astronomy • marlene mckinnon

thirty eight

The sounds of birds whistling in the trees, proudly reciting their morning tunes filled the sky as the night began to fade away. Dawn was beginning to break over the horizon, making the castle of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry look majestic under its faintly gold hues.

The lake not far away from the castle was glimmering in the light of dawn and was casting a greenish tinge in the Slytherin dorms which extended partway under the lake.

The morning was peaceful, and most of the population living in the castle was fast asleep, lost in their dreams and reaching out for a world they could not have, and in the seventh-year Slytherin dorms, a girl who had just turned eighteen had woken up and sat up straight, her hand placed over her mouth as a choked sob escaped her mouth so that she didn't wake up the other girls in the dorm.

The raven-haired girl looked around, her grey eyes wide and running around her surroundings frantically, reaching out for comfort, a layer of sweat covering her body.

The girl leaned back against the bed frame, closing her eyes as she attempted to calm herself down, focusing more on her surroundings rather than the images flashing through her head.

Astraea Black wasn't a stranger to nightmares.

At thirteen years old, she had declared to herself that with parents like hers, nightmares were inevitable.

At seventeen years old, once she had accepted that her life was controlled by her parents and had taken the dark mark after agreeing to be a spy, in an attempt to do something good for the people she had no choice but to treat horribly, she told herself that she had to get used to waking up at any time during the night and convince herself that none of it was real.

But once the nightmares began to show what she had done to people, the thought didn't bring any comfort, and she could only wrap her arms around her body and whisper comforting words to herself.

It was Narcissa who had found the seventeen-year-old curled up in the corner of her room, tears streaming down her face when the blonde had come up to call the raven-haired girl who had made her first kill for dinner.

The blonde woman hadn't asked any questions and had immediately entered, closing the door and locking it behind her, and pulled the raven-haired girl into her arms.

"I don't know if I'm a good person anymore," Astraea had sobbed, and her cousin had looked at her with a soft expression and told her that she was everything a girl would want to be and more.

The raven-haired girl never believed it.

She wasn't sure if anyone would want to be a person who would kill just so they wouldn't get caught in the web of lies they created, and be murdered in cold blood.

There was only one way of going out once you had joined the death-eaters and Astraea wasn't really sure she was ready to die so young.

The raven-haired girl now walked out of the Slytherin common room, walking quietly as she headed towards the Astronomy tower.

The tower was peaceful, and one of the only places which made the now eighteen-year-old feel safe.

She winced as the door creaked when she opened it and furrowed her eyebrows when she saw someone already sitting there, looking back with a confused look that mirrored her own.

"Reg?"

"Rea?"

The two had spoken at the same time and then smiled at each other. Astraea walked towards her younger brother and sat down next to him, crossing her legs as the two turned to watch the sky as the sun broke through the horizon.