Author's Note: A couple of readers have given me some nice comments on this story. I would like to say, thank you.

And now, back to the story.

Astra set a bowl on the floor, under the table, and then pulled her wand out and pointed it into the bowl. " Aguamenti," she said, and then water came out and filled it up. Starbeam started drinking before it was even full.

"It's all in Hogwarts: A History," Hermione was saying. "Though, of course, that book's not entirely reliable. "A Revised History of Hogwarts," would be a more accurate title. Or "A Highly Biased and Selective History of Hogwarts, Which glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the school".

"What are you going on about?" asked Ron, as Astra sat down between Hermione and Heather.

"House-elves!" said Hermione, loudly.

"Hermione," Astra said, "using house-elves for free labor is so common that it probably didn't even occur to Bathilda Bagshot to mention it." Astra had read that book, before coming to Hogwarts, but she did not know that there were house-elves here until Hermione mentioned it, but she had not been too surprised to find out. The fact that the book had not mentioned the house-elves had not even occurred to Astra until just now.

Hermione looked taken aback. "Well… why do they try to keep out of sight, if it's so common."

"I-I don't know," Astra said. "They never tried to keep out of sight at home."

"They don't have muggle-borns at your home," Ron said, looking at Astra. He they turned to Hermione. "Maybe they're worried all the muggle-borns here will complain."

"Well, maybe there's a reason why I'm complaining," Hermione snapped.

There was a moment of silence, and then one of the twins (Astra couldn't tell the difference.) looked toward Hermione. "Listen, have you ever been down in the kitchens, Hermione?"

"Yes I have, and it was horrible."

"What's so horrible about it?" the other twin asked.

'They're happy," the first twin said. "They think they've got the best job in the world."

"That's because they're uneducated and brainwashed!" Hermione snapped.

Astra cringed, and Starbeam gently rubbed against her leg and then jumped into her lap. Astra put her hands on Starbeam, and took a few deep breaths.

Astra was appalled. She had never felt as though Dobby were brainwashed. Also, they had only given Dobby a couple of lessons on letters so far, but he already seemed to be getting somewhere.

Just then, the owls arrived. Astra noticed that Harry seemed very happy about the letter he got.

Later that morning, Starbeam and Astra were going to class, when Crookshanks rushed up to Starbeam. He had a note in his mouth, to give Starbeam, to give to Astra. When Starbeam took it from him, their noses touched.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione sent Astra a note, via Crookshanks, which asked her to meet them in the Gryffindor common room before lunch.

Right after Astra and Starbeam showed up, Astra looked at Hermione. "Dobby is not brainwashed. He's not an idiot."

"Oh," Hermione said. "Sorry. I didn't mean Dobby."

"I'm not sure if the other house-elves are either. I like to think that they're just trying to make the best of a bad situation, but I don't really know."

"How about you girls discussing house-elves after we go to lunch," Ron suggested.

Harry looked around. Most students had left, probably to go eat, but there were a few around. "Let's talk in private," Harry suggested. They went up to his and Ron's dormitory.

"I wrote a letter to my godfather, awhile back, and I told him about you. He replied today, and asked me to tell you something about him," Harry said. "Do you know who Sirius Black is?"

"Yes," she said. "He was my mother's selfish cousin, who turned his back on his family, and his friends."

"No," Harry said. "He was a boy born into a family of pure-blood Slytherin's, but he was sorted into Gryffindor. He also grew up to not be a pure-blood supremacist, and to be against Voldemort.

"Remus was a werewolf, but he went to Hogwarts before wolfsbane potion was invented. He used to have to spend full moon nights in the shirking shack.

"Anyway, back at Hogwarts, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and my dad became best friends. My dad, Sirius, and Peter eventually figured out that Remus was a werewolf. They also found out that it was safe for an animagus to be around werewolves, when they were in their animal form, so they became unregistered animagus's, just so they could hang out with Remus during the full moon.

"After being friends for many years, Peter betrayed my parents to Voldemort, and then he framed Sirius for it, and for murder, faked his own death, and then hid out for many years, in his animagus form."

Trembling, and wearing a horrified expression on her face, Astra sunk down to the floor, and cuddled up with Starbeam.

Hermione quickly sat down, beside Astra, and then Harry and Ron did too.

"How-how did you find this out?" Astra asked.

"Because when Sirius got out of Azkaban, he tried to capture Peter Pettigrew and kill him," Ron snapped. "Peter, in his animagus form, was Scabbers, my pet rat."

Astra starred at him in shock, for seconds. "I'm so sorry, Ron. Are you alright?"

Harry was a bit confused by Astra's reaction. He glanced at Ron, and saw that Ron looked annoyed.

"Yeah," Ron said. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Astra cringed, holding Starbeam close. "S-Sorry. It just seems like it would be horrible to find out your pet is -"

"It is horrible," Ron snapped, looking as though he were about to cry.

Hermione scooted closer to Ron, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Ron," she said, softly.

Harry thought about all he'd ever witnessed between Ron and Scabbers. Ron had complained about Scabbers a lot, but he had loved him, even if he never really admitted it. Harry had thought about how bad things probably were for Professor Lupin, and even more so had bad things probably were for Sirius, but he had never thought about how Ron felt about all of that.

"I'm sorry too," Harry said. "I never thought about how you would have felt about that."

They sat there, in silence, for a while. "Do you wanna talk about it?" Hermione asked.

Ron shook his head.

"Do you wanna go to the great hall, and have lunch?"

Ron shook his head.

"Ron, would you like me to go and get some food, from the kitchens, and bring it up here?" Astra offered.

Ron nodded.

Astra set Starbeam down, and stood up.

"I'll come with you, to help carry," Hermione said, starting to stand up. She stopped when Ron grabbed her hand.

""Would you rather I go help her?" Harry asked.

Ron nodded.

Harry and Astra went to the kitchens, got food, and brought it back to the dormitory. They started out eating in silence, but eventually they managed to talk a little, mainly about the delegates arriving.