Wow, I got some very mixed reactions from you guys about Draco! Kind of like when I asked about Snape, actually... And now, for the second time, I will go against what most of you said with my answer. I really kind of liked that witty little brat. If JKR had to choose just one character to give a redemption arc, it should have been Draco over Snape. Sure, Draco was an arrogant little bully, and I hated him all the way through the sixth book (or at least loved to hate him. Draco was just so funny!). No one's denying what an insufferable little prat he was. But he, unlike Snape, was forced into the Dark Lord's ranks. He, unlike Snape, was doing everything to keep himself and those he loved alive. He didn't have a motive beyond that after the pride had worn off and realized he'd been given an impossible task (one he's likely fail). He, unlike Snape, didn't want to do it from the beginning. I loved Draco's character (you've got to admit, you love to hate him, at least?), but I feel like JKR really missed something amazing by having Draco not getting that redemption arc as well.

~~~~

The last two weeks of school passed much too quickly. Exams took up the majority of the first week, and the next was spent with Albus, James, and even Mackenzie. I found I didn't mind her nearly as much now. I supposed the weeks of solitude had given me a newfound light about how much I could stand to keep my friends.

Albus told me that we had been required to choose our electives while I was stuck in the hospital wing, and he hoped I didn't mind that he'd signed both of us up for Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy. "We had to take Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid teaches it! And all the other classes either are hard or awful or pointless, so I just chose the one on top." I smiled and told him those sounded perfectly okay.

I didn't get a chance to talk to Colette that whole time, which was a little disappointing. She never tried to seek me out, either, but that might have been because I was never alone. Probably, approaching me when I was flanked by the Potters and Mackenzie, who all sincerely disliked her, was a little daunting.

The day before the last day of school, I was sitting in the common room, pretending to be paying attention as Eric explained to a group of second years how the last Quidditch World Cup went, in very great detail. Honestly, it didn't interest me at all. I was actually counting the times of times that Fred had pulled one of his sister's curls without her noticing when I felt someone tapping my arm.

I turned to see River standing next to me. For the first time since I'd met her, she didn't smile. In fact, now that I thought about, she'd been avoiding me, it seemed. I'd ignored it, thinking it was probably that she just had things to do. Now, I was thinking I might be wrong.

"Astra? We need to talk." It sounded it was taking a great amount of effort for her just to say that. I nodded, feeling a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I remembered Adalyn. River pulled me over to one of the study nooks, tucked away next to the fireplace.

"What did you do?" she whispered, after glancing around to make sure no one was able to hear.

"What do you mean?" I had a pretty good idea exactly what she meant, but I was trying my best to delay the inevitable.

"To Adalyn? She's completely cut me off. She finally told me to ask you. What happened?"

I'd never seen River so worked up before. "Um..." I looked down. Might as well get this over with. I'd rather she'd heard it from me than anyone else. "I told her she was annoying, and to leave me alone. And I felt so terrible afterwards, but I didn't get a chance to apologize, and now she's hanging out with-"

"Ciara Malfoy and Nico Jasper. I know." I heard her sigh. "Astra, how could you...?"

"I did apologize, but she said it was too late. River, I'm so sorry."

River didn't answer for a while. Finally, I heard her stand up. "You can't change the past. It's fine."

I looked up as she walked away. The dejected slump of her shoulders told me that it wasn't fine, not really. And I couldn't do anything about it.

Quickly, Rose found me. "Astra, what you are doing?"

I shrugged, staring into the fire. Maybe if I looked deep in thought, she'd leave me alone. I was pretty sure she simply wanted to drag me upstairs to pack my trunk.

"Have you packed?" she asked after a moment, confirmed my suspicions.

I sighed. "No, Rose. I haven't packed."

She grabbed my arm, hauling me to my feet. "Well then, come on!"

I let her pull me up the spiral staircase to our dorm. I'd been putting off packing for as long as I could. I didn't want to go back to the Lewises's, even more than I hadn't wanted to last year. I'd only just made up with the Potters, and now I'd have to leave. I couldn't help sighing as I dropped to my knees in front of my trunk.

Rose started gathering all my things and putting them on the bed. I set aside a pair of clothes for the morning, and stuffed everything into my trunk any way it would fit. That didn't seem to make Rose happy, but I pretended not to notice that.

The last few hours passed away so quickly that it felt like only a minute later, we were climbing into the carriages for the drive to the train. I watched the castle grow smaller in the distance as the carriages drove away. Two months, and I'd be back. Only two months, and least a few weeks would be spent with the Potters. I could handle that. Anyway, I'd spend more time on the Internet at the public library than at the Lewises's house, if I could.

As the carriages pulled up outside the station, Mackenzie said goodbye to all of us and and walked over to join Lillie and Roxanne. James seemed disappointed, but followed Albus and me to the train all the same.

It took a few minutes, but we found an empty compartment. I set my owl's cage down on the floor and sank into the leather seat. James and Albus did the same. I hated to leave, but I did love riding the Hogwarts Express. Two months, and I'd be back on the train, anyway.

I was startled out of my thoughts when the door slowly slid open once more. I glanced up expectantly, and smiled when I saw Colette.

She hesitantly stepped through the open door. After glancing apprehensively at the Potters, who had both instinctively reached for their wands, she turned back to me and said, "You said... I mean, can I... Can I sit with you?"

"Of course," I said, smiling at Colette and scooting over. I sent James and Albus a very pointed be nice or else look. Albus and James both put their wands down, but looked wary all the same.

