A/N: Okay all of youse who have been breathing down my neck about Astra flirting with Harry all the blessed time. To tell you the truth... I do this on a daily basis with my guyfriends... They don't mind, I don't particularly care. I loved it when my friends would keep saying that I was taking lessons from our good friend Karen. She always wore shirts that were way too low and the like. She has a bigger chest than I could ever dream of having.
Anyway.. Like I said... If I had the opportunity, I would be acting just like Astra. I'd wrap my arms around his neck while he's sitting down and rest my head on top of his and squeal, "Yer too cute!" That's just the way I am with my guyfriends. This is compared to how I am with guys that I "like". I get really self conscious and blushy and all that. Unless they're like Draco, and of course I'm mean to those guys.
Chapter Eighteen
After breakfast of the next day, Harry opened his trunk again. He searched through and found his invisibility cloak there with the old piece of parchment wrapped up inside it. He stared at it. "What am I supposed to do with you..." He said out loud.
"Probably write on it..." said Astra's voice from the doorway. "It is parchment, isn't it?" she said with a smile. "Sorry about yesterday, man..."
Harry gulped as she sat down next to him. "N-no problem...." he squeaked.
She blushed and looked away from him. "Um... you might ask the charms and spellwork geek about how to use that thing..." Astra said as she pointed to the parchment.
"It's just old parchment...." Harry said.
"Not from what I can feel from it..." she said with a smile.
Harry was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Harry.... don't you use your feelings when you do magic? Can't you just feel when something is magic or not right?" Astra said. Her eyes staring in his sea of green.
"I never thought about it before...." He said. He started thinking about all the times he did magic. "I don't think I've ever done that before in class...."
"It's not something that the teachers can teach you, Harry... It's something you feel. You just feel that something is the right spell. You feel the magic flowing through this parchment. You feel that someone is good. It doesn't matter if they generally look like the cruelest human being around, you just feel that they have something about them. That kind of thing."
Harry stared at the parchment. "Don't try to concentrate on it.... just feel... go on." He heard her intone on his thoughts.
He tried to relax himself. He thought about flying, how it relaxed him when the wind flowed around him on his Nimbus Two-Thousand. Then, he felt something. He saw little sprinkles of light flowing around in the parchment like veins in a human body. "I see it!"
"See? I told ya!" she beamed.
"So what spellwork geek were you talking about?" Harry said.
Astra stood up and motioned for him to as well. "Nevaeh..." Astra said.
"Who?"
"The short girl with the brown hair... Nev!" Astra said in an exasperated tone.
"That's her name? How odd. What does it mean? What language is it?" Harry asked her.
"It's English...."
"Huh?"
"It's heaven spelled backwards..." She said. "Now come on... If anyone can figure it out, It's Nev..." She pulled on Harry's arm and led him to the girls' dorm rooms. She led him into the one marked Seventh Years and dragged him in. "Hey charms queen! We've got a puzzle for you!"
Nev looked up and smiled. "Really now... what do you have?" She took out her wand as Astra brought Harry over.
"I can't figure out how to work this..." Harry said.
"Well... why not just ask it?" Nev said with a satisfied smile.
"She's great in charms, but everywhere else, she's a ditz... Nev, stop with the cutesy act..." Astra pleaded.
"As if yer any good with a wand, Astra..." Nev glared at Astra for a brief moment and sighed. "Let me see it..."
Harry handed her the page and she tapped her wand on it. "Well.. It's deffinantly magic.... but... oh well, might as well..." She tapped it again. "This is Nevaeh Ives... I would like to see if this page is intelligent."
There were a few spidery lines that spread across the page. It turned into handwriting.
------------
Welcome, Miss Ives. Mr. Prongs welcomes you!
------------
Harry stared at it. He didn't know what to think. It was speaking to her. Nev went on. "Cute! I like this... Who are you Mr. Prongs? Someone who went to Hogwarts?"
----------------
Amongst other things, Mr. Prongs is a creator of this map....
----------------
"What? It's a map! Map of what?" Harry said.
--------------
Mr. Padfoot would like to bid good day to the ladies and gives them all a nice kiss for hello!
