A/N: Okay... so I give ya a cliff hanger, but I'm not all that cruel! What did ya'll think of the interaction between Lucius and Astra? Pretty intense, eh? In my brain there is more, like him and her at each other's throats over issues like teaching the children. He'll want to make at least one of them like himself. Astra would never go for that and Draco would back her up.
I have this new book called Wish. It's by CLAMP. It's really cute, y'know? Kohaku is REALLY adorable. I also read something called Once Upon A More Enlightened Time: More Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. My favorite bedtime story, aside from my granddad making up stories about a beautiful elf maiden named Galadriel, was The Little Mermaid.
The Galadriel thing was my granddad's way of introducing me to the Lord of the Rings. Of course, I never read the books until I heard about the Fellowship coming out. I had aready read the Hobbit and seen the cartoon movie, of which I have a limited edition Hobbit book with stuff from the movie sprinkled about in it. Anyway, my granddad would tell me stories and draw pictures of Galdriel for me. She always wore really cool armor when he drew her, although now I think I draw better than him. ::smirls:: Then, he bought me my very first comic book. ElfQuest.
Enough of my blithering... let's get onto the good stuff!
Chapter Sixteen
"You've got to be joking...." A familiar voice broke through the haze in Harry's mind. He recognized the voice, but it was lower than that of Ron.
Harry opened his eyes and looked around. His glasses had slipped to his nose, so he pushed them up as he sat up. "What happened to Draco's father? Where'd he go?" asked a voice Harry didn't recognize. It had a strange accent.
"He disappeared sometime before we woke up...." said another familiar voice, but lower than Hermione's voice was.
"Just great... now what are we going to do..." said the Ron voice. Harry's brain started processing what he was seeing now. He looked up and saw a tall, thin red haired boy with a long nose and tons of freckles. It was Ron, but he looked older. Like he was in his seventh year.
Hermione was next to him, but she was just as old as Ron. She had a slim figure with long legs that came out from under a short skirt. She held onto Ron's arm in a worried manner. "Their so young now... I wonder if they remember anything...." she said as she bit her lip.
Harry saw who they were talking to. There was another tall, thin red haired boy with tons of freckles and a heart shaped face. He wore glasses as well. "Ah don't know, Herm-ah-o-nee..." he said in his strange accent. It sounded American.
"Hello... what's going on?" Harry said as he rubbed his eyes behind his glasses. "Where am I now?"
"Oh hell... I don't think they will remember anything!" Ron whimpered.
Harry looked around him again. He found that he was falling out of his clothes, which was somewhat unsurprising, but these were made for someone much taller, not fatter. He blushed slightly at his indecency.
He looked to the other kids around him. He saw Draco lying next to a girl with very long silvery hair. She had rather large, elf like ears with two stones on the one he saw. They too were falling out of their clothes. Draco had one arm wrapped around the girl's waist in a possessive manner.
He looked to his left and saw a girl sitting up with long brown hair and big brown eyes. Her blunt cut bangs fell into her eyes and hid her eyebrows. She rubbed her eyes blearily and looked around. She too was falling out of her clothes.
Harry turned around and saw two more girls. Both were rather small and thin. The thinner of the two was a girl with very long black hair that swirled around her and across the floor, big black eyes and tanned skin. Th second girl was smaller than the blacked eyed girl and had long flaming red hair and bright brown eyes. He recognized her from the train station.
"Astra..." sniffled the black eyed girl to the long one with silver hair. That girl sat up blearily and stared at the black eyed girl angrily. "Astra... I swear I saw daddy again...." the black eyed girl sniffled again.
Harry blushed slightly at the girl named Astra. She was falling out of a black sweater that had a rather large neck. It fell around her shoulders unnoticed. "Don't be stupid, Avalon... You know as well as I do that daddy is dead and does NOT show up anywhere as a ghost!" she growled at the girl named Avalon. Harry guessed that they were sisters.
"Oh no! What happened! What am I doing at Hogwarts now!" said the red haired girl, holding her hands to her cheeks. "Ron? Ron!"
"Ginny... don't worry, Ginny... you're alright!" said the older Ron as he bent down and held his sister, Ginny.
