Book 3: Astoria Greengrass and the Legilimens of Hogwarts
Song rec: "Tongue Tied" by Shura

Astoria had shown up to class the morning after the attack, probably to prove some sort of point. Flora had been very efficient in spreading the tale of Parkinson's cruelty across the House, and there were few who truly lamented the bully's absence, save for Rhiannon's old roommates, who had always seen Parkinson as a role model. Tracey Davis had been appointed prefect after Parkinson's dismissal (she should have been chosen in the first place). The story of Parkinson's downfall had reached Gryffindor, too, though it wasn't necessarily because of Flora. Gryffindors always paid attention when something went wrong in the House of Slytherin.

"I would have liked to have seen you get back at her," Ginevra Weasley said to Astoria in double Potions.

"I would have liked to," Astoria said, sprinkling in some of the optional Echinacea leaves into that day's medicinal. Rhiannon had skipped that step; she didn't take many tips from Slughorn.

"How long is she gone for?" Ginny asked.

"A month. It's not near long enough," Rhiannon said.

"Oh. Would you like some Echinacea, Rhiannon?" Ginny offered. "I grabbed a bunch, but there's none left in the drawer now."

Rhiannon accepted the offer just to be polite. She wasn't a fan of Slughorn because he had one of those fake personalities, but at least she could talk during Potions class now. It made sense not to talk in lecture-style classes, but Potions involved a lot of moving about and standing, and Snape had always kept them quiet. The Slytherins had always done pretty well in Potions, but Rhiannon knew the class as a whole was getting better now that students could give one another tips and feedback. Hestia, in particular, was flourishing. Unlike her approach towards Slughorn's recipes, Rhiannon listened to Hestia about anything and everything that should go into the brews. Sometimes Hestia misjudged, and their cauldrons exploded, but that's what made it fun.

The whole fiasco with Parkinson and Astoria had subverted Rhiannon's plans to ask Hestia out. Every minute that had gone by since Rhiannon's initial rush of confidence had eaten at her nerves. Now, the more she thought about it, the harder it became. Hestia was above her both academically and emotionally. Hestia had the fortitude to grin and bear it as her aunt and uncle robbed all of her earnings from Pariah. She didn't have the advantage of escaping her abusive environment like Rhiannon had in living with Astoria. Hestia wasn't as inclined to seek revenge as Rhiannon was; she always went on with her life no matter what it threw at her. Whenever Rhiannon ran into trouble, she had a tendency to ignite. How many breakdowns had she had in front of Astoria? Rhiannon was thankful that Hestia hadn't seen half of the side Astoria had. But it was definitely there. If Rhiannon wanted a grown-up relationship, she was going to have to have better control over her emotions. She would do it for Hestia if she could. Both of them had a lot of pain beneath the shell. Rhiannon thought it was important to support each other, but she didn't want Hestia to think that she had to "fix" her. It made her nervous and self-conscious that she might be too damaged to provide the relationship Hestia deserved.

Astoria came over and compared her medicinal with Rhiannon's. Apparently impressed, Astoria turned up the flame to Rhiannon's level. Then she put a hand on Rhiannon's shoulder with no explanation.

"Are you reading my mind or what?" Rhiannon whispered.

"No. I always know when something's bothering you," Astoria said even quieter.

It seemed stupid to bring it up now, especially with the effort it took to stay out of Hestia's earshot, but she needed to get it off her chest, and the next class, Herbology, was in too close quarters. Rhiannon had to wait until Sofronia Kippling finally gave up trying to help Astoria dig the slippery Man-Shik Mystifiers out of the bottom of her pot.

"I was thinking I'm not good enough to start, er, something real with… yeah. Like me and people don't work, and I shut them out," Rhiannon said.

Astoria shook her head seriously and tapped a finger on her heart.

"That's what matters."

