The next day, in Charms class, Professor Flitwick demonstrated a spell. "Now everyone pick a partner, and practice it together," he said.

Astra did not like having to work with partners, especially when they had to choose their own partners, because she did not have any friends in her grade. So far, every time they had had to pick partners for something, she would wait for everyone else to partner up, until only she and one other person were left. Today, however, that ended up not being the case.

"Astra, would you like to be partners with me?" Heather asked, in her usual nervous tone.

Some boys, who had been approaching her, stopped, looked a bit sad, and then turned away.

Normally, Heather would work with whichever person asked her to be partners with them first. Since somebody always asked Heather, and she rarely said anything, Astra was surprised that she had bothered to ask her, although she had been surprised fo a while now about why Heather seemed popular, especially since she was quiet, and it was just boys who Heather was popular with.

Astra went first. She aimed her wand at the feather, swished and flicked. "Wingardium leviosa," she said, causing the feather to float.

"Wow," Heather said. "Have you done that before?"

"Yes," Astra said, and then she suddenly realized that she shouldn't have said that. "Well, I mean sort of," she corrected. "I've practiced doing wand movements, with a fake wand, and saying spells, back home." This was true, but she did not tell her that she had also done some simple spells for real, at home, after she got her own real wand. She could do that, because she lived in an all-magical house-hold, but she still was not supposed to go blabbing it around.

"That was a good idea. I read up about some of the spells in the books before school started, but I never practiced the movements or anything, but I don't know that I would have gotten them right, even if I did."

"You don't think any of your family would help you."

"I'm a muggle-born," she said.

"Oh, okay." Astra knew that muggle-borns were inferior to other witches and wizards, just like house-elves were inferior to other species, but Astra was not going to treat her like an inferior. After all, Hermione was a muggle-born witch too, and Dobby was a house-elf, and it was not any of their faults. There was also the fact that, with her condition, she probably was not any better then them anyway.

Heather stared at the feather.

"Um… you know you're never going to be able to do it if you never attempt it," Astra pointed out.

Heather looked like she was staring off into space, or at somebody who was not there, for several seconds, and then she turned her gaze back to the feather. She moved her wand. "Wingardium leviosa," she said. Nothing happened.

Astra helped her with her wand movement, and then Heather looked in the same direction she had previously, for a few seconds, and then tried again.

"Wingardium leviosa," she said, swishing and flicking her wand. The feather floated upwards. Heather smiled.

Astra smiled, but she also got a bit concerned, when she noticed that Heather was looking and smiling in that same direction.

"Um… what are you looking at?" Astra asked.

Heather had a scared look on her face.

"I'm sorry," Astra said. "You don't have to tell me."

"I have an invisible pet, who I can telepathically talk to," Heather whispered. "He encourages me when I'm nervous."

"Oh, okay," Astra said, feeling a bit shaken.

That evening, Harry, Hermione, Astra, Starbeam, and Ron met with Dobby, right outside the kitchens. Ron had decided to try getting involved in S.P.E.W. because it was better then excluding himself.

"Dobby thinks that elves are very well-treated here, and that's why nobody except me has ever gotten the motivation to want to be free," Dobby explained.

"I don't know if my parents' current house-elf wants to be free or not," Astra said. "My father forbade him from ever talking to me the moment he arrived."

"Winky didn't want to be free, and her master treated her horribly," Hermione said.

Dobby looked alarmed. "What happened to Winky?" he asked.

Hermione explained what they witnessed at the world cup.

"Dobby will find her!" he exclaimed. He then vanished into thin air.

"What was that?" Hermione asked. "Can house-elves apparate inside of Hogwarts?"

"Probably," Astra said. "There's a reason why humans used to be afraid of them."

"What?" Harry asked.

"Astra and I found a library book the other day that claimed that the enslavement of house-elves began when some house-elves agreed to become enslaved, so that humans would stop being afraid of them," Hermione explained. "I'm not sure how accurate that is though. It just seems like pro-slavery propaganda."

"I believe it," Astra said, a hint of rage in her voice. "A lot of horrible things are driven by fear, like the statute of secrecy." She crouched down, and grabbed her cat.

"That's not the same thing," Hermione said. "The stature of secrecy is to protect muggles from being afraid."

"That's not the only reason," Astra said.

"That's the only reason Professor Binns, or the history of magic book said," Hermione replied.

Astra trembled. "Many years ago muggles were so afraid of witchcraft and wizardry, that they would try to burn witches and wizards at the stake, which often made the witches and wizards too afraid to defend themselves too much for fear of making the muggles even more afraid."

"She does have a point," Ron said, "although that sounds a bit like anti-muggle propaganda, created by pure-blood supremacists."

That evening, Hedwig showed up, with a letter for Harry from Sirius. Harry quickly opened it, and read it, and then he got worried. He began his next letter by claiming that he was fine, and not to bother returning. He then wrote about the sorting ceremony, Astra Malfoy, S.P.E.W., and Dobby. He mailed the rather long letter, first thing the next morning.

The next day, Harry, Hermione, Astra, and Starbeam, went down to the kitchens.

"Has anyone seen Dobby. Did he ever get back?" Harry asked.

Dobby came rushing up to them. "Yes sir, I mean Harry, Dobby did."

"Did you find Winky?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, Dobby did. Follow Dobby."

Dobby led them over to where a sad house elf sat on a stool.

"Winky," Dobby said. "She works here too now."

"And how much is Dumbledore paying you, Winky?" Hermione asked.

"Winky doesn't want to be paid," Winky said, bursting into tears.

Astra crouched down in front of Winky. "I know things are hard for you right now, but if Mr. Crouch does not want you helping him anymore, that's his problem, not yours. Dobby went looking for you the moment he found out you were missing, so at least you have him."

Winky looked up at her, still sad but no longer crying.

"There's lots of other house-elves here too. Maybe they can be like your new family."