Draco woke up now. "What the blazes? Did that stupid Potter do something to me..." he growled. Harry was about to say something when Astra turned to him and leaned over onto her knees and hands, the sweater dropping around her shoulders. She got into his face and looked at him questioningly.
"Hello... who are you?" she said with a cheerful smile. Harry saw Draco blushing a brilliant shade of pink as he looked down at Astra's chest. She followed his gaze and pink twinged her incredibly pale cheeks. "ACK! Perv!" She slapped Draco across his cheek as she pulled the sweater up.
"Where are we, Astra?" said the brunette.
"Not at Firestrom, that's for sure...." said Astra with a slightly heavy accent. It was similar to the other red haired boy.
"Where's Kennedy...." said Avalon. The red haired boy with glasses knelt down and picked up Avalon and held her to him. "You're Kennedy...." she said in a surprised tone.
"Yes I am, Avalon...." Kennedy said with a cheerful smile. "Not to worry... everything will be alright.."
"That bleeding hurt...!" growled Draco as he rubbed his cheek. He glared scornfully at Astra. She stuck out her tongue at him and pulled the sweater up higher. "You..." he called her something that made her growl angrily at him and slap him again.
"Be nice to a girl, why doncha, shrimp!" she growled at him.
"From what I can tell you aren't a girl..." Draco growled impatiently as he rubbed his other cheek.
"What the hell is goin' on?" said the brunette incredulously. "One minute I'm helping Astra here with her charms homework, the next I'm here in baggy clothes and with strangers!"
"You are at Hogwarts, school for witchcraft and wizardry..." Harry said. "I was practicing Quidditch with the Gryffindor team, is the last thing I remember..." He suddenly had a thought. "I was just thinking about who would be going after what's in the third floor corridor." He said as he looked up at the taller Ron and Hermione. They paled.
"Good God... he's reverted back to first year!" Hermione said as she gulped.
"I'm in my first year as well..." said Astra as she raised her hand.
"Same here..." said the brunette.
"I'm not supposed to be here yet...." said Avalon.
"Niether am I..." said Ginny. Harry glanced over at her and she blushed to the roots of her hair.
"It looks like they all reverted the same amount of years..." said Kennedy as he held onto Avalon. He hefted her up to get a better hold. "About six or seven years into the past...."
"Interesting...." said Hermione.
"Wait a second... are you saying that I'm supposed to be seventeen?" said Harry. He tried to figure it out, but the very idea hurt his head.
"Sounds about right..." Ron said as he patted his sniffling little sister. "Well.. At least you get to come, eh Ginny?" She smiled up at him cheerfully and hugged him. "That's my little sister for you... attached to her older brother..."
Astra looked like she was having an internal conflict. Her large blue-grey eyes stared at Harry in concentration. Harry raised his eyebrows and stared back. She was wearing glasses as well, but they were oval and silver rimmed.
"What's you name...." Harry said, trying to break the silence between them.
"Astra Knight.... knight as in knights of the round table...." she said still staring at him in concentration.
"I'm Harry.... Harry Potter..." Harry said as he smiled at her. He watched as she lifted her steel eyed gaze to his forehead and smiled.
"I thought you looked familiar...." she said. "I see you in my dreams all the time...."
"Dreams?" Harry said.
Astra crawled over to Harry and sat down cross legged with her hands in her lap. "Dreams... I sometimes have these strange dreams where I see a boy with green eyes and messy black hair. He looks older in my dreams, but I know it's you..." she said with a smile.
"Er...." was all Harry managed to say.
"Does anyone else find this incredibly boring...." said Draco in his drawling voice.
"Does anyone else want me to smack the crap outta him..." said Astra as she growled at him.
"I think we need to get these guys to see Professor McGonagall immediately..." said Kennedy. They each picked themselves up and started walking.
When they reached the transfiguration classroom, Harry saw Professor Snape massaging McGonagall's neck with one hand as he leaned over and watched her work. She looked up and Harry didn't see the Professor McGonagall he remembered. She looked much younger as did Professor Snape.
"Now isn't this interesting...." said Snape with a sneer. Harry glared at Snape.
"You've got to be joking...." said McGonagall as she stared incredulously at Harry.
