A New Dawn at Hogwarts

Chapter Eleven: Unwanted Attention

Aurora sat silently at breakfast the next morning, not really interested in the food on her plate. She began pushing it around listlessly, not paying attention to the conversation her friends were having. Her thoughts were on her dream, wondering if it could possibly be accurate. Suddenly the mail arrived, and a bright red envelope fell in front of Jamie. The table grew quiet as she stared at it in shock.

"Didn't take them long, did it?" she asked, standing to take it into the hall. Before she had a chance to move, the seal broke itself open, and voices began to scream at her. Aurora assumed that they were her parents, as they began berating her for her lack of judgment, being caught with a boy, and worse, kissing Draco.

"NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH SLYTHERINS," her mother's voice shouted, "BUT LUCIUS MALFOY'S SON? WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?" Aurora was pleased to see that Draco had gone completely red, and was doing his best to hide behind his friends. Basil, on the other hand, was grinning along with the other Slytherins. She noticed him looking towards the Ravenclaw table, but unlike the rest of the hall, his eyes were not on Jamie, but on Aurora.

"Oh, great!" she muttered, jabbing Erin in the ribs. Her friend saw who she was pointing at, then snickered.

"Well, it seems you've won Rosier's heart, Aurora. Won't your father be happy?" She ducked as Aurora swung at her, then smiled as Aurora stuck her tongue out. Jamie's howler was still going strong, although it seemed her father had taken over the lecture.

"YOU'RE ONLY ELEVEN, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE! IF THIS IS HOW YOU ACT NOW, HEAVEN HELP US WHEN YOUR LIBIDO REALLY GETS GOING!" The hall roared with laughter as Professor McGonagall stood, evidently deciding enough was enough. With a flick of her wand, the howler fell silent, although it looked like it had plenty of life left. Jamie's face had never been redder, and she quickly excused herself to get her Transfiguration book from the dorm. The silent howler followed her out of the hall, much to the amusement of the other students.

Aurora turned back to her plate, having decided that she was in fact hungry, but what she saw made her turn pale. Her food had arranged itself into an hourglass, the top filled with syrup. As she watched, the syrup began trickling down, filling the bottom of the glass, making the hair on her arms stand on end. She looked around quickly, but her friends were still too focused on Jamie's howler to have noticed anything. When she looked back, the hourglass was gone, leaving only bacon and syrup in its place.

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With everything that had happened, the four Ravenclaws had completely forgotten about their S.P.A.M. petition until they ran into Doris Grindy in the hall on their way to Herbology.

"Hey, you four, how're your signatures coming?"

"Um, not all that well, actually Doris. Can't say I've even got one signature on mine yet," Aurora answered, conveniently forgetting to mention that she hadn't approached a single person.

"What? I've got my pages full already! I'm on my way to get more from Deidre now! You'd better get moving if you want to meet our goal!" She stalked off, hands on her hips, as the friends stared after her.

"How could her pages possibly be full already?" asked Kim.

"Maybe she forged a bunch of names so that Deidre will make her vice president or something," Jamie offered, taking a swing at the howler that was still trailing her.

"When do you think it'll stop?" Aurora asked as they walked through the doors.

"Knowing my parents, this thing will keep going until Christmas," grumbled Jamie as she struggled to get the letter into her bag before Herbology started. "Did you see the way Quirrell was looking at me all through class? I appreciate McGonagall shutting it up and all, but couldn't she have just blown it up while she was at it?"