I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Aurora parted her lips slightly, allowing a steady stream of smoke to be expelled from her lungs as she sat underneath a large oak tree silently contemplating what had occurred during her lunch with the Weasley’s.

Earlier that morning Aurora had thought that lunch was going to be a waste of three hours in which she would be forced to listen to boring conversations while struggling to appear slightly interested in whatever it was that the twin’s brothers were saying but surprisingly enough that wasn’t the case at all.

Interest in what they were saying didn’t have to be faked. Aurora didn’t just sit there listening to them speak, she actually spoke, shocking everyone at the table as well as herself. It had been a long time since Aurora had an ‘animated’ conversation and she wasn’t really sure why she’d been so friendly with the Weasley boys.

Sure they were laid back and shared similar interests as her but the same could be said of her friends in America and she hadn’t spoken to any of them since her move to Ireland.

So what made the elder Weasley’s different?

“Fuck,” muttered Aurora angrily, annoyed that the answer to her question was evading her.

Her mind kept racing, determined to find something about them that set them apart from others that had tried to hold conversations with her but nothing about them was completely unique but then she remembered something.

Bill had known her father and that made him and Charlie alright in her eyes.

He may have only been briefly acquainted with Javier but the brevity of their acquaintance didn’t matter to Aurora. All that mattered to her was that Bill had a story to tell and that little story made all the difference in the world because it shattered the walls that Aurora had built to keep herself from enjoying life.

The shattering of those walls didn’t mean that Aurora was going to start running Hogwarts with a huge smile on her face, hugging everyone in sight because that wouldn’t be true to who she is. What it meant was that Aurora would no longer be so detached from the world at large. It meant that she would allow herself to be happy.

“Tu lo mandaste para que me recordare de ti y para que me hiciera reír, lo se y le doy mis gracias papa,” she paused briefly, staring up at the night sky with a tender smile on her face. “Lo quiero mucho papa y lo extraño mas de lo que se podría imaginar. (I know that you sent him so that he would remind me of you and make me laugh. I thank you for that. I love you papa and I miss you more than you could ever imagine).”

Carefully, Aurora stood up from her seat on the soft green grass. She brushed the dirt off her jeans before grabbing her blunt with her slender fingers so that she could put it out by pressing it against the ashtray that she always carried around in her bag.

Once her blunt was safely put out she began making her way back towards the castle. Getting back at night always proved to be a bit of an adventure for Aurora, she had to dodge everyone patrolling the corridors but thanks to her stealth she avoided being seen.

“Where have you been!” shouted the twins in unison when Aurora wandered into the common room.

Aurora shot them a questioning look. “Have you two been sitting here waiting for me this whole time?”

“Obviously!” they answered, scooting so that they could make room for her to sit.

George patted the space between them. “Come on love, we’ve been waiting all night to have a chat with you.”

“A chat?” repeated Aurora. “What the fuck do we have to chat about?”

“About lunch,” said Fred in a duh tone.

Aurora glared at him before saying, “Well what about it?”

“We wanted to know if you enjoyed it and . . .” Fred trailed off so that George could continue.

George continued, “If you liked our brothers. . .”

“Because knowing this is of the upmost importance,” finished Fred.

“You two are worse than a pair of teenage valley girls,” muttered Aurora.

The twins stared at her with blank expressions. It was obvious that they hadn’t understood her statement. “Meaning?” they said.

“Meaning that you two are ridiculous!” she told them. “I seriously don’t understand why you stayed up till 2 am so that I could tell you what I thought about your brothers.”

“We stayed up because your opinion is really important to us so you better tell us what you thought of them or else we will find ourselves forced to do something unpleasant to you. What it is we are not sure but you can rest assured that it will be unpleasant.”

Aurora chuckled lightly at their threat. “Absolutely ridiculous but I'm sleepy so I’ll be quick in my response. I liked your brothers; both of them seem like two genuinely good people that have excellent taste in music. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go to bed because I have a run in the morning.”

“We knew you’d like them!” exclaimed Fred excitedly. “Didn’t I tell you she would?”

George nodded his head, a huge grin spread across his face. “You did indeed dear brother but it’s not like we were actually afraid of her not liking them!”

“Very true,” agreed Fred. “Everyone loves a Weasley.”

“Well you two can continue loving each other but I'm going to bed. Night my freckly gingers.” Aurora walked towards the stairs that would lead her to her dormitory.

“Wait! Freckly gingers? Is that like a term of endearment for us?” questioned the twins, excited at the thought that Aurora was going to have a pet name for them.

Aurora stopped walking up the stairs, she turned to face them. “It is, now go to sleep before you annoy me and make me take back my words.”

Early the next morning Aurora awoke feeling refreshed. She quickly changed into her jogging clothes, slipping on her shoes before taking off to go work out. When she finished her run she stopped in front of the Lake and stared down at her reflection.

Quickly, she looked both ways, checking to see if there were any other people roaming the grounds that early in the morning. Thankfully no one else was up and Aurora felt safe enough to start messing with her appearance. Her eyes changed color, her hair changed length, her skin wrinkled to that of a seventy year old and her gender changed to that of a man.

“Fuck yeah!” she screamed, happy that she could still manipulate it all perfectly.

Thirty minutes later Aurora grew tired of manipulating her appearance so she reverted back to her natural appearance. Professors greeted her as she wandered towards the corridor, all of them shocked by the fact that a student was up so early on a weekend.

