Astra

X - The Summer At Hogwarts

They went on these excursions every other week, and Astra was quite enjoying her life at Hogwarts. There was something special about it when there weren't any other students in the castle.

***

James and Lily often talked about Harry and complained about how the Dursleys were treating him. Regulus still made his daily visits to Sirius in Azkaban. On July 31st, Harry's birthday, James and Lily came rushing back, telling her about a story with a house-elf that got Harry into trouble, and how they followed the house-elf and learned that it was actually the Malfoy's. 

The next day, they came and told her about another crazy story of how Ron Weasley and his twin brothers came in a flying car to bring him to the Burrow. All Astra could think was that there really was no dull moment in that boy's life.

The weekend after, Minnie took Astra to go school supply shopping in Diagon Alley, apologizing that they didn't make it the day before when Gilderoy Lockhart was signing. However, she did tell Astra that he would be teaching at Hogwarts that school year, which didn't make Astra that happy. From what she read in the books, the guy seemed quite full of himself, and most of the information didn't make any sense at all. Gilderoy Lockhart, in Astra's eyes, was a fraud. However, she still got all of her supplies, including all of Lockhart's books, and was glad that she didn't run into a single person who knew her, though some were slightly astonished when seeing her Black family features. 

Over the summer, she grew a bit more and the features that ran through the Black family were more prominent. Luckily, her dark hair fell more in waves rather than curly, otherwise, someone might have mistaken her as her cousin Bellatrix if she had fallen into a time machine and turned 12 again. Regulus had told her that she looked like an exact mix between her cousins Andromeda and Bellatrix.

The rest of the summer flew by as she stuck to her routine, sometimes flying a spare broom around the Quidditch pitch with Madam Hooch's supervision. The Quidditch enthusiast continuously tried to convince Astra to try out for the Quidditch team, saying that she would do amazing, but Astra continued to refuse. Maybe in the future, but the Quidditch team also came with a lot of popularity, and that was something that Astra had enough of and did not want.

Astra also came to a conclusion about halfway through the summer that she decided to talk to Minnie about. As much as she loved James's story about the three illegal animagi that roamed the grounds of Hogwarts, if Astra was going to do something, she was going to do it right. 

***

She knocked on the door and walked through, as usual for her afternoon meetings with Minnie, but this time, she brought a book with her. The book that Minnie had gotten her for Christmas the year before: Release the Animagus Within.

"Hi, Minnie!"

"Hello, Astra. How are you doing today?" greeted McGonagall in her thick Scottish accent.

"I'm doing good. I actually wanted to ask you for help with something."

"Yes, and what is that?" she asked while pouring a cup of warm tea and setting down a plate of biscuits.

"I was wondering whether you could help me... become an animagus." 

McGonagall looked up surprised. The process of becoming an animagus was long and hard, but inside she had no doubt that Astra had what it took. She was very talented in transfiguration and had determination as well.

"I just have read a lot about it, and you're one too. And I thought it was fascinating. So, I was wondering if you could be my mentor." She didn't say the fact that her father and his best friends were animagi as well and that it would make her feel more connected to them.

"Well, it would take a lot of hard work and determination and quite a bit of skill. I didn't do it until I was seventeen but..." McGonagall looked at Astra and then formed a thin smile. "But I have no doubt that you will be able to do it." Astra beamed and caught the professor off guard by hugging her. 

"Well, I suppose we can get started, but it will take a while. I believe that if you work hard and study the theory well, then you should be able to complete the process by your 6th year at the latest. Let's begin..."

So, for the rest of the summer, once a week, Astra's meetings with Minnie consisted of discussing the theory behind an animagus and studying the process. McGonagall told her that they wouldn't actually start the process until at least her third year.

Before she knew it, the summer had come to an end and the start of 2nd year was about to start.