthur dashed off with a small smile towards the kitchen, running into the door frame. Sighing, he rubbed his shoulder and began rustling around in the kitchen.
"It's nice to meet you, Mrs Wilde." I said while I played with the fabric in my pocket. "Arthur speaks a lot about you."
He did. When I wasn't having mental breakdowns over an idiot, Arthur always brought up how his mother drew murals of Middle-Earth for him and made the best cookies in the world.
"You can call me Bonnie, dear, I'm not married to that fanatic anymore." She sighed, and I noticed that there were a lot of grey streaks in her hair. "I heard from my son you're both pretty close friends now."
"I'd guess so." I shrugged. "Mostly over the summer. He's been... helping me."
Bonnie smiled. "Such a nice boy... And you seem much nicer than his past boyfriends and girlfriends... People don't always treat him well. So Aurora... whether you want to be his friend or girlfriend... Just don't hurt him. He might smile, but he's been through a lot."
"Got it!" Arthur declared, appearing with wand in hand. He tried twirling it in his fingers but dropped it, a spark hitting the stairs. "Sorry.."
Bonnie tutted but was still smiling. "Just stay safe the both of you... Dementors were spotted not far from here. I'd rather not have to worry about you both--I would like to watch Antiques Roadshow without a phonecall about an attack.."
Arthur gave his mum a quick kiss on the cheek. "Don't panic mum, I can run them over in my car if I have to. I'll be back before Midnight, and then we can watch Silence of the lambs!"
"Okay okay, now get going." Bonnie said, squeezing Arthur's forearm. "Love you."
"Love you too," Arthur said, nudging me out of the house.
"Oh, and Arthur?" Bonnie called when we were half-way down the drive-way, "I like her."
"Nice to meet you," I waved, and we climbed into the car.
Arthur started off the engine, and we backed out onto the main road. The first portion of the journey went good. We didn't discuss anything sad or serious, we just badly sung along to Michael Jackson and Green Day that kept playing on the radio.
"I'm telling you, Green Day will live forever!" Arthur declared, hitting his fingers against the wheel as we waited in a long traffic queue. "Until at least 2015!"
"That's a long, long way away." I laughed. "There'll be muggles with flying cars by then!"
"I grew up with Cole hanging off my leg with a music book in one hand, I know the future of music." Arthur said firmly.
"Do you play any instruments?" I wondered, staring out onto the packed moterway as the sun slowly began to sink down the sky. "I was too impaitent as a kid--plus there was that time Lacey learned trumpet and hit me over the head with the case."
Arthur started giggling, "That's hilarious!"
"I had concussion!"
"Well you're still here, aren't you?" Arthur grinned. "Nah, but I play piano--Cole kinda forced me into that one--and ukele. I've yet to woo anybody with a ukelele sernade though."
"I used to draw and paint all the time." I said thoughtfully. "It was my life at one point... I won first prize in a local competition when I was ten. I think it was of a--"
"--Cherry blossom tree." Arthur finished. I shot him a look. "What? We did grow up in the same area you know. You were a great painter."
"It was hanging up in my bedroom, but I suppose that's gone now..."
"There's one thing that could make you feel better." Arthur said nonchalantly.
"What's that?"
"You could paint me like one of those french girls." Arthur said seriously, and I slapped his arm as he started to laugh hysterically at his own joke.
"Dork." I coughed obviously.
"Idiot." Arthur said, lightly shoving my arm. "Ooh, the news is on, could you turn it up?"
I turned the dial, to hear the local broadcast announce, "--While officials concluded the pulling of bodies from the Thames after the Brookdale Bridge tragedy, two young Oxford residents were also discovered under the body of a crushed veichle. Laurence Howard and Adeline Fitzgerald, aged 16--"
I gasped at the names of the two people from my muggle life. Turning up the radio, I listened with a sick feeling in my stomach.
