Now that James and I were both hiding our emotions, he didn't seem nearly as upset that I'd lied about the mirror. Which was a good thing, I supposed.

Maybe I would have tried to talk to him about everything if Mackenzie Walker hadn't been with him all the time. She was starting to get on my nerves. Yes, James and I spent an insane amount of time together in the library doing research, but that didn't count as hanging out. We were just reading. Whenever we weren't there, you could be sure that Mackenzie would be following him around. No one else seemed to mind her presence, which just made it worse.

On a Saturday about a month into the term, James and I were yet again in the library, searching for any mention of Caleb Pole, Amerda Stillens, or anyone else related to them. There wasn't much to find. Amerda had checked out a lot of books, and Caleb had been a prefect, and that was all we could find. Of course, the Hogwarts library probably wasn't the place to go to find out about individual Hogwarts students, unless they were famous. This fact was finally beginning to dawn on me as I closed yet another book.

"James?"

He looked up from the giant records book. "What?" He looked really tired. I could only wonder why. Had Colette affected him that badly? Or maybe he was sneaking out at night...

"I think we might be going about this the wrong way..."

"Oh, are we, now?" he snapped, sounding irritated. He closed the huge book with a slam. "How would you suggest we go about this, then?"

I blinked at him, startled. That wasn't the reaction I expected. "I just think we aren't going to find anything else here," I said quietly. I hadn't meant to upset him...

James looked down, then sighed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you."

"It's fine," I said quickly.

Giving me a half-smile, he stood up and stretched. "If this isn't where we look, what can we do?"

"Well..." I frowned. What could we do? Suddenly, an idea pushed itself to the forefront of my thoughts. "I know! Is there anyone here who might have known them?"

James looked surprised. "Well, I don't know. Let's see... McGonagall would have; she was teaching then, even. So... I guess Flitwick might. He was around back then."

"And he would have been their head of House!" I added, excitedly.

"Yeah!" I could tell James was latching onto my idea. "We could talk to him! And I think Hagrid might have been here back then, too!"

"Is that all?"

"For now."

"Let's talk to Hagrid first," I suggested. I knew we'd feel much more comfortable talking to him than to our Charms teacher. Anyway, James and I hadn't seen him at all this year, and Albus had said only that afternoon that Hagrid was feeling a little ignored.

"Great idea. Let's go now!"

We both quickly gathered our things, leaving the pile of books at our table. The librarian could put them back; We didn't really have time. Quickly, we ran through the castle, dodging other students and Peeves, who was laughing hysterically as he threw ink-filled water balloons at students.

Soon, we burst out through the castle doors and ran through the grounds to Hagrid's hut. There was smoke curling out of his lopsided chimney, thankfully. It would have been annoying to have run all that way and find him gone.

We stopped on his doorstep, gasping for breath. James knocked on the door, and a gruff voice called out, "Just a minute!"

We waited quietly as Hagrid's lumbering footsteps came closer. The door creaked open, and Hagrid's large beard filled the doorway. He smiled down at us. "Finally decided yeh'd pay me a visit, eh?"

James flushed red and tried to explain, "We've been really busy, Hagrid, and we're sorry, we were just-"

"Ah, don't yeh worry about it. Albus told me what yeh two've been up to. Studyin', eh? This early in the term? Yeh'd do yer aunt Hermione proud."

I covered my mouth to hide my smile. Out of all the possible excuses he could have come up with, Albus chose studying? Not, oh, I don't know, Quidditch?

Hagrid turned to me. "Nice to se yeh again, Astra. Yeh been doin' well? Those muggles treatin' you better than those Dursleys treated Harry, I hope."

He stepped back to let us in, and I sat down at one of the large chairs as I answered, "Um... Yeah, I suppose..." Who were the Dursleys, exactly?

"No, they weren't!" James exclaimed indignantly. "They had her locked in her room when we saved her!"

Hagrid frowned. "They've got to do somethin' abou' that! They can' just go leavin' kids with muggles what don' know how to care for 'em!"

James nodded firmly. "They were starving her!"

"Not really," I said, shrugging. James didn't need to worry about me. "Anyway, we didn't come to talk about that." I frowned at James. "I was fine there."

James mouthed 'She wasn't' to Hagrid, and I shook my head, giving up.

"So, how've yeh been?" Hagrid asked after a minute. "Gettin' good marks, eh?"

"Um...yeah..." James shrugged. "I guess."

"Well, with all that studyin' yeh've been doing, yeh'd hope so!" Hagrid said. He let out a loud laugh.

"Oh, yeah, of course," I said quickly.

James took a deep breath. "Anyway, Hagrid, we were wondering if you could help us with something..."

"O' course, anythin'," Hagrid said, smiling.

"Well..." James said, "We were wondering if you ever met anyone named Caleb Pole or Amerda Stillens. They were students here..."

Hagrid furrowed his brow. "Well, let me see. When would they 'ave been here?"

"1963 through 1969," I said automatically.

"What House?"

"Ravenclaw," James and I said at the same time.

