They had appeared on a cobbled country lane by a copse of trees, leading to an old manor house in the distance. Instead of heading that way, Dumbledore, after looking back at the house for a moment, set off in the other direction.
They had been walking for a few minutes, taking in the sounds of birdsong and the leaves rustling under their feet, Aster gulping in the fresh air after the nauseating trip of Apparation.
"Where are we, sir?" Aster asked after she was sure she wasn't going to vomit if she opened her mouth.
"A lovely little village called Godric's Hollow. Despite its Wizarding name and origins, Muggles moved into the area a few centuries ago, so we must be inconspicuous. That reminds me - I must alter my clothing." He said before taking out his wand and transforming his long robe into a suit that looked like a hippie from the seventies may have adored.
"When I went to Gringrotts in the summer, they said the Family home was destroyed?"
"Yes, you were barely six months old when your grandparents, James' parents, fell victim to Voldemort themselves. The Manor went with them, ensuring that your mother and father had to look elsewhere to make a home."
"How did they escape?"
"Sheer luck. The three of you were spending time with a family friend at the time of the attack."
"Did - did Voldemort meet every victim, sir?" She asked quietly, fiddling with her fingers as they walked on.
"No. He would only personally enter into the fray for those he deemed worthy of his appearance. Fleamont and Euphemia, your grandparents, were powerful in their own right. They were not only wealthy, but your grandfather had a firm foothold in the Potions business due to the Potters being a potioneering business for centuries.
"Euphemia had the skills to traverse the political circles due to her own childhood lessons - she was from a Pureblood family herself too. Her family, however, had Darker leanings than the Potters. Did you know she was a Slytherin too? She had managed to coax allies to our side, albeit many of them did so reluctantly, but it was enough of a threat that she became on Voldemort's radar.
"And unfortunately, we were too shortsighted to see how much of a threat they were considered to be. We all thought that it would be James and his family targeted, not his parents. I will regret that for the rest of my life."
"Did you know them well, sir?"
"Oh very well! They were a few years older than I. Oh yes! They had your father at a very late age, even by Wizarding standards. As such, before they had James we'd spend an awful amount of time with one another." He chuckled to himself. "Everyone always says that your father got his proclivity for mischief from Fleamont - however I can assure that that wasn't the case. Oh, Fleamont was mischievous, to be sure, but Euphemia - oh! - she was deviant!" He laughed, lost in the memories of another time. "Once she got me in trouble from our Madam Pomfrey by making me have a competition with her. I probably shouldn't tell you this, as young and impressionable as you are, but she could drink anyone under the table. And I, in my arrogance, decided to put that to the test! Safe to say - she had to drop me off at the Hospital Wing while she skipped away."
Aster couldn't help but grin at the image - she had the idea of a small woman with greying hair holding up this exceedingly tall man, able to stand and walk on her own as he stumbled every two feet.
"Ah yes, you can see it too, I can see! Yes. I was very close with the Potters, even your parents. Your parents," Dumbledore heaved in a breath, "they were truly some of the best people I have ever had the pleasure and honour to know."
Aster kept quiet as they approached the kissing gate of a church, her Headmaster opening it slowly. Her heart was racing and her palms were sweating profusely. Clacked swooped down to land on her shoulder again and nuzzled her as she slowed her steps.
Dumbledore moved swiftly through the graveyard, nimbly moving around the gravestones until they came to a corner shadowed by an oak tree. Breathing out a slow and shaky breath Aster stepped up to the stone.
The stone was a standard slate, the epitaph nice and simple. What was jarring was seeing her name on there too. She knew of course that she had been declared dead, but to see it in front of her, it was unsettling.
"What does it mean? 'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death'?" She whispered, stroking Clacker with a trembling hand.
"A great many things. One, is a Christian thought, that those who believe will have life again. Another, more magical belief, is that there is life in everything, nothing is truly gone from us."
"I didn't - I didn't think that my name would be here."