"--Had been on a visit to Cambridge university after acheving stellar GCSE results, and had been sightseeing in the city. The families have been informed and are said to be devestated at the loss of such potentional. In other news..."
I turned the radio off, thinking if I did so, this wasn't happening. Another two people I knew were dead. They weren't people I particlarly liked.. But still. Why was everybody around me dying?
"Did you know them?" Arthur asked quietly as he pulled off the moterway.
"He--He was my first boyfriend." I said, my voice far away. "And she, she was my first enemy I suppose."
Neither of us spoke again until Arthur brought back McDonald's from a service station, and we were both squashed onto one seat to talk properly.
"I--I'm not going to lose it again, it's just a shock." I admitted, staring down at the fast food. "I mean I knew them. They were both big parts of my life at one point. I only saw Adeline last summer at Kayley's grave..."
"You're allowed to be upset if you want," Arthur said. "I mean I'm upset. Two more teenagers have been killed by death eaters..."
"What?" I said sharply, turning so fast I nearly knocked Arthur's veggie burger from his hands.
"Well all the muggles are saying it was a hurricane that caused the bridge to collapse... Not bloody likely, a hurricane wouldn't snap a bridge in half like that..."
"Do you think they were trying to send a message to me, to try and break me?" I whispered, scratching at my stupid cursed palm.
"They weren't even meant to be there, you heard the news." Arthur said, nudging my side. "They were in the wrong place, wrong time. All you need to think about is that you can fight harder now. I mean, I know you didn't like them, but... You need to get back at them, stop all the killing of muggles."
"Everything from my life is being torn away from me lately... Kayley, Jenna, Sirius, Laurence and Adeline... Hell, even Malfoy."
"Well I'll always be here. Not literally sat outside a crappy looking McDonalds, but--"
"I know what you mean, you dork." I said quietly, "Thank you."
* * *
The last hour of the journey was quieter, with Arthur humming along to a obscure rock station and me leaning on the windowpane, staring outside as Surrey fastly approached. I wasn't too sad about Laurence and Adeline's deaths, I was almost.. angry.
I hadn't seen Laurence in four years, and Adeline in one, but they seemed to be happy. I remembered for years Adeline had bragged that she would go to Cambridge, and Kayley and I had just rolled our eyes at her.
But now she had been so close to acheving that dream, and it was taken away from her... And I hadn't heard much about Laurence in the last few years, but I when I was dating him he was a straight D student. To improve so much to get a chance for Cambridge... He must have been so excited.
"There was another reason why I wanted to drive you back to your Uncle's." Arthur said quietly, glancing at me from the corner of his working eye.
"Why's that?"
"I wanted to make sure you were okay." Arthur said sheepishly, tapping his fingers on the wheel. "I mean, apparating takes you home in an instant, but I wanted to make sure you weren't so..."
"Crazy? Unstable? Stupid?"
"I was going to say upset." Arthur chuckled. "I mean now those people you know have died... I just wanted to make sure you weren't really sad. I don't like it when my friends are really sad."
"Oh. We're here." I noticed, seeing the looming figure of 4 Privet Drive in front of us. "Thank you."
"It's nothing, I don't get to drive much." Arthur shrugged. "Plus that's the closest I've had to a roadtrip, you can't count driving Aunt Elena to the hospital, because she only wants to listen to opera, and she's annoying as hell."
"I'm annoying as hell too." I pointed out.
"Yeah, but you're cute and like Lord of the Rings, so I don't mind your annoying-ness. You know, I don't even think that's a word."
Smiling, I gave Arthur a big hug, which made him go a little pink. "I meant, thanks for everything this summer. I wouldn't have survived this without you."
"Like I said, you're my best friend." Arthur smiled, giving my hand a squeeze. "But I really, really don't want another terrifying phonecall from you at two in the morning again--unless Lord of the Rings becomes a film or something."
