𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝗼𝐧 | 𝙃𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙋𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧

𝑋𝑋𝑉 - 𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝘀

    She smiled, stopping herself from laughing too much, "I assume their lollipop getting stolen and floating away didn't raise any concerns for them," Astria joked while they both started to calm down, beaming at each other a little as people passed by outside the protection of the Alleyway.

    The moment passed when Astria broke eye contact, looking out at all the people, she didn't mind crowded places, of course, it wasn't her favorite place to be, but that was never the problem with them. The problem was they never really seemed to like her. And Astria understood, she understood how it looked and what Sirius did, no matter the holes in the entire thing. The man had killed 12 muggles. So Astria understood why they feared him, and they thought he was her father, so they feared her as well. Or maybe they just very much disliked her, fear was a strong word, or maybe it was just a weak one.

    Harry folded up the invisibility cloak, walking over to his friend, "Earth to Tria?" the boy remarked, waving his hand in front of her face, bringing Astrias attention to the ring he took from her hand earlier still on his ring finger. Which happened to be the peace sign ring she shared with Luna, Neville, and Ginny. She chose not to say anything about the fact that it was handmade (Meraki Ashlyn of course) and if any of her friends saw it, they would know it was hers.

    She smiled at him, pushing a loose piece of hair behind her ear, "I'm here,"

    The air was so much colder than inside the shop, or under the cloak, "Good, wanna go see who we run into first?" he asked, the words 'my friends or yours' went unsaid. And honestly, Astria didn't know what would be better anyway, she was friends with Ron now, but she had never spoken with Hermoine, not even after becoming friends with the red-head. And with her friend group, the gossip around the school was enough for them to know Harry and Astria were friends, and technically she never denied it even when some did not believe it. But her Slytherin friends very much disliked the boy, Morpheus and Neville were in the gray area, and all her second-year friends couldn't come anyway. So the better option was suddenly becoming Harry's friends, or Fred, George, and Sage, but it seemed like they planned to stay at the school.

    Astria responded with a smile, watching as Harry tucked the lollipop he had taken away into his hoodie as she turned to walk out the alleyway.

            The street was bustling with people of all sorts, a great majority of them being students. Some walked by in big groups, laughing about whatever they had found funny. Others passed in slower groups, some on their own. Most people had a shopping bag with them, and everyone had some type of protection from the cold.

           "This way," The dark-skinned boy motioned, weaving his way through the crowd. By the second time Astria almost lost him, she decided to run up next to him and hold on to the end of his hoodie sleeve. They both did their best to ignore the looks they got from the stray people that spotted them in the mass of people.

            Astria watched the stores pass around her, a few names seemed familiar. Most likely from her friends bringing them up, or maybe from Remus when she was younger. She'd asked him about it later, but then she'd have to tell him that she went to town, which she definitely wasn't supposed to do.

           "Is that Astria Black and Harry Potter? Together?" She and Harry heard a scratchy voice as they passed an old-looking lady cleaning something outside an older-looking Pub. The Potter boy, who had been pulling her through the wave of people, looked back at the curly-haired girl with an eye roll directed at the comment. While Astria laughed softly at the whole thing.