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the stars were one of astra's favourite things. like care of magical creatures, astronomy was also her favourite class. the idea of being inside of a solar system that could potentially be inside hundreds of thousands of other solar systems was immensely interesting in her opinion. while the lessons mostly focused on the stars and planets, astra liked to add onto those thoughts which included aliens, martians and unknown life forms.
interested in getting a high score for her astronomy NEWT, she wanted to complete everything that was given to her. it wasn't as hard to finish as arithmancy since she enjoyed the subject and she also managed to get permission from her head of house, slughorn, and professor dumbledore, the headmaster, that she could stay out in the astronomy tower outside of the rare lessons that involved staying up the tower as a class.
in the first week of october, astra made her way out of the slytherin common room and headed towards the tower, carful to avoid peeves. as much as she liked the taunting ghost, he liked to annoy filch and if filch found her, her might assume she was out of bed without permission and she could not be bothered to go through the process of making him believe her because she would never win and mrs. norris would most likely try and scratch her face off for defying filch.
after a quick trip to the kitchen and a small chat with the elves that worked in hogwarts, she got to the astronomy tower with a cup of hot chocolate, a blanket and a small bag. she sat down at the edge in front of the railing, looking at the sky, waiting for something to happen as if stars lived a lot. they didn't, but she'd heard there should have been a shooting star that night.
hearing a clunk of footsteps on the stairs behind her, she turned her head sharply but saw nothing behind or below her so she looked back to the sky but kept a hand on her wand, which was stuffed into the waistband of her leggings, under the slytherin quidditch jumper she was wearing. another stomp sounded on the metal stairs and she stood this time, the blanket still around her shoulders as she held the wand towards the stairs.
"lumos." astra muttered quietly and saw something flinch into nothingness but it disappeared. she lowered her wand slightly and the light reflected onto some round glasses. "potter?"
"yes?" he replied quietly.
"where's the rest of you?" astra questioned as she saw his hand come out of thin air and reach for his glasses.
"in bed." james retorted and astra stood up, walking down the small amount of steps to get to him, her blanket falling off her shoulders as she grabbed the invisibility cloak off him with ease.
"this is fucking insane!" astra exclaimed gleefully, handing it to him as he put his glasses back on. "where'd you get that?"
"my dad gave it to me ages ago. mum wasn't best pleased when she found it in my room, though." james replied as astra walked back up the stairs and he followed. "she looked as though she could hex him."
"hm, that is handy. now i know how you pull off your little stunts." astra mused, sitting down and pulling the blanket over herself as she looked at the sky again. "what're you doing out here? if anything i'd expect you to be in filch's office."
"i couldn't sleep and i got bored. plus, it's nice up here sometimes." james shrugged and sat beside her. "so-"
"don't ask me about quidditch." astra cut him off.
"i'm not going to." james lied and she hummed with a small smirk, not believing him. "what i was going to say before you so rudely interrupted me was, what're you doing out here?"
"astronomy homework." astra answered.
"you're so boring!" james exclaimed and she rolled her eyes at him. "it is one of the most boring subjects, minus arithmancy, black. why put yourself through so much pain?"
"it's good! and clearly i like putting myself in pain i keep getting into conversations with you, potter." astra shot back, grabbing her small bag and pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. "want one?"
"definitely." james nodded and grabbed one from the pack. astra lit her own and went to light james' but the lighter clicked out, only small sparks leaving it. instead, astra leaned closer to him, the cigarette between her full lips touching the edge of his, which was slotted at the side of his mouth, his lighting up. despite having a new found rivalry with her, james couldn't help the heat that flushed his cheeks as she made eye contact the entire time with him, pulling away only shortly after she leant towards him.
"what exactly are you waiting for looking at the sky? nothing's happening, it looks like a sparkly black cloak." james mumbled.
"apparently a shooting star, but i've been up here for a while and i'm not sure it's gonna come." astra muttered, puffing some smoke from her mouth in a sigh. "wanna play cards?"
"uh, yeah. i've only played once with moony, like, 2 years ago and i was so shocking he's never got them out again so you may have to teach me how." james said and both teenagers turned to face one another properly, james' cloak now around him as a blanket. "how do you know how to play?"
"harley taught me in first year and now i'm better than her." astra hummed as she started dealing cards which she had pulled from her bag, giving 8 to james and 7 to herself. "this is rummy."
"hang on, i have more." james tried to give her one back but she shoved his hand back towards him.
"you go first so you have more than me. basically, you have to get four of one and three of the other. you can have all of the same cards, so three 4's or four 4's. or you can have ace, 2, 3 or ace, 2, 3, 4 but they have to be of the same suit." astra explained. "you place one down and i can either pick it to take or take one from the pile. but when you have eight, you need to put one down."
"which is why i go first." james finished and she nodded so he placed one down which she then took and placed a different card down which she didn't need. "that's a 6 and i have a 5, so i can take that?"
"if you need it, yes. or you can pick one from the pile but you have to put one you don't need down." astra said and he took her former card, placing another down.
the game continued and they were both fairly quiet, minus james reminding himself of the rules through the game before he suddenly laughed happily and slammed his cards down on the floor, "i win! i have four 3's and 7, 8, 9! i win!"
astra smiled slightly, looking at his cards, "you got four 3's but, uh, the 7, 8 and 9 are different suits."
"no, they're all red!" james objected.
"yeah, they are but the 7 and 8 are of hearts and the 9 is of diamonds. they have to be the same shape." astra explained.
james huffed, "you forgot to mention that, didn't you? you just lost me a game! that's classed as cheating!"
"what? no, it's not!" astra shot back after taking a quick puff of her cigarette. "i said the numerical order had to be all the same suit!"
"which i thought was colour!" james called back.
"but how am i supposed to know that? i'm not fucking psychic." astra retorted and james grumbled to himself, throwing the cards down on the rest of the pack making her laugh to herself as she cleaned them up. "wanna try again?"
"no, i'm not playing with a cheater." james snarked and she laughed again as he twisted to face the sky, his joking sneer turning into a smile. "look."
astra turned and saw the shooting star that she had heard about streaking across the sky. she grinned widely, staring at it in awe, not knowing james was only staring at her face which was illuminated by the half-moon and the stars. you can admire someone's breathtaking beauty and still want nothing to do with them, right? right.
{1430}