I Will Follow You Into the Dark

When students found out that Hannah was Aurora’s cousin they expected the raven haired beauty to be more talkative, at least around her cousin, but that wasn’t so. Although the two teens get along terrifically they don’t spend every single moment talking or joking around.

In fact, they’re usually in a peaceful silence when they’re together.

Hannah’s appearance might make her seem like the peppy blonde that never shuts up but in reality the statuesque blond is a very reserved individual that spends the majority of her time daydreaming. Most people think that her reserved nature means that she’ll let others walk all over her but if anyone tries to step on her, her feisty side comes out and, Aurora, she won’t hesitate in throwing down.

“Who’s that from?” asked Hannah, curious to know who it was that had sent Aurora a letter.

Aurora tore the letter open, “Bill.”

“Bill?” repeated Hannah, the name not holding any value for her. “When did you befriend a Bill?”

“A few days before you arrived,” answered Aurora. “He’s the twin’s older brother and when he found out that I hate the Beatles he sent me their entire collection so that I can be ‘properly educated’.”

“Properly educated my ass!” exclaimed Hannah loudly, garnering strange looks from her fellow students. “Everyone knows that the Beatles are rubbish! The Stones on the other hand are fucking brilliant!”

Aurora threw her hands in the air. “Exactly my thoughts but he claims that I'm wrong and that I need to be exposed to their music. Out of all the albums I’ve heard there’s only one song that doesn’t make my ears bleed.”

“No way,” stated Hannah while shooting her a questioning look. “Which song is it?”

“Let it Be,” responded Aurora, “I think it’s obvious why I like it.”

Hannah nodded her head. “That song I can forgive but if you would’ve said that it was ‘I want to Hold Your Hand’ then I would’ve had to slap some sense into you.”

“Fuck, if I ever admit to liking that song I want you to take me out,” joked Aurora. “I can’t tarnish the family name.”

“So what does the bloke say,” Hannah’s eyes landed on the small brown package that the letter enclosed, “and what is in that package?”

“He says that he liked a song and if you go with me to the forest after dinner then I’ll show you what’s in the package,” answered Aurora as she stuffed the package into her pant pocket.

Hannah pursed her lips. “The forest?” she mumbled. “What the hell do you have to do in the fucking forest at night?”

“Some farming,” responded Aurora, a devilish smile on her face.

“Is it what I think it is?” inquired Hannah softly, not wanting any of her classmates to hear them.

Aurora nodded her head, “Oh yeah.”

“What are you two birds whispering about?” inquired Fred as he plopped down in front of them.

“Nothing that’s of importance to you,” answered Aurora, raising her brow slightly.

Fred grabbed at his heart overdramatically, “Such coldness coming from my angel!”

“More like the devil in disguise,” said George, sitting down beside his brother. “Forget about what you’re whispering about the better question is what do you and Bill talk about?”

“He sends you more letters than he does us!” complained Fred.

Aurora chuckled at the gingers childish complaints, “He sent me some music. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have to get our books from the tower.”

Classes took longer than usual that day, well they didn’t really take longer, they only felt longer than usual but that’s pretty normal because time always tends to drag on when a person’s looking forward to something.

Food was quickly grabbed from the massive bowls on the wooden table so that it could be stashed inside the book bags that the girls carried for their impatience had made them decide to eat outside so that they could farm quicker.

“So you just asked him for it and he sent you them?” asked Hannah as she trailed slightly behind Aurora.

“Yeah, he was really nice about it,” Aurora stopped briefly, checking which way to go before turning right, “I'm surprised he didn’t charge me or anything.”

“Probably didn’t charge you because he was dazzled by your looks.” Hannah stopped when Aurora knelt down on a patch of earth.

Aurora took out her shovel. “Not even. Men his age aren’t as easily dazzled as teenage boys.”

“How old is he?” Hannah sat down beside her.

“24,” answered Aurora as she readied the ground to be sowed.

Hannah scoffed. “Are you kidding me? I thought he was going to be at least in his late twenties!”

“Why are we even having this discussion?” Aurora turned to look at Hannah. “You’re making it seem like I'm interested in him.”

“Well aren’t you?” asked Hannah.

Aurora shook her head. “I'm not interested in anyone nor am I interested in ever becoming interested in anyone.”

“You say that now but one day you’re going to be smitten by someone and I'm going to sit there giggling,” spoke Hannah through a mouth full of pie.

“I forgot how much of a romantic you were,” Aurora wiped the sweat from her brow, “but I'm not some damsel in a novel. I'm Aurora; I’ve never been a romantic. Never will be.”

“But don’t you want to have a husband and children one day?” asked Hannah, unable to believe that her cousin would slight romance.

“Honestly? No.” responded Aurora.

Hannah sighed, “But why not?”

“Because I want to be an auror,” she set down her tools, “I want to catch the bad guys, be able to go anywhere at a moments notice! I can’t do any of that if I'm tied down to kids and a husband. I’ll be forced to be a housewife that looks after the children,” Aurora cringed at the thought of being stuck at home all day.

“I still say that when the right man comes along you’re going to cast these thoughts aside. It’s always the ones that don’t want to fall in love that fall hardest.”

Aurora tuned out the rest of Hannah’s passionate speech, not wanting to continue hearing her cousin tell her that she was destined to fall in love with some great man that would change her view on marriage and children.

Hah.

Like Aurora would ever change her opinion.

