Answer from the last chapter: my favorite character was Hermione, right from the start. Her name fascinated me, and I loved the fact that she was such a strong character and yet still so feminine, and incredibly smart. And she always managed to know what to do, which I admired. I guess I saw myself in her - a know-it-all girl with a large sense of justice (I would totally have joined SPEW!). And of course, I can relate with her hair. Mine is just like hers! If only I had magic to fix it, but I don't... Or do I?

~~~~

The holidays went by much too fast. Before I knew it, we were back on the train, returning to Hogwarts. James, Al, and I sat in a compartment at the very end of the train. We hadn't had a lot of time to ourselves over the break, and hadn't got to talk about the letter since I'd received it.

"Astra," James said, breaking the silence that had pervaded the compartment, "you said you'd had a dream about Wren sending the letter? How is that possible?"

I shrugged. "I don't even know. But I'm sure that's what it was. It was the middle of the night, and she did look a little frightened, like she wasn't supposed to do that..."

"But... It was a dream," James stated. "Dreams are just... Dreams. So, that's just weird."

"Maybe Wren and Astra have the same kind of connection Dad and Voldemort had," Albus suggested, frowning.

"That's not possible. Astra never survived a killing curse, and Wren never tried to kill her."

Albus shrugged. "Then who knows?"

I sighed. "Just drop it."

Albus and James both fell silent. After a few minutes, Al stood up. "I'm going to go find Scorpius and Rose. Want to come?"

I shook my head, staring into space. Al shrugged and walked out.

After another minute, James looked up at me. "Astra, about that last part of the letter... Have you? Forgiven her?"

How had I known it would come to this? I looked down, not sure how to answer. To buy a little time, I pulled the letter out of my pocket. "Um... Well... I..." After a moment, I shrugged. "I really don't know. I miss her, but somehow that doesn't feel like the same thing... If that makes sense."

James nodded slowly. "It makes perfect sense. I miss her, too, but I don't think I've forgiven her, really. Al has, though."

I nodded, smiling a bit. "Al could forgive anyone, just like that."

"If only we were all so lucky."

I turned my gaze to the window, and slowly put the letter back. "Do you think we'll ever see her again?"

I heard James sigh and shift in his seat. "I don't know. I want to, though, if only to find out why she did it."

"I hope your dad finds her. Are they still looking?"

"Yeah. I think they've about given up, though. There's been no sign of her."

That wasn't good. Maybe the letter would have been useful. Maybe it wouldn't have been quite as bothersome as I'd thought. "Maybe we should show him the let-"

"No!" I turned to look at him in surprise. He quickly added, "The letter didn't say anything about her location, so it wouldn't help. Anyway, he'd want to take the Cloak for safekeeping or something."

I slowly started to smile. "All right, fine. But if we ever get another letter from her, I guess we'll have to." I didn't want to, but Mr. Potter could probably find her based on a letter, considering what a great auror he was.

"That's a big 'if'. She said they didn't know she was sending it, so it probably wasn't easy to send it."

I shrugged. I couldn't even believe that she'd sent me one letter, if my dreams were any sort of accurate portrayal of what she was going through. I didn't see why I should hope for another. I'd probably be disappointed, anyway.

After a while of staring out the window, James looked up at me. "Astra, remember when you found the Mirror of Erised again?"

"Yeah," I said, looking down at my hands. "Why?"

"I know you didn't see your family. I've seen you lie enough to see through it."

"Oh?" I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "And what did I see?"

"Well... I wasn't really sure until now, actually. You saw Wren, didn't you?"

I tried to say something, to deny it, but my voice wasn't working apparently. I finally looked up and met James's eyes. He looked so concerned. I couldn't lie to him. I nodded.

James flashed a quick, rueful smile and nodded. "Astra, I've had an idea."

I smiled, grateful for this change in topic. "Go ahead, then."

"Can we agree to not lie to each other anymore? Not keep secrets? I mean, we've through enough already that it's kind of pointless now. I can tell when you're lying-"

"And I can tell when you're lying."

"Yeah. So, what do you say?"

I thought about it a minute. Well, this made sense. No one else was there when Wren left. No one else understood. And, even though I felt bad for thinking this, it was something that James and I shared. Not James and Mackenzie. James and I.

"Sounds good," I said, breaking into a smile. "To start out on the right foot, remember when Colette called you a 'poster child'?"

James's smile disappeared. "Yeah..."

"You still believe it, don't you?"

Now was James's turn to look down. He absentmindedly rubbed the hem of his shirt between his fingers. "Um..." He grimaced. "Yeah. A little, yeah."

