Astra

XXX - The Secret

PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL CAME back at dawn, to tell them that Sirius Black had again escaped. Astra was fighting to prevent herself from letting out a sigh of relief, but Hermione noticed.

"Astra," she cornered Astra after breakfast. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?' Astra asked calmly, even though her brain was panicking.

"You seemed happy that your father wasn't caught."

"Hermione, he was sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss. I don't want anyone to have that fate," she tried to use as an excuse.

"But Astra, he still needs to get caught, you know that, right? I know he's your father, but he's done bad things in his past and he could do more if-"

Astra was now full-on panicking. Hermione had proven herself trustworthy. She hadn't said anything about the gift. But the question was, would she believe her? Astra was debating on whether to tell her if Sirius was innocent, and whether to tell her about Astra being a psychic medium. It was all way too complicated, but in a split-second decision, she grabbed Hermione's arm and dragged her into a broom closet.

"Astra! What are you doi-"

"I have something to tell you. But you need to promise not to tell anyone. And I mean anyone. Not Harry. Not Ron. No professors. No one. Only Luna knows and it's really important you keep this secret."

To say Hermione was confused was an understatement. She trusted Astra, mostly, but there was still the slight bit of suspicion around her, and she didn't know whether everything Astra was saying was the truth. Hermione had become her friend after what Astra said to Ron, but what if it was all an act? What if Astra was lying and she was working to kill Harry with her father?

She put her suspicions in the back of her brain. Astra was her friend. And Hermione trusted her. She took a deep breath and nodded solemnly.

"My father's innocent."

Hermione gasped loudly and started stuttering until Astra slapped her hand over her mouth.

"I know I'm going to sound absolutely crazy and ridiculous when I say this but just try and trust me and hopefully it will make sense."

Hermione was still in shock and was only barely able to give Astra a stiff nod.

"When my dad went to school he made friends in James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew."

Hermione's eyes widened more at the mention of their professor's name.

"So, as you know, Lupin is a werewolf. They discovered that in their first year and wanted to help somehow. Now, this information is crazy important if you tell someone I will never forgive you."

Hermione gave another stiff nod and a squeak, a bit confused as to where this was going.

"As I was saying, they wanted to help Lupin and so they research. Now, a werewolf is only a danger to other people. So... they became animagi."

At this, Hermione immediately spewed out her facts as usual. "But, you have to register and when we learned about animagi and there are only 7 in the las-"

"You don't have to register. They sort of did it illegally. But, anyway, James was a stag, my dad was a dog -"

"That dog!" Hermione squealed, remembering their time in Hogsmeade.

"Yes, I know. That was him. But Peter Pettigrew was a rat. Here's where things get crazy and where you'll hopefully understand. My father wasn't the secret keeper for the Potters. He thought that he was too obvious of a choice and knew that if he was tortured hard enough, he could possibly break and didn't want that to happen. So, he pretended to be the secret keeper, but actually switched it to Peter. He was willing to be tortured and killed even though he didn't have any information to give. But, it ended up being for nothing because Peter betrayed them to Voldemort. He was a spy for the dark side, and let the Potters die. The next day... the next day my dad ran to find him. To make him pay for betraying them, but Pettigrew acted like the victim. He exploded the street, killed the muggles, framed my dad, transformed into a rat, and ran away."