A/N: T.T I'm sad… my friend Andrea moved away. She is my best friend. At least I'll get to talk to her every now and then.
Okay… I'm sorry ya'll had to wait for this thing. I've been drawing and have decided to finally put in my trademark glasses. I'm a sucker. -.- Although, I changed the color of the rims to match how she looks. Mine are gold and red. ^.^;
Okay... I know the other version of this had a MAJOR slip up of mine that hopefully won't happen again. I deleted some of this so it'll be less likely to chap peoples' asses. Let's all hope for the best! ^.^;;;;
Anyway… um.. have fun?
Chapter Ten
By: Ehren Hatten
At breakfast the owls all swooped in through the windows and over the four tables. A large black owl swooped down over Harry and dropped a small parcel and letter infront of Astra, who was sitting across from him. Hedwig swooped over and collided with the black owl. Astra and Harry both stood up and caught the birds.
"WHOA! Sky! Watch where yer goin' next time!" Astra yelled at her owl.
Harry stared at Hedwig and checked her over. He sighed in relief. "Yer okay girl." The snowy owl hooted comfortingly and shot a golden eyed glare at Sky, then took flight.
Astra smiled weakly at Harry and shrugged. "Sorry… he's a little clumsy sometimes, but.." Her smile got wider as Sky turned into a black cat. She squeezed him hard in a hug. "I WUUV HIM SOOO MUCH!" she giggled as Sky tried desperately to escape.
Harry sniggered at the animal. Ron had been right about Astra. She was strange when it came to animals. Any other person would have sent a strange animal like Skywise to an animal shelter because they had no clue what he was.
Harry sat down and opened his newspaper. Astra opened her parcel and giggled madly. Harry pulled down his newspaper and everyone else around them stared. "What the blazes is wrong with you?!" said Ron through a piece of toast.
Astra turned around bowed her head as if putting on something. She turned around and smiled broadly at everyone. "My glasses have been fixed!"
Harry stared at her. The glasses were small, oval shaped, with silver rims. They fit her blue-gray eyes perfectly. "They don't look half bad." He said approvingly. "Why did you have to have them fixed?"
"Fourth year happened. After a combination of Quidditch and Birdboy, my glasses were completely useless." Sighed Astra. "I don't generally wear them though. My eyesight is quite good by human standards. Elf standards are a little bit different. My mom insisted I get glasses." She pulled a slivery strand behind a pointed ear. "I like wearing them though. They deffinantly have their purposes.." she grinned mischievously.
Harry didn't want to know what those purposes were. From his experience of her for the past couple of months, she had a creepy mind and wasn't afraid to use it. She and Nevaeh came up with tricks that could rival Fred and George, if not weirder. He had thought he had overheard Astra and Nevaeh talking about a love potion the other night. Who they were going to use it on was another story Harry didn't wish to know about.
Harry suddenly straightened as he sniffed the air. He caught some kind of smell that passed by him. It wasn't food, but it smelled just as great. He searched for the name, but couldn't remember. He turned around and couldn't find anyone. "Harry? What's wrong?" asked Hermione who was sipping her pumpkin juice thoughtfully.
He turned around and shook his head. He suddenly remembered the name of the smell. "Sorry about that, but I thought I smelled lilies." He looked around. He saw Cho sitting with the Ravenclaws. He sighed and then caught the smell again. He sniffed silently and turn in the direction it came from. His green eyes fell on a certain red headed girl sitting a couple of people away from him. She was giggling as Nevaeh pretended to be a slave girl fanning her mistress with a "palm leaf". The palm leaf being a paper fan and she was fanning her into the direction of Harry.
Harry turned back to his food and gulped down his breakfast. 'Damnable hormones! Can't they leave me alone!', he groaned inside his mind. He looked up to see an amused Astra staring straight at him. He looked around the table and saw the same look on Fred and George's faces. "What is wrong with you three."
"Nothing. You just had a rather funny expression on yer face, is all.", said Astra looking over the top of her glasses.
