The idea of this scene, of Tullia and Astoria starbathing together, was 500% inspired by Sleeping At Last's song "Saturn". It is awesome; you should listen. It was very much that song that kickstarted their whole friendship into gear for me.

I did have it in my head to do more tie-ins with the goings on of the year, but I don't want to spend this entire fanfiction trying to match up the books with my story. So here we are. Please let me know how you're liking it/not liking it/confused by it/etc. in messages and comments, they affirm everything I do and I love you all for them. Enjoy!

Chapter 9

"Professor Lupin is a WEREWOLF?! That can't be true!" Tullia blurted loudly.

"Shhhhh! Not here! We're barely out of the castle."

Astoria and Tullia had chosen the last Thursday of the term to sneak out into the grounds. Tullia had originally wanted to do it on Midsummer's Eve - the day that Astoria's faint was set to happen - but she'd managed to discourage that idea. It turned out that it did get easier to lie to her friend.

They had found their way through the castle without running into Filch or any of the Professors. Tullia had found a hidden corridor on the main floor a few weeks earlier that led to a small back door. From there, they had burst like water from a dam and practically rolled down the grounds towards the lakeshore.

They'd been wise enough to bring blankets and cushions, and wiser still to charm them a darker colour so as to be less conspicuous. The moment they flung out the blankets, Tullia broke the silence.

"Tell me, tell me, tell me, now! Where did you hear that Professor Lupin is a werewolf? How did that get past Dumbledore?"

"It was in the Hospital ward, I heard a couple students talking about it. Apparently Dumbledore knew about it all along." Astoria suddenly wondered just how many secrets the Headmaster was keeping for other people.

"That is madness. That is… how could he let him teach us? What if he'd changed in the middle of class and attacked his students?"

Astoria rolled her eyes. "Don't werewolves only change when there's a full moon? It isn't as if he teaches Astronomy. And SPEAKING of Astronomy…" She desperately changed the subject away from secrets and illnesses and Dumbledore. "...we're here to look at the stars, right?"

Tullia plopped her cushion down and then tumbled gracefully onto it. "Yes. Yes we are. Okay, celestial heavens, what have you got in store for us?" She extended both arms out to the sky, as if she expected Zeus himself to pull her up into it.

Astoria lay down beside her friend and tipped her head up. The sky was littered with light, little pinpricks glimmering amidst larger orbs of radiance and a milky, misty river of luminescence running behind it all. It was spectacular.

"They never disappoint, do they?" She said in awe.

"Nope. They do not." Tullia sounded more subdued than usual, a clear sign that the beauty before her was having as great an effect.

The two lay there and silently drank in the stars for what felt like centuries. Astoria held her finger out and traced across Andromeda and Pegasus to find Aquarius rising.

"Saturn is in Aquarius," she said offhand.

"Astoria, are you nervous about going home?"

Not only did it come out of nowhere, but it was the most insightful thing Astoria had ever heard her friend say to her. She fought very hard not to bolt upwards. "What makes you say that?" Her heart had started to pound quickly, afraid of what Tullia had noticed or deducted.

Her friend was keeping her eyes very decidedly on the sky. "You've seemed down all week. Even with this-" she gestured vaguely up "to look forward to, you haven't said a thing about end of term. And you've been avoiding your sister."

This was all true. Astoria knew what her sister was like, and she just knew that Daphne had a full summer of activity and events all lined up. She just loved showing off how popular she was to her little sister… but this little sister didn't want to hear it. For the first time, she found herself resenting her sister's freedom to meet up with friends outside school, to go to fancy parties and picnic luncheons. It had never bothered her before, because she didn't know what she was missing. Now she did.

"When I go back home," she said carefully, "there will be no one there that understands me. No one to look up into the sky and say 'Hey, there's that idiotic hunter Orion!' or bug me to practice my charms. Just my parents to look at me and never seem happy with what they see…" She trailed off.

"It's only a couple months, Astoria. And there's no reason why we couldn't try to meet up!"

Astoria swallowed. Yes there is.

"Besides, it's the Quidditch World Cup this summer! It's happening in Scotland, and I've been begging my parents to try to get tickets. Maybe you could come with us!"

Astoria laughed sadly. "I highly doubt my parents will let me go."

"Still," Tullia pressed. "It can't hurt to ask, right? C'mon Astoria, we're Quidditch Superfans now! We need to stay on top of things!"

Astoria's laugh was more natural this time. "You and Quidditch. You might as well just try out for the team next year."

"Nah," she said confidently. "If I were IN the game, I couldn't watch it. Being in the centre of everything isn't always the best seat in the house."

"That sounds way too wise coming from you." A cushion smacked her in the face, which caused her to begin giggling. "Now that, that reaction is more your style."

Tullia, not wanting to be too predictable, tucked her cushion back under her and wriggled back into a comfortable pose. "For the record, I'd say these are the best seats in the house."

She couldn't disagree. Whether it was Tullia's ability to laugh at anything, or her way of spouting unpredictable wisdom, or simply the tranquility that the stars washed over her, Astoria felt better.

"Summer won't be that long anyway, right? I can practically spot Leo already."

"Ha, that idiotic lion." Tullia caught her friend's eye and smiled. "He's practically roaring at the gates."

It was the wee hours of the morning when they finally got back to the Ravenclaw dormitory. The Common Room was empty, its ceiling a dull glimmering copy of the night sky they'd just left. Astoria glanced upwards at it, and Tullia harrumphed quietly.

"Looks like rubbish compared to the real thing, doesn't it?"

Astoria nodded. "It doesn't come anywhere close."

"We're doing this next year, Astoria." It was Tullia's turn to have fire in her eyes. "Every year. Until we graduate. We're going to star bathe at the end of each term, no exceptions."

Astoria linked her arm with Tullia's. "You can count on it."