"That's what I said..." Ron stated. Hermione pinched his arm and he recoiled with his sister in his arms. "OW!"
Ginny giggled. "Ronnie's got a girlfriend!"
"My name is Hermione Granger, Ginny..." Hermione said with a smile.
"Ronnie and Hermione sitting in a tree.... K-I-S-S-I-N-G...." Ginny started singing. Ron's ears went pink, while Hermione giggled with Ginny.
"They've all been aged about six or seven years backwards..." said Kennedy.
"You're not joking..." McGonagall whimpered.
"This should be interesting.... a pint sized Potter all over again...." Snape sneered at Harry.
"This is serious, Severus... we've got to get our head boy back to normal!" McGonagall said. "We've got to get them all back to normal!"
Just then, two men ran in. They looked about the same age as Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall. One had longish brown hair and looked a bit like he needed a full nights rest. The second had short black hair and bright blue eyes coupled with a roguish smile. "A pint sized Harry that I get to look after!" The black haired one said cheerfully.
"Who are you?" Harry said.
The black haired one slumped and whimpered. "Remus... he doesn't remember us...."
The brown haired man knelt down next to Harry and smiled knowingly. "My name is Professor Lupin... that man over there is Professor Black...."
"I'm Harry... Harry Potter..." Harry smiled at Professor Lupin.
"We need to get these children into some clothes that actually fit them...." McGonagall said.
"I think I found a few spare uniforms somewhere around here..." said Professor Snape. "I'll go get them..."
"Give them the regular first year uniform... you know... the non-colored ones..." said McGonagall. Professor Snape nodded and bowed himself out in a swirl of black robes.
"Where are we going to put them?" said Hermione.
"I guess we can watch them until classes begin again on Monday...." said Ron.
"That's a good idea... watch them until Monday and then... uh..." McGonagall scratched her head uncertainly. "We'll figure that out later..."
Harry was suddenly aware of someone holding his hand. He glanced up and saw Astra smiling down at him. She was taller than him. "Don't worry.. Come with me!"
"Okay..." Harry said and they walked out with everyone else.
After they were dressed in school uniforms, Harry sat with Ginny on the couch in the common room. Astra was sitting on the chair cross legged with a book in her lap. The brunette was sitting on the arm of the chair and laughing at the pages in the book with Astra.
Avalon was over in a corner with Kennedy. He was playing chess with her. Harry noticed that she too had large elf ears, but they were single pierced ears.
Draco was sulking in front of the fire, every now and then glance at Astra with an indecipherable expression. He looked as though he were having an internal conflict. He suddenly caught Harry watching him and glared at him coldly. "What are you looking at, Potter..."
"A soap opera..." Harry said serenely.
"Hmph! I'm surprised that the Weasel there does find some way to worm her way into the great Harry Potter's circle of friends!" Draco growled.
"Why don't you get off of his back? What's yer deal, anyway!" growled Astra. She had stopped laughing at the book and the brunette was glaring at Draco now.
Draco slipped off of the chair he was on and walked over to Astra, who had stood up now. She was slightly taller than him as well. "You can't be a first year... you're too old!" Draco said.
"I am... I'm twelve..." she said.
"Like I said... you're too old to be a first year... what happened... did you get held back?" Draco sneered at her.
She growled at him. "At my school we start first year when we are twelve, got it, shrimp?"
"As if that is an excuse!" Draco sneered.
"As if there's an excuse for your height, squirt?" she said with a smile. Draco flushed.
"Well at least I'm not some lumbering giant pretending to be a witch so she can go to school with NORMAL children!" he growled at her.
"Prawn!"
"Mudblood!"
"Prat!"
"Bitch!"
Harry felt Ginny hide behind him. "He's scary..." she mumbled softly.
Harry put an arm around her. "Don't worry... the mean, scary idiot won't hurt you..." She smiled up at him gratefully and hugged him around his waist. It felt somewhat uncomfortable, but Harry didn't really mind. He mussed up her flaming hair and smiled.
"I won't let him hurt you either, Harry..." she said with a cheerful smile.
"Aw... isn't it cute... Like I said earlier..." Draco drawled.
