Asters POV
My mother was out like a light, sleeping deeply in her bed upstairs. I listened as my fathers heavy footsteps echoed up the stairway and down the corridor. Waiting for the heavy shut of his bedroom door, I finally slipped out of my room and tip toed downstairs.
Standing outside my fathers study I concentrated on my wand balancing in my hand and muttered the shield penetration spell. I could see the protection wards waver and after a few tense seconds the air rippled. It worked.
I gingerly placed my hand on the door knob and twisted. The door opened easily and I couldn't help but smile to myself.
Muttering "Lumos" the downlights and a desk lamp flickered on instantly. The large room was a mess. So unlike my father.
I frowned as I stared at the numerous books stacked untidily on his large chestnut desk, his bookshelf completely disorganised. Ink splattered odd pieces of parchment, and I leaned down to read the odd smudges and slanted writing.
Magical Permanency: Characteristics
Irreversibility
Consequences? the between-space
inhumane?
Balance of nature - what must we sacrifice?
It wasn't a list per say but seemed like my fathers rambled thoughts. It wasn't odd to see this sort of brainstorming from my father, I know he had been toying with the theory of permanent magic, specifically to do with wards and protection spells. What really caught my eye was the words 'the between-space'.
I shuffled though the papers but came across nothing of importance, more protection spells, the textbook 'Magical Theory' by Adalbert Waffling - a required first year text at Hogwarts, something my father referred to quite often. I would have thought he would have had it memorised by now.
Blank pieces of parchment also littered his desk. I picked up a nearby pile of books and found another text, this time referencing the so-called 'between-space' or 'limbo' as it also mentioned. It mentioned the first law of fundamental magic, commenting on the different consequences for different violations but it was nothing I didn't already know.
And then, I saw the book 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' casually sitting on an armchair nestled in one corner of the room. He must have retrieved it from my room. On the inside of the book, my name was written messily, courtesy of 7-year old Aster.
Curiosity brought me towards it. Why would he be reading this? Knowing my father wasn't one for fictional worlds, I picked up the small book and wasn't at all surprised when I found my beloved copy riddled with annotations.
The story with the most annotations seemed to be 'The Warlock's Hairy Heart', a quite gothic fairy tale. The tale talks about a young warlock removing his heart from his body using dark magic to prevent himself from falling in love. The heart decays after being away from his body for so long that by the time a young maiden asks him to put his heart back inside his chest, the heart is consumed by dark magic. This ultimately drives the Warlock to take by force a human heart. He attempts to take the maidens heart for his own, only for the heart to stop him from using magic. Before he can replace his own heart with the maidens, he dies across the maidens dead body with one heart in each hand.
The story was always skipped when my mother read out loud to me, only for me to read it to myself just before I attended Hogwarts. It was horrific and quite terrifying. Not much of fairy tale if you asked me.
My father's writing messily covered the last paragraph, his words reading 'in seeking to become super-human, this man renders himself inhumane'.
Was this about the Death Eaters? Is this what the Dark Lord wants to know more about? Being super-human?
Before I could riffle through more of my fathers notes, I hear a click from upstairs. I place the book exactly where he left it, muttered "Nox" and slipped out of his study. Listening to soft footsteps upstairs, I froze waiting for the steps to carry downstairs. Instead, they echoed towards the bathroom. I exhaled with relief.
Before my father could catch me downstairs, I creeped to the back door. Unlocking the back door, I quickly rushed out and quietly closed the door behind me. The cold air nipped at my neck and blew my pony tail flat against my cheek. I pulled my knitted jumper over my hands and cursed myself for not wearing my coat.
I walked from the cool dark night and to the back gate. Lifting my wand to pull the latch up soundlessly, I was able to slip through the wards in silence.
"Aster" a voice hissed from the dark shadows.
If it wasn't for the familiar tone, I probably would have hexed the shit out of whoever just sneaked up on me.
Blaise stepped out of the shadows, his black coat wrapped tightly around him as he shivered.
"What are you doing here?!" I whispered harshly at him.
"I've been waiting for you for like an hour. I couldn't get through the protection spells.." he mumbles, nodding towards the back gate I had just slipped through.
"How did you get here?" I furrowed my eyes at him and looked around. The street was empty.
"I apparated" he confidently announces, giving me a beaming smile.
I chuckle at his proudness.
"I had no idea you could apparate" I mumbled, pulling him away from the house and deeper into the street.
"I've been practicing for a while now, I took the test before we left for the holidays" he admits.
I whip my head towards him.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask saddened by his inability to talk to me.
"I didn't want to brag" he shrugged his shoulders.
"Please don't keep secrets from me, I can't handle any more" I say, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. He squeezes me hand back before he goes to let go but I grab it tighter.
We walk down the street hand in hand. I needed the closeness of another human to anchor me right now. I could slowly feel myself growing unstable from all the secrets and betrayals.
"Why are you here?" I ask.
"You told me you needed to learn how to apparate, I'm here to teach....and make sure you don't splinch yourself in the process" he adds, giving me a slight nudge as we walk.
