(Aurora Sinistra)
(Sinistra Manor)
What a turn Aurora's life had taken in the last few days. A few days back, she could not have even imagined anything like this. But now everything was happening and she did not know how to react.
It had all begun a few weeks earlier. At the Black Family Gathering. She would not say that everything that had been happening to her was connected to that gathering but it surely was a focal point of all the events.
As was the usual norm, every New Year, the Sinistra family had received the invitation for the Black family gathering for young witches and wizards. This was not something new for her. Aurora had been attending the gathering for the past few years, after her graduation from Hogwarts.
If Aurora were to be honest with herself, she had never really enjoyed such types of gatherings, and if it were in her own hands, she would not have attended them. She was not really a social person.
But sadly, in Wizarding Britain, a person had to live with a lot of constraints, restrictions, and impediments. And not being able to do as one pleases was one such norm. Especially, if your family is not an extremely powerful family.
By not going to the gathering, she would have been slapping the Black family's face.
And secondly, her family too had wanted her to attend such gatherings. Making connections and establishing relations with powerful people was the norm. And there was no other place where more powerful people of the younger generation gathered in a single place. And therefore even if she was unwilling, she would have had to attend the gathering.
But quite a few things had happened in the gathering. Significant and monumental things. At that moment, they had not appeared to be that significant but it had been like a butterfly flap and that flap had affected the fate of the entire Wizarding Britain.
She had encountered an old friend of hers in that gathering. Aurora would not say that she was very close to this old friend of hers, Antonio Olario. They had hardly communicated since they had graduated from Hogwarts.
Even when she had taken the initiative, she had hardly received anything apart from dry replies. But this was what Antonio had been like. Even at Hogwarts, though they had shared quite a deep friendship, he had been of the reserved type. He spoke less, indulged less, and apart from her he did not have any friends.
And maybe this was the reason why Aurora had always felt a sense of comfort in his presence, a sense of familiarity with him. He was the overbearing type to intrude in her space.
And maybe this was the reason she had gone a few miles extra to continue the friendship.
But this sudden meeting at the gathering had been unique. This was the same Antonio she had known but also different at the same time. This Olario was calmer and yet more confident. And powerful.
Even when speaking against the heir to a powerful house like Malfoy, he had not hesitated. Even when pinning the Lestrange lord to the ground, he had not flinched. This was the kind of confidence only the powerful people had. People who had the power of the magic behind their back.
The scuffle between Rodolphus Lestrange and Antonio had been a very major news.
Every mouth was speaking of that incident, and this incident had also forced Aurora to do something which she felt was really embarrassing and shameful.
Her family was being pursued by a group of Death Eaters. Her grandfather, Raphel Sinistra, was undoubtedly a pure blood supremacist.
Although he was not as extreme as to want to kill or enslave all the Muggle born witches and wizards, he surely looked at them with disdain. And her grandfather had wanted to join the movement of the Death Eaters to gain more power and influence, but he did not want to spend resources. But the Death Eaters had wanted Raphael to fund the war.
The death eaters that had approached Raphel were not the friendly type and were overbearing. They were almost being forceful in their demands but were offering nothing in return. They were not even able to promise a meeting with the dark lord. Aurora doubted that had her grandfather given the money, would it have gone to the dark lord or in the personal pockets of these death eaters?
And Antonio's power came as a ray of hope for them. It was assumed that if Antonio was willing to help them, they would be able to get out of this problem. The plan involved deterring the Death Eaters using Antonio's powers. His association with the eldest Black daughter was counted as an extra advantage.
And Aurora was chosen to lure Antonio into the trap. By seducing him.
She had been unwilling, but her grandfather and her uncle had almost forced her into this. Reluctantly, she had agreed. And she had tried.
But Antonio had seen the trick in a moment. Despite that, he had agreed to help her family. And she had been exhilarated by the news. She told her family, and they too had been exhilarated.
But then everything came crashing down. Another character made an appearance in her life. Alex Timirius. Another fellow classmate. He had disturbed and harassed her in school but had then kept to himself after Filius intervened.
But this had not ended here. She had not told anyone, but Alex had tried to reach her after Hogwarts. Although he had never crossed a line, his presence had always been looming over her.
She had expected that since Alex was not crossing the line, he would slowly fade with time. She did not want to create problems for her family by getting into beef with someone from the Timirius family. But no.
He made a sudden appearance in front of her grandfather. He was pleasant in behaviour to Raphael and solved all his woes in one moment.
A lot of glory and influence was promised to the Sinistra lord, and he did not have to spend a single coin. The only thing Lord Raphael had to do was hand over Aurora to him.
He had framed it in the guise of a marriage proposal, but Aurora understood that it was nothing but a pretension. Very soon she would have been cast aside.
And Antonio was her last ray of hope. She had seen him from the window talking to her uncle and grandfather. He had been denied entry and had seemed angry when he was rejected.
Secretly, she was hoping for Antonio to save her. But she also understood that he did not really have any obligation to do so. Even so when Antonio had walked away, she was dejected.
She was lost in her thoughts when there was a knock on her doors.
"Come in," she said in a whisper.
She was not allowed to leave her room and there were not many people who came to see her.
The door was pushed open and her father, Drafel, walked in. He had a big smile on his face and looked happy.
Aurora knew that her father stood on her side. But she also knew that this was all he could do. He could only stand.
He lacked courage. He could not stand up to his father, Lord Sinistra or even to his older brother. And she did not hate or hold a grudge against him for this. She had known about this side of her father from the beginning and had accepted this reality.
And now seeing the happy expression and the beaming smile on his face, confusion crept upon Aurora's face. She looked at him with a questioning gaze wondering what was the matter.
Drafel did not say anything. He walked up to her desk and placed a parchment on it. Aurora frowned and picked up the parchment.
As she went through line by line of the parchment, her eyes continued to widen in shock and her heart almost leapt in her throat.
"What is this?" she questioned after a moment of silence. Her voice was filled with sheer shock and disbelief. She could not believe what she had been reading. Was Antonio really going to do this? Do this for her?
"Your freedom," Drafel said softly as he placed his hand on her shoulder.
For the first time in years, Dreidel felt confident. Although this confidence was because of someone else, as long as his daughter was happy, he was satisfied.