Dumbledore winced, "Yes I apologise about that. I had forgotten that it would be there. I just think of your parents as being here. An unforgivable oversight."
"It's fine. Its, probably sounds weird, but it's kind of... nice - to know that I'm with them in some form."
Dumbledore turned to look at her, seeing how old she was compared to her eleven years.
"They are always with you, Aster. Never forget that. And they will always love you - not even death can stop that."
"I know, sir." She sniffled, wiping away her tears.
"I will leave you to your visit, I will just be across the way." He said, pointing over to another grave.
It was weird, knowing that the corpses of her parents laid beneath her feet, but she could speak to them at any time she wished. Yet, her heart still felt like it was torn in two at the evidence of their permenant physical absence.
Not caring about the wet ground, she sat down on her knees, staring at the names of her parents. She had heard that many people spoke to gravestones of their loved ones - talking of their life and how it had evolved since their death, since their last visit and news on those that they were close to. She didn't know if it was because she had already technically told them these things, but she didn't feel the need to. She was happy to sit there in the October sunshine, the wet grass seeping into her jeans and listening to the soft birdsong.
She lost how long she had been there before realising that she had nothing to lay on the grave, grimacing at the mishap, she got up and made her way to her professor. Once she saw the name engraved, Arianna Dumbledore, she decided to leave some space before clearing her throat.
"Um, sorry to disturb you, sir."
"Not at all, Miss Potter."
"I - can you make some flowers to leave on their graves, sir? Please? I didn't think."
"Of course, my dear. What were you
thinking?"
"Not lillies." She wrinkled her nose "that's too cliche."
Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, your mother threw the ones that your father bought her once at him."
"Do you know what she had in her wedding bouquet?"
Dumbledore thought for a moment, running his hand down his beard. "It was a wildflower arrangement, I believe. With lavender being the main flower."
"Then I'd like something like that please sir. Is it possible to, I dont know, plant the wildflowers?"
"Of course. I will place a Notice Me Not charm so that the groundskeeper won't disturb them."
"Thank you, sir. For everything."
"Not at all, Miss Potter. Are you ready to leave?"
"Yes sir. Unless you'd like more time." She said, flicking her eyes in the direction of the site he was stood at.
Dumbledore smiled. "Most astute of you, Miss Potter. But no, Arianna can be visited anytime. And she has more visitors than your parents."
Aster nodded before biting her lip and scooping up a couple of sprigs of lavender before walking off, making Albus frown.
He watched as she picked her way through back to where he was, and watched as this young girl, who had known only death and abuse for most of her young life, lay some flowers, made for her parents, on to a stranger's grave. She barely knew him, and yet, of her own accord, she, without any hesitation, wished to lay her respects. He was not so old to not admit that it brought tears to his eyes.
"Sorry, sir." Aster said on her return. "I hope I didn't misstep, or offend." Noting with some confusion that his eyes looked watery, she was expecting anger.
Albus cleared his throat softly, "Not at all, Miss Potter. In fact, I am most appreciative of it. In fact, Arianna loved lavender. We used to have a whole flower bed of it that she would lay beside in the summer."
They fell into a thoughtful silence, each thinking on their individual losses. They had made it to the beginning of the lane when Albus spoke.
"Arianna was my younger sister. We lived in that house there, although it remains empty for the most part now - I only have occasional need of it in the summer, after all. She was only fourteen when she died."
Aster kept silent, she had the notion that he didn't reveal much about himself, and so for him to share this small part felt like a treasure.
"I'm sorry, sir."
"Hmm. Yes, a most meaningless death. It ended my belief in a lot of things, and my innocence, that day. Ah! The ramblings of an old man." Taking that as the end of the revelations, Aster focused on their environment.
Knowing that her Headmaster grew up here, and more than likely suggested this village to her parents for that reason, the fields and trees held new meaning. She couldn't help but wonder if her parents walked this very road, perhaps with Aster herself, to visit their old professor.
