I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Aurora stood by the open window, taking a long drag from her blunt, letting its soothing smoke fill her lungs and wash away her worries if only for a little while. Aurora had always been a smoker, but ever since her father passed she has turned into quite the little stoner.

Liam scrunched his nose when he smelt the marijuana perforating from Aurora’s room. He swore to himself softly when he imagined his mother screaming at Aurora for smoking inside the house after she had specifically told her to do that out back.

“Can I come in,” inquired Liam as he knocked on Aurora’s door.

Aurora put out the blunt and shot body spray into the air, hoping that it would be enough to mask the smell. She had almost reached the door when she realized that her breath would stink so she reached into her pocket and dug out a stick of gum, popping it into her mouth to gain its minty freshness.

“Hey,” greeted Aurora softly when she opened the door.

He shot her a small smile before saying, “Am I allowed in?

She stepped out of the way to allow him to go into her room. Liam walked over to her bed; he sat down and stared at the photographs that were plastered across her walls. Many of them consisted of their family on vacation in Mexico, a few of her and friends from back home, some of bands.

“You wouldn’t have to smoke so much if you drank the potions the healers gave you,” stated Liam, a look of concern etched across his face.

Aurora let out a butchered laugh. She then stared at him, her head tilted slightly to her right as she told him, “I drink two potions a day to make my brain behave, but it never does. I guess I'm a little more fucked up than they thought. Doesn’t matter though, at least my healer gets paid.”

Liam opened his mouth to ask her if she was being sarcastic but decided against it. He just sat there his hazel eyes staring at her disheveled figure; he wanted his little sister that would run around the house singing off key and laughing back.

“You know dad wouldn’t want you to be sad,” whispered Liam.

Aurora nodded her head, “I know.”

“Then why are you?”

“Can we not talk about this,” asked Aurora as she tried to keep her composure.

Liam shook his head and told her, “We have to talk about this. You’ve been so aloof about the whole situation, ignoring all of us and that ends today. You’re not going to get pass this unless you talk about it.”

“Just shut the fuck up. I don’t want to talk about it,” snapped Aurora, her eyes narrowing in anger.

Liam took a step towards Aurora, he opened his arms to take her in a warm embrace but Aurora pushed him away roughly. He took another step towards her, needing to hold her in his arms to reassure her that she could talk to him about anything but Aurora wasn’t having any of that.

She angrily stormed out of the room needing to be as far away from home as possible. Aurora understands that they’re worried about her but she can’t stand it! If she’s being aloof they should leaver her, she’s not harming any one.

All she wants is to be alone.

They claim that she’s sad, that she’s moping around the house but she’s not. Moping would be crying and screaming but all Aurora does is keep to herself with an emotionless expression on her face, that’s not being sad.

That’s just being.

Aurora ran across the countryside, the wildflowers hitting her figure as she zoomed through them. After running for an hour she just collapsed in the middle of a field, enjoying the feel of the flowers against her skin.

She lay there for an hour, her eyes closed as the gentle breeze swayed the flowers back and forth in a rhythmic pattern. It was soothing and added to the two blunts that she had smoked earlier on in the day, it was heaven.

Aurora sat up when she heard a thick Irish accent calling her name. Aurora squinted her eyes and saw her grandfather, Patrick O’Connor, walking towards her, warmth radiating off of his wrinkly face.

“I’ve been looking all over for you! We have to go get ready for the Quidditch World Cup,” he exclaimed when he reached her.

“That’s today?”

“Aye! Now, get up off the ground we must be on our way to your cottage because Liam is waiting for us and we want to be settled in before the game starts!”

Aurora stood up from the ground and followed Patrick back towards the house. He excitedly told her that with his influential place in society he had secured box seats for the three of them.

Her lips pursed allowing a groan to escape. Aurora had forgotten that her grandparents were one of those “old” incredibly wealthy wizarding families that everyone else looks at in awe and hopes that their kids marry into.

Liam was packed and ready to go when the pair arrived at the cottage and soon they pressed their fingers against an old can of pop and were on their way to being transported to the grounds where the Quidditch World Cup would be held.

Smiles and warm greetings were cast their way as they walked through the rows of tents. Wizards and witches introduced themselves to the teenagers and they didn’t bother masking their intentions, so Aurora didn’t bother with humoring them.

“Sir O’Connor, your tent has been furnished to your liking and the chef is currently preparing your dinner,” stated a man dressed in elegant robes with the O’Connor emblem on them.

Patrick thanked him for having set up the tent and soon the trio walked in. The sheer magnitude and elegance of the tents interior shocked Aurora. Her father had often taken them camping but their tent had never had a working fountain in the middle of it; it was ridiculous.

Dinner served promptly at 7 pm, when it was finished they each retired to their room and put on the emerald green robes that had been set on their bed. Aurora let her dark brown hair down, in hopes of being able to hide behind it if necessary.

“Aren’t we a sight for the Irish team?! Once they see little Rory wearing her robe they’ll be sure to win the game just for her,” exclaimed Patrick, a twinkle present in his eyes. “Just remember, I’d prefer to have Aidan Lynch as a grandson but I’ll settle for Barry Ryan.”

“I’d rather get at a veela,” muttered Aurora.

Patrick’s eyes widened at her statement. He stuttered a bit before asking, “Are you of that persuasion?! Merlin’s beard! It’s alright, I still love you but you shouldn’t be with a veela they’re only pretty but are lacking every thing else. I’ll set you up with this pureblood from France, pretty and educated. What do you say?”

