Astra

XVII - The Cat and Rat

IN NO TIME AT ALL, Defense Against the Dark Arts had become most people's favorite class. Only Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins had anything bad to say about Professor Lupin.

"Look at the state of his robes," Malfoy would say in a loud whisper as Professor Lupin passed. "He dresses like our old house elf." Whenever this happened, however, Malfoy would either get a glare from Astra or some sort of prank the next day. It seemed that some students knew it was her, but she couldn't help but feel slightly bad for the Weasley twins, to whom it was blamed. They were alright with it, though, and would wink at her whenever McGonagall came to give them detentions.

But no one else cared that Professor Lupin's robes were patched and frayed. His next few lessons were just as interesting as the first. After Boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty little goblin-like creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed: in the dungeons of castles and the potholes of deserted battlefields, waiting to bludgeon those who had gotten lost. From Red Caps they moved on to Kappas, creepy. water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds.

Potions, however, was only getting worse. Snape was in a particularly vindictive mood these days, and no one was in any doubt why. The story of the Boggart assuming Snape's shape, and the way that Neville had dressed it in his grandmother's clothes, had traveled through the school like wildfire. Snape didn't seem to find it funny. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin's name, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever.

Astra also wasn't necessarily enjoying Divination. Hermione still made it a point to sit next to Astra every class, though she showed a growing disinterest in the subject. She also seemed confused as to why Astra showed talent even in this class. Professor Trelawney bothered Astra about her 'inner eye' all the time because of her 'aura', and even though Astra knew that she probably was a seer (though she didn't know in which way), she continuously denied having any seeing powers. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had taken to haunting Professor Trelawney's tower room at lunch times, and always returned with annoyingly superior looks on their faces, as though they knew things the others didn't. They had also started sending Astra curious looks as well as their usual glares.

Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the action-packed first class, had become extremely dull. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence. They were now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after flobberworms, which had to be some of the most boring creatures in existence. Astra didn't know whether she should try to convince Hagrid to bring out the better creatures, or just leave him be. But she simply took care of the flobber worms then.

***

October came and so did the first Hogsmeade weekend. The common room was buzzing excitedly with everyone crowding around the sign. Astra was sitting in her usual armchair reading her current animagus homework with Hermione sitting by her, still adamant in trying to make Astra her friend. Ron was sitting nearby Hermione, though he seemed skeptical of sitting next to the young Black. 

"What's happened?", Harry asked Ron and Hermione as he came in, looking wet and stiff from the rain outside.

"First Hogsmeade weekend," said Ron, pointing at the notice that had appeared on the battered old bulletin board. "End of October. Halloween."

"Excellent," said Fred, who had followed Harry through the portrait hole. "I need to visit Zonko's. I'm nearly out of Stink Pellets."

"Harry, I'm sure you'll be able to go next time," Hermione said. "They're bound to catch Black soon. He's been sighted once already." Astra rolled her eyes wasn't going to get caught, seeing as it would be quite hard to find a black dog if you didn't know that he was the black dog.