What I think of Astra and Marcus together must remain a secret. I love Astra, of course, and I love Marcus, but whether or not they're destined to be is up to me thus a closely guarded secret. The second part of the question, though, I can answer.

I think Astra was definitely justified. She expected her friends to be happy for her, like most friends would be, and instead had Albus blow up. However, I think Albus was also justified, for classified reasons which you've probably figured out. Sure, he could've chosen a bit better way to tell her he didn't like it, but they're fourteen and sometimes heated things get thrown about when you're that age and you say things you don't mean and later regret. And it's safe to bet that Albus regrets what he said a lot.

~~~~

Two weeks passed in much the same way. When term started, Albus and I chose seats on the opposite sides of classrooms. Colette tended to sit with whoever was closer to the door, which was almost always Albus. Wren seemed completely lost, and ended up with Rose more often than not. For her sake, I almost gave it up. It was obvious that having her two closest friends not talking was taking a toll.

In all my sudden free time, I hung out with Marcus. Of course, it was his fifth year, and he had to spend a lot of time studying for his OWLs. While he did that, I finally worked at trying to figure out how my stupid box was supposed to help me in the second task of Triwizard Tournament.

As far as I could tell, it was a box with a blank parchment in it. Sure, there were some designs on the box, but if they meant anything, it went over my head. I even went as far as looking into magical invisible ink (surely that had to exist), but there was no sign of any writing.

About two weeks into the term, Fred approached me in the common room on one of those nights where I had given up and was simply staring at my closed box and hoping my mind would make sense of the tribal patterns on the side. "Hey, Astra, miss being on a broom?"

I glanced up at him, raising an eyebrow. "Of course. I take it you have something planned?"

"If I challenged Durmstrang and Beauxbatons to a tournament next Saturday, would you be my Seeker?" he asked. "Elcie's good, but you've got a lot more experience than her."

"Did you really have to ask?" I asked, grinning. "Of course I'll play."

"Perfect! If you see James, let him know, all right? I'm going down to find everyone else."

"All right!" I grinned, my mind wandering to Quidditch as Fred headed towards the portrait hole. He had to dodge Colette, who was, per usual, carrying a stack of books much taller than she was. She crossed over to the table I was at and set them down in front of me with a thump.

"What's that?" I asked, frowning.

"Books on past Triwizard Tournaments," she explained, sitting down next to me. "I know you've been struggling with that clue, and I thought maybe looking into past tournaments would help."

I was about to protest that the last thing I needed was to read some stuffy old books when I realized that she was probably right. I was getting no where with this, and her idea was the best I had. "Wow, thanks," I said, eyeing the stack of books. "Care to help?"

She sighed. "I had a feeling you'd ask that. These look just as boring to me as they do to you. Trust me."

"So, no?"

"Of course I will," Colette answered, rolling her eyes.

I stayed up late that night, reading about previous Triwizard Tournaments. Colette gave up and went to bed around midnight, but I didn't give myself the chance to fall asleep. Maybe this would give me a clue to the second challenge. Supposedly, I read, the first two challenges were never the same as in previous tournaments, but surely there had been something like this.

It was a very good thing I was awake, because around two in the morning, I was startled by movements. Wren suddenly started freaking out, crying out and starting to hyperventilate. As I looked over at her, she suddenly sat up and stared out into the room. She was gasping for breath, and based on her terrified expression, I didn't think she was seeing the Hogwarts dorm room. I quickly threw off my own blankets and crossed the space between our beds.

"Wren? Wren, are you okay?"

Wren glanced at me, eyes wide. "Where is he?"

"Who?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm and soothing, even though that question was a bit of an unnerving one in the middle of the night in a girls' dormitory.

"He was right there, and he said—hurt—I don't..." She was starting to sound a little hysterical. I sat on the edge of her bed and put my arm around her thin frame. She was shaking.

"No one's here, Wren. You're safe."

Slowly, she seemed to calm down. After a few minutes, when she appeared to be fully awake at last, Wren glanced at me. "Did... Did I wake you...?"

I shook my head, frowning. "I was up reading. Are you all right now?"

"Fine," she answered automatically. It almost seemed too quick of an answer, and I frowned suspiciously at her.

"Are you sure? I mean, you don't normally have nightmares, do you?"

