The day after she had come back to Hogwarts someone had come to visit her very late at night. She had gotten out of bed and was sitting by one of the windows looking at the moon when she had heard someone behind her. She had turned around, fear seizing up her body at the fright, but relaxing at the sight of who was standing there.
"It's just me." Draco said, holding his arms up in surrender.
"Hi, Draco." she said softly, relaxing her tense shoulders and resting her head onto her knees.
"Are you okay?" He asked, coming straight to the point, walking right up to the window frame she was sitting in, a concerned look adorning his face. She nodded solemnly and watched as he visibly relaxed.
"I was so glad when I heard you had gotten away. And I'm glad you're safe again. I really am sorry for what happened to you."
"I know, Draco, but you don't have to apologize. It wasn't your fault."
Draco had left soon after, not wanting to be seen talking to her by the Carrows.
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The next day Jude payed her a visit. Aurora was slightly surprised to see her since she figured if she wanted to come, she would have done so sooner, but alas, there she stood at the end of her bed.
"I'm so sorry this happened to you, Aurora." she said softly, looking at her bruises with a saddened expression. "You're so brave."
Aurora gave her a sad smile. "Thank you, Jude." She beckoned for her to sit down on the chair beside her bed. "It's nice to see you again. I've missed the company." Aurora said, trying to divert the topic to something less about her.
"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. I didn't know you were here at the castle until early this morning. I heard Malfoy mention it to Zabini in the halls and came as quickly as I could. I really am sorry for not coming earlier." She looked very guilty.
"I understand you couldn't' visit me if you didn't know I was here." Aurora said, placing a hand on hers. "What matters is that you at least came to see me. Thank you." she removed her hand and placed it on her stomach, but the movement made her gut flare up and she winced, clutching her stomach.
"What happened to you?" Jude asked sadly, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. After the pain died down, Aurora told her briefly.
As she and Jude conversed, Draco walked in but stopped abruptly in the doorway at the site of Jude sitting beside her. He began to turn around, but Aurora had noticed him and beckoned him over with a smile. Beside her Jude looked slightly nervous at the arrival of the Slytherin.
"Hi!" She exclaimed excitedly to Draco, glad for all the company she was receiving. "Draco this is Jude." She said gesturing to a blushing Jude, "and Jude this is Draco." They gave each other awkward nods and Aurora had to hide a grin and the tense atmosphere.
"So, what are you doing here, Draco?" She asked to break the sudden silence which had engulfed the room.
"I was going to talk to you about something, but it can wait." He said, demeanor far from relaxed as he gave Jude a pointed look. Aurora frowned at him and gave him an "are you serious look". He didn't look amused.
"You can talk to me now if you'd like. I don't mind Jude being here." She said smiling at an awkward looking Jude. "Unless you mind." She added turning to Draco, who still looked serious and was not smiling back.
"Fine then." Draco said, clearly aggravated. Aurora wasn't sure what had happened or if she had done something to make him like this. She was slightly worried because Draco rarely acted like this to her anymore. "I want to know why you're in the hospital wing." She was taken aback by his question and looked at him curiously.
"You know why. The cruciatus curses. You were there." She looked up at him as he stood at the end of her bed. He gave her a look she couldn't decipher, glanced at Jude once more before continuing.
"You wouldn't need to be here for more than a day because of the cruciatus curse. That can be healed with strong healing potions and spells if done correctly and I'm sure Madam Pomfrey has access to those potions. So, what happened?" He had crossed his arms as he talked. Jude was looking less nervous about Draco and more nervous for Aurora. She was looking between her and Draco, not sure if she should let him continue asking or stop him. Aurora herself didn't know how he could be so observant. She hadn't figured she would need to tell him what else had happened.
"Where's all this coming from, then? When did you become so observant?" She asked, trying to keep her tone light.
"I saw the note on the bedside table last night. Where did you get a fractured leg and a broken nose from? And how did you get severe bruising to the abdomen? Those are not caused by the cruciatus curse." Draco was looking more and more worried under his serious facade and Jude was also looking at her with concern, eyes wide and alert. Aurora gave in. She figured they deserved to know.
"You know I tried to run away, how did you think that would play out?" She asked him. Draco replied immediately. "I saw him do it." he said referring to when Voldemort had used the cruciatus curse on her. Aurora breathed out in a non humorous laugh. "Someone had to catch me, thought didn't they." Draco was silent, waiting for her to explain.
