~Astra~
Dear Father,
Back at Hogwarts now! I'm really glad the O.W.L.s are over, but our professors are already trying to prepare us for N.E.W.T.s, even though we don't take those for two years. I guess we won't get a break till we're out of school.
I mean, granted Stillens doesn't manage to take over Britain by then. According to Colette and the Quibbler, Parliament is doing all sorts of almost shady things under the radar. They've made "detention centers" for people they think are in the DA. No one knows what goes on there.
I'm sorry, this question might be too sensitive, but do you ever get to talk to the other people in cells around yours? I only ask because when I was there, I saw Hestia Carrow. Like, the old minister. She's two doors down from yours, I think. Macmillan said someone bugged her cell, so we couldn't speak to her. It's really sad, honestly. I spent so long hating her, but now I can only feel really, really sorry for her.
I promise, I'll work hard in all my classes! I need N.E.W.T.s in every subject I'm taking to become a lawyer, you know? It might be a little hard. Good thing I have Wren to help. Anyway, I love you, and I'll come visit during the Christmas holidays if I can.
Love, Astra
I glanced up. "Hey, I'm going to take this to Mr. Potter," I whispered.
Wren nodded. "Give me a second. I'm almost done; I'll come with you."
It was Friday night, and I'd come along to the library with Wren because Haverna had already assigned a three foot essay due the beginning of next week. Of course, I'd gotten none of it done, but I'd tried, and that was the point, right?
Maybe not. I was a bit disappointed in myself, honestly. Near the end of last year, I'd actually started to try to do well in Charms, with the sole goal of pissing off Haverna. It had worked beautifully, and I'd planned to do it again this year, but I'd already been distracted. To be fair, though, writing my dad was far more important.
"Did you write any of the essay?" Wren whispered as she rolled up her parchment.
"Yes!" I exclaimed indignantly. Madam Pince shot me a nasty glare. I lowered my voice. "Like... a paragraph... It's not due till Tuesday, Wren."
She rolled her eyes. "Do it whenever you want, Astra. Just don't expect me to help if you wait till midnight on Monday night."
"Of course not," I said as we started towards the door. "I'll do it at lunch on Tuesday."
Wren seemed horrified, so I had to quickly assure her I was kidding, and definitely didn't plan to do that (after all, I had to eat at lunch, right?).
Mr. Potter was hidden behind a pile of parchments when we walked into his office. Wanted posters, aurora orders, probably some DA communications. There were things tacked up on the wall, with arrows and question marks and circles all over the place.
He glanced up and shot us a tired smile. I hadn't noticed all the gray in his hair now, or the lines around his eyes. "How can I help you?"
"Right." I smiled and handed him my letter. "Just for my dad."
"Wonderful." He laid it down on top of his briefcase. "I might be able to make it out there sometime this week. If not, I'll send it with one of the caretakers."
"Okay. Thanks." I smiled again, wishing I could do something to make him less stressed.
"Before you two go, I have a question," he said, growing serious. "Wren, you don't know anything about Stillens wanting to kill muggle families, do you?"
She shook her head, frowning. "Do you want me to ask around?"
"No, no. That could be suspicious, especially right now. Just, if you hear anything, let me know. We've had a lot of unsolved cases lately. I suppose it could just be some muggle arsonists, but I'd like to be sure."
Wren nodded. "Okay. I'll let you know."
As soon as the door had closed behind us, I turned to her. "There've been murders? Of muggles?"
"I didn't know," she said quickly. "I mean, I didn't realize it was more than normal. I knew it happened occasionally, of course..." I blinked; what? "Maybe Colette would know about it," she said softly.
We rushed into the common room five minutes later to find her sitting at a table in a corner, several books about mental health propped up around her. "Hey," I said, frowning at the odd assortment and momentarily forgetting my question. "Are you good?"
"Of course," she said, giving me a weird look.
"Then what's with the books?"
"Oh," she said. "These aren't for me. I'm seeing if I can make a spell to reduce anxiety. For Professor Edwards."
I nodded, sitting down. "Any luck?"
"I've only just started researching. It's quite a long process, Astra."
"We had a question," Wren said, sitting down across from me. "Have... Have you heard about muggles being murdered, lately?"