Harry glared at her. She started laughing. She stood up on her side of the table and playfully slapped his shoulder. "Yer so much fun to tease!"
Harry smiled. "And you and Nevaeh seem to enjoy teasing me about as much as Fred and George."
"Nah… there isn't anyway THAT could happen, Harry!" smirked Fred.
"They're only novices! We're the masters!" grinned George.
The day went by quickly enough. After their last class, the Gryffindors went to the tower to change. There was a notice on the common room bulletin board. "Looks like tonight we get to see who gets to be Hogwarts champion." Said Ron coming up behind Harry.
All the Gryffindors went to the great hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table with the visiting Firestrom students of a similar house. Soon the great hall was filled up with students waiting both for food and the goblet of fire.
"Who do you think it'll be, Harry?" asked Ron.
"No clue, I just hope it isn't going to be ME this time." He said grimacing at the thought of what had happened the year before. He saw Cedric fall when the green light hit him. Harry shook his head violently.
Dumbledore came out with the goblet and set it down on a stool. "Tonight, we shall see who will be the three champions." He placed his hand over the top of the goblet and a piece of paper flew into his palm. He unraveled it and smiled. "For Firestrom…. Detrik Stiles!"
The entire whole of the Firestrom students at the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables erupted into a cacophony of sound. Detrik stood up and bowed. Calls like "Go Detrik!" and "It's yer birthday, it's yer birthday!" rang out loud and clear, as well as "Yee Haw!" and "Woo hoo!".
Miss White stood up and smiled graciously. "Okay, kids…. We'll celebrate later!" The room suddenly went as quiet as a morgue. She smiled up at Dumbledore and nodded her head. "You may continue, Albus."
Another slip of paper flew into Dumbledore's palm. "For Annunziata… Bambina Rouselini!" The Annunziata students all clapped for the brunette girl with the large brown eyes as she stood up. She bowed and smiled brightly at everyone.
"And now for the Hogwarts Champion." Said Dumbledore as the final strip of paper flew into his palm.
Harry shut his eyes and chanted frantically inside his mind. 'It's not going to be me. It's not going to be me. It's not going to be…'
"George Weasley!" Harry's jaw dropped. The entire Gryffindor table erupted in cheers. Fred patted his twin on the back as they grinned madly at one another.
"The first ask will be on December fifteenth. And now… we shall have dinner!" smiled Dumbledore as he sat down.
After dinner, Harry went up to his dorm room. He had been poring over the possibilities of escaping from the upcoming Yule Ball to be with Sirius or Lupin for the Christmas Holidays. He knew that wouldn't be possible, with Remus Lupin helping Sirius gather allies. He just wanted to escape from having to deal with the pressure of asking out a girl for the dance. He couldn't even choose whom he should ask.
That wasn't entirely true though. Harry had been thinking about asking Cho, but every time he saw her, he got that damnable image of Cedric falling to the ground like a log romping around his skull. Then, he thought about Hermione. She was a pretty girl, but there would have been nothing in it except friendship.
Harry banged his head on his desk repeatedly. It felt surprisingly good to do so. He sat back in his chair and leaned his head against the back of it. He closed his eyes and tried to think. He suddenly got a whiff of a scent the he reminded him of summer all the time. 'Sunflowers…?' He opened his eyes to see a pair blue-gray eyes staring into his.
"Wakey, wakey…"
Harry yelped and threw a book at the person as he vaulted across his bed. He grabbed his wand and pointed it at the pale figure on the ground. Astra held up her hand in defeat and pulled herself onto his bed, trying to stand. "I surrender!" she said as she rubbed the purple bruise forming on her forehead. "Geezus… what are your trying to do, murder me!?"
Harry relaxed some and lowered his wand. "You surprised me, Astra. I'm sorry." He walked around his bed. He reached out his hand to help her up.
She waved it off and cracked her neck. "I haven't been hit like that for a long time. The last time that happened, I was seven and some kid threw a rock at me." She moved the right side of her bangs out of the way of a small scar that was over her right eyebrow. "Needless to say, it hurt like hell." She pointed to a second scar right above the first. "That one I got from some idiot kid who threw a broken water gun behind him and I so happened to get hit with the sharp edges. Again... hurt like hell."
