I won't answer that either, because who says I'll do Astralbus? That may be who he actually ends up with!

I am so sincerely sorry for the long wait. First, this was a hard chapter to write, for some reason. Second, I said I would publish this on Friday before remembering that my friend had planned a Harry Potter marathon as her birthday party, starting on that Friday. So my weekend has been a big mess of making up sleep and I'm sorry I haven't had time to write as much! Hopefully that will change as I get into more of a settled schedule this next week!

~~~~

Mr. Potter was in his office when I opened the door, luckily. He was kneeling down in front of the fireplace, his head lost in the green flames. I blinked, then took a slow step forward. Was that normal? Did I need to call someone?

Even as I was wondering that, he sat up, his head once again on his shoulders. He glanced back, seeming surprised to see me there. Catching the confused look on my face, he smiled, amused.

"Nothing to worry about, Astra, just using Floo powder to talk to Ginny." He stood up and walked over to his desk. "Now, I have a feeling there's a reason you're here after curfew?"

I hadn't realized it was after curfew, or I might've waited until the next day. It was too late now, though, to go back. In any case, Mr. Potter didn't seem like he was going to get mad at me.

"Um... Well... Do you remember how, when I got the letter from Wren last year, I also told you about a dream I'd had?"

Mr. Potter's smile slowly disappeared, replaced with a serious look. Concerned, maybe. He nodded.

"It's not the only dream I've had." I watched his eyebrows shoot up, but Mr. Potter didn't say anything, only motioning for me to continue.

"I've had a lot more, actually. About Wren, some of them, though they never really seemed that important. And I couldn't tell if they were real. But Wren says they were." I took a deep breath. So far, this was rather believable. Perhaps I had dreamed of the future and was destined to be a Seer. Mr. Potter seemed to realize that as well, but he was frowning at me as if he knew there was more. That didn't explain the rest of this at all, and I had a feeling both of us knew it.

"I've also had dreams about my family. Or, well, more specifically... About Bellatrix... When she was a girl..."

Mr. Potter's expression was unreadable. He could have been completely repulsed and I wouldn't have been able to tell. I took a breath and kept talking.

"That's not too weird, right? But... That's not all..." I explained how I'd been affected by more memories than just my own during the first task. How I had seen Colette's memory that she had never told us about. That I'd seen myself being tortured through Albus's eyes. How disorienting that had been. Mr. Potter listened without a change in expression as I told what Colette had theorized about this, how it was connected to emotions and dreams (which she'd before connected to Legilimens).

When I'd finished, there was at least a full minute of silence as Mr. Potter seemed to process all that. Several times, he opened his mouth to say something, only to shut it again. I absently traced the pattern on the side of his desk with my finger, trying not to look impatient.

Finally, Mr. Potter opened his mouth and actually said something. "I've never heard of anything like this... Of course, I'm not saying it's not true, but still..." He shook his head, eyes wide. "Wow. Does she have any idea why this happens?"

I shook my head. "It's not normal, though."

"No, it's not." I must have shown my disappointment at this (seriously, why couldn't I just be normal for once?), because he quickly continued, "Astra, just because something isn't normal doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. I just... I wonder..." He frowned, then shook his head, muttering to himself and getting lost in his thoughts. "No, he couldn't possibly know... But that would explain it... But how...?"

I cleared my throat, hoping he would remember I was there and explain what he was talking about.

Mr. Potter looked up, seeming a little surprised to see me there, then smiled sheepishly. "Right. I'm sure that wasn't at all confusing. Now, anyway, are you all right about all this?"

"Um..." In all honesty, I didn't know. The dreams had happened enough that I'd gotten used to it, but knowing I could basically pull memories out of the thin air was a bit much. "I don't know."

Mr. Potter nodded. "That makes sense..."

After a few seconds, I asked, "What were you talking about? A second ago, you said someone couldn't know something... But it would explain something..."

Mr. Potter considered me for a moment, as if wondering if he should tell me. After a few moments, he nodded, seeming to come to a conclusion. "Right. That. I was just wondering if this has anything to do with why Henry Stillens seems so interested in you, specifically."

I blinked. That had never occurred to me, though that would seem to explain it... But no one else knew about this. How could Wren's uncle?

Mr. Potter was still talking. "Of course, I don't see how he could possibly know about it. He may be simply banking on the fact that you've got a lot powerful witches and wizards in your family tree, and quite a bit of influence over his niece and my children."

I didn't point out that the Predatels had wanted to kidnap me almost a year before we knew who I was, or that both of them and Sulcan had told me I was rather important to their cause. I'd never given much thought to why Stillens seemed so interested in a girl, but now that I was, I wanted to believe the least disturbing explanation.

Mr. Potter smiled wearily. "Even if this isn't why he seems to be after you now, though, I don't want to think about what would happen if he found out. You've got to keep this a secret, Astra, for your own safety."

"I know," I said. Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do was advertise my strangeness for the whole world. Hey, Astra, how'd you sleep last night? Pretty well, thanks, just dreamed about your private past, things you've never told me but somehow I know about as if I've been there. Not the best way to make friends.

After a moment, Mr. Potter stood up. "I'm sure your friends are worried about you. I assume you just abruptly left them?"

That's exactly what I'd done, but I crossed my arms and put on an offended expression. "What makes you think that?"

Mr. Potter chuckled. "Well, whatever you did, it's still time you got to sleep. You'll feel better about all this in the morning, trust me." I smiled a bit, knowing he was probably right, and, after bidding him goodnight, started back towards the common room.

The room was rather empty when I walked in—apparently some time had passed. However, I spotted all four of my friends holding an anxious council in a far corner of the room. For a moment, I stood at the doorway, unsure whether I should join them or simply go on to bed. It turned out, the question was answered for me when Albus noticed me and nodded in my direction, drawing everyone else's attention.

Wren hopped up and slowly crossed over to me. "Hey..." I smiled a bit, which seemed to encourage her. "Astra, are you okay?"

"Should I be?"

"I... I guess not..." She hugged me, which caught me off guard, because she hadn't been very prone to hugging anyone since she's gotten back. "We were worried you'd... Well..."

"It's all right," I said, putting my arms around her too. "I'm not going to go jump off the astronomy tower or anything. I really did just go talk to Mr. Potter."

Wren smiled at me as she pulled away. "That's good." I followed her back to our friends, who had been watching us hopefully. When I sat next to Albus, he gently patted my shoulder, his hand lingering for just a moment until I flashed a smile at him.

"You're okay?" James questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I guess. Maybe. Hard to tell so far." I didn't know how to explain this to my friends. Mr. Potter had understood. He knew what it was like to have dreams—his mind had been connected to Voldemort's. But my friends, try as they might, just couldn't. They didn't have any idea what this was like. And while I knew they were trying their hardest to be comforting and understanding, I knew I wouldn't be able to explain what I was feeling. It was too complicated. Even I wasn't sure what was going on.

"Well..." Colette shook her head. "I suppose you want to go to bed, don't you?"

"Yeah, actually," I said, smiling a bit.

"All right." She stood up. "We all should, probably."

We exchanged goodnights, then I mounted the stairs to our dorm with Wren and Colette, emotionally exhausted. It only took a few minutes to drift off into a dreamless sleep.