Colette frowned. "More than normal?" How was everyone so bloody calm about that? What was normal? Because, from my viewpoint, normal should be no murders.
"I think so," Wren was saying. "Mr. Potter asked if I knew anything about muggle families being killed." She shrugged. "I don't have any idea."
"I mean, there's always a list in the Quibbler of suspicious deaths and disappearances. I never pay much attention to it."
"Mr. Potter seemed concerned," I said. "I think we should try to find out more."
Colette shrugged. "All right. I think Madam Pince has the Quibbler on archive. We can go look after the library opens tomorrow."
"Oh, there's Quidditch trials tomorrow," I said lamely.
"How important is that, really?"
"James said he'd need my help picking a new Beater..."
"He can't do it himself?"
"Well, no, because he's got to see how well they can work with him, and he can't very watch and play at the same time."
Colette rolled her eyes. "Fine. Wren and I will go to the library tomorrow, and you can go play Quidditch, because that's obviously more important."
"I never said that!"
"You choose what you do based on your priorities," Colette said, raising an eyebrow. "I just inferred, from your choices—"
"Oh, shut up—"
"You can come join us, after," Wren suggested, cutting me off. "If you wanted..."
As much as I wanted to know what was going on, now that I thought about it, that sounded like no fun whatsoever. I was definitely more the type to listen to what other people who had done their research said. However, I smiled weakly. "Maybe, yeah."
"I guess that'll do," Colette said, rolling her eyes again.
"Bring James and Albus with you, too, maybe," Wren suggested, smiling.
"Where are they, speaking of?" Colette asked. "I thought they'd both ended up with you two."
"Fred's visiting to help James plan for tomorrow," Wren said. "They're probably holed up somewhere where no one can eavesdrop."
"What about Albus?"
"Haven't seen him since dinner, actually," I said. "I thought he was with you."
As if on cue, Albus stumbled through the portrait hole. I might not have noticed if there hadn't suddenly been several screaming first years scrambling to get away from him. It took me a second to figure out why: Albus was holding a madly writhing snake.
"Astra, can you knock this bloody thing out?" he asked, calmly walking over to us.
I blinked at him. "What the..."
"Knock it out before I drop it, please, then I'll explain."
I cast stupefy on it, and the snake went limp. Albus placed it on the table. Colette made a face and pulled her books away from it, while Wren cringed and scooted as far away as possible.
Albus plopped into the chair next to mine, either unaware or unconcerned with the common room's reaction. "It's one of Nico's," he explained.
"One of Nico's? Nico has more than one snake now?" Wren asked.
"He was walking around the Great Hall with them both draped over his shoulders earlier," Albus said. "Didn't you notice? He was complaining to them about how Ciara was a whore, I think. Even Adalyn Lostry seemed a little weirded out."
"Okay? Everyone knows Nico's a creepy bloke," I said. "Why do you have his snake?"
"Well, I wanted to know what he wanted with them, since it seems slightly counterproductive to his new position and all to walk around with a bunch of snakes everywhere. So I followed him."
"Albus, that was stupid," Wren said, eyes wide. "Nico's dangerous."
Albus shrugged. "I'm not afraid of him."
"You should be!"
"Anyway," Albus said, ignoring her, "I was following them off after dinner, and..." He trailed off, frowning in confusion. After a few moments, he blinked. "I... I can't remember what happened, then. I remember he walked away, I guess? Then I remember catching the bloody snake. It's been cussing me out the whole way up here, and said it wouldn't tell me what Nico made me forget." He blinked again. "I can't believe I don't remember. It wasn't more than an hour ago."
I frowned, highly concerned now. If Nico had messed with Albus's memory, that might mean he'd done worse things, too. "Did Nico obliviate you?"
"I... I don't know..." Albus seemed disturbed, for good reason. I couldn't imagine just having a hole in my memory, where I knew something belonged that was missing.
"Is there a counter spell?" I asked Colette.
"Memory spells are tricky," Colette said, shrugging. "Normally, only the person who cast them can undo them, or someone who really knows their magical style."
"Are you hurt anywhere?" Wren asked.
Albus shook his head. "I don't think so. This... This is really weird..."
Wren shook her head. "I'll ask him about it. Really, though, it was a stupid move, if he did obliviate you. I bet you overheard him telling his snakes something confidential. If you didn't already know the truth, this would basically confirm it."
