IF SEEING HERMIONE, LUNA, AND ASTRA together before was a surprise, the students at Hogwarts were dumbfounded when seeing the three girls along with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. They spent hours in the library, pouring over hippogriff cases and newspapers, Luna writing to her father, hoping to find something in previous Quibbler articles.
The safety measures imposed on the students since Sirius's second break-in made it impossible for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Astra to go and visit Hagrid in the evenings. Their only chance of talking to him was during Care of Magical Creatures lessons.
He seemed numb with shock at the verdict.
"It's all my fault. I got all tongue-tied. They were all sitting there in black robes and I kept dropping my notes and forgetting all of those dates you looked up for me. And then Lucius Malfoy stood up and said his bit, and the Committee just did exactly what he told them..."
"There's still the appeal!" said Ron fiercely. "Don't give up yet, we're working on it!"
They were walking back up to the castle with the rest of the class. Ahead they could see Malfoy, who was walking with Crabbe and Goyle, and kept looking back, laughing derisively.
"It's no good, Ron," said Hagrid sadly as they reached the castle steps. "That committee's in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. I'm just going to make sure the rest of Beaky's time is the happiest he's ever had. I owe him that..."
Hagrid turned around and hurried back toward his cabin, his face buried in his handkerchief.
"Look at him blubber!"
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had been standing just inside the castle doors, listening.
"Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" said Malfoy. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"
Harry and Ron both made furious moves toward Malfoy, while Astra watched in the back, amused. She seemed to know what was going to happen as Hermione got there first -- SMACK!
She had slapped Malfoy across the face with all the strength she could muster. Malfoy staggered. Harry, Ron, Crabbe, and Goyle stood flabbergasted as Hermione raised her hand again and Astra started laughing.
"Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul -- you evil --"
"Hermione!" said Ron weakly, and he tried to grab her hand as she swung it back.
"Get off, Ron!" yelled both Hermione and Astra
Hermione pulled out her wand. Malfoy stepped backward. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him for instructions, thoroughly bewildered.
"C'mon." Malfoy muttered, and in a moment, all three of them tried to get away, not noticing the red and gold hair that they now wore, along with some outstanding makeup.
"You know, I think I might take a career in fashion design. Red and Gold just look so hideous on him - it's perfect."
"Hermione! Astra!" Ron said again, sounding both stunned and impressed.
"Harry, you'd better beat him in the Quidditch final!" Hermione said shrilly. "You just better had, because I can't stand it if Slytherin wins!"
Astra felt the need to point out that not all Slytherins were bad, but decided not to in the heat of the moment.
"We're due in Charms," said Ron, still goggling at Hermione. "We'd better go."
They boys hurried up the marble staircase toward Professor Flitwick's classroom, but Astra noticed Hermione disappear. Most likely because of the time turner. She moved on, making it just in time by using a quick passage.
"You're late, boys!" said Professor Flitwick reprovingly as Harry opened the classroom door. "Come along, quickly, wands out, we're experimenting with Cheering Charms today, we've already divided into pairs --"
Harry and Ron hurried to a desk at the back next to Astra and opened their bags. Ron and Harry looked bewildered at how Astra had made it there before them, but just smirked and listened to Flitwick.
***
Hermione didn't turn up all lesson, so Astra quickly returned to the common room to find her sitting at a table, fast asleep, her head resting on an open Arithmancy book. Astra prodded her awake, "Hermione! Hermione!"
"Wh -- what?" said Hermione, waking with a start and staring wildly around. "Is it time to go? W -- which lesson have we got now?"
"Divination, but it's not for quite a bit, everyone's eating lunch right now," said Astra. "Hermione, you missed Charms. Are you sure the time turner's not too much for you?"
"What? Oh no!" Hermione squeaked. "I forgot to go to Charms!"
"Hermione," she continued to try, but Hermione was completely distracted.
"I don't believe it!" Hermione wailed. "Was Professor Flitwick angry? Oh, it was Malfoy, I was thinking about him and I lost track of things!"
"Hey, don't worry. We were learning Cheering Charms, I can help you practice them. But right now, why don't I get something for you to eat and then go check with Flitwick."
***
Hermione went to Flitwick and Astra got her a piece of toast that she ate one the way to Divination. They met with the boys at the foot of the ladder to Professor Trelawney's classroom twenty minutes later, looking extremely harassed.
