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CHAPTER ELEVEN:

EMPTY ANSWERS

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Even as a child Aurora always hated when people would raise their voices at her, it was something that always drove her insane.

       The rout of that problem rose from her grandparents she was sure. If anything she also thought it was because she associated yelling with people being angry and disappointed in her: something which, despite claiming she did not care about, she always did. At the end of the day, she always did care about what other people thought of her.

Right now, everyone was yelling at her because of what happened a mere fifteen minutes ago. Her mind was far too preoccupied with what happened and who she encountered to even understand what exactly they were yelling at her about. It was Louis, Beckham, Damien and a very concerned Luke. When she came back in the portal, she fell to the ground and next thing she knew she was being corned from all angles by the stupid men.

"Do you have any idea of how incredibly dangerous that was of you!" Damien was the only voice she could hear. "You could have died or worse. What would have happened if Runskin showed up after you forced us back here! He could have taken you Aurora! I can't believe after all of this time you did something like that. What would happen if something happened to you over there? You can't just push people away like that--"

"I know that." Aurora replied irritably.

"Clearly not." Damien replied instantly before going into a massive speech about her immaturity.

"Aurora," Luke's voice cut over the insane headache she was getting. She tore her eyes away from the window panes in the dining room and met his eyes. She knew he was in shock at seeing her parents, more specifically her supposedly dead mother. His expression was too much for her to handle so she looked away from him. "Your mum."

"Your mum was there?" Beckham quickly asked, "Did you see her? Did you talk with her-"

"Yes I did." Aurora interjected, her stomach felt sick as she tried to push away the memory of the the first time she saw a picture of her mother. It was in Dumbledore's office, and the first time she ever saw her father that she remembered. She always felt comfort at the thought of her mother before that, she always had an idea that her mum was the only person who would be able to comfort her. Especially when Aurora encountered her after she died. "I told her -- them -- to stay away from me."

            Beckham came to the realisation the way she was acting was not because she interacted with her mum (he had an idea that a big part of Aurora still yearned for her mother) but it was a result of seeing Sirius.

"Is no one else freaking out about this?" Luke was asking but no one replied.

"And did you mean that?" Beckham asked, softening his gentle eyes.

She did not let her expression fall, "I did."

"So those two were your parents." Damien took note of why she acted the way she did. It was still no excuse but it showed him that she still let her emotions cloud her judgement, which he knew. He seen the two people come and noticed how both of them had their attention on only her. Despite the black haired girl claiming that her parents did not know her, Damien was starting to think differently. "That is your mum? Wow."

Slowly Aurora looked up at Damien and sent him a look to watch his tongue.

"And that was your dad?" Louis sounded surprised, almost impressed. Aurora rose a brow in his direction but made no comment. Louis seemed to realise his own words too.

"Is no one freaking out about the fact her mother is alive?!" Luke was still yelling but no one paid any attention to him.

      "What did they look like?" Ted asked intrigued.

      A figure emerged through the crowd pushing all the senseless men away and Hestia appeared. Her eyes full of concern as she yanked Aurora's face into her hands and examined her.

"Are you alright?" She asked in concern.

       "I'm fine, Hestia, really." Aurora replied, swatting the perfect girls hands away from her.

       "You look it." Hestia replied, sarcasm lacing her tone. She turned around and only seemed to then notice that Luke was standing there. Luke seemed to only noticed she was there too. 

       Aurora was too caught up in her to even pay attention to any of the people surrounding her. Her mind was full of thoughts, her constantly intrusive thoughts and she wished they'd just be quiet. She wished her head would just be quiet.

      It was so loud.

      Sirius and Magnolia.

"I'll take care of those men for you," Sirius mentioned coming over and sitting down beside her. "Once I come and save you, I'll take care of everything."

"You will?" Her eyes grew tired, waves crashed against one another outside.

"They won't hurt you again." Sirius promised.

It silent for a few second she says, "I miss you Dad. I miss everyone."

"Of course you do," Sirius replied grinning. "I'm amazing."

"Will you stay until I fall asleep?" she requests, the chains around her wrists burning as she put her head under them.

        Her eyes closed gently, and she listened to Sirius' promise about coming to get her anyway now.

       Her mind switched.

       Aurora opened her eyes when the cellar door opened abruptly. The darkness of the room faded and her eyes adjusted to the light that came in, alongside this light was a figure. Her wrists were roasting with the heat from the metal bars around her hands. They had been tightened beyond its limit and she saw the mystic purple hue in the corners of them. A reminder that she would never escape.

