Stardust

Chapter 4

Harry sat alone in his office, going over the homework from his second year's classes. Much like her mother, Rose Weasley was at the top of her classes, so when his magical quill gave the paper a high score, he smiled a bit, thinking about the nostalgia of when he had once been a student many years ago.

He mindlessly flipped a few pages until his quill wrote a failing grade. Harry frowned and saw the name of the student. James Potter. Harry took a breath, trying to calm himself down and tried to see why James had failed. When he actually read the paper, anger boiled. It was blank! He just wrote his name on a piece of parchment with what looked like a starting paper about how to combat pixies and it was only two lines of globality-gook!

Was James trying so hard to piss him off?

Not only did he have to deal with Lily's nonsense and defiance, but his son's lack of respect was rubbing him the wrong way. Bias clouded Harry's mind. "Of course James got his entitlement from the Malfoy gene. It must be the same gene that causes the blonde hair," Harry thought to himself as he put the paper aside so that he could discuss it would his son later.

There was a knock at his door…

"Come in," Harry said as he put the homework away as the door opened. The young woman stood about 5'4 with dark blonde hair with lighter highlights and warm brown eyes. She smiled softly at the older male, "Professor Potter," she said softly, "I'm glad you are still awake at this hour."

"Yes. How can I help you Professor Denbright?"

"Please sir, call me Stella," she said with a charming smile, "you never minded that before."

"You were my apprentice back then, not a distinguished Professor like you are now," Harry complimented. The woman felt honored and that was shown with a wider smile, "you are too kind sir."

Harry stared the woman up and down, remembering her back when she was a shy seventeen-year-old fresh out of Hogwarts and wanted to only please those above her. He smiled, still able to see the young woman so good and pure like that. "You know, it only just occurred to me Stella that I've never thanked you properly for finding my daughter," Harry said.

Stella smiled, "no thanks are necessary sir," she said. "If I was missing my child as you had been, I would do all that I could to find her."

"How did you know it was her?" Harry asked.

"I didn't. Just a hunch and when she began describing her life, I felt as though it was strange," Stella said, "I learned from the best to follow my gut instincts and I've been very rarely so wrong." The woman stepped closer to Harry, closing the gap between them. Harry looked away, avoiding the seductive yet subtle ways of her flirting. "Professor-"

"Harry," Stella said, "I just wanted to come by and give this to you," she said and handed him a sealed envelope, "from the Ministry. They said that now that you've found your daughter that you should return to your post as Head Auror as soon as possible."

"How did you know that?" Harry asked.

Stella pulled out a similar looking envelope from her robe, "because I received a similar summons," she commented with an innocent smile. Harry took the letter from her and he ripped it open, reading the contents and with the official signature of his dear friend and Minister of Magic, Hermione Granger. Harry looked at Stella, who backed away playfully, "I should get back. It is late after all," she said before Harry could even bid her a good night.

The Hufflepuff common room was filled with a fire crackling in the fireplace and soft piano music playing from a record player. Aster didn't know how long she had been laying on the couch, mindlessly flipping through the blank pages of her journal, unable to write anything more. Her heart was heavy and with her life taking a sudden turn, she didn't know how to cope. Her earlier attempts to search for her beloved Wednesday failed and she was left with a sinking feeling deep inside her.

Ignorance was blissful and she had no idea how ignorant she had truly been. The idea of wanting to ask for help made her go teary-eyed because who could she turn to? Her friends already had their own lives to worry about and after Sam and Lottie had gone after her from her pathetic attempt to look for her cat in the snow, Aster didn't feel right in asking them for any more help. Vivien? She had already left for the Holidays. Ace? He had left that night but he had been kind enough to leave a copy of their Defense Against the Dark Arts study guide for her so that she could study over the break.

The students were leaving already, and only a few of the Hufflepuffs remained, some staying over the Holidays. She would rather stay at Hogwarts than go back to Harry's home and celebrate the Holidays with him. Aster soon thought about the woman she had known her entire life, a woman she had once called Mommy. Those thoughts alone made the girl fight back her tears. She shouldn't miss her so much as she did at that moment. How could she help those thoughts from coming to her?