Marriage is to scary a concept for Aurora, the same goes for love.

Loving her family and friends is alright, it’s acceptable but loving another human being to the point where you want to spend your life with them is terrifying for her because it means that her decisions are no longer made on her own, they’re made in consensus with that of her significant other.

Giving up the freedom to decide is too much for Aurora. She wants to be the master of her destiny. She wants to go out on dangerous missions as an auror but having a husband/children to look after would force her to pick safer missions or to quit her career all together.

That’s something she’s not willing to do.

“Done,” mumbled Aurora as she piled the dirt on top of the seeds.

“How long is it going to take?” asked Hannah.

“Bill enchanted them so they grow quicker,” Aurora pursed her lips as she tried to remember how long he’d said that they’d take. “He said it’ll be like a week or two before we can enjoy the fruit of our labor.”

Hannah stood up from the ground, wiping the dirt off her knees, “Shall we go in then?”

“If you want,” Aurora shoved her things back in her bag. “We can go out on a stroll if you like. Forest is nice at night.”

“Just so you know if I get hurt during this walk my mum’s going to beat you over the head with her chancla,” warned Hannah.

Aurora chuckled. “Fuck it’s been ages since I’ve been threatened with a chancla.”

“Come over to my house that’s all my mum threatens with.”

Conversation soon came to a halt as the girls wandered the forest; Aurora lost in her thoughts while Hannah marveled at the beauty of the forest at night, it would be a lovely scene for a romantic adventure.

They wandered aimlessly for about an hour, going deeper into the forest than Aurora had ever gone before which made her a bit uncomfortable because the farther in they got the less she remembered the way back.

“Did you fucking lose us?!” hissed Hannah when they passed a tree for the fourth time.

Aurora scratched the back of her head, her eyes peering into the dimly lit forest, “Not lost, we’re just taking our time getting back so that we can appreciate the surroundings.

“Bullshit!” exclaimed Hannah. “I always knew that I was going to die young and beautiful but I didn’t think it’d be in a forest. I was expecting a freak accident, something news worthy not dying in a bloody forest!”

“Quit being so overdramatic,” mumbled Aurora.

Hannah shot her a nasty glare. “Oh I hear voices! Maybe we can ask them for directions!”

“Oh yeah because the people wandering the forest late at night are the safest kind of people out there,” said Aurora, her words dripping with sarcasm.

“Fuck you, I'm going to ask.” Hannah’s pace quickened as she made her way towards the voices, “Excuse me!”

Aurora mentally swore to herself. Chasing after voices in the middle of the night is never a good idea but she couldn’t leave Hannah alone because she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if anything bad happened to her.

She trailed behind Hannah, hoping that the voices were figments of her cousin’s imagination but when she began hearing them she realized that they were very familiar. Aurora left her place behind and broke out into a light jog, stopping when she reached the edge of the forest and there in the middle of the clearing were the elder Weasley boys joking around.

“Don’t fucking run off! What if I had died! You conniving cunt!” hissed Hannah, grabbing a nearby tree for support.

Her words caught the attention of the elder Weasley’s.

“Aurora is that you?” asked Charlie when he saw Aurora in the shadows.

“Yeah,” responded Aurora, stepping out of the shadows.

Hannah trailed behind her cousin, “Is he the ginger that gave you the seeds?”

“That would be me,” spoke Bill, a charming smile spread across his face.

“So you’re the enabler,” chuckled Hannah. “Just so you know if this one turns into a junkie I'm going to tear your gingery hair out.”

Bill looked towards Aurora before turning his attention back to Hannah. “I doubt that Aurora would turn into a junkie, she seems like the kind that knows just to stay with greens.”

“True,” agreed Charlie, “But what are you two doing out here?”

Aurora raised her brow at him, “The better question is, what are you two doing here?”

“I work here,” answered Charlie.

“Work?” mumbled Aurora. “Isn’t Hagrid the groundskeeper.”

“He is but I'm here working for the tournament. So what are you doing here and who’s your friend?” asked Charlie.

“Farming and this is my cousin Hannah. Hannah this is Charlie and Bill Weasley, they’re the twins brothers.”

Charlie took hold of Hannah’s hand and shot her a sweet smile, “Pleasure to meet you Hannah.”

“Nice meeting you,” responded Hannah, her cheeks flooding with color.

“Hopefully you have better musical taste than your cousin,” spoke Bill playfully.

Hannah shook her head, “Fuck that! The Stones are loads better than the Beatles so you’re the one with the poor taste.”

Bill laughed. “OH Merlin! One day you’ll both learn to love them but for now you should get back to Hogwarts it’s already after curfew.”

“We would go back but Aurora got us lost,” said Hannah as she shot a glare at her cousin.

Aurora shrugged, “We’re not lost, I just don’t know exactly where we are.”

“I’ll show you guys back to the castle then,” Bill turned to Charlie, “I’ll be back in a bit.”

“You don’t have to take us back. We’ll find our way,” said Aurora.

Bill shook his head, “Nonsense this is safer and it gives me time to educate you.”

“Educate me?” Aurora scoffed. “My dear ginger you’re the one that needs to be educated.”

“Perhaps, but that’s why we’re doing a mutual education. Which reminds me I’ve grown very fond of one of the Stones songs.”

Aurora’s eyes twinkled with curiosity, “Which one?”

“Beast of Burden,” he answered, a light twinkle in his eye.