mickume/harry_potter_tiny · Datasets at Hugging Face

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Nicola suddenly appeared behind him, turned him around and pushed Harry to the wall. Everyone screamed, people got out their wands and pointed at him.
"I have watched you be an annoying, stupid and self-absorbed brat. Having him die for me was the least you could do to repay me for all those years lost on you", he hissed in his face as Harry struggled to push him away. Nicola wasn’t tall, he even appeared shorter than him, but he was strong and his anger only made him stronger.
"I hope you die", Harry screamed as he fell on the floor.
Nicola returned to Astoria as if she had summoned him. Ron helped Harry get up on his feet. His eyes immediately lifted to face him once more only to find Astoria’s full of tears eyes.
"You wish me to die?", she said in horror.
Harry lost breath. There was an odd reminder that her and Nicola were, in some sense at least, the same person. That confused him, enraged him and made him sadder than ever. This was the part in her that had changed. He burned her inside her mind, back then. He changed her so she could be more like himself. Or herself, a horrible probability swept in his mind.
"Astoria will stay in the order’s care for a while until I can move her to a safe space", Dumbledore interrupted the silence as he managed to take the attention to himself.
"That’s fine", Lupin sighted and sat back in her chair.
"Good, then please take good care of her until my return", he announced rather dry and then turned to Harry, "Come with me".
He obeyed as they both left the room. Harry took a deep breath, they entered one of the many rooms in the Black’s house.
"I know, I shouldn’t have said that", Harry rushed to defend himself.
Dumbledore turned to him and did not look surprised by his reaction. That only left a feeling of discomfort in the boy, because it was always like that with the Headmaster. Interrogations, riddles and a sense of inferiority; of never being good enough, no matter what he did.
"You are entitled to your own feelings, Harry. I cannot change them, but I can tell you Astoria will only grow stronger from here."
"Does that mean she is a threat?"
"She could be a threat or she could be of great help for the order", replied Dumbledore and his tone was stripped from any empathy or false pretence.
"I know, I – , just seeing what happened and knowing it could’ve been avoided somehow".
"You are right, this could’ve been avoided", Dumbledore interrupted him. "I hope it is a lesson to always come to me. Keeping secrets will only divide us and we cannot afford that in the war".
"I would’ve come, professor. It was Astoria that was worried you will hurt Malfoy in some way", and as the realisation came to him it suddenly brought so many questions with it, "What will happen to him?".
"I won’t hurt the Malfoy boy. He is still in Hogwarts; I imagine they have some use of him still. We will monitor their activity through him".
"It’s about you", Harry said quickly, "They want to take the school from the inside and remove you as Headmaster".
"Interesting", Dumbledore said but did not seemed. "So far they haven’t succeeded".
"What will you do?"
"Let me worry about this. The school will always be safe for you and other students as long as I am there and they haven’t been able to remove me despite all of their efforts", Dumbledore smiled pleasantly.
He had this effect, he made everything seem easy even in dire situation. It was calming.
"They tried to use Astoria in some way to get to me, but they have failed in that too. I want you to know she isn’t a liability to you, but a great advantage".
"She used to be my friend, but she changed. I don’t know if she will help me", Harry said. He didn’t feel safe around her anymore and he knew other didn’t either. The members of the order wouldn’t trust her and would recognise her as a liability at best. Unstable is what Astoria Elroy was now becoming, like a bomb that could explode any minute.
Dumbledore considered his words as he stopped and thinked about what Harry just said. It was a familiar worry. And it wasn’t something to take lightly. He felt like that, once, a long time before. Seeing him again in the flesh had stunned him. Nicola was always like that, he would always leave people in awe and in horror. But he was also a mischievous and sweet boy, a lot more outgoing that Astoria, with the confidence of a rich and powerful family. His words were like a scorpion’s tale, they stinged inside and left poison rot for days. Astoria wasn’t like that; she was always a shy and sweet child. He did consider the difference in gender, yet at the end, they seemed so alike. Harry stood now where he once did more than seventy years ago. The same choice presenting itself.
"I know how you feel. Nicola Elroy, the boy you just saw, he once was my dearest friend", Dumbledore said with a smile as Harry’s eyes widened in surprise.
"But you kill – , defeated him?"
"I did kill him, yes, and it costed me a lot of pain. Having Astoria almost seems karmic, a second chance".
"Is that why you adopted her?".
"Initially", Dumbledore confessed, "I can’t deny what she is and who she Is now. But times have changed. She wasn’t raised and Elroy and is yet up to her to define what that means for her future. You know her to be good, just as well as me".
