The Girl in Blue

Christmas Day and Boxing Day went by in silence between Aurora and her parents. She wished that she could go back to Hogwarts, but she had no means of getting there all on her own. So she dealt with the deafening silence.

Although, every day, her father had tried to speak to her - but Aurora didn't want to hear it. He had killed her parents and lied about it. It destroyed their relationship. She felt as though she couldn't trust him.

Esmerelda knew, of course. She left Aurora to herself, as did Aunt Elizabeth (who actually had tried to convince her to listen to Jarlath, but soon gave up when Aurora stopped speaking to her too) and Uncle Milton. Renee had tried to ease the tension up by talking more about boys and Tom but it didn't work; Aurora's mind was elsewhere.

The day before her departure to Hogwarts, Aurora had woke up early and packed all of her belongings into her trunk. She took her wand with her and put a jacket on, while keeping her pajamas, and she snuck downstairs, where she realized that her entire family was asleep, and she walked out the door, where it was snowing.

Aurora walked. She didn't know where, exactly, but she kept to one direction and kept walking. She breathed out freezing cold air, and she had wished that she brought a thicker jacket, but she didn't want to go back home.

It was six in the morning, and it surprised her when she walked past a park, well away from her house, and saw that children were playing. She stopped for a second and pondered - before seeing the large building behind the park.

"Oh." Aurora said, to herself, suddenly getting an idea.

She walked past the laughing children and and when she reached the building, she got a closer look at it. It seemed a lot smaller than the last time she was there. It felt weird standing before it. Aurora thought that she would never have to see it again - but there she was.

Aurora entered and she recognized the woman standing inside, watching the children from the window. She cleared her throat,

"Mrs. Cole?"

The woman looked up and furrowed her eyebrows. "Yes, can I help you?"

"I - I don't know if you remember me at all, but I'm Aurora Je - Rose. Aurora Rose. I was adopted by the Jenkins." Aurora explained, hoping that the woman who took care of the entire orphanage when she was there remembered her.

Mrs. Cole looked confused but she stared at Aurora longer and she suddenly remembered, "You were Tom's friend!"

Aurora couldn't contain a smile. She nodded her head and Mrs. Cole smiled, "Oh, Aurora, yes. How is your family?"

"They're - they're good." She nodded, lying.

"That's wonderful. You know," Mrs. Cole said. "Tom hasn't been the same since you left. He's been tormenting the children all the more, and he's been angrier. It's hard to deal with a teenage boy here."

Aurora felt her heart sink. "He's still here, isn't he? I figured - he doesn't talk much about the orphanage."

"You still talk to him?" Mrs. Cole's asked, bewildered. Aurora nodded her head and said, "We go to school together."

"That's actually quite good news. I hope then Tom will be a changed boy when he comes back for the summer. You were the only person who could tame him while you were here."

Aurora smiled. "Um, thats not why I am here." She said, "I need to know - do you know where my parent's graves are? My real parents. Um, I only my father's name - Charles Rose?"

No one had ever told her about her parents until yesterday, when Borgin had mentioned her father's name and not her mothers. It angered her more that she didn't even know their names - her anger towards Jarlath and Esmerelda was growing stronger.

Mrs. Cole furrowed her eyebrows and she said, "Yes. I think I can find out for you, Aurora."

"Thank you, Mrs. Cole. This means more than you can imagine." She breathed in relief. Mrs. Cole smiled and went over to a cabinet and opened it up. It was filled with files and she filled through all of them (in alphabetical order) before reached the R's. Her hands clasped around a file and Aurora saw the words "Rose, Aurora Katerina" on the tab.

Mrs. Cole opened it up and Aurora saw a picture of her when she was very young. Probably five or six years old. Information about her was in the file - her age, date of birth, location of birth...

"Ah." Mrs. Cole said, finding what she was looking for. "Your father, Charles Rose, and mother, Asha Hunter-Rose, were buried at the scene of the fire."

She showed her the file and Aurora wanted to write the address down but she looked at the city and her heart plummeted. Their graves were located in Birmingham - miles away from London.

Aurora looked up at Mrs. Cole, the address was stuck in her mind, and she said, "Thank you, Mrs. Cole."

"You're welcome." The sweet woman nodded. Aurora left the orphanage, but she turned around and looked back at it. She tried to remember what room she had but she couldn't put her finger on it. She couldn't remember anymore.

Aurora turned around, and she thought for a moment - go home or go to Birmingham?

As she walked away from her old life, her old home, Aurora made her decision. Her bitterness towards the people who took her in, yet lied to her, grew stronger every minute and she hated it. She needed to know everything but how could she trust someone who lied to her for fifteen years?

Aurora ran, seeing that the train would be leaving soon, but a man in front of the gate, stopped her.

"Miss, you must buy a ticket." He said, grumpily. Aurora glared at him and took her wand in her hand, keeping it concealed so no one could see her, and she whispered, "Confundo."

The man's eyes went cross eyed and he grinned, stupidly, and let her go through. She smiled at her achievement.

