I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Students clamored into the Great Hall, eager to place the piece of parchment that had their name scribbled on it into the Goblet of Fire in hopes of being chosen to represent their respective institutions of learning in the Triwizard Tournament.

Younger students watched in awe as older ones crossed the age line that surrounded the Goblet, all wishing that they were a little bit older so that they’d be allowed to compete. Older students sat at their tables, analyzing each person that put their name in the goblet, reassuring themselves that they had nothing to worry about because they would be the chosen one.

“It’s not going to work,” muttered Aurora under her breath as she, accompanied by the twins, entered the Great Hall.

Fred shook his head, a cheeky smile tugging at his lips. “Aurora, you need to have a little more faith in us.”

“He’s right!” chimed in George. “This is going to work because once we down this potion we’re going to be in our early twenties.”

“Physically in your early twenties,” corrected Aurora, “But you’ll still be sixteen.”

“Aurora, my dear, you are over thinking this whole thing!” exclaimed Fred who was taking the vials that contained the potion out of his pocket.

George reached out to grab hold of his vial. “He’s right you know, this is going to work and when it does you’re going to wish that you had put your name in the goblet!”

“Doubt it,” mumbled Aurora. “Since you two are going to go make fools of yourselves I think that as your friend I am obligated to secure the best seat so that when you look out into the crowd you see my smiling face first.”

“Very thoughtful of you,” stated Fred while he busied himself opening the vial.

George downed the potion instantaneously, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his black cloak. “Indeed! Now let’s go Fred, time to make history!’

Aurora followed the twins towards the front; taking a seat at a nearby table so that she could comfortably watch them make fools of themselves. She had spent ten minutes trying to talk them out of their plan, but the twins were determined to enter the tournament and Aurora, annoyed by them, was determined to enjoy their failure.

Her eyes flickered with amusement when the twins linked arms and took a step inside the age line. Shock ran through her when nothing happened to them right away but a few seconds later their hair grew white as snow and long beards suddenly graced their face.

Angered by their failure the twins began fighting amongst one another, rolling around on the ground while screaming out that it was the other’s fault. Aurora, so amused by the situation, began laughing heartily which drew the attention of spectators to her as opposed to the twins.

“Quit acting like wild animals!” hissed Aurora when she finally stood up from her seat and wandered towards the twins.

Fred glared at her. “I am trying to exact revenge here so please bug off.”

“There’s only one person that you should be smacking and that’s yourself,” scolded Aurora, grabbing Fred so that she could peal him off George. “Help George stand up, we have to go get you two idiots cleaned up.”

Fred did as he was told. Soon three of them were walking towards the Hospital Wing where Poppy would be fixing what had happened to them. Aurora sat quietly watching as Poppy forced them to drink several different concoctions.

“Next time we listen,” spoke George, placing the now empty vial of potion on the table.

“Agreed,” muttered Fred, “I just can’t believe it didn’t work! It was supposed to be fool proof!”

Aurora opened her mouth to say something but George cut her off, “Don’t say a word. We already know exactly what you’re thinking.”

“Fine,” Aurora huffed. “Now that the tournament business has been taken care of I think I'm going to head up to the dorm for a nap.”

“Oh no you’re not!” bellowed George. “Whenever you nap you sleep for like three hours and if you sleep three hours then that means that you’re going to miss out on the feast and the naming of the champions.”

“He does have a point. Why don’t you nap in the common room and then we’ll wake you up because lets be honest you don’t want to miss that feast and all the delicious food!”

Aurora agreed to napping in the common room while the gingers busied themselves planning a prank on some Russian, she couldn’t make out the name but just the way that it sounded told her that it was a Russian surname.

Time for the feast soon arrived and Aurora groggily made her way towards the Great Hall; the entire time debating whether she was sleepier or hungrier.

She had expected to see mountains of food on the table but there was none and Fred explained that Dumbledore was probably going to announce something and he hadn’t let them set out the food because he wanted students to pay attention.

Aurora groaned in annoyance, she stared at the plates longingly wishing that it was piled high with something but her annoyance was short lived because Dumbledore stood up from his seat so that he could address the students.

“Welcome students,” he began. “Tonight we shall announce the champions at the end of the feast but right now I would like to have your attention because Hogwarts is going to have a new addition.” Dumbledore looked towards the side where a young woman with long blond hair emerged from the shadows. “Miss Hannah Gilmore in her sixth year, please make her feel welcome.”