"Well, good. Let him be an idiot, Wren," Colette said. "It can only hurt him."
"It could put me in an awkward position," Wren pointed out. "If he gets caught, I bet he'd drag me under the bus, as well."
Albus frowned. "So should I not have followed his snakes?"
"I don't know," she said softly.
"Would you have if you didn't know the truth?" Colette asked.
Albus frowned. "I think so."
"Well, then, you should have. If you would naturally do it, without knowing the truth, then do it."
"Except that was a foolish thing to do!" Wren exclaimed. "Like I said, Nico's dangerous."
Albus shrugged. "So am I, given the right conditions. And Nico pisses me off. Now more than ever. I want my bloody memories back."
"Good luck with that," Colette said, rolling her eyes.
"It's probably best to pretend you don't realize," I said, sighing. "We want to protect Wren. And it's not like you have anything to prove, Al. We all know he's a spy."
Albus rolled his eyes, muttering something about that not being the point, but he didn't argue. Colette pulled a book off the top of one of her stacks and flipped to the index in the back. Albus was fuming in his head, I could tell, and Wren also seemed lost in her thoughts. I glanced around the room to see if any of my other friends were around.
As I was scanning the room, James appeared on the stairs to the boys' dorms. "Astra!" he called across the room. "I've got a plan for tomorrow; want to see?"
I nodded, though I had a feeling he would have shown me anyway; he seemed incredibly excited as he hurried over, waving a pile of parchments.
"These are all of Fred's best plays," he explained, sitting down next to me. "I mean, as well as Jaycee's, and Ryan's, I suppose. And a couple I drew up over the summer that are sort of like ones Mum did when she played professional."
"Wait, where's Fred?" Wren asked, frowning. "I thought he'd be here all night."
James frowned. "He left sooner than I thought he would, actually. About an hour ago. Said he had a meeting he had to get to in Hogsmeade. Implied it was massively important, so I assume it's work related."
"For what?" Albus asked. "I thought he was playing for Puddlemere United? They're out of Dorset, aren't they?"
James shrugged. "I don't know, Albus, I was a bit too distracted with all these plays to ask. Anyway," he turned back to me, "I've heard we're going to have a lot of people tomorrow. I mean, I don't think we'll have to take long with third years or younger, since it's a Beater position..."
I nodded. "They're a bit small for that. Does no one who's already on the team want to be a Beater?"
James sent a nasty look in Albus's direction, and Albus pretended to not notice. "No, no one does. Elmer and Elcie are too small, of course, and Cedric's a really good Keeper. Of course, I asked Albus, since we could've practiced over the summer, but he said he wasn't interested."
"I don't want to be a Beater. I'm not any good at it."
"You're not any good at it because you never play as a Beater!"
"You know what I do play as? A damn good Chaser."
"Albus," Wren said, horrified.
Colette snickered. "If I took a shot every time she got onto one of you for cussing, I'd be in the hospital wing for alcohol poisoning by the end of the night."
Wren huffed and pulled her Charms essay out of her bag. James looked like he was about to make a scene arguing with Colette (as if he didn't tease Wren for that very same thing), so I cleared my throat and tapped a parchment at random. "What's this play?"
James blinked as my words pulled him back to the task at hand. "Um, that was one of Mum's signature plays. I'm going to have Elcie learn it for when we play Hufflepuff in November."
We were interrupted by Roxanne Weasley groaning loud enough for the whole common room to here. "James!" she called. "He's back! Make him go away!"
I glanced toward the rest of the room to see Fred standing at the portrait hole, hair messed up, glaring at his sister. He told her to do something vulgar, then walked over to us. "Just wanted to say good luck for tomorrow! Also, I forgot to tell you, but if Marcus Dillam tries out, I want you to publicly humiliate him, tell him he's as welcome as the ghost of Voldemort himself, whatever you want. I never liked that bloke, and after the way he treated my star Seeker..."
James glanced at me, confused. "Um, okay? Couldn't you have just owled me that? Why'd you come all the way back from Hogsmeade?"
Fred blinked, then shook his head quickly. "Oh, did I say Hogsmeade? Meant Hogwarts, obviously."
