Fallen Star || James Potter

22. Quidditch Camp Out

Helloo my loves,

Thank you for your patience with this next chapter, but it's here and I hope you love it <3

Song: MmmBop (Hanson)

t.w mention of toxic, abusive households / blood / mention of death.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Quidditch Camp Out

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

July 8th 1972, Saturday.

The last full moon, Astra and Sirius had spent until dawn waiting outside the whomping willow, listening to the painful howls that continuously cried out into the dead of the night.

Although she wished she hadn't.

As the sun began to rise, Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey returned to the monstrous tree, the transfiguration teacher once again changing into her animagus state in order to halt the malevolent branches.

Madam Pomfrey once more disappeared for a short while, however this time she emerged with an exhausted, feeble, bloodied and bruised boy under her arm.

The same boy who came to Hogwarts with his walls built so high around him that he refused to let anyone see him in a vulnerable state.

He who successfully got into a fist fight every day during his first week, causing most people to turn the other way when seeing him in the hallways.

The same boy who tried so hard to convince everyone around him that his rough exterior meant he was incapable of being hurt, was now being hauled back to the castle in the arms of the school's matron, arguably the only person he has truly allowed himself to be defenceless around.

His cheeks were stained with tears, his almost lifeless body all torn apart as he sank instinctively into the older woman's arms, trusting her to take care of him as he stood before her completely unguarded.

This was the image Astra struggled to forget.

She could not bring herself to visit him in the hospital wing the morning that followed the full moon, unable to face him after bearing witness to only a small portion of the pain he routinely goes through.

It was selfish of her, she knew that. She was not the one who went through the excruciating pain, so why was it so hard for her to come to terms with.

The words Sirius had spoken the night of the full moon played on a constant loop in Astra's head the days that followed.

He had been so accepting, so normalised to the idea of Remus being a werewolf, almost as if the fact did not phase him at all. This just further confused Astra. How was he able to just go about his day to day life knowing this information, without having a million questions running through his head.

She had questions. So many questions, yet had been unable to bring herself to be alone around Remus to ask them. She has been unable to bring herself to be alone around any of the boys, scared she may say something she wasn't supposed to.

That's what she thought, but maybe the truth Astra didn't want to admit was not that she was afraid of talking out of turn, but instead, scared of the unknown, scared of Remus.