A New Dawn at Hogwarts

Chapter Sixteen: Double Trouble

Aurora laid in bed, staring at the canopy above her in misery. Madam Pomfrey had healed her cuts, but had told her there was nothing she could do to stop the bruising. Draco had been in the bed across from Aurora, howling in mock agony the entire time. Though he'd gotten there well before she had, and been a bit better off injury wise, he was still there when she'd left.

Probably going to milk it for all it's worth, she thought bitterly, though she didn't really care at that point. All she could think about was the perfume bottle. Aurora looked at it again, thinking that maybe she could get her uncle to buy her some lilac perfume to fill it with, but as silly as it sounded to her, it wouldn't be the same.

"At least I still have the bottle," she muttered sleepily, "That's something, anyway." She returned the empty bottle to her trunk and tried again to go to sleep. When her eyes drifted shut, she saw her mother smiling back at her. Ecstatic, she ran towards her, trying to reach her, to hug her. It seemed that every time she got close to her, Marie floated further and further away.

"Mum, wait!" she cried, but to no avail. The figure of her mother continued to drift on, until she finally disappeared from sight. Aurora blinked her eyes open slowly, knowing exactly what the dream meant: she had lost the only connection she'd ever had with her mother. Her heart aching, she began sobbing into her pillow until she fell into another restless sleep.

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When she woke up, she heard her friends talking excitedly amongst themselves.

"I wonder who let it in?" Jamie whispered.

"Who cares?" Kim shot back. "I'm more worried about why we never saw Aurora come back to the common room than about some stupid troll!" Aurora had the feeling her friends were staring right at the curtains drawn around her bed as they continued talking.

"Don't wake her up yet," Erin said softly. "She needs all the sleep she can get these days." Aurora pulled back her curtains, and smiled ruefully as her friends all gaped at her.

"What the heck happened to you?"

"You look like crap!"

"As ever, the voices of tact," Erin mumbled, shaking her head.

"Nothing much, just happened to have a run-in with Malfoy's fists," Aurora replied, extricating fresh clothes from the trunk next to her bed. They were silent for a moment, and then Jamie spoke hesitantly.

"D-Draco did that to you?" Her eyes were wide with disbelief. "Why?"

"According to him, I jumped him," she said bitterly. "I was very cranky, and he kept egging me on." She dropped her voice significantly. "He broke my Mum's perfume bottle. It's empty now." Jamie didn't look like she knew what to say, but Erin and Kim went over to her side.

"Geez, Aurora, that's horrible," Kim said as she gave her a hug.

"Tell me about it." She grabbed her robes. "I'm going to take a quick bath before I go down to breakfast. I didn't get the chance to take one last night." She left her friends staring after her as she made her way to the bathroom, only to be stopped by David.

"What happened to you?" he asked, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"I think I'll have a sign made, so that I can stick it to my back. It'll say: 'I was in a barroom brawl and all I got was this lousy sign'. Think that'll keep the questions to a minimum?" She tried to squeeze past him, but he blocked the doorway.

"Fighting, eh?" He had a strangely triumphant look on his face. "Wait till I tell Professor Flitwick. You'll be in detention for a week."

"A month, actually. He already knows. Now, please get out of the way so I can take a bath, or you'll be complaining that I stink, too." She ducked under his arm, leaving him looking a bit nonplussed.