"Who were you meeting here?" I asked, frowning.
"Uh..."
Roxanne had walked up behind him, and had been listening to us. "Ooooh, is it this mysterious girlfriend you claim to have?" She grinned, raising an eyebrow. "He's just jealous that I'm dating Colin and he hasn't got anyone, I think."
"No, it's not a bloody girl..." Fred shook his head, glaring at her. "It was Uncle Harry."
"My dad? Why?"
"Uh... Important business." Fred started backing towards the door. "Anyway, good luck, I'll come see the match, have a good year..."
We watched him leave, then Roxanne turned back to us, seeming surprised. "Maybe he actually did go see a girl. He was definitely lying about Uncle Harry, at least."
"I don't know, it may have been DA stuff," I said quietly.
Roxanne frowned. "I don't think so. He'd probably talk to Aunt Ginny first, if not Mum or Dad."
James was blinking, a smile growing on his face. "Fred's been saying he has a girlfriend? Who?"
Roxanne shrugged. "I don't know. All he ever said was she existed, and he wouldn't tell me who it was. I bet if someone else pressed him, he'd say it was someone who graduated last year or the year before, just so we couldn't follow up. He never told me anything, though."
James glanced at me, his eyes dancing, and I groaned. "James, no..."
"Do you think it's Ciara Malfoy?" James asked Roxanne.
Roxanne burst out laughing. "Oh, that's rich!" It took her several moments to realize he wasn't kidding. "Wait, seriously? James, that's ridiculous."
"No, it's not! Why else would he lie about it, and not want to say who it was? He's worried we'll all disapprove."
Roxanne made a face. "No offense, Astra, but if Fred is dating Ciara Malfoy I'll beat them both up. I'm not having my brother go marry a Malfoy like her. Why couldn't he just go steal Scorpius from Rose, if he's got a thing for blonds?" She shook her head. "It's ridiculous, though. Ciara Malfoy and my brother hate each other."
James turned to me. "I guess there's one way to find out, right? Astra, you could ask Ciara what she was doing tonight..."
"I really do not want to do that."
"Please..."
"No." I frowned. "Absolutely not. If she found out why I was asking..."
"You don't have to tell her that. Just, if she seems like she's lying, it'd be more evidence..."
"James, I don't want to..."
"Please?"
I sighed. "Fine. But you're buying me a butterbeer next time we're at Hogsmeade, okay? Provided Ciara doesn't actually murder me."
Roxanne shook her head. "I'll pray over your soul after she kills you, Astra."
"Thanks. I think I'll need that." I shook my head. "James, you're ridiculous, you know that? You're going to seriously piss her off soon."
James just smiled, satisfied.
~~~~
James made me go over the next morning, before we went to start Quidditch trials. Ciara and Scorpius were eating breakfast together, and I slid into the seat across the table from them. "Hey! How's your year going?" I asked, forcing a smile.
Ciara gave me a weird look (this wasn't normal, and we both knew it), but Scorpius just grinned. "Great! No Haverna for me this year, and I really like Professor Edwards, don't you? And I'm so excited about Care of Magical Creatures!"
I nodded. A good, safe topic; I was really enjoying N.E.W.T.-level Care of Magical Creatures. Other than Poppy Stevens, we were the only students taking the course, so it was looking to be a very fun year. "I really love Hagrid. It's going to be really fun."
Scorpius nodded. "Oh, and my friends and I figured out a new way to study. We each read a different section, then summarize each section for each other! So we all learn everything in like a quarter of the time!"
I was about to say that that sounded really good (maybe I would try it with Albus) when Ciara cut in. "Scorp, what if one of your friends doesn't read the section as well as you do? You won't know everything."
Scorpius frowned. "Oh. I didn't think of that. Maybe it's not such a good idea."
I shrugged. "Uh, maybe not. So... Ciara, what'd you do last night?"
She gave me a weird look. "Worked on the Charms essay. In the Slytherin common room."
"Really?" Scorpius frowned. "Were you there the whole night? I don't remember seeing you."
"I was in one of the chairs in the corner," she said shortly. "Why, Astra?"
"Oh, no reason." I smiled. "Just trying to be a polite, involved cousin. Really, I want to know how your year's been."
