The Girl in Blue

Aurora, along with majority of Hogwarts, went home for Christmas break, which had begun a week after Hogsmeade weekend. She spent that week packing her stuff so she could finally go home and see her family, whom she missed dearly.

She passed Tom by in the common room, hauling her trunk and she did a double take: wasn't he going back to the orphanage?

"You're not going home?" She asked him. Tom's eyes glinted and he shook his head, "I don't have a home," and he turned away and opened up his schoolbook. Aurora wanted to reach out to him but she needed to get on the train in hopes to get home.

The train ride was rather lonely, since she shared a compartment with Annabelle, who didn't speak to her except to ask her if she wanted something from the trolley.

She was grateful when the Hogwarts Express came to a stop at King's Cross Station. She picked up her trunk and hauled it down until she reached the door and stepped off the train and onto platform nine and three-quarters.

"Aurora!"

She spun around, trying to find the voice and finally, her eyes met with her mother's blue ones and she almost ran towards her.

"Darling!" Her mother wrapped her arms around her daughter and pulled her in tightly, squeezing her until she could no longer breathe. Esmerelda Jenkins let go of her daughter once she realized that her lung capacity was slowly diminishing and beamed at her.

"Hello, mum." Aurora said, smiling. She looked at her father and nodded, "Hello, daddy."

Jarlath Jenkins pulled his daughter in for a quick hug before letting her go. He had the same expression his wife had when he let go.

"Let's go home so we can catch up, shall we?" Her father said, with a flick of his wand he commandeered her trunk so it floated next to him as they walked out of the crowded train station and into their car.

The drive was rough, since Aurora's father was a terrible driver and Confunded his driving instructor, many years ago, so his license was almost a fake. However, It didn't take long for Aurora feel elated upon seeing the large white house they owned near the city.

She got out of the car when they pulled into the driveway and she grinned, staring up at the large window high up on the house--her room. She could almost feel her bed as she stared up at it.

"Come on. Your cousins will be delighted to see you." Esmerelda said, pushing Aurora along. The door opened magically and she stepped into her house, smelling vanilla, like their house always did and suddenly, she was attacked by the family that occupied her house from time to time.

"Goodness, Aurora, you have grown!"

"Ror--tell me about Hogwarts! Oh, please!"

"Aurora! Are there any cute boys there?"

"Okay, okay!" Aurora exclaimed, laughing as she stared at her aunt, Elizabeth, and her two children--Samuel and Renee. Ever since Aunt Elizabeth's accident with a couple of vampires a few months ago, they had been staying with them. Samuel was a little boy, only six years old while Renee was just a year younger than Aurora herself--however, she attended Durmstrang.

"Come on. Let's get Aurora settled in and you can bombard her with all the questions you want." Jarlath grinned, bringing her trunk in and magicking it so it went straight to Aurora's room.

She was pulled by her aunt towards the kitchen where food was cooking itself and sat her down on the table while Samuel and Renne sat across from her, with eager looks on their faces.

"Alright, well." Aurora started. "Hogwarts is different than Durmstrang. I, personally, feel a lot safer there. Well, I did before the attacks started happening."

The adults suddenly averted their attention and listened.

"But after that, it was pretty good." She added, quickly. "I mean--I didn't feel threatened there. Sure, it was really hard to make friends, and I mean really hard--Hogwarts doesn't experience transfer students that much. I met some great people."

"And how is Horace? I haven't seen that bloke in ages." Aunt Liz exclaimed, wincing slightly from the pain in her abdomen.

"Professor Slughorn is great. He's been wonderful to me since I began--him, Professor Dumbledore and Professor Longhorn especially."

Elizabeth smiled in approval and Sammy exclaimed, "What is Slytherin, Rory?!"

Aurora grinned. "It's my House. All students are sorted into four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, based on your characteristics. Apparently, I'm sly and cunning, according to the the description."

Sammy's face was a look of awe and he turned to his mum and said, "MUMMY, I WANT TO GO TO HOGWARTS!"

"You know, I'd've thought you'd be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, Aurora." Her mother commented. "I was honestly shocked when you told me you were sorted into Slytherin."

"Wow, thanks, mum." Aurora grinned. Her mother laughed and ruffled her hair. The three adults decided to leave them alone and went to the living room, while the kids sat in the kitchen.

