Star of Gryffindor - Book 1

Chapter 6 - Curfews Are Just Suggestions

Before either of my friends could answer, a commotion behind me distracted us. We turned to see Rose Weasley standing over a pile of apparently dropped books. Her cheeks were flaming red, almost the same color as her hair.

"You ok?" Wren asked kindly, walking over to help pick the books up.

Rose quickly nodded. "F-fine. I'm fine." She shooed Wren away, saying, "I don't need help!"

"Oh, all right," Wren said quietly. It was obvious she was a bit hurt, and for a moment Rose looked like she was trying to think of a way to fix that. She ended up just piling her books up and quickly walking away.

"What was that about?" I asked, after she'd disappeared through the door to our dorm.

Albus shrugged. "Who knows?"

I shrugged as well. No big deal. "What were we talking about?"

"I don't know," Wren said, obviously not paying much attention. "What's James doing?"

James was bent over a parchment at a secluded table in the corner of the room. Every so often he would glance over his shoulder like he didn't want anyone to see what he was doing. Incredibly suspicious.

I silently padded over to him, followed by my friends. We surrounded his chair, then I loudly said, "Whatchya doing?"

James jumped, muttered something, and quickly tried to cover the parchment. We started laughing as he caught sight of Wren and relaxed. "Gosh, don't scare me like that!"

"Was that the Marauder's Map?" I asked. I had caught a glimpse of moving dots.

James nodded. "Now if you'll excuse m-"

"What were you doing?" I asked innocently.

"Nothing," he said evasively. James tried to scoot around me, but I stepped in front of him.

"I could just tell your dad about th-" I started, but he quickly cut me off.

"Keep your voice down! No one else knows about this map!"

"Tell me what you were doing then."

Albus grinned. "You were watching Mackenzie, weren't you?"

James flushed. "What? No! You can just shut up about that!"

Wren smiled understandingly. "It's ok, we won't tell her."

Albus said, "You won-"

"Neither will you!" Wren said fiercely, turning on him.

Albus out his hands up. "All right, all right!"

James sighed. "Maybe I was, but it's none of your business."

"Ok, fine then." I shrugged, turning to walk away.

"Astra!" James grabbed my arm, pulling me to a halt. "What happened?" I felt his hand on the back of my head, where it had hit the wall. I winced as I turned back to meet James's worried eyes.

"Ciara Malfoy...she used that stunning spell on me, and I flew into a wall." I had forgotten about that, somehow, but I could still feel the dull throbbing.

"You need to go see Madam Pomfrey," James said, concern showing in his brown eyes.

I didn't really want to go to the hospital wing, but Wren and James insisted, and Albus looked too alarmed about the seriousness of my insignificant injury to even speak, so I agreed to go. They raced me through the castle, ducking and dodging around students and ghosts and Peeves the poltergeist. In five minutes I was sitting on a bed in the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey fussing over me like a mother hen. I wasn't badly hurt, and the gash wasn't very deep; a simple spell fixed it. However, it was only with great pleading that she agreed to let me spend the night in my own dorm, as opposed to the hospital wing, and only on the condition that I "go to bed early and don't do anything dangerous, boisterous, or anything active at all." Basically, spend the evening sitting in a chair doing absolutely nothing.