She shrugged. "Nico's only hit on me twice, so that's good."
Scorpius made a face. "Let me know next time he does, C. I'll hex him."
"I can hex him myself, better than you can," she said, smiling.
I chuckled. "Does he carry those snakes around in the common room?"
Scorpius nodded, his expression changing to one of disgust. "He's got four or five in a terrarium in our dorm."
"He's always got at least one with him. It's thoroughly creepy," Ciara said. "Adalyn's even decided it's too much."
I raised an eyebrow. "She has?"
"Yeah. She tried to come crawling back to me, but..." Ciara shuddered. "She's changed so much since her first year. She's a completely different person now. It's frightening, honestly. Being around just Nico for so long really messed her up somehow."
Scorpius tilted his head. "Is this a 'messed up and we should tell a professor' sort of thing?"
"Probably not." Ciara shrugged. "I don't care what Adalyn does. If she's stupid enough to fall for anything Nico says, that's on her."
I bit my lip, a pang of guilt heavy in my stomach. "I wish I'd been nicer to her second year."
"We can't always know what will come of our actions." Ciara gave me a half-hearted smile. "This isn't your fault, Astra."
Scorpius nodded. "Adalyn's the one that decided to stick with Nico. Ciara tried to help her, in fourth year, but Adalyn chose Nico. That's on her."
I shrugged. "I guess so." I stood up. "Well, I think I need to go; we've got Quidditch trials today, and James said he needs my help."
"Good luck," Ciara said, smiling. "Hope you know you haven't got a chance this year, without Fred Weasley."
I winked at her. "Wish all you want, C, but we're going to destroy you this year."
As soon as I'd gotten back to the Gryffindor table, James put his arm around my shoulders and steered me towards the door. I hardly had time to smile at Wren and Colette before we were outside. "What'd she say?" James asked quietly.
I frowned. "Uh, she was studying in her common room last night."
"For sure?"
"I mean, Scorpius said he didn't remember seeing her the whole time, but she said she was in the corner, out of the way. So, yeah, for real." I rolled my eyes, smiling. "Finally ready to give up? I bet he really did go talk to your dad."
"He did," James said, lifting his chin into the air. "But, it was only for about five minutes, Dad said, just delivering something for Uncle George. So where was he the rest of the time?"
I sighed. "Is it really this big a deal, James? Are you going to spend the rest of your life obsessing about your cousin's personal life? This is more ridiculous than some of those Illuminati conspiracy theories."
"Illuminati? Is that one of Colette's spells?"
I shook my head. "No. Muggle thing. Never mind. Point is, you're being ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous. You're mad."
James chuckled. "When I'm right, you own me ten galleons."
"I'll gladly take that bet, because it's one I can't lose. Just think about it for a second. Ciara Malfoy and Fred Weasley? They hate each other."
"Did you see how messed up his hair was last night? He was shagging someone in a broom closet, I swear to Merlin."
"And if he was, it wasn't my cousin." I laughed. "I think he'd shag Madam Pince before Ciara, James. He really doesn't like her at all."
"Fine." James put his hands in his pockets and his nose in the air. "Every great mind gets called mad before people how genius they are."
"You know who else gets called mad? Actual loons."
"Shove off." He grinned at me as we walked into the pitch. "Someday you'll see I'm right. Till then, we'll agree to disagree."
"Sure thing." I glanced about the pitch, which was full of Gryffindors of all ages. "Anyway, what's the plan for today?"
"Right." James's smile dropped, and suddenly he was all business. "We'll start with the younger ones, get them out of the way quickly. Then just do four or five pairs at a time, see which ones are doing best. The very best get to try with me."
As predicted, the younger kids didn't take long to get through. A couple first years couldn't list the Beater's bat and stay upright on their broom at the same time. Pairs also went by quicker than I'd expected; there were a lot of people who simply were no good as Beaters. I could see their skills as a Chaser or even a Seeker, but being a Beater required a bit more perception and accuracy than either of those. We narrowed it down to about a dozen within an hour and a half.
Judging the potential Beaters as they played with James was slightly stressful. They were all really good, honestly. There were several fourth and fifth years (including River), as well as both Luke and Eric. To me, they all seemed about the same skill level, or made up for it with enthusiasm. By the time James had gotten through all of them, I'd given up on trying to decipher who the best was.
