STRANGE LOVE | O. WOOD ✔

[5] : WHERE'S STUTTERING Q?

Astrid was excited for Herbology that afternoon which was weird and very out of place. None of the Blacks cared for Herbology, her late uncle, Regulus, was the worst of them all. Bellatrix being second, Narcissa and Sirius were both tied for third. Andromeda did fairly well, she didn't get any Trolls. Instead she always got Acceptables. Her usual seat was at the back, with Derrick Briccs. They both agreed, at the beginning of the year, to sit together in every class they had together, which was every class anyway.

After classes, she met up with Cedric and they did their homework together. Astrid asked him if he wanted to join them in practicing today and when she mentioned Harry's name, Cedric visibly paled and spun a fable about needing to meet Professor Sprout about something. Astrid had never seen Cedric act that weird, but she brushed it off thinking that maybe he really did need to meet up with Professor Sprout.

"Just like Wednesday, twenty laps." Oliver said as they all mounted their brooms. The Weasley twins joined them again today, and Harry's friends, whom Astrid learned to Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, joined them too though they were only watching.

After they were done with the laps, they were sweating and extremely tired. Even the hard-core Oliver seemed to be dying. Ron and Hermione handed them bottles of water, all thanks to Hermione of course.

"This is torture." Harry had whined when Oliver had gone to retrieve the box of Quidditch balls. Astrid snorted and they all looked at her.

"This is tiring, yes, but not as torturous as Flint's laps. At least we only have to do twenty. Marcus makes me do about forty and if I slip up, I have to begin all over again." Harry's mouth was hung agape, the twins shook their heads, Ron looked as though he had seen a ghost and Hermione was complaining.

"Surely he knows the dangers!" She had cried out and Astrid mentally rejoiced when Oliver appeared with the box.

"Same thing we did on Wednesday." Was all he said before they all zoomed away from the still very worried Hermione and very pale Ron.

Once they were done with their training, they headed to their houses, to clean up before dinner could be served. Today, Astrid decided not to join Oliver and the Gryffindor table or Cedric at the Hufflepuff table. She sat next to Draco, who was inspecting her fully healed arm now. When he seemed satisfied with it, he moved on to his food.

"I can't believe you were with that Mudblood, that Half-Blood git and that redhead freak and his freak brothers!" Draco hissed, slapping the tart out her hand and she watched it fall to the ground and roll away to land at the feet of Violetta Vickers. Astrid glared at Draco.

"They are humans too." She said, taking another tart and popping it in her mouth. "Just because you think the world should be run by Pure-Blood families, doesn't mean I do." She stood up and made her way to the Gryffindor table.

There wasn't really any space for her but she squeezed herself between Hermione and Percy Weasley, who gave her the dirtiest look known to mankind. He opened his mouth to say something, most probably something about rules. But Astrid didn't give him the chance to. She grabbed a tart and stuffed it his mouth.

"There, now you can shut up." She innocently smiled. In the corner of her eye, she could see the Weasley twins give her the thumbs up. Percy angrily chewed his tart before swallowing.

"Why are you here anyway?" Hermione asked, scooting further away to look her in the eyes. Astrid rolled her eyes. Not another rules freak. She thought.

"Draco is being a git." She said, stuffing tarts in her mouth and Hermione pulled a face when a few crumbs escaped her mouth.

"Tell me when he's not." She said and she watched Astrid struggle to swallow the many tarts she had in mouth. Astrid grabbed Hermione's pumpkin juice and tried to wet the tarts, which was very messy but it worked.

"Snape's looking over here again." Harry whispered. After the war of having to swallow the tarts, Astrid wiped her face with the sleeve of her robes.

"He hates my guts." Astrid said before she loudly burped. Percy glared at her and if he had heat vision powers, he would bored a two snitch sized holes in her skull. Hermione gently whacked her over the head with a bread roll. "Sorry!" Astrid giggled.

"But you're in Slytherin." Ron said, very confused. He had a roll of bread in his right hand and a piece of meat in his left hand. "How come he hates you? He basically worships the ground Malfoy walks on."

"I really don't know. And I don't want to find out either. Whatever he has against me is probably dumb." Astrid shrugged, grabbing the same bread Hermione whacked her with. Her eyes then roamed the Professor's table. "Hey, where's Stuttering Q?"

"Stuttering Q?" Harry asked, eating like a normal human being. Astrid took a huge chunk of the bread and choked. Percy slapped her hard on the back and the bread flew out, it hit Harry on the face and he grimaced.

"I brushed my teeth okay?" Astrid said, biting the bread again but this time taking a reasonable amount because Percy glared at her again. "And Stuttering Q is Professor Quirrell. I'm sure you guys noticed how much he stutters." She watched Harry wipe his cheek with a handkerchief and sniffed it. His eyebrows rose and he nodded, clearly agreeing that Astrid brushed her teeth because it smelled like lemon.

"Yeah, it's kind of annoying sometimes." Ron said, completely destroying his meat. Astrid beamed at him and he beamed back, pieces of meat falling off. Hermione made a gagging noise.

"You two disgust me." She said, eyes flickering to the Professors table. "He's still looking at our table."

Astrid then swallowed, and smiled at Hermione. "Want me to gross him out so he can look away?"

"Doesn't he hate you already? It isn't really hard to see why hates you." Percy suddenly said. Ron glared at his older brother. "You're the opposite of all the Slytherins."

"Nobody asked for your opinion Perce." The older redhead glared at him but he kept quiet anyway.

"Yeah, I know I'm different duh." Astrid rolled her eyes. "No one eats like a pig there —" She burped and got whacked by Hermione again, this time with strawberries which were on a skewer. "Sorry." She grabbed the strawberries and began munching on them. "And they all suck at Charms and do well in Herbology."

"Do you do well in Charms?" Hermione asked and Astrid pulled out her wand.

"Accio glasses." Harry's glasses flew into her hand. "I do pretty good, if I do say so myself." She handed Harry his glasses back. "Herbology — uh — let's just say it was never a Black thing." Her dark eyes accidentally locked eyes with Snape's dark ones. She quickly looked away and discarded the empty skewer. "My uncle Regulus was super bad at it."

"Well, I'm sure you can do well if you would just read and do your research." Hermione suggested, handing her a tart, as the ones on Astrid's left side were all eaten by her.

"Yeah no." She mumbled with a tart in her mouth. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not lazy. I love reading and my homework is always up to date, I hand my essays in early or on the day they want it. I'm hardworking but me and Herbology don't mix, ask Derrick Briccs. Isn't that right Derrick?!" Astrid asked the unsuspecting Derrick. He was seated next to his twin brother.

"What?!"

"Just say yes!" She popped in another tart and deemed it the last one. Derrick seemed a bit unsure at first about what she was talking about but then miraculously caught on.

"Yes, Astrid is bad at Herbology!" He confirmed and Astrid smiled as though she had just won a thousand galleons. "As in world history making bad!"

"See?" Hermione shook her head, Harry smiled, Ron just kept on eating, Percy ached to tell her to shut up when she began talking again and Snape continued to stare at them.