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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:

CHANGE

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Aurora remained standing in the middle of the entrance in Aleksander Mansion, processing what just happened.

Everything felt like it was happening in a fast motion type of pace, and she had no way of controlling it. Everything was wrong and she couldn't fix it. She stood staring at the spot that Luke, her kind-hearted, loyal, brave Luke, had just disappeared through. It all happened so quickly and the fact Runskin was out there controlling his mind and body, had been burning holes through her mind.

She could feel everyone's eyes slowly shift to hers when the painting on the wall started to fall down.

She had practically told him he was coming here as well which was even worse, making it basically almost entirely her fault. No correction, him getting possessed is her entire fault. She tried to clear her mind of the invasive thoughts swerving around in her head, but they scrambled in her mind. Her breathing started to quicken, and she finally snapped out of her gaze at the spot.

"Aurora?" She heard Damien asked over the shouting voices.

Her chest started to tighten and every time she tried to breathe a large sharp sensation occurred in her chest, causing her immense pain. What was she going to do? She didn't plan for this to happen. Luke was never supposed to be possessed.... she was supposed to protect him, like she had promised the minute she got him back in the Other World.

Luke was supposed to be safe: that was her job.

Runskin could kill him inside his own body. Runskin could have killed him already in the thirty seconds it took for him to leave this place--

She brought her hands up and anxiously ran a hand through her hair. "He shouldn't have come here ...... I shouldn't of let him come. I should have never let him come here. It was far too dangerous." She rapidly shook her head. "What have I done?"

"This isn't your fault—" someone said.

"Stop talking," She interrupted, her hands started to shake. She just wanted to wake up from this horrible nightmare. Everyone around her was almost blurry, and she had a feeling that was because she hit her head when she was fighting against Runskin. She brought her hand up to the back of her head and indeed felt a mark. 

         "What the hell is going on with your eyes?" Louis asked suddenly.

Aurora kneeled down and picked up one of the pictures frames that had fallen off the wall, the glass frame was broke and she could see her reflection in it. Her eyes had not been their usual grey colour, and instead a vibrant purple took its place. She flinched when she saw them, but it was not the most important thing on her mind. Piercing purple eyes that had similarities to the red ones Runskin previously. She closed her eyes, squeezing them for a second and opened them again: they were still purple.

She stood up from the ground, ignoring the eye situation. "I need to go and find Luke—"

"Let's not act rationally. Luke isn't Luke right now, Aurora that's Runskin." Damien began but there was none of that.

Aurora's head snapped towards him, "I'm aware that's Runskin which is why I have to go and get Luke."

        "Aurora, we know nothing about possession or if we can get him back—"

        "If?" Aurora tilted her head, "There's no "if" we can get him back, I'm getting him back."

Her anger rose when he said "if" and she thought maybe he had gone crazy. Of course, there was a way to get Luke back. The black-haired girl could not breathe and found the house was intoxicating to be in. She quickly walked out of it and into the darkness of the gardens. She walked down the porch steps and let out a noise of irritation when she realised everyone had followed her outside.

"I know you're mad right now—" Damien was the first to follow her out of the house. "But Runskin wants you to follow him alone, it's an obvious trap."

"You don't know how I feel right now." Aurora turned around and gave him a look of disbelief.

           Magnolia looked up at the sky when it started to rain, little droplets at first before a sudden shower of water was coming down on them all. Sirius threw his jacket over her shoulders, but she was not concerned with the cold right now. She looked up to the sky, the pace the rain was falling down at was unnatural, rapid and coming in long strains of translucent drops. Slowly her eyes shifted back towards the angry teenager, who either seemed like she was about to kill Damien or burst into tears.

"You're bleeding." Magnolia pointed out over the rain; it was becoming harder to hear by the second. She spotted the mark on her lower head that had caused a dry stain of blood. The black-haired girl turned away from her argument with Damien (she was shouting at him) and angrily looked in Magnolia's direction. "The back of your shirt."

           "I don't really care about that right now." Aurora fumed, glaring at her.