"Yes, I do", Harry said softly and a sadness sank inside of him. Regret appeared out of nowhere.
"She could be the turning point in this war. As she develops, she will grow stronger and cruller. Her ancestors intended for her to become the ultimate wizard –"
"Will that make a difference against Voldemort?", Harry interrupted him.
"No, my boy. I am afraid that fight is yours. Astoria can’t take that burden, but she can help you carry it..
"I believe so".
"Her power scares me", Harry admitted.
"It is a fearsome ability to possess".
"How does she have it?"
"Nicola never quite shared everything with me. But they are the same person, two halves that will reconnect with each other again, like many before them did for centuries. Then she will be in better control, but she will be different".
"A lot can be gained from pain and suffering. You will know for yourself", he said as his wand removed a memory from his mind and placed it carefully in a bottle that he handed to Harry, "Let the pain pass and life will give you a chance to heal. Do not fear it".
Gifts appeared hidden in odd places. Astoria noticed them come in on her second day at the Black’s estate. To confess was something she considered in the beginning but then decided to keep this secret to herself. Her father knew where she was, he did not wish her dead and was trying to reach for her. That gave her a sense of comfort but it also terrified her.
He didn’t try to kill her. He barely hurt her, she considered.
Ilay Elroy was a Death Eater. Draco once told her he was one of the most fearsome killers he knew. But her father risked his life, she’d imagine, to send her bracelets of silver, pins with dragons in them and letters.
There was more love in them, than in the house that became her comftrable prison. The order didn’t trust her and the hostility became more obvious and more restricting with every day. Keeping in touch with her father meant an option for escape, someone she could ask to take her away from here. And it meant that if she went silent, he would know something was wrong.
One day she sent a letter herself. In the night, behind the house they were currently hiding in underneath a rock. It took some time, but he found it and later answered to it. That’s how the exchange of correspondence became. It was the only comfort.
They all hated her here. Ginny refused to speak to her, Harry never met her eyes and mostly avoided her like the plague. Hermione would bring her clothes and food. Sometimes she’d stop and talk. About the news, about the weather. Very mundane things that at one point begun exiting Astoria.
Dumbledore didn’t come again. Months passed. The order received orders from him, she suspected they even met with him. Possibly even in this building, but he never came to her again. It made her worry and doubt a lot of things.
Just when he started caring, Astoria thought bitterly. He did care, she knew, he just wasn’t the best at it.
They didn’t invite her in meetings and what they discussed remained a secret to her. One time she asked Hermione, but she didn’t answer. It was a forbidden thing, apparently, speaking with Astoria.
They kept her caged. Not locked, no torture, but she knew that her freedom had limits and maybe if she’d push them they would start locking her up. Alastor Moody always looked at her with a twisted excitement. The real "Mad-Eye" Moody. It felt forbidden to admit this, but the imposter seemed more tolerable. He did torture her and hurt her but at least he spoke to her.
It was inconvenient for both sides, yet somehow Astoria remained loyal to Harry. It surprised her, but that seemed to be consistent with her feelings. In her letters with her father she had many opportunities to ask him for help but it was for Harry’s sake she’d refused to do so.
Ilay would tell her mostly about their home, the Elroy Manner. They also had a Villa in France that had a lake with beautiful lilies.
The question of her mother tortured Astoria often. When she asked, Ilay avoided answering. He only shared that he married her because of an arrangement Nicola mad and that her mother was quiet and kind. The day of her birth also came up. Apparently she was the first child Ilay Elroy had that wasn’t stillborn. He mentioned there were other wives, but Nicola rid of them when infertility was a problem. Ilay refused to share how the other wives disappeared.
They named her Astoria. Apparently it was a common name in their family for women. They hoped it would bring her strengths.
Astoria asked him once why he swore to the Dark Lord. He didn’t answer and avoided that topic too. Her father only told her about her family and asked her questions about what she liked, did she wore the pin and was she fed. It felt forbidden and Astoria always had mixed feelings about speaking to him. Nicola was against it but he wouldn’t share why or what their relationship was.
"I am only bound to you to guide you, my life is over, it is yours that matters now", that’s what he told her.
If it wasn’t for him to tell her jokes and poke fun of Ron and Harry, she would die from loneliness.
"When am I going to reach my potential?"
"Your potential is limitless. You are better than me as I was better than the one before me".
"Who was he? The one before you?".
