One Last Shot

Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. She's crazy, batty, loony, mad. However you say it, the girl is off her black morbid rocker... All over Sirius. He had done that to many people, girls particularly. I remember seeing her ring. When she was about to jump, I saw it shining. She'd kept it clean...

She was up to something. She'd locked herself in her room. She was up to something. When she finally came out she had a suitcase and... she was dressed like a witch again. Oh god... she was up to something.

"What is running through your head now?" I demanded, looking around, Emma was following her. I wonder if Emma was really an animagus, she was too smart to be a cat...

"I need your help," she told me, sounding almost as if she was pleading.

"First tell me what you're doing," I tried not to sound too harsh, but I wanted to know.

"Do you want to help Sirius or not?" she questioned, as if it told me everything.

"You can't bring him back Aurora..." Now I was pleading.

"I'M NOT GOING TO TRY! I'm going to save his memory,"

Now I was just confused. I thought maybe she needed medication. It wasn't like his memory was going to be wiped off the face of the earth. "What are you trying to tell me?"

Apparently I'm not too good at understanding the suicidal grieving woman language, because I had no idea what she was trying to get me to do.

"I'm going to clear his name, Remus, and ... and he was convicted for murdering thirteen people right?"

Where was she going with this?

"Well only twelve of those people actually died," she continued on.

She searched through her duffle bag that was sitting on top of the suitcase and pulled out a shiny metal thing.

I was confused. That's when I finally realized what the thing was. A gun. A sort of muggle killing machine. Okay, she'd gone from suicidal to homicidal.

"Aurora, you can't," I hoped she wasn't going to kill me.

"Remus, I have to, but first, we must clear his name." Barking mad, loony, there wasn't a word for her now.

"And what do you want me to do?"

"Get Harry and Ron, we need them to testify." Crazy half-baked scheme, as always.

"Aurora we aren't bringing the children into this." Maybe that wasn't such a good thing to say because, I think that's when I made her mad.

I looked at her. She looked like the pure embodiment of a (beautiful) psychotic rage.

"You'll do what I say Remus, and I need to find Pettigrew."

"Aurora, Pettigrew isn't going to cooperate. You can't do this, just let it go." Truth was if she approached little Wormtail looking like that, I think he'd do whatever he told her.

"Remus, I have to. If I don't who will? You?" Now she looked angry with me. If I was scared of her, he would be too.

"This isn't going to work, I can't do what you want me to do." I wasn't going to bring Harry into this; he had too much to deal with.

"It's my way of saying goodbye, and I need your help." She was pleading again, it's so hard to say no to her when she's pleading.

"Aurora I'm not going to help you." But if she kept begging...

"IF THE SITUATION WAS REVERSED SIRIUS WOULD DO IT!!!!" The comment stung. She was comparing me to Sirius, and I wasn't good enough to replace him.

"Why are you saying this?" She was being cruel.

"If you were convicted of murdering THIRTEEN people, and you didn't do it, then you were killed, Sirius would help prove your innocence." She was crying again, but she had hit a nerve, I wasn't going to comfort her.

"YEAH WELL I'M NOT SIRIUS! NO ONE IS! HE'S GONE AND NO ONE CAN TAKE HIS PLACE!" I think I started crying then.

I don't really remember what happened after that. I know there was more yelling, and more crying, and screaming. And judging by the bullet hole in the ceiling, she had shot at it in her rage.

But when I had finally cleared my head, we were both on the floor, staring at the ceiling. There were tear marks on both of us.

"I'm sorry, maybe... maybe you're right." She had finally convinced me, maybe this was the right thing to do.

"Good, so I need you to get Harry and Ron, I'll get Dumbledore and," she paused as if she didn't quite know what to say. "Pettigrew," she finally spat out.

"WHAT!?!?! No, we can't risk them like that, we can't expose Harry." She was clearly barking mad.

"The Ministry isn't going to believe a werewolf and a ... well... someone in my state of mind, Harry and Ron both saw Pettigrew with their own two eyes. And they can't afford to put down Harry and Dumbledore anymore, now that they have been calling them liars for a year, only to find they were both telling the truth." I had to admit, she had good reasoning.

"How do you know all that?" I certainly hadn't told her any of it.

She said nothing and simply stood up and began stroking Emma.

"Aurora." Now I was pleading.

"That's for me to know and you to find out, better yet, not to find out." She wasn't going to tell me.

Once I again I was tossed back into my school days. She had said that before to me when I asked her if she and Sirius were dating. I remember the sinking feeling I felt then. The memory of that moment brought the feeling back.

I had to get over this; it was just a crush from so long ago. But still...

"Just don't break the law..." Caved in, I always caved in to her.

"I won't, I mean... well, I mean, killing someone who's already dead... that's not illegal right?" Maybe I had gone crazy because that actually seemed logical. "And it's not important. What is important is that you get Harry and Ron and bring them here, if you don't..." she trailed off.

I looked at the gun that was partially under the couch. I knew she wouldn't shoot me, but it didn't mean she wouldn't do anything drastic. My eyes moved from the gun to her face, she wasn't looking at me, luckily. I felt myself blushing as I stared at her. Why does she drive me crazy? What is it about her that makes me so... CRAZY!?!?! The feeling was driving me mad. But at the same time I almost liked it. I had to analyze the situation.

Aurora was upset over Sirius' death, which made her suicidal. Now she's throwing homicidal on top of that, as she was threatening to, no she was probably planning on, killing Pettigrew, bloody hell, what would she do if the Ministry didn't believe her...us? And there really wasn't anything I could do to stop it. I was running out of time. It seemed liked I would lose her if I did what she said, and I would lose her if I didn't.

Plus she had made a good point. This could be the goodbye we both needed. If I let her do this, maybe she could finally move on. Maybe she could finally be mine.

"Are you coming or not?" She was at the door with her stuff, gun in duffle bag, and Emma following closely behind.

"You mean we're leaving now?" I pushed myself up off the floor and moved to her.

"We don't have time to waste, time isn't on our side now..." That statement led me to believe she knew about Voldemort's big return.

"Can't we wait till tomorrow?" I was pleading again. I was always begging with this girl.

"Why? Unless you can think of a good reason to wait, I'm going now with or without you, I have to find Pettigrew," She reached for the doorknob, her hand rested on it for a moment as if she was thinking about something. I looked at that hand. The nails were perfect, she still had the gold pinky ring on that she always wore back at school. The skin looked so soft...

Before I realized it, my hand was resting on top of hers, she was sort of staring at it too. "Because I think we need to talk," I couldn't help it anymore. We needed to have a little chat before she got shipped off to St.Mungo's.

Maybe she wasn't the only crazy one.