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CHAPTER SIX:

TRAINING

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"Again, get up."

  Aurora had been in Merlen for ten days and she spent seven of those physically training with Damien.

   In these seven days, her dislike for him only got stronger. He told her everyday he had never met a more weaker Aleksander. He said the only impressive thing he learnt about her was the fact she had a good punch. It made sense considering all the people she had punched before. Damien was so closed off, she knew nothing about him. He was a good fighter that was all she learnt about him and there must have been something about him that was kind, considering he taught all the kids on the island to fight. She saw him and Louis speaking a lot together also.

         She rises to her feet, but didn't have a chance to react because he lunched forward, and learning from her previous mistake she quickly moved to her right but he had known she would do this. He knocked down right away. She falls back down and groaned.

"You're not trying." He shouted.

She groaned, holding her nose. "I am trying."

   "Not hard enough," He bellowed back at her and she grunted. "Up!"

    "Go easy on her!" Beckham shouted, who was leaning against the wall and examining the fight like he did most days. He had been reading through some parchments of paper and trying to figure out how to stop the island from becoming corrupt. "She's been through a lot."

    "Do you think Runskin will go easier on her?" Damien shouted back at him, eyes flickering between Aurora and Beckham. "You're fools if you think he isn't going to do everything in this power to kill her the first chance he gets."

    Aurora clenched her jaw, looking at the floor.

    "I've got to go to my meeting," Beckham mentions, walking over and squeezing her shoulder. "I'll be back later. Will you be alright?"

     "I'm fine, Beckham, no need to fret." Aurora stated, taking her hands off her knees and straightening back up. She sent him a forced smile to somehow ease his clear worry for her. "It's alright, I'll see you later."

           Once Beckham left, Damien knocked her down again, "Up!"

       She rose to her feet, and before he could lunge towards her, she moved quickly. Her mouth opened to speak but he had swiftly kicked under her feet, knocking her to the ground. She was nowhere as strong in comparison to him. She never would be. He managed to train an entire island into learning how to physically fight. This man had been trained in the art of combat for over twenty years.

      "I don't understand why I have to learn to physically fight--"

      "Do you ever listen?" Damien interrupted, brows raising as she dodged another one of his hits. "Since I'm training you, you will learn all aspects of fighting, magic and otherwise. Considering you told me your magic often comes and goes, it's beneficial to you incase you can't use your magic. If you're in the middle of fighting Runskin and your magic goes for a minute, fighting is the best chance you'll get."

     "Fine, but magic is better." She grunted back at him, "I don't know why this island is so headstrong in almost never using it. It's insanely backwards here."

    "You only think it's backwards because you're not from here." Damien argued instantly and she swore she annoyed him every single time she spoke. "Do I need to remind you that this is the only place where Runskin wasn't able to cast his spell to, it's the entire reason Beckham never forgot you. This place might be 'backwards' but at least it's not a dangerous place where someone's entire existence can be erased."

    If Beckham had been anywhere else but Merlen, her existence would not been known to his. She thought this meant perhaps anyone who stepped foot on the island would remember her but she was wrong: it was only people who were in the island at the time.

     "Whatever." She mumbled, ignoring him. "It's still backwards. Magic is a far better defensive technique."

     "Incase you're forgetting, Marcos came and destroyed everything in this island, magic books, wands, everything." Damien reminded her as she got back up from the ground. He got her with a good punch in the stomach but she blocked his next punch. "The people don't have anything to learn magic from or teach them. Only the adults are able to use magic and they're too busy trying to get the island back to it's normal state."

     "Have you ever thought the reason Marcos got to destroy the place was because you all don't use magic?" She retorted sarcastically.

     "Don't be such a smart arse." Damien told her warningly knocking her to the ground.

     You're such a dick, I hate you so much and I'm going to apologise cause I need you to train me.

     "Fine. Sorry."

     "Up."

