Aurora | Harry Potter

chapter forty-nine

"Here it is, Professor," Harry says as he hands a vial over to Professor Dumbledore, who then pulls out a bottomless bowl of what looks like water. 

I slept in the Hospital Wing overnight and after Madam Pomfrey replaced the tight, restricting bandages with some looser ones and gave me some Pumpkin Juice to send me off, I returned back to the main school. 

I met with Harry halfway through the day and when he saw me, he almost started crying and went to beg me for forgiveness, but I snapped at him and told him to stop being silly. "I love you and I know you didn't mean to, okay? Stop fretting about it," I said and he just kissed me in reply. 

I smiled at him and went to run my fingers through his hair, but when he lightly grabbed my hand and said that he needed to go to see Professor Dumbledore about a memory given to him from Professor Slughorn, I demanded that I join him. 

After arriving in Professor Dumbledore's office, Harry gave the memory in a vial over to him. Professor Dumbledore poured it into an endless bowl of what looked like water and after dipping our heads inside, we see the memory is a young Tom Riddle asking Professor Slughorn about Horcruxes and how to create them.

"This is beyond anything I imagined," Professor Dumbledore exclaims in utter disbelief that Professor Slughorn practically told Tom Riddle how to create Horcruxes and make himself immortal. 

"You mean to say that he succeeded, Sir? In making a Horcrux?" Harry asks, to which the Headmaster nods his head. "Oh yes, he succeeded, not just once..."

"What are they, Sir? These Horcruxes?" I ask, slightly confused at what these Horcruxes are supposed to look like. Professor Dumbledore answers saying that they could be anything, like commonplace objects. That's when he pulls out a ring and a very familiar, black leather book.

"Tom Riddle's diary," me and Harry simultaneously say, looking at the diary with a torn out hole right in the centre. "A Horcrux, yes," Professor Dumbledore starts, "four years ago when you saved Ginny Weasley's life in the Chamber of Secrets, you brought me this. I knew then this was a different kind of magic... very dark, very powerful but until tonight, I had no idea how powerful."

"What about the ring, Sir?" I ask, pointing at the silver ring with a black stone. "Belonged to Voldemort's mother. Difficult to find, even more difficult to... destroy," he answers as his raises his right hand, which has become a blackish-grey colour.

"So, if you could find them all and one did destroy them-"

"-One kills Voldemort," Professor Dumbledore finishes my sentence. "How would you find them? They could be anywhere," Harry adds and waits for the Headmaster to answer. "True, but magic, especially dark magic", he starts, but I see Harry touch the ring and it starts spinning madly before dropping back on the table. I turn to the dark haired boy to see him uncomfortably crack his neck, something I've now picked up he does when he sees something.

"...leaves traces," Professor Dumbledore finishes, before instructing us to meet him at the top of the Astrology Tower later that evening. We both nod, tell him that we will be there and leave, confusion amidst both of us.

-

"Professor?" I say, clearing my throat and making Professor Dumbledore aware of us both. "Oh, Harry and Aurora," he replies, his voice incredibly calm and relaxed, "you need to shave, dear boy." We all chuckle slightly at the small joke and then the Professor looks at us both, wonder in his eyes.

"You know, at times... I forget how much you've both grown. At times, I still see the small boy from the cupboard and the small girl with a remarkable confidence for her age," he admires, smiling at the both of us, "forgive my mawkishness, both of you. I'm an old man."

I shake my head. "You still look the same to us, Professor," which makes him chuckle heartfully, his eyes still full of wonder, but now with a touch of sadness. "Just like your brother, you are unfailingly kind and a fierce friend, traits people never fail to undervalue, I'm afraid."

He then turns around to look out at the sky, his tone becoming much more serious. "The place to which we journey tonight is extremely dangerous. I promise you both for the company of me and I stand by that promise, but there is one condition... you must obey every command I give you without question."

Me and Harry both nod, but he has not finished talking. "You do both understand what I'm saying. Should I tell you to hide, you hide. Should I tell you to run, you run. Should I tell you to abandon me and save yourself, you must do so."

For a moment, me and Harry both just stand there. We both knew whatever would happen tonight would be serious and dangerous - as all things are now - but what Professor Dumbledore is asking us to do... it adds a new level of mystery.

"Your word, both of you," he asks, looking at us both. I smile slightly and give him my word, as does Harry. Then, Professor Dumbledore raises his arm, urging us to take it.

"I thought you couldn't Apparate within Hogwarts, Professor," I comment, my eyebrows raised in confusion. "Well, being me has its privileges," he responds, making both me and Harry smirk. We both take his arm and after we Apparate, we find ourselves inside a dark, damp cave.

"This is the place," Professor Dumbledore whispers, looking around, "oh, yes... this place has known magic." We approach a dead end, which is where the Professor pulls out a small knife and cuts a slit in his hand, making me wince and Harry exclaim in shock.

"In order to gain passage, payment must be made," Professor Dumbledore explains, "payment intended to weaken any intruder." Harry states that he should have let him to it, but the Professor shakes his head, claiming that Harry's blood is much more precious than his.

He waves his hand over the wall and slowly, it crumbles away and once Professor Dumbledore sends a ball of light across the room, we see the front area  - where we walk out onto - is filled with transparent crystals and a large stretch of water surrounding them.

"Woah," I marvel, looking all around me as the light travels across the wide stretch of water before it bursts out, a flood of light almost blinding us. When we look at the ball of light, we see a small island of the transparent crystals.

"There it is."