cigarette daydream || james potter

"you wanna find peace of mind,"

Astronomy had always been Estella's favourite lesson.

Not because it was easy-although she was naturally good at it-or because it was one of the few classes that didn't require endless essays or complicated wandwork. She loved it because, for one evening every week, Hogwarts became wonderfully quiet.

While the rest of the castle settled into its nighttime routine, students climbed higher and higher until they reached the tallest tower, leaving behind the warmth and noise of the corridors below. Up there, the world felt different. The air was colder, cleaner, carrying the scent of ancient stone and pine from the Forbidden Forest far below. The wind was always stronger, teasing loose strands of hair across her face, and the stars felt close enough that she could almost convince herself she only needed to reach a little farther to touch them.

She had loved the stars for as long as she could remember.

Perhaps it had something to do with her name. *Estella*-star.

Her mother had once told her that she'd been named after the brightest thing in the night sky because she'd been born just before dawn, when the stars were fading but refusing to disappear completely. Whether the story was true or not, Estella had always liked it.

There was something comforting about the night sky.

The stars were always there.

They watched over the castle every evening, exactly as they had centuries before Hogwarts had been built and exactly as they would centuries after everyone currently walking its halls was gone. They were constant in a world where everything else seemed determined to change.

Humming quietly beneath her breath, Estella climbed the endless spiral staircase leading towards the Astronomy Tower, her footsteps echoing softly against the worn stone steps. Ahead of her, groups of students chatted excitedly, their voices bouncing around the circular stairwell.

Marlene McKinnon was halfway up the stairs already, animatedly telling Dorcas Meadowes about something that had apparently happened during Defence Against the Dark Arts earlier that day.

Mary Macdonald laughed loudly enough for her voice to travel down several flights.

Lily Evans walked beside her, shaking her head with an amused smile.

Behind Estella, someone complained dramatically about the amount of homework Professor Binns had assigned.

Someone else threatened to fake an illness before next week's lesson.

Estella ignored them all.

The higher they climbed, the colder the air became. By the time she stepped through the heavy wooden door leading onto the Astronomy Tower, a crisp autumn breeze immediately greeted her, sweeping across the circular platform and tugging at her robes.

The view was breathtaking.

The grounds of Hogwarts stretched endlessly beneath them, the Black Lake shimmering like polished obsidian beneath the moonlight. The Forbidden Forest was little more than an enormous sea of black treetops swaying gently in the wind. In the distance, the mountains formed dark silhouettes against the horizon.

Above them...

The sky was impossibly clear.

Thousands upon thousands of stars glittered overhead, scattered across the darkness like diamonds sewn into black velvet. The Milky Way stretched across the heavens in a pale ribbon of silver, so vivid that it almost seemed painted there.