Astra

LVII - The Secret Meeting

THE REST OF POTIONS WAS TORTURE, as Astra got a second detention and ten points deducted, even though her potion was perfect.

As soon as the bell rang, she sprinted out of class to find Luna and head to the hospital wing to check on Hermione. The Ravenclaw was in the library, as she usually was for the past few days. Astra meant to ask her about this, but knew it was just going to lead her to trying to murder a few of the other Ravenclaws, so she tried to push it to the back of her brain.

Luna immediately joined her to see Hermione, pushing the books on her visions to the back of the bag to make sure Hermione wouldn't see.

Hermione probably would have been able to help them a lot, but Astra didn't want to stress her out or distract her from Harry, so they did the most research as possible which was actually a lot with Luna's access to the Ravenclaw common room.

"Hermione, are you alright?" asked Astra quietly, followed by, "Hello, Hermione," from Luna.

She simply nodded.

For the next few minutes, Astra only ranted about Snivellus's unfairness, her detentions, and Draco's rude behavior.

Eventually, Madame Pomfrey shooed Astra and Luna out, leaving them to return to the library as it was still technically against the rules to take a person from another house to the common room.

They had just been walking in, accidentally bumping into Cedric Diggory and his new followers and mumbling an apology when Harry found them.

"There you are! Astra, here's a letter from-"

"Got it," Astra smiled, jerking her head to where students were studying. He nodded and walked out turning bright red.

The two girls took their usual seat and opened the letter, seeing that it said all of the usual things, in addition to a meeting on November 22nd. Astra was slightly worried but trusted her dad enough not to do anything too rash. After all, now he had motivation to not get sent back to Azkaban.

***

The next few weeks went by dreadfully slow, but there was the small light up ahead as Astra was quite excited to see her father again. 

She still received constant updates for Regulus, and James and Lily visited more often after explaining things, but they still weren't as constant as they were in first year, though Astra didn't mind as much.

Luna and she spent more time than ever in the library, trying to find new information on Astra's visions, of which she hadn't had any more since the Quidditch World Cup. 

Nonetheless, they made the most of their time, when they weren't laughing over the completely ridiculous stories that Rita Skeeter cooked up.

Harry seemed more embarrassed than ever when Astra brought up the articles, though she only meant it in good fun, thinking they were hilarious.

"I suppose I get my strength from my parents. I know they'd be very proud of me if they could see me now," Astra read, laughing, "Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I'm not ashamed to admit it....I know nothing will hurt me during the tournament, because they're watching over me..."

However, Astra drew the line at Collin Creevey trying to turn her into Harry's love interest, where he was apparently cheating on her with Hermione. 

"Like, as if! If anything, you should have been cheating on Hermione with me! No offense, Hermione."

"None taken," said Hermione sniffily, though it was obvious she was trying to hold back a smile at Astra's dramatics.

Harry only stuttered and turned bright red.