     Tiredly, she rose to her feet and wiped her shirt clean off the dust gathering across it.

             "This time I want you to close your eyes and I'm going to attack you." He instructed, pushing her back a couple feet. "You should be able to sense me when I go to attack you from either side. One of the most basic magic you acquire is sensing when someone is going to attack you. You should feel danger. Maybe you felt it before Runskin was coming to get you before. Search your mind, focus on your senses. Not any sounds, just your feelings. Don't guess. Focus on when you believe I'm going to attack. It  needs to come naturally."

Naturally.

It should come naturally.

      Aurora's eyes close, it becomes silent, completely silent. Damien doesn't make any noise in whichever direction he went to move to. Focus, she warns herself, focus on the senses. Her eyes remain closed, she feels a shiver run up her arms. He is right, no left. No, says her head, he's in front of you. Her eyes open just in time to see his fist heading towards her face but she was able to catch it and pull it down.

   "You could have just punched me in the face." After a second she said, dropping his fist.

   "Perhaps but you sensed me. What did you feel?"

    "A shiver I guess...? Like goosebumps." She gestures to her neck, then arms. "It went from here to here. Then something just told me that you were in front of me, like a feeling? Instinct?"

        Damien nodded. "That's good. You got it on the first go. Have you ever gotten those before?"

     "Yeah for a while before I knew about my powers." She told him, quickly moving away from him. "Before I died, I could tell something was going to happen. When Marcos asked me to go to him, I knew something bad was going to happen. I didn't trust myself enough at the time to know not to. Back at Hogwarts before Runskin took over my mind I knew something was in the forest, the entire day I knew something was going to go wrong."

     "How stupid of you to not listen to your own head." Damien replied and the judgement in his tone was evident. "Or tell anyone. You died because you didn't trust your head and you got kidnapped because of the same reason."

    Dying felt like a lifetime ago. Her dying at the time felt like the biggest thing and now it was like nothing. Marcos was nothing. She dealt with him easily.

    "You need to trust yourself and your instincts." Damien continues, catching her fist in his hand and pushing her back. "It's your downfall."

    "I seem to have a lot of those according to you." She mutters rolling her eyes at him. Damien gives her a look, like the one McGonagall used to give her. "Right, so trust myself."

   They do this another five times and every time she messed up they did it again. They continued doing it till every time he snuck up on her, she would know just before he went to attack her. This was probably the best thing she could do.

    Every time they physically trained, however, she would be on the mat in seconds. Her body was weakened, bruised, and she could barely throw a decent punch. He claimed it was important for her to start physically moving again.

    "We need to start making you understand how to open portals." Damien begins, stepping back and folding the mat up. She steps off it, eyes widened. She was certain this is where his clear disappointment in her was going to show even more. "I still find it remarkable that an Aleksander of your age hasn't mastered her powers. Considering you have three ones, it is even weirder. We know you can bring back the dead, we know you should be able to open portals like your mother and you can't do either of those yet...so there's only one left."

   "My power of resurrection...." She always wondered about that. Her mind travelled to Harry and Luke. "How does that work exactly?"

   "No."

   "You don't even know what I was going to say."

   "By the look on your face, I do. How about we focus on trying to kill the living before we try bring back dead people." Damien remarked, shaking his head. He sounded so stern now that she chose not to press on the subject any further. "We've got milestones to focus on first."

    "I presume the milestone is learning how to open portals then," She trailed off, balancing on the edges of her feet. "Why is that the first one?"

    "Portal opening is a good power to have. You can travel anywhere in the world without needing to stop. You can flee danger with the flick of your hands. Let's say Runskin somehow does take you again, he can't stop you from opening a portal. It'll be a chance to escape through it."

  "Can other people travel through the portal?" She questioned, thinking of the portal in the Other World.

  "You can carry hundreds through it."

    She turned to him. "What if I can't do it? What if I can't open portals."