The abbreviated message was still enough to get through to Rhiannon. Later, Rhiannon took up copies of the final setlists to the Owlery and invited Hestia to come with her. Flora and Astoria were in Arithmancy, and it was a pleasant walk with Hestia. The sun was shining. It wasn't doing much to help with the cold, but it made things cheerful, at least.

"I'm really excited for the broadcast next month," Hestia said as they watched the owl fly off towards Hogsmeade.

"Me too. It's been too long. It's great how things are getting serious now with the band. Three concerts lined up and everything! Of course, we have the O.W.L.s…"

"Ugh, screw the O.W.L.s, mate."

"Right?"

"We meet with Snape for advising after Easter?"

"Yup."

"What do you want to do, Rhi?"

"Can't play Quidditch, can't be an Auror," Rhiannon had finally accepted. "I can play music."

"Yeah, I want to stay with Pariah too, but we can't tell Snape that. I'd like to continue with Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, and Potions. I'll do D.A.D.A. if I can get in. And N.E.W.T. Muggle Studies if you do."

"That sounds good, actually. That sounds like what I wanted to try."

"You're not going for Astronomy, either?"

"Ha! Don't tell Astoria."

"I won't. Erm, I wanted to say… I don't want you to think I'm still jealous or anything. I understand you two are best friends. I'm sort of complimented that she had nightmares about me getting hurt! Oh. That really does sound mean. It's just we don't get on all the time, me and her."

"We've all four of us had bad times. She cares about you, though," Rhiannon said.

"Sometimes, I really didn't like her. I really didn't like her when you liked her… but that's because… yeah. What I mean is," Hestia stressed, trying to put her feelings into words that didn't sound rude, "she's so different. I mean, even yesterday, with the crying and the hugging. I've never met somebody who hugs that much. If we ever cried at my house, we'd get smacked. My aunt and uncle defined my whole damn childhood. I don't even know how life would have been otherwise. Good, I imagine. Pretty good."

Rhiannon realised that Hestia had lied to her in the past about the abuse she had faced. Her skin crawled with thoughts of a small Hestia getting beaten by Death Eaters. But that was how they had been reared; you can't talk about it. You feel you have to lie, even to your friends.

"Astoria doesn't always get it," Rhiannon said.

"No, it's not her reality. It's not like I wish it on her. But she's like, from a different world."

"It's odd you bring that up, because I was thinking about how our backgrounds are all so different today. I was thinking I, erm, with me being Muggle-born…"

"The war's getting to your head, too?"

"I guess."

"Rhiannon?"

"Hm?"

"Can we kiss?"

"What?"

"What? Sorry." Hestia sputtered.

"No… I mean… Yeah! I mean, sure! I didn't… " Rhiannon said. "I'm gonna shut up now."

Wow. Hestia specifically requested it. Rhiannon tried to make it work really well. She slid her arm round Hestia's waist. She turned her cheek with her other hand. She tried to be cool and impressive. It felt so good to hold Hestia that way. It felt so right to hold her still and plant kiss by kiss on her lips. Hestia had on some pretty thick lipstick, so she probably wasn't planning on getting kissed today. It had been a wonderful whim. That was all right — they could share the lipstick. Everything was good. Hestia stopped kissing side-by-side and grabbed Rhiannon properly, toe to toe. Hestia really knew how to hold a woman. She hadn't learnt it; she just knew it. And here, Rhiannon had almost forgotten. Under the arms? Waist and hips? Did Hestia even have a preference?

Hestia always smelt like the potions room or the concoctions she tried to make in their tub. It made for a musky perfume. Rhiannon wanted to take a bath in it. She went deep behind her hair and kissed her neck. Hestia held her there to do the dirty work.

"Those Auror hall monitors are gonna arrest us," Rhiannon muttered against Hestia's skin.

"Let them."

"Valentine's Day has become completely commercial," said Hestia at breakfast on the day in question.

"Oh, like you even know what the 'true meaning' of Valentine's Day is," Flora joked.

