My Love // Theo Nott

twenty one

When I walked into the apartment I heard Elio and my mum asking if it was me. Who else would it be? Elio came to the front door from being in the kitchen and my mum came from the living room.

"Where have you been?!" yelled Elio. "You were gone all day and we couldn't even call the police because you had ran away on your own!"

"What were you expecting me to do? Hug you for keeping everything a secret?" I yelled back.

"Guys please, don't fight. Elio, calm down. Rory, I... I'm sorry, but I did everything- your dad did everything in your guys' best interest." my mum began saying. I walked away and went into my room. They both followed me and my mum continued talking. "They would've kept trying to kill him and if not him you guys!"

"Well why are you telling me all this now?! No one wants him dead anymore?"

"No... everyone that we know about was sent to Azkaban. Or is dead already." she said calmly.

"So where has he been hiding?" I asked.

"France." I was standing next to my window and she and Elio were next to my door.

"Is he there right now?"

She took a while to answer, but finally responded, "Yeah."

I nodded my head and said, "Good. Can you guys get out?"

"Rory-" she began saying.

"What are you even doing here? Didn't you work today?" I asked her.

"She called in because your dumbass decided to have a fit and run away!" said Elio.

I walked up to him, but before I could do anything my mum got in between the both of us. "Please, don't fight. Can we be civil for the rest of the time that you guys are home?" she asked.

"I don't know. Are you keeping any more secrets?" I said accusingly.

"No, I swear I already told you everything."

I got clean clothes to sleep in and went to the bathroom to take a shower. I hoped that once I finished showering they'd be out of my room. I hadn't had anything since lunch with Matthew and Alyssa so I was also pretty hungry.

When I got done showering I took my dirty clothes and towel to my room then went out towards the kitchen to look for food.

Before I got to the kitchen though, I found my mum at the dining room table. Since the table was right in front of the door to go to the kitchen I couldn't ignore her. It looked like she was drinking tea so I made my presence known.

When she looked up she had a sad look. "I'm sorry Rory, for everything."

I didn't sit down, instead I leaned against a chair. "You know, dad was the one that gave me that nickname." I said. She smiled lightly, but I wasn't saying it to bring up happy memories. "Maybe i'll go back to Aurora." Her smile instantly fell.

I didn't want her to feel bad and that definitely wasn't my intention. By now I had gotten over my anger towards my mum. I didn't blame her for my dad's actions. But I suddenly felt immense anger towards my dad.

"Rory-" I gave her a look so instead she said, "Aurora, I understand that you might be feeling mad about this, but-"

"Mum, I don't think you do understand." I said a bit too harshly.

"Aurora, don't talk to me like that!" we weren't yelling, but it was obvious we were both upset. "I do understand! When he suggested faking his death I was so mad, I was going to be left alone to raise two eight year olds." she started tearing up and her voice was breaking. "You guys- you probably don't remember, but you guys were so energetic and it only increased when you guys realized you had magical abilities. Which wasn't soon after he 'died'." she made air quotation marks with her fingers.

"Mum, I'm sorry." I really didn't like hugging my mum, I don't know why, I didn't like being touched by certain people, but nonetheless I still gave her an awkward hug. "I don't blame you, please know that." I said. She was full on sobbing by now and I didn't know how to comfort her. "I'm guessing you came around to his dumbass idea, right?"

She laughed a little, still crying, before she said, "No, but I didn't have a choice. He was set on the idea."

"Well would you have rathered him not to have done that?"

"Looking back at it I know it was necessary for his safety-"

"No- what I'm saying is would you have rathered him here? Because I know that I would've liked to not hate my birthday so much."

"I'm sorry about that." she said as she put her head down.

"It's not your fault. Stop apologizing for his actions." I said sternly.

"I don't want to stop calling you Rory." she looked at me hopeful. I felt like I had already made her feel bad enough so I told her it was fine.

"But Elio and my friends need to start calling me Aurora from now on." I said.

"Rory, your dad was the one that named you that." she said. I don't know why, but I had always thought that my mum had named me, because I was the girl, and my dad had named Elio, because he was the boy.

"Okay, but Rory has more significance behind it."

"Why?" she asked curiously.

"Because no one knows that I get called Rory, except for friends and family. Any stranger can call me Aurora. And I'm sure you had some kind of say in my name." She didn't say anything after that. We both went to bed after and I had completely forgotten about eating.

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I woke up to a lot of noise. Only Elio and my mum were home, but they were being extra loud this morning.

I went to the bathroom and when I went out to the living room they were decorating everything for Christmas. When they saw me they said good morning. "I was wondering when you guys would start decorating." I said.

Decorating was something they absolutely loved to do. I didn't care for it, but each year Elio makes me help. I went to eat cereal and when I was done I went to go lay in bed again. I was trying to fall back asleep when Elio walked in.

"Hey." he said. My back was facing him so I said hey back. It sounded like he was gonna say something else so I waited, but he never did. I sat up and turned around and then he started talking. "Mum told me you don't want anyone calling you Rory anymore."

I nodded my head and he asked why. "I already told her the reasoning. I thought you guys talked about it."

"Well yeah, but it doesn't make sense." he started shaking his head. "Why do you hate dad so much? He did everything for us." he started getting frustrated and raising his voice.

"I don't have to explain nothing to you."

"He's coming back."

"Doesn't mean I have to see him."

"Rory-"

"Aurora." I said, glaring at him.

"You're infuriating." he said, stomping out of my room.

I closed my door and began reading a book. I stayed in my room for the majority of the day. My mum brought me food and explained that my dad was moving to London, but he wouldn't be staying with us. That only meant it would be a lot easier avoiding him.

It's not that I wasn't happy that he wasn't alive, it's that he left all of us. He left my mum to provide for us all by herself. She couldn't even do that where we were living so we had to move to a whole different country.

I don't know why my mum knew the whole time that he was alive, but we couldn't. I couldn't know. Even Elio knew before I did. I haven't even asked him for how long he knew, but I had an idea.

Before my mum went to sleep she came into my room to explain everything we'd do the following day. It was gonna be Christmas eve and that's when we celebrated Christmas, rather than Christmas day.

I went to sleep not having seen Elio all day except for in the morning.