Wish Upon A Star

Percy the Prat

They spent the whole of Sunday in the common room, buried in their books while the room around them filled up, then emptied: It was another clear, fine day and most of their fellow Gryffindors spent the day out in the grounds, enjoying what might well be some of the last sunshine that year. 

Ashlyn and Hermione were pretty quick in finishing their homework, while the boys were groaning and grinding away at their work.

"You know, we probably should try and get more homework done during the week," Harry muttered to Ron, as they finally laid aside Professor McGonagall's long essay on the Inanimatus Conjurus spell and turned miserably to Professor Sinistra's equally long and difficult essay about Jupiter's moons.

"Yeah," said Ron, rubbing slightly bloodshot eyes and throwing his fifth spoiled bit of parchment into the fire beside them. "Listen . . . shall we just ask Hermione if we can have a look at what she's done?"

Harry glanced over at her; she was sitting with Crookshanks on her lap and chatting merrily to Ginny as a pair of knitting needles flashed in midair in front of her, now knitting a pair of shapeless elf socks.

"No," he said heavily, "you know she won't let us."

In unison, the boys turned to look at Ashlyn, then glanced at each other with a miserable expression. There was no way Ashlyn would let them copy either. In fact, she was worse than Hermione. Hermione would only give a sharp no, but Ashlyn won't just deny them, but also give her most condescending look, which was usually accompanied by a snarky reply. They'd rather not ask her.

Ashlyn pulled out a twig she had brought from the forest the other day and lay it on the table.

She pulled out her wand, and examined it properly, taking in all the curves and lines of the polished wood, then pointed it at the stick.

A flash of light, then there lay a duplicate of her wand.

"What the—?" Harry breathed. His quill was fixed on a spot, blotting the parchment.

"What are you doing, Harry," Ashlyn sighed, as she pushed his quill away from the ruined parchment.

"Why did you even do that?" Harry asked amused, causing Ron to look up from the easy he was buried in.

Ron blinked twice when he saw Ashlyn holding two identical wands in her hands.

"This is a fake," Ashlyn said snapping the fake wand in two. Harry and Ron winced, as though Ashlyn had physically hurt them.

 At half-past eleven, Hermione wandered over to them, yawning.

"Nearly done?"

"No," said Ron shortly.

"Jupiter's biggest moon is Ganymede, not Callisto," she said, pointing over Ron's shoulder at a line in his Astronomy essay, "and it's Io that's got the volcanos."

"Thanks," snarled Ron, scratching out the offending sentences.

"Sorry, I only —"

"Yeah, well, if you've just come over here to criticize —"

"Ron —"

"I haven't got time to listen to a sermon, all right, Hermione, I'm up to my neck in it here —"

"No — look!"

Hermione was pointing to the nearest window. Harry and Ron both looked over. A handsome screech owl was standing on the windowsill, gazing into the room at Ron.

"Isn't that Hermes?" said Hermione, sounding amazed.

"Blimey, it is!" said Ron quietly, throwing down his quill and getting to his feet. "What's Percy writing to me for?"