Rhiannon and Hestia played with each other's hands from across the table. They had developed a handshake that was purposefully difficult to remember. In fact, Rhiannon didn't think they had done it properly once since they created it. The whole point was to tease each other about doing it wrong and to hold hands.

They did enjoy the commercial aspect of Valentine's Day because it meant they got plenty of sweets. Hestia had presented Rhiannon with a whole bouquet of chocolate-covered fruits at breakfast, and Rhiannon had catalogue-ordered a magical box of chocolates for Hestia. It dispensed one chocolate at a time, and she had to use her wand to guide it through a maze before it would come out. She could change the type of chocolate by guiding the piece to any dead end in the maze labelled with things like "peanut butter" and "caramel." The chocolates, of course, were the appetisers to the real gifts. Hestia got her hands on the twentieth anniversary edition of the Hobgoblin's Capital City album for Rhiannon. It was a real head-thrasher and one of Rhiannon's favourite albums of all time, so she took a moment to become verbal again. It had been hard for Rhiannon to pick out something perfect without having a Hogsmeade trip, so she had handmade Hestia an empty cookbook that she could organise all of her potions ideas in. Rhiannon put a design on each page and scattered comments throughout. On the front of the first love potions page, she drew a huge smiley face and wrote "You don't really need love potions. I can't get any gayer." On the second, she wrote the lamest recipe she could think of:

Ingredients

102 kilos of girlfriend (with nose)

2 hands

1 nose (your own)

Instructions

1) Place girlfriend face forward

2) Place 2 hands on face of girlfriend

3) Using own nose, poke the nose of the girlfriend to achieve nose equilibrium

It was one of those things you couldn't show anybody else, because it would be too much for them to understand. They'd take it too seriously or say it was weird. Hestia understood it perfectly, though, and they were achieving nose equilibrium in no time without a care in the world. It was so great to only have two classes on Friday. It was so great to have Valentine's Day on a Friday. Hestia was, ugh, she was so great…!

"I want a party," she said to Rhiannon. "And I know how to get it. Oi, Astoria! You busy?"

Look at Astoria, doing Charms homework on Valentine's Day. Go out and get the other kind of charms, woman!

"I don't have to be busy," Astoria said.

Rhiannon and Hestia nodded at each other.

"Good! This is a big favour with a big payoff. Go ask Professor Sinistra if she'll lend you Winky to make us some snacks," Hestia said.

Hestia was being so outgoing, and it was making Rhiannon's heart flutter. She hadn't had genuine, light-hearted fun at school in a long time. Astoria was looking at Hestia, trying to figure out what she had in mind, but she didn't even say a word before she left with a smile.

"We need music," said Rhiannon.

"I'll get Montel. He'll bring music and people. And people with music."

"How do you know he's in his room?"

"He's been cooping himself up in there swotting for the O.W.L.s. Poor bloke needs a break. Rhiannon, you're on lights."

"There's people still studying over there."

"They know where the ruddy library is."

"I like the way you think."

Hestia winked. Rhiannon had been trained in etiquette thanks to Astoria and did end up walking over to the other students to warn them. Manami Ichijō was helping Alexa Crover, Sebastian Daley, and Curtis Evercreech with D.A.D.A. homework. Behind them, a pair of sixth years was staring blankly at their books, hoping to absorb something.

"We're throwing a party soon. You oughtta go to the library. 'Course, we'd rather have you here. Only reason not to stay would be if the food doesn't come."

"A break sounds like a good idea. What do you think?" Manami said to her group, and they did not protest.

The sixth-years shut their books very fast. Rhiannon changed the colour of the flames in the room's lanterns to pink, but laughed at herself when she realised she needed to change the glass the flames were in from green if she wanted there to be any difference. Red for Valentine's Day wasn't going to do (that looked way too much like a Gryffindor party), so all shades of pink were the alternatives. It was amazing how much warmer the common room looked.

"You lot want to help me make disco balls?"

