Visionary | h. potter x oc

3.2

After Dumbledore introduced Lupin as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Hagrid as the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Draco Malfoy decided to heckle Harry for fainting on the train. Aurora, who was sitting next to Harry, turned around to face the blonde boy.

"Shove off Malfoy."

"Or what?" He hissed at the girl,

"Or you might find yourself in the middle of the forbidden forest one night. I'm sure the centaurs would love you." She spit back, receiving shocked looks from both her new friends and the Slytherin table.

Draco scoffed, trying to hide his surprise that the girl he'd bullied for so long was starting to talk back, "I'm--"

"Oh, go cry to your father about it, blondie." She turned Harry's shoulder so that they were once again facing Hermione and Ron.

"I could get used to her." Ron murmured to Hermione, who just smiled proudly. They turned their heads back to Dumbledore,

"Furthermore, at the request of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will, until further notice, play host to the dementors of Azkaban until Sirius Black is captured." There were murmurs amongst the crowd, "They will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds. While I assumed that their presence will not disrupt our day-to-day activities, a word of caution. Dementors are vicious creatures. They will not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who gets in their way." Harry and Aurora both felt their stomachs drop, though for different reasons, "Therefore I must warn you all to give them no reason to harm you. It is not in their nature to be forgiving."

The rest of the dinner went smoothly, with Aurora staying quiet as Ron, Harry, and Hermione talked about the dementors. When asked about what she knew about them, Aurora glanced up from her meal, meeting their eyes for a moment before she placed her fork down. The information came out of her mouth faster than she could think. "They're blind creatures that sense and feed on human happiness and can suck out the souls of their prey with a kiss. If you're around them enough they can even drain you of your magic" Ron's face dropped and Harry noticed that she seemed to be staring off into space as she spoke, "There's a charm that can protect you from them for a short period of time, that was the spell Lupin used." Hermione and her shared a look before she looked back to the boys,

"How-- how do you know all this?" Harry asked, just as shocked but not as scared as Ron,

She shrugged and picked up her fork again, not ready to tell them everything she knew, "I read a lot."

~oOo~

Aurora was lucky enough to be rooming with Hermione along with a girl named Lavender and another named Parvati. After putting away her textbooks and most of her clothes she let Crow out of his cage, quickly writing a note to her grandfather that she arrived.

"No funny business." She placed the letter in the owl's mouth, "If I hear that you've harassed Mister Peck again there'll be no slugs for you for a week." His feathers ruffled and he turned away from her before flying out of the open window.

"Are you telling Mr. Ollivander about the dementors? He's bound to see it in the newspaper." Hermione asked, walking across the small room and sitting on the edge of Aurora's bed.

She shook her head, scooting over to make room for Hermione as she folded a sweater, "Absolutely not. He'd go mental. As far as he knows I slept the entire way here and was unaware the train even stopped."

Hermione grinned at her friend's cleverness, but quickly frowned when she thought back to the events of the day, "I'm sorry about Ron. He was the same way towards me for... well he's still kind of an arse to me."