    Pierre appeared in the lightness, his tall and muscular figure covering majority of the light coming in. She squinted and looked at him through the darkness. 

    He extended his hand to her. "It's time."
  
He helped her up from the ground as she was no in position to stand by herself. She appeared malnourished, brittle and on the verge of death. When his hand wrapped over her shirt — her torn shirt with blood marks sprinkled in every corner — he felt the coldness emitting from her skin.

    "Are you even still in there?" Pierre whispered as he helped her up the stairs. She barely moved on her own. He couldn't see her eyes only barely and saw nothing in them. No sign of anything or anyone.

The next time she opened her eyes, Aurora found herself standing outside the place she learnt was outside of England. Far away out in the sea. East of England. Covered in magical wards to prevent anyone from hearing a word, a scream, anything.
      
      Her eyes adjusted on Runskin, who stood surrounded his followers, his people who spent the last few months torturing her.

Runskin grinned and extended his hands. "After seventeen years of chaos. Let the sacrifice begin."

     "Aurora. Maybe you should go and get some rest." She breaks away from her thoughts when Damien says this. His voice tears through her mind and she realises all of them had been staring at her.

      Wordlessly, she nodded and rose up from the ground. Her hand found it's way into Luke's as she pulled him away from the questioning people. His hand was warm, as it always had been. He took her hand back into his own right away as the two left the dining hall. Luke followed her thought the hallways, taking in the sight that was the castle.

         Luke was glancing down at her, specifically her leg as they walked. He made no comment despite looking concerned, which is why she asked, "What?"

        He went to answer but his eyes focused on the view behind her. He looked out the window, eyes widening at the city.

        "Welcome to Merlen." Aurora said from behind him.     

         By the time they made it up the flight of stairs, Luke had asked so many questions that her stomach could no longer take it, neither could her pounding heart. Everything around her was becoming more dizzy by the second. He kept mentioning names and those names were making her feel unsafe and queasy. Pushing aside her feelings, she tried to remain as normal as possible when answering his questions.

As they neared her bedroom, one question caught her off guard. She knew he would want to know eventually. "Explain to me what exactly happened with your mum? I mean...that was your mum....how is she—"

She avoided his eye. "Runskin."

"Yeah but how and more importantly why?" Luke pressed, wondering why she didn't seem as happy as he did knowing the news. If he found out his mum and father were back, he'd be over the moon. "How did you find this out—"

"Did you always ask this much questions?" She questioned with a small laugh.

The conversation was dropped when they entered her room and she declared she had enough for the night and needed to sleep. As she went into the bathroom to change, Luke glanced around the room. The bed didn't even look like it was slept in and oddly enough there was a pillow on the ground.

Aurora came out of her bathroom, rubbing underneath her eyes. Whehe moved slightly he could catch the water stained droplets on her face. He moved towards her causing her to jump, not expecting him to be there. Maybe part of her forgot for a second he was here, that she wasn't alone anymore.

"What happened?" He whispered "What happened with your parents?..What happened to you?"

    She shook her head. "You know what happened to me."

"No, I don't."

"We don't need to talk about it. We don't need to talk about anything that neither of us want to talk about." She told him, shaking her head. She lay down beside him and rolled her eyes at his expression. "Nothing is wrong with me. I'm fine—"

    "You're lying."

    She scoffed. "I'm not."

"I think you're forgetting I'm the only person you allowed yourself to cry around for years." he whispered. "I know all your kinds of crying. You have the first one, which is the puppy dog crying, usually used to manipulate someone. It's adorable. The second type is the disappointed crying. The third type is crying over a guy, and I've only seen it twice, reserved for Harry. Usually you do it by yourself. The last kind is the worst type, it's the hurt crying. The one you do when you're in pain but trying to hide it."

    It was silent after he said this. The both of them just looked at one another. Equally as glad to have the other back.

"What type am I doing right now?" she asked, quietly.

"Number four." he said, "You're hurt. You're in pain."

   "I don't want to talk about it." Aurora told him, giving him a frown. Her lip quivers and the pain on her face reminded him of the time when she told him that she and Sirius had been in a fight. Her eyes changed quickly and she brought his hand closely to her chest, "I'm just...really glad you're here. That you're back."

      "Me too, Aurora."

