I've got a comic I'm doing called Legend of Armis, so I've been majorly busy with that, which is why I WRITE this instead of drawing it out… like I used to do. . is updated however.
Chapter Eight
Hogwarts looked the same as it did when Harry had been there last. It was odd to him being back, even if it'd only been a few years. However, it still felt like home. He looked up at it as it approached, the little girl Amelia Heart sitting across from Astra and him.
Astra stared out her own window as they approached. She fingered the Aeternus at her neck in though. Had it only been a few years? She had a son now and the Aeternus didn't do anything other than look nice on her now. Back when she was at this school, the thing radiated power like nothing she could describe. Now, it was supposedly protecting her from harmful magic.
Inside was no different than outside. However, there was no one they recognized save from the teachers patrolling the hallways. No Percy telling off some second year, no Fred and George wreaking havoc, none of the people Harry grew up with at this school were there except some of the teachers.
Professor McGonagall, or now she was known as Headmistress Snape, walked up to them. She gave a smile to Astra and Harry and then nodded to Amelia. "Come with me child. Dinner is being served. Once I put you into a house, you will join your table." Then, she looked to Harry and Astra. "You two follow me. I'll deal with you two after the child."
Amelia looked resentful at being called a child, but she didn't say anything. Instead, they all followed after Headmistress Snape.
Since Dumbledore had died, there had been a scramble for a new headmaster of Hogwarts. Astra's old headmistress, Miss White, from Firestrom, had declined the offer of taking over Hogwarts, so that left Hogwarts under Mrs. Snape's rule until the Ministry finally decided to make her Headmistress, though they said she seemed too young for the job.
However, she was a great deal older than she appeared.
It was due to the freak accident of the Soul Reaver's Light stone and the Raven's Eye stone resonating at the same frequency that changed Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, Professor Lupin, Professor Trelawny, Professor Dumbledore and Sirius into teenagers, however it was the same accident that aged all, except Dumbledore, to being in their twenties. Dumbledore, somehow, managed to end up aging back to what he looked like originally.
Shortly after that, Professor Snape and McGonagall could be seen together a great deal. After Harry's seventh year, they got married and now they both taught at Hogwarts.
They ascended the winding staircase behind the gargoyle into the Headmaster office. Headmistress Snape took the hat off her desk and placed it on Amelia's head. Amelia blinked and tried to take it off, but the hat suddenly shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" Headmistress Snape took the hat off of Amelia's head and placed it back onto its shelf.
"Good, now… go to the great hall and join your housemates for your meal. Ask the house prefects about the rules and the like. Now run along," she said.
Amelia nodded and trotted out, leaving Astra and Harry alone with Headmistress Snape.
"Now, I want to speak to you both about what you will be doing here," Mrs. Snape said as she sat down.
"We're here undercover, Mrs. Snape," said Astra in her usual manner; completely straight forward.
Mrs. Snape nodded. "Yes, I know. Your husband sent me a letter and your father-in-law sent me the letter for your qualifications for substitute teaching. It's all very concise and in order."
"However," said Harry, feeling it was going to be said sooner or later.
"However, we must get one thing straight. Please TRY to keep the school in one piece. We had a hard enough time with your seventh year recuperation and I don't want to have to deal with that again."
Astra smirked and looked to Harry. He sighed. "Yes, Professor."
The great hall was crowded with children and teenagers. You could hear all the conversations all at once, or at least, Astra could. One good thing about her hearing was she could hear everything within a certainly wide area around her. However, the problem was, she could hear everything within a certainly wide area.
She covered her ears and grumbled. "More boiled cabbage and meat pies, I suppose. I honestly don't know why you Brits like this food so much!"
Harry was in the middle of eating a bit of his meat pie and gave a weak smile. "It's food. Don't ask about it, just eat it."
"God what I wouldn't give for some Chinese take-out right now," she grumbled again. The noise level was causing her to have a headache. She hadn't been around this much noise since she had been a student here. She needed to get used to it again.
Professor Snape was sitting next to Mrs. Snape, looking about as surly as Astra seemed. "I concur, it is entirely too loud in here, Miss Knight," he said in his usual sour tone.
Astra gave him a tired glance. "It's Mrs. Malfoy, nitwit."
"Severus, please…. Stop harassing the substitutes," said Mrs. Snape as she patted his hand. He blushed faintly and went back to scowling at his food.
