The Girl in Blue

"Aurora?"

She sniffled and turned her head away so he wouldn't see her face.

"Aurora." Tom entered her room and turned the light on, with a flick of a switch.

She flinched against the sudden light and looked up sadly, at Tom. His eyebrows were furrowed and he saw her face, tears streaming down it.

"What happened?" He asked, taking a step forward.

Aurora wiped the tears away with a small hand and she shook her head. "Bradley J - James s - said that m - my parents didn't l - love me. T - that's why t - they left me h - here."

Tom sat down on her bed and he said, "Bradley James is stupid. Don't listen to him."

"W - where are m - my parent's, Tom?" Aurora stammered, looking at him, with bloodshot eyes.

She didn't know? Tom stared at the girl in front of him. Her hand was clutched around the blue necklace that she has had ever since he met the girl. Aurora wasn't much younger than him, only a few months, but he'd've at least thought she knew.

"Your parents are gone." Tom said, simply.

"Why? W - where did they go?" She sniffled again.

Tom glanced at her again. She had to know eventually or else then she wouldn't be left with lingering questions. He knew about his parents - well, everyone at the orphanage knew what happened. Aurora Rose was young though.

"They're dead." Tom said, bluntly.

"What?" She asked, surprised.

"Your parents are dead, Aurora. That is why you are here." He explained. "That is why everyone is here - they don't have any parents."

Aurora stared at him, her mouth agape.

"No." She shook her head. "They aren't."

"You've been here for two years, Aurora." Tom said. "No one is coming for you. You're like me - you've got nobody."

Aurora started to cry again but Tom didn't do anything. It was about time she found out. Aurora cried to herself - her parents couldn't be gone. They were just vacationing, right?

"Your necklace..." He pointed to it. "That's all you have from your mother. That's it."

"Mr. Riddle." Mrs. Cole appeared as Aurora cried louder and harder. "What have you done?"

She strode over to the crying girl and put an arm around her, cooing, "It's alright, Aurora." The old woman looked up at Tom and narrowed her eyes and repeated, "What have you done?"

Tom shrugged. "I told her the truth."

~

Where was it?

How could she have forgotten where she put it? Was it in the bathroom? No, not there. Was it lost in her bed somehow? No. Did she leave in a classroom? Possibly.

Aurora rummaged around, almost turning the world upside down trying to find her necklace, which she had lost. She went through everyones beds but the tiny blue necklace could not be found. It was lost.

But it couldn't be lost! The one thing in the world - and it couldn't be lost. Aurora's eyes landed on the short letter. Her mother and then her mother.

Why did she feel like she had to choose between them?

Aurora wanted her necklace. The one her birth mother had given to her when she was just a baby. The one that she had worn all her life.

She stood in the middle of the round dormitory room and stuck her wand in the air.

"Accio necklace!"

She waited two seconds to hear a whizzing sound coming towards her, but she heard nothing.

Where could it possibly be?!

"Jenkins...what are you doing?" Madeline asked, walking in to see their dormitory a mess.

"Have you seen my necklace?" She asked, popping her head up from searching underneath her four-poster bed. "I can't find it anywhere..."

"The blue one? Oh, no, I haven't. Sorry." Madeline walked out before Aurora could say anything to her, or even ask her to help.

She sighed and kept on searching.

After what felt like thirty minutes of trying to search for it, Aurora gave up. She couldn't find it anywhere - not even around in the common room. She plopped down in an armchair, feeling like she wanted to cry.

Aurora stood up again and decided to leave the common room. Sitting and wallowing was not going to make her necklace appear again.

Aurora burst through the oak front doors of the Hogwarts castle, seeing a lot of her classmates hanging around in the nice, cool weather. Maybe she dropped her necklace while sitting by a tree during free period yesterday?

She went by the tree again, and knelt down, patting the ground to see if she could feel it.

"Looking for this?"

Aurora looked up, her hair in her eyes. She squinted and in her line of vision was James Hastings...with her necklace.

Aurora stood up and brushed off the dirt from her pants.

"Where did you get it?" She asked.

"Found it in Longhorn's class." James shrugged, eyeing it.

"Well, give it back." She said, feeling like she was ten and people were teasing her or something. Why couldn't anyone be adults for once?

James glanced at the necklace and said, "You said this was your mother's right?"

"Don't be a prick, James. Just give it back to me." Aurora said, impatiently, holding her hand out.

Anger was boiling up in her as James continued to tease her. His friends started to crowd around, but one thing she did notice was that Remington was nowhere to be seen. She would have expected him to be there, watching.

"Oh, come on, Jenkins." James scoffed.

"Give it back!" Aurora snapped, ready to pull her wand out.

If the next move, James spoke instead of giving back her necklace, she would curse him. She was in no mood for childish games. James Hastings was fifteen or sixteen years old - not five.

"This should be of no val - "

"Petrificus Totalus!" She shrieked, her wand pointed towards him. James froze and fell to the ground with a loud thud. His laughing friends finally shut up, and stared at her with wide eyes.

Everyone who was in a near vicinity's eyes were on her. It wasn't the first time curses were thrown between students in school - but it was a first for Aurora Jenkins.

"Aurora?"

Tom stared at her. Aurora saw a hint of a smirk behind his look, but she knew why he was there - he was a prefect. He had to report her for cursing a student.

Aurora strode over to the statue-like James, whose eyes followed her as she bent down and ripped her necklace from his grip.

"Don't take my stuff." She said, in a low growl.

Aurora turned back as, in the corner of her eye, she saw Professor Slughorn and Professor Longhorn run over to them, but her eyes were only on Tom's, whose smirk was more visible.

Tom leaned in, his eyes on the two teachers as they bent over James and removed the curse.

"Brilliant." He said in a low voice, in her ear. When he drew back, Aurora felt Longhorn grasp her arm and say, "Come with me, Miss Jenkins."

Aurora gave Tom a confused look. What did 'brilliant' mean?

Tom crossed his arms and leaned against the tree trunk and watched as she was taken away to face her punishment. Oh, she was brilliant.