"Alright, I think I can do that." I paused, wondering if I should ask. "Arthur? When we go back to school, nothing's going to change between us, right?"
"Why would it?" He asked, confused. "I mean I've seen you almost every day this summer, I'm not just going to stop speaking to you."
"Well I haven't exactly made your life easy this summer." I said sheepishly.
"I pinky promise nothing will change at all." Arthur said solemly, hooking his pinky finger around mine. "We'll be the bestest friends ever, and meet up all the time to eat ice-cream and talk about which are the cutest boys at Hogwarts--hint, that's me." I rolled my eyes. "And I can't even break that promise, because these promises are more sacred than unbreakable vows. You can feel free to chop off my hand if I break it."
"I think I'll just yell at you, thanks." I said, and stared at our hooked fingers, that were still curled together. It was weird, but even though I'd see Arthur in a week, I already missed him. "I'll see you soon, Arthur."
I gave him another hug, before gathering my things and getting out of his car. "See ya later, alligator." He waved until I'd unlocked the front door with my hair pin, before he started off down the street, a warm feeling in my heart as I watched him go.
* * *
Quietly I ascended the stairs, avoiding the shouts from my Uncle as he asked 'Where the hell had I been?' Shouting something that reminded with 'cluck off' I snuck into Harry's room, where he was pacing the room.
I'd barely shut the door behind me, when he pounced onto me, holding me so tight I could hardly breath. "-H-Harry, can't breathe."
He pulled away from the embrace, and I noticed how relieved he was. "Don't ever, ever scare me like that again."
"Sorry." I said sheepishly. "I wasn't in a very good state of mind."
"I thought you were dead in a ditch somewhere after I read your note!" Harry hissed. "And then Arthur rings me and oh god--I'm just glad you're okay."
I hugged Harry tightly and as I buried my head onto his shoulder I told him, "I'm not going to waste another tear or mental breakdown over that bastard. I've wasted too much of my life on people who don't really love me--Mark and now Malfoy--and I just want to live not survive."
I was more than a little surprised when I realised Harry was crying on my shoulder. "What are you crying for you moron? I'm the one who's had a mental breakdown this summer."
"Sorry, it's just--I thought I was going to lose you for a minute there, because of that stupid thing that leeched onto you. And you're finally home."
"You can say 'I told you so' if you want." I told Harry. "I know everybody's been thinking it."
"As much as I hate Malfoy's guts, I'm not going to say that. Even if it was fake for him, it was real for you and he really made you happy at one point. I'm not a shitty brother like that."
"Yeah, well I've been a pretty shitty sister this summer--and well, a lot of the time." I said. "And that's all changing now. It's me and you against the world!"
The clock chimed in the hallway, signalling it was eleven, and all the street lights went out. "What the--"
"Oh crap, he's actually turned up!" Harry groaned, and began throwing things into his trunk. "Have you packed?"
"I haven't taken anything out of my trunk apart from clothes, why?"
"I told you last week--you were probably not listening--Dumbledore's picking us up! He's taking us to the Burrow!"
The doorbell rang, and I heard Uncle Vernon shout, "Who in blazes is calling so late at night?!"
Harry and I exchanged a look. It turned out Harry hadn't even told our Uncle and Aunt Dumbledore was coming.
Just great.
- - - - - - -
A/N Yeah, so the whole part with Arthur was meant to be a lot shorter but whoops, I love Arthur #HatersGonnaHate. Okay, I'm never using a hastag on an authors note again.
As for all Pro-Dory people who want Dory back a.s.a.p, the plotline with Arthur is important and non-cliche and everyone will soon see :)
And Rory and Arthur's ship name shall either be Arty (I saw someone comment this, but I can't remember who sorry) or A2 (Well squared but you can't put the tiny number I was forced to use in maths but oh well).
Which does everyone prefer??
P.s Does everybody like how I casually killed off two characters this chapter? Yeah, I'm evil.
I'll try to update soon!