It wasn't too long before they were back in Hogwarts' foyer and Aster was thanking Dumbledore before saying her farewells, meandering her way to the common room. She went up to her dorm room, and curled up around Binky before falling into an unintended nap.
It was hours later when she woke up, her brain feeling foggy after an uninterrupted sleep for the first time in over a week. Checking the time she realised it was soon to be the feast, so wanting to forestall seeing people without having to explain why she wasn't going, she decided to luxuriate in hot bath.
Once she was all pruney, she dragged herself out, threw on clothes and decided to walk around the castle.
She hadn't been walking long when she heard someone crying. Following the noise she came into one of the girls bathrooms, where the sound of smothered sobs were loudest.
"Er, hello?" She called out, making the sounds stop suddenly. "You alright? No, stupid question. Of course you're not. But well, are you alright?"
A quiet giggle drifted out from one of the cubicles. "I'm - I'm OK, thank you."
"Right then." Aster said, acting as if she was about to leave but leaned against the wall. Nobody should be alone as they cried, even if they were unaware that they weren't. Aster frowned - that sounded way too creepy.
It was maybe five minutes before the door opened and the first year Gryffindor girl with the bushy hair came out. She was wiping her eyes and jumped as she saw Aster leaning there.
"Oh!" She gasped.
"I never said I was leaving." Aster shrugged. "It's...Granger, isn't it?"
Granger looked around with wide eyes before nodding. "I'm sorry."
"For what? Crying?" Aster frowned, "That's a bit stupid. Why're you sorry for that?"
"Well, I'm a Muggleborn."
Aster blinked. "Good for you. But that doesn't quite cover it."
"Aren't you going to - troll!"
"Going to troll? What does - "
"Get down!" Aster looked behind her, before dropping to the floor in a panic.
"Ah. That troll." She army crawled her way to Granger, dragging her to underneath the sinks.
"Why are we under here?!"
"Because if he smashed the cubicles - like that - then we're likely to get skewered like a kebab on a barbecue." Granger grimaced. "Yeah I don't like that image either. Just ignore I said that."
"Well how are we going to get out of here?!"
Another smash. "You're the bloody Gryffindor, you figure it out!"
A bang as the cubicle doors fell down. "You're the Slytherin, aren't you the ones who save your own skin?!"
"That would mean using you as bait so I can make a run for it. Would you like to take up the mantle?! No? Then Gryffindor a way out for us!"
Another smash and two matching screams as the troll's club slammed into the sinks and mirrors they were hiding underneath, the porcelain shattering into a million pieces with glinting shards of mirror.
"Oi! Troll face!" A childish voice shouted, making the girls look aghast at the two new arrivals.
Oh bloody hell the Twat Who Lived was here, complete with sidekick. Truly, they were saved.
The next few minutes was a cringe fest of arrogance and misplaced bravado as two first year students took on a full sized troll, with only the levitation charm as a weapon. Why the hell aren't they using the shield charm? At least it should provide some protection.
Her eyebrows rose as not too long after the club levitated before dropping full tilt on the troll's head, knocking him out.
"Well that was one way to Gryffindor a way out." Aster said to the ringing silence, before she suddenly had two wands pointed at her throat.
"What did you do?!" Longbottom yelled in her face.
"I think that what we'd like to know of you,
Mr Longbottom. Not from Miss Potter." A tight Scottish accent snapped, making the boys' eyes grow wide and spinning around to face the teachers.
Professor McGonnagall stood at front with Headmaster Dumbledore beside her, Professor Fawley slipping into the room, barely sparing them a glance before crouching to the troll. Professor Snape and Quirrell were in the doorway, the former with an eyebrow raised archly, while the latter seemed his usual scared self.
"To fight a troll! What were you thinking?! Don't answer that, Mr Weasley, that was a rhetorical question."
"Please, professor. They were coming after me." Granger piped up, looking at everyone before looking at the ground. "I've read about...trolls...and thought I could handle it. They were coming to find me." Aster shot her a look of disbelief. The hell was she doing?
