Astra

LXXXVII - The Midnight Adventure

THE SCHOOL WAS QUITE deserted; it was surely past midnight.

"What you need to do is use Murtlap essence, and then it should be able to heal it well," came Regulus' voice.

Astra hated that she couldn't turn around. Instead, she grabbed Harry's other hand, pulling him in the opposite direction. Surely Snape was asleep by now, though she sometimes could make conspiracy theories about him being a vampire.

"Where are we going?" asked Harry in a hushed whisper, tearing his eyes away from where Astra was holding his hand.

"Potions cupboard. We're going to get murtlap essence," Astra answered, pulling him inside a broom cupboard.

She let go of his hand and dug through her bag, pulling out the Marauders' Map. Harry found a speck of dust on the ceiling very interesting.

Sure enough, Snape was in his office, and Filch was near the Ravenclaw common room. That left the way there clear, except for McGonagall, who was near the Hufflepuff common room, most likely in her cat form, but Astra didn't need to worry that much about her.

"Come on," she said again, grabbing Harry's hand, though he let out a gasp of pain. Her eyes widened as she realized she grabbed the wrong hand.

"Sorry," she whispered and grabbed his other hand. She honestly didn't know why she was pulling him, but it was dark and she didn't want to lose him.

Astra and Harry ran through the halls, and Harry was pretty sure that the whole castle could probably hear his heart beating, but Astra was quiet.

They finally arrived in front of the Potions' classroom, but the door was locked. Astra huffed in frustration but was eternally grateful for Regulus being a Slytherin.

"The key should be under the doormat."

Astra had to stifle a chuckle, "'Course Snape would be that idiotic," she muttered. Harry looked confused, but Astra pulled out an antique key from underneath the emerald mat. The door opened and she pulled him inside. 

The room was just about as small as the broom cupboard they had hidden in, and once again, Harry found a bottle to simply stare at.

"Well don't just look at that, find the murtlap essence!" Astra whisper-yelled, and Harry quickly turned around, one hand reaching up to his hair that was far too similar of a motion to his father. However, his elbow hit the bottle he had been staring at, which was labeled Billywig Wings, and it fell over. There was an odd crunching noise. Astra groaned internally. 

She quickly pulled out the map again, and noticed the dot labeled Snape moving.

"Quickly," she whispered, and searched frantically through the bottles. Once again grateful that Regulus was there, this time for his ability to float like regular ghosts, she found the murtlap essence on the fourth shelf behind her.

Without doing anything else, she pulled up her bag and shoved the map inside, grabbing Harry's hand and once again rushing him out of the corridor.

This time, they didn't stop, only for a moment as Astra gave the Fat Lady the common room password. 

They were panting by the time they collapsed on the couches, and Astra pulled out the murtlap essence. She glanced back for a moment, but Regulus was gone, and so were James and Lily. "Alright then," she said quietly, holding out her hand.

Harry seemed frozen, just staring at the hand, before Astra specified, "Your hand."

"Oh-Oh, y-yeah, right," he said quickly, and nearly shoved his scarred hand toward her. She chuckled and shook her head, gently applying some of the essence. She wasn't completely sure if that was how it was supposed to work, but it seemed like it was hurting less for Harry, so she did the same on her own hand.