Astra

LI - The Imperius Curse

AFTER READING THE LETTER over twice, she turned to Hermione and Luna, who were still wondering what it said. She obviously didn't read it aloud like Harry did, not knowing what her father might have written about, and maybe some things that the girls didn't know. She didn't want to worry them with suspicious conspiracy theories that she had written to her dad about.

"Well, what did it say?" asked Hermione after a few seconds.

"Basically the same thing as Harry's; he's coming north, and he wants to know how the animagus process is going," Astra said briefly.

Hermione seemed to take this as a good answer but Luna looked at her questioningly. Astra gave her a small nod, as if telling her that she would explain everything later. Why wouldn't she tell Hermione, though? A small voice inside her was asking, but Hermione had to deal with Harry's problems. It wouldn't be any good to fill her with more worries for her friend from Astra's ideas. At the same time, Hermione had done a good job at keeping her secret, but if she gave any more, Astra wasn't sure whether she would be able to keep it from Harry and Ron, something she absolutely didn't want.

Hermione then went up to the girls' dorm, while Astra told her that she would walk Luna back to the Ravenclaw tower. As soon as they closed the Fat Lady's portrait, Astra cast a silencing charm and promptly read out the letter, going over some of the details that she hadn't already told Luna before. By the time she was done, they had reached the enchanted knocker that worked as the door to the Ravenclaw common room.

"So, what do you think?"

"Well, you'll probably have some more visions in the future, which you should keep track of. Maybe you should try and get some information out of Lily and James," Luna suggested in her airy voice, though the words she spoke were serious.

Astra nodded in confirmation, and then hugged Luna good-bye before heading back to the Gryffindor dorms.

***

Astra woke up as the sun barely peeked out from behind the mountains, and made her way to the common room as usual. It was, after all, routine for her to simply look out the window for a while in her pajamas, relaxing in the morning light.

However, after only a minute or two of sitting in the armchair, a sound came from the boys' dorm and Harry came stumbling down.

Astra chuckled and Harry's head quickly shot up, realizing the common room wasn't empty.

"Wh-I-" Harry stuttered, only making Astra laugh harder. "It's alright, what are you up so early for?" she asked. 

"Um-well, I was just going to, er, write a letter?" Harry said, though it sounded more like a question.

Astra's mouth formed an 'o' shape and nodded, then stood up and said, "Go right ahead," pointing at the table in the center of the common room that held some parchment and a few quills, redirecting her attention to the window.

Harry nodded and headed to the table, tripping over himself on the way. He internally cursed himself for making him look like a fool in front of Astra, but scribbled down his note and headed out of the common room.

***

Astra sat with Luna that morning at the Ravenclaw table, feeling bad for not spending as much time with her. Of course, she didn't consider that she was making Harry panic over something that he might have said that morning, making Astra avoid him.