Once again, a hug was shared. Once again, needed and craved by both people. He was the one who pulled her closely to him and held her so tightly. Her body caved in immediately and welcomed him. All the times he hugged her before flashed through her mind. She'd been hugged by him plenty times before but this time it meant something much more. Something felt right, which It hadn't in her mind for a long time. It gave her the smallest bit of hope that maybe things could return back to what they used to be.

Not back to what they used to be because that was impossible, but maybe she would feel okay agains.

The night went on, as it did, she told him about the island and what she learnt from the spell books here.

Luke leaned forward, his index and middle finger positioning themselves on her bare shoulder. He traced circles along the skins, and moved up and down along her arm. Those few moments, all thoughts seemed to leave her head and her eyes started to close slowly. Even when her eyes stayed closed, he didn't stop, he kept tracing along her arm.

      The following morning Aurora had woken up alone. Believing the events of yesterday to be a sick and twisted dream she jumped out of the bed. Her head pounded in her chest when she saw no sign of Luke around the room. She opened the balcony door and was greeted with the sounds of the saxophone from the streets below her but no sign of Luke.

When she turned back around, Luke, her heart fell through her chest, was coming out from the bathroom.

He was dressed differently now, a flowing white shirt on his body that had cuffed sleeves, black pants that many of the men wore here and his hair was shorter. He appeared physically as good as he always did but she was sure that wasn't the case.

     "I don't think I've ever scrubbed my body that much." Luke mentioned coming over to her. The only way to wash yourself over in the Other World was by using bottled water: electricity didn't work in most cases. "I think I actually burnt my skin a little. What's wrong?"

"What?" She blinked, and quickly washed away her expression. "Nothing. Sorry."

     "No need to apologise." Luke mentioned, sending her a smile whilst silently hoping she would give him a sincere one back. "Did you sleep well?"

     "I should be asking you that. I sleep fine. I always do." Aurora replied.

    Luke wanted to show his surprise to her at the fact he knew she lied directly to him. That's a lie, I woke up half way through the night and I saw you sleeping on the floor. She must have gotten up before he had woken this morning and forced herself to sleep.

"Slept the best I have in months." Luke replied sincerely.

    Aurora was glad to hear this. More than glad actually. It gave her a small bit of comfort to know he had slept through the night. She tried to push aside the intrusive thoughts about how the last few months must have been for him.

   "Do you want to head down for breakfast?" Luke questioned. "You can give me a tour of this place. Show me this island your ancestors seemed so found of."

    At that, she was quick to nod. "I will do. I'm going to go and take a shower but I'll join you down there afterwards."

"How exactly do I go to this dinning hall you spoke of last night?"

"Down one set of stairs and follow the line of people heading into the double door room. You'll hear them anyways, there's dozens of people down there, people from the island." She explained to him, stepping forward and opening the door.

When she stepped out into the hallway, she was greeted by Louis who was standing outside the doorway.

Aurora rose a brow. "You're here?"

Louis detected the surprise in her tone. He kept his eyes forward. "I might not like you but I still have a job to do."

"I did save you yesterday you know?"

"I know."

"Could have left you to die."

"I know." There was something in Louis' tone which indicated he was somewhat, maybe just a tiny bit, grateful.

After this Luke headed down the hallway whilst Aurora returned back to her bedroom to get dressed. Luke explored the castle as he walked down through it. It was truly something out of a fairy tail book and he was surprised that this place had been Aurora's for seventeen years.

     It was a potential safe place where she would of had a family, people to care for her after her parents faiths were decided. Luke wondered how she felt knowing this place existed and was entirely hers to rule. Rule, he thought, surprising.

     Eventually he was on the very last floor and as he walked towards the loud noise at the end of the hallway, he looked out the large glass pane windows: the island had been beautiful. He could vaguely see the sea afar in the distance, or perhaps it had been the clear blue sky. Whatever it was, it was beautiful.

Luke enters the Dining room and was surprised to find a hall about twice the size of the one that was in Hogwarts.

    Hogwarts, he thought miserably with an aching pain in his chest, he missed it.

      He missed it all.

     The people here were dressed like something out of a 1900's sitcom (which Luke knew obviously didn't exist but he was sure these people could make one). He was filled with colourful bright dresses and very brightly dressed men in shorts and loosely fitted tops. Everyone seemed happy, and he thought it was had off. As he walked to the top of the room, he saw Beckham, surrounded by a series of colourful chairs.

He sat on the golden one and Luke went up the small flight of stairs and Luke took an immediate sit on the white chair covered in white roses.