Rhiannon and Manami's group crumpled up loose parchment into fist-sized balls and set them aglow with a very simple glitter charm that was usually used in crafts rather than lighting. It would take a myriad of these lights to make a difference, so Rhiannon enlisted the more aloof sixth-years to help. Hestia, Montel, and his friends joined in, too, and the good news was they had brought about 75 cassettes with them. Rhiannon was amused at the selection of Wizarding pop, dance, and hip-hop music. There might not have been any Spice Girls, but it would still be a party somehow. The group had about eighty floating disco balls near the ceiling by the time Astoria walked in, and her mouth dropped open at how pretty it was. The glittery luminescence from the lights was even better thanks to the huge window to the lake that only the Slytherins had. Rhiannon used to think it made it gloomy, but really, there were enough windows in the castle that looked out to the grounds. Their window was unique.

Astoria brought three desks together, and once she had it arranged, a decent selection of snacks and refreshments appeared.

"Did Sinistra give you any trouble?"

"Get this! She gave me one of her Legilimency glares, since she thinks she can do that any time now. So, I simply asked her what she wanted to know, and she gave me this dumbfounded look. Then she said, 'I'm so sorry! I keep forgetting you can't find a wavelength yet!' and asked me what kind of food we wanted!" Astoria described.

"Wavelength? Does that mean, er, back-and-forth Legilimency?" Rhiannon guessed. "I think I've seen her and Snape do that sometimes. It's uncomfortable to watch."

"I assume… Can you imagine how much easier our lives would have been if we could transmit our thoughts back and forth with no one listening?"

"Basically all of last year would have been resolved. Pff! You've got to get me in on this someday. Maybe that way we won't end up with, er, whatever this is…" Rhiannon said, looking at a plate Winky had delivered.

"That's tarte Tatin. It's a Muggle dessert."

"What are these slug things on it?"

"Pear slices, Rhi. I didn't tell Winky to make it pretty, or she'd get nervous and cry."

"Poor thing. Well, the rest looks delicious! Now, we need more people to eat it."

"Do we really?" Alexa Crover said. "I could eat this all myself."

"I don't even know where Flora's gone," said Hestia. "But once we start the music, people will come out of their dens."

Astoria volunteered to deejay, which was nice because she was the only person that everybody trusted with their cassettes. Rhiannon was a bit worried that Astoria had no knowledge of the albums in her hands. She was extremely surprised to find that not only was Astoria literate, she was already wand-writing temporary tick marks on the cassettes to make note of which songs to play based on the mood. She opened with a simple pop ballad, but then had Rhiannon kill the main light and started blasting the kinds of songs that made dances start. Rhiannon and Hestia finally had their party going and bounced all over the cleared area. Somebody, Rhiannon didn't know who, had eventually found Flora even though this wasn't her sort of thing. The music was loud, and the room was filling up.

"I think a few Hufflepuffs got smuggled in here from the basement!" Hestia said over the music later.

"The Hufflepuff trade is getting vicious!" Rhiannon said back.

"You never changed out of your uniform!" Hestia said before loosening Rhiannon's tie.

"You like that sloppy tie look?"

"On you, yeah!"

Rhiannon loved how hard it was for Hestia to keep her hands off of her. They scurried off to the girls' dorm hall, snogged for… well, Rhiannon wasn't sure how long because everything was fuzzy and giggly with Hestia. Then they got hungry, went back to the common room, and tried to feed each other that tarte-whatever. Hestia dropped a pear slice and left it there so someone would think it was a slug.

"Ooh, make it crawl!" Rhiannon suggested, so Hestia cast the spell.

Both of them felt a bit guilty about the pear because the next song Astoria had was for slow-dancing, but the slimy, crawling fruit was already lost in the crowd. Someone would be in for a surprise soon. Rhiannon wrapped Hestia up close, and they started dancing by the window. The beauty of this party was that most people had not got ready for it and had simply wandered down to see what was happening. No one was dressed up or anything, and Hestia's shirt in particular was soft and comfy. Even though they were at a party, everything about her was perfect for cuddling. She was beautiful and so relaxed.