    "It's in your blood. You underestimate yourself greatly." Damien explained, disappointment evident on his face. "Portal opening is far more easier than controlling and understanding your powers. You'd think it would be the opposite but it's not. Portal opening is much like Apparition, can you?"

    She shakes her head, "No." Sirius was in the middle of teaching her before everything happened.

    "Right. You need to remember the three D's, determination, destination, deliberation. You need to focus on a destination and--"

    "Why don't we just Apparate then?" She interrupted.

  "Why walk when you can run?" Damien replied, "Apparition is fine for normal witches but you aren't normal. If someone grabs your arm whilst your apparate, they're with you. Your portal's are much more efficient, you choose who can come with you and who can enter the portal."

    "What does it look like? Like the same one Magnolia had prepared when I was in the other world?"

   "A portal should look like a door, could have ivy or moss on it or at least it did to your mum anyway." Damien corrected, shaking his head. "It might be different depending on the person, considering you're the first normal person ever to have as many powers as you do, I haven't a clue what your portal will look like. Could be different, could be the same."

Aurora nods.

   He points over towards the window which was bringing in the light of the morning as usual. In the week she was here she never saw it not sunny. It was cold somedays but most days it was bright. "Now I want you to open a portal to the window over there. I want you to extend your hands and think of going over there. Relax your mind, clear your head and focus on going over to that portal."

     Once again, she nods and closes her eyes. She focuses on over by the window and extends her hands.

    She peeked an eye open, nothing. 

    "Try again." Damien added.

    She tried again and when she opened her eyes, there was nothing. She did this another three times and there was nothing appearing.

    "Again, relax yourself. It needs to be natural."

    "I'm trying." She mumbled lowly, thinking he didn't hear her.

    "Not hard enough," She heard Damien reply as she closed her eyes.

   Fuck you.

   She focused for a long few moments and when she checked again, there was nothing. She threw her hands up. Damien was leaning against the wall, arms folded, seemingly not as frustrated as she was getting. This is pointless, she thought bitterly, turning away from him.

    "Aurora." Damien says lowly. "Try again."

    "But--"

    "Aurora." He interrupted and she hated the way he constantly spoke to her as if she was an idiot. No, a child. "Do it again, and just relax."

    Her eyes flicker closed and she keeps her hand by her side for a long minute. She thinks about the window and travelling there. She told herself she wanted to go to the window. She had to. She needed to. She wanted to prove herself, that she was as powerful as everyone was telling her she was. She was suppose to be. It was suppose to be easy to her. She lifted her hands and felt her fingers pull back.

   "Aurora."

   "What now?"

  "Open your eyes,"

   When she did as Damien told her, there wasn't a door there like her mum's but there was a portal. It was a circular rounded blob of colors, it spiraled around and was the same as the time she saw Runskin make one. It was high, almost the height of the ceiling and she felt a harsh impact of air going around it. She looked forward in surprise, she had done it.

    "I told you it would be easy for you." She heard Damien say, although he didn't even sound happy. She was sure he did not have real emotions. "Go."

     She gives him a look of uncertainty. However it was washed away when he stepped over and pushed her into the portal. She didn't have a chance to react before she was at the opposite end of the room. When she fell out of it, it closed up again and the wind around it disappeared.

       From across the room, Damien pipes up. "See? Not harmful."

      He instructed her to do this a few more times around the room before moving around the castle. It took her a few minutes to open it back up again but she eventually did. Once she did it twice in a row, it was easier. She travelled around the castle - she went to the second floor of the Library, and into all the empty rooms.

    Who knew she could do this? Of course she tried when she was in Hogwarts but it never worked for her there.

    The more she did it, the easier it became.

   "Very good." Damien muttered underneath his breath when she finally came back into the Training Room. She landed down in front of him. "I want you to think of somewhere on the island. The furthest you could go."

