𝙒𝙤𝙡𝙛𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙚 || 𝙍. 𝙇𝙪𝙥𝙞𝙣

New Friends

"And he's Remus Lupin." He nodded to the boy with the scar on his cheek.

Remus blushed as he was being introduced and looked everywhere but the girl in his compartment.

"I'm Asteria Nott and this is my brother, Oscar. We're new here and transfered from Durmstrang," Ast said.

"Oh you're Asteria? Professor McGonagall told me to help you settle in." Remus said, quickly looking up and feeling much more confident now.

"Oh yeah she told me about you and another girl called Lily I believe."

Sirius, who was watching Remus blush said, "You know, if you wanted, you and your brother can hang out with us until you settle in."

"I'd like that," Ast smiled.

A few hours passed by and the six were still on the train. Much to Ast's delight, she found out that the boys had a talent for trouble since she saw them play a prank on a couple of second years. Remus however, didn't really join in, he just ignored or lectured them like they were naughty children.

Peter kept on offering Ast sweets and chocolate from his never ending supply of food. Sirius kept on running in and out of the compartment with an occasional angry student running after him. James had also failed to flirt with a red-headed girl who Ast learnt was Lily Evans. Lily took no notice of James and instead greeted Ast and Oscar with a warm smile.

When she left, Ast asked James whether he was dating Lily and Sirius said that James had a massive crush on her but she constantly turned him down.

The train finally stopped at Hogsmeade Station and everyone got off. Miles, who wasn't used to large crowds, cowered in Ast's arms while they walked to horse-less carriages. Night had already drawn in and a candlelit path awaited them.

For a while, they rode through a thick forest, but then a clearing came into view and Ast could see the castle. It looked beautiful at night and she suddenly felt a sensation of thrill bubble inside of her. She looked over at the other boys and saw that they too, were completely awestruck.

They get off the carriages once they stopped and headed up the stone steps into the castle. They left their trunks and pets by the doors and made their way to the Great Hall. As they walked in through the doors, Ast immediately spotted Dumbledore in a long, white robe. He was talking to another teacher who she assumed was Horace Slughorn, her potions teacher.

Inside there were a total of five tables, four that went down the length of the room and another at the top that went down its width. Ast followed the boys to the table on the far left which they claimed to be the Gryffindor table, while Oscar filtered into the table on the far right which belonged to the Hufflepuffs. Ast gave her brother a small, reassuring smile before he left. She sat down next to Remus and there was a faint smell of chocolate wafting around him which instantly reminded her of Oscar.

A few minutes later, once everyone was seated, the doors opened again and out came Professor McGonagall with a group of small children wearing Hogwarts robes. They walked to the top of the hall and stopped right in front of the same hat that sorted Ast and Oscar into their houses.

"Now, before we begin, Professor Dumbledore wants to say a few words." Professor McGonagall announced.

"First off all," Dumbledore said, "I would like to welcome you all back to Hogwarts, new and old. Aside from the first years, we also have two new students joining us this year. Their names are Oscar and Asteria Nott and they will be joining Hufflepuff and Gryffindor house for their seventh and fifth year."

He looked at Ast and Oscar and smiled before continuing his speech.

"I hope you all will give them a warm welcome. Apart from that, Mr Filch has reminded me to tell you that the forest is strictly forbidden to all students. He has also reminded me that..."

Ast got lost in a daydream and only came back to her senses again when food magically appeared on the plates in front of her. She help herself to some roast beef and mashed potatoes. She looked over at the boys, Peter was stuffing his face with as much food as possible, Sirius and James were deep in conversation, and Remus was reading a book. Ast recognised that book, it was a muggle one that she had read before.

"Oh, I've read that before." Ast leaned over to say to him.

He looked up from his book and smiled, "yes me too, four times actually. But, it's my favourite and it never fails to amaze me!"

After dinner was over they made their way up to the Gryffindor common room. Ast was particularly excited to see where she'd be sleeping for the next year. Durmstrang dorms were commonly shared with everyone in a certain year, meaning that Ast had to room with at least twenty girls. She was glad that she was leaving all that behind, at least she would be able to get more privacy at Hogwarts.

They stood in front of a picture of a lady eating something that looked like a cheese platter.

"Here we are," Sirius said. "Gryffindor Tower."

"I don't see it," Ast said, looking around for a door.

"Caput Draconis," Remus announced, looking over at her. "That's the password, don't forget it."

The picture opened up like a door to reveal a tunnel with a warm light at the end of it. They crawled through the tunnel and entered a circular room. The walls were red and decorated with portraits and couches were already full of people sat on them. A fire was burning against a wall. Ast looked around and took a deep breath, she already felt like she was home.

Lily spotted Ast come in and called her over to where she and three other girls were stood. One of them had blonde hair and was incredibly tall, another was dark skinned and had black hair while the last girl had mousy brown hair and was the shortest out of the lot.

"Ast," Lily said, "this is Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes and Alice Fortescue, they're in our year too."

The girls all smiled at Ast and she happily smiled back.

"It's nice to meet you all," Ast said.

"It's nice to meet you too." Dorcas said, energetically pulling Ast into a hug that caught her by surprise.

Marlene looked Ast up and down. "Why were you with those idiots, they all share one braincell."

"Who? The boys? They don't seem that bad." Ast commented, looking at the boys who were now shoving a group of first years off the sofas.

Marlene smirked, "trust me, the last thing you'd want to do is get involved with them. Besides, we're way more fun than those ego-inflated baboons."

Ast's eyes widened. "Merlin, you don't like them at all."

"Oh, I like them. It's just that I can't stand them sometimes."

"Most of the time," Dorcas corrected.

"The only one we like is Remus," Lily said, indicating to the boy with light brown hair and scars on his face.

"Noted." Asteria smiled.

They showed Ast where their dorm was and she found that her belongings were already up there. Miles was meowing away in his cage, desperate to be let out so Ast opened up the latch and he sprinted underneath a chair, overwhelmed by all the changes.

The other girls decided to call it a night so they got into their pyjamas and crawled into their own beds. Ast did the same and she lay down on her new, soft bed.

Worries began to fill her head. But she wasn't worrying about school or friends, she was worried about her brother. Oscar, who was bitten by Fenrir Greyback at the age of four, was a werewolf. And Ast knew how insecure he felt about the whole thing. Dumbledore had reassured them that there was a place Oscar could go for his transformations, and due to the recent invention of the Wolfsbane potion, Oscar had nothing to worry about.

However, werewolves weren't respected people in the Wizarding World and werewolves who were open about their condition usually suffered backlash from other wizards. Ast was worried about what would happen if people knew about his condition, so she had promised her mother that she'd keep him safe.

She did wonder, if there were people like Oscar at Hogwarts. People who could be his friend, people who'd make him feel safe and accepted.