"So, I heard you used to waltz," Hestia hummed.

"Heck if I can remember how to do that! Let's see…"

It wasn't anything like Astoria had taught her for the ball last year, but it was fancy enough to impress Hestia, who tried to keep up. Whatever sort of waltz it was supposed to be, they made it more fun. Somebody who sounded a lot like Daphne yelped because of the crawling pear during the next slow song, and the girls sniggered in secret.

"Oh, who sent the confetti round?" Rhiannon asked as red and pink confetti pieces started fluttering through the dance crowd in preparation for the next upbeat bop.

"I think Astoria and Flora are doing that from the table. I'm surprised Astoria's confetti isn't exploding. She must be getting better at conjuring."

"Conjuring confetti, maybe. It's cool, though!"

Rhiannon and Hestia were both tired after that dance and found a seat by the empty hearth. Rhiannon was glad somebody thought to put out the fire there before it got too hot and crowded. Hestia leaned her head on Rhiannon's shoulder.

"So… you can't do this in public in the Muggle world?"

"Depends who's in the vicinity," Rhiannon said, and gratefully kissed the top of Hestia's head. "I think it'll be better one day for people like us. Maybe. Us here right now, though… you're a pure-blood and I'm not. There's still that."

"I guess we were destined to make people uncomfortable. But it's all right."

"Yeah, I don't mind."

"Thank you for being my girlfriend, Rhi."

"Ha! You too, Hestia."

"I used to be so shy before you. But I always thought you were the best. The way you didn't care what other people thought. I thought, 'I want to be like her.' Then I thought, 'I want to be with her.' Now here we are."

"Here we are."

Rhiannon Summoned some fizzy drinks for them over everyone's heads, and they enjoyed watching everybody's bad dancing and aimless jumping. Before Hestia finished her drink, a bit of confetti accidentally fell into her cup. She gave herself a small smack on the forehead.

"I should take over deejaying so Astoria can go have fun! This was my idea!" Hestia said. "She's been there for hours. Want to come with me?"

"Sure. I don't know if I can do that good of a job, though."

Hestia and Rhiannon stayed close to the wall to get to Astoria, who was still sitting with Flora. She declined their offer to take over, saying that she and Flora were having a plenty good time.

"Besides, if Professor Snape figures out there's a party, you two won't know how to deal with him. Astoria and I have everything under control," said Flora.

Rhiannon and Hestia went back to the crowd, enjoying a catchy hit by Maia Lacey.

"Can I teach you the Macarena, Hestia?"

"Is that Muggle for… macaroni? No, macaroons? Macadamia."

"It's somebody's name."

"…I guess I'm still hungry."

"My friend P.R. says you can do the Macarena to anything," Rhiannon said, showcasing the dance as Hestia slowly caught on with the beat.

"Is this it?"

"Yeah! Twenty years from now, everyone needs to remember that I'm the one who brought the Macarena to the Slytherin common room."

"Are you sure you want credit for… that?" Flora called.

"Come join us!" Hestia insisted, but Flora didn't play along until Montel, Horatio Pershore, and Heather Thatcham came over to try to figure it out.

"You all look ridiculous!" Astoria laughed.

"No good deejay says that to people!" Rhiannon yelled, shaking her hips.

The party didn't die down until after eleven o'clock, likely on account of Winky constantly restocking the food. Draco Malfoy had crept in late, stuck to the wall like an insect, and went straight for the refreshments.

"There's Malfoy," Hestia pointed out, though his hair always made it easy to see him.

"Aw, it was a good party, too," Rhiannon moaned.

"Wait till he notices who's on music… oh! Oh! He sees her! Did you see him do that double-take? What a der-brain!"

"I wonder where he's been. Haven't you noticed he's hiding out this year? Not that I want to see him, but where does he go? What does he do?"

