ginger hair, green eyes - l. evans

1.2

prefect duties and growing tensions

lily stood outside the hufflepuff common rooms, waiting for aurora to emerge. it would soon be minutes until curfew, which was at 21:00. feeling somewhat awkward, lily referred to her watch.

'9:53... where is she? she's been so punctual in lessons...'

it turned out that the two girls had chosen many of the same classes, including potions, defence against the dark arts and transfigurations. however, lily had taken charms and herbology, whereas aurora had opted for astronomy and alchemy.

they sat together in potions, and lily was sat behind the hufflepuff in the other two classes they shared. it was strange to her, how this girl had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and been so dominant throughout her first day back.

interrupting lily from her thoughts, aurora came bursting out of the common rooms, a slight spring in her step as she did so. silver rhinestones had been carefully placed over her eyelids, and her hair, which went down to the middle of her back, was neatly twisted into soft curls.

"evening!" she announced, linking arms with the gryffindor.

lily was somewhat startled, but smiled in spite of herself. "hi, aurora. you ready to get going?"

the girl nodded enthusiastically, and they set off around the castle. a comfortable silence consumed them for a minute, although lily's head was all over the place, as she tried to think of conversation topics.

"your hair is beautiful." aurora said softly.

"awh, aurora! thanks. yours is too, love." lily gushed.

"ah, this old thing..." the hufflepuff chuckled to herself as she twirled her hair mindlessly.

lily still couldn't place her voice. it certainly wasn't your typical english accent, and she knew that her father was irish. but she grew up in england, did she not?

"sorry, this is sort of random, but what is your accent? it has like... a tinge to it." she asked.

aurora thought carefully to herself for a minute. "my accent? well... i was raised in islington, near sirius and his brother, regulus, but lots of my time is spent in ireland. so i guess it's an amalgamation of stuff."

"merlin, i would've loved to be raised in london!" lily smiled to herself, prompting aurora to beam.

"yeah, it's great. well, there are rough parts, like there are anywhere, but you learn to avoid them. and there are wizarding shops dotted around everywhere, so that's a bonus. you wouldn't get that outside of london." aurora talked, and lily listened.

"yeah, i only found out when professor mcgonagall came to my house." lily smiled at the memory.

"oh, helga, how was that?" aurora questioned, genuinely intrigued.

"well, obviously my parents didn't believe her, at first. only when she silently summoned a glass of water did they believe her, but they were still skeptical about sending me off. it took a lot of convincing, and my sister was upset that she didn't qualify. but i'm here now, and i'm much happier here than i ever was at my muggle school, so..." lily trailed off at the thought of petunia and her primary school.

"my mothers a muggle. she's not really... embraced that side of her, which is a shame. she grew up in a magical family, to two muggle-borns, but they insured that she was familiar with the rest of society. she didn't really want to do that with me..." aurora started, before trailing off.