          "Well, you should—" Magnolia began but was cut off when Aurora says, "Well I don't."

Abruptly, Damien grabs the back of her head and takes a look at the mark on her head. Aurora presumed it was bad because of the reaction he had, he sighed loudly and made a face of discomfort.

"She's right, you probably need stiches." Damien frowned, "We need to go back to Merlen right now."

Aurora couldn't breathe, she shoved his hand off her and stepped back. "Are none of you listening right now? Runskin just took Luke. Stiches are the last of my concern."

"You realise he knows you're probably freaking out right now and that this is probably a trap?" Sirius spoke up after being silent for a while. "He wants you to go looking for him."

"You realise Luke is the last piece of family I have left, right? Are you telling me if the roles were reversed you wouldn't do the same?" Aurora retorted, staring at Sirius.

"If the roles were reversed, I would be smarter about it. I wouldn't go running to save him without knowing exactly how to safe him." Sirius spoke with only the truth in his mouth. "The best thing to do is go back to the island where it's safe and—"

"We're not going anywhere until I have Luke beside me. What part of that don't you idiots understand?" She asked growing even angrier. Her head felt on fire, her hands and body felt like fire, and everyone was becoming increasingly more annoying right now.

"We don't know anything about possession, Aurora. I've never seen Runskin switch bodies like that. He's always been in his own body when using his magic and we have no idea if he's stronger or weaker in Luke's and how it might be affecting him." Magnolia says and Aurora turned to her, squinting her eyes through the lashing rain. The older woman looked sympathetically at her, and she hated that pity. "We can't go into this with a blind spot. We need to go back to the library and—"

"I don't have time to read a book, Magnolia!" Aurora shouted at her.

"Doesn't matter who is right," Damien said loudly, putting a hand up like she needed to calm down. She was calm. They were the ones being irrational. "What matters is you get Luke back at your strongest and right now you're not—"

"I said I'm fine." She argued through gritted teeth. Her hand twitched.

"You're overtired and hurt—" Damien argued back, giving her that look he had mastered. It was the look that said she should be listening to what he was saying and that she should basically back down from the argument. Damien looked at her for a long moment: the girl was overtired and judging by the purple bags under her violet eyes, she wasn't sleeping well either. The last few days could not have been easy on her which is why he believed she needed to rest. More importantly she needed to get her head checked out. His eyes travelled to the developing bruises on her neck.

"I said I'm fine. What part of that can't your thick head comprehend?"

Damien wasn't fazed and rolled his eyes in response.

"I'm going to find him. I have to go find him." Aurora says, quickly shoving the tears in her eyes back. She felt flustered with all of them standing around and staring at her like Luke was already dead.

Aurora opened a portal to the only place she could think of: the place Runskin would have gone.

Suddenly, her portal closed (without her control) and she made a face of confusion. It took her all of three seconds to realise who had closed it.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Aurora yelled at Magnolia, who put her hands down. Aurora didn't know she had the ability to close another person's portal. "I don't think you wanna go up against me cause unlike last time, I won't hold back."

Sirius was surprised to see how much Magnolia cared about not letting the girl leave. His brows furrowed. "I'm stopping you from making a mistake—"

          "I don't make mistakes." Aurora spat back, folding her arms.

            "You can't go and fight Runskin alone, let alone in your condition—" Magnolia stated, "I know it's not my place to tell you what to do—"

             "It isn't so shut up." Aurora replied bluntly. Louis snorted under his breath at this.

             "Hey don't talk to her like that!" Sirius argued.

          "I'm sorry, no one asked you what you think." Aurora shouted at him. "Your opinion isn't important, and no one asked for you to be here."

She turned away from them all and her eyes went towards the woods then slowly up towards the moon that lay in the darkness. She couldn't bare the idea that Luke was out there alone and afraid. If Luke could even think with Runskin inside his mind. He had Luke and this time; he had no reason not to kill him. Her eyes quickly filled with tears, but she shoved them aside and breathed in again.