"Probably has been in detention with McGonagall," Hestia surmised, but that didn't quite cover it.

"He's so weird now, too. He's not strutting everywhere. He's hiding something, like."

"Well, he's not hiding this. There he goes to talk to Astoria. Ugh, she's too damn nice. Stop being so nice, girl!"

"What're they saying?" Rhiannon asked, trying to see them in the dark.

"I don't know. I don't want to cast anything that will draw his attention. I wish he'd ask her on a date already so she can say no to his stupid face," Hestia grumbled.

Rhiannon watched Malfoy lean forward and pretend he couldn't hear Astoria. Rhiannon was sure he had heard her fine and just wanted in her face. He also wanted her somewhere alone. His little trick worked, and Astoria momentarily left Flora in charge whilst they went off to a corner. Rhiannon could see them better then. Astoria, having been in this environment all evening, was happy and talkative. She was gesturing all over in her usual grace, but then she was obviously trying to explain the Macarena to him and lost her poise. She only made it halfway through the dance before she started laughing. Then he started laughing.

Gross. Stop laughing.

After that, Malfoy hung by the walls, sipping a butterbeer and watching the diminishing crowd. Daphne and her roommate Heather had been the Hufflepuff smugglers; they saw them to the door and gave them directions of how to get to Professor Snape's office, from where they would be able to recognise their way back up.

"I don't even know how to get upstairs from Snape's office anymore. I follow you three!" Hestia admitted.

"Oh, brother," Rhiannon said, kissing her ear.

A bit later, Astoria started giving the cassettes back to their owners. Rhiannon didn't like it when there wasn't music and put on her new Hobgoblins album at a polite sort of volume. Astoria was left with a small pile of cassettes from people who left early and knew she'd get them back to them. Too bad they didn't lend them to Rhiannon, since she'd have listened to them first. Manami and Horatio, the prefects, told Rhiannon it had been a nice party, which felt sort of validating. She said it had been Hestia's idea and thanked them for letting it happen. It was much easier to hear everybody now, and Rhiannon and Hestia sat back casually. It wasn't eavesdropping to snoop on Astoria, they decided. It was observing what was public.

"So what was all this?" Malfoy asked Astoria stupidly.

"It was a going away party for Parkinson… Oops! How terrible — we've neglected to invite her!" said Astoria with her hands on her cheeks.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, and Rhiannon and Hestia rolled their eyes at each other.

"Ooooh, look at me be the big man and ask how she is," Hestia mocked. "God, I can smell his cologne from here."

It was actually Curtis Evercreech's cologne from behind them (he was helping clean up, unlike they were), but Rhiannon didn't bother to say. Malfoy tailed Astoria to the refreshments table, where she announced to the remaining attendees to take what they wanted. After a few more snacks and drinks were taken, Astoria folded up the napkins a certain way to signal to Winky to take the leftovers. It was gone instantly, but the house-elf somehow missed the goblet that was still in Malfoy's hand. Rhiannon could no longer hear the pair, nor was Flora in range to scout any longer. Malfoy said something to Astoria that made her shrug and play with her bracelets. Then they drew their wands to clean the floor of confetti, talking back and forth about something that required a lot of thought, because Astoria scrubbed down a chair with soap accidentally.

"Did he do it? Did he ask her?" Hestia asked eagerly.

She had much more confidence in Astoria's motivation to reject him than Rhiannon did. At least, at first.

"That's a right clean chair," Hestia said when Astoria shook her head frivolously and had to spend an extra few minutes drying the chair. "You don't think she's really flustered about Malfoy, do you?"

"Er…"

Malfoy, much more himself, had started wand-writing something in huge red letters on the ceiling. Rhiannon and Hestia both craned their necks to see what it was.

ASTORIA IS…

Astoria had dived on him and was trying to get his wand from his hands.