"All right," I said, rolling my eyes at them. "She saved my life, you know. The least you can do is be civil."

Colette looked incredibly uncomfortable as both boys looked down. Al's face turned bright red, and he mumbled something that sounded vaguely like an apology.

"She's not really as bad as we thought, anyway," I said.

Colette gave me the tiniest of smiles. "I really am sorry for what a prat I've been."

Finally, James looked at her. His eyes were wide with surprise. "You are?"

She nodded, glancing at me. "Yes. I mean, unless you'd rather I wasn't sorry, in which case I suppose I could lie and say I'm not."

For a few seconds, I didn't know whether James would accuse her of lying or pronounce her his best friend. His eyes narrowed, but he stood up and crossed the compartment. He stopped right in front of her, so she had to tilt her head backwards to see his face.

I let out a sigh of relief as he held his hand out. "Truce?"

Colette smiled and shook his hand. "Truce."

James sauntered back to his seat like nothing had happened. Albus stared at him for a second, then shrugged. And from that moment forward, James and Al both treated Colette like we'd never had as much as an argument.

At first, it was hard to keep a conversation going, though I tried my hardest. Finally, I hit the subject of Potions. Even Colette hated that class, though her reason was only that it was taught by Sulcan, not hating Potions in general like Al's and mine. We were terrible, honestly. And we'd always ended up partners this past year because we sat next to each other.

"I could help you two," Colette offered. "You know, next year. If you wanted..."

Albus's face lit up in a smile. "Really? That would be so awesome!"

Colette smiled brightly. "Perfect."

From there, we talked about every subject we could think of. Finally, it occurred to me to ask exactly why her trunk was full of books about the Dark Arts. Of course, that meant I also had to explain why I'd been snooping through her trunk in the first place. She took it in stride, actually laughing when James and I told her exactly how in depth our suspicion of her had been.

"They aren't all Dark Arts books, you know," she said after I'd finally given her a chance to answer. "Patronuses are about the farthest thing from Dark Arts, and I think I've got two books just about those."

"But why?"

She shrugged. "I'm not interested in the Dark Arts, exactly. More in complicated magic. It's so much more interesting than Wingardium Leviosa or Expelliarmus or any easy spells we learn in school. And a lot of the Dark Arts are complicated. I'm simply interested in the theories behind them."

James frowned. "That's the sort of interest Quirinus Quirrell had, and he ended up becoming the host of Voldemort's soul."

"True," Colette said, shrugging. "I don't plan to take it quite that far. I'd really rather create my own spells, anyway."

Albus stared at her. "How do you do that?" I could feel myself staring, as well. I didn't know you could create spells. I mean, I knew that at some point, the spells had been created, but that was Merlin's job! I didn't know people still could do it.

"You have to have a great understanding of magic to be able to do it. That's why I'm interested in it all."

"It's also highly dangerous," James pointed out. "Professor Patil told my class about how her great uncle had tried to create a spell, and had ended up transfigured into a chicken. For life."

"That's lovely," Albus said, shuddering.

Eventually, the conversation drifted on to more pleasant topics. We spent nearly the whole ride realizing that Colette was actually pretty great. Mrs. Potter had definitely been right about giving her a chance, though I knew James would never admit that.

I learned that Colette's mother was a French muggle who had divorced her father several years ago. I guessed that Colette didn't particularly like her, simply based on the disgust-filled way she said "mother." Her dad worked in the Improper Use of Magic Office at the Ministry, and saw Mr. Potter often, it seemed. James, after hearing that, quickly started asking her questions. I felt like they were things he could have asked his dad, but didn't want to. Maybe he wanted to be an auror, or at least work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, more than he let on.

Before I knew it, the train was slowing to a halt at King's Cross Station. Albus, who had spotted his mom from the window,  bolted off the train as soon as it'd stopped. Colette followed right behind him. I started to follow the two of them, but stopped in the doorway. There was something I'd been meaning to ask James.

James glanced at me, obviously wondering why I was hanging back. "Everything okay?"

I took a deep breath. "James? I've been wondering... Do you remember... What were you thinking when you staged that intervention?"

His smile was very brotherly as he hugged me and said, "I don't know. I mean... I was thinking that we were... Well, saving the Star." He chuckled. "I guess not, right? Turns out she did her own saving."

I couldn't help smiling. "Yeah, I guess she did."

~~~~

I hope you liked the ending. I was going to sleep after working on this chapter late into the night, when suddenly I realized that I hadn't tied the title into the book yet! Well, I had, a little, but not directly. Anyway, I kind of like it, so I hope you do, too. Please tell me it doesn't seem super forced! (Well... I mean, if it does seem super forced, please tell me, and I'll change it!)

This chapter was really hard to write. Partly because I had to neatly tie up this book, while also keeping it interesting enough for you guys to keep reading the next one, but also because endings are freaking hard! As I'm sure I've said before, my worst points are the first and last chapters. The first, because I have to capture your attention, introduce you to the character (even if you've already met the character!), introduce a problem, and make you want to read on. The last, because this is where you would look for closure. So, of course, it's extra hard with a series where you won't get full closure until the last chapter of the last book (scratch that, the epilogue of the last book)!

Question of the day: What do you think of this book, Saving Star, now that we've reached the end? Favorite parts? Parts I could improve? Give me everything, so that when I go back through in a day or so and edit like there's no tomorrow, I'll know where to start!

Vote and comment, because we are two sevenths of the way through our journey. See you at the next book!

~Ellie