“I want a veela. Brainless beauties have always been a soft spot of mine.”

“She’s joking grandpa! Rory’s not a lesbian and brainless beauties aren’t her soft spot! This is just her being difficult; she gets a kick out of it somehow,” said Liam who was shooting Aurora a look.

Aurora nodded her head in agreement but added, “I'm not lying about brainless beauties being a soft spot. Nothing makes my heart flutter like a man who’s dumb as a rock.”

Aurora couldn’t help but let out a small smile when she saw her grandfather’s confused expression. Patrick was shocked by her words but when he saw the faint smile tug at her lips he decided that he’d rather have her being sarcastic and smiling than quiet and aloof.

All eyes were on them as they made their way to the top of the Quidditch stadium. Aurora kept her eyes fixed ahead, ignoring the comments about her and her brother’s exotic beauty coming from the stands.

The moment that they walked into the top box they were bombarded by a never-ending parade of purebloods trying to gain favor among the Domínguez kids.

Liam was charming and amiable, Aurora was courteous but aloof.

The Quidditch final ended much faster than anyone had anticipated it to and at the end the Irish team filled the top box and began celebrating their victory.

Aidan Lynch and Barry Ryan were immediately entranced by Aurora, but she successfully maneuvered herself out of the top box and wandered down towards their tent.

Liam followed Aurora to the tent and was going to lecture her for not having spoken to the Quidditch players but he was silenced by the sounds of screaming coming from outside the tent.

Aurora’s eyes narrowed in anger when she peaked her head out of the tent and saw a group of men wearing masks and black robes perched in the middle of the street torturing muggles in mid air.

“That’s the bastard that killed dad,” bellowed Aurora, her eyes ablaze with fury when she saw the man that had killed their father.

“Are you sure,” questioned Liam.

She nodded her head.

“Alright, I’ll go find grandpa and I’ll tell him that we found the man, but just stay here alright,” he told her.

“I'm not going to fucking stay here! By the time you guys come back he’s going to be long gone! I'm gonna go kill that son of a bitch with my own hands,” hissed Aurora as she pushed Liam aside and took off running.

Her feet carried her toward the clearing among the tents where the men dressed in robes stood watching as a pair of muggles were dangled in mid air.

Aurora’s eyes quickly locked on the mask of the man whom had delivered the killing curse to her father and with a quick kiss to her rosary she stormed at him.

Aurora wrapped her arms around the waist of the death eater like a linebacker does to a quarterback. She slammed him hard on the ground, straddling his waist as she began delivering a steady stream of blows to his face.

Her lips contorted into a strange smile as she began choking the man, a deranged glint present in her eyes as she screamed out that she was going to kill but that he would not die like a wizard, he would die a painful muggle death.

The faceless death eater bucked his hips and knocked Aurora onto the ground. He pinned her to the floor with his lower body and grabbed her lightly tanned neck with his left hand while using the right to punch her face with.

Aurora battered the man’s chest violently with her arms. Fighting to free herself from his grasps so that she could take control of the situation again and finish him off before the chaos that surrounded them ended.

Breathing suddenly became easier when the man dropped his grip from her waist; she thought that he’d given up, but the bastard had just fled the scene along with the other Death Eaters.

“¡Hijo de su chingada madre! (Son of a bitch),” screamed Aurora into the night, clutching the right side of her face.

Aurora gritted her teeth in pain, knowing very well that a large bruise was beginning to spread across her face. A groan of annoyance escaped her lips when she thought of the fit her mother was going to throw when she saw the bruises.

She was taken out of her thoughts when her brother appeared at her side and asked, “What the help happened to your face? Mom’s going to blow a fuse when she sees it!”

“He punched me in the face,” responded Aurora, her face devoid of emotion.

Liam smacked his forehead with his right hand and scolded her, “I told you not to go after him! Death Eaters in numbers must be taken on by Aurors in numbers! You’re just a kid, what could you have done other than get your face beaten in!”

“I fucking beat the shit out of him before he hit me! So shut up if you don’t know how shit went down! You’re an Auror shouldn’t you have rushed to the scene instead of being a little bitch and going to get back up,” countered Aurora, looking as if she was going to kill him at any moment.

“Rory,” whispered Liam softly, stepping forward to calm his sister down.

Aurora shook her head at him before taking off towards the forest. She walked deep into the forest, far away from the hysteric screams and frantic discussions. Aurora rested her back against an obliging tree and buried her hand into her pant pocket where a blunt rested in case of an emergency.

She placed the blunt in her mouth and started searching for a lighter but there was none to be found. Aurora swore softly to herself when she realized that she’d left it at home, she was tempted to use her wand for some fire but knew that she’d get in trouble for using magic outside of school.

“Need a light,” spoke a voice with a pleasant British accent.

Aurora turned her face in the direction of the voice and was surprised to find a tall, handsome young man with fiery red hair, piercing blue eyes and an earring with a fang dangling from it standing a few feet away with the tip of his wand lit with fire.

He walked over to Aurora when she nodded her head at him. Aurora tilted her head downwards, covering the wand from the wind in order to light the blunt correctly. Once lit, she took in a long hit closing her eyes and relishing the calm feel that began to spread through her being.

Aurora handed the man the blunt in silence; he took a long drag from it and was about to hand it over when someone screamed out Aurora’s name, telling her that she better get where she could be seen or else there’d be hell to pay.

“Keep it,” said Aurora when the man offered her the blunt back.

He shot her a smile, telling her, “Thanks Aurora.”