Use the Disarming Charm, Rhiannon thought, and she grumbled when she realised the Disarming Charm was not going to provide the physical contact that this method did. It was that much more obvious amongst wizards. A few clusters of red scribbles filled the space above as Astoria gained the upper hand, but then it said:-

ASTORIA IS A…

Rhiannon was tired of watching this, but she couldn't look away. She did what she thought was best to discourage her friend in a nice way, so she got up and added to what was already written above them.

ASTORIA IS ALREADY UP PAST BEDTIME.

Malfoy was the one who pointed out Rhiannon's writing to Astoria. Rhiannon hated the way he looked down at her. Any other time he was talking to somebody shorter, he looked down with only his eyes, past the bridge of his nose, like a judgement. Yet the whole of him seemed to bow to Astoria. The exceptionality of his behaviour, and his fake attitude change in her presence, made it wrong. Like bait on a hook.

It had been such a fun party. It really had. Even though Rhiannon had had a few butterbeers and a nice helping of cuddles from Hestia, she still couldn't sleep. Astoria had saved Rhiannon some of the guessing and had admitted that she had once fancied Draco Malfoy. The problem was that there was some break in communication. There was no way on earth Astoria would take interest in the likes of Malfoy if there had not been more going on than a crush. Astoria wasn't telling her about these precious little moments of theirs. She had been keeping these things from her best friend because she was ashamed. Rhiannon took her role of best friend very seriously and wanted to be told everything. Rhiannon told Astoria everything. At least she tried to.

Astoria got up to use the bathroom at half past two.

"Astoria?"

"Mm, did I wake you with the light?" Astoria whispered, crawling back in bed. "I'm sorry."

"What was you and Malfoy talking about at the party?"

"Wha?"

"Er, hello? The Valentine's party."

"Oh. Valentine's stuff, I guess."

There wasn't any hour the next day that would have counted as "sleeping in," but Rhiannon pushed forward and rehearsed with the band for their upcoming radio gig. They had a thirty-minute slot on Ms Chittock's show, which amounted to seven songs and some talking. Up in the music room, the girls knew they had strong performances ready but were at a total loss of what to say if they were interviewed. The label never invested much in them, considering them something of a Greengrass-sponsored side-project, so they still had not had media training.

"Last time, she asked us some deep questions. I don't really want to talk about those things with the war going on," said Flora.

"I don't either," said Rhiannon. "People already know what us and our music's about."

Astoria, who was trying to make tea with only leaves and her wand's capabilities, had an interesting suggestion:-

"Try not to think so loud about what the songs mean, and she won't get inspired to ask. Ms Chittock is half-vampire, and vampires are almost naturals at Legilimency. If we're not thinking about anything in particular, we might not catch her attention. That's what makes her such a good interviewer. She knows what people already have ideas about."

"Try not to think so loud?" Hestia asked, and Astoria smiled cleverly.

"Legilimens aren't in tune with the environment at all times, but because stress and passion are often easy to sense for non-Legilimens, the emotions are very prominent to those who are trained. That's why Occlumency is so difficult; it involves dampening the strongest reactions that are not only mental, but physical. Outward expressions may catch a Legilimens's attention and lead to further investigation, intentional or not. So, I don't want you to think I'm speaking ill of Ms Chittock. She isn't necessarily prying; there is no big sign that tells her when she's figuring something out through regular means or when she crosses into Legilimency."

Astoria had put the right amount of water in her cup and had heated it to the right temperature according to the pleased look on her face when she drank her tea. It might not seem like much, but Rhiannon was happy to see Astoria tame her wand and put her worries behind her. A nice cup of tea wasn't an Outstanding on the Charms O.W.L., but it was always good to see a step in the right direction. If only Astoria had more direction with her love life. Too bad she couldn't date Flora.

"What are you gawking at?" Flora asked Rhiannon in no time.

"Yeah, I'm the cuter twin," Hestia beamed.

"Only because she gets it from me," Flora grinned, making perfectly no sense.