We Will Shine {Book 6 in the Star of Gryffindor Series}

Chapter 47 - Secret Keeper

~Astra~

Somehow, Sunday had nearly ended by the time any of us remembered that we were going to sneak out to Hogsmeade Sunday afternoon to try to get more information about the missing children. Which, I mean, is kind of horrible, but at least understandable, right? It had been a bit of a crazy weekend. Ciara and Fred were dating, which meant I had to spend all of Sunday trying to threaten Roxanne (it didn't work; she laughed at me and told me it didn't involve me), and I guess Poppy spent most of the day with Ciara, anyway. Colette was tied up with showing Gideon and Vinnie around the school, and that left Albus to remind us all at dinner that we had had other plans.

A little sheepish, we all agreed to try again on Saturday. Yes, we did find one of Nico's snakes lurking around as we were discussing it at dinner, but it was dinner. Albus claimed he could barely hear it over the noise of the people around us, so he couldn't see how it could have heard us. I was a little worried, because I'd been talking about my dreams about One (I hadn't really ever mentioned them to Poppy before, but it was a lead, which was better than none, and instead of laughing at me or questioning the validity of the dreams, Poppy took the entire idea in stride, which I appreciated). The snake probably wasn't a big deal.

I had another bad dream that night. And another the night after that. None of them made a lot of sense, just loud voices that I couldn't really understand. Flashes of light, red and yellow and green. Lots of green. It was like my vision was blurred in all of them. At least Wren wasn't in them. I'd stopped bothering trying to figure them out now. I was beginning to suspect these were just nightmares.

I got a letter from my dad, as well.

Little Star,

It's okay to be confused. You don't have to know what to think now, or ever. Take as much time a you need on that.

And please don't worry about offending me by being upset or hesitant or angry. I'm your father; it's not your job to worry about how I feel, but the other way around. I know I haven't been able to be there for you like I would have liked to be. However, you should know that I will love you whatever you end up thinking, and I will accept whatever it is you want moving forward. If you want to keep writing me as you seek to understand all of this, I would love that. But if you don't, I understand. I love you, and though I can't do much for you from here, I would like to do what I can to make this all easier.

Love, Orion

Of course, I had no idea what to think about anything, still. I knew it really didn't have anything to do with me, at the end of the day. This was something that had happened a long time ago, between my father and least favorite teacher. If anything, I probably needed to see how Haverna felt about it all and agree with her, since she was the one who had been hurt. However, that seemed like a horrible idea for many reasons. I ended up just writing my father back that of course I wanted to keep writing him, was he crazy? and elected to let the issue fade away, if it would, or wait until Haverna brought it up (highly unlikely, so a foolproof plan).

More nightmares, more confusion. I was beginning to simply roll my eyes and go back to sleep when they woke me up.

At least Wren and I were getting along now. Actually, doing better than that. I found I wasn't frustrated at having her around anymore, and she wasn't treating me like I was fragile, and I was trying to be decent and finding it wasn't anywhere near as hard as I'd been telling myself all this time.

If Albus and Colette noticed a difference, they didn't say anything, but I hadn't really expected them to. They didn't get it, and that was all right. Besides, they were both busy, because we all were. Albus had Poppy and prefect duties and more friends than the rest of us combined, and Colette had spell creation with Haverna (who she was starting to not despise, she admitted to me, after making me swear I wouldn't tell Wren she'd said it), and Wren had her spying and prefect duties and too many classes, and I had prepping for next year's Quidditch with James and impossible "learning how to resist the Imperius curse" lessons with Ciara.