Wren didn't meet my gaze. "Actually..."

"You do?" I stared at her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you'd freak out. Like right now. I'm fine. It's just dreams," Wren said, scooting away from me. "Just go back to sleep."

I stared at her. I knew all about nightmares, or at least thought I did. Sure, the ones I had tended to be actual events, but that was beside the point. The fact that my friend didn't want me to know she'd been having them for who knew how long was a bit unsettling. "Wren, you can trust me, you know."

Wren shook her head. "I'm fine, really."

"You know that, though, right?"

After a moment, she nodded.

"Will you?"

Wren stared at her blanket for several long moments before answering. I'm not a very patient person, but I really tried to be then. I sat quietly, watching her, hoping she would talk. I knew from lots of experience, bottling up anything was never a good idea.

"It was my uncle," she whispered after a while. "He was back, here. It seemed so real..."

I resisted the urge to hug her. "You're safe now."

"I know. It's just..." She shook her head. "I don't think you'd understand. I can't explain it."

"That's okay." I smiled a bit at her. "Just go back to sleep then, all right?" Wren nodded and laid down as I tiptoed back to my bed.

I didn't sleep that night. Wren didn't seem to have any more trouble, but I stayed up just in case. I knew she wouldn't wake me up if she had another nightmare, but I wanted to be there for her if she did. As a result, I fell asleep during History of Magic the next morning forgot how to work a shield charm in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

I caught Albus watching me a few times during the morning, and each time, I stared coldly back at him until he looked away, his face flushing red. If he wanted to walk over and talk to me, that was one thing. However, he didn't seem to want to do that, and when class was dismissed he hurried out the door without so much as a glance in our direction.

"He knows he's being an idiot, right?" I asked Wren as we started down towards the Great Hall.

"Astra, you don't understand," Wren said, sighing, starting into a speech she'd given several times before. "Just go talk to him, all right? You're best friends, you can't just end it all over something silly like this."

"Why don't you tell him that?" I asked, even though I was aware that she told Albus this as regularly as she told me.

"Astra, please—"

She was cut off by a voice from behind us. "Missing your boyfriend, are you, dear cousin?" I turned around to see Ciara just behind us, a smirk on her face. Nico was there as well.

"Marcus?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Marcus?" Nico repeated, in a high, mocking tone. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"No, Potter," Ciara said, rolling her eyes. "The one who's not quite as much of a prat as James."

"He's not a prat," Wren said softly. Her voice grew a bit louder and stronger as she continued, "Neither of them are."

"Aw, how cute, wittle Wren is going to defend her wittle friends," Nico said, then laughed harshly. "Give me a break."

"She can give you antlers again," I threatened. Nico involuntarily patted his head, making sure it was still hair. First year, Wren had turned his hair into antlers, and we'd all been beyond impressed.

"More likely she'll simply use an Unforgivable Curse," Ciara said dismissively. "She could always claim she was under the Imperius Curse again."

"'Claim'? She was, you moron." Wren tugged at my arm, trying to pull me off down the hallway, but I ignored her, instead glaring at my cousin.

"Is that so? Funny, I'd always heard that that little story was simply to make sure she wasn't arrested."

Ciara was hitting too close to the truth for my tastes, so I decided to change the subject. "Like you'd know anything about it. You couldn't even keep yourself from dueling James."

"She won't keep herself from dueling you, either," Nico said, drawing his wand. "Filthy little blood traitor."

"My mum was a muggle, and I'm proud of it," I said, tilting my chin up. "I can't be a traitor to the purebloods if I'm not one."

"Scum."

"Git."

Wren managed to pull my back a few steps. "Let's just go..."

"Scared, are you?" Nico laughed. "Ran away from the law, ran away from your family, and now you're running away from us?"

"Bit of a coward for a Gryffindor, I'd say," Ciara agreed, raising an eyebrow.

Wren froze. I glared at Ciara. "Don't listen to them, Wren. They wouldn't know the first thing about bravery, cowardly little snakes."

Nico had had enough talk, apparently, because he Next thing I knew there was a curse flying at us and Wren had performed a shield charm.

"Expelliarmus," I said, glaring at him. Nico deflected it, throwing another curse that battered the shield charm.

Rictusempra, I thought. My tickling charm hit Nico full on, and he fell to his knees breathlessly as the sensation swept over him.

"Flipendo!" Ciara shouted, and I flew back onto the ground.