He started remembering when he first got her letter. He remembered the letter that asked him if he could come to her house. He always wondered what made him accept, especially since they had only talk to eachother for a month or so. Then, he wondered how on Earth Hedwig was able to go to America and back in a few days. It all made little sense.
"By the way Harry… who are you taking to the Yule ball?" She asked as she took his chair and sat down.
Harry sat down on his bed and stared at her seriously. "Astra…. Let me ask you something first. Why did you take in Hedwig when you didn't even know who's it was and why a complete stranger gave her to you?"
"You see what kind of pet I've got? Who would be dumb enough to keep a strange animal that there are no records about." She reached up her right hand and played with some of her somewhat tame hair. "Only someone like me would. Elves have an affinity for wildlife and I seemed to have inherited it."
"How did Hedwig get the letters back and forth so quickly. I sent her to South America and she came back four WEEKS later." He kept his wand in his hand.
"Truth be told….? I haven't the faintest clue, really. Skywise is the fastest owl I have ever seen. It's like he can apparate in mid flight. I don't know how he does it." She said with a smirk.
"That still doesn't explain how Hedwig did it."
"Like I said… Skywise is a fast owl. I sent him out every night and I'm guessing that he met her just before she left England."
Harry stared at her. How was it possible? Then, he remembered Skywise and thought of another question. "Why did you except her from that man?"
"I don't know… I guess I just felt compelled to take the bird."
Why did Sirius give Hedwig to her in the first place? It racked Harry's brain trying to think of all this at once. "What kind of Elf are you? The only elves I have ever seen are the house elves."
"Danish. They are all like the elves in The Lord of the Rings. My mother, I'm guessing, is one of the throwbacks or something, because I've read that they are supposed to be smart. You've met my mother, she's a ditz!" They both laughed.
"You said that you've been a parselmouth for as long as you can remember. How?"
"I don't know, I just am. I know it's a rare gift, but since I love snakes anyway, it's not so scary being one." She smiled. "Yer one as well, right?"
"Yeah…." He started getting nervous at the question.
As if she could read his thoughts, she changed the subject. "Well… anyway… what I came up here for was to ask you who you were planning on taking to the Yule Ball."
Harry felt like banging his head against a wall. They had gone back the one question that was giving him a major headache for the past month and a half. "I haven't the faintest idea…" He growled. "I have two girls I want to ask, but I can't choose which one."
"Well… I guess I'll go get Ron and bring him up here for ya… ya might feel better talking to him or Hermione about it." She smiled weakly.
"No… I can't tell either of them this. One of them was a candidate and the other is his sister." He realized that came out a little jumbled.
"And it starts yet again." Astra muttered.
"What?"
"Oh… all my life I've always ended up being the counselor Troy amongst my friends. Mainly asking love advice. It's really a wonder why." She said as she started rubbing her left temple. "I mean… the only boyfriend I've ever had was Leon and he…" she stopped and didn't finish.
'The similarities grow…' he thought. "What happened to him exactly."
"Last year, Donovan tried to kill me for the unicorn blood running through my veins. In an attempt, he accidentally killed Leon as he ran in front of me to take the blow." A tear ran down her cheek, but she seemed to be keeping her emotions in order. Like any male would to keep his 'macho' image.
She wiped away the tear and smiled. "Welp… I guess you'll have to think about the pros and cons of each subject. Cho… is nice and sweet and shy, but how does she make you feel?"
Harry thought a moment. "Like my insides are melting into a puddle."
"How about Ginny?"
Harry remembered the lily scent that followed her around that morning. "Like my insides are melting into a puddle."
"You aren't gonna help me much here, are you."
Harry blushed. Astra smiled and stood up. "I guess the best advice I can give is go talk to Ginny and Cho. Maybe you can discern it all from that. I can't help ya anymor than what I just told you." She said as she stretched, cracking her back as she did so. "See ya, dude." she said as she threw him a peace sign. She walked out of the dorm room and disappeared down the stairs.
