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The grey-haired girl's weekend was filled with a whole load of muggle fun, although she made the empty promise of returning. It was in the white area that Jacob and her had officially broken things off. As much as ether wanted to keep it together, it was never going to happen.

It wasn't because of Remus. It was because of distance.

Or that is all that she was saying as she returned into the common room and up the steps to her dorm room. The squeal was loud enough for the three animagius' to hear from their tower. Making Sirius scoff into the air. "Guess who's back Moony!" Sirius shouted, whilst Remus was currently drying off from his shower.

"What?" Sirius had his legs up into the air and mindlessly finding himself throwing up an empty snitch from one of the previous games. 

"Aurora's back." In full disclosure, Remus knew for a fact that the boy did not get up as he seemed stuck in that position. But Sirius merely pointed a finger to his ear. "Heard the screams, sounded like Mary and Alice at the very least." He continued.

He wasn't angry at Aurora, but he wasn't pleased with her behavior. Even if she told Remus that she didn't want a relationship, it was hurting his mate to be her friend and anything less than that.

Though he was thankful that she was taking one for the team and calming his hormonal wolf...Or making him all the more antsey. Sirius wanted the two to come together, but even if they were to date...Merlin, he had the idea.

"She really back then?" Remus asked, ruffling his hair as he was now dressed for bed. Plopping down onto his mattress and pulling his blanket close.

"Oi, Moony...Maybe it's a good thing the two of you aren't dating." Remus' eyes failed him as all his emotion was plain and simple. He wore his heart on his sleeve and this was one of those times.

"Pads, sod off. Let them talk before—" Sirius shot James a very stern look. Motioning to the moment, with Sirius taking a seat on his own bed but leaning into Remus' he began to spoke again.

"You two dating right now...I'm convinced she'd find out you're a werewolf." He disclaimed, although this was already a fear for now...As in general sort of brigade.

"Y-you think?" Remus whispered, Sirius was all too easily playing with his weak point. But James was almost thankful for this as well, he did really like Aurora as a teammate and classmate. 

But how would she handle a werewolf boyfriend?

"Hm, so maybe we should all ease up on her then?" Sirius pondered, and Peter voiced his disagreement. Which followed by Remus'. "But she's tutoring us, we have classes with her...You two are on a team, we can't just ignore her." He protested, and Sirius huffed.

"Moony. Do you want her to find out?" It was as though Pads had dropped a bucket of ice cold water onto his head, add extra ice as he felt a chill to the bone. Merlin did he not want her to ever find out about it.

"No. I don't." Remus valued his friends opinion, but like Aurora's with her being labeled as a whore...It was all too horrific to be even able to be near her when she knows.

His stomach did flips at the idea of her giving him a pity look, her talking normally to him, or even treading carefully because she was scared of him. It made him sick to the core and in the instant, and so he nodded his agreement.

"Moony you can't just—" 

"I have too, for Aurora—Well's sake." It hadn't come to a surprise to find that Remus started calling Aurora Wells, she didn't think Sirius would keep his promise and to be fair. It sort of took her mind off of becoming Remus' crush.

He still defiantly found her perfect, and his entire fanceyment was just delaying the inevitable. But being friends wasn't all too bad, not that he could compare it to anything considering they didn't talk more than class or potions tutoring permitted.

Even then, Sirius thought that since he had managed to calm his mate that Aurora would return in the swing of things. However, during her stay away there had been a brutal bout of bullying between Sev and them once again.

And she wasn't here to heal him.

That is where her guilt lied, and Lily was all too eager to tell her what happened, where, when and how. It came to the point where Aurora wanted to stand up against them, but Lily pointed her finger and said 'you remember your promise to your Uncle!' And thus ended any silent curses flying through the halls of Hogwarts.

The only time where everything felt normal was when they were on the pitch. Playing a game and relying on instinct rather than any bouts of their relationship.

"What happened," Lily demanded, eyeing Remus during the mist of their game. It was almost Holiday break, and lucky for Aurora that the Yule ball had been canceled like the headmaster had predicted.