--------------
"Uh...." said Astra. "This thing has more than one personality inside of it. That's kinda creepy... how did it know there were two of us here..."
"Yeah... really creepy... Padfoot sounds like a name you would give an animal, though...." Nev said. "Like my pet dog at home."
"Yeah... pads on the feet....." Astra said.
----------
Mr. Moony wishes you all a fair day and punches Mr. Padfoot for kissing the girls without their permission.
Mr. Padfoot would like to beg his forgiveness from the two ladies present and kicks Mr. Moony because he's a right git.
-----------
"Thems fightin' words...." Astra said with a smile. "This is ridiculous. We're only twelve, but already a schizo map is fighting over us...."
"I didn't need that, Astra..." Harry said. "That's just one too many things to go through my head."
"Sirs... how do we work the map?" Nev asked politely.
----------
Mr. Prongs and Mr. Wormtail say that the way to activate the map is to say "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good...."
---------
"That sounds reasonable enough." Nev said as she tapped her wand onto the map. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
The writing on the parchment swirled around until it made a picture of the castle. Harry saw numerous names and dots moving around the map. At the top was, 'Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs present: the Marauder's Map'.
"Wow... I wonder who these guys are...." Astra said.
"This is powerful stuff... whoever they are or were, they're smart!" said Nev admirably.
Harry looked around the map as saw a dot that said 'Hermione Granger' moving around the hallways. He saw another dot labeled 'Ron Weasley' in transfiguration. "I wonder... what it's like out there..." Astra said.
"Maybe we should use this map to our advantage..." Nev said with a mischievous smile. Harry stared at her. "What...?! It'd be fun! Let's bring along Ginny! She'll have loads of fun!"
"Vee'll want to stay behind.... she doesn't like to come with us normally." Astra explained to Harry.
"Vee never likes to do anything with anyone." Nev said in a disappointed tone. "I can't believe she's your sister." Nev suddenly took a lock of Astra's hair. "Hold on a minute! When did you dye your hair?! It's not blonde like it usually is..."
"I didn't dye my hair! Ow!" Astra yanked her hair away from Nev. "My guess is that I have this coloration when I'm seventeen, or whatever age I am and it just carried over...."
"Let's see... We can look around the school with Draco... He'll be loads of fun to torture..." said Nev with a devious grin.
"Draco? He's going to get us into trouble is what he's going to do..." Harry said. "You don't know this boy... he tried to get me, Hermione and Ron into trouble one night when we went to see Hagrid about the sorcerer's stone."
Something struck Harry. "Hagrid! We could go see Hagrid! He's really nice!" Harry said excitedly. "You have to meet Hagrid.. He's the caretaker of the grounds... Aside from Mr. Filch... that man you have to watch out for..."
Harry looked on the map and found Mr. Filch and Mrs Norris in his office. "Good... that means we can get outside without anyone seeing us..." Harry tapped his wand to the map. "Mischief managed..." The map went blank suddenly. "Okay... let's get going... I have an invisibility cloak, but if you want to bring Draco along, that wouldn't be a good idea."
"Invisibility cloak? I think it could work out..." Astra said. "I mean the only tall person here is me, so I could hold it up for you shorties..." she said with a grin.
"I'm growing!" Harry said indignantly.
"Don't worry... she does that all the time...." Nev said in an exasperated tone.
"Ginny! Do you want to come see Hagrid?" Harry asked the little red haired girl sitting on Hermione's bed.
"That man that Ron always writes home about? Sure!" she beamed.
They all went to the boys' dormitories and found Draco on Harry's bed, reading. He looked up and narrowed his eyes at Harry. "What do you want Potter..."
"On second thought... we can do without him.." said Astra with a sneer.
Harry went to his trunk and slipped the invisibility cloak under his robes. "What are you doing..." Draco said as Harry stood up.
"Nothing... We're going downstairs to the common room to play a game. Have a nice time!" Nev said with a smile.
Harry led the three girls out of the boys' staircase and into the common room. Then, he slipped the cloak over everyone. "Let's go..." Harry said as he pressed a finger to his lips for silence.