"My great-grandfather. Klaus Elroy. He was already dead when I showed signs. Our family wasn’t strong, but it was rich and that helped in keeping me safe. Without an accomplished wizard the Elroy bloodline is doomed. Bound to die out. He told me that".
"Was he cruel?", Astoria hesitated to ask this as she feared it might offend him. Nicola wasn’t cruel because he hated her, but he was cruel out of necessity. There was a difference, she knew, but cruelty was cruelty and that was it.
"He was cruller than I am to you", he said as he looked irritated, "I am too soft with you, I let you make errors and it cost us".
"What mistakes have I made?"
"The blonde boy was a mistake", he said quietly as he stared at her.
"It’s love", Astoria snaped. Draco was a sensitive topic.
"Love was a mistake for me", he said with sadness.
"Someone I met in school just like you. Very talented, not that I would accept anything less".
"An equal", Astoria whispered. They both stared.
"You have no equal", Nicola finally said with his voice low, "Love makes us weak. It will bring your downfall like it did to mine."
"What did she do?"
"Betray me", he said coldly. The similarity was undeniable, Astoria looked down in desperation.
"Why did Dumbledore kill you? Everywhere it says that you were trying to establish a pureblood leadership, but that’s not something you would do. Being pureblood matters little, it’s the magic potential one carries that has importance".
"A line of great wizards is more likely to produce more with another line of grate wizards. Sometimes fools get rich and call themselves pureblooded, but that’s not what pure blood means", Nicola said expressionless then lifted her chin so she could meet his gaze, "Everything I did, I did for my family so you could be here".
"I almost died as a baby".
"It was not the first time we were in a dire situation like this. Your admiration towards Ivan is no coincidence. The last time the extinction of our bloodline came close was with him".
It wasn’t the first time Nicola hinted the resemblance in situations to Astoria. Ivan was also taken away from his family, forced to involve himself in a war. Avenge his family and restore the bloodline by having many children. However, there was the horror in it. When one showed signs of their hereditary power, the rest of the children were killed to pose no threat. Ivan killed them himself. His son was Antony who continued his father’s wish. Nicola told her that to awaken one’s potential, it is important to train the kids early. Make them suffer the way he did with her in her mind. But if the parent was alive and wanted for his children to become an accomplished wizard there would be no need to create a simulation in the mind. Physical torture would be the most effective.
Ivan died from the hands of his own son not from a mysterious disease, she learned from Nicola.
"He died young" is all she said in response.
"Yet he accomplished a lot, securing our survival. This is what you must do as well".
"My aunt has a boy. He is heir by gender".
"Kill him if you have to", Nicola said as his eyes darkened. They looked almost black in this light.
"He is family", Astoria said quietly. My only family left.
"He is a threat to your life. And you are the most important of them all. That is indisputable. Your aunt knows this and if she dares to cross you, I will kill her myself".
"You would kill your own daughter!?"
"You are my only child", his voice ice cold.
"What if I want to live a different life?", Astoria gasped in protest. There were so many dreams she was yet to dream. "I don’t even know if I want children. And being the head of a family I am foreign to doesn’t sound easy".
"We cannot escape who we are", Nicola said bitterly.
They remained quiet. He would sometimes stay to keep her company. It was better than staying alone in her room forever. After a few minutes the door opened.
Hermione entered and Harry came after her. They sat on the floor where Astoria was. There were chairs, Nicola just preferred like that. He would sit and whisper to her as if they were children in hiding. Now she probably looked like a mess, alone on the floor, consumed in her own sadness.
"Tori", Harry said quietly and waited for her to turn and make eye contact. "How are you?"
She laughed in response. It was an absurd question. Astoria had spent all of summer here, alone in this tiny room. The order barely talked to her. A season passed by her and she knew the sixth year of school was starting. They were all going to return to Hogwarts, all of them – Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. While they leave her to rot in this room until they need her. Until they could use her.
"I’m fine", Astoria said quietly.
"School is starting soon. Some of us will return, Dumbledore advised for you to stay here a bit longer until you are re-located. I want you to know you could have my notes if you wish", Hermione said in her professional tone. This was when she was trying to talk without triggering an emotional reaction and when the subject was related to "work". Astoria knew she was "work" and that "some of us will return" meant she never will. Re-location also seemed unlikely.
"I hope that’s okay with you", Harry added.
The illusion of choice, Astoria thought with irony but resisted to smile.
"I don’t think it will make a difference what I want."
They remained quiet for a bit. No one answered that.

