Darkest Desire

5. A Light in the Dark (EDITED)

Well the last chapter turned out much longer than I initially thought it would...but anyways, please comment and vote!

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When Aurora said those words, three things happened at once. First, she heard a loud clattering as Harry dropped his knife and fork onto his plate. Secondly, George nearly choked on the mouthful of food he was eating, coughing and wheezing as Fred patted him on the back, looking as surprised as his twin brother. And lastly, Ron sputtered, spraying what seemed like half his glass of pumpkin juice onto the table in front of him.

And they weren't the only ones. The rest of the people around the table were also looking at her in shock. Only Percy looked but mildly surprised, eyeing her curiously.

"You...you what?!" Harry sputtered, clearly not sure he heard her correctly.

"You lived with Snape?!" Fred brought out as he looked at her with wide eyes.

"-How is it you're alive?!" George whispered, open-mouthed.

Ginny was gaping at her, and even Charlie and Bill seemed shocked into silence.

"Severus Snape? Our Potions Professor?" Hermione managed "You sure about that?"

"It wasn't that  bad" Aurora said, nodding in answer to Hermione's question. She was left wondering if maybe she shouldn't have said anything. Perhaps mentioning the Potions Professor had been a bad idea, given the intensity of the reactions she was observing around her. Keeping her face schooled in a neutral expression, Aurora thought to herself she might have to look into the life of the Potions Master if she were to understand the seemingly all-around negative feelings and bad vibes everyone else seemed to harbor towards him. It spiked something akin to curiosity within her, and she wasn't used to being kept in the dark about something she'd set her eyes on figuring out.

"If you survived a month with Snape that should go down in history books" George suggested, looking at Aurora as if she had just grown a second head.

"Putting up with the Dungeon Bat.... It's unheard of" Ron said with a look full of wonder.

Aurora didn't say anything for a few moments, wondering what kind of reputation Severus Snape had made for himself at Hogwarts. She had figured he wasn't a favorite among the student body, but she'd hardly expected the dislike she saw now.

"Well, it's not like we got along marvelously and became lifelong friends while I was there" she admitted with a small smile, earning herself a disbelieving snort from Harry, who seemed to think that it was a miracle she was even alive "He's a difficult man, but we managed not to kill each-other and spent most of the time pretending the other didn't exist"

"That sounds more plausible" Charlie snorted "The Old Git seems devoted to making the lives of his students miserable..."

After that the conversation returned to normal, although Aurora saw Harry look suspiciously at her a couple of times, as if he found her story hard to believe and was having trouble imagining any sort of interaction with the Potions Master that wouldn't result in bodily harm.  Occasionally Fred would still shake his head in amazement from time to time as he looked at me, obviously impressed that she had been able to put up with the Potions Professor for three weeks.

When it was time to go to bed, Aurora convinced Molly that she could sleep in the next morning, that she'd would just apparate with the others instead of waking up at some ungodly hour of the morning and having to walk to a Portekey.

She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The next thing she knew Molly was shaking her awake, saying that Bill and Charlie were already up and that it was close to noon. Aurora managed to drag herself upright, passing a hand through her messy and unkempt hair, wondering where the time had gone. She wasn't used to sleeping in, but got out of bed, changing from her pajamas into something more suitable for the day ahead, still feeling a bit sleepy.  As she made her way to the kitchen she was greeted with the amazing smell of food, and her mouth watered at the sight of the meal set out on the table before them. Eating with gusto she talked animatedly with Bill and Charlie as they discussed the upcoming Quidditch match.