Rubatosis Rewrite

Chapter 4

The train rattled as it made its way down the tracks to the magic school the students called home. Half an hour left. Astra thought as she sighed in content. She was finally back with her friends and she could not be any happier.

"So, Astra, how was your summer?" Marlene asked, raising her eyebrows and smirking. Astra rolled her eyes, knowing what Marlene was insinuating. "It was nice. Well, other than the boy's daily mischief. I could not wait to get back to school so that I could hide from those two idiots." Astra shook her head, smiling at all the memories of the boys trying to prank her.

"Effie was not particularly happy when the boys tried to prank her. Even Monty helped them! Effie got so mad he had to sleep on the couch that night." Astra laughed, looking at the girls as they tried to imagine what the boys did that made Euphemia so upset.

"So, what about you and James? Hmm?" Lily asked nonchalantly as she picked through the package of vile jelly beans. "What about him?" Astra eyed the redhead. "Oh, you know... Has he asked you out yet?" Astra choked on air.

"Asked me out! No we are just friends, I live with him and his parents for Pete's sake! We are nothing more than best friends." She finalized, hoping to change the conversation topic. She turned to Alice.

"Alice! How was your summer?" She smiled at the girl. "Well it went amazing! Frank came over towards the end and asked my parents for permission to propose." She held up her left hand and a large diamond rested atop a simple silver band. It was quite beautiful.

"That is amazing Alice! Congratulations!" Astra hugged the girl tightly. Then all the other girls embraced her as well, inspecting the ring. They awed over the story of how Frank proposed as Astra stared out the window. Hogwarts was now coming into view and Astra could not wait for the girls night they were going to hold for their return.

It has been a tradition since first year to have a girls night where they gossip about everything and just catch up since the summer ended. Alice's voice faded from Astra's thoughts as she stared at the castle.

She couldn't wait for quidditch. This was going to be their year, she just knew it. With James as the captain they already had the House Cup in the bag. The train started to pull into the station so Astra walked back to the boys compartment to pick up her stuff. The train stopped as she arrived at the door. She walked through to find Remus already gone, probably doing prefect duties.

James and Sirius were standing next to the door as they waited for Peter to clean up his candy wrappers. Sirius extended his arm towards Astra and handed her her trunk. She took it and it was immediately taken from her by James. "Let me carry it, it must be heavy."

"I can manage just fine, thank you." Astra smiled at him and grabbed the trunk from his hand, immediately turning around and joining the girls in their walk to the castle. It was dark and there was a slight chill in the air. The girls took a carriage to the castle gates together and the boys took another. Astra could hear James and Sirius' booming laughter as they rode into the castle.