"Would you hush up?! Good God! What kind of insensitive prat are you!" Astra growled. Harry noticed that the brunette was giggling at them.
"EVERYONE HUSH!" growled Hermione from across the room. Ron was cowering from her.
"You're scary, you know that?" he said sheepishly.
"Now... the rules are that you do not go outside of Gryffindor Tower. You do not cause any trouble and you will behave yourselves at all times." Hermione stated.
"What about classes!" Harry said as he raised his hand.
"You won't have them... not until we get this mess sorted out and you all are turned back into your normal selves." Hermione said with authority.
"Alright with me... you Nev?" Astra said to the brunette. The brunette named Nev smiled and nodded.
"Sounds all right...." said Harry. "That's all we have to do?"
"People come in and out of Gryffindor all the time, so they'll make sure you aren't up to any trouble in between classes." Hermione said.
"Fine by me..." said Nev.
"Do I have to stay here?" Draco drawled.
"Yes... you do... now... It's nearly time for bed, so come up everyone..." Ron said. "We've split you up so that you three..." Ron pointed to Harry, Draco and Ginny. "Will be sleeping in the boys dorm with me...."
"What? I can't do that! It's a boys area! Not girls!" Ginny squeaked as she blushed to the roots of her hair.
"I'll go..." said Astra. Ron stared at her. "Feh... I've done it numerous times with my cousins back home.... I can do it..." she said.
"And the other three will sleep in the girls dorm with Hermione." Ron said. "Alright... you three come up with me..."
Harry followed him up the stairs to the boys dorm that he recognized. It said Seventh Year on the door, but it was the dorm he was used to seeing. He saw his bed with a familiar cage next to it and his trunk at the foot of the bed.
"I have to sleep in here with the Gryffindors? Great..." said Draco.
"Hush up, you.... Ya ain't gonna get any better accommodations, so be nice!" Astra scolded him.
Astra got a spare bed all to herself. Draco slept in Harry's bed reluctantly, but Ron set him straight to it. Ron then apologized to Harry for doing it. "I'm sorry, Harry... but... I wouldn't be proper if he slept in her bed...."
"I understand..." Harry said. He yawned and took off his glasses. Draco smoothed his hair and laid down under the covers. Then, Harry fell asleep.
I have this new book called Wish. It's by CLAMP. It's really cute, y'know? Kohaku is REALLY adorable. I also read something called Once Upon A More Enlightened Time: More Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. My favorite bedtime story, aside from my granddad making up stories about a beautiful elf maiden named Galadriel, was The Little Mermaid.
The Galadriel thing was my granddad's way of introducing me to the Lord of the Rings. Of course, I never read the books until I heard about the Fellowship coming out. I had aready read the Hobbit and seen the cartoon movie, of which I have a limited edition Hobbit book with stuff from the movie sprinkled about in it. Anyway, my granddad would tell me stories and draw pictures of Galdriel for me. She always wore really cool armor when he drew her, although now I think I draw better than him. ::smirls:: Then, he bought me my very first comic book. ElfQuest.
Enough of my blithering... let's get onto the good stuff!
Chapter Sixteen
"You've got to be joking...." A familiar voice broke through the haze in Harry's mind. He recognized the voice, but it was lower than that of Ron.
Harry opened his eyes and looked around. His glasses had slipped to his nose, so he pushed them up as he sat up. "What happened to Draco's father? Where'd he go?" asked a voice Harry didn't recognize. It had a strange accent.
"He disappeared sometime before we woke up...." said another familiar voice, but lower than Hermione's voice was.
"Just great... now what are we going to do..." said the Ron voice. Harry's brain started processing what he was seeing now. He looked up and saw a tall, thin red haired boy with a long nose and tons of freckles. It was Ron, but he looked older. Like he was in his seventh year.
Hermione was next to him, but she was just as old as Ron. She had a slim figure with long legs that came out from under a short skirt. She held onto Ron's arm in a worried manner. "Their so young now... I wonder if they remember anything...." she said as she bit her lip.
Harry saw who they were talking to. There was another tall, thin red haired boy with tons of freckles and a heart shaped face. He wore glasses as well. "Ah don't know, Herm-ah-o-nee..." he said in his strange accent. It sounded American.
