I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Bill held her tightly in his arms for what seemed like a few minutes but in fact it had been over an hour since he’d come across her in the alleyway. He knew that he should’ve left to explain what had happened to Charlie but he couldn’t bring himself to leave her.

“I'm so sorry for crying all over your shirt,” whispered Aurora when she finally composed herself. “Crying isn’t something that I do often so I guess I was just getting everything out right now.”

“Don’t apologize for crying,” stated Bill, staring into her eyes, “Everyone cries once in awhile.”

Aurora chuckled softly. “Not this excessively for a moment I thought I was going to pop a vein in my eye.”

“Look at this way, if your vein had popped then you’d look perpetually stoned and you wouldn’t have to buy clear eyes because no one would ever know,” a charming smile appearing on his face. “Do you want to head back to Hogwarts? I’ll walk you so you get there safely.”

“That’s really nice of you but I'm not going back to Hogwarts, at least not right now,” Aurora freed herself from his arms.

Bill shot her a questioningly look. “Still need more time to cool off?”

“Not to cool off,” Aurora pursed her lips, “I just know that my mom’s looking for me right now so I'm going to wait until nighttime to head back, fucking cowardly I know, but I honestly don’t want to look at her face right now. Odds are I’d smack the shit out of her.”

“What did she do that was so horrid?” he asked, wanting to know more.

She thought about just walking off without telling him about the drama that had taken place with her family but after the kindness that he had demonstrated she couldn’t do that, he deserved to know the truth about what had worked her into her inconsolable state.

“She introduced her new boyfriend to me. It might sound like a petty thing to get mad about but I swear that it’s not.” Aurora kicked over a trash bin. “It hasn’t even been a fucking year since my dad passed and there she is with another man, it’s infuriating and insulting. Doesn’t he deserve to be mourned for a few years by his widow? I'm just his daughter and I'm still not over it, his wife should be inconsolable if she loved him as much as she claimed to, fuck.” Aurora gritted her teeth, focusing on controlling her emotions.

“Hey since you’re not going back to school what about we go smoke out?” proposed Bill.

Aurora accepted Bill’s offer since it was what she had been planning to do with her time. They walked in the direction of Hogwarts but when they reached the fork in the road they turned to the left which led to the forest.

During most of their walk, Bill sang random songs, the vast majority being Beatle’s songs, but Aurora didn’t mind it to much.

She enjoys the sound of his voice more than she would ever be willing to admit aloud.

“My ears are going to start bleeding soon,” joked Aurora when Bill began singing ‘Revolution’ by the Beatles.

He gasped overdramatically, “Take that back!”

“I don’t think I will.” Aurora scrunched her nose at him.

“Well if this songs not your cup of tea then I’ll sing another,” stated Bill, kneeling in front Aurora’s special plant to grab what they needed.

Aurora sat down beside him. “Please don’t.”

“Well then you should entertain us with your singing.” Bill sprinkled the bud inside the blunt.

Her right brow rose. “I could, but I only sing when I'm playing guitar.”

“ACCIO GUITAR!” shouted Bill, knowing that the guitar he kept at Charlie’s would come zooming in their direction.

Two minutes later his Fender acoustic guitar landed right in front of them. Aurora cursed softly when Bill handed her the guitar. It wasn’t that she’s not a good singer, she just doesn’t like singing in front of other people.

“Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for a train and i's feeling' nearly as faded as my jeans. Bobby thumbed a diesel down just before it rained; it rode us all the way in to New Orleans,” sang Aurora, her fingers strumming the chords that brought Janis Joplin’s song, Me and Bobby McGee to life.

Bill was hypnotized by Aurora’s voice, it was very raw, very bluesy, it made him feel as if he was in some Blues Club in Mississippi hearing some songbird sing her heart out on stage for everyone to hear.

“Bloody hell that was fantastic,” complimented Bill when she finished the song. “Why didn’t you tell us that you could sing?”

“Because I'm not good at it,” responded Aurora, taking the lit blunt from his hands. “You only think I sounded good because of this amazing weed.”

“Perhaps, but I'm quite fond of your voice.” He took a long hit from the blunt after Aurora handed it back. “In fact if you were to sing some Stones songs I would find myself enjoying them.”

Hours later Aurora found herself wandering towards the castle with Bill at her side. They’d spent the entire afternoon smoking and playing guitar, it was actually a lot of fun, the most she’s had since she arrived at Hogwarts.

Aurora dreaded the moment that she’d step into the Gryffindor Common Room. She knew that her cousin and the twins were going to be sitting on the couch waiting for her arrival so that they could question her.

“FUCKING SLAG!” was the first thing that Hannah screamed when Aurora walked through the portrait hole. “How dare you just run off like that without waiting for me or even telling me where you were going?! I was worried sick!”

“I'm sorry,” Aurora slowly walked towards Hannah. “I needed some time to be by myself.”

Hannah’s glare didn’t falter. “Well you still could’ve told me where you were going! We were freaking out!”

“Come on Hannah, we both know that I wasn’t going to do anything stupid,” Aurora made the mistake of resting her hand on her cousin’s shoulder.

Hannah’s eyes widened when she saw the state that her cousin’s knuckles were in. “And what is that?!”

“What is what?”

Hannah smacked Aurora’s hand, causing the brunette to hiss in pain.

“That mess! Please don’t tell me that you punched a wall. You did, didn’t you? Damn it Aurora! Why do you always go around punching walls? Why can’t you just cry and eat ice cream like regular people. It’s so much safer.”

“But it’s not as enjoyable,” Aurora smiled when Hannah’s face grew red with anger.

Hannah grabbed a pillow from the couch and began smacking Aurora.

“You are the most ridiculous person that has ever walked the earth and one day, ONE DAY, you’re going to break your entire fucking arm when you’re busy punching the wall and I'm going to be right there eating ice cream so that I can tell you that you, my precious, are a daft cow!”

“Are you done ranting?” Aurora grabbed the pillow.

Hannah nodded her head. “Yes, but the twins and I have several questions to ask! The first being . . .”

“Why didn’t you tell us about your dad?” asked Fred.

“Because it wasn’t important for you to know,” Aurora sat down.

George’s jaw dropped. “Not important?!” he shouted. “Your mother told us that that’s the reason why you moved over here so I dare say that it is rather important.”

“We tell you everything about us so it kind of makes us feel like we don’t matter to you when you don’t tell us thing.”

Aurora would have told them to quit their complaining because she wasn’t in the mood to humor them, but for the second time that day she felt obligated to open up more than she normally would.

“The reason I didn’t tell you guys is because I didn’t want you to pity me when you found out that I saw my dad get murdered before my eyes.”

The twins gasped.

“Probably weren’t expecting that, were you? I bet you thought he’d died from cancer or that it was a freak accident but he was murdered.

“We had no idea,” whispered Fred.

“Of course not,” Aurora forced a smile on her face. “I don’t talk about these things so there would be no way for you to know. I'm fine though.”

“If you’re alright then why’d you go crazy at lunch?” asked George.

Aurora chuckled as she remembered the chaotic scene that she’d created. “That was a moment of weakness in which I let my passions overpower my rational side and here I was thinking that I had finally managed to tame my savageness. Guess I was wrong. I think that’s enough sharing for one day, goodnight.”

She stood up to leave but was cut off by the twins that pounced on her, holding her tightly in their arms.

“We’re your friends Aurora, through thick and thin we’ll be with you so don’t be afraid to open up every once in a damn while, it’ll make this wild ride called life so much more enjoyable.”