We Will Shine {Book 6 in the Star of Gryffindor Series}

Chapter 12 - Gideon and Vinnie

~Wren~

"Where is she?" Albus asked, frowning at his watch. "Her class ended fifteen minutes ago."

I shrugged. We were sitting alone in the common room, waiting for Astra to come back from Care of Magical Creatures. "Maybe she got caught up talking to Hagrid? Or maybe she and Poppy are talking. That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

Albus seemed a bit surprised at the idea that Astra and Poppy might talk when he wasn't there. "What would they be talking about?"

"Well, I mean, you, Care of Magical Creatures, and Quidditch are about the only things they know they have in common, right?"

Albus blinked. "Oh. Okay." He seemed even more surprised now, and even slightly uncomfortable. "What... What would they say about me?"

"I don't know, Al. They both love you, so I'm sure only good things." I turned back to my book, which happened to be the N.E.W.T. level History of Magic textbook. I generally don't just read textbooks for fun (contrary to popular belief, I am not as big a nerd as Astra and Albus claim I am) but this was the book that finally got to recent British history, starting at the beginning of the last century. Grindelwald, Voldemort, everything interesting. I couldn't tell if reading about other powerful dark wizards helped make my uncle more or less scary, honestly. The fact that this seemed to be an endless cycle recently was terrifying, because how on earth could the wizarding world let this happen three times in a row? On the other hand, Grindelwald and Voldemort had been defeated. Perhaps history would repeat itself in that way, too.

"Who's even in that class?" Albus asked, nodding to my book. "I can't believe anyone could sit though Binns for five years and want more of that."

"Rose did," I pointed out.

"Yes, but Rose is Rose. And before you point out Colette, I said five years, and she only had him for four. Besides, she's also in Ancient Runes, so we already knew she was mad."

I smiled. "I took Ancient Runes."

"You're mad, too," he said. "Not quite as mad, because you stopped."

I rolled my eyes. "History of Magic is a really small class this year, actually. Poppy's in it, you know?"

"She is?"

"You can't escape the crazy people, can you?" I teased. "Other than her, the only other people are a few Ravenclaws and Ciara Malfoy."

"Ew."

"She keeps to herself in class," I said, shrugging. "It's not too bad."

"I suppose there are worse people to have class with," Albus said. "Nico brought his snake to Astronomy last night, did you notice?" I had, because Albus had pointed it out last night and translated what they were saying until I told him to shut up. The snake was just complaining that it missed its friend, which Albus theorized was the snake he'd captured. He was keeping it in his dorm until he could release in the wild during the Hogsmeade trip, before he met up with Poppy.

"I can't believe none of the professors have a problem with his snakes," Albus said. "Did you know they have names? They're stupid names, really boring, like Tom. Do you think Nico named them, or do snakes name themselves?"

"I don't know, Albus, why don't you ask one?" He was chattering, something he generally did when he was nervous about something. I knew what is was, of course; Astra being so late had me on edge a little bit, as well. But I knew there was probably some explanation. She'd show up eventually, perfectly fine with some excuse about Hagrid's newest pet and an apology for being so late.