~~~~

Sleep did help quite a bit. When I woke up, I found I thought of the incident with the dementors much the same as my dreams—strange, but not enough to panic. As long as I stayed away from giant herds of dementors, I would be fine. And hopefully, that wouldn't be too hard.

The next few days were someone of the least stressful I'd had that year, as a result. Most, though not all, of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had decided to support both of their Hogwarts champions, and several of the Slytherins, even, had come up and told me that perhaps Faith was right, and I wasn't so bad. Eris Prince still glared at me whenever I passed her in the halls, and Ciara and Nico didn't relent in their war on Wren and me, but I could live with that.

Yes, everything was wonderful. That is, until later that week when Pouri officially announced the Yule Ball.

I'd heard rumors about it, of course. A few of the older kids were telling stories of when their siblings had gone to the one at Durmstrang in the last Triwizard Tournament. What I didn't know, of course, was that it was traditional for the champions to lead the first dance.

As soon as those words had come out of Pouri's mouth, I whirled around to glare at Albus and whisper, "Did you know that?"

"Um... I mean Dad may've said something... But I don't know..." His surprised eyes agreed with that statement, so I sighed and slumped down on the bench as Pouri told us to get back to our meals.

"I'm guessing you don't know how to dance?" Wren asked.

"Of course not. This is so stupid..."

"I'm sure it's not that hard," Colette said dismissively. "After all, you're the girl. You follow."

"It's vairy fun, I am zinking," Amélie added, grinning.

"Ze boy spins you around, and you follow what he does! Eet is simple!" Françoise said.

"I don't know how to do that," I said, frowning at them.

"Could I sit here?" someone asked, indicating the empty seat beside me. I scooted closer to Albus, not paying much attention as Marcus Dillam sat down and started talking with Colin Creevey and Roxanne.

"Astra, really, it's not that hard," Colette continued. "It's required at Beauxbatons, to learn to dance."

"Yes! Eet is one of my favorites!" Françoise exclaimed, and Amélie nodded her approval.

"I don't remember much of it but it was rather easy," continued Colette, nodding.

"Maybe for you. You happen to be good at everything." I crossed my arms. I'd been having such a good week, and now it was wrecked.

"No, I don't," Colette said, narrowing her eyes. "I'm good at the things I care about."

I huffed, annoyed. Why couldn't she just let me be in a bad mood?

"Listen, Astra, we've all got to learn to dance," Albus said. "We'll learn together, all right?"

"We would be able to teach you," said Amélie, "but we don't really know what ze boys are to do, so eet is hard to show how you follow. Sorry..."

"It's okay. I'm sure there's some books in the library on it," Wren said encouragingly. "We could go look after dinner..."

Marcus Dillam glanced at me. "Sorry for eavesdropping, but I couldn't help overhearing... You need to learn to dance?"

I nodded slowly. "Why?"

