On the twenty-first of December, the day after the Gryffindor gang had arrived in London, the Gryffindor Trio and the members of the Weasley family had gone to visit Mr. Weasley at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, while Astoria had stayed at 12 Grimmauld Place to play with her sister and Ginny.
Strangely enough, the group had returned from their hospital visit in worse spirits than when they'd left; even though Mr. Weasley was expected to make a full recovery. Harry had become withdrawn, hiding in his room whenever he had the chance, while Ron, Hermione and the Weasley twins had become jumpy and nervous.
So, when the Greengrass sisters heard that the Weasley family would be visiting their patriarch a second time, on Christmas Day…
"I daresay you should go," said Daphne firmly. "Ginny and I are wanted fugitives, so we can't leave the house. The adults won't tell us what's going on, so the only way to find out what's happening outside is to actually go outside."
"But Daphneee," Astoria whined. "I can't just leave you alone on Christmas Day all by yourself…"
Astoria was seeing her sister for the first time in ages, and instead of maximizing their time spent together, Daphne wanted her to play detective?
"We're in the thick of it now, whether we like it or not," said Daphne helplessly. "We need to know what's going on, because they won't tell us anything. So, you go visit Mr. Weasley, give him your best wishes, and then try to sniff out as much information as you can, okay? You'll be back in the evening, anyway."
"Fine," Astoria muttered reluctantly. "But you'd better have prepared some amazing Christmas gifts for me when I get back…"
And so, to everyone's surprise, Astoria volunteered to accompany them to see Arthur Weasley at St Mungo's on Christmas Day, under the pretext that she wanted to see if her sister had turned up in the hospital.
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A few days later, the morning of the twenty-fifth of December finally arrived. And as was tradition, this day could only be started by opening one's presents under the Christmas tree! Though in this case, Astoria's presents had been delivered at the foot of her bed.
"I wish Oleandra were here," Astoria sighed, as she watched Ginny and Hermione eagerly opening their presents. "And mum, and dad…"
It had been a while since Astoria had so much fun in the run-up to Christmas, but to be fair, she had spent most of them bedbound in the past.
While her parents and Daphne would go out to party with high society on Christmas Eve, she would be left alone with Oleandra and Spoopey the House-Elf at home, and they would play some board games until they got bored. And then on Christmas Day, the exchange of presents would be a quick and sober affair.
However, the Weasleys, especially the twins, had always been a lively bunch, and the Christmas holidays had made only them even more exuberant. Decorating and cleaning was never a chore with them!
As for Sirius, he seemed to be in much better spirits than the last time Astoria had seen him, right before leaving for Hogwarts. He was probably happy to have some company that wasn't the old man with whom he was sharing his jail cell!
No, but really, what Sirius had actually needed was something to occupy himself with; from what Astoria was hearing, Sirius, Dumbledore and Mrs. Weasley were taking turns keeping Ginny's and Daphne's magical education up to date, and Sirius had been especially enthusiastic about it.
"I'm sure she's doing fine," said Daphne comfortingly, though she too seemed worried about her missing sister. "Anyway," she continued, "since I'm stuck here, I couldn't get you anything nice from a fancy shop, so I made you some of the special ink Oleandra and I use for our runic tattoos."
"But I can't use runic magic," said Astoria, wrinkling her nose slightly. "You wouldn't teach me, remember?"
Astoria remembered begging for her older sisters to teach her runic magic. Oleandra had immediately refused, so Daphne had tried teaching her, but she had failed miserably. At the time, Astoria had believed that Daphne had failed to teach her on purpose, but now, it seemed like that was not the case.
"Oleandra wouldn't teach you," Daphne corrected her. "I daresay I tried my best to replicate what had worked for Tracey and me, but it wouldn't work for you, for some reason. I have no clue why."
Daphne didn't know this, but Oleandra was the only one who could teach others her special brand of runic magic. For some reason, the stars had chosen her and only her; she was the beacon that attracted their power to the Earth, and only by synchronizing with her could the twenty-four runes of the stars be in turn engraved upon one's soul.
As she had grown more powerful, Oleandra had begun to perceive a certain insidious presence hiding behind the seemingly benevolent gift of the inheritance of the stars; that was the reason why she had stopped teaching others her magic.
"At any rate, Professor Babbling taught us that as long as the runes are perfectly drawn, anyone with magic running through their veins can activate them," Daphne continued. "You won't be able to do anything more with them other than what I draw for you, but you'll still be able to draw out their magic."
And so, as soon as Ginny and Hermione had gone, Daphne began painting a few runes on her little sister's limbs. Simple ones, such as attacking, defence and communication runes, nothing too complicated.
"There," said Daphne after a while, taking a step back to admire her handiwork. "Now, we just need to set the password; the paint will react to the codewords, turning visible and invisible. Make sure to pick something that will never come up in ordinary conversations; otherwise, the paint might activate at awkward times..."
"Then, I'll pick, er…" Astoria said thoughtfully. "I'll pick, Red-Hot Habanero. Just like the colour of my hair!"
Daphne tapped her wand on Astoria's skin, muttering the codeword under her breath, and that was the end of that… or so they thought. Upon opening the door to their bedroom to go downstairs for breakfast, they found Fred and George looking down at them, grinning evilly…