Her eyes went from glaring down at the ground to looking in the direction of the Mansion that stood in its perfect, same spot for the last few centuries. That stupid house, she thought and swore she could hear her grandparent's laughter in her ears, specifically her grandmothers. That stupid, stupid house that caused so many issues. Luke had said they could leave, just moments before they walked into the mansion, he wanted to leave but she wasn't listening. Instead, she was thinking about the dangers it put her in rather than him. She even allowed him to go with Magnolia instead of her.

What a stupid mistake, a stupid mistake that she should have known better to make.

Why was she always making the same mistakes? Mistakes that were getting people killed or hurt.

"Aurora." Magnolia said gently when the ground beneath them started to shake. "You need to take a deep breathe and try to relax a little."

"This always seems to happen." She hadn't noticed the change in the atmosphere and how above her the clouds started to cover the moon. A gush of wind flew past Aurora. "This constant danger to everyone I care about...."

"I know," Magnolia speaks up, stepping closer to her whilst trying to keep her balance. It was only when she stepped forward did Aurora noticed the ground was shaking, everything around them was shaking. I know it must be hard but right now, the best thing you can do for Luke is get yourself fixed first and then we can go and find him."

Magnolia thought the girl was listening but instead her purple eyes were cast on the house behind them and with every passing second, they seemed to be turning darker.

Her jaw clenched, and she felt like she could hear her grandparents' voices laughing at how weak she was.

Laughing at how she, once again, lost someone.

"I hate that fucking house."

That was the last thing said before the house was attacked by the girls' hands and they were all forced to duck into coverage. Considering they were outside, there was very little cover they could take. A blast of golden wind emitted from behind the girls back like it was in the control of her fingertips but not in her mind. Her eyes fluttered closed and like the day in the woods, she seemed to fall into an almost trance like sense. The windows burst into pieces and many of the pieces flew back towards them, and even hit Sirius underneath his eye. The visible doors all burst into flames, as did the trees surrounding the woods. Every tree in their sight turned into flames that rose quickly into the air. The house remained upright surprisingly enough and didn't fall over like she could have easily made it, but the front of the house fell down, cracked in the middle and open to the eye now.

Aurora stood still in front of it, still causing the chaos and eyes kept closed.

"Aurora!" Damien's voice shouting over the loud wind, trees coming to the ground, and parts of the house falling down. He managed to lift himself up from the ground, despite the gush of wind that was blowing him backwards. He dug his feet into the ground. "Aurora, you need to stop!"

"What the hell is happening?" Louis tried to stand but was knocked down to the ground, he hit his head off the ground and groaned.

But she was completely out of it, and the golden haze that surrounded her body only got bigger.

"She's out of it." Magnolia shouted, rising from the ground also. Sirius was trying to stand but had gotten blown back further than the rest of them all. Magnolia turned around and looked at the house and watched as the staircase collapsed down into a dozen pieces. Her eyes widened and she turned back to the young girl. What powers did this girl have? She had never seen such a level of chaos magic.

         "How does she usually control her powers?" Magnolia asked Damien. "How do you help her control them—"

Damien was at a lost for words, "I don't know! I thought she had it a little under control but clearly not...." He shouted the girls name, but she was completely out of it, her eyes were closed. He fell back against the ground when another gush of wind knocked him down, emitting from her hands which were risen. All the training they did and in this moment, he had no way of helping her.

Magnolia looked at Damien in shock for a moment before remembering the day in the woods, when the same type of thing happened.

A scream left Sirius' lips when a piano came flying out from the house, and smashed on the ground right next to him, inches away from hitting his head. "Someone needs to help her, like right now!"

             "That's what we're trying to do it, genius!" Damien shouted back.

             More items from the house came crashing down and through the windows, they could see how some of the rooms burst into flames. Magnolia looked around them, the woods was on fire, the house was being crushed to pieces and the entrance and many of the rooms were knocked down, parts of the house were being lit on fire. The roof off the mansion was falling down to the back of the house. It was rapidly raining and emitting from Aurora's body was gushes of winds that were knocking everyone down to the ground.