Aster opened her journal mindlessly like she had been doing for the last few hours. The first page read in fine gray print, "In case of loss, please return to:" Aster had left the lines underneath it blank. Before, she would have proudly put down "Aster Brooke Campbell," without a second thought. Now she wasn't sure what to put down. The journal itself wasn't anything special. It had once been used but has since had pages ripped from it, and the clean pages that had been ripped out had been taped in with decorative tape, but the journal was still missing a good number of pages in the front of it.

"That's a nice journal you have."

Aster snapped from her thoughts and looked around to see Serenity smiling at her. "Oh! Serenity," Aster said softly. "I'm sorry! I didn't see you there!" She said as she jumped from her seat. Serenity only laughed a bit. Her medium champagne colored hair was pulled back in a small ponytail and she had on small rimmed glasses along with muggle winter wear. There was a suitcase by her side, indicating that she was going home very soon. "It's alright. You look like you were deep in thought. I thought maybe you wanted to chat for a bit before I left," she said.

Aster looked away a bit, shameful, "it's fine. I shouldn't complain about anything."

Serenity raised an eyebrow, "What would you have to complain about?"

Aster looked at the older girl, and said, "I don't. That's my point."

Serenity went to sit down and asked, "do you mind if I look at your journal?" Aster nodded, "go ahead, it's blank." Serenity opened the journal and saw the decorative tape that held some of the pages together and ran her fingers along the stem of the book where pages had been ripped out entirely. "How long have you had this journal?"

"A long time, I don't remember how long though. I hardly used it. I thought maybe I would reuse it for something else, but I haven't found a good use for it," Aster said as she sat on the other end of the couch.

Serenity gave it back to Aster, "why were some of the pages ripped out from it?"

"Because I wasn't happy with what was put down," Aster said. She had once used to journal as a sketchbook, but she couldn't stand to look at the marked pages. It bothered her so much she ripped them out in frustration. Now they were no longer part of her journal and while damaged, the journal was still in good use. Soft covered black with smooth pages and an elastic band attached to hold it closed loosely.

Aster kept the journal close to her, and Serenity picked up on how the girl's fingers moved slowly, as though caressing the soft faux leather. "You know, I think you should use the journal as a way to express yourself," Serenity suggested. The first year looked uneasy, "you mean like a Diary?" Serenity nodded, "I don't see why you shouldn't." Aster looked away and looked at the fire that was still roaring, "I'm not so good with words."

"Do you have dyslexia?" Serenity asked gently. Aster looked at the girl, "I don't know what that is."

"It means some words can get jumbled in your head and look bad," Serenity explained as simply as she could. Aster shook her head against that, "no. I can read and write just fine," Aster spoke calmly, "it's just I don't know how to express how I feel."

Serenity nodded, understanding that very much, "it's always hard to put feelings into words. It's even worse when you try to –" the young woman was caught off because she began coughing. Aster looked scared, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a cold," she said. "You know how winter is like. A few lot of us have been dealing with a cold. So, I guess it's spreading fast this year."

"Oh no!" Aster said. "Should you be traveling when you're sick?"

"I have to go see my family. I'm the only witch in my family so I don't get to see my siblings much anymore," she stated. Aster got up and went to get some tissues for the girl. She looked around and saw a box on the small table and brought them over to Serenity, who graciously accepted them and began blowing her nose. She kept the contents of the covered up with another tissue and soon got up as soon as she could hear the common room's clock chime. "I have to get going," Serenity said. She grabbed her suitcase. Aster turned to watched Serenity leave before she said, "wait!" She went to the girl and gave her a hug, "thank you for talking with me."

Serenity smiled and hugged the younger girl back, "you should be careful since you can easily catch a cold as well ya know," the fifth year said. "And I'll see you when the break is over."

"I wish we could have talked more," Aster admitted sheepishly.

"Me too," Serenity said before she waved goodbye to the girl, taking her luggage and left the common room.

Aster turned to the journal she had left on the couch and walked back over to it. The girl felt the cover of it before she felt inspired to do something. She looked around for a quill and some ink, only to find what looked like a gel pen, and in the first page of the journal, where lines had been waiting to be filled for a long time, Aster wrote down, though for a moment to rethink what she wanted to put down. She liked her name Aster, and she knew it was it had significance from the word "Star", and it was also a wildflower. It came to her and in a moment, she wrote down The Star Flower.