"Well, I think it's pretty obvious," James said when he came back.
"Do you?" I said, blinking. "They were all really good. I'm afraid I wasn't able to tell."
"That's okay. River Towning was the only one who I felt like was trying to read my moves really well and telegraph her own to me. That's really hard to teach."
"Well, great," I said, smiling. "She's the one, then?"
"Think so!" James was grinning. "That went so well! Yes!"
"Oi, Potter, you going to keep us here for the rest of the day?" Eric yelled from halfway across the pitch. "Who is it?"
James's expression become very serious once more. "Ready to disappoint some people, Astra?"
"Oh, Merlin, don't say it that way..."
We walked over to the small group, and James made the announcement. This was met by squeals from River, cheers from Luke, and loud groaning from Eric, who claimed he would never hear the end of it. Apparently, he, Luke, and River had all gone into this with a condition that the losers buy the winner a butterbeer in Hogsmeade. Eric had been convinced he could at least beat River, and had told her that, and she'd bet him ten sickles she'd get on the team instead of him. Now, he was down both a butterbeer and ten sickles.
Hufflepuff was hosting tryouts next, so we had to clear the pitch. James was overloading River with information about practice schedules, plays, and the other members of the team (as if she didn't know them all already), so I went ahead by myself. James could be at it for a few hours, potentially.
I was already inside and halfway to the common room before I remembered I was supposed to meet Colette and Wren in the library. I groaned and turned around. A full day of searching through Quibbler articles was not how I'd anticipated spending my first Saturday of the term. You know what sounded better? A nap. Maybe convincing Luke to pull some of his board games out. Not sitting in the dusty, dim archive room of the library, looking at lists of dead people.
In the library, Madam Pince pointed me in the direction of the right archive room with a warning to not damage anything or I'd be paying for it. I pulled the heavy door open and coughed at the dust it kicked up pulling forward.
"It was worse earlier," Albus's voice said. "My hair got two shades lighter from the dust."
I blinked in the dim light, giving my eyes a second to adjust. I could make out walls lined with file cabinets, as well as row upon row of them in the middle of the room. A few narrow windows were in the far wall, letting in a little light. Wren, Colette, and Albus all had their wands lit, and there were several glowing balls of light floating around the three of them, clustered around a table near the door. I raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know you were coming, Al."
"I wouldn't miss a choke on dust and die," Albus said, grinning at me. Wren seemed slightly alarmed, so he patted her head and amended, "I mean discover the truth, of course."
I smiled. "So, what have you found so far?"
Colette tossed me a notepad. "Here's the list."
It was several pages long. There were dozens of groups of names with details jotted in the margins. Some names had checkmarks beside them. I frowned. "Okay, translate, please?"
"Oh, right, okay." Wren hopped up and hurried over. "The groups are different muggle households. And the checkmarks are ones whose bodies weren't found. We weren't keeping track of that at first, but there were so many..."
"There are a lot of households where only one person is missing," Albus said, frowning. "It's strange."
"We're thinking that there's some sort of connection between all of them," Colette said, "but so far we've got nothing. We're still getting the list together, of course, so once we've got a full list of the missing people it might be easier to see the connecting thread."
I frowned. "What sort of information does the Quibbler give?"
"Date found, some details about them, suspected cause of death, possible suspects." Colette pushed a stack of magazines away from her and pulled open a file cabinet. "We're not keeping track of suspects, because it's never the same people, so that isn't the connecter."
"A lot of the cases were marked as arson to the muggles," Albus said. "Most of the houses ended up getting burned down. But the bodies showed signs of spell damage. The arson is just to cover their tracks, maybe."
"Want to start looking at the June issues?" Wren asked, pointing me towards a file cabinet near Colette. "Al's got March, I'm in April, and Colette's working on May."
I nodded, walking over to the cabinet. It didn't blow a cloud of dust in my face as I pulled it open, luckily, but it was musty and old. I pulled out a few stacks of magazines and carried them over to the tables near the door where my friends were working.
The lists were so long. Colette told me I didn't have to worry about the wizards, since a lot of them were only missing and where they were missing to was Parliament's detention center. I just needed to write down the muggles.
There were so many.
