A muggle-born Slytherin whose parents are terrified of her.
A pureblood Gryffindor whose parents are disappointed in him.
The arrival of her Hogwarts letter was meant to make everything better.
Asteria Halloway finally had an explanation for her p...
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November 29th 1979
Looking down at Asteria, Sirius sighed and ran his fingers through her hair. Once again she had passed out from exhaustion, crying herself to sleep in his arms. It broke Sirius' heart to see her this way - knowing there was nothing he could do to help.
Sirius rubbed his eyes tiredly, fully away of how red and bloodshot they were from his own tears.
"I just don't know what to do." Sirius admitted quietly, placing his hand on Asteria's knee as she curled up asleep beside him on the sofa.
"I honestly don't have any advice. I really am useless." James shook his head sadly as he focused down at his two friends. Antonio's death had quite literally torn them up inside. Not only were Asteria and Sirius in pain, everyone around them felt overwhelming sadness to see their two usually upbeat friends in such a state.
"Where's Lily when you need her?" Sirius muttered, stifling a yawn.
"I don't know, but I do know you should get some sleep." James suggested. "I don't need sleep." Sirius argued, "I need to fix this. How do I fix it?"
James ran a hand through his hair in exasperation as he knelt down in front of Sirius. "Everything that can possibly be done, has been done. We can't resurrect him. We can't return Celeste's memories. She's safer away from all of this anyway."
Sirius bit down on his tongue in frustration. How could they possibly do something like this? Who could be so cruel as to remove a mother's memories of her only daughter, to then have that daughter realise this in the wake of her perished father? It made Sirius feel sick to think about how utterly shattered Asteria must be feeling. When they found out which Death Eaters were responsible, Sirius was going to make it his divine mission to kill them.
"You need to get some sleep. You can't be of any support to her if you're exhausted." James insisted again.
Sirius sighed, knowing James was right. "You go upstairs and sleep. I'll stay here so you don't have to move Ria and she can sleep."
Asteria would jump awake every now and again - never able to get a full hour's sleep. The night terrors were becoming more and more regular. However, every time James would jump up from his seat across the room and Sirius would run down stairs. When it reached about the third time, Sirius refused to leave Asteria's side again as James returned to his own home a little deflated at not being able to help. Asteria would awaken, screaming or shaking with images of her father flashing through her mind. Without fail, every time, Sirius was beside her rubbing small circles on her back and reminding her he was there until eventually she fell into an uneasy sleep again.
Asteria sat beside a sleeping Sirius on the sofa some hours later. It was particularly early in the morning and the sun was just beginning to peak through the curtains. Sirius was clearly shattered from being awake with Asteria all night and she felt a little bad about it. However, she was really about to put Sirius to the test with the question that was playing on her mind.