Okay… I'm sorry ya'll had to wait for this thing. I've been drawing and have decided to finally put in my trademark glasses. I'm a sucker. -.- Although, I changed the color of the rims to match how she looks. Mine are gold and red. ^.^;
Okay... I know the other version of this had a MAJOR slip up of mine that hopefully won't happen again. I deleted some of this so it'll be less likely to chap peoples' asses. Let's all hope for the best! ^.^;;;;
Anyway… um.. have fun?
Chapter Ten
By: Ehren Hatten
At breakfast the owls all swooped in through the windows and over the four tables. A large black owl swooped down over Harry and dropped a small parcel and letter infront of Astra, who was sitting across from him. Hedwig swooped over and collided with the black owl. Astra and Harry both stood up and caught the birds.
"WHOA! Sky! Watch where yer goin' next time!" Astra yelled at her owl.
Harry stared at Hedwig and checked her over. He sighed in relief. "Yer okay girl." The snowy owl hooted comfortingly and shot a golden eyed glare at Sky, then took flight.
Astra smiled weakly at Harry and shrugged. "Sorry… he's a little clumsy sometimes, but.." Her smile got wider as Sky turned into a black cat. She squeezed him hard in a hug. "I WUUV HIM SOOO MUCH!" she giggled as Sky tried desperately to escape.
Harry sniggered at the animal. Ron had been right about Astra. She was strange when it came to animals. Any other person would have sent a strange animal like Skywise to an animal shelter because they had no clue what he was.
Harry sat down and opened his newspaper. Astra opened her parcel and giggled madly. Harry pulled down his newspaper and everyone else around them stared. "What the blazes is wrong with you?!" said Ron through a piece of toast.
Astra turned around bowed her head as if putting on something. She turned around and smiled broadly at everyone. "My glasses have been fixed!"
Harry stared at her. The glasses were small, oval shaped, with silver rims. They fit her blue-gray eyes perfectly. "They don't look half bad." He said approvingly. "Why did you have to have them fixed?"
"Fourth year happened. After a combination of Quidditch and Birdboy, my glasses were completely useless." Sighed Astra. "I don't generally wear them though. My eyesight is quite good by human standards. Elf standards are a little bit different. My mom insisted I get glasses." She pulled a slivery strand behind a pointed ear. "I like wearing them though. They deffinantly have their purposes.." she grinned mischievously.
Harry didn't want to know what those purposes were. From his experience of her for the past couple of months, she had a creepy mind and wasn't afraid to use it. She and Nevaeh came up with tricks that could rival Fred and George, if not weirder. He had thought he had overheard Astra and Nevaeh talking about a love potion the other night. Who they were going to use it on was another story Harry didn't wish to know about.
Harry suddenly straightened as he sniffed the air. He caught some kind of smell that passed by him. It wasn't food, but it smelled just as great. He searched for the name, but couldn't remember. He turned around and couldn't find anyone. "Harry? What's wrong?" asked Hermione who was sipping her pumpkin juice thoughtfully.
He turned around and shook his head. He suddenly remembered the name of the smell. "Sorry about that, but I thought I smelled lilies." He looked around. He saw Cho sitting with the Ravenclaws. He sighed and then caught the smell again. He sniffed silently and turn in the direction it came from. His green eyes fell on a certain red headed girl sitting a couple of people away from him. She was giggling as Nevaeh pretended to be a slave girl fanning her mistress with a "palm leaf". The palm leaf being a paper fan and she was fanning her into the direction of Harry.
Harry turned back to his food and gulped down his breakfast. 'Damnable hormones! Can't they leave me alone!', he groaned inside his mind. He looked up to see an amused Astra staring straight at him. He looked around the table and saw the same look on Fred and George's faces. "What is wrong with you three."
"Nothing. You just had a rather funny expression on yer face, is all.", said Astra looking over the top of her glasses.
Harry glared at her. She started laughing. She stood up on her side of the table and playfully slapped his shoulder. "Yer so much fun to tease!"