Nicola suddenly appeared behind him, turned him around and pushed Harry to the wall. Everyone screamed, people got out their wands and pointed at him.

"I have watched you be an annoying, stupid and self-absorbed brat. Having him die for me was the least you could do to repay me for all those years lost on you", he hissed in his face as Harry struggled to push him away. Nicola wasn’t tall, he even appeared shorter than him, but he was strong and his anger only made him stronger.

"I hope you die", Harry screamed as he fell on the floor.

Nicola returned to Astoria as if she had summoned him. Ron helped Harry get up on his feet. His eyes immediately lifted to face him once more only to find Astoria’s full of tears eyes.

"You wish me to die?", she said in horror.

Harry lost breath. There was an odd reminder that her and Nicola were, in some sense at least, the same person. That confused him, enraged him and made him sadder than ever. This was the part in her that had changed. He burned her inside her mind, back then. He changed her so she could be more like himself. Or herself, a horrible probability swept in his mind.

"Astoria will stay in the order’s care for a while until I can move her to a safe space", Dumbledore interrupted the silence as he managed to take the attention to himself.

"That’s fine", Lupin sighted and sat back in her chair.

"Good, then please take good care of her until my return", he announced rather dry and then turned to Harry, "Come with me".

He obeyed as they both left the room. Harry took a deep breath, they entered one of the many rooms in the Black’s house.

"I know, I shouldn’t have said that", Harry rushed to defend himself.

Dumbledore turned to him and did not look surprised by his reaction. That only left a feeling of discomfort in the boy, because it was always like that with the Headmaster. Interrogations, riddles and a sense of inferiority; of never being good enough, no matter what he did.

"You are entitled to your own feelings, Harry. I cannot change them, but I can tell you Astoria will only grow stronger from here."

"Does that mean she is a threat?"

"She could be a threat or she could be of great help for the order", replied Dumbledore and his tone was stripped from any empathy or false pretence.

"I know, I – , just seeing what happened and knowing it could’ve been avoided somehow".

"You are right, this could’ve been avoided", Dumbledore interrupted him. "I hope it is a lesson to always come to me. Keeping secrets will only divide us and we cannot afford that in the war".

"I would’ve come, professor. It was Astoria that was worried you will hurt Malfoy in some way", and as the realisation came to him it suddenly brought so many questions with it, "What will happen to him?".

"I won’t hurt the Malfoy boy. He is still in Hogwarts; I imagine they have some use of him still. We will monitor their activity through him".

"It’s about you", Harry said quickly, "They want to take the school from the inside and remove you as Headmaster".

"Interesting", Dumbledore said but did not seemed. "So far they haven’t succeeded".

"What will you do?"

"Let me worry about this. The school will always be safe for you and other students as long as I am there and they haven’t been able to remove me despite all of their efforts", Dumbledore smiled pleasantly.

He had this effect, he made everything seem easy even in dire situation. It was calming.

"They tried to use Astoria in some way to get to me, but they have failed in that too. I want you to know she isn’t a liability to you, but a great advantage".

"She used to be my friend, but she changed. I don’t know if she will help me", Harry said. He didn’t feel safe around her anymore and he knew other didn’t either. The members of the order wouldn’t trust her and would recognise her as a liability at best. Unstable is what Astoria Elroy was now becoming, like a bomb that could explode any minute.

Dumbledore considered his words as he stopped and thinked about what Harry just said. It was a familiar worry. And it wasn’t something to take lightly. He felt like that, once, a long time before. Seeing him again in the flesh had stunned him. Nicola was always like that, he would always leave people in awe and in horror. But he was also a mischievous and sweet boy, a lot more outgoing that Astoria, with the confidence of a rich and powerful family. His words were like a scorpion’s tale, they stinged inside and left poison rot for days. Astoria wasn’t like that; she was always a shy and sweet child. He did consider the difference in gender, yet at the end, they seemed so alike. Harry stood now where he once did more than seventy years ago. The same choice presenting itself.

"I know how you feel. Nicola Elroy, the boy you just saw, he once was my dearest friend", Dumbledore said with a smile as Harry’s eyes widened in surprise.

"But you kill – , defeated him?"

"I did kill him, yes, and it costed me a lot of pain. Having Astoria almost seems karmic, a second chance".

"Is that why you adopted her?".

"Initially", Dumbledore confessed, "I can’t deny what she is and who she Is now. But times have changed. She wasn’t raised and Elroy and is yet up to her to define what that means for her future. You know her to be good, just as well as me".

