Aurora | Harry Potter

chapter sixty-eight

"Ron?" I exclaim in shock as Harry behind me starts to put his clothes back on, shivery gasps leaving his lips every so often. "Hi Rory," he mutters, his voice soft and with no malice lacing it, a heavy contrast to the last time we saw him. "Aurora, I am so sorry," he starts as I slowly walk towards him, looking at him blankly, "as soon as I left, I regretted everything I said and--"

I cut him off by running up to him and throwing my arms around him, holding him as tightly as I can. "I don't care about that fight anymore, I know you never meant anything you said, it was just the locket. I'm just so happy that you're back." I hear a relieved sigh leave Ron's lips and I feel his arms envelope me, holding me close against his chest. 

"Did you cast the doe?" Harry asks as he walks over, now completely dressed. I pull away from the hug to see Ron's confused face and he says that he thought it was Harry's Patronus. "No, my Patronus is a Stag," Harry responds, all of us being slightly confused about who could have possibly sent the Patronus. 

Nevertheless, we have what's most important: the Sword. So now, we can finally destroy the locket and take another Horcrux off the list. Speaking of, I see Harry remove said locket and place it on the tree trunk, Ron standing nearby with the Sword still in his hands. 

"Now," Harry starts, looking over at Ron, "I'll have to speak to it in order for it to open. When it does, don't hesitate. I don't know what's in there but it'll put up a fight, the bit of Riddle that was in that diary tried to kill me." Ron nods slightly and takes a deep breath, preparing himself. 

Harry takes my hand in his as he starts to count down and Ron raises the Sword above his head, ready to bring it back down hard. As soon as Harry murmurs a sentence in Parseltongue, the locket snaps open and a bellowing cloud of black smoke pours out, sending Harry crumbling to the floor. Both Ron and I are flung backwards and we crash into the leaves, the Sword leaving his hands.

I try to move over to Harry, but I feel something dark and sinister literally pull me back, my legs being dragged back to where I was before. When I look up, deformed and twisted faces emerge from the smoke and a breathy, croaky voice fills my head. "I have seen your dreams, Aurora Diggory, and I have seen your fears."

Suddenly, a sharp and intense pain takes over my body, my limps flailing helplessly and I feel choked screams leave my lips. The pain feels like my body is burning and that I'm being consistently stabbed with thousands and thousands of knives, just all over. It doesn't stop and I remember exactly what this feels like: the Cruciatus Curse. The unbearable pain continues, even as the voice begins to speak again.

"Abandoned by your father who thought of you as a burden... abandoned by your brother who died because of you... the family who brought you in hide their true disgust towards you."

Then, as I blink through tears in my eyes, I see... Harry, Ron, Hermione, the Weasleys and Cedric, but they all look really shiny and silvery, plus they all have a certain look in their eyes that I've never seen in them before. 

It seems to be a look of distinct disgust.

"Father always preferred me over you," Cedric starts, glaring into my eyes, "he didn't even want another child after me and when Mother disappeared, you reminded him of her everyday with your hair, face and smile. He thought you were a curse and a burden on him. No wonder he abandoned you after I died, which was your fault. If only you weren't such an emotional coward."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Harry pleading for me not to listen, but all my attention is focused on the silvery, ghost-like figures in front of me. Cedric starts to fade into the background and all the Weasleys walk forward, all frowning at me. Ginny speaks first.

"I don't understand why Harry would choose you over me, have you seen the state of yourself?"

Then the twins.

"You thought we both liked you? Ha! Now that's a funny joke if I've ever heard of one!"

Arthur.

"How could you ever think that you could get the love of a father when yours couldn't even look at you after Cedric was murdered?"

Molly.

"I only took you in as a last resort. If I had a choice, I would have just left you. Alone."

Hermione.

"Every time that I look at you, I think of what a poison you are to Harry. We'd all be better off if you weren't here, we were better off without you, but you had to ruin that when you became our friend."

Ron.

"Like I said before, you'll never be family to me. Why would anyone want to have you in their family? You're so weak and useless, I can't remember when you've even tried to help us on this mission."

Finally, Harry.

"If it weren't for you and your pitiful emotions, Sirius would still be alive, Cedric too. I only started dating you because I felt sorry for you, did you ever think that I could actually love you? You knew that I liked Cho Chang, but you just had to ruin that too, just like everything you've ever done. I despise you, Aurora, I always have and I always will."

Something inside me snaps at those words. Whilst everything said are my deepest, darkest insecurities, I finally realise that they are NOT true. I push myself off the ground and when I lock eyes with Ron, who's equally seen his biggest insecurities, we both grab the Sword off the floor. With both our hands clutching the Sword, we raise our arms high and bring it down sharply onto the locket, destroying the Horcrux and we look away as the booming cloud of black smoke sinks back inside.

"We did it," I whisper, "it's destroyed."