"Well, Miss Granger. I am most disappointed in you. In all of you. Fifteen points from Gryffindor apiece! And fifteen from Slytherin, too, Miss Potter!"
Aster's head snapped up, "Hey! What'd I do?!"
"That's what we wanted to know!" Longbottom sneered making Aster roll her eyes.
"Oh go admire yourself in a mirror, Longbottom. Oh look, we have hundreds. Should keep you happy."
"Enough!" Severus bellowed, although he had to clench his jaw tight so as not to laugh, and glancing at the others he saw there was amusement dancing in all his colleagues' eyes as well.
"She wasn't at the feast, professor! We checked!" Weasley interjected.
"That's because she was given permission to miss it, Mr Weasley." Dumbledore said simply.
Longbottom wrinkled her nose, "Why?"
"Never you mind, Mr -"
"But why?!"
"Five points from Gryffindor, Mr Longbottom for talking back to, and over, a professor." Fawley said, getting up from his inspection of the beast.
"Now, Miss Potter, if you would be so kind, could you explain your reasoning for being here?" Dumbledore asked.
Aster glanced at Granger, but on seeing her pleading look, she internally rolled her eyes. "I was walking around the castle. And well, needed the bathroom." She shrugged, ignoring the obvious slump of Granger's shoulders in her relief.
"So wrong time, wrong place?" Longbottom scoffed before stiffening in realisation that he said that in front of a group of professors.
Not rising to the bait, Aster just looked at him blankly, and with a twitch of her mouth, channelled her inner Snape, flashing a look at him before drawling "Obviously."
Severus was having an absolute blast. He normally hated it when people impersonated him, attempted to sound like him, yet right now, he was bloody ecstatic. The look of childish rage which positively leaked out of Longbottom and Weasley was priceless.
He would need to speak to her on the actual reasons for her being there however.
After the Gryffindors were shepherded away, Fawley took charge of disposing the troll, with Quirrell aiding him. The three other professors however took Aster aside.
"What actually happened, Miss Potter?" Minerva clipped out.
Aster blew out a breath, "I really was just walking around the castle, but I heard crying from the bathroom. Didn't realise it was Granger until she came out after she thought I had left." She shrugged before frowning. "She's a terrible liar." She remarked scrunching her nose up.
"Why did she think you had left?"
"I stopped talking." At their expectant looks, she continued with a sigh, "she said she was fine, I've enough experience to know that that means nothing would get her to come out. People don't usually listen for footsteps or anything. They're too busy...crying."
"Why didn't you leave?" Dumbledore asked with a tilt of his head.
"Nobody should have to cry on their own. And as creepy as it sounds - which I didn't realise until I thought it myself - even if someone is there without their knowledge." She said quietly, refusing to look at any of them.
"And Messrs Longbottom and Weasley?"
"Er they came I wands waving just after the troll smashed the sinks. I had been prompting Granger to Gryffindor us a way out." Severus snorted internally - Gryffindor a way out?
"You couldn't think of a way out, Miss Potter?" Dumbledore asked amusedly.
Aster snorted. "As I told Granger - I'm a Slytherin, my way out was using her as bait and then legging it." Oh Gods. He shouldn't laugh. He really shouldn't.
"Miss Potter!" Minerva gasped.
"Hey, I didn't do it! Nor was I going to." She defended before adding, "Probably."
"I think...it is time that Miss Potter should return to her common room. Now that our intruder has been dealt with, you should be safe on your journey, my girl."
Aster snorted. "I'd be worried about the 'should' there but this is an enchanted castle that just played host to a troll. 'Night professors."
They watched as she walked away before he said, "Twenty points to Slytherin."
"Severus!" Minerva snapped.
"Just replacing the points you mistakenly removed, Minerva."
"And added five more!"
"...Your point?"
"Albus!"