"Locomotor Wibbly!" I shouted from the ground, not bothering with nonverbal spells. Ciara's legs collapsed under her. The spell was wearing off on Nico, so I shouted, "Melofors," in his direction and a large pumpkin invaded his head.

His muffled voice came out, cursing up a storm. Ciara watched him in shock. "What on earth..."

I quickly got to my feet, brushing myself off. "Don't mess with me," I told her, then turned, starting off towards the Great Hall behind Wren.

"Astra, really, you're going to get in trouble," she whispered as we walked down the marble staircase.

I shrugged. "They won't turn me in. They were throwing hexes at me, too. Anyway, I'd just get detention."

Wren was staring at me like I'd just sprouted antlers, so I shook my head. "Lighten up, Wren. I didn't get caught." I smiled. "It'll be fine."

"What will?" Marcus asked as he came up behind us.

"Oh, nothing. Just got into a duel with Ciara and Nico," I said, shrugging. "No big deal."

Marcus's eyes had gone wide. "You what?"

"Exactly," Wren said, nodding.

"It's fine," I said, rolling my eyes. "Merlin's beard! You two."

"We need to report them!" Marcus exclaimed, shaking his head. "Hexing other students isn't allowed!"

"What? No we don't. If we did that, we'd have to admit that I hexed them, too. Honestly, it's fine."

Marcus still seemed worried as we walked into the Great Hall, but let the subject drop. Wren left to go find Rose (because Albus and I were known to glare at each other during lunch sometimes now, and she couldn't handle it). As Marcus and I sat down to lunch, Fred plopped down next to us. "Okay, the tournament's on, Astra. Practice after classes every day starting today, all right? We are going to crush the other schools."

"You're having a tournament?" Marcus asked.

Fred beamed. "All my idea, naturally. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang both want to beat us, though that won't happen, so they accepted. It'll be next Saturday. Spread the word, all right?"

"All right," I said, picking up my sandwich. "Thanks, Fred."

He hopped up and hurried off along the table, probably to find James. Marcus grinned at me. "You're Seeker again, then?"

I nodded, taking a bite.

"Good. You're better than the Malfoy kid. She's too little, really."

"Elcie? I mean, I guess she is. I was a first year when I started on the team."

"She's not got as much experience, I mean," he explained. "She'd be good enough for a House team, but not against other schools, you know?"

"I guess." I shrugged, not sure if I needed to be offended on my cousin's behalf or pleased that he thought so highly on my own skills.

Marcus's friends joined us after a minute, and the talk quickly turned to their OWLs, which apparently seemed so much closer now that the Christmas holidays were over. Roxanne seemed to be the only one not thoroughly stressed out, and that was because she'd decided on being a professional journalist like her aunt and that only required OWLs in a few subjects, none of which she struggled in.

I was a little glad to get away from them to go to Potions, even if it did mean I had to spend two hours in the dungeon with Albus, Ciara, and Nico. Scorpius and Rose had grudgingly moved over to the table Wren and I normally worked at so Albus and Colette could move to the spot they'd taken previously, so it wasn't too bad, but in Potions I was most sorely reminded how much I missed my friend. This had always been the class we'd flunked together, and messed around in, and generally not done what we were supposed to do. I missed that, but I didn't like remembering that I missed him because then I got even more bitter about the fact that he seemed perfectly fine with ruining our friendship.

I walked into Potions a little early that day, and Albus, Rose, and Scorpius were the only ones there. Albus immediately turned away when I walked in, and Scorpius rolled his eyes. "You two are such idiots."

"Gee. Thanks." I glared in Albus's direction and slung my bag down into my chair.

Scorpius smirked at me. "You know, you two should really just snog already. That's how Rose and I have gotten along for so long."

Rose gasped and slapped his arm, but Scorpius just laughed as Albus's face grew bright red and he buried his face in his book. I stared at Rose in Scorpius in shock for a moment (they'd snogged?), then shook my head. "Albus and I are just friends. And we're not friends, not when he's being such a prat."

"Just to be clear, Scorpius and I have hardly held hands, let alone snogged," Rose said, frowning up at him. "But he's got the principle right. Get over yourselves, really. You're hurting everyone else."

"It's just Albus who needs to get over himself," I said, glaring over my shoulder at him.

Albus huffed, closing his book. He hurried out of the room more rudeness started coming in, and didn't appear for the rest of class. Lockley simply tutted and said what a shame it was, since he was missing one of three best potions (the dreamless sleep one, that I was tempted to sneak into some of Wren's food to give her a peaceful night).

