Stardust
Chapter 3
The Holiday season was booming all around the Hogwarts Castle and as such, students were beginning to sing their favorite Christmas songs. One particular Ravenclaw student, Lottie Southernwood, was skipping along the halls. The usually soft-stepped girl was skipping along to the beat of the song she was singing to herself. "Far away across the sea, in sunny Italy, there's a quaint little town, not a clock has been wound for over a century!" Lottie sang cheerfully. The skip in her step was keeping time with the music playing in her head, "they don't know the time or year, and no one seems to care, and this is the reason the Christmas season is celebrated all year!" As she skipped her way through the halls, she bumped into Vivien, "Buone Natale! Ah ~ non è la stagione natalizia meraviglioso?"
Vivien looked confused, "Ich spreche kein Italienisch," she spoke in a thick German accent.
Lottie laughed, "Sorry! I just love the Holidays! I can't wait to go home and see my mamma!" She gushed childishly. "What about you Vivien? Are you excited to see your family?"
The inky haired girl smiled awkwardly, "Well I'm excited to see my Dad...my mum though, not so much."
"I'm sorry Vivien! I didn't know something was wrong! Are you okay?" Lottie asked in concern.
"I'm fine! I'm probably just overreacting anyways! It's just sometimes I feel like my mum doesn't like me," Vivien admitted. "I'm sure a lot of kids feel like that!"
Lottie shook her head, "nope. My mom and I are like besties! We're super close!" Vivien smiled uneasily, "but you have your differences, right? Things about each other you don't like?" "Nope! My mom and I, well, we've only had each other since I was born. We did everything together whenever we could. We read similar books, listen to similar music, have the same tastes. You couldn't find tighter peas in a pod!"
Vivien frowned and looked away sheepishly, "so you think my mom and I are strange because we don't get along?"
Lottie cleared her throat, "no! Not at all! Sometimes that happens. Especially with...your situation," she gestured to Vivien's body. The girl frowned and sighed, "I suppose she isn't the biggest supporter of my transition. She always wanted a son and I just can't be the son she wanted. I hate being a boy."
Lottie wished she knew how to help her friend, but all she could do was give Vivien a hug and say, "well if you ever wanna talk, you can come to me."
"Thanks Lottie," Vivien said and returned the hug. Lottie soon wrapped her arm around Vivien's shoulder, "now come, my friend! Let's go celebrate Christmas with some hot cocoa and fruit cake!"
"You actually eat fruit cake? Willingly?" Vivien asked with skepticism. Lottie laughed, "of course! It's delicious! Why do people hate fruit cake so much? I never understood that."
As they walked to the dining hall, Sam was with Aster, the two were laughing and enjoying what appeared to be dinner. Sam looked over and smiled at the two other girls. Lottie held back a blush but she and Vivien walked over, taking the seats on the other side of the Ravenclaw table. "Hey, guys!" Aster exclaimed. "What's up?"
"Someone's in a better mood!" Vivien noted.
"It's 'coz it's Christmas!" Aster jumped from her seat, making everyone from the surrounded area to look at her with annoyance. Lottie smiled, "I imagine you must be really excited to spend the Holidays with your family like I am!"
Aster's eyes snapped open and felt her excitement dwindle. Sam looked at Lottie, with a hand gesture under his neck, telling her to stop talking right now. Lottie soon remembered and apologized, "right, I'm sorry! I meant to say, I bet you're excited for…presents?"
Aster smiled a bit, "it's okay, I'm still adjusting to my life now but I am excited to see the Malfoys," she said. "It's strange, I never once questioned my mom about anything like that. I didn't care who my father because I took my mom's word for it that he was dead. Well, now I met him and he's a really nice guy and I never felt anything so…powerful before."
"Powerful?" Sam asked.
"The connection. I guess it would be a family bond. I don't know, but even when I first met my grandparents, I felt like I've known them my entire life," Aster admitted.
