To The Moon and Back | Remus Lupin's Daughter

12. New Friend - Astra

A few weeks passed since we met Daddy's strange friend. He seems nice over all but  a little off at time. i still don't like how he looked at me but daddy doesn't have many friends, and i don't want him to loose anyone because of me so i decided not to tell him how uncomfy the older man makes me feel. 

Since the meeting, Daddy been distracted, like his mind is caught off in some far off day dream. When he is present he's looking at books and writing plans. Apparently we're moving to hogwarts so he can teach which sounds... interesting? If i'm honest i don't know how to feel about it, i got use to our cottage. I like being close to the forest. 

It's peaceful out there, with the birds and the foxes roaming around freely. i don't know why daddy doesn't let us come out here on the full moon, itd be fun. being able to run around under the moonlight, it's something ive always wanted to do. I just don't know how to go about asking Daddy. he prefers being in the room, he says its safer. It just feels like a bigger cage to me but at least i have daddy, the full moons before were lonely. 

"Astra, don't stray too far, stay were i can see you okay?" Daddy called from his spot on the garden wall. he was writing in a journal again. he's been doing that a lot lately, constantly reading old journals or writing in new ones, when he wasn't scribbling on piles of paper, his ideas for teaching. he's been like that since we visited Dumbledore. he barely talks to me, just fixated on one task or an other that the man asked him to do. 

I miss him reading to me, or letting me help look after the garden. I make the trips into the forest to get herbs and flowers alone now, he watches from the wall and i'm not aloud go as deep into the forest as we used to go on our adventures together. All he can focus on is work. he's here but he's not. 

it's okay though, soon Molly will be back and i can bake with her. I also made a new friend in the woods.  He's really playful and sweet. He's a dog i found in the forest, i call him Pads. he was always watching me, curiously. I think he could tell i'm a wolf, like he knew we were similar. Thats why he's so sweet. We tested loads of names but he didn't seem to like any of them till i was trying to describe what his paws were like, you know the squishy but leahtery part of the paw, and he got really excited so i guessed he wanted to be called Pads. he was really dirty when i first found him, and looked sick. like he hadn't eaten. Daddy hasn't noticed but i've been taking some scraps from our dinner and leaving it on the garden wall from him each night, he's looking healthier now too. One of the days...i did some accidental magic but i haven't told daddy. i was petting him and his fur was all dirty and knotted. it seemed sore. i don't like when my fur used to get like that because of mother. 

I wasn't really thinking of doing anything, i just wanted to make him clean. So, i tried to find water and suddenly, well water started coming up off the leaves of the trees around us, tiny little drops like rain but instead of falling from the sky it was floating up into the sky towards me, as it got closer it formed into a bigger ball of water. I don't know how i did it, or how i knew what to do but I think i guided the water towards pads, and it started dancing around him in swishes and swirls, lifting the dirt off his fur till he was all clean but wet, then the dirty water just disappeared into the grass like it was never there in the first place. Pads just looked at me confused but happy to be clean, especially when i managed to dry him the same way i gathered the water to begin with. Afterwards, i noticed that his fur was so fluffy and soft and completely black. he looked like an all black wolf. he seemed happy to be clean cause he just jumped at me and started licking me afterwards. almost like a thank you, he's a good dog and a better friend.