"Well, my mum had me taking ballroom dance for six years, until I started at Hogwarts. She said that it's always good to know how to dance, for weddings and things. So... I mean, if you need to learn how, I could teach you."

He smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. I blinked, then smiled. "Really? You could? That would be perfect! Thank you!"

He grinned, seeming a little relieved. "Well, great! Um... We could start tomorrow, if you want. After classes?"

"All right," I said, smiling. I turned back to my friends, my mood considerably lighter, and caught Wren and Colette exchanging a very significant look that I couldn't quite recognize. Amélie and Françoise were giggling and whispering in French. Albus was just staring at his plate, apparently lost in thought.

"I... I can teach you what he shows me," I said, smiling at Albus and Wren. "It won't be that hard, I'm sure."

"Yeah. Okay," Albus said. He pushed his half-full plate forward and stood up. "I'm not feeling too well... Think I'll go up to the common room..."

I made to get up as well. "Want me to come too? I could get Mrs. Longbot—"

"No, it's okay," Albus said quickly. "Probably just something I ate." And before I could say anything else, he's turned and hurried away.

I turned back to my friends, frowning. "That was strange."

"Not really," Wren said, though when I looked at her, confused, she wouldn't meet my eyes. Colette seemed as in the dark as me, so I shrugged it off and kept eating, my good mood returning bit by bit.

"Who do you zink you will go wiz?" Françoise asked. "I am wishing to go wiz James."

"I'm going by myself," Colette said immediately.

"Oh, zat is sad!" Amélie exclaimed. "I am sure you will find someone!"

"I might," Colette said. "But I don't want to."

The twins seemed to find that idea insane, and quickly moved on. "And you, Astra? Who?"

"I don't know," I said, shrugging. "Not really interested in anyone at the moment. I might end up going with Albus as friends."

"Oh, vairy nice," Françoise said. "Albus is nice enough, I suppose."

"He is nozzing like James, zough," Amélie commented. "And Wren? Who are you wanting?"

"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "I'm not exactly very popular, you know."

Amélie sighed. "I want to go wiz James, but I am zinking I would not mind some of your ozzer boys here."

"It is so vairy different here," Françoise exclaimed. "You do not know 'ow 'ard it ees to... 'Ow do you say it? Find a man?"

"Some of ze girls at home, zey are part Veela!"

I raised an eyebrow. Victoire's mum was part-Veela, and she was very beautiful I knew. However, looking at the twins I would've thought they might've shared some of that blood. They wouldn't have any trouble finding dates among the boys of Hogwarts, though I doubted James would be one of the ones fighting over them.

By the next morning, the whole school seemed to have fallen under a spell. The only thing anyone could talk about was the Yule Ball. Iris and Lacy kept breaking into giggles during History of Magic, and the whispering almost drowned out Professor Binns' monotone voice. During lunch, River and Luke went around recruiting muggleborns to help with their plans of taking over the music and having a flash mob. Fred spent the afternoon "proposing" to every girl in our common room in a joking attempt to find a date. Rose was already going with Scorpius, and Iris with Eric. Marcus gave me my first lesson, and he was remarkably good. Everyone was getting so hyped up that I had to feel bad for the younger kids who wouldn't get to come.

By Potions later that week, I still hadn't been asked by anyone. Well, let me rephrase that. I hadn't been asked by anyone over second year. Elmer Poe had made quite a spectacle of himself in the Gryffindor common room the previous night, attempting to conjure a bouquet to impress me but accidentally conjuring a couple hundred berets that rained for the ceiling. Needless to say, I turned him down.

As Professor Lockley wrote the list of ingredients for today's potion on the board, I felt something, maybe a ball of parchment, hit the back of my head. I turned to see Ciara rolling her eyes at Nico, then quickly smirking at me. "So, Astra, I suppose you'll be leading the first dance on your own?"

"I'd do a sight better than you, even if I was alone. Which I won't be." I frowned at her. "At lest I've got a chance of someone asking me, though. Haven't you noticed? No one likes you."

Ciara tilted her head up, smiling triumphantly. "You wish. Nico asked me immediately."

"That's cause you're both such gits that you're always stuck together!"

"If I'm a git, it must run in the family!" Ciara whispered, glaring.

"Perhaps the Malfoy side!"

"I think it's more of a Black trait, actually!"

"Shut up and stop insulting our family," Scorpius said loudly, drawing Lockley's attention back to the room. He shook his head at both of us, mouthing something like "Wait until I tell Mum." Ciara and I reluctantly stopped insulting each other, settling with glaring at each other from across the room periodically as we worked on our Potions. I really couldn't stand my cousin. Perhaps that was sad, but it had started long before I'd known I was related to her, and old habits die hard. Anyway, it wasn't hard to hate someone who hated you, and both Ciara and Nico obviously did. Nico looked murderous, actually. Someday, I felt like, Nico would break out of Ciara's influence and truly hurt someone. I could only pray I wasn't around when it happened.

~~~~

Questions of the Day: If Harry and Ginny had two more children, a boy and a girl, and asked you for ideas for names, what would you tell them?