"With what?" Remus turned to look down at Lily, she was all covered up in Gryffindor scarves and sweaters. Her nose barely making an appearance though. It was lucky for Remus however, he merely wore the given jumper and he was fine. Especially when it was on the verge of snowing.

"With Rory, what happened?" His head bent down further and he looked this way and that. "I...I want to be her friend." 

"Oh rubbish Remus, you fancy her...Why are you—" As much as he wanted to say it was true, and beg Lily to help him some insight he just shrugged. Close to three weeks have passed since he started calling her Wells and it has been fine.

"I did, she just isn't my type...It's alright, I'll find someone." He lied, straight through his teeth. Peter tried to remain quiet, but in the midst of Lily ranting about the pros of the two of them dating...The most horrific thing had occurred.

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The games against Slytherin's were all too high and mighty in the books, even the professors felt the tension and build up through the entire week. But this...it had been brutal from the start, with bludgers being aimed at one another, knocking, tackling. Part of him wanted to leave, in fear of watching his friends even get the slightest bit hurt.

Instead it was Aurora, she had been excellent. Staying out of the line of fire, but they were beginning to feel all the rage as they managed to do something far more illegal than they ever had.

Whatever they did, Aurora had dropped the ball as well as fallen off her broom without any sort of leeway. Lily had gripped onto Remus' side as they both watched in horror to see her fall from such a height.

Sirius had seen what had happened, but he was too busy trying to block the blunger with his forearm to get the entire picture. Just seeing Aurora's empty broomstick in the center of the field automatically had him dive down to the crashing body.

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"AURORA!" He shouted, tears already threatened, he reached out his hand oh so far forward that she too attempted to do connect with one another.

However, it was a very failed attempt as he managed to pull her up for a moment. Only for either of them to fall full force to the ground.

Sirius had managed to damage his leg and bent his arm, but he crawled off towards Aurora who was attempting to gasp for air. "Aurora...Fuck Aurora was is it love?" He beckoned, holding onto her hand as he saw the rush of professors coming this way.

"K-kn-knife..." She managed, and he looked all the more confused. What knife? What did it mean? His attention to detail was sorely lacked due to the fact that he had gotten a huge whiff of blood after he managed to get all the more closer.

His eyes betrayed him as he started to share far too much emotion. Suddenly, with whatever strength Aurora had left, she turned herself the opposite way to cough up the blood caught in her lungs.

"WELLS! PADS!" James screamed, making it closer than most of the Professors had. The commotion around the entire pitch was rages towards the Slytherins, so much so that a fight must've broken out as it distracted most of the others.

"J-j-James she's—" Sirius tried to speak, but Madam Pomfrey and the rest had managed to get her onto a gurney already in an opposite direction.

"She's fine Pads, come on...We gotta get you checked out." James motioned, Aurora's blood was stained onto his uniform, and it took the convincing word of the seeker and James to get Sirius to start moving with the rest.

Everyone in the stands were too shocked as to what happened, but in the matter of subjection, Remus was in pure agony. He smelled Aurora's blood, his panic over a pack member and their damaged limbs was turning him to an overdramatic wolf.

Lily and the girls were crying as they stared at the blanket of snow that showed a small dot of where Aurora's blood dyed. Peter was attempting to calm Remus, but it was Lily's shrieks that really worried everyone.

The lot of them managed to go out of the pitch's audience stands and head towards a different less crowded entrance, thus making it a given jump up towards the infirmary as it was only up one flight of stairs as they entered right underneath it.

As they finally arrived at the door, Lily froze. "W-what...H-how bad is—" Peter took the lead, seeing as how all the tear-streaked faces were starting to weigh heavy around.

"You guys stay put, I'll go in." He issued, pointing to the bench by the wall. While he found himself in a whole lot of aggravation, although silenced it seemed that both Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore were having an arguing match whistle James was sitting in front of a drawn curtain. "Prongs what's—" He was greeted with another dreadful expression, the boy ran his hand through his hair once again to give him a calming sort of action. But it didn't work.

"One of the snakes stabbed her." Peter had almost fallen to the floor after hearing such an attack, his mouth parted and didn't say much as he took the seat beside James.