Magnolia tried to come up with a plan, but it failed very quickly when a flying piece of the staircase came around and hit her straight in her side, contacting the already cut open wound she had. She felt a slight tear in her abdomen which cause an instant yell of pain to leave her lips. Sirius was quick to find a way over, despite the gushing winds.

Aurora's eyes burst open suddenly and it all stopped: the second she heard her mum in pain, it snapped her out of the power filled destiny she was supposed to uphold. All of them were looking at her.

"What did I do?" She whispered, and her eyes returned back to their grey state, full of tears as she looked at the burning house.

Damien stood up from the ground, marched over, and cupped her face. A sympathetic frown took over his features. "Are you alright?"

"No," She whispered, feeling dizzy, like she'd pass out any seconds. Her body was burning her. "I'm dizzy..."

"We're gonna go back to the island and you're gonna rest." Damien told her and watched how pale she had become.

When she stepped forward, there was about a two second gap between her seeming fine before she passed out. Sirius went forward quickly but luckily Damien caught her before she had the chance to fall down and picked her up.

"Will you open the portal back to the island?"

Magnolia was still looking at the burning house, "Yeah...." The portal opened and she took one last look at the house before they all stepped in.

It was an hour since they returned to the island and Jackie sewed up the back of Aurora's head, who was still passed out and would probably be for another few hours. They all stood in the medics, which was the room at the very bottom of the first floor: it was the room they took Aurora to the first day she arrived. The black-haired girl lay on the bed in the corner of the room, whilst Hestia sat at the end trying to take some of the broken glass out of her hair.

"And Luke?" Hestia asked, dropping another piece of glass into the metal bucket. "What happens to him now?"

"All we know is that Runskin's got him." Damien answered, sounding almost guilty.

Hestia frowned at the mention of Luke being gone and glanced away from Damien back towards the unconsciousness girl. She frowned, looking at her.

"You know, a few months ago I sat in the very same spot doing this same thing." Hestia commented lowly, shaking her head. She picked the girls hand up gently and looked at the tiny scratches covering her fingertips. "Covered in marks and bruises, it seems like she is always going to be in danger. What happens when she leaves the island, again? She'll come back even more hurt or worse, she won't end up coming back at all."

"She's not going to find Luke." Damien was the first adult to speak up in the room. He kept his eyes on the bruises surrounding the girl's neck, and arms. His eyes then flickered to the basin behind her with bloody tissues from her head. Everyone in the room turned to him. "When I imagined Runskin, I always pictured some dangerous man. After tonight, I don't see him as a man, I don't even see him as a person, he's like a leech. Aurora's just a child and she's not ready to go up against him yet. She might win but she'd kill herself trying. So, whilst she's resting, I'm gonna go find and bring back Luke."

           Magnolia was quick to go, "I hope you don't think I'd let you go without me."

          "I was hoping you'd say that." Damien stifled out an almost laugh, he hardly expected to go up against Runskin himself. The man would probably snap him like a twig.

Remus tried to remain as normal as possible, he stood in the corner of the room practically gawking at the walking corpse that was Magnolia Aleksander: except she wasn't a corpse but was indeed alive. The minute he seen her again, it all came back to him, and he was reminded of how much power Runskin had. His ability to bring her back and make Magnolia think she was actually alive the last seventeen years was remarkable in one sense.

However, his mind was more focused on Luke, when he remembered Aurora, naturally his memories of Luke came flooding back. He felt sick to his stomach over the fact he had forgotten the two of them, and even tried to harm Aurora at one stage. "I'll go with you two. Do we have any idea how to get Luke back?"

He kept Aurora's wish for the moment, just because he needed to talk with her, and didn't let on that he knew who the two of them were: and merlin was that hard.

He stood in the room and realised none of them had any sort of control or say in what happened in the lives of Aurora Black or Luke Murphy.

"Sirius, James, and Harry are down in the library reading about it now," Magnolia mentioned, pretending not to notice the way Remus was anxiously speaking. She knew something was wrong with him. When they came back on the island, he came rushing out of his room with stained cheeks and bloodshot eyes.  "Or at least trying to find something about it. I have no idea how his possession works. I knew he had the ability to do it, but I've never seen it until now."

