Snake Charmer

Chapter Twelve

Lily was talking about random things as she and Asteria made their way toward the great hall for study hall. When suddenly Asteria's braid was yanked backwards. She hissed and swung around. Bellatrix stood there smiling and wrapped her hand around the braid, getting a better grip.

"Ria!" Lily started forward until Lucius stepped up behind her grabbing her arms locking her in place. Asteria's eyes moved between Bellatrix and Lucius quickly trying to figure out what she needed to do. Lily struggled in his hold, Lethal look in her eyes as she stared at Bellatrix.

"Seems like you, don't realize who you are dealing with Scamander." Asteria giggled darkly, arching an eyebrow her eyes traveling back to Lucius.

"Need a girl to fight your battles for you Malfoy?" Bellatrix yanked on her hair again making Asteria stiffen and turn her attention back to her. Her eyes flickered down noticing that Bellatrix had drawn her wand. Asteria let out a disappointed sigh and slowly not to draw attention reached in her robes pulling the herbs knife from her waist band.

"You are speaking to me not him!" Asteria smiled sickly sweet at Bellatrix before bringing her arm up quickly, blade sliced through her braid. Asteria giggled as Bellatrix lost her balance and fell backwards on to the floor, still holding onto the freshly cut braid. Lily's eyes widened as Lucius lets her go quickly and stumbles away from her. Asteria places the blade back in her waist band and pulls Lily along quickly.

"Oh, Ria your hair!" Lily exclaimed lightly. She reached up and touched her hair lightly, it reached her shoulders now.

"A simple potion can fix it. It's just hair." Lily frowned and shook her head.

"I don't understand why they are constantly pestering you!" Asteria shrugged.

"Regulus warned me, but I didn't think to take it seriously. None of them scare me." Lily's eyebrows drew together as they enter the great hall.

"Wait...Regulus warned you? That's not like him...Not with Sirius's friends anyway." Asteria wanted to sigh but she didn't. She just forced herself smile and sit down pulling out her books to get her homework done for the day. So that she would have free time. Which the boys would probably just ask for her help with their homework.

She could feel Lily look at her every now and then but, she ignored it and tried to get her homework done. She mentally kicked herself when she realized that she was going to have to explain this hair cut to her father and he was not going to like that she was carrying around a knife. But it wasn't like she had done it on purpose! She had just forgot to put it back when she was cutting herbs for Professor Sprout.

Lily didn't bring it up again and she was grateful for that and Asteria did not want to deal with the boys, so she said her good-byes to Lily and made her way to the library. She could hide there until dinner and hopefully no one came looking for her.

Asteria had to force herself not to run to the library. She just needed the rest of the day to be alone and away from people and there was one place that she knew that she would be able to do that.

She rushed into the library and noticed that there were only a few people in there. Thankfully! She slowly made her way toward the restricted section and didn't bother to look around as she slipped inside. She made her way all the way to the back and froze mid-step.

Regulus was sat at the only table that was back there. She wanted to turn on her heels and leave but he lifted his eyes, offered her a small smile before returning to his reading. Suppressing a growl she sat on the other side of the table and pulled out the muggle book that she had nicked from Remus. Determined to read it and ignore Regulus.

They both sat there silently for a long time, before Regulus couldn't take it anymore and looked up at her again.

"What happened to your hair?" Asteria turned the page in her book, and without looking up she shrugged.

"I cut it when your cousin grabbed me by my braid." Regulus sighed heavily and shook his head.

"I apologize for that. She's a little extreme." Asteria's eyebrows drew together in frustration as she looked up at Regulus. She noticed that his dress shirt sleeves were buttoned at the wrist...She knew what he was, and he was acting if she didn't for some reason...

"Do you know who I am Regulus?" She watched Regulus for any irregularity in his movements. But he just blinked at her.

"Do you mean that Tom Riddle is looking for you?" Asteria flinched at the sound of Tom's name. So, he did know.

"Do you know Tom Riddle?" She asked cautiously. She didn't want him to close his self-off to her.

"Don't worry Dumbledore, I'm not ratting you out to him and I won't tell anyone who you really are." Asteria should be freaking out. But she wasn't. For some reason she was calm. Asteria smiled at him curiously.

"Strange I thought you would be more like Orion. Because Sirius is nothing like him. I'm glad that his children are better than him." Regulus sputtered out a laugh.

"That's just weird that you knew my dad." Asteria giggled a little.

"I suppose that you are right. It is strange." Asteria chose to ignore the fact that Regulus was probably a death eater. He was kind she could see it in his eyes.

"Can I ask you something?" Asteria's stomach dropped. She wasn't excepting questions.

"Okay?" Her palms began to sweat, she wiped them on the inside of her robes and glanced down at her legs.

"What happened to you?" Asteria bit down on her lower lip. Was it really okay to tell him?

"Can I trust you Regulus?" Her voice betrayed her. She was a little afraid of letting people in. Asteria stiffens when Regulus gets up and sits down next to her.

"Probably not. But I'm good at keeping secrets anyway." They both laughed and there she was again feeling calm.

Asteria had met up with Regulus in the library almost every day that week. He was easy to talk to and he made her laugh. And she didn't have to keep anything from him. Which was refreshing, but it was making some part of her feel guilty that she couldn't be more honest with Lily and the others.

"Asteria, are you listening?" She blinked, pulling herself from her own thoughts.

"What Reggie?" Regulus snorted and rolled his eyes.

"It's dinner time. We should head to the great hall." Asteria rolled her eyes and grabbed her stuff off the table and followed Regulus out of the library.

Regulus bumped her shoulder playfully. She smiled at him and linked her arm through his. He smiled down at her as they walked into the great hall. She let go of his arm and waved at him as she veered off toward the Gryffindor table. She smiled nervously noticing that Lily and Marlene were staring at her, and she could almost see the wheels turning in their heads.

She braced herself as she sat down across from them, grabbing things to put on her plate. Lily and Marlene shared a look and then look back to her again.

"I can feel you both staring so spit it out." She didn't bother to hide the annoyance in her voice. She lifted her icy orbs to look at them. Damn it! They were both smirking at her.

"What was that with Regulus?" Marlene asked leaning forward, Asteria rolled her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair.

"We've been studying together in the library. He's nice to talk to." Marlene snorted and Lily smiled like a love-struck teenager. That was not what she was going for at all.

"We are going to head down and watch the boys practice after dinner do you want to come too?" Asteria knew that if she didn't that both James and Sirus would whine about it later, so she just nodded and continued to eat her food.

Albus watched his daughter carefully as she made small interactions with Miss Evans and Miss McKinnon. It was baby steps. But he had noticed that she was slowly opening up to more people. She was smiling more, and it seemed that the flashbacks weren't as bad as they use to be. But he knew that it was going to take a lot more than this to help her heal from Tom Riddle.