"Sirius broke most of her fall, but she still broke a-a-a lot." He struggled to keep his voice in check but looked off towards the two professors. "They've been going at it since." He explained, but neither paid much mind to its discretion.

The matron had finally left from behind the curtain, for both boys to jump up at attention...However, she was quick to close it. "How...How is she?" Madam Pomfrey knew the boys quite well, seeing as how they took the unfortunate job away from her...Meaning they were the ones to escort Remus to and from the Willow.

But the women was fairly torn as well, Aurora had been a great addition as she managed to brew fairly complex potions in hopes of just...Doing something. Pomfrey offered an internship but the girl decided that perhaps this year was not the time for it.

So the women nodded. "She's stable, I will look at Mr.Black as I endured him into a strong sleeping potion to remove any and all pain until I can get a look at him properly. Crazy boy he is, diving to save her like that." She muttered to herself the end bits, pushing the next door curtain. But leaving it open for the boys to follow in.

Sirius had managed to get a few bruises due to his plays during the game, his arm soon found itself in a sling and his leg pumped up with pillows to give it maximum comfort.

With him out of the way she relieved him of the medically induced 'coma' if she were to call it anything. And allowed the boys to stay, but James held her back for a moment.

"R-Remus...He's close with Aurora if-if there's anything we can tell him that'll—" 

"She'll be alright Mr.Potter, I suggest you go and tell him that now." She sternly spoke, almost reminding him of his mother as he hurried off into the hallway to see a while depressing Statius.

It wasn't just Remus and the girls in Gryffindor. The accumulation of her Ravenclaw club partners and such were here as well. So James took a deep breath and looked at everyone.

"She's alright...She—she's under a sort of Coma that Madam Pomfrey put her under. She'll be alright." It was a blessing off everyone's shoulders, but Clementine continued to cry. And although she found herself mighty afraid of the Marauders, she came up to James.

"W-when will she wake?" She spoke, now the two had been in the same school, building and classroom, however, Clem and James never spoke directly. But the boy saw the desperation and the girl needed an answer.

"I don't know...But we'll find you when we know." Clem nodded, wiping her tears and holding herself strongly as a few Ravenclaw's offered to take her back to the common room.

Remus stared back, almost in shock as he attempted to lie to Lily about not caring what happened to Aurora and now...The guilt of this sort of aggression that persuaded on her was mind-bogglingly too much for him to handle.

He cared. Merlin he cared so much.

"C-can we see her?" Lily asked, this was the hardest on James as he wanted so badly to say yes but he blinked and shook his head. "Pomfrey is still trying to do her thing, Sirius isn't up yet either." That bit was in mention for Remus who had found his strength to get onto his feet and look to James.

"I..." Was all the boy spoke, and Lily punched him in the shoulder. "You said you didn't care about her." The look of horror struck Remus' face again, and with a quick wipe of his face did he plead. Claiming that he did.

"I bloody lied okay!" He shouted, making Lily do a double take. Whatever the two were talking about in stands was making its way into the hallway. But Lily looked rather shocked, the boy lied about his feelings about Aurora.

To James as well, perhaps he practiced so many times in the mirror that he managed to become a good liar. Or maybe he was trying to convince himself of Sirius' lie.

"We'll get you, w-when she can have visitors." Lily and the rest of the girls nodded along and went back to the dorms. The entire common room was in hopes of getting any information but alas, none was available.

Remus took one long look to James, and Prongs just leaned his mates' head into his shoulder to allow the poor boy to let it out. "I smelled her blood Prongs...I smelled if from—" Remus couldn't choke out anything more than sobs as he was struggling with just that.

His wolf was taking over his emotions, it was in a sort of fight or flight mode but in this instance, he needed to see Aurora. No matter how banged up or broken.

"Moony, Prongs...He's up." That was a blessing to hear as well, because now it was a sort of story behind what had actually occurred. However, the muted fighting match had ended as now Sirius held a rather large audience around him.