       She extends her hands and nods. Closing her eyes, she thought of her favorite place on this island. The place she looked at every single day. She stepped through the portal and feels a flash of wind hoist her forward. She feels the same tingling feeling in her arms again. She saw colors flash by her eyes and when she opened them, she was at the end of the island, on the beach.

      This was perfect, she thought looking out at the sea, she was getting to learn and it was finally paying off.

        Maybe her mum would be proud if she saw her, she suddenly thought, and told herself to stop thinking about that. Did she know about this place? The people seemed to know of her. Had she ever been here before? Despite the fact, her mum threw her against a tree and tried to murder her, there was still a yearning in her heart to know her.

          But it was her mum she wanted to know, not Magnolia Aleksander.

          It was weird to thing they were all across an entire sea. There was an ocean between them all.

         She thinks back up to the main room and extends her hands. Although this time, she keeps her eyes open and like before, the portal formed. She went through and landed on the floor in front of Damien.

    He looked down at her. "I told you it would be easy. You don't feel dizzy or anything?"

    She was delighted with herself but didn't let it show. "No, not at all, I feel the opposite. I feel normal."

  "Good. I want you to practice opening portals all around the Island for the next few days. Try not to go to the busy places since you're so keen on not letting everyone know who you are." He told her clearing away his things. "Same time tomorrow."

   "Right thank you." She told him as usual watching him packing up the stuff. She noticed he had many weapons and she hoped she wouldn't have to go through the effort of learning to use them all. There was one question on her mind, which she really wanted to ask him. He wasn't the most approachable. "I'll see you tomorrow then..."

  "What is it?" He asked not turning around. "What question do you have? I can feel your eyes staring at the back of my head."

  She shifted uncomfortably and plays with the sleeve of her jumper. She brought her hands and ran them through her hair, it was so short and was starting to prefer it this way. "My powers, I was wondering how exactly I'll control them?"

     "What did you do those months there?"

     She knew he was going to eventually ask about that. "What?"

     "Tell me in detail from the start what you did in that place with Runskin? What did you do there for nine entire months?"

     Her breathing quickened, "I don't want to talk about it. What do you gain by asking that?"

      "Insight, knowledge, perspective." He listed, returning the glare she was giving him back.

      She swallowed thickly. "I won't talk about it." 

      "Clearly. When you decide you want to talk about it then let me know, then we'll discuss how to control your powers." Damien told her and she proceeded to not move. She wanted to learn how to control them now. He turns around, "You can go now."

       Aurora crossed her arms, glaring at him.

     Louis entered the room, glistening in sweat like he had been running for hours. Beckham mentioned he trained the children of the island to use magic: apparently he was the best Wizard on the island and even at that Beckham claimed he was average in the Wizarding World.

    He sent her a glare before walking over to Damien.

   "You need to learn to control yourself." She heard Damien hiss in a low tone. "We don't judge others by the--"

  "Whatever. I just wanted to let you know that--"

  "Aurora!" Came a cheerful voice, she focuses on Hestia and Ted who come in, arms linked together and laughing happily.

   Hestia comes over, "Bonjour jolie fille."

    "Want to join us for a walk in the gardens? You haven't see them yet, have you?" Ted offered and she took notice of how they used English to suit her more. They did this often even though she spoke French herself.

     Aurora shook her head gently, "No. I haven't."

     She spent the last seven days doing a few things and none of them were leaving the castle: she was training, catching up on sleep (she had slept for eleven hours one night, even though it was full of nightmares it was still rest), taking excessively long baths, trying to force herself to eat again in a routine without feeling ill and listening to Beckham complaining about the island. She didn't speak with any of them except Beckham, she only made pleasantries.

    Right now, for example, Beckham was in the dining room and had to listen to the people of Merlen telling him things they needed fixed: families would come in and beg for money and he would have to choose who to give it to.

    How horrible.

     "Come with us then," Ted mentioned, before shouting across to his other friend, "Louis do you wanna join?"

     "No." Louis shouted back instantly.