We reach the end of my street and approach the steps towards the beach. It was completely empty but I pull Blaise towards the far end, away from the houses overlooking the sand. My secret nook in a carved rock jutted out on one side of the sand, rock pools scattered around it.
"Well Mr Expert, teach me your ways" I announce, spreading my arms out and gesturing to the empty spread of sand we were now currently standing in.
As I focused on the Three D's: Destination, Determination and Deliberation, Blaise drew circles in the sand with his feet.
"Can you please stop that? I can't concentrate" I grumbled.
All I got was a grunt in reply but he stopped.
I listened to the wind rustling around me and thought about the wet water I wanted my feet to appear in.
Suddenly I felt like I was being forced through a very tight rubber tube and plop. My feet was successful drowning in the shallows of the sea 6 feet away from where Blaise was standing.
"Hah!" I cried out happily.
Blaise looked up in surprise.
"Didn't think you would catch on that fast"
I stick my tongue out at him.
"Can you come back?" He tests me.
I think back to the coarse sand my feet had just left and the sight of the grey rock that would be behind me.
With another tight squeeze, I dissipated from the sea and landed comfortable on the sand.
I bow at my waist, smiling smugly at Blaise glaring from a few feet away.
"Sometimes you are too talented for your own good" he mumbles.
I grin, proud at my achievements.
After successfully testing various distances across the large expanse of beach, I slouch down on the rock I had started in front of.
"Tell me what you found then" Blaise mutters, leaning back against the rock against me. He shoves the various sticks he had found while I practised on the ground with his feet. With a quiet mutter, he points his wand at the sticks at our feet and lights them to create a small fire.
The orange flames light up the beach, letting me finally see Blaise's face clearer. He looked tired but otherwise ok.
I start to explain the information I found in my father's study, including my childhood book. He listens intently, something I had always admired in Blaise. Once I finish, he looks back at the small fire at his feat.
"Are you really willing to join them?" he asks hesitantly.
"I have to"
"You don't have to Aster, you can stay out of it. Your father only said yes to keep you safe and you're just going to go against that?"
The fire seems to ripple intensely at his true words.
"It's not just my dad, its my mum....its Harper" I confess.
He looks up at me, his eyes wide.
"Why? She betrayed us?"
"What if she pushed us away on purpose? to keep us safe?"
He looks back down at the fire, contemplating my words.
"I don't think she did" he mutters, sadness dripping with each syllable.
"Why?"
"I think she did this to find somewhere she belongs" he says quietly.
I furrow my eyebrows, confused.
"She always had a problem with being the outcast, you know that. She hated being a halfblood. I've never cared, you two had been more than I've ever wanted. You couldn't have cared less about being a halfblood, you made it into your own. But Harper, she always struggled"
His words sink into my skin and pierce my heart with little stabs.
"You think she actually choose to join them? to become a death eater?"
"I don't think she's actually a death eater, I think she supports the cause but only to be accepted. To feel that sense of belonging" he explains.
"How can she not be a death eater but support the cause?" I ask now thoroughly confused.
"You don't remember what she said to us the night at The Shambles?"
The only thing I remember clearly about that night was Draco and I.
Shamelessly I shake my head.
"She said that not all Death Eaters have marks...which technically wouldn't make them Death Eaters but just followers...supporters"
I look up at Blaise and watch as his eyes find mine.
"You are really fucking wise" I say.
He chuckles half-heartedly, but his eyes stay dim.
"I'm not supporting your plan here Aster, I mean he could easily come after my family and I next but I want to help your dad. Your family is my family." he says, pulling my hand into his again.
"It's not just my dad though Blaise" I say, looking at our entwined hands in the firelight.
"What do you mean?"
"Draco. He's been initiated....I know he wouldn't really want this. I need to help him too" I finally admit.
I stay staring at our hands, hoping he doesn't pull away.
"Is he worth risking everything for?" his voice cuts through the cold air sharply.
I finally look up into his dark eyes, wishing it was the cool silver ones I so desperately wanted to see.
"Yes" I whisper.
I couldn't see his reaction in the darkness.
"You need to meet with your Uncle..he can get you into the meeting"
"That's the plan. I need to apparate to his house soon, I have no idea when they plan to get my father. But I've never apparated that far..." I reply, nervously pushing the sand around with my feet.
"Floo to my house first. Tell your mum you want to see me before Christmas and then you can apparate to his."
I look up at Blaise and find him staring at me waiting for an answer.
"Mum won't let me leave. I had to bloody drug her to get out the house"
"You what?!" Blaise voices echoes across the empty beach.
"Don't worry it was just a sleeping draught. She probably needed it after today anyway" I mumble, trying to stop the nausous shame from rising in my throat.
He shakes his head but he chuckles.
"You're more ambitious that I realised...a true Slytherin" he mutters.
"Well the sorting hats always right"
"Leave your mum with me, I can sway her."
I raise my eyebrows up at him and he gives me a shrug in response.
"Your mum likes me" he comments, leaving me to smile as he grins cheekily.
A/N ahhh I love Aster and Blaise moments 🥰 also dw Aster and Draco will be reuniting sooner than you think! 😏
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