"I must agree with Minerva on this Severus. It should be twenty five at the least." He chortled.
Minerva threw her hands up in the air."On all that is blessed, why?!"
"Well," he started, ticking off the reasons on his fingers, "she overcame her trying day admirably, came to the aid of another classmate, protected said classmate, and ensured that that student didn't get into trouble by lying."
"By lying herself."
"Which she then came clean about, very openly, once Miss Granger was not in the vicinity." Severus added, enjoying stoking the flames.
"It hardly warrants twenty five points." She said through thinned lips.
Albus looked surprised before thoughtful. "Yes, I quite agree." He paused dramatically before pointing his finger in the air like he had a Eureka! moment. "Shall we say thirty?" He asked rhetorically, chuckling to himself as Minerva growled and stormed off.
He looked to Severus and grinned. "It's always so fun, riling her up. I can almost see her tail bristle."
Due to the sudden ending of the feast, it had apparently been taken to the common rooms, so as it was back I full swing, Aster slipped by, briefly waving to her friends so they knew where she was.
As she slipped into her dormitory she immediately got into her night clothes and closed the curtains with the Silencing Charm and grabbed her parents frame. Whispering Hiraeth so they knew she wanted to see them.
It wasn't long before they appeared, both of them wearing mournful smiles.
"Happy Death Day." She told them sadly, making them falter. Before they could say anything she plowed on. "I went to see you guys today. Well, not you, you. But dead you. It was weird. Dumbledore took me there."
"We're sorry, sweetheart. We'd do anything to be able to be with you." Lily told her.
Aster nodded. "I know. I don't really have anything to say. I just - I just wanted to see you both."
"You don't need to say anything, starlet. We would be here for anything you needed us for."
"I'm so tired." She whispered, grinding the heel of her palm into her eyes. "I've barely slept this week, and I had a good few hours nap earlier...but I'm just so tired. I feel like I could cry."
"Then cry, if you need to. And then after, sleep. We will be with you until you wake up." James told her, and it wasn't long before she drifted off.
She woke up in the Forest again, the one that the Nameless brought her to after her nightmares.
Turning around she saw him standing there, Clacker on the tree next to him and Binky sitting by his feet. He was in his normal stance of his hands folded in front of him in his over long sleeves, his hood covering the entirety of his face.
I cannot give them back to you, as much as I desire I could, ungadh an bháis. However, I am able to lower the Veil enough, on this auspicious night. You have until morning. He told her in his customary flat tone, before melting into the mist.
She was on her own for a few moments when Binky turned to look behind him and yowled before coming to sit by her. Aster scanned the Forest uncertainly, when she saw two figures take shape. One was a tall man, with messy black hair and round glasses, and he was holding hands with a petite woman with radiant red hair and bright green eyes.
At the sight of them she gasped, stumbling back a step and they broke into a run towards her, scooping her up in their arms to hold her tightly.
"M-mum? D-dad?"
"We're here, starlet. We'll always be here." James choked out, clutching at his daughter as if she were made of smoke.
The three of them sat there crying, Lily and James wiping away all of their tears, while constantly touching her. James had a death grip on her hand, his fingers digging into her wrist where her pulse beat as Lily stroked Aster's hair away from her face, stroking her cheek and then wrapping a lock of hair around her finger tightly.
"H-how - ?"
Lily looked up at James who sighed.
"There's a lot you don't know, starlet. About magic, about our family, about your heritage. In time it can be explained. But for now - just be happy that we can do this. I don't quite know it all myself." James shrugged, "But from my understanding, it is because He has Chosen you. He would do anything, I think, for you." He murmured, drinking in her appearance, her voice and her scent.
Ten years it had been since they had last held their baby girl, and although they could connect to her through the portraits, it was barely even a half life. Not all of their conscience was animated, making the experiences fuzzy around the edges. But here, now, they were almost whole. Although they would never be able to hold her again in the waking world, at least they had this. At least they had a little time with one another. Until next year.