The kids gave each other expression of uneasiness, but Vivien was the one who asked, "and what about Professor Potter?" Lottie added, "we didn't want to bother you and ask right away, but how do you feel about Professor Potter being…well…your mom?"
"If I can be honest?" Aster spoke softly, "I don't like it," she said with a guilty expression. "I know I should give him a chance, and I've tried, but I don't feel the same connection as I do with the Malfoys. Even knowing what happened, I just feel like he's someone who's trying to change me."
Fingernails dug deep through the pale skin as the effort to hold back was of no concern for the raven-haired wizard. Harry buried his manhood inside his friend under him, slamming hard against the bundle of nerves like a clapper inside a bell ringing to signal the new hour. Harry soon pulled out, releasing his seed and tapping his member outside plump mounds of flesh. His red-haired companion fell face forward on the pillows, bottom still in the air as his knees was the only support he had left. Ron panted heavy, his face flushes with red splotches adorning his cheeks. Harry looked at Ron with blurry eyes, as he had not been wearing his glasses. Instead of collapsing as Ron has just done, Harry sat down at the foot of the bed, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"You seemed tenser than before the fucking," Ron spoke plainly. He couldn't move at the moment or the blood would rush to his head and he would pass out. "Well, at least you didn't cum in me this time," Ron mused loudly. "You do it so often, I honestly think you were trying to make me up the duff."
"As if we could ever have kids together," Harry chided sternly. "I don't want any more kids. The two I have are ungrateful brats," he said. Ron took a breather and moved to reach for his wand that was resting on Harry's nightstand, and a few wands of the wand and suddenly Ron was cleaned up. "Didn't realize you hated your kids like this," Ron muttered. Harry sighed, lowering his head, "I don't…I don't hate them, but they don't like me."
"Rose and Hugo are my kids and no matter how they feel, I'll always love them," Ron commented. A sting of guilt hit Harry, and he slowly turned to Ron, "you know, don't you?"
Ron looked at Harry, not wanting to say anything else. He knew, how could he not? The red-haired male moved up, getting off the bed and began putting his clothes on. Harry remained, stoic. Ron rolled his eyes, "don't call me for a fling if it doesn't help you," Ron stated.
"And who would you go to for sex? Your wife?" Harry asked.
"At least I have a wife," Ron remarked.
Harry turned to Ron, glaring hard at his friend. "If you loved Hermione as much as you say you do, why would either of you fuck me so casually?"
Ron grew cold, "I don't need to take this from you, Harry," he said, storming out of the room with his clothes on and his wand. As he left, he saw the last person he wanted to see at the moment; his daughter. The girl stared at him hard, having the inquisitive mind like her mother. "Rose-"
"I know what you're doing," she stopped him from speaking. The twelve-year-old girl glared hard at the older Weasley. "You need to stop coming here. People are starting to talk and I hate being talked about because of you and your indecent behavior," she stated in the same tone of voice as Hermione had spoken when she was around that age.
"I just had to talk to your Uncle- I mean, Professor Potter about something important," Ron said. Rose didn't even faze. She just headed to the girl's staircase in the tower.
Ron felt like a real heel.
Harry grit his teeth as he prepared for his day as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. He was in no better mood than he was in the night before and as he walked through the class, he thought at least he could see his children that day. Today was the first year's lesson, and he would see his daughter.
He walked through the class, heading straight to the chalkboard and began writing on the board. "Alright students, I know the Holidays are approaching and we go on break soon so let's all get through today's lesson as a summary for your midterm exams," he said as he wrote out the word, "Study Guide," on the board. He turned and smiled to the kids, putting on a faux show of optimism. There were audible groans from the students, but it was Marigold who asked, "can't we just have an easy day professor?"