Harry smiled. "And you and Nevaeh seem to enjoy teasing me about as much as Fred and George."
"Nah… there isn't anyway THAT could happen, Harry!" smirked Fred.
"They're only novices! We're the masters!" grinned George.
The day went by quickly enough. After their last class, the Gryffindors went to the tower to change. There was a notice on the common room bulletin board. "Looks like tonight we get to see who gets to be Hogwarts champion." Said Ron coming up behind Harry.
All the Gryffindors went to the great hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table with the visiting Firestrom students of a similar house. Soon the great hall was filled up with students waiting both for food and the goblet of fire.
"Who do you think it'll be, Harry?" asked Ron.
"No clue, I just hope it isn't going to be ME this time." He said grimacing at the thought of what had happened the year before. He saw Cedric fall when the green light hit him. Harry shook his head violently.
Dumbledore came out with the goblet and set it down on a stool. "Tonight, we shall see who will be the three champions." He placed his hand over the top of the goblet and a piece of paper flew into his palm. He unraveled it and smiled. "For Firestrom…. Detrik Stiles!"
The entire whole of the Firestrom students at the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables erupted into a cacophony of sound. Detrik stood up and bowed. Calls like "Go Detrik!" and "It's yer birthday, it's yer birthday!" rang out loud and clear, as well as "Yee Haw!" and "Woo hoo!".
Miss White stood up and smiled graciously. "Okay, kids…. We'll celebrate later!" The room suddenly went as quiet as a morgue. She smiled up at Dumbledore and nodded her head. "You may continue, Albus."
Another slip of paper flew into Dumbledore's palm. "For Annunziata… Bambina Rouselini!" The Annunziata students all clapped for the brunette girl with the large brown eyes as she stood up. She bowed and smiled brightly at everyone.
"And now for the Hogwarts Champion." Said Dumbledore as the final strip of paper flew into his palm.
Harry shut his eyes and chanted frantically inside his mind. 'It's not going to be me. It's not going to be me. It's not going to be…'
"George Weasley!" Harry's jaw dropped. The entire Gryffindor table erupted in cheers. Fred patted his twin on the back as they grinned madly at one another.
"The first ask will be on December fifteenth. And now… we shall have dinner!" smiled Dumbledore as he sat down.
After dinner, Harry went up to his dorm room. He had been poring over the possibilities of escaping from the upcoming Yule Ball to be with Sirius or Lupin for the Christmas Holidays. He knew that wouldn't be possible, with Remus Lupin helping Sirius gather allies. He just wanted to escape from having to deal with the pressure of asking out a girl for the dance. He couldn't even choose whom he should ask.
That wasn't entirely true though. Harry had been thinking about asking Cho, but every time he saw her, he got that damnable image of Cedric falling to the ground like a log romping around his skull. Then, he thought about Hermione. She was a pretty girl, but there would have been nothing in it except friendship.
Harry banged his head on his desk repeatedly. It felt surprisingly good to do so. He sat back in his chair and leaned his head against the back of it. He closed his eyes and tried to think. He suddenly got a whiff of a scent the he reminded him of summer all the time. 'Sunflowers…?' He opened his eyes to see a pair blue-gray eyes staring into his.
"Wakey, wakey…"
Harry yelped and threw a book at the person as he vaulted across his bed. He grabbed his wand and pointed it at the pale figure on the ground. Astra held up her hand in defeat and pulled herself onto his bed, trying to stand. "I surrender!" she said as she rubbed the purple bruise forming on her forehead. "Geezus… what are your trying to do, murder me!?"
Harry relaxed some and lowered his wand. "You surprised me, Astra. I'm sorry." He walked around his bed. He reached out his hand to help her up.
She waved it off and cracked her neck. "I haven't been hit like that for a long time. The last time that happened, I was seven and some kid threw a rock at me." She moved the right side of her bangs out of the way of a small scar that was over her right eyebrow. "Needless to say, it hurt like hell." She pointed to a second scar right above the first. "That one I got from some idiot kid who threw a broken water gun behind him and I so happened to get hit with the sharp edges. Again... hurt like hell."