They walked through the portrait hole and walked down the corridor. Harry heard Professor McGonagall teaching class in the transfiguration classroom. They walked further down and passed the defense against the dark arts classroom. Professor Quirrel wasn't inside. Instead, Harry saw Professor Black teaching with that roguish smile he had.
They walked out of the castle and onto the grounds. They walked toward Hagrid's hut. Harry must have confused himself, because he heard Professor Lupin giving a class from a tree. "Woops! Don't want to alert him!" Astra whispered.
"Here we go... I can see his hut over there!" Harry said. They walked closer and Harry began to get a bad feeling.
The glass in the windows were broken. He wondered if Norbert had done that. "It doesn't look very inviting...." Ginny said in a worried tone.
"It's probably nothing... Hagrid has a dragon, you see.... named Norbert... let's go...." Harry said.
They walked closer and Harry saw nothing resembling life emanating from the old shack. He knocked on the door and heard nothing. He knocked again. Again... nothing.
"This place is oozing with sadness...." Astra said. "You can feel it...."
Harry opened the door. It was unlocked. Harry walked everyone inside and threw off the cloak. The hut was empty. "Did he... did he move away?" asked Ginny.
Something hit Harry like a lightning strike. His scar hurt worse than he had ever felt it. Then, just as it had came, it went away. "Harry! Are you alright?" Astra asked.
"Yeah... I'm fine... my scar just hurt for a moment..." Harry said as he put a hand up to his scar. It burned to his touch. "Does anyone else feel like this place is dead?" Harry asked.
"Like I said... It's oozing with sadness..... Something happened near here, or to the person this place belonged to and it's sad...." Astra said.
Harry felt tears coming to his eyes. The thought had hit him when his scar hurt. He had felt like someone had died. Like Hagrid had died. "No... is he dead?" said Ginny as she clung onto Harry.
"Something did... that's for sure...." Nev said. She sniffed slightly. "I can smell death in the air."
"There's a comforting thought..." said Astra. "But she's right... If this is the place of your Hagrid... then, he's no longer here... He is either living somewhere else and this house is emanating the sadness for his being gone, or he is dead and this entire place reeks of it."
"No... That can't happen! Where's fang! Fang should be here...." Harry said. He walked around the hut. He found blood on the floor where an animal had been cut open. He found blood on the walls as well. Another flash shot through him. "No... Fang can't be as well...." he whispered.
"Well look at this... The Famous Potter and his little friends milling about in a run down shack...." Draco's familiar drawl came from the doorway. "I bet it's familiar to Miss Weasley there...."
Harry spun around and glared at him angrily. "What are you doing here, Draco...."
"The question is, what are you all doing here...." Draco said with an evil grin.
"We weren't doing anything that is of your business, Draco..." Harry growled.
"I'm sure...." Draco said.
Suddenly, there was a loud clang. Harry jumped as did Draco. Harry turned to the sound. One of the pans on the dilapidated wall fell onto the floor. "Where's your precious Hagrid now?"
"What are you children doing here!" Professor Lupin's voice sounded from just outside the doorway. Harry saw Professor Lupin walk into the old cabin. "You should be in Gryffindor tower right now... come on all of you... I'm taking you back before Miss Granger and Professor McGonagall have my head set onto a platter."
Harry quickly stuffed the invisibility cloak into his cloak and walked with Professor Lupin as he hurried them all into Gryffindor Tower. He turned to them when they reached the common room. "Now I want you all to stay here, please! I don't want to have to deal with Professor McGonagall with the double threat of Miss Granger...." Then, he left through the portrait hole.
Draco walked over to the couch in front of the fireplace and sat down. "This is boring...." He said as he sulked.
Harry sat down on a sofa next to the couch. Astra sat next to him and gave him a cheerful smile. Harry saw that indecipherable expression on Draco's face. Astra gave Draco a sly smile and put he arms around Harry's neck. Harry did his best to lean away from her.
Draco sneered at Harry and stood up. He walked over to Ginny who was sitting on a chair and bent forward. He took her chin and pulled her upwards, pressing his lips to hers in a kiss.
Harry felt a sort of anger he had never felt before. He wanted to pulverize Draco, but he just sat and watched as Draco straightened and gave Harry a satisfied smile. Then, he turned to Ginny, who was in a dream like haze, and smiled.
