Once again Harry and Draco were throwing insults at one another. Aster had taken a seat on one of the low, stone arches that looked out onto the courtyard, this happened too often for her to find it amusing anymore - but a small crowd had gathered to watch the display.

"He's such a vile creature." Hermione commented from where she stood beside her, Aster shrugged in reply, in fact She didn't think Draco Malfoy was vile at all.

Draco was indeed a lot of things, mean and hateful being two of them but she wouldn't go as far as calling him vile. Aster thought he was rather witty, his insults were far better than Harry's and faster too. The way Draco carried himself was also better, Harry stood defensive – ready to attack should the opportunity present itself – but Draco was relaxed, leaning against a wall, arms crossed and wearing his ever present smirk.

There was definitely more beneath the surface, all Aster had to do was search for it...

"C'mon Aster, we're going to be late for Charms." The girl looked up, dragged away from her train of thought, to see Harry beckoning her like dog, the fight was over and she hadn't even noticed. Like a good dog, she picked herself up and followed her brother and his friends to charms class.


Aster had always been very good at noticing people and even better at noticing what people liked to hide.

Dumbledore once said that she had been gifted with a natural talent for Legilimency – a more complicated version of what muggles called 'mind-reading'. He'd told her it was quite a rare gift to be born with and often took years for one to learn such a skill at the level she had mastered by the time she was eleven.

As a child Aster had often taken comfort in knowing what people were thinking at any given time, She had often used it to scare Aunt Petunia - Her Aunt usually responded by locking her in the cupboard under the stairs. Now though, she tried to not to pry into people's thoughts too much – she'd been told it was impolite to do so – but occasionally she'd do it by accident and discover things about people that they kept hidden.

For example she know that George Weasley harboured a small resentment for his twin, for dating Angelina and being the more outgoing of the two brothers. On the other hand Fred, though he dated Angelina, he held onto a crush for a girl who's name Aster did not know as she had not wished to pry further than she already had, even she had boundaries when it came to searching through other people's thoughts, all she knew about the girl was that Fred found her quite enchanting.

Aster thought it was probably Hermione, she was quite enchanting, especially after the yule ball last year - she'd been in more than a few boys thoughts and Fred knew her pretty well. Aster hadn't wanted to go to the ball but Harry had made her, insisting that it would be fun. He'd even asked Hermione to help pick out a dress a dress for her from one of the stores in Hogsmeade – "Green to match your eyes," Hermione had said. Aster had sat on the stairs and read for most of the ball.

She sat with the twins now, at the Gryffindor table waiting for the Great Hall to fill with students and staff, ready for dinner to be served. She'd separated from Harry and his friends after Charms, having opted to take Ancient Runes over Divination and she almost always beat the trio to dinner.

"You're quiet today," Fred said looking at her, why he found this to be surprising she didn't know, she thought was quiet every day. Aster wasn't the biggest talker, especially in large crowds, mostly having to concentrate on her own thoughts and not everyone else's.

She shrugged in reply, and his smile wavered a little. He looked as if he were about to speak again when Harry dropped onto the bench on Aster's right and Hermione on her left and Ron beside her.

"You still coming to the DA meeting after dinner?" Harry asked the twins, who assured him they were. Aster attended the meetings, only because Harry insisted but in truth She was just as good as Harry was in most areas of defence against the dark arts, he couldn't teach her what she didn't already know.

The group, joined a little later by Ginny and Neville began discussing matters in hushed tones. Harry always looked his brightest when surrounded by his friends, brighter still when he was teaching them. Aster didn't look much like her brother, they weren't identical twins like Fred and George were. They had the same dark hair colour but hers was a lot longer, reaching her waist in loose tangled curls and where he looked like their father, she better resembled their mother. Their eyes were their only identical feature.

As they ate and talked about the DA meetings and their hatred for Professor Umbridge – who Aster agreed most certainly was a vile creature, her mind began to wander and the voices flooded in, Aster disliked crowds because there were too many thoughts to cope with and they were often more difficult to shut out once she'd let them in.

Under the table a foot pressed gently but firmly on top of her own and the shock of its obvious lack of being an accident shut the roar of voices in her head down into an almost eerie silence.

