❛ASTERIA EDWARDS was your average, typical eleven-year-old child stuck in a pandemic with her mother Isabella Diggory until she found out where she truly came from.. and where she truly belonged...❜
[extended summary inside]
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harry potte...
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Albus Dumbledore never thought he would be the kind of man to feel pity for himself.
Pity for what, you ask?
Pity, because this was possibly the last winter he would experience. Pity, because even as a wrinkly old sorcerer who could meet his death any moment, all he wished for was to never forget the feel of snow falling on his face, as childish as it may seem.
After some minutes of peace.. of watching the snow-covered grounds of Hogwarts from the Astronomy Tower, he had returned to his study again. Pacing on and on, he did not bother to dust the snowflakes off his beard, letting them melt instead.
"The holidays are over. All the students would be back to the castle by tomorrow evening." He had been thinking to himself, when all of a sudden his sleeping Phoenix jolted itself awake.
"All right, Fawkes?" He asked, curious as to what had alerted him.
It only took him a moment before he burst apart into flames and disappeared with a shrill cry. And Dumbledore walked up to his perch, wondering what had called him as he brushed the ash off its surface.
Only a moment later the light returned, and a trembling figure fell to the floor, clutching her stomach, weeping, as if in some immense pain she could not explain.
Dumbledore rushed to her, and she looked up, panting. "What happened, dear?"
She weeped some more, pursing her lips, shaking her head as if terrified of telling him.
"Whatever it is, Asteria, I give you my word, we will go through together—"
She shook her head again, more furiously. But then her eyes widened, as if in realisation. And her legs found strength again. She grabbed his wrist and dragged him out of his study. Fawkes followed closely.
They rushed their way down. But Ria's misery was ahead of the both of them, dragging against the walls on both their sides, destroying the portraits while the residents inside were taken with surprise at the sudden attack. Though she didn't seem to mind, like all the other times.
Before he could comprehend, they were descending down the stairs in the dungeon. And then she stood him in front of the wall before the Slytherin common room.
"Asteria—"
She ignored him, parting the wall with a spell and then dragging him inside. The fire on Fawkes's wings lit the way.
She had not been this deep into the passageway before, she hadn't gotten the chance to. And she had always told her three best friends that they would go in together, solve the mystery someday. But she did not have time.
They stopped at one point, the main door closing behind them echoed against the stone walls, and then she turned to him, clutching at the sleeves of his purple robes with all the strength left in her.