"You aren't the only one who can play that game, you know..." he said to Harry. Then, he went up the staircase.
Anyway.. Like I said... If I had the opportunity, I would be acting just like Astra. I'd wrap my arms around his neck while he's sitting down and rest my head on top of his and squeal, "Yer too cute!" That's just the way I am with my guyfriends. This is compared to how I am with guys that I "like". I get really self conscious and blushy and all that. Unless they're like Draco, and of course I'm mean to those guys.
Chapter Eighteen
After breakfast of the next day, Harry opened his trunk again. He searched through and found his invisibility cloak there with the old piece of parchment wrapped up inside it. He stared at it. "What am I supposed to do with you..." He said out loud.
"Probably write on it..." said Astra's voice from the doorway. "It is parchment, isn't it?" she said with a smile. "Sorry about yesterday, man..."
Harry gulped as she sat down next to him. "N-no problem...." he squeaked.
She blushed and looked away from him. "Um... you might ask the charms and spellwork geek about how to use that thing..." Astra said as she pointed to the parchment.
"It's just old parchment...." Harry said.
"Not from what I can feel from it..." she said with a smile.
Harry was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Harry.... don't you use your feelings when you do magic? Can't you just feel when something is magic or not right?" Astra said. Her eyes staring in his sea of green.
"I never thought about it before...." He said. He started thinking about all the times he did magic. "I don't think I've ever done that before in class...."
"It's not something that the teachers can teach you, Harry... It's something you feel. You just feel that something is the right spell. You feel the magic flowing through this parchment. You feel that someone is good. It doesn't matter if they generally look like the cruelest human being around, you just feel that they have something about them. That kind of thing."
Harry stared at the parchment. "Don't try to concentrate on it.... just feel... go on." He heard her intone on his thoughts.
He tried to relax himself. He thought about flying, how it relaxed him when the wind flowed around him on his Nimbus Two-Thousand. Then, he felt something. He saw little sprinkles of light flowing around in the parchment like veins in a human body. "I see it!"
"See? I told ya!" she beamed.
"So what spellwork geek were you talking about?" Harry said.
Astra stood up and motioned for him to as well. "Nevaeh..." Astra said.
"Who?"
"The short girl with the brown hair... Nev!" Astra said in an exasperated tone.
"That's her name? How odd. What does it mean? What language is it?" Harry asked her.
"It's English...."
"Huh?"
"It's heaven spelled backwards..." She said. "Now come on... If anyone can figure it out, It's Nev..." She pulled on Harry's arm and led him to the girls' dorm rooms. She led him into the one marked Seventh Years and dragged him in. "Hey charms queen! We've got a puzzle for you!"
Nev looked up and smiled. "Really now... what do you have?" She took out her wand as Astra brought Harry over.
"I can't figure out how to work this..." Harry said.
"Well... why not just ask it?" Nev said with a satisfied smile.
"She's great in charms, but everywhere else, she's a ditz... Nev, stop with the cutesy act..." Astra pleaded.
"As if yer any good with a wand, Astra..." Nev glared at Astra for a brief moment and sighed. "Let me see it..."
Harry handed her the page and she tapped her wand on it. "Well.. It's deffinantly magic.... but... oh well, might as well..." She tapped it again. "This is Nevaeh Ives... I would like to see if this page is intelligent."
There were a few spidery lines that spread across the page. It turned into handwriting.
------------
Welcome, Miss Ives. Mr. Prongs welcomes you!
------------
Harry stared at it. He didn't know what to think. It was speaking to her. Nev went on. "Cute! I like this... Who are you Mr. Prongs? Someone who went to Hogwarts?"
----------------
Amongst other things, Mr. Prongs is a creator of this map....
----------------
"What? It's a map! Map of what?" Harry said.
--------------
Mr. Padfoot would like to bid good day to the ladies and gives them all a nice kiss for hello!
--------------
"Uh...." said Astra. "This thing has more than one personality inside of it. That's kinda creepy... how did it know there were two of us here..."
"Yeah... really creepy... Padfoot sounds like a name you would give an animal, though...." Nev said. "Like my pet dog at home."