"Hello... what's going on?" Harry said as he rubbed his eyes behind his glasses. "Where am I now?"
"Oh hell... I don't think they will remember anything!" Ron whimpered.
Harry looked around him again. He found that he was falling out of his clothes, which was somewhat unsurprising, but these were made for someone much taller, not fatter. He blushed slightly at his indecency.
He looked to the other kids around him. He saw Draco lying next to a girl with very long silvery hair. She had rather large, elf like ears with two stones on the one he saw. They too were falling out of their clothes. Draco had one arm wrapped around the girl's waist in a possessive manner.
He looked to his left and saw a girl sitting up with long brown hair and big brown eyes. Her blunt cut bangs fell into her eyes and hid her eyebrows. She rubbed her eyes blearily and looked around. She too was falling out of her clothes.
Harry turned around and saw two more girls. Both were rather small and thin. The thinner of the two was a girl with very long black hair that swirled around her and across the floor, big black eyes and tanned skin. Th second girl was smaller than the blacked eyed girl and had long flaming red hair and bright brown eyes. He recognized her from the train station.
"Astra..." sniffled the black eyed girl to the long one with silver hair. That girl sat up blearily and stared at the black eyed girl angrily. "Astra... I swear I saw daddy again...." the black eyed girl sniffled again.
Harry blushed slightly at the girl named Astra. She was falling out of a black sweater that had a rather large neck. It fell around her shoulders unnoticed. "Don't be stupid, Avalon... You know as well as I do that daddy is dead and does NOT show up anywhere as a ghost!" she growled at the girl named Avalon. Harry guessed that they were sisters.
"Oh no! What happened! What am I doing at Hogwarts now!" said the red haired girl, holding her hands to her cheeks. "Ron? Ron!"
"Ginny... don't worry, Ginny... you're alright!" said the older Ron as he bent down and held his sister, Ginny.
Draco woke up now. "What the blazes? Did that stupid Potter do something to me..." he growled. Harry was about to say something when Astra turned to him and leaned over onto her knees and hands, the sweater dropping around her shoulders. She got into his face and looked at him questioningly.
"Hello... who are you?" she said with a cheerful smile. Harry saw Draco blushing a brilliant shade of pink as he looked down at Astra's chest. She followed his gaze and pink twinged her incredibly pale cheeks. "ACK! Perv!" She slapped Draco across his cheek as she pulled the sweater up.
"Where are we, Astra?" said the brunette.
"Not at Firestrom, that's for sure...." said Astra with a slightly heavy accent. It was similar to the other red haired boy.
"Where's Kennedy...." said Avalon. The red haired boy with glasses knelt down and picked up Avalon and held her to him. "You're Kennedy...." she said in a surprised tone.
"Yes I am, Avalon...." Kennedy said with a cheerful smile. "Not to worry... everything will be alright.."
"That bleeding hurt...!" growled Draco as he rubbed his cheek. He glared scornfully at Astra. She stuck out her tongue at him and pulled the sweater up higher. "You..." he called her something that made her growl angrily at him and slap him again.
"Be nice to a girl, why doncha, shrimp!" she growled at him.
"From what I can tell you aren't a girl..." Draco growled impatiently as he rubbed his other cheek.
"What the hell is goin' on?" said the brunette incredulously. "One minute I'm helping Astra here with her charms homework, the next I'm here in baggy clothes and with strangers!"
"You are at Hogwarts, school for witchcraft and wizardry..." Harry said. "I was practicing Quidditch with the Gryffindor team, is the last thing I remember..." He suddenly had a thought. "I was just thinking about who would be going after what's in the third floor corridor." He said as he looked up at the taller Ron and Hermione. They paled.
"Good God... he's reverted back to first year!" Hermione said as she gulped.
"I'm in my first year as well..." said Astra as she raised her hand.
"Same here..." said the brunette.
"I'm not supposed to be here yet...." said Avalon.
"Niether am I..." said Ginny. Harry glanced over at her and she blushed to the roots of her hair.
"It looks like they all reverted the same amount of years..." said Kennedy as he held onto Avalon. He hefted her up to get a better hold. "About six or seven years into the past...."