"Yes, I do", Harry said softly and a sadness sank inside of him. Regret appeared out of nowhere.

"She could be the turning point in this war. As she develops, she will grow stronger and cruller. Her ancestors intended for her to become the ultimate wizard –"

"Will that make a difference against Voldemort?", Harry interrupted him.

"No, my boy. I am afraid that fight is yours. Astoria can’t take that burden, but she can help you carry it..

"I believe so".

"Her power scares me", Harry admitted.

"It is a fearsome ability to possess".

"How does she have it?"

"Nicola never quite shared everything with me. But they are the same person, two halves that will reconnect with each other again, like many before them did for centuries. Then she will be in better control, but she will be different".

"A lot can be gained from pain and suffering. You will know for yourself", he said as his wand removed a memory from his mind and placed it carefully in a bottle that he handed to Harry, "Let the pain pass and life will give you a chance to heal. Do not fear it".

Gifts appeared hidden in odd places. Astoria noticed them come in on her second day at the Black’s estate. To confess was something she considered in the beginning but then decided to keep this secret to herself. Her father knew where she was, he did not wish her dead and was trying to reach for her. That gave her a sense of comfort but it also terrified her.

He didn’t try to kill her. He barely hurt her, she considered.

Ilay Elroy was a Death Eater. Draco once told her he was one of the most fearsome killers he knew. But her father risked his life, she’d imagine, to send her bracelets of silver, pins with dragons in them and letters.

There was more love in them, than in the house that became her comftrable prison. The order didn’t trust her and the hostility became more obvious and more restricting with every day. Keeping in touch with her father meant an option for escape, someone she could ask to take her away from here. And it meant that if she went silent, he would know something was wrong.

One day she sent a letter herself. In the night, behind the house they were currently hiding in underneath a rock. It took some time, but he found it and later answered to it. That’s how the exchange of correspondence became. It was the only comfort.

They all hated her here. Ginny refused to speak to her, Harry never met her eyes and mostly avoided her like the plague. Hermione would bring her clothes and food. Sometimes she’d stop and talk. About the news, about the weather. Very mundane things that at one point begun exiting Astoria.

Dumbledore didn’t come again. Months passed. The order received orders from him, she suspected they even met with him. Possibly even in this building, but he never came to her again. It made her worry and doubt a lot of things.

Just when he started caring, Astoria thought bitterly. He did care, she knew, he just wasn’t the best at it.

They didn’t invite her in meetings and what they discussed remained a secret to her. One time she asked Hermione, but she didn’t answer. It was a forbidden thing, apparently, speaking with Astoria.

They kept her caged. Not locked, no torture, but she knew that her freedom had limits and maybe if she’d push them they would start locking her up. Alastor Moody always looked at her with a twisted excitement. The real "Mad-Eye" Moody. It felt forbidden to admit this, but the imposter seemed more tolerable. He did torture her and hurt her but at least he spoke to her.

It was inconvenient for both sides, yet somehow Astoria remained loyal to Harry. It surprised her, but that seemed to be consistent with her feelings. In her letters with her father she had many opportunities to ask him for help but it was for Harry’s sake she’d refused to do so.

Ilay would tell her mostly about their home, the Elroy Manner. They also had a Villa in France that had a lake with beautiful lilies.

The question of her mother tortured Astoria often. When she asked, Ilay avoided answering. He only shared that he married her because of an arrangement Nicola mad and that her mother was quiet and kind. The day of her birth also came up. Apparently she was the first child Ilay Elroy had that wasn’t stillborn. He mentioned there were other wives, but Nicola rid of them when infertility was a problem. Ilay refused to share how the other wives disappeared.

They named her Astoria. Apparently it was a common name in their family for women. They hoped it would bring her strengths.

Astoria asked him once why he swore to the Dark Lord. He didn’t answer and avoided that topic too. Her father only told her about her family and asked her questions about what she liked, did she wore the pin and was she fed. It felt forbidden and Astoria always had mixed feelings about speaking to him. Nicola was against it but he wouldn’t share why or what their relationship was.

"I am only bound to you to guide you, my life is over, it is yours that matters now", that’s what he told her.

If it wasn’t for him to tell her jokes and poke fun of Ron and Harry, she would die from loneliness.

"When am I going to reach my potential?"

"Your potential is limitless. You are better than me as I was better than the one before me".

"Who was he? The one before you?".

