The Boy Who Protected

November 7th

Kaden POV:

I woke up the day after my first quidditch match to my head throbbing. I opened my eyes as I was not in my bed, I was in the hospital wing. I looked down to see Phantom sleeping peacefully on my chest and to my surprise Aurora was sleeping in the chair next to the bed I was occupying with her hand in mine. I studied her face for the first time to see the the contours of her pretty face and the curvature of her lips as she sleeps.

'Damn, she's somehow even more cute when she sleeps.' I thought to myself. Welp guess there's no point in denying it now after I just thought that, I have a crush on one of my best friends.

'What could possibly go wrong with this.'

As I was studying her face, I saw that her cheeks were stained with what looked like tears. Oh man, she must have been crying since that bludger hit me yesterday. I felt really bad knowing she was crying over me and I couldn't do anything to stop it. I just hope she didn't cry herself to sleep last night.

I saw her starting to wake up so I softly said. "Good morning sleepy head." with an adoring smile.

Her eyes shot open when she heard my voice. "Oh thank Merlin you're awake. I was so worried." She said as she got of her chair and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"That I am Rora, that I am. I'm sorry for not keeping my promise of staying safe. The bludger came out of nowhere and I didn't have time to react." I said into her hair.

"I don't care about that now. All I care about is that you are awake and came back to me." She finished as she gripped me tighter.

"Wait, did you call me Rora?" she asked as she pulled away from the hug.

"U-u-uh y-yeah I-I did. D-do you n-not l-like it?" I asked now cursing myself for not using her full name.

"N-no it's ok. I-I like it. Y-you can c-call me that a-anytime." She said while stuttering as well.

"Anytime?" I asked with a confident grin.

She looked into my eyes and replied "Y-y-yeah, a-anytime KK." 

'This girl is going to be the death of me if she doesn't stop looking so damn cute.' I thought as we stared into each others eyes.

Our staring contest was broken up by the hospital wing door opening and in came Harry, Hermione, Naomi, and Ron. Once they saw me awake they ran over to my bed.

"Thank goodness you're awake." Hermione said.

"You scared all of us when that bludger hit you." Naomi stated.

"How did you hang onto the snitch mate?" Harry asked.

"That was bloody brilliant, terrifying but brilliant." Ron commented.

"Guys I'm alright. I'm sorry for worrying all of you but there was no time to react to the bludger. To answer your question Harry, I have zero clue how I kept ahold on the snitch." I said as I looked over to the snitch that I had caught.

After filling Aurora and I in on what they found out from Hagrid. Aurora and I looked at one another and stated simply. "Library." 

After Harry went on a rant about how it was Snape that had sent the bludger my head and tried to throw Harry to his broom, the door to the hospital wing opened again and in walked Cedric Diggory.

"Mate how are you feeling." Cedric asked me as he came over to my bed.

"Peachy thanks for asking." I replied sarcastically. 

"You got some serious skill Barnes, it was incredible to see you hang onto the snitch after getting hit like that." Cedric commented.

"Thanks Ced, I appreciate that. Hopefully next time we go up against one another nothing like this happens." I said chuckling.