"Interesting...." said Hermione.
"Wait a second... are you saying that I'm supposed to be seventeen?" said Harry. He tried to figure it out, but the very idea hurt his head.
"Sounds about right..." Ron said as he patted his sniffling little sister. "Well.. At least you get to come, eh Ginny?" She smiled up at him cheerfully and hugged him. "That's my little sister for you... attached to her older brother..."
Astra looked like she was having an internal conflict. Her large blue-grey eyes stared at Harry in concentration. Harry raised his eyebrows and stared back. She was wearing glasses as well, but they were oval and silver rimmed.
"What's you name...." Harry said, trying to break the silence between them.
"Astra Knight.... knight as in knights of the round table...." she said still staring at him in concentration.
"I'm Harry.... Harry Potter..." Harry said as he smiled at her. He watched as she lifted her steel eyed gaze to his forehead and smiled.
"I thought you looked familiar...." she said. "I see you in my dreams all the time...."
"Dreams?" Harry said.
Astra crawled over to Harry and sat down cross legged with her hands in her lap. "Dreams... I sometimes have these strange dreams where I see a boy with green eyes and messy black hair. He looks older in my dreams, but I know it's you..." she said with a smile.
"Er...." was all Harry managed to say.
"Does anyone else find this incredibly boring...." said Draco in his drawling voice.
"Does anyone else want me to smack the crap outta him..." said Astra as she growled at him.
"I think we need to get these guys to see Professor McGonagall immediately..." said Kennedy. They each picked themselves up and started walking.
When they reached the transfiguration classroom, Harry saw Professor Snape massaging McGonagall's neck with one hand as he leaned over and watched her work. She looked up and Harry didn't see the Professor McGonagall he remembered. She looked much younger as did Professor Snape.
"Now isn't this interesting...." said Snape with a sneer. Harry glared at Snape.
"You've got to be joking...." said McGonagall as she stared incredulously at Harry.
"That's what I said..." Ron stated. Hermione pinched his arm and he recoiled with his sister in his arms. "OW!"
Ginny giggled. "Ronnie's got a girlfriend!"
"My name is Hermione Granger, Ginny..." Hermione said with a smile.
"Ronnie and Hermione sitting in a tree.... K-I-S-S-I-N-G...." Ginny started singing. Ron's ears went pink, while Hermione giggled with Ginny.
"They've all been aged about six or seven years backwards..." said Kennedy.
"You're not joking..." McGonagall whimpered.
"This should be interesting.... a pint sized Potter all over again...." Snape sneered at Harry.
"This is serious, Severus... we've got to get our head boy back to normal!" McGonagall said. "We've got to get them all back to normal!"
Just then, two men ran in. They looked about the same age as Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall. One had longish brown hair and looked a bit like he needed a full nights rest. The second had short black hair and bright blue eyes coupled with a roguish smile. "A pint sized Harry that I get to look after!" The black haired one said cheerfully.
"Who are you?" Harry said.
The black haired one slumped and whimpered. "Remus... he doesn't remember us...."
The brown haired man knelt down next to Harry and smiled knowingly. "My name is Professor Lupin... that man over there is Professor Black...."
"I'm Harry... Harry Potter..." Harry smiled at Professor Lupin.
"We need to get these children into some clothes that actually fit them...." McGonagall said.
"I think I found a few spare uniforms somewhere around here..." said Professor Snape. "I'll go get them..."
"Give them the regular first year uniform... you know... the non-colored ones..." said McGonagall. Professor Snape nodded and bowed himself out in a swirl of black robes.
"Where are we going to put them?" said Hermione.
"I guess we can watch them until classes begin again on Monday...." said Ron.
"That's a good idea... watch them until Monday and then... uh..." McGonagall scratched her head uncertainly. "We'll figure that out later..."
Harry was suddenly aware of someone holding his hand. He glanced up and saw Astra smiling down at him. She was taller than him. "Don't worry.. Come with me!"
"Okay..." Harry said and they walked out with everyone else.
After they were dressed in school uniforms, Harry sat with Ginny on the couch in the common room. Astra was sitting on the chair cross legged with a book in her lap. The brunette was sitting on the arm of the chair and laughing at the pages in the book with Astra.