When Aurora reached Gryffindor tower she showered quickly and grabbed her copy of Jane Eyre so that she could do a bit of reading. It had been a long time since she had allowed herself to indulge in a romantic novel but seeing as to how she was letting herself laugh she decided that it was also time to let her imagination run wild with the novels leading man, Edward Rochester.

Her eyes devoured the words on the page hungrily, needing to get to his proclamation of love in order to feel her heart flutter. He may not be a real man but Charlotte created him so perfectly that Aurora could imagine him being a real person.

“AURORA!” screamed two incredibly annoying voices.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” hissed Aurora, “Can’t you two see that I'm reading?!”

Fred smiled awkwardly. “Of course we can see that you’re reading, but you shouldn’t be reading.”

“He’s right! It’s bloody Sunday morning, what you should be doing is stuffing your face in the Great Hall and then joining us in creating an aging potion that will allow us to enter the tournament!” spoke George.

Aurora rubbed her tired eyes. “Sometimes I want to place cinderblocks on your feet and dump your asses into the Lake.”

“Just know that if you killed us we would haunt you for the rest of your life,” threatened George.

Fred’s eyes lit up mischievously. “Our haunting would drive you into insanity!”

“Your talking already does that,” groaned Aurora.

George grabbed her arm, pulling her off the couch. “We’re going to pretend that we didn’t hear that.” He shot her a big smile. “Let’s go stuff ourselves till our pants refuse to stretch!”

“Aren’t you wearing stretchy pants?” she asked, eyeing their grey sweat pants.

Toothy grins were shot her way and soon the trio was making their way towards the Great Hall. It was relatively early and most students were still in their rooms which meant that there would be even more food available to them.

Aurora piled her plate with as much food as the twins and began shoving it in her mouth immediately. Her stomach gurgled in appreciation of the food that had finally been given to it. She was lost in her own little world until an owl started pecking her hand.

“Whose are you?” whispered Aurora when she saw a snow white owl with a large bundle attached to its feet.

Fred’s eyes widened when he saw Bill’s owl perched in front of Aurora. “Hey George isn’t that Bill’s owl?”

“Bloody hell that is his owl,” George turned to Fred, “What’s it doing in front of Aurora?”

“How am I supposed to know? It just bloody got here!” Fred turned to Aurora. “Well go on then, open the package please.”

“If it’s your brother’s owl then it’s not for me. Maybe the poor bird just got confused.”

Fred moved to grab the parcel from the owl but his hand was soon pecked violently by the animal, making him hiss in pain. “Oh no, no, no, that is for you. If it was for me the stupid bird would not have hurt me.”

Aurora glared at Fred for having called the bird stupid and motioned for it to come closer to her. Her hand gently caressed the owl before moving to untie the parcel from the feet.

“Give her some water,” ordered Aurora to the twins as she started opening the brown package.

On top of a black shoe box was a letter addressed to her. She removed it from the box and tore it open.

Aurora,

I honestly could not sleep a wink last night because I was busy trying to figure out an excuse for your unnatural hatred of the greatest band of all time, The Beatles. My excuse for your hatred is quite simple. I blame it on lack of exposure to them so I have taken the liberty of making copies of all their albums for you. Give them a shot. You’ll find that they’re much better than the Stones.

Hope that your musical tastes will improve,

-Bill

“Crazy ginger,” muttered Aurora under her breath as she opened the box and there inside were the various copies that he’d made.

Fred and George, being the nosy children they are, immediately looked into the box, furrowing their noses in disappointment when they saw the discs. They had expected something more, something cooler from their brother.

“Who are The Beatles?” asked Fred.

Aurora smiled, “A horrible muggle rock band.”

“If they’re so bad then why does Bill listen to them?” George puffed his chest slightly as if he’d won an argument.

“Because he hasn’t been properly introduced to the Stones,” Aurora stood up from her seat. “I'm going back to the tower. I have to make a few copies. What’s your brother’s owl’s name?”

“Morrison,” answered Fred.

Aurora grabbed the package in her left hand and lowered her right to Morrison. “Come on Morrison, let’s go.”

Morrison jumped onto Aurora’s arm, shocking the twins because the owl was very particular about who held it. Needless to say neither twin was allowed to touch the owl unless they were untying a package from its feet, other than that they were banned.

As soon as Aurora entered her room she grabbed her numerous Rolling Stones albums and began making copies of them. Once every disc had been copied she piled them into one of her hand knitted bags and scribbled a note for Bill.

William,

I find it hard to believe that my hatred of The Beatles kept you up all night. I'm pretty sure that what kept you from falling asleep was the fact that the Stones lover within you was trying to break through. I can only imagine how angry the Stones lover in you is if they’re forced to listen to The Beatles as often as you claim to listen to them. Although my hatred of The Beatles has been cemented deep inside of me I’ll give the albums a listen if you listen to the Rolling Stones albums I'm sending you.
Feel free to overdose on the Stones,

-Aurora

Her hands skillfully folded up the piece of parchment and stuck it inside her hand knitted bag. The bag was then tied to Morrison who hooted affectionately before rushing out of the window that Aurora had opened for him.

Aurora hated The Beatles with a passion but since Bill had taken the trouble to make the copies she felt obligated to listen to the albums and the truth was that she was excited to have someone to share music with.