Rubatosis Rewrite

Chapter 9

"No way." Marlene gasped as everyone's eyes flew to what she was looking at. "Where have you been, we were worried sick!" Lily stood up from her seat and stared at Astra as she walked over to the table with Frank. The boy took his seat beside Alice as Astra stood in front of a crazed Lily.

"I was at the pitch with Frank." Astra stated, looking at her friend in a confused manner. "We woke up this morning and you were gone! No note, nothing just gone!" Lily was pulled back into her seat by Marlene and Astra took her seat next to James. "I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to go down to the pitch and ran into Frank and we just sat out there and talked." The girl said, staring at her plate, not really hungry anymore due to Lily's yelling.

"Aren't you going to eat something?" Peter asked quietly. "Uh, I'm not really that hungry. I'm going to go see about a book in the library and I will meet you guys in the common room later. Astra jumped out of her seat and walked towards the Great Hall doors. James' eyes followed her the whole way until she had left his sight. "You know that yelling bothers her, Lily. You have to be gentle with her, she's not the same after what happened. Neither of us are." Sirius said, continuing to eat his food while staring at the Daily Prophet.

"I'll see you guys in the common room." James jumped from his seat and ran out of the doors to the Great Hall, following Astra. "Sorry!" James yelled as he ran into some third years while running down the hall. "She went that way." A couple of Ravenclaw girls yelled out to the boy running frantically down the wrong hallway. James immediately turned around yelling a confused 'Thank you' before running out of the doors that led outside and to the care of magical creatures class.

Astra turned around at the sound of rapid footsteps as she saw the bespeckled boy running towards her. "Woah, slow down!" Astra said gesturing towards the hippogriff she was standing next to. James immediately stopped in his tracks remembering the last time someone had run towards a hippogriff, it didn't end well. "What are you doing?" She said towards the boy as he leaned up against the fence.

"I came to check on you, you seemed upset." He said in concern. "Can I come in there?" He asked. "Yes just, slowly this time maybe?" She smiled at the boy. He nodded and climbed over the fence and slowly stalked towards Astra and the oversized bird, letting it bow and then walking to pet it. He pet the bird's beak as the two wizards smiled at each other.

"His name's Fleetwing. The professor let me name him a couple years ago. You wanna go for a fly?" She asked, smiling at him, excitement shown in her gray eyes. He was stunned for a moment, frozen while staring at her dazzling smile. He could see every distinct color in her eyes. They were no longer a dull gray but instead held more of a blue tint and even some green near the middle.

"James? You alright?" She questioned tilting her head while looking up at him. "Uh. Yeah, yeah I'm alright." He smiled watching the girl jump onto the hippogriff's back and giving him a hand up. He could feel the smooth feathers on his fingertips. "You might want to hold on." The golden haired girl in front of him said as the creature quickly took off.

Before James could fall off, he quickly wrapped his arms around the girl's waist and buried his head into her shoulder. "Oh don't tell me you're scared Jamsie? You are a bloody seeker, you should be used to this." Her laugh echoed through the wind as James pulled his head up and looked around. They were flying over one of the towers of the castle.

Fleetwing dove down and over the black lake as James looked at their reflection in it. Paying more attention to the girls smiling face than himself. She stuck her arms straight out and James laughed following her actions. Fleetwing suddenly turned to the left and headed back to the castle grounds, landing back into the useless fence and coming to a stop.

James jumped down first laughing at the girl's awestruck face. "That was amazing! I forgot how much fun that is!" She laughed as James put one hand on her arm and one on her waist, lifting her off of the creature and placing her back on her feet. He wrapped his arm around her waist to hold her steady as she smiled up at him. He couldn't help but smile as her happiness was so contagious.

Suddenly, the pair was pushed over. Astra landed on top of James as the boy fell backwards onto the ground. "I am so sorry!" Astra stood up and turned to a smug looking hippogriff. Astra raised her eyebrows at him. "Are you serious right now?" She stared at the hippogriff as he snorted and ran off towards his other friends flapping his wings in excitement.

The girl turned back to her best friend who was now standing once again. "We had better head back, the others are waiting for us in the common room." James said, shoving his hands into his back pockets awkwardly. "Yeah. Yeah right." She acknowledged while clearing her throat. The two started their journey back towards the common room only stopping to get some snacks from the kitchens.