Avalon was over in a corner with Kennedy. He was playing chess with her. Harry noticed that she too had large elf ears, but they were single pierced ears.
Draco was sulking in front of the fire, every now and then glance at Astra with an indecipherable expression. He looked as though he were having an internal conflict. He suddenly caught Harry watching him and glared at him coldly. "What are you looking at, Potter..."
"A soap opera..." Harry said serenely.
"Hmph! I'm surprised that the Weasel there does find some way to worm her way into the great Harry Potter's circle of friends!" Draco growled.
"Why don't you get off of his back? What's yer deal, anyway!" growled Astra. She had stopped laughing at the book and the brunette was glaring at Draco now.
Draco slipped off of the chair he was on and walked over to Astra, who had stood up now. She was slightly taller than him as well. "You can't be a first year... you're too old!" Draco said.
"I am... I'm twelve..." she said.
"Like I said... you're too old to be a first year... what happened... did you get held back?" Draco sneered at her.
She growled at him. "At my school we start first year when we are twelve, got it, shrimp?"
"As if that is an excuse!" Draco sneered.
"As if there's an excuse for your height, squirt?" she said with a smile. Draco flushed.
"Well at least I'm not some lumbering giant pretending to be a witch so she can go to school with NORMAL children!" he growled at her.
"Prawn!"
"Mudblood!"
"Prat!"
"Bitch!"
Harry felt Ginny hide behind him. "He's scary..." she mumbled softly.
Harry put an arm around her. "Don't worry... the mean, scary idiot won't hurt you..." She smiled up at him gratefully and hugged him around his waist. It felt somewhat uncomfortable, but Harry didn't really mind. He mussed up her flaming hair and smiled.
"I won't let him hurt you either, Harry..." she said with a cheerful smile.
"Aw... isn't it cute... Like I said earlier..." Draco drawled.
"Would you hush up?! Good God! What kind of insensitive prat are you!" Astra growled. Harry noticed that the brunette was giggling at them.
"EVERYONE HUSH!" growled Hermione from across the room. Ron was cowering from her.
"You're scary, you know that?" he said sheepishly.
"Now... the rules are that you do not go outside of Gryffindor Tower. You do not cause any trouble and you will behave yourselves at all times." Hermione stated.
"What about classes!" Harry said as he raised his hand.
"You won't have them... not until we get this mess sorted out and you all are turned back into your normal selves." Hermione said with authority.
"Alright with me... you Nev?" Astra said to the brunette. The brunette named Nev smiled and nodded.
"Sounds all right...." said Harry. "That's all we have to do?"
"People come in and out of Gryffindor all the time, so they'll make sure you aren't up to any trouble in between classes." Hermione said.
"Fine by me..." said Nev.
"Do I have to stay here?" Draco drawled.
"Yes... you do... now... It's nearly time for bed, so come up everyone..." Ron said. "We've split you up so that you three..." Ron pointed to Harry, Draco and Ginny. "Will be sleeping in the boys dorm with me...."
"What? I can't do that! It's a boys area! Not girls!" Ginny squeaked as she blushed to the roots of her hair.
"I'll go..." said Astra. Ron stared at her. "Feh... I've done it numerous times with my cousins back home.... I can do it..." she said.
"And the other three will sleep in the girls dorm with Hermione." Ron said. "Alright... you three come up with me..."
Harry followed him up the stairs to the boys dorm that he recognized. It said Seventh Year on the door, but it was the dorm he was used to seeing. He saw his bed with a familiar cage next to it and his trunk at the foot of the bed.
"I have to sleep in here with the Gryffindors? Great..." said Draco.
"Hush up, you.... Ya ain't gonna get any better accommodations, so be nice!" Astra scolded him.
Astra got a spare bed all to herself. Draco slept in Harry's bed reluctantly, but Ron set him straight to it. Ron then apologized to Harry for doing it. "I'm sorry, Harry... but... I wouldn't be proper if he slept in her bed...."
"I understand..." Harry said. He yawned and took off his glasses. Draco smoothed his hair and laid down under the covers. Then, Harry fell asleep.