~~~~

Practice for the Quidditch tournament became the only bright spot in an otherwise gloomy existence. I raced down to the pitch every day after classes, and was normally the first one there. When I was in the air, I could normally let go of everything else, and forget about Albus and the Predatels and the Triwizard Tournament and everything else for a while and just focus on catching the Snitch. I was almost dreading the actual games, because after that I wouldn't have an excuse to be on my broom for hours on end. However, they arrived very quickly, and before I knew it, it was the Saturday morning and I was hurrying down to the pitch.

"My Mum made us Hogwarts Quidditch robes!" Poppy exclaimed as soon as I'd walked in. "Look! It's so we'll look more unified, you know, not all in our House colors, like the other schools do!"

Poppy was holding up a garment much like my Gryffindor robes, except it was black with a streak of each person's House color. Instead of the Gryffindor emblem, the Hogwarts crest was on it, and it even had my last name on the back.

"Mum put a spell on it so it'll change to fit your size," Poppy explained, handing me one of the uniforms. "Do you think Fred will like them?"

"I think he'll love them," I said, grinning. "These are amazing! Tell your mum thank you!"

Poppy beamed, then hurried off to repeat her speech to Dom and Grant Bendon, who had just walked in.

Fred didn't just love the robes. He was utterly speechless for a full two minutes before he could finally sputter out that they were the most beautiful robes he had ever seen (perhaps an overstatement; I thought Mrs. Potter's robes from when she was a professional player were much nicer) and he thought Poppy's mum had to be the best in the world behind his.

After we'd all dressed, we gathered for a pep talk from Fred. He seemed even more pumped than before now that we all matched, and had a fire in his eyes unlike any I'd seen before. "Listen here, we are going win, all right? That's the full of it! We are going to win! We've got the best team Hogwarts has ever seen, and those other schools don't know what they're in for. Let's go out there and destroy them!"

James yelled, "Lets do it!" and led the charge out of the changing rooms. The Beauxbatons versus Hogwarts game was to be the first. Then Beauxbatons would play Durmstrang. Durmstrang would play Hogwarts, and whichever team had won twice, or, if no one won twice, had the most points, would win the day. Fred pulled aside as we walked out on the pitch and told me to delay getting the Snitch until we already had a couple hundred points, at least.

We walked out onto the pitch to roaring applause. Madam Hooch was near the middle, holding the Quaffle in one hand and her whistle in the other. The Beauxbatons team was already lined up, so we hurried to do the same.

"Players, shake hands," she said, blowing her whistle.

I stepped forward to shake Étienne's hand. He grinned at me. "It will be a nice zing to play against my fellow champions. 'Owever, I am 'oping you do not mind losing in zis."

I smiled back. "Good luck with that. We're going to crush you."

He raised an eyebrow as Madam Hooch called for us to mount our brooms. Still grinning, I mounted my broom, and when the whistle blew again, I soared into the air, several meters above the match itself. Étienne was on the other side of the pitch, and we began circling as the game began.

Luke Castel was announcing. I don't know how he stole the job from Patrick Shaw, or why he wanted it since he was much more interested in football than Quidditch, but he was really good, and rather funny. He kept slipping in comments about the players and how certain rules were stupid, holding the microphone out of the way when Professor Patil tried to stop him. He made sure to point out each time either of us saw the Snitch and lost it (not that I was super eager to go for it, since we wanted to get as many point as possible). Each team was having a lot of trouble scoring, though, because our Keepers were both very good. Twenty minutes in, the score was only 30-20 in our favor.

A few times, a Bludger came very close to hitting me. Each time, I would see James or Fred flying in hot pursuit, chasing down the rogue Bludger and firing it right towards the opposing Keeper, a girl was reflexes faster than lightning that they really had no hope of hitting unless she simply didn't see it coming.

I saw the Snitch more than once, but only dove towards it if I saw Étienne move. About forty-five minutes in, I saw it for the fourth or fifth time. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Étienne diving, so I did, as well.

