Visionary | h. potter x oc

4.12

"Black lake... black lake..." Aurora flipped through her journal looking for any sign of the black lake in the scribbles and odd drawings.

Hermione sat on her bed and inspected the pile of napkins, torn papers, and scraps of old assignments that Aurora used to write some of her visions. Upon moving a charms essay with the words 'not tell lies' in the margin, she came across Hagrid's letter to the group from the year before, "Snake killing, werewolf, Hogwarts burning?" She read the note out loud before looking up to Aurora. The Ollivander seemed calm, but Hermione's eyes were wild, "What is this?"

Aurora shrugged and continued to flip through her journal, "It's from last year."

"You didn't tell us about it."

Another shrug, "We became a little preoccupied with Buckbeak's execution. And then Ron's rat... or man, or whatever. And then Lupin and Sirius..."

The brunette nodded, "Right. I guess it would have been hard to remember after all of that." She glanced at her friend, eyes lingering on the scars poking out of her Gryffindor sweater. "Found anything yet?"

Aurora passed her the journal, pointing to a page from years before, "A few summers before our first year I saw people floating in the black lake."

"Floating?" Hermione's eyes scanned the page before looking back at Aurora, "As in... dead?"

"I don't remember. Whatever is in the book is all we have." The gift of sight wasn't the most reliable. Some seers were able to remember even the smallest of details years after their visions, but Aurora wasn't one of them.

Hermione put the journal down and sighed, "Do you think it has something to do with the next task?"

Aurora ran a hand through her hair, moving back the pieces that had fallen in front of her face, "Considering I only saw it after Harry opened the egg I can't imagine it's about anything else."

"I hate this." Hermione stood and began to pace around the dorm, "Why would Dumbledore bring back such a... a barbaric event? Especially after everything that–" Noticing that Aurora had zoned out, she stopped, "Aurora?"

The girl's head snapped up, "Sorry, I was just thinking. All of the champions have the egg, right?" Hermione nodded, "And they all have to solve whatever clue is in it."

"It was empty though, just screamed like a banshee..."

"That's not my point," Aurora's mood seemed to lift and she straightened her shoulders, "If all champions have the same egg and the same clue, one of them is bound to solve it!"

Hermione understood where she was going and a small frown appeared on her face, "You want to talk to the other Champions. Isn't that cheating?"

"It's the Triwizard Tournament, Hermione. Cheating is basically tradition." Noticing that her words weren't convincing enough, she quickly added, "It's for Harry. I think we both know he needs the help."

That seemed to do the trick and Hermione nodded, her frown being replaced with a smile, "Alright then, what should we do?"

Aurora matched her smile and the two began to work out a plan.

~oOo~

The rest of November went quickly and brought snow and wind to Hogwarts. Classes continued as normal, with the occasional Durmstrang boy or Beauxbatons girl attending class alongside Aurora. She sat next to one of the champions, Fleur, in Divination and tried to help the girl through their unit on star charts and predictions. Her attempt to learn whatever clue was in the egg was unsuccessful as the French girl hadn't found out what it was.

Her attempt to talk to Viktor Krum during Transfiguation was even more ineffective as he had no desire to talk to anyone besides his adoring fans. After (yet another) attempt at getting his attention with a crumpled up paper, Professor McGonagall's voice boomed across the classroom,

"The Yule Ball is approaching. It is a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our guests." She nodded towards a bored Krum, "The ball will be open to fourth years and above, though you are more than welcome to invite a younger student." A few girls in the class began whispering, though the Professor ignored them, "Dress robes must be worn and the ball will be on Christmas day from eight o'clock to midnight. I will be incredibly displeased if any Hogwarts student embarrasses the school in any way during this event."

With that the bell rang and Aurora rushed to grab her bag and get out of the classroom before McGonagall held her back to talk about her horrid attempt at transfiguring a guinea fowl into a guinea pig. Luckily, the professor only held Harry back, leaving Aurora to try and find Hermione to find out if she was doing any better at finding out what the golden egg was hiding before her next class.

Word of the Yule Ball spread around the school before the Ollivander could even get back to her dorm, with many students already talking about what they would wear and who they would go with. In her three years at Hogwarts, Aurora had never seen so many people sign up to stay at the school for Christmas. Making her way to her History of Magic, Aurora met up with her bushy haired friend. It seemed like neither of them were able to gather any information, with the champions either shrugging them off or, in Aurora's case, completely ignoring any questions they were asked about the tournament.

The next day rolled around and brought with it a horrific story in the Daily Prophet. Rita Skeeter, a nosy and stuck-up reporter assigned to cover the Triwizard Tournament, printed a smear campaign about Hermione and Harry. The reason for it no one knew, but it was clear the woman wanted to cause drama amongst the Hogwarts students. Sitting around the lunch table, Hermione read the story,

"Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to be developing a taste for famous wizards." Aurora looked over at the photograph of Harry and Hermione hugging, "Her latest prey, sources report, is none other than the Bulgarian bonbon, Viktor Krum. No word yet on how Harry Potter's taking this latest emotional blow."

Aurora had to stifle a laugh. Yes, it was a horrible story spreading the information that Hermione was some kind of scarlet woman, but the absurdity of it was hard to take seriously. They all shot her a look and she unapologetically shrugged, "Hermione, no one aside from you and the professors read that garbage. Someone somewhere will do some stupid thing and this will all be forgotten." She patted Hermione's shoulder awkwardly, "Don't worry about it."

Hermione gave Aurora a sad smile, hoping that she wouldn't take the article seriously. It wasn't as if she had any feelings for the chosen one. If anything, he was like a brother. A reckless, slightly dimwitted brother. She was more concerned about Aurora's feelings of the report.

Nigel, a younger Gryffindor, ran up to the table with a large package in his hands. He passed it off to Ron, who stared at it for a moment before beginning to open it, "Mum sent me something." He pulled out the most hideous coat Aurora had ever seen, "She sent me a dress...?"

Harry dug through the package with his one good arm, "It does match your eyes, maybe there's a bonnet?"

"Ginny–" Ron took a few steps over to his sister and showed her the coat, "These must be for you."

The younger Weasley grimaced and shook her head, "I'm not wearing that, it's ghastly."

Upon realizing Molly had sent her son dress robes, Aurora and Hermione began to laugh, "They're not for Ginny." Hermione said in between giggles, "They're for you!" The entire table broke out in laughter, "Dress robes."

"Dress robes? For what?"

"The Yule Ball." Aurora finished, "Have you already forgotten? It's in a few weeks."

Ron's eyes widened and his face paled as his gaze shifted between the girls and the robe, "Bloody hell."