𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐎𝐑𝐀 | 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬

✧ chapter 22 ✧

1976

When Mary returned to the girls' dorm, she was shocked to find Aurora not there.

"Did Rory not return?" She asked the other girls who were in various obscure positions on their beds. Lily looked as if she had been doing gymnastics and Marlene had her legs p against the wall, laying upside down.

"We thought she was still with you and Pete in the library." Lily replied, now sitting up and closing the book she was reading.

"We were, then she did a reading for me and Peter and left in a hurry. Said she had to go." Mary scrunched her nose in confusion, a habit she did often.

"She's probably just late to meet Sirius." Marlene scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Sirius was down in the common room playing exploding snap with James." Mary continued scrunching her nose, growing more confused by the second.

"Maybe she just wanted a smoke." Lily added, attempting to sooth Marlene's growing agitation and lessen Mary's confusion. 

✧✧✧ 

"Have any of you lot seen Aurora? She was in the library with Mary and me then bolted all of a sudden after she did a tarot reading." Peter asked his friends, joining them on the couches in the common room.

"She probably just got a whiff of you, Petey." Sirius teased, flinching as he placed a card down on the table between James and him and the deck exploded.

"Very funny." Peter rolled his eyes, smacking Sirius on the back of his head.

"Was she okay?" Remus chimed in, sitting forward in his armchair and closing the book he was reading. There was a small hint of concern etched onto his face.

"I'm sure she's fine." James added, reshuffling the cards to start a new game.

"I'm serious lads, she takes divination very seriously, prophecy, tarot cards, palmistry, tea leaves, all of it. What if she saw something bad?" Remus persisted, now almost on his feet. This caught the other boys' attention.

"Map?" James asked, already reaching for it.

"Map." Sirius confirmed, wand out already.

✧✧✧ 

Aurora wasn't hard to find, and in a matter of minutes Sirius had joined her atop the astronomy tower. When he reached the top of the stairs he saw her sitting in the moonlight with her legs hanging through the railing and dangling off the tower. There was a cigarette between her teeth and she was scribbling furiously into a dragon skin bound notebook. Sirius lingered in the shadows for a little while, watching her work until she had calmed down, the notebook now laying open next to her while she stared intently up at the stars.

"Thought I might find you up here." Sirius finally spoke up, causing Aurora to jump slightly and turn her head quickly to see who scared her. Upon seeing it was just Sirius, she relaxed but quickly grabbed her notebook and slammed it shut, shoving it into her book bag.

"Something on your mind?" He continued, strolling over to sit beside her and lighting up his own cigarette.

"Several things." Aurora replied, her voice thick and shaky as if she had been crying. She used the sleeved of her robes to wipe away a stray tear before staring off into the night sky again.

"Want to talk about it?" Sirius probed, nudging Aurora with his elbow.

"Not really." And that was that. The two sat in comfortable silence until Sirius noticed Aurora had dozed off, her head resting gently on his shoulder. He moved a stray piece of hair away from her face and half smiled. All the crying must have exhausted her. It was then that he remembered the notebook. He knew he shouldn't pry but his curiosity was getting the better of him.