Aster's POV

I spent the evening grilling anyone that walked past me in the common room. Blaise cowered in the corner, annoyed at my incessant and demanding questions I had been shooting at everyone.

The only person that gave me even the slightest bit of information was Crabbe. I cornered him next to the fireplace, he was shorter and stubbier than me, so I towered over him and pushed my finger into his broad shoulder.

"I know you know something" I challenged.

Crabbe kept his eyes down.

This had been happening with everyone I had interrogated. Montague told me to bluntly fuck off before giving me a huge smug smirk and walking off, Parkinson squealed as I rounded her and whined until I backed off, and Millicent ran as soon as she saw me stroll up to Parkinson. I was having no luck.

So I decided to pull back from my intimidating interrogation and use a different approach.

"Crabbe, look, I just want to get in on the action. I know something important is happening and I want to help" I say on a limb.

From the frightening reactions I had had so far, I had figured that it was important enough to scare people. For Parkinson to stun me was incredibly risky of her. She could have easily gotten expelled if she was caught.

I just had to figure out who was making people do things they didn't want to do. I had a strong feeling it wasn't Pansy behind the cause. She didn't have the nerve or the charisma to charm people into doing as she said.

Crabbe whimpered slightly, his eyes flicking rapidly to and from each side of the common room.

"I don't kn-ow" he stammered.

"Please, Harper won't tell me and I want to help her." I lie, giving him my best puppy dog eyes.

He looks at me, examining my fluttering eyes before replying.

"He only likes purebloods. Harper is an exception" he stammered, his face going pale with fright.

"Who?" I press.

Suddenly, he dodges out of my grasp and sprints towards the boys dormitory.

Fuck.

"Are you done?" Blaise whines, creeping up from behind me.

I shove my hands into my robe pockets and my fingers find a small box. I pull it out confused.

Did I accidentally put on someone else's robes?

"What's that?" Blaise questions, noticing the small black box in my hand.

I open it up to find a small note placed on top of a ring clasped on a thin silver chain.

An early Christmas present. You're own family ring. - Draco

The silver ring was set with a large emerald gem, silver thorns cradled the large stone. It was beautiful.

"Is that a ring?" Blaise asks, shoving his face closer to the box.

I pulled the ring out of the box, letting the chain fall loose.

He had given me a ring on a necklace.

"He gave you a ring? Merlin, that's a bit serious" Blaise mutters.

"Its on a necklace" I mumble back.

"And?"

"He obviously didn't want to just give me a ring, that could mean all sorts of things. So he put it on a necklace. Doesn't mean anything as serious" I explain, still transfixed by the shining emerald.

"Ok?" Blaise answers unconvincingly.

"I don't have a family ring" I say, finally tearing my eyes away from the ring and to Blaise.

He was still looking down at the box, his expression wary as if something would jump out at the last minute.

"I rarely wear mine"

"Well I never got one" I explain.

"Well that looks expensive"

I roll my eyes at Blaise before I undo the shining clasp and place the necklace around my neck. The ring settles comfortably on my chest.

"He has good taste" I say, giving Blaise a smirk.

This time he rolls his eyes at me.

"He really fucking likes you doesn't he?" Blaise mumbles, walking back towards the table he was previously sitting at. He leans back in his chair and rests his feet on a chair next to him. I follow him, putting the ring box back into my robes.

"What's not to like?" I smirk.

"At least you have someone" he mutters, his voice full of contempt.

I push Blaise's legs off the chair and sit down opposite him.

"You need to take those rose-coloured glasses off Blaise, Harper isn't who we thought she was" I grumpily mumble.

He screws his nose up in response.

"Well Crabbe just said something about a 'he' and that he only likes purebloods. Which explains why we don't know anything about it. But why does that mean Harper can be involved?" I ponder.

"Maybe its some pureblood secret society?"

"A secret society wanting to harm half bloods? I haven't done anything to deserve getting knocked out?" I complain, rubbing my temples.

"Well I don't know Aster. Personally, I'm sick of this bullshit" Blaise complains, tilting his head back on his chair and sighing loudly.

"Me too"

2 weeks later...

"Mum, I'm gonna go down to the beach for a walk" I shout down the hallway.

The house was oddly unnerving when I returned for Hogwarts . My father had been cooped up inside his closed study and refused to leave unless it was for the bathroom or food. It wasn't rare for him to act this way, normally it was when he was studying a theory he claimed was groundbreaking and evolutionary. But this time the house was too quiet, too still. My own mother wouldn't go near the study and cried out whenever I went too close. She claimed it was "so important that your father couldn't afford distractions".

