Darkest Desire

24. Lending a Helping Hand (EDITED)

Threatened.

Did Karkaroff seriously think he could threaten her?! The thought alone was completely ridiculous.

Aurora's mind was spinning, running around in circles as she tried to figure out this mess she seemed to have gotten herself into. The second trial of the Triwizard Tournament was almost upon them and she was left wondering what exactly was going on. Something wasn't right. It was as if there was this palpable tension in the air. The sensation that something was about to happen.

Who had put Harry's name in the Goblet of fire? Who wanted him dead? Was there anything she could do to stop it? What was Karkaroffs part in all this?

Aurora didn't think him capable of coming up with such a complicated plan on his own. If he could at all. Maybe he was just a pawn. Maybe he had an accomplice. Or maybe he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. After all, bad people existed everywhere, right there along with the good people. One just had to make sure that that didn't take away one's chance at being happy. Dealing with the hand that life dealt you was a necessary evil, and right now it all felt a little surreal.

She was still deep in thought, thinking about all that had happened, as she made her way to the Great Hall to get some breakfast the next morning. She was a bit distant towards Fred and George, but it couldn't be helped. She had things to think about.

Her mind wandered freely as she took a tasteless bite of her toast, forgetting to chew as she thought about her current situation. Which, at the moment, also involved the rather complicated case of Severus Snape.

Why did he have to be so nasty? Why did he have to resort to mean and cruel japes every time she figured she was making headway?

Even more importantly, why did she care?

Even after Aurora made the conscious choice of letting the whole 'Potions Master' thing go, it still haunted her mind more often than she would like to admit. Especially after Igor bloody Karkarov had decided to do her bodily harm after her overhearing him talking to no other than the Potions Master. How was she supposed to ignore the damn man when his problems kept being shoved right in her face? It wasn't as if she could ignore the fact that a known Death Eater was seemingly quite familiar with the Potions Master. Or that said Potions Master was perhaps playing some dangerous game as a spy or double agent. Her mind wandered again to perhaps calling on Albus to get an explanation, but she knew her Godfather well enough to know the man played his cards close to his chest and wasn't very fond of sharing information.

Looking down Aurora realized with a startle that she'd been sitting at the table for a good ten minutes doing nothing more than looking out into space. Her toast lay on her plate, untouched.

After breakfast she needed to hurry to her next class, Transfigurations, and she was already running late. Getting up Aurora gathered her things rather hurriedly before heading to her next lesson. When she got to the Entrance Hall her path was blocked by a mass of students all hurrying to their respective classes. Cursing under her breath about her own tardiness Aurora started shouldering her way through the crowd.

Damn it all to hell!

Was she really worried about school, of all things? Or was this just her obsessing over something, anything else but the situation with Severus? Knowing her own nature, with the over-thinking and over-analyzing, that was a very likely possibility. But then, was she ready to face the possibilities as to why that might be? Could she deal with the fact that there was something going on that had more to do with Severus than she would like to admit?