They climbed the ladder into the dim, stifling tower room. Glowing on every little table was a crystal ball full of pearly white mist. Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down together at the same rickety table.
"I thought we weren't starting crystal balls until next term," Ron muttered, casting a wary eye around for Professor Trelawney, in case she was lurking nearby.
"Don't complain, this means we've finished palmistry," Harry muttered back. "I was getting sick of her flinching every time she looked at my hands." Astra chuckled at that, it was quite hilarious.
"Good day to you!" said the familiar, misty voice, and Professor Trelawney made her usual dramatic entrance out of the shadows. Parvati and Lavender quivered with excitement, their faces lit by the milky glow of their crystal ball.
"I have decided to introduce the crystal ball a little earlier than I had planned," said Professor Trelawney, sitting with her back to the fire and gazing around. "The fates have informed me that your examination in June will concern the Orb, and I am anxious to give you sufficient practice."
Hermione snorted.
"Well, honestly... 'the fates have informed her'. Who sets the exam? She does! What an amazing prediction!" she said, not troubling to keep her voice low. Harry and Ron choked back laughs while Astra was able to keep a straight face.
It was hard to tell whether Professor Trelawney had heard them as her face was hidden in shadow. She continued, however, as though she had not.
"Crystal gazing is a particularly refined art," she said dreamily. "I do not expect any of you to See when first you peer into the Orb's infinite depths. We shall start by practicing relaxing the conscious mind and external eyes --" Ron began to snigger uncontrollably and had to stuff his fist in his mouth to stifle the noise -- "so as to clear the Inner Eye and the superconscious. Perhaps, if we are lucky, some of you will see before the end of the class."
And so they began. She could tell that the others were feeling stupid, as Ron kept breaking into silent giggles, Hermione kept putting, and Harry just looked frustrated. But she tried to focus on the glass as the mist slightly subsided.
She wasn't quite sure exactly what it was, but knew that there was something that looked like the full moon. She continued to look into the ball and was able to make out two figures. She ignored the noises around her and stared harder into the ball, not knowing that the other three students around her were confused at Astra's concentrated gaze. That was when it was clear. One of the men (they were both men) was her father. He was hugging the other man, but before she could make out who it was, the scene changed. Now, the man from before, her father, was riding a figure; a hippogriff, she tried to look closer but was pulled away by noises that were bothering her.
"Astra! Astra!" she was finally pulled back by someone, Hermione.
"What?" she snapped. Astra had wanted to see what was in the crystal ball, but it seemed that wasn't up for discussion.
"Astra, you just weren't listening. Come on, away from the ball. You can tell us what you saw later." Astra sighed and nodded slightly. It seemed that Hermione had been trying to get her attention for a while because it was already a quarter of an hour later.
"Now, really!" said Professor Trelawney as everyone's heads turned in their direction. Parvati and Lavender were looking scandalized. "You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations!" She approached Astra's table and asked in her mystical voice, "My dear, what did you see?"
Astra rolled her eyes; she didn't really want to tell Trelawney. But because everyone was staring their way, she sighed and told her partly what she saw.
"Two people hugging, and someone riding a hippogriff." Even though it was the truth, Trelawney seemed to not be impressed by it, and moved along.
"There is something here!" Professor Trelawney whispered, lowering her face to the ball on Harry and Ron's table, so that it was reflected twice in her huge glasses. "Something moving... but what is it?"
"My dear," Professor Trelawney breathed, gazing up at Harry. "It is here, plainer than ever before... my dear, stalking toward you, growing ever closer... the Gr --"
"Oh, for goodness' sake!" said Hermione loudly. "Not that ridiculous Grim again!"
Astra's head quickly turned towards Hermione. Honestly, it was only a matter of time before the girl snapped because she had showed her distrust on the topic since the beginning. But it would surely be amusing to watch, so Astra prepared for the show.
Professor Trelawney raised her enormous eyes to Hermione's face. Parvati whispered something to Lavender, and they both glared at Hermione too. Professor Trelawney stood up, surveying Hermione with unmistakable anger.
"I am sorry to say that from the moment you have arrived in this class my dear, it has been apparent that you do not have what the noble art of Divination requires. Indeed, I don't remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane."
