By Tuesday, Wren looked like she was ready to give up on life. Why? She did not want to sneak into the restricted section, and she promised to immediately tell a teacher if James and I so much as thought about it. However, we knew we needed to get in there. Maybe we would find a spell that would be easier than Polyjuice Potion.
Wren moaned and put her head on the table. Albus and I were doing homework, but she was trying her hardest to find a way around the restricted section's rules. No luck, apparently.
"This is hopeless," she mumbled.
"You could always just let me sneak in," I said, not glancing up from my Charms essay. We had to turn in a foot of parchment about how the Wingardium Leviosa spell worked.
Wren looked up and frowned at me. "No. That's against the rules, and you'll get caught, and you'll lose even more points, and you'll get detention, and you'll be banned from the restricted section for life, and then we'll never be able to get in."
Albus raised his eyebrows. "Whoa, Wren, since when were you a pessimist?"
Instead of answering, Wren sighed and put her head back on the table. "Can we please talk about something else?"
"Have any ideas?" I asked irritably, not really paying much attention. I only had an inch left, but I had no idea what to write. Where was Rose? She was smart. Maybe she could help.
Wren stood up and moved to a spot behind my chair. I tried to ignore her as she read over my shoulder. "Why don't you write about the effects on the subject of the spell? You've explained how to do the spell. Tell the results as well."
I nodded, impressed. Thank goodness I had a genius for a best friend. I don't know how I would have gotten through all my homework in the first few months without her. A lot of the magic seemed to go over my head sometimes.
I scribbled away furiously for about five minutes before finally reaching the end. Albus seemed to have taken Wren's advice as well because he laid down his quill at the same time I laid down mine.
Wren smiled. "Now that you're done, can we talk about anything other than the restricted section?"
"Ok, fine!" Albus answered, laughing. "How about your family? You don't talk about them much."
Wren nodded. "Well, there isn't much to talk about. I live with my grandparents, because my mom is on secret assignments with the Magical Congress. I don't really know what she does. She visits occasionally, though. My dad... I haven't seen him in years. My grandparents are pretty old, and let me do whatever I want, really." She shrugged. "There's not much to my family."
"What's America like? Do you eat hamburgers for every meal? James says there are bald eagles everywhere."
Wren started laughing. "James doesn't know what he's talking about. Do you two only drink tea, and say 'cheerio' all the time? Of course not. That's just a stereotype."
Albus's cheeks were red, and he muttered something like "Oh, ok."
"What about you, Astra? What's your family like?"
"I don't know. They gave me up when I was a baby." I didn't like talking about it.
Wren nodded. "Right. But haven't you ever wondered who they were? Who you are? If you found out, you wouldn't have to be a Lewis anymore."
I hadn't ever wondered about that, truthfully. Maybe because the Lewis's had scorned all forms of curiosity in me, who knows. Now that Wren had mentioned it, though, I was a bit curious.
"You might be related to McGonagall for all we know," Wren continued.
"But they gave me up. They obviously didn't care about me." I shook my head. "Wondering is just stupid. They didn't care, so why should I?"
But I couldn't get the idea out of my head. Once Wren had planted the seed in my mind, I couldn't forget it, no matter how hard I tried. I discovered I really did want to know, but how could I ever find out? After a few weeks, I decided I would ask Professor Potter. He grew up with muggles; maybe he'd be able to find out.
Because I really didn't believe I was the child of a witch and wizard. A witch and wizard wouldn't have left their child in the muggle foster care system. It had to be muggles. But who? Maybe they had a larger family now. Maybe I had sisters and brothers. Maybe they would want me back...
The Saturday before Christmas break, it snowed overnight. We woke up to a winter wonderland outside our windows. The grounds were covered in a foot of snow, and by midmorning, half of Gryffindor House was engaged in a snowball fight to end all snowball fights. A couple of the seventh years built barricades out of snow using magic, and the sixth years used a charm to created an endless supply of snowballs.
It was the most fun I'd ever had in my life. Sure, I'd had "snowball fights" with Mara, but those mainly consisted of my standing still and letting her do target practice. It wasn't fun.
This was like a snowball war. Victoire Weasley shoved her little brother Louis's head in the snow, and he and Fred Weasley retaliated by bewitching a clump of snow to hover over her head and fall on her when she was about to throw another snowball. Ryan Ham and the rest of the Quidditch team, including me, got out our brooms and attacked from the skies. All over the yard rang shouts of laughter and surprise as snowballs flew back and forth.
Eventually, the Hufflepuffs joined us, and a large scale war ensued. The Hufflepuff Quidditch team mounted their brooms as well, and soon I was occupied with an air battle.
I heard my muggleborn classmate, Luke Castel, shouting, "FOR NARNIA!" Most of the students gave him weird looks, but I almost fell off my broom laughing as he went full muggle, yelling about Sparta and Rohan (he shouted that when Gryffindor reinforcements joined the fight) and who knows what else. The muggleborns were laughing too hard to fight, and Luke seemed to be enjoying the attention.
Eventually, we all plodded inside and found large cups of hot chocolate waiting for everyone in the Great Hall. We were all laughing joking and soaked from all the snow, but perfectly happy. In fact, the Hufflepuffs pushed their table over so our table and theirs formed one larger one, and we sat scattered along the edges. Arthur Longbottom squeezed into the seat next to me.
"That was awesome!" Arthur said excitedly. "Did you see me? I hit James Potter in the face with a snowball!"
A few seats away, James rolled his eyes.
"Awesome! I didn't see you, though. I was too busy dropping snowballs on people from my broom."