"Yeah... pads on the feet....." Astra said.
----------
Mr. Moony wishes you all a fair day and punches Mr. Padfoot for kissing the girls without their permission.
Mr. Padfoot would like to beg his forgiveness from the two ladies present and kicks Mr. Moony because he's a right git.
-----------
"Thems fightin' words...." Astra said with a smile. "This is ridiculous. We're only twelve, but already a schizo map is fighting over us...."
"I didn't need that, Astra..." Harry said. "That's just one too many things to go through my head."
"Sirs... how do we work the map?" Nev asked politely.
----------
Mr. Prongs and Mr. Wormtail say that the way to activate the map is to say "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good...."
---------
"That sounds reasonable enough." Nev said as she tapped her wand onto the map. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
The writing on the parchment swirled around until it made a picture of the castle. Harry saw numerous names and dots moving around the map. At the top was, 'Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs present: the Marauder's Map'.
"Wow... I wonder who these guys are...." Astra said.
"This is powerful stuff... whoever they are or were, they're smart!" said Nev admirably.
Harry looked around the map as saw a dot that said 'Hermione Granger' moving around the hallways. He saw another dot labeled 'Ron Weasley' in transfiguration. "I wonder... what it's like out there..." Astra said.
"Maybe we should use this map to our advantage..." Nev said with a mischievous smile. Harry stared at her. "What...?! It'd be fun! Let's bring along Ginny! She'll have loads of fun!"
"Vee'll want to stay behind.... she doesn't like to come with us normally." Astra explained to Harry.
"Vee never likes to do anything with anyone." Nev said in a disappointed tone. "I can't believe she's your sister." Nev suddenly took a lock of Astra's hair. "Hold on a minute! When did you dye your hair?! It's not blonde like it usually is..."
"I didn't dye my hair! Ow!" Astra yanked her hair away from Nev. "My guess is that I have this coloration when I'm seventeen, or whatever age I am and it just carried over...."
"Let's see... We can look around the school with Draco... He'll be loads of fun to torture..." said Nev with a devious grin.
"Draco? He's going to get us into trouble is what he's going to do..." Harry said. "You don't know this boy... he tried to get me, Hermione and Ron into trouble one night when we went to see Hagrid about the sorcerer's stone."
Something struck Harry. "Hagrid! We could go see Hagrid! He's really nice!" Harry said excitedly. "You have to meet Hagrid.. He's the caretaker of the grounds... Aside from Mr. Filch... that man you have to watch out for..."
Harry looked on the map and found Mr. Filch and Mrs Norris in his office. "Good... that means we can get outside without anyone seeing us..." Harry tapped his wand to the map. "Mischief managed..." The map went blank suddenly. "Okay... let's get going... I have an invisibility cloak, but if you want to bring Draco along, that wouldn't be a good idea."
"Invisibility cloak? I think it could work out..." Astra said. "I mean the only tall person here is me, so I could hold it up for you shorties..." she said with a grin.
"I'm growing!" Harry said indignantly.
"Don't worry... she does that all the time...." Nev said in an exasperated tone.
"Ginny! Do you want to come see Hagrid?" Harry asked the little red haired girl sitting on Hermione's bed.
"That man that Ron always writes home about? Sure!" she beamed.
They all went to the boys' dormitories and found Draco on Harry's bed, reading. He looked up and narrowed his eyes at Harry. "What do you want Potter..."
"On second thought... we can do without him.." said Astra with a sneer.
Harry went to his trunk and slipped the invisibility cloak under his robes. "What are you doing..." Draco said as Harry stood up.
"Nothing... We're going downstairs to the common room to play a game. Have a nice time!" Nev said with a smile.
Harry led the three girls out of the boys' staircase and into the common room. Then, he slipped the cloak over everyone. "Let's go..." Harry said as he pressed a finger to his lips for silence.
They walked through the portrait hole and walked down the corridor. Harry heard Professor McGonagall teaching class in the transfiguration classroom. They walked further down and passed the defense against the dark arts classroom. Professor Quirrel wasn't inside. Instead, Harry saw Professor Black teaching with that roguish smile he had.
