Duplicitous | T.N.

VIII • That one blissful moment

The sunrise awoke Aurora that morning. She was normally a heavy sleeper. In her younger years she could have slept through a storm, she did in fact as a girl, constantly. Though in her past few months, her sleeping hours had decreased a truckload. So it failed to surprise her that something as unnoticeable as the sun doing it's job, was able to stir her from her slumber.

Auroras favorite moment, entirely, would always be the very second after waking up. Oh, to be blissfully unaware of the events that had happened the day prior, or were due to take place.

The second after her favourite moment was the most tragic. Her least favourite part of her life was when realization would dawn on her. She would remember all of the treacherous moments that had ever occurred and would never fail to bring down her mood. This time she was brought out of her moment of pure ignorance by the realization that her mother was dead.

It took a good minute before she collected any bother within her to open her eyes. It was somewhat dark, but enough to see clearly. Her roommates were passed out cold, she couldn't find it within her to awaken them for just her own company.

Clasped in her right hand, was the family picture, the object she treasured most. She gazed into her young uncaring eyes and could only wish to be back in such simpler times. But her wish would never be reality, and this simple fact constantly added pressure to the weight on her shoulders. The weight not even a blissful moment could cast away.

She wrapped a thin creamy jumper over her tall figure and slid on her slippers before she exited her dorm. The common room fire had died, so she held her arms over herself to keep warm. The premises was painfully empty and painfully quiet. She didn't particularly fancy spending an hour or so in the common room of the lion alone, so she exited the room.

The fat lady had been asleep also, she was clearly peeved by Auroras use of the door. "Miss Flores, what are you doing out of bed?" She spat, a look of disapproval evident.

Rory shot her a bijou smile, in apology. "Sorry, I just woke up, didn't want to disturb anyone so I thought I should go for a walk." 

Her nose which had been turned upward, lowered at Rory's words, she then gave the teenage witch an unimpressed and somewhat bored grin. "Of course you didn't want to disturb anyone, sweetheart." Sarcasm laced her tone, in a joking manner.

Rory winced at the lady's obvious jab. "Sorry for disturbing you." The painting smiled at her and Aurora returned the grin. Everyone loved Rory, even the paintings.

The adolescent pure blood hugged herself as she strolled through the corridors. Her destination was the Astronomy tower. The most beautiful place in the school. It had the view of the black lake and the forbidden forest that stretched out for miles. One would often find themselves in a peaceful state of mind when venturing to the tower. That's what Rory needed, peaceful thoughts.

As she walked, or more accurately, as she reluctantly moved her frozen ligaments forward one limb at a time, she pulled out her headphones from the pocket of her jacket. Before she left she had swiped her source of music. Rory, a truly bright witch, had spelled her muggle innovations to work at Hogwarts. So as she begrudgingly moved, if you could call it that, she had a wondrous tune to listen to.

She decided it would be a pleasant idea to slightly skip within the beat of her chosen song. Her unnoticeable, intentional stride had progressed into a small dance. She couldn't dance. She knew this, but she hadn't processed her actions quite yet. Her light humming had turned into a low singing, her eyes closed. She was content. She lightly laughed as she trudged on.

This was one of the rare moments were Rory felt okay. She hadn't felt anything rather than miserable in the past few months so the small moments, like dancing freely in the hallway, was special.