     Aurora had no idea how these two people were friends with Louis: he seemed like he was in a bad mood every day. Nonetheless, she always saw the three of them together. They seemed incredibly close.

    "He's so likable." Hestia mumbled, "Nonetheless, do you want to join us?"

    "I don't want to intrude--"

    "Of course not," Ted interrupted straight away, "This is your island."

    Hestia extended her hand and with hesitation Aurora took it. They linked arms and left the castle through the back door in the Training room - which she didn't even know there was - and they entered a garden. It was a small enough garden, shaped around in a square, with roses and hedges going around, the sun was facing here and everything had a golden glaze of it, at the top of the garden there was a small table and chairs. The three of them walk around in comfortable silence.

    Aurora stopped when she noticed a set of peonies in the middle of the garden. She took one, and brought it to her chest.

"This is a stupid idea." She heard Harry say from outside the door at Grimmauld.

"Trust us, it will work." Fred replied, "Girls love flowers."

Before Aurora could even turn off the lights and pretend to be asleep, two large knocks rung through the room. She shoved her notebook under her pillow where she was venting her unusual feelings out at the minute.

   She gets up and opens the door and Harry stood in front of her holding a handful of wet flowers. Fred and George were scurrying away,. She looked at him and glared at him before glancing down at the purple peonies, her favorite.

   "Er - hello." Harry managed to say as she slammed the door in his face.

    "How is your training with Damien going?" Ted asked her bringing her out of her constantly invasive thoughts.

   "I hate him."

   Hestia and Ted laughed at this, "Everyone does, he's tough, rude and will make you want to tear your eyeballs out by the end of it but once you're finished, you'll be glad he mentored you."

    He's not my mentor, mentors are suppose to be nice to their apprentices, this guy was a dick.

      "You were trained by him?" Aurora asked her.

      Ted snorted at that whilst Hestia answered, "Me? No, only basic defense when I was younger but I stopped when I was eleven. I didn't much like fighting, violence of any sort. Same with Ted here. Neither of us are very good at that sort of thing, not the best at magic either. Louis always enjoyed it though."

     I'm surprised he enjoys anything, he scowls more than anyone I've ever seen.

     "Louis will warm up eventually. He's just a little cantankerous some of the days." Ted told her. Her expression must have given it away. "He's had a rough going."

      "Cantankerous?" She repeated, what a word. "Yeah that's a good word for him."

      Hestia and Louis' laughs filled the garden.

     "Where are your parents?" She asked them curiously. "Do they live in one of the houses here?"

     "My parents are over in Germany, there's a merchant over there who they used to be friends with. They're trying to see if they can bring back some supplies for the island. They've been gone for two weeks now, they should be back in another two weeks."

      Her brows furrow, "How long does it take them to apparate?"

       "Apparate? No, they left on a ship."

       Aurora stared at them, "A ship?" they must have been joking. "Like the one that goes on water?"

        "What other ships are there?" Ted questioned, waggling his eyebrows.

        "So, the people here use ships rather than apparating?"

        Both them nod.

            Aurora was having none of that, she disliked these people's naive ways of thinking. Of course she wasn't from here so she'd never understand but they were making themselves at a higher risk for not using any of their magic. "Don't you both think that the people of this island need to learn more defensive magic?"

             "What do you mean?"

             "You have magic but you don't use it." She stated to them blankly. "You takes ships rather than learning apparition. There's got to be some people on the island who know how to apparate but instead you use ships? Ships?!"

             Ted shook his head. "Many don't like to use it. Besides, we don't really need magic."

             Hestia, who seemed to be thinking about her words, gave out a small sigh, "I like how you think but this is an island with no school. All of the professors were wiped out when Marcos came and crucified this place. There is no school and there are no witches or wizards left to teach. Most of us are lucky we still have wands."

        "In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter, there's bigger things to worry about." Ted added, brows furrowing in thought. "We have a million other things to fix on this island apart from education."

