Astra

XXIX - The New Quidditch Commentator

WHEN ASTRA TOLD JAMES the news, he was furious. More than furious. Lily looked ready to kill someone. Every single member of the Order who was dead were teaming up to search the whole castle for the rat.

Unfortunately, whenever they found him, he would run away before Astra could get there, seeing as he was a small rat. In addition to that, he always stayed in his animagus form, making it impossible for the dead to track him unlike Sirius, who sometimes changed to eat food and such.

It also seemed like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. Each were so angry at each other and Astra honestly thought it looked ridiculous. Hermione continued to spend time with Luna and Astra while Ron stuck with Harry. She couldn't help but see, though, that Hermione was really growing on Astra. She still had her logical arguments with Luna about whether nargles were real or not, but other than that, they got along decently.

However, when hearing the boys mourn Scabbers, it only made Astra infuriated and while Hermione had no idea why she was so angry, neither her or Luna how to calm her down.

Astra was also preparing for becoming the quidditch commentator for the next match, something that she hadn't told Hermione or Luna, wanting it to be a surprise. She had been spending some time with Lee and the twins, giving them ideas for pranks (the twins were now proclaiming they were apprentices to the Master of Mischief) and coming up with jokes for the commentating. 

All in all, Astra felt more happy than she had in her whole life, finally welcoming new friends and becoming a bit more outgoing, which she found that helped get rid of the stress and fear of her father getting caught.

The day of the match came and Astra, Luna, and Hermione were all sitting at the Gryffindor table, watching as people from all around looked at the Firebolt Harry was holding. Luna was entertaining them with information about the Aquavirius maggots that the ministry had; Hermione felt the urge to correct her, saying there were no such things, but Astra gave her a glare making sure she wouldn't. 

At quarter to eleven, the Quidditch team left to the lockers and Astra excused herself to meet up with Lee and McGonagall, saying that they had a surprise coming. Hermione and Luna were curious, but they split up, seeing as Luna was a Ravenclaw and Hermione was a Gryffindor and the match was Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor.

As the students made their way out to the stands, Hermione was a bit worried, seeing as Astra wasn't there yet and she thought that she was going to miss the game. However, the two teams walked out onto the fields and Astra joined Lee up in the commentator's stand.

"Wood, Davies, shake hands," Madam Hooch said briskly, and Wood shook hands with the Ravenclaw Captain.

"Mount your brooms ... on my whistle ... three -- two -- one --"

"They're off! Today we're joined by -" Lee started.

"Astra Black who's going to help commentate this mat-" Astra cut off before Lee continued. Hermione's eyes widened at Astra's voice and immediately cheered while a few gasped at the new commentator.

"And the big excitement this match is the Firebolt that Harry Potter is flying for Gryffindor. According to Which Broomstick, the Firebolt's going to be the broom of choice for the national teams at this year's World Championship --"

"We're not here to advertise this broom, Lee! But you have to admit that it is really spectacul-"

"Jordan, Astra would you mind telling us what's going on in the match?" interrupted Professor McGonagall's voice.

"Course Minnie!"

"Just giving a bit of background information -- the Firebolt, incidentally, has a built-in auto-brake and --"