"This will be an easy day if you did your homework," Harry said. "Now can anyone tell me…wait, why are there empty chairs?" He asked as he noticed quite a bit of students actually missing. Students began to turn around to notice the empty seats. Harry sighed, pulling out a sheet with the students' names on it. A list which has been edited since Aster's true identity discovered. "I hate taking attendance but those who are skipping will have detention after the holidays," he said. As he began going through the list, marking empty students through some of the peers did defend them for their absence, "one went home for Holidays already," and such were called out. However, when Harry called "Lily Potter," everyone raised an eyebrow. Aeswyn raised a hand and asked, "don't you mean Aster?"
"I know what I said," Harry remarked. "Where is she? Why isn't she here?" He asked. Everyone kept quiet. Harry sighed and said, "I hate to give her detention so close to Christmas." Though as he marked off other names, he went to work and gave the student's study guides for the upcoming exams. "And as a reward for coming to class, you all get ten extra points on your exams," he added, which actually made some students really excited. "Consider it an early Holiday gift."
As students were soon following Professor Potter's study guide, Ace felt a paper wad hit his head. He turned around sharply, seeing Marigold looking at him. Her lips moved silently, only pushing lips. Aeswyn frowned, not knowing what she wanted exactly, and as he gave the red-haired a confused expression, it only infuriated her. She tried pointing to the empty seat that had commonly been Aster's seat ever since the first-day fiasco. Ace rolled his eyes and turned back around, going back to work. At least that was the plan until a shadow loomed over Ace. He looked up slowly, seeing Professor Potter loom over him. "I believe what Marigold was trying to ask you was where is my daughter right now?"
Ace had never felt as terrified as this since those days in detention with Hagrid.
The morning had been quiet, and Aster knew something was immediately wrong. She sat up slowly, reaching around for her furry companion and when she didn't feel her in her usual spot on her bed, Aster began freaking out. "Wednesday!" She shouted as she began to literally flip her bed and still no sign of her best friend anywhere.
The girl stood in a pale blue pajama set with stars and moons on the pants and a long sleeve white shirt that was adorned with black cat hair if one took a closer look. Aster began looking through the Hufflepuff common rooms, searching through every dorm room for all the students and when she reached the common room, she thought Wednesday must be in the Christmas tree. In the blind state of panic, Aster began rummaging through the tree, knocking over ornaments and tensile as she dug through the tree.
She even knocked the tree down and no sign of the feline anywhere.
Aster decided to look for Wednesday, going back to her dorm room and grabbing her thick white winter coat on and slipped on a pair of shoes. She started running, looking around the castle for her cat, asking anyone if they have seen her cat.
No one.
In fact, other animals had gone missing. Some other students were looking for their pets as well, though Aster was going ballistic trying to find Wednesday. The girl just kept running, asking anyone and anything if they had seen the black cat anywhere. Every step taken felt as though she was not getting any closer. A tightness developed in her chest, and the world felt so large at the moment that despite running around the Hogwarts grounds in the brink of winter, she felt as though she was getting nowhere.
Sam Ewing had been walking out of a class with Lottie when they looked over and saw Aster running sluggishly, tracks following in her wake. They two Ravenclaws gave each other a look before they rushed over to their friend, going to see what was wrong. Aster couldn't hear their cries of her to stop, she felt a ringing in her eyes that seemed to deafen her to anything else. "We need to get her attention!" Lottie shouted to Sam. The boy looked around and as Lottie was pulling out her wand, hoping to use a stunning spell, Sam had made a thick snowball and threw it, hitting Aster in the back of her head and that was enough to make the girl fall down, face first.
Lottie gave Sam a disturbed expression, "what? It worked!"
The two rushed over to the blonde Hufflepuff, following in Aster's footsteps as it had made a steady path for them, and they soon saw the girl, bawling her eyes out. Her face beat red, as though all the blood was rushing to her cheeks could only cry, unable to even mutter a coherent word.
Sam knelt down, wrapping his arms around the petite child and having a larger build for a boy his age meant he could carry her. Aster wrapped her arms around Sam's neck, crying continuously. Lottie felt her breath stagger a bit at the sight, and she quickly moved her gaze away, "come on, let's get her inside," she said uneasily as she led Samuel back to the Hogwarts Castle.