I needed to rid myself of the awkward silence, and the beach was my usual go-to for some clarity.

We lived in a coastal town in Kent. Broadstairs was just about as far away as you could get from Hogwarts, and I cursed my parents for residing so far away from my friends. Blaise was in London, Harper not far from him in Cambridge. Normally I would floo back and forth to see them. However, this Christmas, my mother had insisted I spend the full two weeks by her side.

The salty air made my limbs instantly relax. Hogwarts was my real home but Broadstairs was were I grew up. The quintessential seaside town was full of childhood nostalgia. The pinging sounds of the arcade games, the hot vinegar smell of fish and chips, the sweet aroma of candy floss in the summer. It was winter however, and the boardwalk had only a littering of bundled up old couples enjoying the afternoon breeze.

Blaise and I had gotten nowhere with our search for the culprit that was behind attacking me. I'm fairly certain Blaise had lost all hope since he found out Harper was involved. That poor boys heart was more invested in her than I thought. He was sullen, quiet and miserable for the entire two weeks.

I had visited Draco's room only once since he left. It was after we had exhausted all options for the fourth time. Blaise had whined and stormed off and I found my feet wandering towards his empty room. The room still had a slight tinge of peppermint wafting around but his bed was made, his belongings gone. Apart from his forgotten guitar left gathering dust behind his door.

I took it. I figured if he didn't want it over Christmas he wouldn't miss it. It was now that I was strumming the natural walnut guitar perched on my lap as I sat myself on the cold wooden boardwalk in the middle of the beach. The guitar looked expensive, so I allowed my fingers to strum gently. I wasn't musically inclined but I loved to listen, so I let my fingers strum a beat to one of my favourite bands.

Blaise had received a letter back from his parents a few days after Draco left. It was a rushed reply, that held no information apart from the fact that they had not heard from Harpers family since they left for France weeks ago. It wasn't odd that they had left for France, Harpers mother was French and I had often stayed at Harpers grandmothers house in the South of France in the summers. It was just odd that her family would travel considering her mother was sick. Blaise's parents couldn't even confirm what sickness Harpers mother was troubled with.

The last few months had been taxing. I was seventeen and I had been through a rollercoaster of a sixth year in just four months.

I had only received one letter from Draco. I was mildly disappointed but I quickly reminded myself that he owed nothing to me. I had just sent him a thank you for the ring and a letter shortly arrived soon after with a sarcastic quip and a promise to tell me more later. The later never came.

The ring was still resting on my chest. My mother immediately doted on the pretty jewellery and asked who I received it from. Her light blue eyes shined with hope. Hope that I had found someone to call my own, like her and my father. She despised my casual relationships and my flippant way with my sexuality and had always wanted me to find my sweetheart early. The whole notion made me want to vomit.

I loved my parents and their love for each other. But sometimes that love seemed to blind them, seem to blind them from reality and even sometimes from their only child.

I told her it was from Harper and Blaise. An early Christmas present.

The look of pure disappointment was quite humorous.

The only sound from where I was sitting was the strumming of the guitar and the thrashing of the waves in front of me.

Lost in thought and the vibrations from the guitar, a crack in the air made me jump from the boardwalk and fall face first into the sand in front of me.

Looking behind me, I find my mother storming out from behind a nearby beach hut. Her dark hair was lashing against her face, her light eyes flashing with rage.

"Aster  Flint!" Her normally kind, graceful voice was now booming across the boardwalk.

I pick myself up from the sand and dust myself off. Holding the guitar in my hand, I stare at my mum in bewilderment.

"Mum?"

"I didn't say you could leave the house!" she yells. She immediately grabs my arm and drags me with her towards the beach huts.

"What?" I question, unaware of the new rule that had just been imposed.

"You can't just wander. You need to be in the house at all times" she says, her eyes flicking back and forth across the boardwalk. Her eyebrows are furrowed and from this close, I can see the dark circles underneath her eyes.

She pulls me behind a pink and purple striped beach house. She looks down at me and notices I'm holding Draco's guitar. Her eyebrows raise in surprise.

"Keep that close" she mutters, before grasping my wrist tighter and appariting with a pop.

A/N Remember to vote and comment! Leave your theories below, I love reading them :)