Smoke | James Potter

。six 。

phoenix laughed loudly as harley blushed and sophia smiled at the pink and blonde haired slytherin. astra gave harley a smile, knowing her crush on the ginger gryffindor had be apparent since lily lent her a quill in DADA when they had to work with one another. a few times, astra had caught lily staring at harley with dilated pupils and rosy cheeks but harley always refused the facts and said she was lying.

"would you mind inviting your brother and his friends?" sophia looked at astra.

"have you not?" astra questioned and sophia shook her head. "if you don't like them, you don't have to."

"it's not that, it's just that they're always close to sir nicholas and i'm afraid he'll try to show me how his head nearly got chopped off again." sophia shivered. "i much prefer peeves' stories."

"i think we all do over the being whacked in the neck salazar knows how many times with a blunt axe." phoenix muttered. "i've heard it ten times now and each time i think it actually gets worse, you know."

"he's dead, there's not a lot of new subjects to discuss, i'm assuming." astra shrugged. "i'll ask them."

"thank you." sophia said and soon enough they were made to go to their next lesson, leaving behind the glorious display of floating pumpkins in the great hall.

sophia split off to have her lesson with the ravenclaw's while astra, harley and phoenix headed towards care of magical creatures. the class was split off into groups after being told they were learning about unicorns. they were told that the creature was far friendlier to witches than they were wizards so each group had two girls in and two boys. astra was grouped with sirius, james and alice fortescue , who was a calm young woman but she was also fiercely protective over those close to her.

"the hufflepuffs are having a halloween party. you two and the other two in your weird miniature cult are also invited." astra mentioned as she stroked the unicorn's mane gently, the creature standing close to her and alice while james and sirius had backed off as told by the professor.

"it's going to be amazing!" alice grinned happily. "me and frank are going together as a vampire and a vampire's victim. i'm the vampire."

"it's fancy dress?!" sirius gasped loudly. "and we're hearing about this last minute? i have no time to prepare or think!"

"as if you ever do." james snorted, putting some food on the floor for the unicorn which carefully took it, stepping closer to james when the food was okay.

"who are you going as?" sirius demanded, looking at astra.

"someone." astra shrugged.

"who or what?" sirius groaned.

"something." astra prompted with a smug smirk and her twin groaned in annoyance again.

"is it david bowie?" sirius asked, throwing some food for the unicorn to eat as well.

"no, someone else is going as him." astra denied, the unicorn nudging her gently when she stopped brushing her fingers over their mane.

sirius gasped to himself, "i know who i'm gonna be!"

"who?" alice questioned as she grinned at the unicorn, seemingly unable to look away from the creatures beauty.

"not saying." sirius replied. "i'm just gonna be the best dressed, i know that for sure."

"it's elton john, isn't it?" astra guessed.

"no." sirius lied with a scoff. "well now it can't be! don't talk about it, i need to plan."

"who are you doing to be?" alice asked james who had managed to take another step towards the unicorn without it backing up.

"maybe the grim reaper or something. i'm not sure." james mused.