Darkest Desire

11. To Bury the Hatchet (NEW)

The week of October 30th was approaching rapidly, and the tension in the air was palpable at Hogwarts. With the upcoming arrival of the other schools that would be participating in the Triwizard Tournament, lessons would end early that day due to the welcoming arrangements made for the delegations from the two other schools. Aurora had heard of both Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and the Drumstrang Institute, ad found herself joining in with the anticipation.

Aurora had heard the whispers about the mysterious death of the founder of Drumstrang, a powerful Bulgarian witch by the name Nerida Vulchanova during medieval times. She was succeeded Harfang Munter, if her memory served her correctly, a professor who soon emphasized Durmstrang's reputation of using martial magic as an impressive part of its curriculum, as well as an emphasis on the Dark Arts. Even Grindelwald had attended the school in the far north of Europe. Albeit never having been there, Aurora found she didn't particularly wish to do so, disliking the cold climate that far up north.

Beauxbatons, on the other hand, was a wizarding school close to Aurora's heart. Her parents happened to be a little bit biased towards the educational institution located in the Pyrenees mountains in Southern France, and at one time Aurora would probably have ended up going to school there. It's curriculum was known for it's focus on alchemical magic as well as transfigurations, subjects that she thoroughly enjoyed. Last she heard a woman named Madam Maxine had been appointed Headmistress, an event which has sparked rumors here and there with regards as to her blood-status.

With the whole student body hyped up because of the events that would take place in the remainder of the academic year, the school also seemed to undergo a transformation of sorts. Intent on making a good impression, the entire castle had been scrubbed clean of all the usual grime and spiderwebs lurking in the shadows, an effort spearheaded by an even moodier than usual Filch, who disliked the thought of even more students coming over to reside at the castle with vigor. The suits of armour had been scrubbed clean until they shone brightly underneath the light of the torches that illuminated the various niches in the wall where they stood. The floors were scrubbed and cleansed of any dirt or filth, whereas the wall tapestries had been vigorously shaken down in order to rid them of the dirt and dust that accumulated on the fabric over the years. All of the corridors seemed to be lit with more torches and the chandeliers seemed to shine more brightly, giving the castle an air of grandeur that had seemingly dimmed over the years.

It was also around that time that Aurora got to experience firsthand what devious and mischievous shenanigans Fred and George could get up to.

She had been aware of the reputation that preceded the Weasley Twins, and had heard secondhand accounts of the numerous pranks and tricks the two of them had come up with over the years. Not to mention the first hand boasting, plotting and scheming from the twins themselves.She had heard about the 1992 Fluorescent Robe debacle at Valentines day, where the robes of all the girls in Gryffindor had flashed a bright neon pink for the entire day every three minutes. Then there was the great Chili Pepper bout of 1993, where the pumpkin juice in the Great Hall had been spiked with an indecent amount of chili flakes during breakfast for an entire week. Or the Redhead day of 1991, where for some mysterious reason the hair of the entire Slytherin student body was dyed a bright red the day of the Gryffindor-Slytherin match that would decide who would win the Inter-house Quidditch Cup.

And this year they were constantly trying to outdo themselves. They were constantly working out the details of future practical jokes or planning their next escapade. Their antics never failed to amuse her, although Aurora wasn't exactly certain how she would fit into the great scheme of things. She greatly enjoyed being a part of the little group, appreciating Fred's humor, George's sarcasm, and Lee's teasing remarks. But another part of her wondered if associating with them would eventually end up getting her into trouble when what she really should be doing was blending into the background. Already they had managed an incident of gigantic proportions by enchanting a huge amount of doorknobs, door-handles, and even toilet seats into portekeys, which caused incredible mayhem throughout the school as students appeared and disappeared constantly all throughout the castle. The last, Aurora was reluctant to admit, had mostly been made possible because of her involvement. As it happened, she had already mastered the spell necessary to accomplish the conversion of a regular object into a portekey, and had taught the twins and Lee how to do it after their continued insistence over the course of an entire week where they wouldn't stop pestering her with questions until she finally gave in. The whole thing was already going down in the annals of Hogwarts history as the Portekey Fiasco of 1994.