There was a moment's silence. Then --
"Fine!" said Hermione suddenly, getting up and cramming Unfogging the Future back into her bag. "Fine!" she repeated, swinging the bag over her shoulder and almost knocking Ron off his chair. "I give up! I'm leaving!"
And to the whole class's amazement and Astra's amusement, Hermione strode over to the trapdoor, kicked it open, and climbed down the ladder out of sight.
It took a few minutes for the class to settle down again. Professor Trelawney seemed to have forgotten all about the Grim. She turned abruptly from Harry and Ron's table, breathing rather heavily as she tugged her gauzy shawl more closely to her. Astra chuckled slightly, making the boys look at her in confusion.
"Ooooo!" said Lavender suddenly, making everyone start. "Ooooo, Professor Trelawney, I've just remembered! You saw her leaving, didn't you? Didn't you, Professor? 'Around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever!' You said it ages ago, Professor!"
Professor Trelawney gave her a dewy smile.
"Yes, my dear, I did indeed know that Miss Granger would be leaving us. One hopes, however, that one might have mistaken the Signs...The Inner Eye can be a burden, you know..."
Lavender and Parvati looked deeply impressed, and moved over so that Professor Trelawney could join their table instead, while Astra tried to return to her glass ball, but wasn't able to make out anything except for the hippogriff.
***
The Easter holidays were not exactly relaxing. The third years had never had so much homework. Neville Longbottom seemed close to a nervous collapse, and he wasn't the only one.
"Call this a holiday!" Seamus Finnigan roared at the common room one afternoon. "The exams are ages away, what're they playing at?"
But nobody had as much to do as Hermione. Even without Divination, she was taking more subjects than anybody else. She was usually last to leave the common room at night, first to arrive at the library the next morning; she had shadows like Lupin's under her eyes, and seemed constantly close to tears. Even though she continuously said that she didn't need help with homework, Astra would sometimes switch their Arithmancy or Transfiguration homework, giving her a break that was well needed.
Ron had taken over responsibility for Buckbeak's appeal as well as Luna, even though they didn't work together. When he wasn't doing his own work, he was poring over enormously thick volumes with names like The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology and Fowl or Foul? A Study of Hippogriff Brutality. He was so absorbed, he even forgot to be horrible to Crookshanks.
Harry seemed extremely busy in between his homework and the constant Quidditch practices, losing his head at Oliver Wood once or twice.
Astra was probably the calmest in the entire Gryffindor tower about the homework, even though she had almost as much as Hermione to get done. She still spent ages in the library with Luna, helping with the hippogriff trial, did all of her homework (as well as the extra Arithmancy) and did even more extra for Hermione (even though she didn't know this), and kept an eye out for a rat at all times.
Lily and James were spending all of their free time searching every part of the castle for Pettigrew, and barely had time for Astra, even though Lily still made sure to help her with homework and James made sure to blab on about Quidditch. Regulus spent a lot of his time watching over Sirius, getting dragged into the watch for Pettigrew, and talked when he could with Astra, but seeing as she was now making live friends, they weren't there as often.
However, the most important topic in the Gryffindor tower, and the entire castle, was Quidditch.
Everyone was obsessed with the coming match. Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since the legendary Charlie Weasley (Ron's second oldest brother) had been Seeker.
Never, in anyone's memory, had a match approached in such a highly charged atmosphere. By the time the holidays were over, tension between the two teams and their Houses was at the breaking point. A number of small scuffles broke out in the corridors, culminating in a nasty incident in which a Gryffindor fourth year and a Slytherin sixth year ended up in the hospital wing with leeks sprouting out of their ears.
Wood had even given instructions that Harry and most of the other Quidditch teammates should be accompanied everywhere he went, in case the Slytherins tried to put them out of action.
All usual pursuits were abandoned in the Gryffindor common room the night before the match. Even Hermione had put down her books.
"I can't work, I can't concentrate," she said nervously.
There was a great deal of noise. Fred and George Weasley were dealing with the pressure by being louder and more exuberant than ever. Oliver Wood was crouched over a model of a Quidditch field in the corner, prodding little figures across it with his wand and muttering to himself Angelina, Alicia, and Katie were laughing at Fred's and George's jokes. Harry was sitting with Ron and Hermione, removed from the center of things and Astra was talking with Lee, making notes for their commentating.
Eventually, the people dispersed, barely being able to sleep because of nerves.