Astra

XCVIII - The Floo Call

DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS passed with a blur, and Astra was soon following the map to find Luna, who was unsurprisingly in the library. As soon as she arrived, Luna could tell that there was something off, and closed her book.

"Wh-"

"I had another vision."

"...Again?"

Astra nodded and proceeded to tell her about what had happened, including all of the details that she could remember.

"It could be the Cruciatus curse," said Luna solemnly, and Astra nodded grimly.

"I thought about that, but who would actually use that? Most of the Death Eaters we know stick to either stunning and kidnapping or just killing."

"Maybe you should tell Regulus?"

Astra hesitated, but Luna continued.

"He knows all of the Death Eaters and could probably give you a better view of why they would use a red spell..." she trailed off.

"I'll think about it."

Astra attempted to change the subject after that, and though Luna seemed more cautious about the whole thing, Astra couldn't help but think that it would be impossible to search into it until she got more detail. After all, this was only the first vision of the set, so she most likely still had a lot of time left... she estimated until the end of the year.

***

Astra returned to the Gryffindor common room late at night, surprised to see that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were still there, staying up on some homework. Everyone else had cleared out, and Hermione seemed to be looking over it while Harry was reading and Ron was nearly dozing off.

Astra chuckled, but set down her belongings on the armchair, shrugging off the silent question that Hermione asked.

"So, what're you - Dad?!"

She had done a quick glance around the common room when saying hello to the others, but her eyes grew wide as she saw an untidy head in the fire.

Harry perked up and Ron nearly jumped out of his chair, while Hermione gasped.

"Hi," he said, grinning.

Astra glanced around the room one more time and crouched in front of the fire, a murderous glare on her face.

"What do you think you're doing -"

"Just wanted to check up on things -"

"Dad."

"- and I needed to pass along a message," he finished cheerfully, avoiding eye contact. 

Astra sighed and her face broke out in a small grin. Sirius beamed.

"So, how're things?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione joined Astra by kneeling down on the hearthrug. Crookshanks purred loudly and approached the fire, trying, despite the heat, to put his face close to Sirius's.

"Not that good," said Harry, as Hermione pulled Crookshanks back to stop him singeing his whiskers. "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams--"

"Or secret Defence Against the Dark Arts groups?" said Sirius.

There was a short pause.

"Lemme guess, Aberforth?"