"I ran into the forest and they caught up to me very quickly. I tried to hide by climbing up a tree. They found me straight away." Aurora kept unwavering eye contact with the duvet. "Lets just say they didn't wait for me to climb down." She said with a smile that had no humour in it. "That's how I hurt my leg and my head."
Beside her Jude had opened her mouth but didn't know what to say, she just stared at her in shock. Draco was watching her, the worry more on the surface now than earlier. "What about the nose and the bruises?" He asked carefully, tone very different. She had hoped she wouldn't have to tell them, that he would forget, but alas.
"Dolohov came down to the basement that night when Hermione and the boys came. He tried-" she unvoluntarily choked on her words, feeling her voice tremble as she continued. "- to... to do something he shoudln't. I resisted and.... he- he didn't like that. So..." She gestured to herself. "Hermione and the boys arrived just in time." She felt her body tremble at the memory. The pain in her nose and the fear in her heart.
Jude suddenly engulfed her in a hug, squeezing her as tightly as she could. Once she pulled away there were tears in her eyes which she tried to hide. "I'm so sorry that happened to you. You're so strong, Rory." Draco walked to her on the opposite side of the bed, sitting down on it. His face was contoured in hardly contained rage, sadness and confusion.
"I - I don't understand why would- how could that happen. I didn't know that could actually happen- or I mean I knew it could, but just- just not to you." She was listening to him try to get his mind straight. "I can't believe I was so close by and you were almost -" He stopped abruptly and made eye-contact with her. His eyes were glassy and he suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace. "I'm so sorry, Aurora. You don't deserve this. No one deserves this."
Aurora was glad she had Jude and Draco by her side and felt immediately comforted and safe with them there. They stayed with her for a long portion of the day to keep her company, but even they had to go to class.
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A few days later she was discharged and she could finally attend her classes. She was so fed up from lying in bed all day, the work was welcome. As she walked to class the first day, she received a lot of looks. People, it seemed, had heard of her kidnapping and gave her a wide berth, but also pitying looks. She didn't acknowledge any of them and no one approached her and asked what had actually happened.
Jude accompanied her to most of her classes and she kept close to her, not fancying being alone since she didn't really have any other friends apart from Draco, who didn't seem to approach her in the halls and Neville, who she shared very few classes with.
It was only the next day after she was free to leave the hospital wing when she got in trouble with the Carrows. She had been late for a class that morning because she had woken up with a lot of pain in her stomach. She had told Jude to leave, so that she wouldn't late as well while she took some medication she had been given and waited for it to be over.
She walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts and was immediately confronted. "Miss Snape, would you like to indulge me as to why you are late to my class?" The eerie voice of Amycus Carrow said. She looked around the room at the pitying looks of the students. She didn't know why they were looking at her like that. "I woke up in a lot of pain, I just had to wait for it to pass, I'm sorry. It won't happen again." She said nervously.
"You think that is a good enough reason for being late?" He asked. Aurora hesitantly nodded, but knew immediately it was a mistake because mid nod he bellowed. "NO! It is not! There is no excuse to be late for my class. Detention at six, Miss Snape." He said, sneering at her. She felt like screaming at the unfairness, but was scared of him, knowing he had been at the Manor while she was there, she knew he was capable of a lot of bad things.
The entire day she walked around thinking about what she would have to do for detention. Jude was also nervous which made Aurora even more concerned. Jude had heard it was awful, but had never been herself. Evening came and she left her common room to head to the DADA room for her detention. Waiting at the door was Carrow. He hardly acknowledged her, but beckoned for her to follow him down the halls to the dungeon.
Aurora felt the dread creeping in the further they went. What would she have to do, where were they going, why were people so scared of getting detention. She was wishing she had maybe told her father she had detention, maybe she could have avoided this.
Carrow stopped at a door she had never seen before, deep in the dungeons, and turned to her. A gleam in his eyes. "Behind this door are a couple mudbloods. I want you to go in there and tell them they are filthy mudbloods, maybe throw in a little Cruciatus curse or two. Once you've done that, detention is over." She looked at him, mouth agape. She wasn't sure she had heard him correctly. What was going on?
He opened the door and she peered in. Inside, in the dim light coming from the hall, she could see a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff huddled together who couldn't be older than twelve. She was horrified that they had been locked in there in the first place, but what he wanted her to do was worse. How could he expect her to torture someone, an innocent child no less. How could anyone do that?
"What are you waiting for? Go on." Carrow said, giving her a push into the cold dim room. She moved away from him, but turned to him. "I'm not going to do it."