We were neck-and-neck, racing through the match itself to get the little golden orb that was quickly darting away. The score was 100-120 to Beauxbatons, I reminded myself. If I had to catch the Snitch now, that wouldn't be too terrible. I pressed myself even flatter to my broom, speeding up a hair. Étienne was reaching out; we were so close, both of us. I reached forward, willing my broom to go faster. We both lunged at the Snitch at the same time. The momentum overturned our brooms (luckily we were much closer to the ground than when we'd started the chase) and made us crash into each other. A few seconds later, I hit the ground hard. In my hand, I felt something smooth and cool. I glanced at it, and saw Étienne was holding on to it, as well. He sat up, blinking and holding his head with one hand, and staring down at the Snitch in his other.

"'Oo caught it?"

"I don't know."

Madam Hooch alighted next to us, and quickly took stock of the situation. She took the Snitch, muttering about flesh memories, and handed it first to Étienne, where it remained stationary, then to me. When it touched my hand, the wings fluttered, and Madam Hooch grinned. "The Snitch has been caught by Hogwarts!"

Étienne said something in French that may have been cursing, then shook my hand. "Good game, Astra."

"You too," I said, grinning as my team surrounded us and the stands erupted in cheers. Someone started up a chant of "Hogwarts! Hogwarts! Hogwarts!"

It was quite a while before Madam Hooch finally managed to get Fred off the pitch so the game between Durmstrang and Beauxbatons could start. He kept taking victory laps around the pitch, grinning like an idiot. Finally, Madam Hooch threatened to ban him from the next game and he flew down to join the rest of the team on the edge of he pitch. Instead of going up to the stands, we'd decided to sit on the ground about halfway down the pitch, leaning against the stands. Of course, the angle wasn't the best for watching the game, but Fred was really the only one who actually paid attention. The rest of us spent most of the time joking around. Apparently, Adriana had flipped off her broom and landed in one of the giant rings in a particularly violent attempt to guard it, and James and Dom were having quite the time teasing her about it.

Beauxbatons beat Durmstrang 370 to 250. If we won the next match, we'd win overall, and I could tell Fred wanted that more than anything (partly because he kept telling us that if we lost to the other schools we'd never live it down so we could not lose).

As the Durmstrang Seeker shook my hand before the match started, he said, "You vill be seeing the back of my broom, yes?"

"You wish," I said, grinning. "Good luck!"

"The same is to you," he said solemnly.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle. I'd never played two matches in one day, but if I'd felt tired after the first match, it melted away when I'd kicked off the ground and flown towards the sky. Fred circled around the pitch, shouting encouragement as he chased a Bludger and tried to keep Kirsten away from it.

We scored five times almost immediately, and when Kirsten flew down to shout at her Keeper, Luke took the pause in gameplay to do something amazing.

I don't know how he managed to magnify the sound of himself stomping, but as soon as he'd stomp, stomp, clapped once, the entire muggleborn population of Hogwarts caught on. The sound drowned out any other noise as they screamed, "We will, we will rock you!" The Durmstrang students and the Purebloods and Halfbloods on my team looked around in bewilderment as seemingly a quarter of the stadium spontaneously took up a chant. Very soon, other students had caught on to the stomping and clapping, and I only knew Madam Hooch blew her whistle to Resume gameplay, Merlin's beard! because I was looking at her.

Despite the overwhelming support of the Hogwarts muggleborns, our Chasers either lost the flare they'd had or the Durmstrang Keeper had woken up because after that no one scored for almost twenty minutes, then Durmstrang scored every time we did. After about half an hour, the score was 140-90 in our favor, but Fred was already flying past and telling me to catch the Snitch.

The bad thing about being a Seeker is hat sometimes you'll see a flash of gold directly over the stands, and you'll never be sure if it was he sun glinting off someone's watch or the Snitch itself. Luckily, that had never happened to me in an actual game, but Teddy had told me an awful story of the time he'd ruined Hufflepuff's chances at the Quidditch cup when he dove into the crowd and emerged with a Slytherin prefect's necklace clutched in his hand and a subsequent ban from Quidditch and automatic forfeit of the game because the Slytherin had been so mad.

I'd never had that happen to me, and I'd always prayed it never would. However, that day, I spotted a glint of gold above the stands, and out of force of habit swept my eyes over the area to see if I'd actually seen the Snitch.

The Durmstrang Seeker was on the other side of the pitch, with a much better view from where he was. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention to him as he started down towards what was really the Snitch, not a watch, until he actually streaked into my line of sight. With a start, I realized I'd just let him get a massive head start and this might just be the day where someone else caught the Snitch before I did.

I tore off after him, and finally saw he golden orb flying off down the pitch. He was several meters ahead of me, but I was closing in.