Harry sighed and looked to Astra from the side. Astra looked around him to Sirius munching on his food while talking to one of the newer female teachers. Harry looked over and grinned. "Sirius!"
Sirius looked over and grinned back, waving an arm at them. "Oi! I never thought I'd see the likes o'you two again! What's brought you two back to hell, eh?"
"I'd hardly call it hell," said Astra with a smirk.
"I'd hardly call it heaven unless you count the new women teachers here," he grinned and waggled his eyebrows. Astra laughed and Harry grinned.
"So how is married life treating you both?" he asked.
Harry blushed and looked at his plate, Astra's ears went a distinct red and she too looked elsewhere. "That good, eh?" he grinned and Astra through a fork at him. He had to dodge backward, falling on the floor. When he resurfaced, the fork was still quivering, imbedded in the table. "Seems I hit a nerve," he grinned.
Everyone was watching the teacher's table now, especially Astra, with a great deal of fear and interest. Astra blushed and seemed to sink into her chair. "Eh heh… ah.,. nothing to see here."
"You seem to somehow manage to draw attention to yourself, Astra," said a familiar voice. Harry turned as Astra did to see a woman with long black hair and her once tanned skin was deathly pale, but he could never mistake those eyes. Black on black eyes stared at them both and sent a shiver down Harry's spine.
Astra giggled and flew over to the woman, hugging her in a bear hug. "Avalon! What's going on? I haven't seen you since I went back to America! Did you start teaching here? Have you gotten married to Kennedy yet?"
Avalon smiled faintly and gently shoved her sister back, Astra blinking at her in curiousity. "I am still a Knight."
"The dark knight and the white knight together again," grinned Sirius as he stood up.
Astra poked and prodded Avalon, grinning. Indeed there was something a bit bigger on Avalon now. "Hey! You grew! You have breasts now! And look! HIPS!"
Avalon growled and Astra dodged a swing from her sister, laughing her head off. Once again, the whole of Hogwarts was watching the pair instead of paying attention to their dinner.
Astra hugged her sister again and giggled. "I missed you."
Harry stood up and walked over, putting a hand out to Avalon. "It's good to see you, V."
Avalon looked to Harry and somehow, those black almost emotionless eyes seemed saddened as she looked at him. She nodded to him, not coming anywhere near contact to him. Harry blinked. He knew she could see the future and the past all at once, but had he forgotten something else about her powers?
"You know the rules, Potter. No contact with me. Ever," Avalon said.
"Harry, remember, Avalon's powers are maginified when someone touches her. You don't want to turn her into a gibbering idiot in the middle of the great hall, do you?" said Astra.
"I think it's a bit too late to not draw attention to you!" called Sirius. He dodged a shoe being thrown at him as he laughed.
Mrs. Snape stood up and crossed her arms in front of her. "Stop this insanity this instant!"
Like a the arm of a record player being pulled up suddenly, everything and everyone stopped what they were doing and looked to Mrs. Snape with fear. She smiled blithely and clapped her hands once. "Everyone, to your seats and finish this meal without another problem. Is that clear?"
In an instant, everyone was back to what they had been doing prior to causing the chaos. Astra giggled as she looked over to Harry and grinned. "Welcome back to Hogwarts, Professor Potter," she said.
Harry chuckled and went back to eating.
The hooded figure of a man stood before his witch for hire. "S-sir! Please! I… I did what you asked me to!"
"You didn't do enough, woman," he growled. He pulled out his wand and grinned at her. "I will not have failure in my ranks."
"You won't have anything else if you don't stop this!" she cried in a last ditch effort to dissuade him from harming her.
"And just what can you guarantee to me that I won't have those two aurors on my case when they find me?"
She looked around desperately. She found her old book of potions and sighed as she found something useful. "You… you disguise yourself… a-as someone they wouldn't expect you to disguise yourself as!"
He chuckled. "Really. How interesting. Polly Juice potion, then?"
"Er… ah… yes."
He grinned in a sick manner and pointed his wand at her. "Thank you for the suggestion, but… I have my own disguise." He was right in front of her in an instant. She could feel his breath on her ear. What she heard caused a shiver to go up her spine. "They do not know who the MASTER is."
Then, she screamed as a flash of green light hit her.