James, Remus thought trying to keep a straight face, James wouldn't forgive himself when it came to Aurora. James had a soft spot for Aurora the minute he held her on the drive home in the car the night she was born.

Magnolia looked back at the sleeping girl on the couch and could only imagine what was going on in her head. She hoped the girl would at least sleep until morning time but judging by the twitching that wasn't going to happen. She was covered in bruises, head to toe and she cursed herself out of it for not being alongside the girl when Runskin found her.

She should have been beside the girl. She should have been there for her.

"Her power." Magnolia stated, thinking back to the scene she caused. The fact she knocked down the grounds without even trying to is beyond something Magnolia could comprehend. She asked the question that she had been wondering since the start. "Where is she...I mean .... who were her parents?"

Damien stared at her for a long moment and turned away. "It doesn't matter who the girls' parents were. They're not here anymore."

She wasn't oblivious to the way he, Louis, and Hestia all exchanged a look. She folded her arms. "Can't you give me a name?"

"No, I can't." Damien replied quickly, indicating where his loyalty would stand. He'd never intentionally betray the girl's trust. "It's not my place."

"Right well I'm going to go and see if they've found anything useful." Magnolia told them, exchanging a small glance with Remus, who had gone back into his head. She took another look at the sleeping girl before leaving the room and heading across the long hallway and into the library.

            Magnolia entered the library and walked down the three flights of creaking steps. Harry, James, Sirius, and Hermione (who must have woken up) all sat around the table. Several books were scattered around the table, and James and Sirius seemed tired unlike Harry and Hermione, who were wide awake.

"Find anything?" She asked.

"Nothing," James answered with a frustrated groan. "There's too many books in this place, this is going to take us all night."

"Then we'll spent all night looking for a resolution, remember we're all on the same side." Magnolia reminded James who seemed like this was the last thing he wanted to be doing.

Up in the medics, everyone except Remus had left the room. Hestia went downstairs to fetch some clean clothes, Louis went to inform Beckham of what had happened, Damien had left the room moments after Magnolia did to change out of his bloody clothes. Remus stood looking out the window and into the night sky.

Aurora let out a struggled cough and Remus turned around. She was barely awake, eyes fluttering open and closed. Her eyes were completely bloodshot, and she was taking in fast and deep breathes.

          "Hey, hey, you're alright, I'm here, Aurora." Remus said gently, quickly coming over and kneeling down by her side. She was barely able to move and continued to cough for a few moments. "You need to go back asleep, alright? When you wake up, we'll find Luke. You're sick right now and need to rest."

Aurora nodded tiredly, and when she didn't get up when he mentioned Luke, Remus knew that the girl was really was overtired and somewhat out of it.

"You go back to sleep; I'll be here when you wake up." Remus leaned forward and pressed a kiss on her forehead.

"Wait, wait, don't go." Aurora whispered when he went to stand up, her voice was quite literally the definition of raspy. Her words came out struggled and followed by a few inhales of breath. His eyes travelled to the bruise on her throat. "I need to tell you something before it's too late." Her words were slurred.

"What is it?" He asked.

"You're a great, dad, y'know? You might make me... angry sometimes and you are way too overprotective but you're doing a really good job. I realised the reason I was mad at you the most was because I was the most disappointed in you, because I care about you the most." Aurora told him, tiredly, eyes fluttering closed again. "You're the best father I could have asked for and I missed you."

Remus stared at the girl for a long moment, noticing the tears in her bloodshot eyes. She was clearly very much out of it but the words still stung at his heart. Her words had caused tears to form in Remus' own eyes.

"And you're the best daughter anyone could ask for, Aurora." Remus stated. "I love you, alright?"

This seemed to set her off when he said this, and the tears rolled down her face.

"I love you too, Sirius." She cried, turning onto her side and falling back into a sleep.