They walked out of the castle and onto the grounds. They walked toward Hagrid's hut. Harry must have confused himself, because he heard Professor Lupin giving a class from a tree. "Woops! Don't want to alert him!" Astra whispered.
"Here we go... I can see his hut over there!" Harry said. They walked closer and Harry began to get a bad feeling.
The glass in the windows were broken. He wondered if Norbert had done that. "It doesn't look very inviting...." Ginny said in a worried tone.
"It's probably nothing... Hagrid has a dragon, you see.... named Norbert... let's go...." Harry said.
They walked closer and Harry saw nothing resembling life emanating from the old shack. He knocked on the door and heard nothing. He knocked again. Again... nothing.
"This place is oozing with sadness...." Astra said. "You can feel it...."
Harry opened the door. It was unlocked. Harry walked everyone inside and threw off the cloak. The hut was empty. "Did he... did he move away?" asked Ginny.
Something hit Harry like a lightning strike. His scar hurt worse than he had ever felt it. Then, just as it had came, it went away. "Harry! Are you alright?" Astra asked.
"Yeah... I'm fine... my scar just hurt for a moment..." Harry said as he put a hand up to his scar. It burned to his touch. "Does anyone else feel like this place is dead?" Harry asked.
"Like I said... It's oozing with sadness..... Something happened near here, or to the person this place belonged to and it's sad...." Astra said.
Harry felt tears coming to his eyes. The thought had hit him when his scar hurt. He had felt like someone had died. Like Hagrid had died. "No... is he dead?" said Ginny as she clung onto Harry.
"Something did... that's for sure...." Nev said. She sniffed slightly. "I can smell death in the air."
"There's a comforting thought..." said Astra. "But she's right... If this is the place of your Hagrid... then, he's no longer here... He is either living somewhere else and this house is emanating the sadness for his being gone, or he is dead and this entire place reeks of it."
"No... That can't happen! Where's fang! Fang should be here...." Harry said. He walked around the hut. He found blood on the floor where an animal had been cut open. He found blood on the walls as well. Another flash shot through him. "No... Fang can't be as well...." he whispered.
"Well look at this... The Famous Potter and his little friends milling about in a run down shack...." Draco's familiar drawl came from the doorway. "I bet it's familiar to Miss Weasley there...."
Harry spun around and glared at him angrily. "What are you doing here, Draco...."
"The question is, what are you all doing here...." Draco said with an evil grin.
"We weren't doing anything that is of your business, Draco..." Harry growled.
"I'm sure...." Draco said.
Suddenly, there was a loud clang. Harry jumped as did Draco. Harry turned to the sound. One of the pans on the dilapidated wall fell onto the floor. "Where's your precious Hagrid now?"
"What are you children doing here!" Professor Lupin's voice sounded from just outside the doorway. Harry saw Professor Lupin walk into the old cabin. "You should be in Gryffindor tower right now... come on all of you... I'm taking you back before Miss Granger and Professor McGonagall have my head set onto a platter."
Harry quickly stuffed the invisibility cloak into his cloak and walked with Professor Lupin as he hurried them all into Gryffindor Tower. He turned to them when they reached the common room. "Now I want you all to stay here, please! I don't want to have to deal with Professor McGonagall with the double threat of Miss Granger...." Then, he left through the portrait hole.
Draco walked over to the couch in front of the fireplace and sat down. "This is boring...." He said as he sulked.
Harry sat down on a sofa next to the couch. Astra sat next to him and gave him a cheerful smile. Harry saw that indecipherable expression on Draco's face. Astra gave Draco a sly smile and put he arms around Harry's neck. Harry did his best to lean away from her.
Draco sneered at Harry and stood up. He walked over to Ginny who was sitting on a chair and bent forward. He took her chin and pulled her upwards, pressing his lips to hers in a kiss.
Harry felt a sort of anger he had never felt before. He wanted to pulverize Draco, but he just sat and watched as Draco straightened and gave Harry a satisfied smile. Then, he turned to Ginny, who was in a dream like haze, and smiled.
"You aren't the only one who can play that game, you know..." he said to Harry. Then, he went up the staircase.