"Okay. Now, tell me about the boys." Renee said, excitedly. "Sam, go away."

"No!" He shouted. "I want to listen!"

Renee rolled her eyes and Aurora just laughed, "I mean, they look alright. You know how the Durmstrang boys are very...muscular and burly."

"Well, yes." Renee nodded. "They kind of have to what with the ridiculous weather. I swear I couldn't see outside my dormitory!"

Aurora grinned. "Right, well, theres a variety of Hogwarts boys. There are the intelligent ones, the incredibly stupid ones, the skinny ones, the rather large ones, the tall ones...I mean, there's so many!"

Samuel got bored at that point and climbed off of his seat and fascinated himself with a toy broomstick that sat on the kitchen floor.

Renee smirked. "Who's the cutest?"

She suddenly pictured Tom in her mind but she shook her head. Renee looked unamused. "You have a look on your face right now! There is a boy! Who is he?!"

"Eeew." They heard Sammy say. Aurora couldn't help but laugh at her little cousin and she turned to Renee before looking around to make sure that nobody was listening in.

"Okay, well, his name is Tom." She whispered so that even Sammy couldn't listen. "I knew him from the orphanage. He was my best friend."

Renee's jaw dropped. "I can tell this is going to be a perfect love story."

Aurora whacked her on the arm and said, "No. Tom and I...I don't know what we have. I mean--we've kissed quite a few times, but we aren't together. He doesn't do things like that."

"Like what?" Her cousin asked.

"Like--relationships." She enunciated. "He's an independent person--yet he has a gang. Not like a scary gang, but like, he has these three boys who follow him around and I swear I heard them call him 'my Lord' once."

Renee was still smirking. "Then you can break him or something. Oh, Aurora, this is perfect. He can be the boy you fix! You'll hit something in him that'll break his shell and he'll end up loving you and you'll live happily ever after!"

Aurora stared, dumbfounded. "You read way too much muggle literature."

Her cousin shrugged and said, "It's better than my nonexistent love life."

Aurora laughed and asked, "What about that one boy you talked about? In your Herbology class! What was his name--Byron? Bison? No, thats an animal...um..."

"Shut up, Aurora!" Renee whacked her, causing her to burst into laughter. Aurora hadn't felt that happy in ages. She had felt bitter ever since James accused her for the attacks, but being back home made her feel whole again.

"How are your friends? Did you make any new ones?" She asked. "Skye, Angela and Cecilia miss you a lot."

"I've written to them!" Aurora exclaimed. "Skye wrote me back just a couple days ago and I have yet to receive from Angela and Cecilia. But I miss them too--school isn't the same without them. My new friends are--are great. I mean, well, it's just Tom and maybe Isadora and Silas, but I learned who to trust in my time there."

She thought of Remington and James and a momentary sadness rushed through her. She really liked them.

Renee smiled. "That's good. You'll be there for another two and a half years."

"The Hogwarts students are not very open to transfers. I mean, they treated me like dirt when I was first there, but it started to loosen up." Aurora explained. "And then I got accused of all the attacks and people were afraid of me. The only person I could talk to was Tom."

"He's a good friend, then." Renee commented.

She shook her head. "He doesn't do friends. He said he calls them 'acquaintances'."

"You really need to break his shell, Aurora." Renee said, seriously. "This Tom bloke sounds perfect except for the fact that he's very...uptight."

Aurora shrugged her shoulders. "He's been through a lot."

A silence fell over them as neither of them wanted to continue their conversation about Tom or Hogwarts. Aurora felt very tired, wanting to fall asleep that moment, but it was only seven at night and she was still hungry.

A sudden thought occurred to her: she needed to buy Tom a Christmas present. It was only fair plus...she loved giving presents. Christmas was only three days away and she already bought her presents for her family.

She would have to get it tomorrow because the adults piled in and her mother exclaimed, "Dinner is ready!"

Her entire family crowded around a table before her mother enlarged it to fit them all. Her uncle had come home from the Ministry and greeted Aurora like a daughter and sat down beside her father and dug in, whilst deep in a conversation with her father.

Aurora felt elated seeing her family. They laughed at jokes, talked about the news, bickered...they were the perfect Jenkins family--nothing could go wrong.