Still a bit dizzy did he look about, but something in his mind sprung up. "Aurora...Where's—" Dumbledore put his hands up in offering, the only one not present at the current moment was Madam Pomfrey. Who, he explained, was still tending to Aurora.

It allowed the troubled boy to lean back into his bed, but not too comfortable as he looked to his arm and leg.

"Mr.Black, is there anything you could tell us about what occurred with today's game?" He was heavily medicated, so it took a moment as he nodded. "Y-yeah, Wells said...Something about a knife...S-she—the blood..." The looming tiredness was gaining on Sirius but he attempted to stay awake.

"Mr. Black is correct, there are two stab wounds on Aurora's stomach. It was a miracle she didn't choke on her own blood on the way up." Sirius hummed. "That's why she turned herself over." He numbly spoke, Madam Pomfrey nodded the affirmative as it did help at the moment.

"Will she be alright?" Her Godmother asked, and the matron nodded. "Of course, she is in the process of healing. Mr.Black had taken a lot of the damage with the fall. I suppose her ribs will be healed by tonight and her wrist by tomorrow." It was another relief of a breath that had them all take a seat, or rather the children take a seat.

James looked up at Professor McGonagall for a moment. "Professor, could you tell Lily what happened...We sent her back to the common room." The women was more than pleased to hear this and made no mind to scowl at Dumbledore before leaving the room.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, walked into the closed-off curtain with Madam Pomfrey, waving his wand to uplift another charm.

"Is Saint Mungos necessary?" 

"Not if she can take the amount of blood she's lost...Albus, you know of her—" He held up his hand and nodded, clearly hearing his deputy's argument, not needing to hear it again.

"See to it that the boys stay out, she needs to rest." He summoned a small projector though, allowed it to fill the top canvas of whatever the curtains stood by. If she were to wake up. At any point, at least it would be at the comfort of something familiar.

**

Sirius had been awake for on account a few hours now, and he realized after the first half an hour that he was going to be bored out of his stressed-out mind if he didn't have something to distract him.

None of his friends wanted to leave, as they wanted to be the first to be here if Aurora woke up. Lily came a few times, but after seeing that her curtains were still cut off from the rest of the world, as well as the boys not even near her...That it'd be another failed attempt.

James ]had taken hold of her Quidditch jersey and held it in his hands, running a thumb against where the knife impaled her.

"Put it away." Remus finally spoke, covering his mouth with his hand. The scent was beginning to be too much for him bare alone, but Sirius nodded as the boys hid it under Sirius' blanket. Out of sight and out of mind.

"Madam Pomfrey say anything?" Sirius whispered out, the poor boy was still heavily medicated as the potion that he downed was healing his bones internally. Remus held a neutral expression but his tears were still managing to shed down his face.

James shook his head, while Peter. Peter was waiting for the moment that Aurora would wake up, tell them off and he would rush to get Lily and the girls to tell them the good news. But that moment was not going to come, not this night.

"I fucking hate it here." He dwelled, and that had Moony cracked as he looked over to Sirius with a risen brow. "Not as much as me." He whispered out shortly after Black voiced his opinion. Merlin was it the truth that Remus had a larger hatred for the infirmary. And the only one capable of a match would be Aurora.

The girl grew up in them, what else was there to battle?

The girl was still in her little makeshift coma and the matron would not dare wake her after everything, yet she'd come on the dot every half an hour to check on the poor girl.

Aurora had mumbled a bit in her sleep as all the animals next door had heard her, and it was enough so they thought. To give Remus a bit of hope that nothing serious happened to her. A broken wrist, some broken ribs and the wounds of the knife.

The two were almost completely healed, it was more so the return of all the blood she had lost and the head injury that Madam Pomfrey was going to find later.

"Visiting hours are almost over..." Remus whispered, and he knew for a fact that it wouldn't be enough, he needed to stay no matter what. 

"Not worth it Moony, go get some real sleep. You'll come bright and early in the morning." The boy denied at the moment and pulled all the strings to get the ability to do just that. So they all had to agree, and if anything, the first thing Remus had done with the invisibility cloak was to go straight to the guarded girl's room.