"Well, I never knew any 'Caleb Pole,' but I think I mighta known Amerda..."

"Do you remember what she was like?" James asked eagerly.

"Well... Let me see... If I'm rememberin' right, Amerda liked to come down here a lot an' watch me when I was doin' my gamekeeper duties."

"She did? Why?" James asked, frowning. Quickly, he added, "Not that they're boring or anything, I just thought Ravenclaws liked staying inside and studying and stuff."

"What would Dominique say to that?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"Ah, Amerda said she didn't like all that. Studyin', an' readin', an' all that."

"How was she in Ravenclaw, then?"

"Well, yeh don' have to be book smart ta be in Ravenclaw!" Hagrid exclaimed, chuckling. "Amerda loved learning abou' anythin' ta do with nature. She woulda been top o' her class in Care o' Magical Creatures."

"It's not really that hard..." James said. "Why can't we study hippogriffs this year? Dad said that's what you taught him in his third year."

"Yah, well Professor McGonagall thought I should start with somethin' a tad easier for yeh."

I sighed. "Off topic..."

"Right, sorry," Hagrid said. He chuckled and continued, "Amerda was a nice girl, I guess. Didn' talk much, if yeh ask me. She stopped comin' by in her fifth year. Never knew why."

"Oh, sorry," I said quietly.

"Ah, it's fine, Astra, yeh get used to it. Fifth year, yeh'll be too busy to come see me, too."

"O.W.L.s," James said, rolling his eyes. "I'm not looking forward to those."

"So you don't know anything else?" I asked Hagrid.

"No, can' say I do." Hagrid frowned. "Yeh wanna tell me why yeh're so interested in her?"

I looked at James. Did we want to tell him? James shook his head slightly.

"No reason."

Hagrid frowned. "What're yeh kids up to?"

"Nothing!" James said, a bit too defensively.

"Nothing at all," I echoed.

Hagrid frowned at us suspiciously. "Yeh sure?"

"Of course! What could we possibly be up to, anyway?" I asked.

"A lot, if yeh ask me."

James rolled his eyes. "Hagrid, we aren't doing anything we aren't supposed to. I promise."

Hagrid gave us one more suspicious look, then nodded slowly. "All right. But if I hear yeh've gotten yerselves into trouble, I'll be telling yer dad, James, an' see what he makes o' this."

"Perfectly logical," James said, standing up. "Thanks for everything, Hagrid."

"Ah, leavin' so soon?"

I frowned at James in confusion. Why did we have to leave?

James held up his wrist, showing his watch. "We've got Quidditch practice, Astra. We have to hurry!"

Hagrid smiled. "Just like yer dad. I'll be seein' yeh, all right? Yeh too, Astra?"

We both nodded and said goodbye before sprinting out the door. We had twenty minutes to run to Gryffindor Tower, grab our things, and get to the Quidditch pitch. Today was the day Jaycee had set for tryouts, and she expected all of us to be right on time.

James and I got up to Gryffindor Tower, grabbed our things, and got out the portrait hole in a miraculous twelve minutes. If we ran the whole way, we could probably make it to the pitch on time.

I ran around a corner and slammed into someone, knocking both of us over. James skidded to a halt farther down the hall and ran back to help me up. He reached out a hand to help the other girl, but she just glared at him.

"Watch where you're going!" Colette said coldly, standing up and brushing herself off. She reached up to smooth down her hair, and I noticed her bow was missing.

"Watch where you're going," James retorted. "We happen to be very important members of the House Quidditch team-"

"And we're about to be late for practice, if you'll excuse us." I pushed past her, dragging James with me. We didn't have time for this. Quickly, we were both running through the halls once again.

The next time I rounded a corner, I almost ran into someone, but stopped myself in time. Dominique Weasley and Andrew Longbottom smiled at us as we paused to take a breath.

James suddenly nudged me in the side. I followed his gaze, and saw Dom and Andrew's hands intertwined.

"Why are you holding hands?" James asked suspiciously.

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Well, it's a fairly normal thing for people who're dating."

"You're dating?" James and I asked in unison.

"Yes..." Dom gave us a strange look. "Where've you been for the past two weeks? Under a rock?"

"More like in the library," I muttered.

"What?" Andrew frowned at me.

"Nothing," I said, shrugging. "I don't know how we haven't heard."

"Oh? Where have you guys been?" Dom asked, crossing her arms. "You guys tend to disappear all the time. Together...."

My eyes widened. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw James's face turned red. "Dom, that is gross!"

"Why would you even think that?"

"Hey, I'm just saying!" Dom help up her hands in defense. "I believe you! Rumors spread, though."

If there ever was a time that I had wanted to disappear, it was now. I wanted to disappear forever. So that was where the school thought we were? What their "heroes" were doing? Snogging in some closet? I mentally threw up.

"We have to go to Quidditch," James said, glaring at Dom. Andrew smiled apologetically as James stomped away, dragging me with him.

As soon as we were out of the castle, James muttered, "That is so sick."

"I know... Why would people even think that? We're twelve...and thirteen..."