She wasn't expecting the grin to appear on his face. "I was hoping you would say that."
Before she could understand why he was smiling, he pulled her out of the room, closed the door and pointed his wand at her, shouting the Cruciatus curse. She collapsed onto the floor, silently. Not a scream to be heard, but she was in so much pain. This felt worse then any other one she had received. But she couldn't scream. She couldn't move, couldn't open her eyes.
Her still fragile body had given out, her weak figure and frail structure had taken the best of her, so now she couldn't react to anything. The curse had stopped, but she still wasn't moving or making a sounds. She could hear, thought.
Carrow had walked closer. "Get up." he said gruffly. He had been taken by surprise when she had just collapsed, no scream or anything. She still didn't move. "Get up I said." He said again, panic starting to settle in. He nudged her with his foot, but she didn't react, couldn't react. "Merlin. He's going to kill me." He muttered to himself, pacing beside her. He paced for a while, mumbling to himself before his footsteps walked away and she heard the door opening. She could hear the pitter-patter of two sets of footsteps running away and then Carrow walking back to her. "He's gonna kill me." He muttered once more before his hurried steps also left her on the cold hard ground of the dungeon.
She wasn't sure how long she stayed conscious for, but it wasn't long. The next time she gained her hearing again she could hear Madam Pomfrey, which meant she had been found and taken to the hospital wing.
"She's in shock, the poor thing." Said Madam Pomfrey. "All this strain on her body has taken a toll on her mental state. She's too drained to wake. The Cruciatus curse took it over the edge." The tired voice of Pomfrey said.
"Will she be okay?" It was her fathers voice. He was here too. "Yes, but it might be a while. It all depends on when she wakes up fully." Pomfrey said.
She remembers hearing small snippets of conversation after that. She heard Jude a few times, Pomfrey, her father once, Neville as well, and Draco Malfoy. Those were the people who had come to see her.
She awoke slowly during the middle of the day. There was a bright light shining on her face and when she eventually opened her eyes, the afternoon sun was shining through the tall windows right onto her face. She was alone in the room, but she was glad. She had a tremendous headache. It took a while to get used to the light, and to be awake again. She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep or how her body had healed. She wasn't sure what had actually happened either. There were a lot of unanswered questions, so when Madam Pomfrey walked in not long after, she could have some of her questions answered.
"Oh dear, you're awake!" Pomfrey exclaimed once she saw her sitting up in bed. Aurora smiled at her. Pomfrey rushed over and began looking her over frantically but must have come to the conclusion that she was in fact fine.
"How long have I been asleep for?" Aurora asked. Pomfrey looked at her with pity. "You weren't asleep, darling. You were in a coma. The cruciatus curse took too much of a toll on your body, so it shut down in a way. It's been three days."
Aurora had to comprehend that for a minuet. She had been in a coma? For three days?
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Because she was fine, she had been released from the hospital wing later that day, although Pomfrey was very reluctant to do so. The next morning she turned up to potions and was greeted by a very fussy Snape.
"Aurora, you shouldn't be here. You need at least a day of rest. A coma is nothing to laugh about." he said seriously, looking her over to check for any physicals signs of damage. "Dad, I'm fine. I've missed too much school in the first place. I need to catch up anyway." He sighed, but said nothing for a while, just looking at her.
"Why didn't you tell me you had detention with one of the Carrows?" He said finally. She looked down, before meeting his gaze again. "I didn't know it would be that bad." She said quietly. He sighed but pulled her in for a hug. "It wont happen again, I've made sure of it." Was all he said before more students began appearing, so he had to put on his emotionless facade before anyone saw he actually had them.
The next few days went by, and the Carrows avoided her, but didn't stop giving her nasty looks during class. She had heard from Neville, that her father had gone bat-shit crazy at Amycus Carrow for using the Cruciatus curse on her, and had forbade it during detention from now on. When she had been in Malfoy Manor, he had allowed it because the Dark Lord had said so, but now that she was here, there was nothing stopping him from banning it.
It was the evening of her second night out of the hospital wing that there was a DA meeting in the room of requirement. She went with Jude and was surprised to see Neville had taken charge of it.
He was standing at the head of the room, waiting for people to enter and Aurora couldn't help but feel proud of him. He was so shy in the past, but he had really improved recently and was great at motivating a crowd. He had found his calling and was helping however he could to fight for a cause. It was inspiring and she felt a swell of pride for him.