         "What will happen to you all if this island doesn't get fixed?" Aurora asked. Somewhat nervously. "What will all the people do?"

        "I can't answer for everyone else, so I'm not sure. As much as I love this place, I've always wanted to see London, maybe I'll go over there and work." Ted replied with an insanely large smile. His smile almost forced her to have to smile back at him. "I've always wanted to go to London."

        "London is nice." She lied.

        "Really? Is that where you use to live?"

      "I lived in a few places," She told them both after a few moments. Part of her was hesitant with speaking to them but Beckham trusted them. Also, they minded after her the days she was unconscious. Ted cooked her breakfast, dinner and lunch every morning. Hestia lent her clothes and offered to clean her room when she felt to weak too. "I lived with my god-father when I was a baby, then I lived in a cottage with my parents, mansion with my grandparents, in and out of my school for six years, an apartment in London, and then a house in England."

          Now, she come to realise she never had a stable, long-term home.

          "Merlin, that's a lot of places to live. Which was your favourite?"

          She paused. She was a baby with Remus so she did not know, she did not remember living with her parents, she was abused with her grandparents, she associated her and Luke's apartment in London with the night she came back from the dead, the house Sirius bought made her think of when she returned home from going to Aleksander Mansion.

           "Hogwarts." The first home she ever had. She missed it, but she no longer felt comfort in it there.

           "That was your school?"

           "Yeah, magical school. It's beautiful, especially during Christmas time. One year the school put up Christmas lights from the school all the way down to Hogsmeade, which is a happy little village full of shops. At the time, I thought it was stupid because I hate Christmas but now I'd do anything to see those lights, red, blue, and green." She rambled, running her hands through the ends of her hair in thoughts. "The entire castle is beautiful, especially the Black Lake."

        The Black Lake was always her favourite spot in Hogwarts. It's where she met Luke. It was where she cared for him for six years. It was the place where she would sit outside with Sirius after her lessons were finished and he had no more classes. It was where she spent the month of April and May with Harry studying for her O.W.L exams.

           It was the last place she remembered being happy with her friends, without a single worry in the world before she was taken.

           "Maybe we'll see this Hogwarts one day." Ted declared. "Maybe you'll get to go back there too,"

           "Maybe." She agreed, but she did not thing she could go back ever.

★ ★ ★

         When nighttime came upon her, she found herself asleep replaying a certain memory.

       Aurora enjoyed the ski trip more than she expected even though it ended in the least expecting way. She never intended to have her first time be with Harry. If anything she was always expecting it to go a lot differently: probably with someone who she didn't like. She never even thought she would have anything to do with Harry on this trip, especially romantic wise. But she did not regret it after it happened, if anything she was pleased it ended up being him.

        Yet, here she lay with the only thing covering her being a blanket. How fitting it was that New Years passed and it was her birthday.
    
     She glanced across at Harry who was facing the opposite way and trying to reach underneath the bed to find his glasses. She casted a glance at his exposed back and took a moment to appreciate the lean muscles of Harry's back.

       How did that all just happen? She asked herself. She found she didn't regret it for one second.

      She reaches her hand out and aligns it with his back.  Her hand lingers along his shoulders before moving down towards his torso. She saw his back muscles tense at her touch. Harry leaned over away from underneath the bed and turned to look at her. She took the sight of him in there.

       His black hair was never as messy as it had been now. It was sticking up from the back to the front and even when he tried to put it back to normal afterwards it didn't work. His lips were redder then usual and it might have been from the amount of times she clasped him into the kiss over the last hour - making up for lost time. He had found his glasses and put them on and was examining her carefully. His eyes were trailing down along the blanket. She looked down at his neck which was covered in purple marks, although she was sure her one was even worse. The amount of times she found herself struggling to catch her breath because he had his lips on her neck was too much to count.

    "Was that alright?" He murmurs, and Aurora flinched at the sound of his voice. He sounded hoarse.

