The Girl in Blue

Aurora had received even more detentions since the James incident. Along with the week of detention she got for ditching an entire days' worth of class, she got an extra week. Aurora thought she deserved it though, so she didn't complain too much.

However, just as dinner was about to start on the following Wednesday, Aurora had walked, very slowly, towards the Great Hall. Even though the Slytherins applauded Aurora for hexing James, she still felt like it was a walk of shame to the other Houses.

What was she thinking? It had been four days - who would remember except James and another select few?

She kept her eyes down, passing by the students who had probably forgot about it.

"Aurora?"

She turned around and looked up. It sent a shockwave through her when she saw that it was Remington. It must have been obvious her surprise because Remington gave her a confused look.

"Uh," Remington said. "Slughorn wanted me to tell you to meet Filch in front of the Great Hall at eight..."

Oh.

"Oh." She said, even though that wasn't what she was expecting at all from him. Remington nodded his head and he when he turned away, he suddenly turned back just as Aurora had accepted the small conversation they had.

"Aurora?" Remington said, again.

Aurora turned around.

"I'm sorry." He said, sincerely. Another shockwave went through her and she stared at him, dumbfounded.

"For everything." Remington nodded. "I'm sorry."

He didn't let Aurora say anything, which was good because she wouldn't have said anything at all and he turned brushed past her towards the Great Hall.

Aurora walked into the Great Hall, still shocked. She looked towards the Gryffindor table and her eyes locked with Remington's again. She looked away immediately - what was she supposed to do about that? Especially after he, too, had been ignoring her?

Aurora sat down at the end of the Slytherin table and took a bit of potatoes on her plate, but she didn't feel all that hungry anymore.

"Hey, Aurora." Isadora sat down next to her.

"Hey." Aurora said, monotone.

"Listen, I know you're still angry about what happened with Hastings." Isadora muttered. Aurora looked up at her, intrigued by what she was going to say next.

"To be honest, he deserved it." Isadora shrugged. "Hastings is a prick and he's done this to people before. Slytherin House applauds and praises you. I'm sure almost everyone has wanted to do that to him."

Aurora smiled. "Thanks, Isadora."

"No problem." She grinned, piling food onto her plate.

Though Isadora's words were kind, Aurora still felt angry. It wasn't just because of James, but it was Tom, as well. He said that she was brilliant, what did that even mean? He didn't even speak a word to her after that. Lestrange stopped speaking to her, as well. And then Remington...?

What has she ever done to those people?

Eight was approaching quickly, so Aurora stood up, her plate of potatoes not even close to finished and she walked out of the Great Hall, ignoring the looks she got from James and his friends.

Her mind was clouded as she entered the Slytherin common room, alone. Every one was still at dinner, but they would probably be coming back soon. Aurora trudged up the girls' staircase and when she entered her dorm, she threw her bag on her bed.

Aurora sat down on her bed and sighed. Hogwarts really wasn't what she had expected at all. She wanted it to go back to being the fun place she started out at. Why did everything just happen to blow up in her face?

Aurora slumped down on her bed, her arms splayed, but she didn't care. However, she felt a crunch beneath her and immediately sat up.

Her fingers curled around a piece of parchment that had been folded and she unfolded it. Her eyes glanced over it and it read:

Meet me on the west side of the Great Lake after your detention.

Aurora stared at it, her eyebrows furrowed. What? Who was this from? She felt like she had an idea, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions.

Still...should she obey?

It was 7:58 when Aurora glanced at the clock after staring at the note again. She picked up her robes and put them on over her many layers of clothing. It was still freezing - even if it wasn't near what Durmstrang was during that time.

Aurora left the common room and as she made her way towards the Great Hall, the note on her mind, she saw that not only Filch was waiting for her, but so was James.

"I'm shocked too." James said to her confused stare.

Filch gave them a sly grin and he motioned for them to follow. Aurora glanced at James again, but followed anyway, with Mrs. Norris trailing behind them.

He led them outside, and the more they kept walking, the more she was growing suspicious that they'd have to go into the Forbidden Forest.

Professor Kettleburn stood just off the foot of the Forest, with a lamp in his hand. He grinned at them and said, "Good! You're here!"