Remus frowned when he realised what she had said and understood in that moment, better than anyone else, how much she needed her father back more than anyone. He also realised those words were not directed at him but at Sirius.

That's why when Remus stood up, he knew exactly where he was going. He left the medics and headed out the door and towards the library.

"Don't." Damien came from nowhere and put a hand down on Remus' chest to stop him from taking a step forward. The two of them stared at one another for a moment.

Remus shoved the man's hand off his chest. "Don't what exactly?"

"Don't do what I know you're thinking of doing." Damien warned, "She needs to tell them when she is ready."

"They'll find out sooner or later." Was all Remus told him. "I might not be the one to tell them, but they'll found out."

As the hours passed, the lot of them realised that finding anything to do with possession was almost impossible. Most of the books were bibliographies, meaning they were left reading through many lives of the Aleksanders in the hopes one of them got possessed. The rest of the books they found were spell books, books about forging blood weapons, books about the duties of being an Aleksander and the history behind the name.

       There were books about healing, books about healing others, books about basically everything they didn't want to know about. A frustrated groan left the lips of Hermione as she rummaged through the shelves.

      Tiredly, Harry flickered through the pages of a book on the first floor.

       On the second floor, James and Sirius were looking through some of the oldest books in the place.

      On the bottom floor, Sirius came down and found Magnolia sitting on the floor reading through the pages of one book. Judging by the way her brown eyes read so slowly, she wasn't really reading. He walked over and sat down beside her, instantly her head went to his shoulder.

"How is she?" Sirius asked the question on his mind.

"Sleeping." Magnolia mumbled back in response, "Covered in bruises and scratches though, smashed the back of her head open too. She really got hurt out there tonight, should have never left the island."

        Sirius heard the tone in Magnolia's voice, she sounded almost guilty.

"Who knew what was going to happen?" Sirius retorted, squeezing her hand. "Besides, there was no stopping her. She wanted to see her cousin...which surprisingly enough is Draco Malfoy?"

       Magnolia shook her head. "I don't care about the fact she is related to the Malfoys; I care about the fact that I knew going back there was a stupid idea, but I let her go anyway."

          "It's not your responsibility to stop her from going."

"She's just a child!" Magnolia interrupted. "And when that child wakes up, she's going to realise not only is her cousin dead but also her best friend is gone. Responsibility or not she needs someone to guide her."

Sirius kept his eyes on Magnolia for a few moments but said nothing.

"She looked at me for help." Was all Magnolia said to him. Sirius brows furrowed. "Aurora, when Luke got possessed. She looked at me for help and I couldn't help her. And I felt guilty that I couldn't think of anything in that moment to help her. The guilt felt almost unbearable for a moment. Then those big grey eyes, well they were purple at that time, filled with disappointment. She was really disappointed, and I can't for the life of me figure out why I seem to care so much about the girl, but I just do."

Sirius didn't say anything, just looked at her.

              "Which is why before she wakes up, I'm going to go and bring back Luke." Magnolia finished.

         Before Sirius had a chance to response to this, Hermione came out from behind one of the bookshelves holding a red book in her hands and furrowed her brows. Hermione looked between the both of them, wondering if she was interrupting something.

"What is it, love?" Magnolia asked, getting up from her spot, walking over and examining the book in her hands.

"I translated the title of this book." Hermione says. "I think this might be it."

deux corps, un seul esprit

"Two bodies, one mind or spirit" Magnolia translated, reading the front page. She flicked forward a few pages and found a drawing of two women standing across from one another: One of the women had her mouth open and a dark fog from the other women was entering her body, like she was being possessed.

       "Good job, Hermione. You found the book."

★ ★ ★

NINE HOURS LATER:

★ ★ ★

A groan left Aurora's lips and when woke up. For the first time since she arrived, the sky she looked up at was clouded with darkness and rain was lashing down. She didn't hear the children out on the streets laughing and she didn't hear the music from the breakfast feast downstairs.

The events of last night came back into her mind and panic set in.

