Astra

XLIII - The Dark Mark

THE TWO GIRLS DANCED in the tent as Luna showed her the best way to get rid of nargles. Of course, Astra was still a bit doubtful, but maybe if she remembered that she hadn't even thought of the vision she had earlier that day, she would think that the dance worked quite well. 

About twenty minutes later, Xenophilius joined them again, but set to his typewriter, saying that he had seen a dabberblimp by the top box. They tried to go to bed at nine, but the excitement kept them from it as they went late into the night talking about the match. Astra was a bit surprised by Luna's extensive knowledge of Quidditch but knew that you could never underestimate the girl.

Eventually, they drifted off to sleep at around midnight, though Astra woke a few hours later to yelling outside. At first, she thought that people were still celebrating, but the noise was definitely different than before. It sounded almost... fearful. Groggily stepping out of bed and looking outside, she was immediately awake.

People were running off into the woods, some apparating and some screaming names. While others were laughing, throwing hexes, flashes of green light flying everywhere. People were floating high, and it was obvious they were muggles as their children screamed from underneath. For a brief second, Astra wondered why Lily or James or Regulus or anyone hadn't woken her up, when she remembered what had happened in the match. However, that wasn't the matter now.

"Luna! Xeno! Quick! Get up!" she yelled and pulled Luna out of bed.

"What is- oh," Luna's eyes widened as she saw what was outside. "Daddy! Come Daddy!" 

It was the first time that Astra had ever seen Luna scared.

Luna ran to Xenophilius's room, to which he came out of quickly, and he immediately grabbed Luna and Astra's arm and pulled them towards the woods. During the moment, Astra grabbed her wand and focused again on seeing her godparents and uncle, but quickly got rid of it after seeing the forest become swamped with floating dead people. She wondered whether there would be a way to only see who she wanted to see, but now wasn't the time to try.

Xenophilius had lighted his wand and Astra quickly followed, no matter what the law said. They ran until they got to a small clearing where Xenophilius sat down on a rock with Luna next to him. They seemed to calm down for a moment, but Astra was still alert. She remembered what the vision showed, and now she was sure it was a vision. 

Glancing through the trees, she looked for a sign of the dark mark, but it seemed like it wasn't casted yet. For that, she was thankful, yet she worried about the others. Hermione and the Weasleys would stand out, and trouble always seemed to follow Harry. 

"Can we apparate?" Astra asked. For now, it would be the best possible solution.

"No," Xenophilius seemed sheepish. "I'm not quite good at it and with all the stress, I would surely splinch myself or one of you."

Astra nodded, a bit upset that they couldn't get out of there, but quite thankful that they wouldn't get splinched. The plan would have been for Xenophilius to apparate Luna out of there and then Astra could go back to look for the others, and possibly help the muggle families before someone set off the dark mark.

"I'll be right back, I just need to scope out the area," Astra said. The Lovegoods seemed to want to argue, but she was gone before they could say anything.

She focused as hard as she could on only Regulus for now, not wanting any other bothers. When this didn't work, she called their names quietly, and Regulus appeared.

"It worked! Where are the Weasleys and Hermione and Harry?" she was relieved, and it seemed Regulus was as well.

"We were trying to get your attention but it didn't seem to work and we were so worried-"