He found himself quickly gaining access as Pads was given another sleeping potion, he was a hundred percent taken care of. However, the second Remus found the girl surrounded by blankets and pillows with a very big bed he was...Confused.

Then, the flowers by her bed had the words 'uncle' as well as other names that he didn't recognize. His heart gave out as he sat down at the end of the bed, finally letting out a vocal sob as he couldn't have done so since the hallway.

Remus hated to break down in front of his friends, as depressed as he had ever gotten. It was at an all-time low now that Aurora came back, so with the blanket fallen off of his body did he intake her none injured hand. Which in the instant became Aurora's so infatuated with it and hugs it tightly. The smile onto Remus as he kneed down closer to her.

"It's alright, it's going to be alright...Just gotta wake up darling." He whispered, but he knew that she'd be asleep well into the morning but she was moving, reacting, humming along to his voice that he sniffled.

"You were staying out of their way too, w-why did they do it?" He issued, but something in Aurora's instincts had her squeeze her hand, Remus' eyes darted to see if she woke, but she hadn't.

Merlin, his mind was in overdrive. There wasn't anything he could do, or would want to do other than be at her side and wait. But that is not allowed, she would not allow it.

For weeks had he forced himself to call her Wells, to speak to her without any hint of flirting or with any sort of reminder of what happened those two unforgettable nights.

And now he was regretting it.

Sirius had asked if Remus wanted Aurora to know, and no he does not. But the girl was already starting to get a general idea, the concern as Severus was all the more adamant on dropping hints here and there, just never really reaching to the end goal.

If she were to ever find out, would it be filled with looks of pitty? 

Would she want to help? 

He closed his eyes, bringing his lips to her knuckles and kissing it ever so slightly. It earned another half a smile, and in attempt did he go again. Making it all the same.

So being a bit selfish at the moment did he now take hold of her arm and hold into his chest, smelling and feeling the warmth that radiated her body. She looked comfortable, the blankets were defiantly not hospital material and he doesn't remember if Lily brought anything from her room. But her blankets were soft, purple even as it was a very flattering color to the grayness of her complexion.

"Mum?" She whispered out, struggling and groggy to the point where Remus questioned if it was even her. Her mouth was parted a bit and he smiled, but ultimately he frowned. Whatever dream she was having, or whatever illusion she was seeing...Involved her mum.

A dead woman.

He couldn't recall where he heard of her mother's passing, perhaps during mindless chatter at the three broomsticks where he was silently following along. Her parents died, that's why her uncle is so prominent in her life.

So hearing her say something so innocent as 'mum' and know that she hasn't had one for awhile screamed about who Aurora was. She didn't have parents, so perhaps the idea of a boyfriend scared her?

Remus was building all these theories and truth be told, he was right on a few. The idea of trust in Aurora's mind was far from being applicable. If anything, Aurora barely trusted her Uncle on more than one occasion. Like shipping her to London at the expensive of losing everything she worked for.

The idea of a marriage contract, which she blew up in flames at the idea of anyone touching her that didn't love her just making her all the more sick to her stomach. All these lingering bits were making it hard for her to love someone. And the way Remus looks at her, with those warm green eyes that turned amber more than a few times make her weak to her knees.

Remus jumped at the twitch she had done, whatever sort of dream she was having looked distasteful as she making all sort of facial movements and he didn't know what to do. 

"Aurora...It's alright...Shsh...You're safe." It seemed to be working, he voice was making her less tense. Even if her squeezes were erratic and off-putting.

"You were brilliant in the field you know, I've never seen Pads that scared before...We stayed until closing, Lily she—didn't seem right for her to just wait with us you know...Hopefully, everyone is getting some sleep." He mumbled about, remembering from his mum that talking to someone when in a coma can be relaxing in some sorts.

"Um...You're Uncle left a letter here, I don't remember seeing anyone come in...Oh Merlin your glasses. Guess we'll have Lily bring them tomorrow morning so you're not blind as a bat." He chuckled to himself, but sniffled none the less.

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Date Posted:12-01-18

Time: 4:56

Word-Count: 4491

DECEMBER FIRST!!