I was filled with sudden fear. Only yesterday I had seen one of these boys hex a small first year because he stepped on him by accident. What did these three want with me? I thought that maybe I could guess...
"Hey, loser!" The girl called out. "Where have you been?"
I veered right, away from them and towards the greenhouses. I was thankful for Romulus' presence by my side.
The three students laughed. "Bit of a coward, are we?" Said the girl. "Come on boys, let's teach this little squirp that rule-breaking isn't allowed."
"I - I wasn't breaking any rules." I gathered my courage and turned to face them. "You don't know what you're talking about." I felt myself fingering my wand.
The girl shrieked with a mixture of amusement and disbelief. "You think you can use your wand on us?"
The boys pulled out their wands. I took a step backwards, and stumbled against the wall of the greenhouse. I fumbled for my wand. Romulus growled low in his throat.
You can do this, I told myself. Don't be a coward.
Quickly I whipped my wand into the air and yelled, "Expelliarmus!"
One of the boys' wands flew out of his hand, towards me. Romulus caught it in his mouth.
"You little..." Snarled the wandless boy.
"Stupefy!" Shrieked the girl, and before I could utter another word a jet of red light was shooting towards me -
And then I fell into blackness.

* * *

I opened my eyes. Above me was a blurry face. I blinked. Aster, my quirky, and only friend, came into focus.
"Aster. Where am I?"
Aster grinned. "Hospital wing, of course. What'd you get yourself into this time, you idiot?"
I smiled blearily back. "Nothing much."
"Those foul fifth years! I taught them a lesson after what they did, you know. Romulus did too. Boy, you should see the bite marks on their hands."
We laughed, but eventually it faded to a silence. I knew what Aster was about to say before she began to say it.
"Xanthe, -"
"Please, Aster." I swung myself out of bed. "You -"
"No." Aster put a hand on mine and fixed me with that piercing stare so characteristic of her. "I'm not asking what you were doing. Not anymore." She paused. "Because - because I know."
I froze, my eyes fixed on my lap. If she knew - if she had realised, wouldn't she be taking her hand off mine, recoiling in disgust? But no, her hand was still there, warm and comforting. I took a deep breath.
"Xanthe?" Aster's voice was steady, and I thought that maybe I had been wrong. Maybe she didn't have a clue as to what I was.
Aster was speaking again. "I don't care, Xanthe. Do you know that? I don't CARE. And besides -" She paused. "I'm no Hermione, but I've known about - about it for a while now."
Out of shock, I looked up. "You - you can't have."
Aster grinned. "You really think I'm that stupid? You leaving the castle every night once a month? At the full moon?"
I flinched.
"Don't be like that, Xanthe!" Aster exclaimed angrily. She stood up and began pacing back and forth next to my bedside. "Don't be like that! Do you really think I'm going to treat you differently because of something you can't help? Well, I'm not." She struck her fist into her palm. "I'm not."
I know this sounds stupid, but my eyes felt prickly when Aster said that. She knew. And she wasn't calling me a monster.
Aster sat down again, and she said, "Xanthe?"
I stared at her, and then I smiled. "Friends, still?"
Aster rolled her eyes. "Did you ever think otherwise?"
Suddenly I hugged her. She was my only, my best, my brilliant, friend.