Filch left them, laughing to himself and Mrs. Norris, and walked back up to the castle.

"Right, then." Kettleburn, the old man, clapped his hands together. "Miss Jenkins, Mr. Hastings, tonight, I need for you both to do a task for me." He smiled at them. "I have accidentally let loose some nifflers into this Forest. Only about eleven of them wandered into the Forest. I managed to capture seven, but four are still missing. They can't have gotten far, so I need for you to take those cages" - he pointed to the silver, gleaming cages - "and capture any you can find."

"You expect us to find four nifflers at this time of night?" James said, incredulously. Aurora was thinking the same thing.

"They are for tomorrow's lesson, Mr. Hastings!" Kettleburn exclaimed. "Now, go on. You're both smart students, you can find them. If you cannot, simply send up sparks for me to find you. I'll be close behind."

James grumbled as he went over and took two cages. Aurora held her hand out to take one of them, but he ignored it and went into the Forest.

Aurora sighed and took her wand out.

James was still grumbling when she caught up to him and she muttered, "Lumos!" so they could see better.

"How do you attract a niffler?" Aurora asked.

"How the bloody hell am I supposed to know?" James snapped. "We haven't learned about them - "

"Alright! I was just asking." She rolled her eyes. Aurora walked ahead of him, waving her wand around, trying to look for the creatures. She had seen them before, so it shouldn't too hard since Kettleburn said they shouldn't be too far in.

"Here's one!" James exclaimed. Aurora rushed over to the cute, long snouted, creature and she thought for a second, should she pick it up? How was she going to get it inside the cage.

Aurora looked down. Nifflers liked shiny things! She took her necklace off of her neck and dangled it in front of the creature, who's attention went immediately to it. It followed her as she walked and dangled at the same time. James caught it in the cage.

"Aha!" He exclaimed, closing it.

"One down, three to go." Aurora mumbled, holding her wand up again and pocketing her necklace.

The silence between them as they tried to look for the other nifflers was deafening. Aurora couldn't take it. She wanted to resolve their issues.

"I didn't find out my parents were Dark wizards until Christmas." Aurora said, admitting it for the first time.

"What?" James asked, incredulous.

"My adopted parents never told me and I still don't know much about them - my biological ones, I mean." She turned around, facing him. "So, on behalf of them, I'm truly sorry. If I weren't younger than two years old, I don't think I'd've approved of what they were doing."

James stared as she turned back around and continued to look for the lost nifflers.

Even though the silence continued, even after finding another niffler, Aurora felt better about it. The silence wasn't deafening and she felt comfortable in it.

James' eyes still flickered towards her often, as he absorbed the new information. He still looked uncomfortable with the silence, but Aurora didn't care. Her part was done.

"Gotcha!" James exclaimed, as they caught the last niffler. She took a glance at his watch and saw that it was only 9:30. The thoughts on that note came back as she and James walked back towards Kettleburn who cried happily seeing the two full cages.

"Wonderful!" He took the cages from them. "I'll put in a good word to Filius and Horace." He winked.

"Thank you, Professor." Aurora smiled and waved.

Once they reached the steps up to the castle, James stopped, his hand on the giant oak front doors, and he turned around.

"I know you were young." He said. "They said that you were almost an infant before you were taken into an orphanage. I almost got over it, that you weren't like them at all, until I kept seeing you sneaking around, hearing that you were there when those girls got Petrified. You hexed me." James exclaimed. "How am I not supposed to believe that you don't have an ounce of Dark blood in you?"

He left Aurora standing there, completely dumbfounded. The doors closed in front of her and she stood there with her jaw on the ground.

Did she really look Dark to everyone? Is that why all the Slytherins approved of what she did? She heard the rumors about them - that they all ended up turning to the Dark side. But she never wanted to! Aurora disapproved of the Dark Arts!

But did she really...?

Before Aurora knew it, she wasn't standing in front of Hogwarts castle anymore, but the west side of the Great Lake.

She looked around. Her mind going back to the note.

"Hello?" Aurora called out.

It was probably a prank or something...she probably looked so stupid standing there, looking like -

"Hello, Rose."