He's going to get it, I thought with horror just before his hand closed around the Snitch. A cheer rose up as he held up his hand triumphantly, the Snitch struggling in his grasp. I quickly moved out of the way as his teammates flew towards him.

"Hey, it's okay," James said, flying up behind me. "You can't win every time."

I shrugged, forcing a smile. "I had to lose once, I suppose, or I would've gotten much too big of a head."

"Probably." James glanced at the scoreboard. "It's going to be close for points, I think. I don't know who won overall."

Luke and Professor Patil seemed to be tallying up the points, so James and I flew up to their booth. Luke had a confused and slightly nauseous looks on his face, and mouthed math at me when I frowned at me. Professor Patil was generally ignoring him, and looked a little amused. "Wow... This is something..."

"What is it, Professor?" James asked warily. "We won, right?"

Professor Patil didn't answer, instead handing a sheet to Luke. "Announce the winner, then."

Luke glanced at the paper quickly, then just as quickly looked back, eyes wide. Before we could ask what he was doing, he grabbed the mic and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, students, firsties, and Muggles! The winner!" The crowd suddenly grew silent in anticipation.

Luke raised an eyebrow at James and me, then said, "With 490 points, it's..." He held the pause for longer than humanly possible to hold suspense, then he said, "A tie! Somehow, some way, Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts got 490 points each!"

There was silence, then Hufflepuff started up a cheer which quickly spread to the rest of the stands. A tie? It was a tie? I felt a grin spread across my face as I started laughing. Imagine that. All this work for a three-way tie!

Fred was the only person who didn't seem happy with the circumstances. Everyone else thought it was a great turn of events, and James offered up the Gryffindor common room as a great place for an after party. As a mob, we headed back towards the castle, everyone laughing and talking regardless of House or school.

The Gryffindor common room was full almost immediately, but luckily someone had a backup plan and led everyone to the Room of Requirement. I even spotted some of the teachers there as the room seemed to expand as more people arrived. It was so loud I could hardly hear myself think and I started to look for Wren or Rose or Colette or someone I knew to hang out with.

Étienne, Faith, and Kirsten were on the outside edge, a little removed from everyone else. I didn't see any of my friends, so I walked over to them to congratulate Étienne and Kirsten on a good game.

"Zank you," Étienne said. "Faiz does agree wiz me, zough—I zink I did touch the Snitch first." I raised my eyebrow at him, but he just laughed. "You did good, little champion."

"You play vell," Kirsten said, nodding. "Good I did not hit you today, yes?"

"Yeah, thanks for that." I grinned, then glanced around. "Why aren't you three joining the party?"

They glanced at one another, then back at me. Faith cleared her throat. "Um... Well, it might be different for you, but everyone's treated us a bit different since we've become champions. Like we're special, you know? I don't know if your friends do that to you, since you're younger, but..."

"It is just hard to talk vith them," Kirsten said. "They are being jealous of me, still. It is not as bad as it vas, but I can still see it."

"Yes, it is ze same for me," Étienne agreed.

"Oh." I was honestly used to being treated as different, after "saving the school" and "performing heroic acts" several times since I'd come to Hogwarts. If people were treating me any different now, I hadn't noticed. "Sorry..."

"It is fine," Étienne said, grinning. "You can enjoy your party. Zat is good."

I smiled a bit, and made some excuse before hurrying off to find someone else to talk to who was a little more upbeat. The last thing I wanted to think about was the fact that I was possibly the only champion who didn't feel set apart from everyone else in my school.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and I heard Albus's voice. "Astra...?"

My brain made a snap decision before thinking it through, probably based on the fact that I'd suddenly been put in a bit of a sadder mood. I whirled around. "What do you want? Think I could've caught the Snitch faster? Marcus cheering for me get on your nerves? Well keep your opinions to yourself, Albus, because I still don't care."

Albus blinked, taken aback. He looked a bit hurt, but quickly his expression hardened. "Fine. Whatever. I just..." He shook his head. "Never mind. Sorry I bothered you, then."

He walked away before I could say anything, which I should have done. I didn't say anything, though. And I didn't go after him. I felt a twinge of guilt, but I pushed it down, which only made me feel a little nauseous. Taking that as an excuse to leave, I hurried out and went back to my dorm, not sure if I wanted to scream because Albus and I were such idiots or cry because I could feel my friend slipping away.

~~~~

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