"It's not true."

"It is. Maybe I'll be able to change that someday, but for now everything I do is overshadowed by Dad. I just want to do something, and be known for it as me. Not his son." After a pause, he chuckled. "You know, that's why I don't want to be an auror. Dad thinks I'd make a great one, but everyone would always think I got in because he's head of the department."

I'd never known just how much James wanted to step out from his father's shadow. James would make a great auror. But people would always doubt that, and say he got preferential treatment.

"I hate to say this, Astra, but you're a little lucky. Those muggles won't ever affect you after you leave them."

I smiled. "Yeah. That's true. Never thought about it that way before."

Before we could talk any longer, the compartment door slid open. We both turned to see who it was. No surprise - Mackenzie. She smiled hesitantly as she stepped inside. "Hello..."

James smiled at her and quickly moved his owl's cage off the seat next to him to make room for her. I tried my best to look like James and I had just been discussing Quidditch, not anything important. I didn't know how Mackenzie would react if she heard about our agreement, and I wasn't too keen to find out.

James seemed to have a similar mindset, luckily. "Anyway, as I was saying, Astra, the Holyhead Harpies are way better than the Chudley Cannons. Uncle Ron just doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Well, I'll be sure not to listen to him next time," I said, laughing. "I think I'll go find Al, okay?" James and Mackenzie waved goodbye, and I quickly slipped out the door. The rest of the ride was spent in an overstuffed compartment with Rose, Scorpius, Albus, Arthur, Luna, and her quiet friend Bethany. More than once, we had people rapping on our door, telling us to be quiet. We ignored all of them. Before long, the train was pulling into the Hogsmeade station.

It was getting dark as the carriages pulled up in front of the school. I was tired, as were a lot of people. That didn't lessen the noise in the great hall, but it did increase the amount of first years who fell asleep in their mashed potatoes (Cedric included). All in all, I thought most people were happy to mount the stairs to their dorms at the end of the night. I certainly was. Rose insisted we turn out the light as soon as possible, which didn't make Lacy, hyped up on sugar, happy, but we did have classes in the morning, so she had to agree.

When the next day's classes rolled around, I really just wanted to sleep. I didn't pay much attention in Charms or History of Magic. I'm not sure if I even woke up until lunch. Just in time for Potions. Perfect.

Sulcan paired us off to work on making a satisfactory Calming Draught. I sent Al off in search of ingredients, and set about getting the fire to the right temperature. I chopped up the passionflower and carefully measured it out and dropped it into the bubbling cauldron. Al worked on crushing and liquefying the leeches. After he'd poured the leech juice in, we had to wait exactly three minutes before stirring the mixture.

"Astra, you don't happen to have that letter on you, do you?" Al asked in a whisper. We weren't supposed to talk about anything that wasn't the potion, and Sulcan always seemed to know when a Gryffindor was discussing the latest Quidditch news or something.

"Yeah," I whispered, pulling it out of my pocket. "Why?"

"I didn't get to read the whole thing," he whispered back, his face flushing. "And I never got a chance to ask you for it when there weren't people around."

I nodded and quickly handed it to him under the table. If Professor Sulcan suspected that we were passing notes, we'd probably get detention.

Al quickly read it, then handed it back to me. Before he could say anything, Professor Sulcan swooped down on us like a hawk.

"What was that?" he said, frowning at the two of us.

I held the letter behind my back, trying to look innocent. "Nothing, sir."

"I distinctly saw Mr. Potter hand you a piece of parchment," Sulcan said coldly. By now, the people around us had stopped working to gawk at the scene.

I tried to laugh it off. "No, he was just showing me the recipe, so we could make sure I'd gotten it down right."

His eyes narrowed and he leaned closer to us, lowering his voice. "Ms. Lewis, I'm sure you are aware of this, but the recipe is still on the board." I felt all the blood flow from my face. "Show me what you're holding behind your back."

I stood frozen for a few seconds, then shook my head. "It's private, sir."

Professor Sulcan frowned. Suddenly, someone behind me ripped it out of my hands. I whirled around to see Nico, grinning at me and waving the parchment in my face. I tried to grab it, but he dodged and handed it to the potions master.

Sulcan held it up, frowning at me. "One last chance, Ms. Lewis. What is this?"

"It's a letter," I said, glaring at Nico as he walked back to his own spot. "A private letter to me from..." Oh great, who could I say? Who would lie if Sulcan called them in for interrogation? James and Al were the only ones who knew about it. And it couldn't very week be Al.  "From James Potter," I said suddenly.

Immediately, the Slytherin side of the room was filled with an outburst of laughter. A couple of the boys turned their backs on me and pretended to be make ing out with someone. I rolled my eyes and tried to ignore them, even as I felt my face heating up.

