𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙤, 𝙈𝙮 𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙎𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙩

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May 30, 1993

The first step in Aster's independence was to see what kind of spells Dumbledore placed on her and this meant a trip to the library. With Marvolo's help, she quickly learned how to perform a standard detection spell for tracking and monitoring charms, which she then performed on herself, her clothes, and all of her possessions.

What she found made her blood boil.

There were no spells on Aster, herself. As Marvolo explained, it was harder to place a long term spell on a living magical being who was still growing and still prone to erratic magical bursts. There were several charms though on things she owned; a tracking spell on her glasses, something that she only took off in the shower and before sleeping, a few on her favorite blouses, and the real kicker - four separate spells on her wand! The first was the standard Ministry Under-age Restriction charm – an irritant, but something both she and Marvolo expected. However, Dumbledore had apparently placed another monitoring charm to keep track of the types of spells she used, a tracking charm, and to Aster's horror a suppression curse! Any spells that she fired would only have 75% of their normal power.

If it weren't for Marvolo's level-headedness, Aster would have ended up snapping her own wand in half.

"If you break it, then the Old Man will suspect you and we lose our advantage," Marvolo said, his voice soothing, his left hand keeping Aster from picking up her wand, while his right moved in comforting circles around her back. It took a moment, but the importance of Marvolo's words penetrated the haze of anger. Aster took a deep breath to calm herself and nodded in agreement.

At lunch, Aster had to ask three of her dorm-mates for owl-order catalogs before she found the one that included glasses. She actually had fun choosing a design that accented her face, with slim oval lenses and simple yet elegant frames. They were charmed to be unbreakable, water-repelling, and the best part was that the prescription automatically adjusted to Aster's eyes. She would wear this pair of glasses when she needed to do something sneaky and her old pair to deflect suspicion.

That used up 29 galleons for all the special features. Aster was more than willing to withdraw more money, but Marvolo cautioned her against it - Dumbledore might have been tracking her Gringotts account too. To assuage her anger, Marvolo promised he would help Aster gain control of her vault as well.

Marvolo also urged Aster to use the rest of her galleons for books on home maintenance spells. He grudgingly admitted that this was one line of magic that he hadn't bothered studying, and if Aster was to return to Privet Drive, then at least she wouldn't be living in the prison cell that she was forced to call her bedroom. Hearing this, Aster was all too happy to add those books onto her list of orders.

It took three days for Aster's specialty glasses and the books to be delivered. In the meantime, the mandrakes were fully matured and were administered to the petrified students. Aster and Ron spent that day filling Hermione in on what had happened since her petrifaction, and the teachers announced that tests were canceled. This was met with celebrations all around, with the exception of Hermione and a few Ravenclaws.

The night of the leaving feast, Marvolo deemed the astrological bodies were in the best positions to deal with Aster's wand problem, and the easiest way was to simply acquire another wand. So with her new glasses and the invisibility cloak on, Aster snuck out into the Forbidden Forest, completely at ease with letting Marvolo take the lead. In fact, Aster was happy to let Marvolo be in charge of planning and handling anything to do with Dumbledore, knowing she was placing herself in good, capable hands.

"This will be your first lesson in the Olde Magicks," Marvolo began in a lecturing voice as he gracefully made his way through the dark trees, while Aster struggled not to trip over rocks and roots. Sometimes the apparition walked right through a tree that she had to scurry around, but Aster still held onto every word and committed them to memory. She was practically starved for information about her heritage as a witch and cherished every little tidbit that Marvolo was in the mood to offer.

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