Astra

LXXIX - The Trip to the Hogwarts Express

ASTRA WAS THE FIRST to run up the stairs, followed closely by Remus, Sirius, and Luna, Moddy stumping along behind them.

She looked in the room, to a sobbing Mrs. Weasley, a dead Harry on the ground, and a living Harry right beside it.

She gasped, vaguely remembering a conversation about a boggart, and pulled out her wand, not giving the others a chance to react.

"Riddikulus!" The body vanished and was replaced by another, but not dead. Sirius, who she had to glance back to make sure was still there, was once again being held by the grasp of a dementor, just like it had been in her exam in third year. She gulped and waved her wand again, turning the dementor into a balloon that promptly vanished.

She looked around, seeing that multiple people had paled due to the presence of the boggart-dementor, and stepped back, unconsciously leaning into her dad's arms.

"Oh--oh--oh!" gulped Mrs. Weasley, and she broke into a storm of crying, her face in her hands.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Weasley," came the calm, airy voice of Luna as she stepped forward. "It was just a boggart."

Next second, she was sobbing her heart out on Luna's shoulder.

"I see them d-d-dead all the time!" Mrs. Weasley moaned. "All the t-t-time! I d-d-dream about it..."

Sirius was looking back and forth at the patch of carpet where the boggart, pretending to be Harry's body, had lain, and to Astra, absently rubbing soothing circles into her shoulder. Remus was extremely pale, seemingly frozen from both of the boggarts. 

"D-d-don't tell Arthur," Mrs. Weasley was gulping now, mopping her eyes frantically with her cuffs. "I d-d-don't want him to know... Being silly..."

Luna handed her a handkerchief and she blew her nose.

"I'm just s-s-so worried," she said, tears spilling out of her eyes again. "Half the f-f-family's in the Order, it'll b-b-be a miracle if we all come through this... and P-P-Percy's not talking to us... What if something d-d-dreadful happens and we've never m-m-made it up with him? And what's going to happen if Arthur and I get killed, who's g-g-going to look after Ron and Ginny?"

"Molly, that's enough," Remus cut in, shaking his head. "This isn't like last time. The Order is better prepared, we've got a head start, we know what Voldemort's up to--"

Mrs. Weasley gave a little squeak of fright at the sound of the name.

"Oh, Molly, come on, it's about time you got used to hearing his name--look, I can't promise no one's going to get hurt, nobody can promise that, but we're much better off than we were last time. You weren't in the Order then, you don't understand. Last time we were outnumbered twenty to one by the Death Eaters and they were picking us off one by one..."

Astra gulped, trying not to think about her conversation with Regulus at the Astronomy tower. He was out there, spying on the Death Eaters and people who had caused him so much pain, giving him such a painful death. 

She didn't have to fear anyone's death; she was lucky for that. 

But she feared the pain of the cruciatus, the influence of the imperius, the kiss of the dementor, that could steal the people she loved right from underneath her nose.

"Don't worry about Percy," said Sirius abruptly, and Astra couldn't help but think that maybe he was thinking about his experience with Regulus. "He'll come round. It's only a matter of time before Voldemort moves into the open; once he does, the whole Ministry's going to be begging us to forgive them. And I'm not sure I'll be accepting their apology," he added bitterly.