Aurora’s eyes widened with delight when Dumbledore said her cousin’s name. She looked towards the stage and sure enough there stood her favorite cousin, Hannah, in all her glory.

“Please be in Gryffindor,” whispered Aurora to herself when the tattered sorting hat was place on Hannah’s head.

“GRYFFINDOR!” screamed the hat a few moments later, causing Aurora to jump from her seat and clap excitedly, making everyone in the hall stare at her questioningly but she didn’t care because Hannah was like her other half, they were more like sisters than cousins.

“Rory” exclaimed Hannah, hugging her cousin tightly.

Aurora grinned at the sound of her nickname. “I thought you went to school in Italy.”

“Well I did but when my mum told me that you were coming to Hogwarts I decided that I wanted to go here as well. Why? Do you not want me here?” explained Hannah.

“Of course I want you here!” answered Aurora, taking a seat so that Hannah could sit next to her. “How’d you convince them to let you come here? I thought your dad hated English schools, which is kind of ironic since he’s English.”

Hannah smiled mischievously, “If you bitch you shall receive.”

“Fucking Hannah!” murmured Aurora. “Well I'm really glad that you’re here. I hadn’t seen since that day.”

“I know, sorry about that, parents refused to let me go over. They claimed you needed breathing room but I told them they were bloody crazy because all you needed was a fat blunt, which I would’ve delivered of course.” Hannah smiled softly. “It’s good to see you smiling Rory, I’d heard that you weren’t to well but you look a hell of a lot better. Do you feel better?”

Aurora nodded her head. “Enough about this let me introduce you to my friends.”

“Friends?” repeated Hannah in disbelief. “Here I was thinking that you were being a cold bitch that was pushing everyone away and had no friends!”

“Well I was being a cold bitch that was pushing everyone away but these two refused to give up. Isn’t that right boys?”

Fred was the first to speak up, “She’s quite right! We had to pester her for ages before she befriended us.”

“Making her our friend was harder than sitting through a bloody opera,” added George, extending his hand to Hannah.

Hannah eyed his hand suspiciously, “Are you trying to take my soul?”

“You are just as ridiculous as Aurora,” George wiggled his eyebrows at her; “We’re going to get along famously.”

“I hope so,” responded Hannah, shaking his hand firmly.

Aurora spent the rest of the feast catching up with her cousin. Hannah was her cousin on her father’s side. His sister, Sophia Domínguez Gilmore, had married an Englishman by the name of Hugh Gilmore.

It might seem strange that Hannah is half Mexican and has blonde hair along with green eyes but the truth is that Hannah inherited her green eyes from her grandmother Rosa who was half Mexican and Half Danish. Her grandmother’s genes also contributed to her getting blonde hair as opposed to the standard brown.

The feast soon came to an end and Dumbledore began announcing the champions that would be representing the school. Three champions were announced but then out of nowhere the goblet spat out a fourth name; it was Harry Potter.

Aurora’s head immediately snapped in the direction of Harry, watching to see his reaction. Part of her thought that he’d managed to put his name in the goblet but when she saw the expression of surprise etched across his face she knew that someone had put it in there.

But why?

Aurora was determined to learn the answer to that question because deep inside she felt that it had something to do with her father’s death. A death eater was involved and maybe it was the same one that had struck down her father.

“Bloody hell!” gasped Fred. “How do you reckon he did it? I mean we tried an age potion so he must’ve gone all out with his potion.”

“He didn’t put his name in the cup,” spoke Aurora.

George raised his brow at her. “So you think an older kid put his name in?”

“No,” she grew quiet, “I think it was an adult because there are only supposed to be three champions so if there are four that means that a fourth school was created. So the question is who made that school and why did they make it?”

“Aurora, we love you but you sound like a crazy person right now. You’re making this sound like it’s a conspiracy against Harry.”

“Maybe it is,” argued Aurora, “Because it takes very powerful magic to confuse an object as ancient and powerful as that goblet.”

“Rory have you smoked today?” asked Hannah randomly. “Sometimes when you smoke you get really paranoid and start thinking that people are coming after you.”

Aurora reassured her cousin that she hadn’t smoked at all that day. Conversation was soon changed to another topic, but Aurora couldn’t stop thinking about what had been done to the goblet and what would become of Harry.