Sulcan looked surprised, actually. "Is it, now? And why were you showing Mr. Albus Potter a love letter to you from his brother?"

Even some of the Gryffindors laughed at that. Rose shot me a sympathetic look, obviously aware that I was lying. Al looked like he was frozen.

I shrugged. "Al is my best friend. It wasn't a love letter, anyway." Weak excuse, for sure. Maybe he'd buy it, though.

Sulcan frowned at the letter for several moments that felt like hours. I just prayed he wouldn't open it and read it. He was the last person I wanted to know about it.

"If it does not pertain to Potions," Sulcan said finally, in a very quiet and eerie voice, "do not bring it to Potions." He shoved the latter back into my hand, and I let out a breath I didn't knew I'd been holding. Now that the spectacle was over, most people returned to work. A few Slytherins snickered at me, but I ignored them.

Al and I found James immediately after Potions to warn him. This would start a new wave of rumors, of course. Exactly what we needed right now. James didn't mind my using his name, of course. It was worth it, probably. After all, what people said only affected me as long as I let it affect me.

After supper, Lacy and Iris corner me. Lacy looked thrilled as she said, "You got a love letter from James Potter?"

"No. I just didn't want Sulcan to read my mail," I said shortly, trying to duck past them.

"But was it from James?" Iris asked.

"No! It was from... Someone else!"

"Who?"

"None of your business," I said, aware of how rude I sounded. However, I obviously couldn't tell them the truth. I walked off, leaving both of them looking shocked and hurt.

Once I reached the common room, I was cornered yet again, but by Mackenzie. She looked more upset than curious, of course. Had James not told her what happened?

"Astra, a lot of people have been saying-"

"That James sent me a love letter? And let me guess, that we snog in the library every night?" I rolled my eyes.

"Well... Basically, yeah. That's... It's not true, is it?"

"Of course not. Does James really seem like the kind of guy to lead one girl on and act like he likes her, then turn around and snog another? Do I seem like the kind of girl to let him do that?"

"Well, no, of course not," Mackenzie said, frowning. "But why are they even saying that if it's not true?"

I shrugged. "Nico and Ciara started it this time, and they hate us, so it's not surprising. Ask James." I wasn't in the mood for this. Without waiting for her to reply, I brushed past her and made my way over to the stairs up to the common room.

After a few days of ignoring everyone except Al, Rose, Scorpius, and James, I noticed the talk start to die down. Which was good, because I sick and tired of having half of the boys in the whole school drop whatever they were holding when I walked by to passionately embrace themselves and making snogging noises. By Friday, they seemed to realize that I wasn't going to pay any attention to them, and stopped.

James, Mackenzie, and I were walking to Quidditch practice on Friday. Mackenzie hadn't spoken to me since I'd walked off on her, but she was making an effort to be nice today. For James's sake, I smiled and acted like nothing had happened.

We were just walking through the doors when someone called my name. I stopped, and James and Mackenzie did, as well. Turning, I saw Lucy Weasley running up to us.

"Astra! Uncle Harry says he needs to talk to you."

James frowned suspiciously at me. "What'd you do?"

"Nothing, I don't think," I said, frowning in confusion. "It's been a pretty quiet week."

"I don't think he's mad or anything," Lucy said. "He just needs to talk to you, he said."

James shrugged. "I'll tell Jaycee you'll be late, then, I guess."

I thanked him, then followed Lucy up to Professor Potter's office. She left me at the door, smiling encouragingly as she skipped off. Slowly, I pushed the door open.

Professor Potter was sitting at his desk, that was covered in parchments. He was reading one, and occasionally glancing at another, as if comparing them. He didn't seem to hear me come in.

I slowly closed the door and crossed the room. "Sir? Lucy said you wanted to see me..."

Professor Potter looked up, a little startled. He smiled when he saw me, though. "Yes, yes I did. Here, have a seat."

I sat down on one of the chairs in front of his desk, a little wary of what he was going to say. I was wracking my brain for anything I might have done to get myself in trouble recently, but I couldn't think of anything.

"You're not in trouble, Astra," Mr. Potter assured me, apparently noticing my worried behavior.

I relaxed a little. "Oh, all right."

"Astra, I finally managed to talk to Mr. Lewis."

I felt myself smiling. "You did?"

"Yes. I showed up on their doorstep three days ago, and he was more than happy to give me permission. After I'd waved my wand around a little, of course." Mr. Potter smiled. "So, I went to the hospital you were born at, and asked to see the files concerning your birth." Here he paused, and sighed. "The nurses thought your mother, when she came in, was homeless, actually. She was very sick, and actually was brought in by a man and his wife who saw her wandering the streets."