"Have a nice day!" He called after her, the same foolish expression on his face.

Aurora hopped onto the train and sat down in an empty compartment, finally feeling a little relaxed. The address was still stuck in her mind and she couldn't forget it - how could she?

She knew her family would start to worry once they realized that she was gone, but she didn't care. She wanted answers and thats the only way she would feel comfortable with getting them.

On the train ride, Aurora fell asleep. The ride to Birmingham was a couple hours long. However, the ticket man woke her up and asked for her ticket, and just like the man at the gate, she Confunded him and escaped while she could.

242 E. Wuthering Way. Aurora had never been to Birmingham before so it was new to her. It was apparently a very populous city, right after London. However, at her train stop, it was in a very quiet place.

"Excuse me," Aurora went up to a woman holding a sleeping child. She smiled and said, "Yes?"

"I was wondering, do you know where this address is?" She wrote down the address on the train before she had left, so she wouldn't suddenly forget it.

The woman furrowed her eyebrows and said, "Wuthering Way is a completely destroyed neighborhood, my dear. There are only grave sites there. However, if you keep going west onto this street, you will see it."

"Thank you." Aurora said, relieved. She walked in the direction the woman said. The walk was very quiet. There were houses along the main street that looked dull and boring. There seemed to be no children since it was a Saturday afternoon.

Aurora stopped when she saw a broken sign that said, 'Wuthering Way'. It looked very run down. She understood why nobody was around here - it looked completely destroyed. Every house on the street was broken and the roofs had collapsed, the front doors were on the ground, the windows were smashed...

She walked slowly, along the broken sidewalk, trying to see if she could probably read a sign that said '242' but everything was dirty and nothing could be found.

Aurora suddenly stopped in front of a large graveyard in between two houses. It looked like it was originally a park, but so many people have died that it turned into a cemetery.

Aurora walked through it, trying to see if she could find 'Rose' anywhere. There were lines and lines of graves. Only two people were there also - but they all looked like witches and wizards. Maybe it was a graveyard only they could see, and no one else.

"Come on, Shanley. Let's go." A woman sniffled, standing up from a grave. The woman and the girl named Shanley smiled at Aurora as they walked past.

Conveniently, the grave next to theirs, had the words 'ROSE' in giant letters. Aurora kneeled down and brushed the snow away.

'Charles Rose and Asha Hunter-Rose'.

Aurora sat down on the snow and sighed. The tombstone didn't have much except their names and days the were born and when they died. An rose was engraved beneath it.

"Their death anniversary is tomorrow." A voice behind her said. Aurora jumped and took her wand out, but the woman only smiled and said, "I'm one of Asha's friends."

"So you knew them." Aurora nodded.

"You look a little young to know them." The woman said, tucking a lock of her blonde hair back into her hat.

"I'm - I'm Annabelle." Aurora lied, being cautious about who she gives her name out to. If her parents were really Dark wizards - then whoever knew them must have been as well.

The woman took a minute to examine the girl in front of her but if she had recognized who she was, like Borgin had, the woman didn't how any signs of it. She smiled and said, "I'm Lauraina."

"What did you know about them?" Aurora jerked her head towards the graves.

Lauraina sighed and shrugged. "I was their friend but I sure didn't want to be. Charles and Asha were too wrapped up into the Dark Arts to notice anything around them. They had a daughter - I forget her name - Audie? Aura? I don't know, but Asha had wanted to keep her hidden from the world so nobody except myself knew about her."

"How did you know about her?"

"I worked at the Apothecary in Diagon Alley, and Asha had come in, insisting she needed help to cure her sick child. She gave her daughter to me and left for a few hours. I guess, ever since then I have been her caretaker whenever she was sick."

Aurora stared at the woman. She was confused as to why Lauraina couldn't recognize her if she claimed to be her caretaker.

"They were very secretive people, they were. They liked to hide and keep things away from everyone except themselves. That was what got them killed." Lauraina nodded. "An Auror, named Jarlath Jenkins, infiltrated them. He found out about their daughter, too."

"What did," Aurora cleared her throat. She had a lump in it from the words that came out of Lauraina's mouth. "What did Jarlath do?"

"He killed them!" Lauraina exclaimed. "He took the girl to a safe house and killed the parents. He killed Asha first, knowing that she would be the toughest. Charles, however, did him a good grief. Jarlath escaped with wounds but he killed them. When he went back for the girl at the safe house - she was gone! Last anyone heard, she was in a muggle orphanage."

"Do you think they deserved to die, Lauraina?" Aurora asked, staring at the headstones.

"They were terrible people - but should anyone deserve death?" Lauraina answered with a question. Aurora looked at her and smiled, even though she didn't feel at all happy.

"Thank you." She nodded. "This helped so much."

"You're welcome." Lauraina smiled. "But why did you need to know?"

"Research." She said the first word the came to her mind. Aurora gave her a little wave before she turned around so she could leave the destroyed neighborhood.

Once Aurora had made sure she was out of it, she let the tears flow.