Arthur laughed. "You were great up there."
I didn't really know who won, but I don't think anyone cared. By the end of the day, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were incredibly reluctant to move our tables back to where they were before. Professor McGonagall looked irritated, but allowed us to leave them as they were until the holidays.
Ravenclaw and Slytherin openly stared at us at dinner. There was a large mix of reactions. A few people looked simply surprised. Most of Ravenclaw, and a few Slytherins, looked envious. A lot of people seemed to be making fun of us. I didn't really care, though. The Gryffindor table had never been this fun.
Lucy's twin, Leah, was in Hufflepuff, and they loudly proclaimed that they wanted the tables to stay like this always. Robby Thomas, a Hufflepuff first year, was very good at impressions, and had the whole table laughing at his idea of Professor Flitwick (once Flitwick started frowning in our direction, we made him stop).
At one point, I looked over at the Ravenclaw table and saw Luna Scamander sitting alone, gazing mournfully at our table. She caught my eye and quickly turned back to her plate.
I frowned, remembering what she'd said a few days ago. Oh, friends...I don't have any of those. For one second, I debated my options. I knew what was right, but I also knew that would make me the laughingstock of Slytherin. I quickly realized I didn't care.
Quietly, I pulled myself away from the chatter and laughter of the Gryfflepuff table and crossed the Hall. It wasn't long before I felt numerous pairs of eyes boring into me, but I didn't stop walking until I was standing directly behind Luna. She seemed oblivious to my presence, so I gently tapped her shoulder.
Luna turned in her seat. "Oh, hello Astra."
"Luna, want to come sit with us?" I motioned to my table. I'm ashamed to say this, but part of me hoped she'd say no. She looked stranger than normal, wearing weird glasses with swirls on the lenses and a bottle cap necklace.
"Is it allowed?" she asked slowly.
"I don't think that really matters tonight, Luna. Want to?"
"Are you sure you want me?" She didn't ask it in a pitiful "oh poor me, everyone hates me" way. She just asked, as if she really didn't want me doing anything I didn't want to do for her sake. Almost as if she'd read my mind, she added, "I know I'm strange."
It would be so easy to just say, You're right, oh well, I'll just leave then. But would that be right? Sure, Luna was weird, but I thought she'd still be really hurt by that. Just because she wore turnips for earrings didn't mean she didn't have feelings. And maybe Professor Potter was right. Maybe I should try to break through her shell and get to know her.
"Of course I want you to. I wouldn't have walked over here if I didn't."
Luna smiled a huge smile. "Thank you." We walked together back to the Gryfflepuff table, heads held high. I did my best to ignore all the snickers from Ciara and Nico's direction.
From that moment on, Luna was my most loyal friend.
~~~~
The day before the Christmas holidays, James decided it was incredibly important for him to know where every first, second, and third year in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, along with a few Ravenclaws and Slytherins, was going for the holidays. The worst part: I was the only one staying at Hogwarts. Even Wren was flying home for Christmas, even though she looked incredibly guilty about leaving me.
Luna, who had become an honorary member of the Gryfflepuff table, tried to invite me home with her, but I declined. I would be fine, and I didn't want to be a bother. Deep down, I knew I didn't exactly want to spend three weeks with the wackos who believed in Nargles and Wackspurts and whatever else. I wouldn't be the only one at Hogwarts. There were bound to be more.
But as bedtime drew closer, bringing my friends' imminent departure in the morning, I started getting depressed. Sure, Hogwarts was better than home, but what if I was the only one in Gryffindor tower? I couldn't handle that.
At midnight, I finally decided that staying up all night wouldn't stop dawn from coming. I was about to trudge through the door to the girls' stairs when James called my name from across the room.
I weaved through the people, all chattering excitedly about their holiday plans. Their cheeriness was only making me feel gloomier.
"Astra!" Janes yelled, pulling me out of the crowd and through the portrait hole, where Professor Potter was waiting for us.
"Hello, Astra, how are you?"
I shrugged.
"James told me that you're staying at Hogwarts for the holidays?"
"Yes, sir." I tried not to act depressed, but it didn't work very well.
He frowned. "You know, I think that you might enjoy spending Christmas with us slightly more, don't you think?"
Was he saying what I thought he was? I didn't dare hope, only nodding slightly.
James broke into a grin. "YOU'RE COMING HOME WITH US! DAD ALREADY TALKED TO PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL! It was my idea, by the way."
I stared him. "R-really?"
"Of course!"
I jumped up and down a bit in excitement. "Thank you so much, sir!"
Professor Potter smiled. "We'd be happy to have you. Now you might want to go pack. The Hogwarts Express leaves at eleven tomorrow."
I practically flew up to my dorm and made such a racket packing that Iris woke up and threw her pillow at me. After that, I tried to be quieter, but that didn't stop my excitement. I might actually have a good Christmas for once!
~~~~
I literally have not been able to stop writing this story since I started it, maybe three weeks ago. Sure, my other fanfics are suffering, but this is probably my best work ever and I'm not about to let this inspiration go to waste.
Is it too early to ask who you ship? Granted, they're 11 and 12, but I need to plan the future of this book, and I'll be happy to take your favorite ships into account.
This will be my last chapter for a few days because I'm leaving for camp today and won't be back until Saturday. We aren't allowed to bring our phones, so I'll have to leave it here. While I'm gone, don't forget to do the following:
Vote!
Feed your hamster!
Comment!
Eat!
Fan!
Breathe!
Thanks!
~Ellie