Her throat was dry, and she tiredly forced her eyes to open again, she sat up in her spot and realised how numb her body was. She must have been asleep ages. She opened her mouth and cleared her throat. Her eyes travelled down to her hands and examined all the bruises on her body.

          When she looked across the room, she almost had a minor heart attack when Harry was standing by the doorway.

"Sorry." He said noticing her fear. "I didn't mean to startle you."

She stood up in her spot and looked around the room. She was in the medic in Merlen.

She realised what happened. "I passed out." Her throat was dry, and she could barely speak without pain. "Why didn't anyone wake me? I have to go and find Luke—" She limped away from him, and down the hall.

It was unusually quiet. What happened?

"Wait!" Harry quickly called and she knew by his tone something had happened. "After you fell unconsciousness, they went to find Luke. They found a way to stop the possession. They've been gone hours."

Aurora froze, "What?"

"You were far too injured, and they were worried you'd want to go with them...scared you'd get hurt again." Harry spoke so gently it was probably the reason she felt so calm. "So, they went when you were sleeping."

           "Who is "they"?"

            "My dad, Sirius, Magnolia, Remus and the er...tall dude who always looks pissed off. Daryl?"

Aurora stared at him, "Damien. Those pricks. Who do they think they are?"

Harry was taken back but amused. "I think they were trying to keep you out of danger—"

"Why is everyone so concerned about the dangers I put myself in?" She retorted, summoning her shoes and putting them on.

"They've been gone hours." Harry stopped walking with her, and when she turned around, he had the look in his eyes. The one that told her that something was wrong. "They left hours ago, almost eight to be precise. They still haven't returned, and they promised to send an OWL if something went wrong, or they'd be longer than expected. I think something bad might have happened."

              "Runskin didn't want them." Aurora shook her head, "He wanted me to come find him. This isn't their fight. I need to go and find them. I need to find Luke."

All ounce of worry increased, including how mad she was over the fact that they went off and left without even waking her.

            "I'll come with you."

She stopped in her tracks and turned around to face him. She looked up at him and shook her head. If he came then that was not only a distraction, but she would be far too worried something would happen to him. "I don't need the help, thank you though."

"Don't need or don't want?" Harry retorted, raising a brow in her direction. "Judging by the fact you're limping right now; I reckon you need my help."

"Why yours specifically?" She challenged, raising her own brow and rolling her eyes when she seen him grin gently. "Something tells me you don't know many spells."

Harry let out a small gasp, "I know many spells. I might even teach you one or two."

"Am I interrupting something?" Ron suddenly appeared from nowhere causing both Aurora and Harry to jump at his presence.

"What no, of course not." Aurora let out another cough. "Perfect timing actually, you and Harry here can wait and keep look out—"

          "Keep look out, what am I five?" Harry asked her.

          "No but you're acting like it." Aurora told him and he gave her a small smile. A somewhat cheeky one that made her roll her eyes for the second time.

Suddenly there was a crash downstairs, a ginormous one like a painting had fallen down onto the ground and followed the ground shaking. This time, it wasn't Aurora. Ron and Harry both looked at Aurora who slowly shook her head letting them know she wasn't the reason behind the ground shaking. The crash came from downstairs, most likely the first floor, so the three of them quickly ran down the stairs.

               Aurora hated how much quicker the two of them were, she arrived in the dining room last and looked at the scene surrounding her: at least they returned to the island.

              Damien was on the ground, and his panting was the first thing that caught her attention. His face was bloody, mostly his mouth area like he had gotten hit in the teeth. He was coughing against the floor, trying to breathe in and holding his ribcage. Next to him was James with his hands on his knees, covered in a lot more dried blood, the bottom of his shirt was ripped open, and Aurora saw the nasty cut on the end of it. His glasses were off his face and lying-in front of him. His ear was also bleeding. Remus was standing against the wall, hoisting himself up and was the first to notice her.

His expression changed quickly. "Aurora. I'm sorry."

"Where's Luke?" She shouted, looking between them all. Sirius and Magnolia were in the corner coughing, and she heard Damien letting out sighs. "What happened?"