He started remembering when he first got her letter. He remembered the letter that asked him if he could come to her house. He always wondered what made him accept, especially since they had only talk to eachother for a month or so. Then, he wondered how on Earth Hedwig was able to go to America and back in a few days. It all made little sense.
"By the way Harry… who are you taking to the Yule ball?" She asked as she took his chair and sat down.
Harry sat down on his bed and stared at her seriously. "Astra…. Let me ask you something first. Why did you take in Hedwig when you didn't even know who's it was and why a complete stranger gave her to you?"
"You see what kind of pet I've got? Who would be dumb enough to keep a strange animal that there are no records about." She reached up her right hand and played with some of her somewhat tame hair. "Only someone like me would. Elves have an affinity for wildlife and I seemed to have inherited it."
"How did Hedwig get the letters back and forth so quickly. I sent her to South America and she came back four WEEKS later." He kept his wand in his hand.
"Truth be told….? I haven't the faintest clue, really. Skywise is the fastest owl I have ever seen. It's like he can apparate in mid flight. I don't know how he does it." She said with a smirk.
"That still doesn't explain how Hedwig did it."
"Like I said… Skywise is a fast owl. I sent him out every night and I'm guessing that he met her just before she left England."
Harry stared at her. How was it possible? Then, he remembered Skywise and thought of another question. "Why did you except her from that man?"
"I don't know… I guess I just felt compelled to take the bird."
Why did Sirius give Hedwig to her in the first place? It racked Harry's brain trying to think of all this at once. "What kind of Elf are you? The only elves I have ever seen are the house elves."
"Danish. They are all like the elves in The Lord of the Rings. My mother, I'm guessing, is one of the throwbacks or something, because I've read that they are supposed to be smart. You've met my mother, she's a ditz!" They both laughed.
"You said that you've been a parselmouth for as long as you can remember. How?"
"I don't know, I just am. I know it's a rare gift, but since I love snakes anyway, it's not so scary being one." She smiled. "Yer one as well, right?"
"Yeah…." He started getting nervous at the question.
As if she could read his thoughts, she changed the subject. "Well… anyway… what I came up here for was to ask you who you were planning on taking to the Yule Ball."
Harry felt like banging his head against a wall. They had gone back the one question that was giving him a major headache for the past month and a half. "I haven't the faintest idea…" He growled. "I have two girls I want to ask, but I can't choose which one."
"Well… I guess I'll go get Ron and bring him up here for ya… ya might feel better talking to him or Hermione about it." She smiled weakly.
"No… I can't tell either of them this. One of them was a candidate and the other is his sister." He realized that came out a little jumbled.
"And it starts yet again." Astra muttered.
"What?"
"Oh… all my life I've always ended up being the counselor Troy amongst my friends. Mainly asking love advice. It's really a wonder why." She said as she started rubbing her left temple. "I mean… the only boyfriend I've ever had was Leon and he…" she stopped and didn't finish.
'The similarities grow…' he thought. "What happened to him exactly."
"Last year, Donovan tried to kill me for the unicorn blood running through my veins. In an attempt, he accidentally killed Leon as he ran in front of me to take the blow." A tear ran down her cheek, but she seemed to be keeping her emotions in order. Like any male would to keep his 'macho' image.
She wiped away the tear and smiled. "Welp… I guess you'll have to think about the pros and cons of each subject. Cho… is nice and sweet and shy, but how does she make you feel?"
Harry thought a moment. "Like my insides are melting into a puddle."
"How about Ginny?"
Harry remembered the lily scent that followed her around that morning. "Like my insides are melting into a puddle."
"You aren't gonna help me much here, are you."
Harry blushed. Astra smiled and stood up. "I guess the best advice I can give is go talk to Ginny and Cho. Maybe you can discern it all from that. I can't help ya anymor than what I just told you." She said as she stretched, cracking her back as she did so. "See ya, dude." she said as she threw him a peace sign. She walked out of the dorm room and disappeared down the stairs.