"I wonder who started that rumor?" I took that to mean, I'm going to find whoever it was and curse them into oblivion.

James sighed. "I really don't want to go to Quidditch now. Think Jaycee would mind if I just snuck off with the Cloak?"

I rolled my eyes. "Do birds fly?"

"Right. Let's just get this over with, then."

We were already late by now, so we didn't bother with rushing. They didn't exactly need me there at all as the Seeker, and Fred was more than capable of being the Beater alone for a few minutes. We slowly walked towards the pitch. I was trying to get up the courage to even go onto the pitch. What exactly had people been saying?

Suddenly, a voice from behind us yelled, "Stupefy!"

Instinctively, both of us ducked. I whipped my wand out, and James did the same. We quickly turned to face whoever has cast the spell. We were met with an empty path. No one was here.

There was a loud rustling in a bush just past the path, and I pointed my wand at it. For a few tense seconds, we waited, before a lone bird flew out of the bush, and away into the sky. After another few seconds, we both ran over to investigate.

The bush was a divider of sorts between the normal grounds and the path to the Quidditch pitch. It was really more of a large hedge, and by the time we reached it, there was no one on the other side. However, it would have been easy enough to cast the spell and hide behind the hedge.

I looked around for any clues to who it might have been. I couldn't see anything, but James suddenly hissed my name. I moved over to where he was. He was pointing at a blue thing on the ground.

A large, blue bow.

I gingerly picked it up. I'd recognize it anywhere, and I could tell James did, too. It was obviously Colette's. Which meant Colette had tried to stupefy us. But why?

I stuffed the bow into my pocket as I heard footsteps crunching nearer on the path. Caroline Long appeared, frowning. "What are you guys doing? Practice started ten minutes ago!"

We quietly followed her down to the pitch, where Jaycee was waiting. She looked flustered. The rest of the team (Drake Wood and Fred) applauded when we walked up.

"About time you showed up!" Fred said, laughing.

"We thought Jaycee was going to explode."

"Oh, shut up," Jaycee said, rolling her eyes. "They're here now. We've got to start tryouts."

"Just tell us what to do," James said.

"Well... Astra, you're going to play Keeper for the day, all right? We'll have James and me go with you, and the rest of you will be a team, and we'll have two people tryout at once, on each team, all right?"

We all nodded in agreement. I looked over at the group of hopefuls - ten or twelve Gryffindors of every year. Cedric Rogers was there, and Mackenzie, as well as Albus, who was frowning at me. He mouthed Where were you? I shook my head. I'd tell him later.

Jaycee announced her plan to the people trying out, and had them get into a line. Two by two, they soared into the air and tried their handing at being a Chaser.

Being a Keeper was not my forte, so Jaycee made sure that whoever seemed to be the better player of the two was put on my team, so they'd have to go against Drake. I did fairly average.

One by one, everyone was either told they could go, or told to wait. Eventually, it was down to Mackenzie, Albus, and a fourth year named Brooke Hall. Jaycee had us all give our opinions on who was the best. I automatically said Albus, which gave me a frown from my teammates. James automatically said Mackenzie, which got him an even bigger frown. Jaycee decided that our votes only counted half as much. Probably fair. Brooke was the most consistent player, honestly; she was just predictable. Albus, however, got really flustered under pressure. Mackenzie...well, she tried to do it all by herself and ignored her fellow Chaser.

In the end, though, Jaycee decided that Mackenzie would work best. She had the most potential. I was disappointed; I had wanted Al to be on the team, too. He loved Quidditch just as much as James, and he was getting better every year. A moment after Jaycee announced that Mackenzie had been chosen, though, she said that Albus and Brooke would be the back-up players, in case someone got hurt or sick.

All the excitement of tryouts hadn't driven everything completely from my mind. There was so much bouncing around in my head that I felt like it might explode. I didn't even know where to start. Whenever I thought about the rumors, I felt like I might be sick. When I thought about Amerda and Caleb, I only got frustrated because I wanted to know more. And when I thought about attempted attack, I got mad.

Why had she done that? Whatever the reason, I knew James wouldn't let it rest, either. We would get back at her, and soon.

~~~~

You Jastra shippers aren't going to like this.

It seems that not all of my readers are in one accord about who our darling Astra should end up with.

May I present...

ASTRALBUS!

Bananabrains13 ships it and came up with the name! And before you guys fight or anything, let me say that I DO NOT KNOW WHICH WILL ACTUALLY HAPPEN.

If either of them do.

Who knows? I might make her randomly start dating Luke Castel and marry them off.

But anyway, I think it's good that there's finally a new ship. I see the good and bad to both (Astra and James are scarily alike...I've been wondering how well they'd do together...then again, Albus and Astra could have a Harry and Hermione friendship and I think that's adorable). So, there is no verdict. And, since they're twelve, there won't be one for a while.

So ship your ships but please don't hate on other people's ships! You guys are too nice to do that, really, so I'm just saying it as a precaution! Thanks!

Vote and comment!

~Ellie