Astra

LXIII - The Second Task

ASTRA SLID THE GILLYWEED to Harry in the library, watching as his face turned from confused to surprised to happy.

"How'd you get it so quickly?" he asked quietly.

Astra tutted, "Remember that we still have combined ownership of the cloak and map." Harry nodded and turned back to his work before whipping his head around in accusation.

"But the map was supposed to be originally mine anyway!"

Astra simply smirked and walked away, calling behind her, "You still agreed!"

Now, there were a few things on her mind. Apparently, her dad had asked when the next Hogsmeade weekend was to be able to talk to them. Of course, she was worried, but then again he had his animagus form and she missed him terribly. 

Secondly, she would be having a meeting soon enough to fill out the rest of the registry to become a legal animagus. It was actually quite exciting, though James was going on and on about how she had to be a 'rule abider' and that it didn't seem like what the child of a Marauder would do. All Astra had to do, however, was to bring up the Yule Ball prank and he seemed happy.

Speaking of Lily and James, they had been around a bit more than before, probably because the worries of the Triwizard Tournament were slowly fading away. They were still on guard, but had time to return to their usual activities, like helping Astra with homework or chatting around the castle.

And lastly, Astra still remembered the ring. She stopped checking it as much because it still simply showed the last vision that she had, however, she had found something interesting when looking at it the day before.

The skull had come up first, though Astra didn't have a reaction anymore as she had seen it so many times, but right after it had come a flash of green light.

She remembered the day when she went to the owlery, wondering what it was, but the ring had confirmed that it was a vision.

Astra's mind immediately went to the killing curse, but how could it have been so quick? The vision was extremely short with no detail. It could honestly be one of the green lights that muggles used while driving, or it might not have even been a light and rather just a green book. 

Astra wished that she could have been able to show it to anyone else, but it simply wouldn't work if there were people in sight.

She explained her worries to Luna, though the Ravenclaw decided that it would be best to just wait, and maybe it would make sense later one. 

It was one of those times that Astra was extremely grateful for Ravenclaw logic.

***

It was finally the morning of the second task, yet Hermione and Ron were nowhere to be found. Astra met Luna and Harry in the Great Hall where Harry had said that he hadn't seen them either.

It was only when she actually asked someone that she realized that they were both underneath the Black Lake.

"Alright, I found this out, don't ask how. Hermione and Ron are in the Black Lake and you need to find them. Only take Ron because Hermione's for Krum, okay?"

She could visibly see Harry's eyes grow wide and his face go pale, but he nodded. "But the song said only an hour-"

"Do you really think that Dumbledore would let any of them die?" Really, she didn't think that (after all, half the people that she could talk to in the castle were dead because of some Order mission that he had set up) but it was just for Harry's confidence.