"I was worried you two weren't going to come down." Beckham mentioned, handing him a plate of food. All of which Luke believed he would eat double. When Luke sent him a confused look, he added, "Presume she spoke to you last night about everything."

With that, Luke shakes his head, "There was no talking about anything."

"Anything?"

      "She doesn't want to talk about it." The brown haired boy told him. He recalled the way Aurora acted last night. In all his years of knowing her and how far she had come, it was like she went back a million steps. When Luke asked her what happened, she looked at him with no trust and seemed to physically still at the question.

     "She won't speak about what happened. She won't talk about how she escaped, nothing. Whatever he made her do. I think he twisted her mind. He manipulated her. I think a bit of her died in that place."

Luke had never hated words as much as those ones. "How did she end up here?"

"No idea. One of the days she was just found her on the island, washed up on the beach and covered in bloody crabs. She'd been out there for hours." Beckham told him. "Louis was the one who found her."

"He seems glad for doing so...." Luke muttered to himself, thinking of how he noticed Louis had a clear issue with Aurora. A dislike.

"She looked miserable." Beckham whispered, "I mean even miserable she still looked beautiful but she looked like she wouldn't survive another minute. She had bruises all over her face and body. Her eyes were bloodshot read and the clothes she was wearing were practically burnt. I didn't even notice it was her until I properly looked at her. I have no idea what happened or how on earth she escaped."

Luke felt sick. "She never told you anything about how exactly she escaped?"

"Not a single thing." Beckham answered honestly. "I have no idea how she ended up here. She was just here one day. Every time I ask her about it she claims that 'it's in the past' and doesn't matter."

Luke remembered her using a similar type of phrasing when she was speaking of her abuse in the earlier years of their friendship.

      "What did she tell you?"

      "Nothing much." Beckham replied. "Nothing I want to particular speak about without her presence here."

Beckham sounded nervous and almost seemed uncomfortable speaking about what he knew regarding Aurora's imprisonment. He kept quiet for a few moments while Luke let out a few sighs.

"Some time during those nine months, I don't know exactly when, she met her parents. I think Runskin set the whole thing up. She never told me the exact details, only mentioned that Runskin sent her on a trip and she met her parents there...."

          "You say parents, like it's something that's always been there."

      "Don't ask cause I don't even know." Beckham told him quickly when Luke went to ask exactly what happened when she met her parents. "All I know is that...it didn't go well....and when I say it didn't go well, I mean that they tried to kill her."

Luke did not believe his words and initially thought it was some sort of sick joke but judging by the opposite mans expression, it was not. His brows furrowed and his expression stilled in shock.

Out of all the crazy things that happened, including Aurora's mother returning from the dead, he found the claim that her parents harming her was the most hard to believe.

"They would never—"

"They did." Beckham sounded more heartbroken than Luke had ever heard him.

Luke shook his head. "They would never. Sirius...he would never. He gave out to me that time I shoved her in the snow during fifth year—"

      His mind travelled back to the day.

    Arthur Weasley had been attacked and Luke was more than happy to have an early Christmas: of course he was concerned for the Weasley's but he hadn't seen Aurora in weeks.

     He had been wondering how her time was in the lonesome house of Grimmauld with her father. Luke knew it might not have gone as well as he (and secretly she) hoped.

      "We should go to someone about this," Remus was ordering behind him. Luke was surprised he was so concerned and wondered why. "Not anyone in Hogwarts because they're all useless idiots, Dumbledore included. Maybe the ministry.....but they're all stupid too—"

     Luke walked through the hallway of Grimmauld, rolling his eyes. "I appreciate the concern but one black eye won't kill me."

     "Why aren't you taking this more seriously?"

     "I'm more focused on finding my best friend right now." He replied, opening the back way door outside. As Remus and Sirius headed outside, they were greeted with the two similar personalities of Sirius and Aurora Black.

    "You, love are the daughter of an an innocent wrongly convicted mass murder. Your birthday will be one of the best days of the new year. I know it was the best day of my life!" Sirius told her, grinning. "That is a long story. I'll tell you one day."

    "You should."

   Aurora leaned up on her toes and pressed a kiss against his cheek. "Merry early Christmas, Sirius."

    Sirius eyes softened at her.

    "That was sweet." Luke told them loudly gaining their attention. The two of them turned. He didn't wait a moment before he ran over and hugged her, shoving her down into the barrels of snow beneath her.

"I've missed you. Remus took me out of Hogwarts, said it was family related and the Weasley's also needed me."