"My great-grandfather. Klaus Elroy. He was already dead when I showed signs. Our family wasn’t strong, but it was rich and that helped in keeping me safe. Without an accomplished wizard the Elroy bloodline is doomed. Bound to die out. He told me that".

"Was he cruel?", Astoria hesitated to ask this as she feared it might offend him. Nicola wasn’t cruel because he hated her, but he was cruel out of necessity. There was a difference, she knew, but cruelty was cruelty and that was it.

"He was cruller than I am to you", he said as he looked irritated, "I am too soft with you, I let you make errors and it cost us".

"What mistakes have I made?"

"The blonde boy was a mistake", he said quietly as he stared at her.

"It’s love", Astoria snaped. Draco was a sensitive topic.

"Love was a mistake for me", he said with sadness.

"Someone I met in school just like you. Very talented, not that I would accept anything less".

"An equal", Astoria whispered. They both stared.

"You have no equal", Nicola finally said with his voice low, "Love makes us weak. It will bring your downfall like it did to mine."

"What did she do?"

"Betray me", he said coldly. The similarity was undeniable, Astoria looked down in desperation.

"Why did Dumbledore kill you? Everywhere it says that you were trying to establish a pureblood leadership, but that’s not something you would do. Being pureblood matters little, it’s the magic potential one carries that has importance".

"A line of great wizards is more likely to produce more with another line of grate wizards. Sometimes fools get rich and call themselves pureblooded, but that’s not what pure blood means", Nicola said expressionless then lifted her chin so she could meet his gaze, "Everything I did, I did for my family so you could be here".

"I almost died as a baby".

"It was not the first time we were in a dire situation like this. Your admiration towards Ivan is no coincidence. The last time the extinction of our bloodline came close was with him".

It wasn’t the first time Nicola hinted the resemblance in situations to Astoria. Ivan was also taken away from his family, forced to involve himself in a war. Avenge his family and restore the bloodline by having many children. However, there was the horror in it. When one showed signs of their hereditary power, the rest of the children were killed to pose no threat. Ivan killed them himself. His son was Antony who continued his father’s wish. Nicola told her that to awaken one’s potential, it is important to train the kids early. Make them suffer the way he did with her in her mind. But if the parent was alive and wanted for his children to become an accomplished wizard there would be no need to create a simulation in the mind. Physical torture would be the most effective.

Ivan died from the hands of his own son not from a mysterious disease, she learned from Nicola.

"He died young" is all she said in response.

"Yet he accomplished a lot, securing our survival. This is what you must do as well".

"My aunt has a boy. He is heir by gender".

"Kill him if you have to", Nicola said as his eyes darkened. They looked almost black in this light.

"He is family", Astoria said quietly. My only family left.

"He is a threat to your life. And you are the most important of them all. That is indisputable. Your aunt knows this and if she dares to cross you, I will kill her myself".

"You would kill your own daughter!?"

"You are my only child", his voice ice cold.

"What if I want to live a different life?", Astoria gasped in protest. There were so many dreams she was yet to dream. "I don’t even know if I want children. And being the head of a family I am foreign to doesn’t sound easy".

"We cannot escape who we are", Nicola said bitterly.

They remained quiet. He would sometimes stay to keep her company. It was better than staying alone in her room forever. After a few minutes the door opened.

Hermione entered and Harry came after her. They sat on the floor where Astoria was. There were chairs, Nicola just preferred like that. He would sit and whisper to her as if they were children in hiding. Now she probably looked like a mess, alone on the floor, consumed in her own sadness.

"Tori", Harry said quietly and waited for her to turn and make eye contact. "How are you?"

She laughed in response. It was an absurd question. Astoria had spent all of summer here, alone in this tiny room. The order barely talked to her. A season passed by her and she knew the sixth year of school was starting. They were all going to return to Hogwarts, all of them – Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. While they leave her to rot in this room until they need her. Until they could use her.

"I’m fine", Astoria said quietly.

"School is starting soon. Some of us will return, Dumbledore advised for you to stay here a bit longer until you are re-located. I want you to know you could have my notes if you wish", Hermione said in her professional tone. This was when she was trying to talk without triggering an emotional reaction and when the subject was related to "work". Astoria knew she was "work" and that "some of us will return" meant she never will. Re-location also seemed unlikely.

"I hope that’s okay with you", Harry added.

The illusion of choice, Astoria thought with irony but resisted to smile.

"I don’t think it will make a difference what I want."

They remained quiet for a bit. No one answered that.