"You're doing it again," Fred said, watching her carefully as the foot under the table moved away from her own. The groups eyes turned to her, most were concerned and Harry's were full of worry. Poor Neville only looked confused, whilst Aster had confided in the Weasley family – feeling they had to know if she were to stay in their home with them as often as She and Harry did – She had asked them that no one else find out and they had obliged, so poor Neville was left out of the loop. Ginny looked as she had when Aster had first told her family of her gift, she looked sickened. Ginny harboured no real hatred for Aster but she thought the gift was awful, Aster's ability to pry into someone's inner most thoughts and to even control them in a way, Aster could see why Ginny hated it so much.

"I'm sorry," Aster apologised, pushing her half eaten plate of food away from herself. She rose from her seat and hurried towards the entrance to the great hall. Aster was not upset with herself for losing my control, she'd found being upset never helped the situation and only added to her distress. No, she wasn't upset – a little embarrassed perhaps, for someone who found it so easy to enter a persons mind she had a lot of trouble staying out of them, or getting out when she accidentally wandered in.

It was hard to always be concentrating, never being allowed to daydream through fear you may perhaps enter someone else's. Harry always said he didn't mind her being in his head, there was nothing in there that he would hide from her anyway, he'd always said, which only made her more cautious to never enter his mind, it was unfair with all the secrets she hid from him.

She'd spoken to Dumbledore about it on a few occasions but he'd assured her she was very skilled in her ability and that her lack of control over it was simply, for lack of a better phrase – all in her head.


Aster found herself out in the courtyard, sat on a bench, a slight breeze cooling the warmth of her face. The sky above her was that blue colour that meant it wasn't quite night yet but the day was certainly over, She loved that blue. It was a quiet blue and she welcomed its comforting silence.

Aster closed her eyes for a second to enjoy the silence, only for it to be ruined by a familiar voice.

"Well if it isn't Princess Potter." Draco Malfoy stood, framed buy one of the old arches that surrounded the courtyard.

"What do you want, Draco?" Aster enquired, she never called him Malfoy like her brother did, she didn't give him that satisfaction of thinking that he got to her by simply being around.

The boy shrugged, "I was walking by and you happened to catch my eye." It wasn't the truth, she could tell that without even trying to see into his head, but why should she care why he was really here? She shouldn't, but she did.

"I saw you at dinner," Aster told him, he was never hard to spot, he walked at the centre his friends who were like a wolf pack ready to attack, their arrival never went unnoticed. "Which means you left early as I did and I can only assume you followed me?" She questioned but didn't wait for an answer, "Therefore I can only continue to assume there is something you want from me?" She concluded before adding, "Or I could be wrong and you just really felt like a walk." She shrugged to show her indifference either way.

Draco nodded, "I was hoping I could sweet talk you in to telling me what Potter is planning." He smirked at her before continuing, "You're not like that lot," He told her, taking a seat beside her on the bench.

"You're better than they are and you know it." Aster didn't think she was better than them, they were her friends after all but a small piece of her knew she didn't really fit with them, she didn't much care for taking down Voldemort, she'd accepted the murder of her parents long before Harry had even found out that they hadn't died in a car crash. She often thought the sorting hat had only placed her in Gryffindor because that's what Harry wanted and he couldn't fit her anywhere else.

"I won't tell you a single thing, Draco." Aster told him firmly, she may not entirely fit with the group but she was loyal to them and to herself. Draco shrugged like he knew she wouldn't tell him anything.

"What is this game you're playing?" Aster enquired, if he knew she wouldn't tell than why bother to ask? He shrugged at her again which she found infuriating. There were easier ways to find her answers though and it wouldn't hurt to look, she told herself.

She reached with her mind into his, hoping to find something their besides the arrogant boy he portrayed but no sooner had she opened the door was it slammed in her face again. With each attempt to look into his head Aster was attacked and forced out again. It had never happened to her before – least not by another student but here she was being shut out of his head. Someone had taught Draco Malfoy Occlumency and for some reason Aster was happy about it, it felt so good to be locked out of someone's head, to not know their next move even before they themselves did.

"I thought I felt someone trying to pry around earlier." Draco said, his smirk back on his face as he stood up from his seat, "See you around, Potter." He said and left before she could even attempt to reply.

Draco Malfoy had come to her looking for an answer to a question he never even asked and she'd given him the answer. He on the other hand was a complete mystery and she was intrigued by him more than she should have been.


A/N: Okay so I know what the ending of this story is going to be (I think, but it might change.) but i've zero clue how to get there so if you are gonna read this story, please bear with me as i end to ramble a little, haha, I apologise now for that! Anyways I hope you liked this first chapter and if you did leave a review? And if you didn't... Leave me a review! I like to know what I'm doing wrong. Thanks for reading ~RainbowVeins