     She only noticed his eye then.

     "What happened to your eye, Luke?" Her eyes narrowed gently, he was sure to those who did not know her she looked like she would kill someone. "Who did this?"

    "Nothing. It was an accident. It's not that bad. It's healing."

     "It seems as though Umbridge has found someone else to torment." Remus explained, making both Sirius and Aurora looked towards him in anger, " I didn't think I could hate the woman any more but oh look."

      Another few moments were spent recalling the incident between Luke and Umbridge.

  She gestured to his eye. "Who did it then?"

  "Pansy Parkinson."

  "I'm going to fucking rip her head off."

  "I agree that's a good plan but you might want to get up before you get frostbite. Here." Sirius tells his daughter who was still sitting in the snow with Luke. Sirius held his hands out and she didn't hesite to take them and he helped her up, brushing the snow off her shoulders. Sirius turned to Luke, "You should be careful. You could have broken her neck—"
 
    "No he wouldn't have." Aurora rolled her eyes. "Stop it."

     "You could have slipped back and fallen and broken something—"

     "No I couldn't!"

     Luke snapped out of his thoughts, and realised his frown was only getting bigger.

"Sirius and Magnolia aren't really Sirius and Magnolia." Beckham tried to choose his words more lightly. "They're them pre-Aurora. Less...parenty. Less soft."

Luke was trying to catch up with all of this overbearing news. His mind was still trying to wrap itself around the fact that Sirius (as he didn't know Magnolia Black or Aleksander?) had tried to kill her.

He recalled some of the words Remus told him about the way Sirius used to be. He said Magnolia had turned Sirius into a better person but Aurora was the one who changed Sirius.

      "I still don't believe her mum is back." She looked like Aurora.

Luke got a proper look at her and he thought the woman was like something from a storybook. He only noticed the way she had not seemed to want to take notice of anyone but Aurora.

Luke refused to believe that there wasn't a part of her that did not know. The way she was looking at her told him she knew something.

Something.

There was something about seeing Magnolia looking at Aurora that made Luke question if the woman felt as though she had some sort of connection to her.

It wasn't impossible..

      "I hope I never have to meet her." Beckham suddenly says.

      Luke turned to him, "Why?"

      "Incase you're forgetting my dad is the reason she's dead...or died..." Beckham trailed off. "And rather than keep my distance from her family, I went off with her daughter."

      Luke paused, "Yeah you're right, good look with that."

     The woman did look like she would happily kill anyone who stood in her way, Luke thinks.

Beckham folded his arms and sent happy smiles to the people passing them. "Despite not wanting to meet the renowned Magnolia Black, I think we need to find them. Aurora refuses to. She says she's doing this by herself - says she doesn't need their help, she doesn't want it. I think we should find them again."

"Of course she's not doing this by herself. She needs her parents, she needs more than just herself." Luke replied within a heartbeat.

"Good luck convincing her that." Beckham muttered. "She's far too shaken up to even think about that. She doesn't want to try find a way to undo the curse. If there is a way...."

"There's always a way. Just need to remain positive and have hope." Luke interjects gleefully. He takes a bite of the roll on his plate and noticed Beckham staring at him. "What?"

"How are you doing?" Beckham asked him, brows risen.

"I'm fine." Luke told him immediately.

     Beckham examined him closely. "Oh really?"

     "Perfectly fine, thanks. A little warm but I guess that's only natural because of the climate change—"

      "Luke," Beckham interrupted, seeing right through the smile. It was the same one that Aurora had perfected. Hers was far better and actually believable to most. "You were alone out there for over nine months...I know what that places does—"

      "Honestly Beckham, I'm fine." Luke told him with a smile.

      "Two peas in a pod." Beckham muttered.

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Please remember to comment and let me know what you think of this chapter!!! I didn't love it too much but I wanted to write a sort of outside perspective of Aurora, and some well needed scenes of Luke!!!

Very excited because Sirius and Magnolia will soon be regulars in the book, aka have an appearance every chapter!

Some people keep asking about Harry and Aurora and when they're meeting again, for the minute all I'll say is that they return of them will happen when something they do a lot in book 1 happens! They'll reunite/ see one another for the first time when this particular moment happens!

I have decided to try and keep my chapters kind of short enough so I can update more often because beforehand my chapters were 7,000+ and it's hard to write that much in this book because I don't want to rush it etc. So hopefully I'll be able to update more now and some occasionally long chapters depending!