James stood up from his spot when he saw her, or at least forced himself to stand. He practically marched over, and she had no idea what was wrong with him. He opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly burst into tears. Sniffling and almost on the verge of passing out. He didn't say anything and stepped away from her.

"Harry." James realised his son was in the room and Aurora noticed how he started looking between her and him.

She made a face and turned to the only two people in the room she hadn't acknowledged which was Sirius and Magnolia, only to find that they had already been looking at her. Both of them were by far the worst, covered in blood from head to toe, especially Magnolia.

"Can either of you two tell me what happened, then?" Aurora asked Magnolia and Sirius, who were still staring at her. "What happened? Where is Luke?"

"Aurora." Remus whispered, trying to stand up. "They know."

"Know what?"

Maybe the odd bond Aurora felt with Magnolia wasn't one side because Aurora felt an almost gravitational pull towards the woman, like she was yelling at Aurora to look at her for a second. The grey eyes met the brown ones and instantly she realised something was wrong. Aurora's expression shifted from glaring at them to slowly trying to understand why they were looking at her like that. Magnolia was looking at her differently. Her eyes flickered to Sirius, who had been crying and that's when something in her head clicked.

Slowly, Magnolia stepped away from Sirius and walked towards Aurora who was looking at her suspiciously. With every step she took towards Aurora, a droplet of blood got spilt on the floor exerting from the woman.

Aurora didn't step back when Magnolia came over and cupped her face. Like the very first time Aurora met her (when she died and encountered her in the woods), she felt the same comforting feeling that she wasn't going to hurt her. 

Magnolia looked straight into her eyes, stared at them for a long moment, and then begun to cry and that's when Aurora realised.

"You know." She stated, eyes flickering between both of her parents. Everything changed in that moment.

"We remembered." Magnolia whispered. "The church...we...Luke was there...and he.."

"Aurora—" the second Sirius said her name, that's when she had started to break down. She quickly stepped away from Magnolia and met Sirius tearful eyes. For the first time in months, grey met recognisable grey.

           "Don't." She said, shaking her head and refusing to let the tears in her eyes fall.

           "Aurora, please." His tone almost caused her to burst into tears.

   She refused to look in his direction again and when he walked forward, she stepped back, and the tears started to stream down her face. She ignored every emotion that was coming upon her and instead focused on Luke.

       She quickly wiped the tears coming down her face and refused to look in any of their directions.

        Harry walked over and stood beside her, "What is going on?"

           "I'll be back soon." She knew she had to act fast because they wouldn't let her go otherwise. She didn't give any of them another look and instead opened a portal behind her.

       Suddenly Harry clasped down on her arm in the last second before she was about to enter the portal, and Ron grabbed onto Harry's, sending the three of them through the portal.

         The portal closed and Harry, Ron, and Aurora were sent to Hogsmeade.

★ ★ ★

THE NEXT CHAPTER SHOWS WHAT HAPPENED WHEN SIRIUS/MAGNOLIA/REMUS/JAMES LEFT THE ISLAND AND WHY LUKE DIDN'T RETURN WITH THEM AND HOW THEY FINALLY REMEMBERED AURORA AND LUKE!! AND IT'LL SHOW WHAT HAPPENED!

HOWEVER NOW WE SEE THAT HARRY AND RON WENT INTO THE PORTAL WITH AURORA MEANING THE THREE OF THEM ARE FINALLY GONNA HAVE TIME WITH ONE ANOTHER WHILST THEY TRY TO TRACK DOWN LUKE!

AURORA AVOIDING SIRIUS AND MAGNOLIA THE SECOND THEY FOUND OUT IS BASICALLY GONNA BE HER WHEN SHE RETURNS—

TELL ME YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF THE CHAPTER? AND WHAT YOU HOPE TO SEE ON THE NEXT CHAPTER!

IM SO HAPPY WE FINALLY HAVE SIRIUS AND AURORA REMEMBERING! I did change the timeframe of them remembering originally it was another 11 chapters but to be honest I think that would have dragged it out too much!