"You're perfect." She mumbled to herself. Harry's eyes widened and instantly she knew her mistake. 

       "Who knew Aurora Black could be so affectionate?" He teased, leaning up and resting his head in his hand. He bit his lip in contentment looking at her.

     She rolled her eyes. "Don't get use to it." She replied back. It always was him who had her saying things she thought she'd never say.

      He reached out and put his hand towards her, she relaxed herself when she put her fingertips through her hair. He stroked her hair and he took notice of the small breath she drew in. He then dropped his fingers down to the side of her face, running over underneath her lip, trailing along every inch of the girl. Then he moved his hand down along her neck and rested it upon her chest underneath the covers. He watched her movements carefully.

       Harry leaned forward and tilted her chin up to kiss her. Underneath the covers, his hands pulled her bare torso up meet him, whereas she cupped his face gently, savoring him. She cherished how gently his hands were, how much he was delicate with her unless she wanted otherwise. She had long realised she didn't want to be with anyone else except him but she knew the dangers it would impose on him. He was one of her weaknesses. She pulled away and looked at him.

     "I'm not perfect, you are." Harry whispered before kissing her again. "Happy Birthday."

     "Thanks for the present." She grinned at him and his laughter took over the room.

      Aurora woke up crying, it had happened so many times before over the last few days. She would wake up sobbing after remembering another memory about someone, sometimes they were moments she looked over: many with Luke, Harry, Ron, Hermione, everyone. She struggled to breathe for a few moments, trying to vanish all the memories out of her head.

      She sits on the bed, wiping the tears coming out of her eyes. Luke was gone, Harry was gone, and the people who killed them were still out there. When finding out about their deaths it was probably the worst days of her life. It was always them two.

      (Unknowingly to her, across the sea, Harry Potter was sitting on a couch, examining the charm bracelet he found on the floor at Hogwarts and once again questioning why he had such an attachment to it).

      Her sobs only stop when she hears a clicking noise coming from the balcony, she takes her head out from her hands and sniffles. She squints her eyes and looks over towards the door. She could barely make anything out during the nighttime but she recognised the bird outside her window.

           At the top of her lungs, she screams. "Volley!"

         She jumps out of bed, flinging the blanket onto the floor and runs out to the balcony where she opens it. Actually, it takes her a few moments to open it, it was an old latch. When she does pull open the door, her owl bellows out flying into her chest. She rubs his head softly and he purrs into her arms. When she pulls away, she noticed Volley had been thinner and had been bruised in some places, like his beak.

         Louis comes bursting in through the doors, alongside the other guard, wands raised, "What happened?!"

         "It's my bird." Aurora whispers, rubbing her owls tired head. "Where have you been? I'm sorry. I'll never leave you again, little bird."

       Otis, She then thought eyes widening, who had Otis? Luke was gone. Harry was gone. She was gone. They were the three owners of the dog. Did Remus or Sirius take him? Where was he? She never seen him at the camp site. She glanced down when feeling something odd brush up against her hand she sees a letter was attached to his foot.

       "What's that?" Louis questioned. 

      She lifted his foot, and begun untying the letter, "A letter."

      "Don't open that, it could be tainted. Show me." Louis shouts quickly pushing her out of the way and opening up the letter. He mutters a spell, wand extended at it and nothing happens. She presumed he was checking for dark magic. He opens the letter and read through it.

       "Well then, who is it from? What does it say?" She quickly asked.

  Once Louis finished reading the letter, he sighed, "What the hell is a pointbreak?"

★ ★ ★

okay but I have an important question what stage of the deathly hallows would we be at now? It is March so.. I was thinking of writing a harry chapter but I can't remember what he would be doing at this stage. If anyone remembers please let me know?!!

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and got to know Hestia and Ted a bit more and show what her training is like with Damien. They are all very good characters and I enjoy writing them all!! As they will be main characters in book two!