I looked down. This wasn't sounding good. "She's dead, isn't she?"

Professor sighed. I could imagine the sad smile on his face right now, just like Al looked sometimes. "Yes, yes she is. They kept you at the hospital for a few weeks, but no family ever came, so you were put in foster care."

"Do they even know what her name was?"

"Isobel Mark. She had no living relations that the muggle government knows of. I don't understand why they never bothered to tell you."

The news was like a blow. I had no family. I was the daughter of some insane homeless woman, probably an addict or something, who knows?

"Astra, you may have family on your father's side. I don't know who he was yet."

I looked down. "What was my mum like?"

"A fairly normal muggle, from what I can tell," he said kindly. "Based on everything I could find about her, wandering the streets wasn't her normal behavior. She had a job, but she quit it, probably around the time she found out she was pregnant."

I stared dully at the piles of parchment on the desk. "She's dead."

"Yes, she is. But she loved you. She's the one who named you."

I looked up at him. That didn't sound like something a dying addict homeless woman would do. Slowly, I smiled a little. "At least I know who she was. Does this mean I'm Astra Mark...?"

"No, you'd have your father's name. I'm still trying to find who he was."

I nodded slowly. "All right. Well... Thank you." I smiled. This had taken him a whole year, and Mr. Potter didn't look like he even cared.

"No problem, Astra." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "Oh, wow, looks like I'm keeping you from Quidditch practice, aren't I?"

"I don't mind," I said, with a laugh. "Thanks!" I quickly got up and ran out.

It was strange. Knowing my mum's name. Knowing a little about her. I smiled as I walked down the stairs.

Ten minutes later, I ran outside, broom in hand. I'd already missed half of the practice.

When I got to the pitch, everyone landed around me. "What happened?" James asked, apparently speaking for everyone.

"You didn't lose Quidditch privileges, did you?" Jaycee asked suspiciously.

"Of course not!" I said, rolling my eyes. "It's nothing." James raised an eyebrow at me, and I mouthed, I'll tell you later.

I didn't get a chance to until after supper. James had apparently informed Al, because they both were waiting for me outside the Great Hall doors. I led them away from the other students before talking.

"Your dad found out who my mum was," I said simply.

It took a second for that to sink in. When it did, both boys got the same shocked look on their face. "He did?" Al asked. "Who was she?"

"Her name was Isobel Mark," I said. "She was probably a muggle, he thinks."

"Maybe she was muggleborn," James suggested. "I mean, you've got a vault in Gringotts."

I hadn't thought of that. "Maybe, if she was, she'd have been here at Hogwarts!"

"Let me guess," Al said. "More research?"

"Yes!"

"But not right this second," James said. "We have a match with Ravenclaw in a few weeks, and you can't skip practices to research."

I rolled my eyes. "All right, fine."

Over the next few days, I gradually told my friends about my mum. They all were fairly excited that I knew who she was, but only Rose, Al, and James understood why I wanted to search the library for any mention of her. I didn't bother to explain beyond "I need to know." I didn't have much of a reason beyond that, anyway.

~~~~

I have done the math. If I continue to update at the rate I'm going, which is about once a week, and I have an average of thirty chapters for the next five books, it'll take me 150 weeks to write all of them. That's almost three years! And I then add about twelve weeks for the rest of this book. Of course, during the summer and on holidays I tend to have a lot more time to write (I'll probably finish this book over the Christmas holidays and just drag out the updating), so that number is a bit high. However, I thought I'd just like to let you guys know what you've signed up for. I hope you all stick around to the end. I look forward to getting to know all of you regular readers even more, because I haven't done great about that (going_insane_ has been reading my stories forever, and I'm sad to say I don't know her as well as I should! And there are lot more like her, I know! I'm sorry!). Anyway, read on, and pray I finish by the time I graduate high school in three years because I know I'll have even less time than I do now once college starts!

I apologize if I leave plot holes as I'm writing. It's very hard to keep up with everything. Feel free to let me know if I mentioned something in an earlier chapter and haven't brought it up since! I might have a reason, but I probably forgot it, honestly. Those of you reading after this book has been completed are lucky. After I finish, I'll reread this and edit it for continuity and make it flow better than it does now.

Question of the day: Not from the original books, but what's your favorite character from this series I'm writing and why? I'm kinda interested to know who I should include more often!

Vote and comment! I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like everyone except liefshannah is commenting less... I don't know, could be my imagination! Anyway, thanks!

~Ellie