Forever Mine - James Potter

9

Monday 13th September, 1971 (P3)

-Sirius Black

"Reg..." Aurora whispered hopelessly, the boy's name leaving her lips before she could even think to stop it. She knew by now he was long gone and that had no plan to come back for her, but she didn't know what else say.

She wasn't used to being alone; feeling alone. Aurora always seemed to be with someone. It didn't matter to her who the person was; whether it was her sisters, her cousins or even a friend, there was always someone around to look out for her and to cheer her up when she was upset. But this time there was nobody. She was completely and utterly alone.

Tears starting to well up in her eyes, she decided it was best to sit down, not wanting anyone else to see her in such a state. It was just lucky that the corridor she was sat in was empty. She didn't know what she would've done if it wasn't. Aurora had never been one for quiet places, but the corridors of the Hogwarts castle were oddly comforting when the majority of students were in lessons. They were a place to reflect; a quiet place to sit and think without interruption... Or so she thought.

"Well, well, well, who do you have here," Aurora quickly wiped her eyes and looked up from her spot against the wall as another person's voice echoed out from behind her. Sirius Black was standing at the end of the corridor, a mischievous grin plastered across his face as he moved towards where she was sitting.

"Come on!" he continued. "There's no need to hide from me. I promise I don't bite... well, not unless you-" Sirius stopped in his tracks, finally recognising who the girl was.

"AURORA!" he shouted, jumping up and down excitedly at the sight of his younger cousin. He then took a few steps back, opening his arms out widely in front of him, obviously expecting Aurora to run straight into them just like she had that day on the platform... but she didn't.

Instead, she just sat there, hiding her face with as much of her hair as possible, desperately trying to hide her emotions from the boy. However, she could tell from the concerned look on Sirius' face that it wasn't working.

"Rory?" Sirius walked over to his younger cousin, pushing back Aurora's dark hair, revealing her tear-stained face. "Why are you crying? Are you... are you okay?"

Aurora looked up at Sirius. On a normal day she would be more than happy to talk to the boy; to listen to all of his stories and help deal with whatever chaos he wanted to cause (which was usually the way he tried to distract her at home when she was upset). However, on this occasion, she wanted nothing more than for him to leave her alone. As much as she wanted somebody to talk to, she was still annoyed at him. She was still annoyed at Sirius.

She had many reasons to be annoyed at him of course, the main reason being that Sirius hadn't spoken to her (or Regulus) since they had arrived at Hogwarts- not since they had both arrived at the station, anyway. But then again, it would be a lie if Aurora said she'd actually expected the boy to speak to her.

She was probably the last person he wanted to talk to at Hogwarts, especially with all his older and much cooler Gryffindor friends around. She wasn't like them. She wasn't as special to him as they were. She was just his younger cousin; another person from his horrible pureblood family that he quite obviously wanted to stay away from as much as he possibly could.

It wasn't like Sirius having friends that weren't in the family was a new thing; he had had plenty of other friends before, even before he started Hogwarts.

Aurora could only assume that his need for new friends was due to fact that he had always been extremely outgoing (more so than anyone else in their family)- it was just a part of his nature. However as good as it was for him, seeing him come back year after year with more and more friends surrounding him, people who seemed to be more of a family to him than she ever was, hurt her more than anything.

"Since when were you speaking to me?" Aurora mumbled grumpily, a hint of anger now present in her voice. "I thought you didn't want to speak to me anymore."

Sirius looked down at her with a sorrow expression on his face. Aurora could see that she was hurting him; she could see that he felt guilty. He had the same expression on his face as Regulus had done only moments before, and yet she didn't care. She didn't care because he hurt her... they both hurt her. So, what else were they expecting her to say? What else were they expecting her to do? It wasn't like she was exactly happy to see Sirius after all that time he'd been avoiding her, causing more problems than the ones he was supposed to be helping with.

Sirius sighed. "What made you think that, Rory? What made you think that I didn't want to speak to you?"

"Hmmm, I wonder... maybe the fact that you've been actively avoiding me ever since I arrived here!" She continued. "You've made it pretty clear that you don't want me around, Sirius... It's because I'm a Slytherin, isn't it? That's why you're doing it; why you're avoiding me. It's because I'm a snake... It's because I'm one of them."

"No... No, of course not! I'm doing it because it's not safe, for you or for me. You know what they'll do if they see you hanging around with me!" Sirius reasoned, getting down onto the floor and sitting himself right next to Aurora. "I promise have nothing against you because of your house. You should know I wouldn't ever want to avoid you... you're a smart girl, Rory!"

"Well sometimes, even the smartest of people make mistakes, don't they?" Aurora huffed. "That's probably why-"

"Why, what?" he questioned.

"It's nothing..." she said quickly, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her robe as she tried to push Sirius away from her. "It's not anything you'd care to know about, anyway."

"Is this nothing that you're talking about the reason why you're so upset?" Sirius asked, sounding genuinely concerned this time around. "Because if it is, it's not just nothing, Rory, is it? It's obviously important to you, whatever it is... "

"I've fucked up."

"Haven't we all?"

"No, not like this..." Aurora replied miserably, shaking her head at the thought of it. "I used him, Sirius. I pushed him away even though I knew he was right, and now... "

"And now, he's not talking to you..." Sirius interrupted her, nodding his head slowly, finally realising what had happened between Aurora and Regulus. "I get it. He's the same with me. It's my own fault really, ignoring him and all, but unlike you, he won't understand if I try to explain and-"

"I'm sorry," Aurora blurted out suddenly, not giving him the chance to finish his side of the story. She didn't know exactly what it was that gave her the urge to do so, but she just couldn't stop herself. She liked that Sirius understood her; that he was so good with his words he was able to help her with any situation she was stuck in.

"Me too..."

"It's stupid, isn't it? All this arguing... All the pureblood rules," Aurora let out a small chuckle, shaking her head as she did so. "All its doing is tearing us all apart, when really, rules like these are the ones intended to bring us closer together!"

"Well, maybe that just proves that some rules are made to be broken," Sirius shrugged. "Maybe it proves some of these old rules shouldn't be around anymore."

"Yeah... Maybe it does," Aurora said thoughtfully, a smile coming back to her face where a sad expression had sat only moments before.

Sirius may not have been the best role model to follow, or the best example for her, but that didn't change the fact that he was right; everything he had said was true. He was about Regulus and he was right about the rules. Some rules were in fact made to be broken... and maybe this was just another one of those rules. A rule she could break. A rule she should avoid.

It wasn't like being friends with the girl was illegal. She wouldn't be committing a single criminal offence, or breaking any sort of official laws. All she needed to do was go against one of her families' stupid rules; rules that probably shouldn't even exist in the first place. It wasn't that much of a big deal, was it? Breaking those rules weren't that bad, were they? It wasn't like anyone else needed to know about it...

So, maybe a friendship with Marlene wouldn't be that bad after all. For, what is the worst thing that could happen?