Dozens of people, every issue. Families. Children. Old people. Someone had bombed a muggle nursing home in the beginning of June, and had been sent to Azkaban. I recognized the name as someone who had been broken out only a few days later.
The names started to blur together, and I realized I was blinking away sleep. As much as I tried, the dimly lit room and quiet and my tiredness already from a full morning of Quidditch tryouts all worked against me, and I found myself nodding off before I knew it. I sat up, taking a deep breath (then coughing on the dusty air; Albus wasn't kidding about choking to death). Over the next half hour, I would suddenly find myself resting on the pile of magazines in front of me, or catch myself just as I was about to fall off my chair. Finally, I propped my head up on my elbow, determined to at least get through the stack of magazines I'd picked up before falling asleep again.
The next thing I knew, I was standing halfway up the aisle of a classroom. I saw myself sitting near the back, staring into space. It looked like I was sitting next to Colette, but everything seemed a little fuzzy. Except for Dream Me. Actually, as I looked further and further away from Dream Me, I could hardly make out anything except colorful blobs...
I heard a crash that sounded like it had come from far away, and turned around to see Dream Me standing in the aisle as well. Had she thrown something? She was blinking, and I could dimly hear and see people reacting, standing up, yelling, but I didn't know what had happened. Then, everything collapsed in on itself, and I was in a black void.
A door opened in the void, and I realized it wasn't a void, but a cell in Azkaban. I supposed it was night, since everything but the doorway was pitch black instead of the dull gray I was used to. Someone was holding a lit wand at the door. "Hempsey?" they whispered, and a lump of cloths on the floor behind me stirred.
"Get up," the voice said gruffly. "You've been freed."
The lump sat up and I realized it was a human shaped lump, dressed in the rags that were Azkaban's prison uniform. Long, dirty blonde hair glinted in the wand light, and the girl turned to the door.
"Hempsey, let's go," the person at the door said. I didn't recognize the man, though Zaria Hempsey seemed to. That's who this had to be. Hempsey, in Azkaban? Zaria.
She was shaking, could hardly get up. The man huffed and stepped inside to pull her to her feet. "Can you stand?"
"Just fine," she said, her eyes glinting coldly. "Do you have my wand?"
He tossed it to her. She gathered her hair into one hand, and used her wand in the other to cut it off. "You ready?" the man asked. "We've got a few more on this hall."
She nodded. Then she made a face. "I'm going to kill her."
And I woke up then, because I'd managed to fall off my chair. I heard someone else shriek at the sound, and all three of my friends hurried over. "Are you okay?" Wren asked, trying to help me up.
I blinked, rubbing my head. "I... I was dreaming..."
They exchanged a quick glance. "What... What about?" Colette asked slowly.
"The first part was... It was really weird..." I explained the part featuring Dream Me, then shook my head. "I... I think it's just like that other one, maybe? Right?"
Colette nodded slowly, but didn't seem so sure. "I... I guess."
"What other one?" Albus asked. Colette quickly explained the dream I'd had a few weeks ago, that we'd accounted to me feeling out of control.
"Perhaps Haverna is frustrating you, and you want to lash out?" Wren suggested. "I know you don't want to do that essay."
"I guess that's it." I shrugged. "That wasn't the important part. I also dreamed about Zaria Hempsey."
That gave all three of them pause. "What... What happened?" Albus asked slowly.
I slowly shook my head. "I think it was during the prison break. Nothing much happened. She said, 'I'm going to kill her.' I assume she meant you, Wren."
Wren nodded, looking down, then shrugged. "Nothing I didn't already know."
Albus put his arm around her shoulders. "You're safe, okay? Dad can protect you, whatever happens."
She nodded again, giving him a small smile. "I know. Thanks, Al."
Colette sighed. "Well, at least it's not super important. Let's get back to the list. I don't think the dust is super good for any of us."
~~~~
Why haven't I updated in three weeks? I was watching the Haidmaid's Tale (which is super good!). Sorry...
Question of the Day: Favorite genre of music?
Answer: I'm really into alternative (basic white girl, I know). Lately it's been more folk (even more basic??). Idk how to describe it really but like if a song sounds happy, I'm down for it! I guess the really question is what sort of music do you think my characters would like?
Vote and comment!
~Elli